snefroe

true, but then, Australia isn't really Lego's main market either... or perhaps it's because lego's identity hasn't established itself there... for how many years has lego been around there? perhaps the australians or americans, for that matter, just don't see the link with scandinavia, because it's too far off. how many aussies see any swedish in Saab, Abba or Volvo? you're assuming that people all over the world approach lego in the same way and recognise the same "identity". You don't know that...

hm... that's weird... so you've never heard of the "scandinavian model" as to be the future for the European social models? to me the link between scandinavia and lego was the most obvious of all... many people in belgium, but probably also in the rest of europe associate scandinavia with quality, humanity,... to most, it's only natural that lego also has high quality,... we also say that about Volvo, for instance... besides, identity of a product/company doesn't have to be the same all over the world. Regional differences in identities are quite natural. lego does not see itself as a luxury toy, i think, in fact, quite the opposite... lego is for every kid... they don't distinguish between rich and poor... if 8/10 boys buy lego, it's rather difficult to say that lego is a luxurious toy. this might be different in the us, but that's not tlc's main market anyway.... yes, lego refers to denmark and scandinavia. for instance, they have a Hans Christian Anderson line to celebrate his ... whatever... they also had a set a while back in the belville line i think, celebrating a marriage in the royal family (in fact, you were the first to refer to this set on eb, i believe)... they also have had this deal with another danish company called Maersk... in any case, many fans seem to link lego with denmark. quite a few people felt tlc is "going back to her own roots", so to speak, with the viking line...

i would have to disagree with you on the sw-box/design, yoda. when i visited the tru in paris, i saw these star wars toys that used exactly the same sw-logo as the lego sw-boxes. in fact, i was thinking about this as an example to illustrate the star wars logo for SW... 1) about the minifig: i would refer to the original smiling minifig as the basis for the concept of the fig. later on, the fig diversified, without jepordising the identity... but this may be a question of generations, i mean, some of my friends are just a little older than me and they mostly identify lego with the older lego family of, i guess, the mid seventies... 2) you should elaborate on the logo, because it did change over the years. however, i think the word "lego" has always been written the same way... 3) shouldn't you link lego with the image of Scandinavia? i mean: lego is a quality product, lego refuses to produce in low cost countries, refuses to use children there to produce sets,... scandinavia has a reputation for quality, humanity, decent government (that was also the case for TLC untill a few years ago) 4) i'm not sure about 4, 5. sure, tlc has a website, but it's not really unique or pioneering, if you're asking me... they also missed out on the bricklink and brickshelf success; in fact, i find tlc a bit old fashioned in this regard. i feel they're quite slow when internet and digital revolution are concerned... you can add to this a rather weak marketing instrument with very poor communications channels to the market/community. 5) i would add: lego is a toy for kids. they're constantly repeating that, even tho they are now producing weapons in a US dino line, but not in europe. surely you can link that also to the scandinavian image...

i love the smaller sets of life on mars a lot. the trike, for instance, was one of my first sets after my dark age and i remember i just kept staring at it for quite some time.... brilliant... the base and the excavator, on the other hand, were not good at all... i especially like the astronauts: they're nicely detailed, the visor is great and the small sets allow you to build "armies", even tho the emphasis is on meeting new species, not on killing them... i like the colors as well, except for the pink, thats not good... i wish they did have a follow-up...

true... you wonder what TLC had in mind with all these creations... at some point they must have assumed they could easily introduce new figs for every large lego section, like Duplo figs, 4+ figs, minifigs, technic figs, belville figs, jack stone,... especially in the last 10-15 years they've been trying to repeat the minifig success, but so far...

and it's not just bricks. over the years, lego has been trying to replace the minifigs as well, or at least create new figs to co-exist with minifigs (remember the old lego technic figs). they never succeeded. so how on earth would they be aible to convince the public these minifigs have got to go in a few years time?

True but I didn't want it :D :P next time, take the camera to the shop... :P

we are idiots, yoda. we should have taken pics of all new sets they had, like the advent box we looked at...

i believe lego was awarded "toy of the century" and "plastic product of the century". you really have to be stupid to let go such an extremely succesfull concept i think it's the journalist taking a few steps at the time and speculating on a non-item... i just bought a duplo train for a 2 year old. i really don't see any digital product that can take its place....

i think they'll respond with "don't believe anything you read" :P

i think it's nonsense. the article suggests lego will be replaced by software. as if the 1-6 year olds are going to play with a keyboard instead of plastic bricks... they're comparing kodak with lego. there's a clear distinction between them: lego is a fysical toy by nature; kodak photos are basically streams of data, resulting in a picture... the only threat is the fact that a major component of plastics is oil. so it's conceivable that oil based plastics will be replaced by another type of plastic one day, but the fysical form of construction toys can't be replaced by software....

sure, the nose looks a lot better and the cockpit section is also very nice. obviously it will sell very well... so you don't mind there are these lego technic steering wheels on the engines? i'd like to see the other side of this machine and see how they fixed the legs of this thing...

hm...i'm a little bit disappointed... the engines aren't really what i was hoping for and they should have come up with a better solution than to use slopes for the fins...

can i take the eifel tower with me back to belgium? and i'd like the paintings at the louvre as well... oh... and the french coast in Normandy also... and the weather in southern france... i want that too... :P you can keep disney world...

so now lego sets are involved and you're talking an entirely different language, eh yoda? you think so small, yoda... why take on a country if we can take the world? we'll each start with our own country. how 'bout that? :P oh, and, cutty, btw, i'll poison these chocolates; i'll add an anti-german substance so you'll never be able to speak any german word, or latin, for that matter! instead, you'll talk "slang", you know that street language you hear in gangsta films? eat that, sister! :P

sure, you can save money if you organise more efficiently, but i'm not sure if those new policies have been already implemented by tlc; i guess tlc will want to wait a while or so before spending that extra money just to see how much money exactly has been saved. I'm also not sure if these changes are direcly linked to prices in europe. that seems to suggest that the different regions in the world are seperate entities in tlc's books. not sure if that's the case. i think it's a lot more complicated than that... but i guess we've discussed that before... and didn't really come up with a decent answer...

the thing is, did our prices go down or the US price go up?

we're basically using this event in Windsor to meet people who share the same hobby: lego. so i guess we'll get together on friday:saturday, get to legoland, invade the pab, have a lot of fun visiting the park,.... we're not really sure what to do with the tickets for the park yet. i guess we'll discuss that as soon as we've got the group together. on Sunday we'll probably go visiting the park as well or the town/castle and take off again... we're thinkning of getting a bed and breakfast with twin bed rooms but i guess it depends on who's willing to go to windsor.... in any case, it's going to be fun.

it looks great! sure, the blue should have been dark gray or something, but i guess you can modify the model. however, cutty asked the real question here: how much is it?

space all the way!

i have to vote for "other", so J, don't you dare changing the poll options :P , because "classic (space)" is not an option *sing* 1) i liked the idea of lots of sets in one theme. since the 90's we've only seen extremely limited themes, with only 4-5 sets. no option to build huge planetary bases, fleets, space armies... very often, a theme was over when the year came to an end. 2) many sets were simple, basic even, but at the same time beautiful, smart, and practical with lots of basic bricks and plates... 3) i think the sets were also more compatible than today. take the alpha team: they're changing colours, style, minifigs every year. that makes it difficult to build large sets in just one colour or style... 4) tlc didn't use these terrible large pieces of later space themes, like insectoids and UFO, pieces that i've never ever used in any of my models... 5)sure, let's be honest, shall we: nostalgia

here's a related question to the ebay activity: does anybody know when it's the best moment of the year to sell/buy lego on ebay?

i think the people who were shooting were just gang members, not your ordinary american...