Lego Digital designer

[Darthking623]

Yesterday I made a small lego model and I looked at how much it costed on the internet ,and ive been wondering.

Is lego Digital designer a rip off?

[xenologer]

I'd say no.

It's slightly more expensive than official sets, but that is because official ones have the advantage of having the factory floors specifically set up to mass produce them. With LDD someone has to go through various bins and pick out your bricks by hand, that naturally costs a bit.

You can also drop the price about ?.40cents? if you convert the model to PaB instead of getting the custom box.

I do believe that someone here recently compared LDD Factory to Bricklink prices for a selection of bricks and concluded it came out about the same.

Another factor, is that the models people design and upload to the Factory gallery, are not designed by proffesional Lego Designers. Consequently they are often Very InEffecient in terms of bricks used per cost.

-when you build a house entirely out of green 1*2Plates its only natural they you use like 800 of them and have it cost over 100$$.

I find that if I am careful with design by using a good mix of 'standard' bricks and fewer detailed special plates and hard to find stuff... and take the time to optimize. Then the price comes out only about 10-15% more than an official set with similar size and features. This is totally a tolerable price increase for me given the freedom to design what I want.

Just take a look at my Factory gallery if you want to see some examples...

[Darthking623]

It's annoying though that they don't even have good premolded pieces or even a wider selection of pieces.And the price issue i made a victorian terraced house on digital designer and it costed

[xenologer]

True, I would be happier if they had more Space windscreen canopies available.

And more Space minifigs.

And those old M-Tron BlackTron 2 Space wheels

...you get the idea...

But that doesn't mean theres anything wrong with the pieces they Do give you.

It just means you have to plan designs around a limited selection of pieces; once you get used to that and stick to designs that are possible, things can come out looking pretty good.

Same idea for price$ managment, don't go crazy and the price won't either.

Anyhow, I don't build houses in LDD myself, so I can't really speak for your experiment. I try to stick to building small sets - TinyTurbos, MicroStarships, SpaceScooters. Where the small size and clever use of detailed special bricks pays off.

For something big like a house I would probably buy a few of those official Creator/Designer Tubs since those cannot be beaten for bulk bricks versus low price.

[Minifig Lecturer]

It's annoying though that they don't even have good premolded pieces or even a wider selection of pieces.And the price issue i made a victorian terraced house on digital designer and it costed

[Chuck]

Let us all remember:

LEGO's PRIME concern is money.

-l2k-

[Darthking623]

Well if they keep on having boring bricks i think KIDS that like lego are going to get so bored.

[xenologer]

*shrug*

Lots of the models in the Factory gallery are made by kids.

Of course, how many of them actually buy the stuff is a different question.

Some days I think only myself (and other afols) are the only ones who actually buy the stuff; for the kids it's just another Lego themed videogame.

Recently they made the bricks available for purchase without the custom box, via the new Online Pick a Brick.

I wonder if thats a good or a bad sign.

possbilities:

-the system is succesful and theyre expanding.

-too many people build 'parts packs' instead of actual models(a good thing, means bricks are selling)

-the system is not successful and they're trying to give it a new image to revitalize

Like I said earlier... I think most of the models in the gallery are overpriced because they have bad design. Also the fact that the 'Cool Creations' factory gallery contains mainly 300$ skyscrapers does not improve the image of affordability.

I think if they put an emphasis on Efficient and well designed models (features and clever design to offset price), as opposed to large models, then they would really improve the image and help sales.

Actually, I emailed customer support with that suggestion... their reply is... thanks but sorry our legal policy forbids the use of ideas from outside individuals.... |-/ bleh, i guess that means because i suggested it, they Won't do it.

P.S.

going a different direction regarding 'kids and boring bricks'

jeez, what happened to the good old days... before shooter bricks

when every 'ordinary' brick offered infinite creative possibilities...

I'm sure you see where I'm headed with this...

[Minifig Lecturer]

What I don't appreciate about TLC is that buying directly from them via lego.com is often more expensive than buying in my local (rip-off) shops. And that's before adding 10-15 euro+ post and packaging cost *wacko* which makes it always more expensive.

Usually companies sell cheaper direct, it makes sense as then people will start buying direct in bigger numbers. I think TLC need to hire people with brains to (a) look at designing proper sets and (b) make a proper business model.

I think credit should be given for the idea of the lego factory but again the prices being charged are the problem here.

[Hobbes]

Usually companies sell cheaper direct, it makes sense as then people will start buying direct in bigger numbers.

And that's exactly what TLC doesn't want. They see LEGO Direct as an addition to the "offline stores", they don't want to make it their main business.

Someone posted a mail from LEGO Direct once somewhere... or I read it in an online article, can't remember...