faire

I am from Czech republic as well, middle class, two kids (4 and 1), we just bought our son 60052 for about 130 USD for Christmass. 100 USD represent an expensive but occasionally affordable gift for us. Incidentally when I was a kid I got a 6781-1 Space Police set for about a monthly wage of my mum (wow...). 200 USD is a MAJOR consideration though, I have to agree with that (I would not pay that just for a toy). Lego is pricey, that is why I tend to buy the sets from second hand, or bricklink them (hello 40 USD enhanced Cargo Plane).

Well a lot of arguments that has been laid here say so - AFOLs around here already have the sets and generally do not care about play features.

I am VERY glad to see more substantial discussion. Lego obviously made a risk: UCS is a premium trademark that justifies higher price (enabling LEGO to sell a larger set). Most of the income is coming from parents, not AFOLs. The set is VERY obviously targeted at parents - lots of play features, not overly complicated to build. In this way it makes sense to make it a rehash of previously made sets - R'n'D costs go down, lots of parents have never bought the sets and were caught by the Episode VII wave. Which I have no doubt had enormous influence by drawing new audience in - including a (ta-da) lot of parents. TLG might have known the AFOLs will not really by satisfied but taken that as an opportunity cost. So there are two problems here: first, people on this forum are not intended audience and their opinions will not reflect the revenues / costs ratio very much. Second, LEGO did something unfair. They used an established trade mark and changed its content without prior warning to make money. That's serious miscommunication and somewhat mistreatment of the AFOLs - and it's completely fine to communicate that. LEGO should care about the AFOLs - not because they would make a big part of revenues, but because of their fidelity and influence.

Those are beautiful airplanes, the Friendsly one included :) Thank you both for sharing! The Ruslanish airplane inspired me a lot. Odering new bricks :)