Technic General Discussion

[Erik Leppen]

On 11/7/2023 at 8:30 PM, kbalage said:

Whatever the reason is behind this decision, I can assure you it has nothing to do with the reviews themselves or the opinion of the reviewers. 

 

18 hours ago, Jim said:

 

On 11/9/2023 at 10:52 AM, gyenesvi said:

I tend to agree with this. I think plus or minus a few of these sets to hand out for review cost only pennies for TLG.

Absolutely. It’s not about that.

If it's

• not the reviews themselves
• not the opinions of the reviewer
• not the costs

then what is it?

• the number of views of the videos were dropping? -> But how is this a problem if it's not costs?
• TLC being more strict in trying to protect embargos? -> But I can't imagine Sariel trying to break embargo dates, I believe he's always quite strict with those himself.

So I don't know.

Edit: probably what Maaboo said above me (at the bottom of the previous page)

 

Edited November 10, 2023 by Erik Leppen

[Frodman]

may be Sariel is just promoting to much Cobi and Cada stuff on his " Sariel's reviews" channel on YouTube in the eyes of TLG

[Gumalca]

The costs matter, but not in a way that they couldn't afford it, or that those few sets would adjust down their annual finance report. But they have to set a limit to who is getting free sets, because nowadays everybody is trying to be an influencer and starting a youtube review channel, and I'm sure they are getting requests by influencers everyday.

And in their best interest they will have some internal rules to who's getting what and who's not, so that these decisions are not acts of favoritism, or otherwise they will discover some years later that are eligible people were relatives of some dude from accounting. And then when you have those rules, sometimes people fall under the radar where it's not easy to see why. But even if everybody in the forum here likes Sariel's reviews, that's just a few people compared to the relevant audiences that one of the biggest toy manufacturer might want to reach. All you die hard fans are buying the stuff anyway 

Maybe they even promoted someone else to the program at the same time, maybe not even a Technic reviewer. Lego probably has their marketing data straight and knows where they want to invest more. Maybe Sariel should have started to review Dreamzzz sets 

[Oh_Hi_Mao]

13 hours ago, Lego Tom said:

Depends on how you look at it. Just to give a reviewer a set that retails for say $200 probably costs LEGO $30. When looking at product costs, you have to include more than what the cost of making a part. You must include support group costs (maintenance people, janitors, supervisors, managers, engineers and the like). You must also include the cost of the manufacturing facility, such as utilities (water, gas, electricity), property maintenance and property taxes. On top of all this, there are the costs of packaging, tooling of new parts, advertising and upper management. All these costs are termed burden and must be added to every part made. The more parts you make, the less per part these costs are, but as sales drop, the post per part increases so this cost is a moving target. So before you say it only costs LEGO a few pennies to give away a $200 product, you need to consider all the extra costs I listed above, which I suspect will result in the real cost of $30 over that of pennies.

Now consider that if they give the reviewer the kit, he/she obviously isn't going to buy one, whereas they may very well have bought it had TLG not provided one. In that situation, they have actually lost a complete sale, so if the kit's actual cost is $30, LEGO loses $170 profit by giving away the kit, plus the cost of the kit.

It is simply goes under marketing budget, I don't think that price per set calculations are on spot here.  Ambassador program is extremely cheap and effective marketing strategy. Cost cutting is not a thing to consider here in my opinion. 

[RussianGuy]

3 hours ago, Maaboo the Witch said:

"Russkij wojennyj korabl idi na..."

or

"The Russian military army is on its way..."

Not very relevant but this translation gives wrong impression. The full phrase is translated as "Russian warship, go megabluck yourself", a motto commonly used now as an anti-war and pro-Ukrainian statement. And the way it is cut in the video "idi na c[huj]" is impossible to misinterpret.

[Jim]

3 hours ago, Gumalca said:

The costs matter, but not in a way that they couldn't afford it, or that those few sets would adjust down their annual finance report. But they have to set a limit to who is getting free sets, because nowadays everybody is trying to be an influencer and starting a youtube review channel, and I'm sure they are getting requests by influencers everyday.

And in their best interest they will have some internal rules to who's getting what and who's not, so that these decisions are not acts of favoritism, or otherwise they will discover some years later that are eligible people were relatives of some dude from accounting. And then when you have those rules, sometimes people fall under the radar where it's not easy to see why. But even if everybody in the forum here likes Sariel's reviews, that's just a few people compared to the relevant audiences that one of the biggest toy manufacturer might want to reach. All you die hard fans are buying the stuff anyway 

Maybe they even promoted someone else to the program at the same time, maybe not even a Technic reviewer. Lego probably has their marketing data straight and knows where they want to invest more. Maybe Sariel should have started to review Dreamzzz sets 

Spot on. This is exactly how it works. TLG is now offloading some communities and Sariel is apparently one of them.

[Maaboo the Witch]

44 minutes ago, RussianGuy said:

Not very relevant but this translation gives wrong impression. The full phrase is translated as "Russian warship, go megabluck yourself", a motto commonly used now as an anti-war and pro-Ukrainian statement. And the way it is cut in the video "idi na c[huj]" is impossible to misinterpret.

The complete sentence then means "the Russian warship is going to hell".

To be honest though, it might be more the "Epstein didn't k(ill himself)" thing that people (or TLG) might have trouble digesting.

36 minutes ago, Jim said:

Spot on. This is exactly how it works. TLG is now offloading some communities and Sariel is apparently one of them.

So, is Technic no longer a priority for TLG?

Edited November 10, 2023 by Maaboo the Witch

[Jockos]

22 minutes ago, Maaboo the Witch said:

So, is Technic no longer a priority for TLG?

Seeing the ever-growing number of sets and licences I don't think that's the case.

And, it's always in the top 5 best selling themes for a while.

Edited November 10, 2023 by Jockos

[Jim]

31 minutes ago, Maaboo the Witch said:

So, is Technic no longer a priority for TLG?

This has nothing to do with the Theme.

10 minutes ago, Jockos said:

Seeing the ever-growing number of sets and licences I don't think that's the case.

And, it's always in the top 5 best selling themes for a while.

Exactly.

[JaBaCaDaBra]

somewhere in billund sits a marketing guy that just was hired,
working his way through loads of information he stumbles into the "review by influencers" program.
look at sariels channel, who the f.... is this guy?
hits delete on keyboard

reality
cookies lead you to google commercials where that 42146 crane is praised into heaven in a way that readers believe its really awesome.
this is the way it nowadays works, plus tv commercials etc where every form of critic is unthinkable and impossible

 

[Ngoc Nguyen]

If the Lego Technic team can't decide what set to make by themselves, I wonder who actually decided that the 2020 lineup included the Osprey. Like, someone from either Marketing or Senior Management did decide that it was OK to develop that model. 

Edited November 13, 2023 by Ngoc Nguyen

[Maaboo the Witch]

30 minutes ago, Ngoc Nguyen said:

If the Lego Technic team can't decide what set to make by themselves, I wonder who actually decided that the 2021 lineup included the Osprey. Like, someone from either Marketing or Senior Management did decide that it was OK to develop that model. 

The Osprey was a 2020 set.

[RussianGuy]

As many others in the thread, I stopped following Sariel's reviews some time ago. He talks for ages about cars, something I have zero passion for. It's really not very interesting which vehicle or motorcycle Lego should have made instead and how the one Lego has made is not so precise in his opinion. Generally perfect realism is not something I expect in Lego, so it is rather dull to listen to a 15 minutes pedantic breakdown of imperfections. 

If we are talking about popular bloggers, for me Jason Allemann is much closer to the spirit of Lego compared to Sariel.

[Maaboo the Witch]

Sariel has started a Patreon if anyone is interested.

 

[Aurorasaurus]

im glad hes made a patreon, hopefully it means his channel can continue. im already supporting him, hopefully enough people do that he can review the big sets.

[Mikdun]

On 11/10/2023 at 3:15 PM, Maaboo the Witch said:

The complete sentence then means "the Russian warship is going to hell".

To be honest though, it might be more the "Epstein didn't k(ill himself)" thing that people (or TLG) might have trouble digesting.

The complete sentence means something like you wrote, but in much harsher words. ;-)

I think politics is the most likely cause for this decision.

[Void_S]

That act may have a lot of reasons, plus I suppose that TLG may do some "refreshment" sometimes like rotating the designers' crew: once employee/influencer/ambassador does not mean "forever": they have a valid status while they achieve the expected amis (whatever they are).
If someone (I'm not going to claim that it is a fact) is going to "burnout" and slips to something that is less desired (out of creative ideas, out of rage to inspire, or simply "mentally tired"), this person could be substituted.
Also, if some abstract new-born v-blogger appears from nowhere, gets 1M subscribers, and keeps promoting the desired things, he or she may get a "new ambassador" title...

Just a business.

 

 

[Oliver 79]

If anyone is in the UK, Argos are selling the e-tron 42160 for £82. It's a 'black friday' thing so probably won't last long.

I am tempted as it looks like a good parts donor. But I'm not sold on the control app stuff. 

[Maaboo the Witch]

14 minutes ago, Oliver 79 said:

If anyone is in the UK, Argos are selling the e-tron 42160 for £82. It's a 'black friday' thing so probably won't last long.

I am tempted as it looks like a good parts donor. But I'm not sold on the control app stuff. 

Quite honestly, it'd probably be better to order the more interesting parts from PaB.

[Oliver 79]

Just now, Maaboo the Witch said:

Quite honestly, it'd probably be better to order the more interesting parts from PaB.

Yeah. That was my thinking. It's mainly the new tires I wanted anyway .

[Ngoc Nguyen]

Hi everyone, this is not a Technic video from RacingBrick 

 

But an interesting point is raised at the end of the video: Power Up might be phased out soon?

[PlopiNinetySix]

Would be interesting to see Lego trying on new stuff to improve Control+/Powered Up if it gets discontinued soon. I thought of bringing back PF (with better features like those the Control+ Technic sets) but I doubt that'll happen. Still a theory... 

[howitzer]

8 hours ago, Ngoc Nguyen said:

Hi everyone, this is not a Technic video from RacingBrick 

 

But an interesting point is raised at the end of the video: Power Up might be phased out soon?

It's important to note that it's pure speculation and not based on any real information, as is mentioned on the video along with many other possible reasons for leaving out the official motorization option.

[Jockos]

9 hours ago, Ngoc Nguyen said:

Hi everyone, this is not a Technic video from RacingBrick 

But an interesting point is raised at the end of the video: Power Up might be phased out soon?

If it would be phased out, a very similar other solution must come in. Maybe they're trying out something in the backgrounds. Still, it's a bit confusing having different names for the motors/platforms. This could be  a very good reason to unify and bring in some tactical controller to the Technic line along some smaller motors.

There is one thing that keeps me wondering now. Why are there less sets with knob operated moving parts? I mean e.g. the 42156 Peugeot has removable engine cover and openable doors, but if we compare it to the 42039 24H car it had at least a gearbox to operate them. 

And I didn't even want to mention the lack of linear actuators...

Edited November 29, 2023 by Jockos

[kbalage]

57 minutes ago, howitzer said:

It's important to note that it's pure speculation and not based on any real information, as is mentioned on the video along with many other possible reasons for leaving out the official motorization option.

Exactly, that was just speculation. I must emphasize that there is no official information or updates on the future of Powered Up.

On the other hand, the pattern I mentioned in the video is worrying. Earlier in the year, I really thought that the "retirement" of the XL motor was just another way to mask the lack of stock, but it remained consistently retired in all regions, just like the simple medium linear motor (gosh, those names make no sense at all...). Both were core components in Technic sets, so the retirement raises questions. Especially because other, much older components like the Boost hub or the medium linear motor are still available. Again, I can only speculate, but it seems that these parts are only available because TLG still has old stock. I highly doubt anyone would want to spend $80 on a Boost hub these days.

If we then consider the sudden and inexplicable retirement of Mindstorms, the future of the Powered Up hardware platform doesn't seem very bright or secure. In any case, it'll be interesting to see how the number of Control+ sets will evolve over the next year, what components they'll use and whether there will be sets from other themes that use Powered Up parts.