snefroe

i don't know how large or diverse the afol world is. nor do i have any idea how to measure this. i'm not sure about this buying power, tho. you'd probably think that afols have and spend a lot of money on this, but children have a major impact on their parents' decisions and budget. and they do get a lot of toys in the last 2 - 3 months of the year... 400 pounds, you say... that's 350 euro or so... i've got a few mothers walking around here for the day... they're all saying that they're spending a LOT more than 350 euro on toys... it's not that difficult: 1 x-wing: 74 euro; 1 Falcon: 150 euro; 1 police station: 80 euro;... that's just lego...

well, i guess it's marketing. it's how you're marketing your products and who your intended audience is. my point is that: there is a case to be made to seperate models and sculptures; sure, you're a lego fan, so, for you, it's not a problem to have all products in one line. what these sets have in common, for you, is lego. For a model kit builder, it's not necessarily lego, it's building realistic models of craft (dioramas,...) on a certain scale. in the case of lego models, they use bricks instead of molded pieces and paint; for them, one line of lego sets including sculptures, cloud cities,.. is probably not the right strategy. if you want to reach out to model kit builders, and i'm not sure if that's what TLC wants to do, (After all, i do not see any clear mission statement behind the UCS) then you should set up a consistent line of scale models, and only models. it seems to me that TLC tries to produce sets and themes for all sorts of different people, hoping they will all be satisfied with the products they get, instead of setting up branches of themes/sets for different audiences... the designer theme is not quite the same, because there is just one audience (lego fans), perhaps of a variety of ages. i don't see model kit builders buying designer sets, tho. These sets are simply not up to their level or unattractive,... i guess... by the way, i'm not speaking for any group of model kit builders. I've built models in the past, that's it... So if there are angry model kit builders who totally disagree with this, then we'll probably hear about it... it's difficult, as an individual to say, predict,... what an entire group thinks or does...

i've never undersood this UCS line anyway. it's as if some one from the company said, one morning: "guys, wouldn't it be nice to have large x-wings and tie fighters? let's design those for the rest of the day..." there was no clear strategy behind it, it just seemed like a great idea. and it is a great idea if you, as a company, have a clear mission statement behind it. if you know, as a company, what to do with it. And it seems to me that tlc never did that... that is why it lacks cohesion and credibility. i mean, sculptures (yoda, darth maul) and real models (x-wing, tie fighter) are two different things. They shouldn't be in one line. And cloud city was probably a mistake... Or let's hope that it was... it simply confuses customers... As Sweden says, they should have set up series of craft scale 1:28 and perhaps another series for larger craft, like the SDI. TLC should have gone to the world of model kit builders with these lines, heavily supported by marketing campaigns and TLC should be producing at least 6-10 sets a year. the reason why is simple, in the world of model builders, scale rules! All major producers in that world set up production lines on different scales: 1:72, 1:144, 1:48,... If you want to attract model kit builders with lego sets, than you're going to have to play by their rules. it's just that simple. i don't think they should have created the sculptures. i'm not sure if they were very succesfull, i don't think so. perhaps they could have published the construction book on their website so that people could build the sculptures if they wanted to. instead, tlc mixed everything together in just one huge category: ucs Sure, they indicated that it's an "Ultimate Collector Series". that basically means "everything that doesn't fit into the System themes" not really smart, is it?

you're right! there is a group of customers who are buying those sets as an investment, hoping they will be able to push the price of these sets in the future and make money out of it. one of the reasons is that many sets are not available anymore after 1-3 years of the release. I guess the real mechanism is the fact that lego is trying to be more efficient as far as distribution and production of sets is concerned. TLC wants only to produce and distribute the sets she can sell within a limited time frame. that leaves a lot of opportunities for third parties... TLC can't set a monopolist price, 'cause that would be bad for the image and very dangerous for her market position. the gap between tlc and Mega Blocks and others would grow even further... she would also alienate herself from her customers, because they wouldn't be happy either. in any case, she'd sell even less than today, because of a higher price. it's basic economics: if price goes up, then demand goes down. another problem with auctions is that price fluctuates. today it's 165$, tomorrow 200$ or 60$. TLc can't just change prices on a daily (monthly,...) basis, based on price evolutions in auctions. i don't think tlc's accountant and the Danish/European government would be happy with that, cause it wouldn't be transparent. i'm not even sure tlc would be allowed to follow this strategy... I think that TLC would go for the image argument, tho

yeah, jipay, please tell us :P :P unfortunately, i'm not kidding about this. lego is generally considered to be a toy for kids and many model kit builders are probably thinking: "lego is not for me, but for kids", even tho they might like building these sets and might be tempted to buying them. and tlc is making it worse by officially stating that she produces toys for children. She's closing a door that was opened by the UCS line. so it's not just about products and a lack of it. it's also about marketing and image. i wonder if there's no one within tlc who raises these questions as well you're right, jipay, tlc should drop the ages and write what Herg

Sweden, i think most of us agree that tlc doesn't listen to the customers, afol or not. even children are building war models with non violent official models, still tlc doesn't want to produce war models. Principles of a free market tell you that you're out of business if you don't produce what the market wants. No discussion there... let's agree to disagree on the number of afols in the world. the number of forum members is the best reference i've got to get some sort of a picture of the afol community. sure, the financial records of tlc, sale figures,... would tell us a lot more on this but unfortunately, i don't have that information. i guess you need a detailed defenition on "Afol". if you accept "Adult Fan Of Lego", than sure, you may have a large group... i would at least add the concept of "regular customer",... I'm not sure if you'd call the model kit builder who occasionally buys a ucs model an "Afol"... the model kit builders bought the x-wing, but they didn't buy the AT AT, they bought the star destroyer, will they buy the death star? will they stay on as customers after 2007 when the star wars licence is gone, without a solid alternative? perhaps you're perfectly placed to give an insight on that... And what should this post 2007 line be? It's obvious that the UCS line is the link between model kit builders and lego, but adult model kit builders are very demanding customers. unless tlc produces very good models (x-wing, tie fighter) time and time again, she's going to loose that group. Sure, there's a huge potential, but only if tlc invests a lot of money and takes a lot of risk. the star destroyer was a risk that turned out to be a succes, i don't think the death star will find the same succes in model kit world. i guess the worst problem of tlc is this: in Belgium, but probably all around the world, 8 out of 10 boys buy lego. many are die hard fans for several years. then, when they're somewhere between 15-18 years, the've outgrown the lego sets. suddenly, lego becomes an embarassment for them, especially when girlfriends/friends/family are involved. it's as if tlc tells them: "listen, this is the end of the line for you. you're too old now to play with our products. we're not going to produce sets/themes for you. you're free to buy the stuff for the youngsters." consequently, tlc looses many thousands of customers every year. instead, tlc should make the effort to create an entirely different production line of UCS models, adult themes,... and tell the 16 year old: "sure, you feel that the alpha team is crap, it's for children and you're not a child anymore. we can accept that. but here, try this 3000 piece train, castle, ... what do you think of that?" right now, tlc may win a few customers (duplo customers basically) every year, but they loose thousands of teenagers, not because bad sets/themes, but because of a lack of sets... and if you don't produce what the market wants... if you think about it, thats what Hasegawa, Revell and others are doing in the model kit world: they have production lines for 10piece sets (for children) as well as production lines for 1000 piece sets (for experienced builders)... tlc should do the same, but that's only possible if she accepts that she's no longer just a producer of toys for children, but also for adults.

i think you're mistaken. compare the starfighter red in the first picture with other red pieces of the tri fighter in that same picture. the red pieces of tri fighter also look darker than they really are, even though they're bright red. it's simply the entire picture that is dark, perhaps because of the scanner, i don't know. but this isn't dark red, i'm sure of it. a nice compromise would be for tlc to produce a bright red and a dark red starfighter, tho :P

a theme specifically created for afols... the sets would be sophisticated, intelligently built, detailed. they should have manny pieces, large and small, and there should be some realism/credibility to it. for instance, a cockpit of a space ship should be able to close fully, instead of leaving open space... they should probably rethink the traditional combination of a theme and only produce larger sets... a viking longboat, for instance, should have at least 500-1000 pieces, be realistic, fully equiped with minifigs and their equipement, a hull of a few 100 pieces, barrels of wine and food,... :P :P :P

i think you both need a reality check, guys... the number of Afols is quite insignificant. this forum doesn't even have 300 members; fbtb.net has 500 members. belug has 57; brittish LUG has 94; sure, lugnet has quite a few, but manny aren't afol... Also polls, approval ratings indicate that there aren't manny active afols... how manny Afol-candidates for the ambassador program did tlc receive? 60! WORLDWIDE!! the fact is, we've got a very good network of forums, sites,... we make a lot of noise. but the afol community as such isn't large at all, nor are we commercially significant. to TLC, we're just a bonus, in some cases... sure we pushed the sales of the x-wing and the falcon. the sales of star wars in 2003 was a major disappointment for tlc, afol community or not, even though 2003 saw some sets that are extremely popular with the afol community, like the AT AT and AT TE. the reason why tlc is making contact with us throu the ambassador program doesn't have anything to do with commercial strength of a large number of afols, but with marketing. I'm still waiting, by the way, for the first Afol theme. why don't we see anything of such a theme, you think?

i think we'll get a bright red ship, not a dark red one. there's a very clear difference between the bright red of the starfighter and the dark red of the ARC, also pictured... the trouble is that you can't change the starfighter in any color you like because of unique parts... :( so it's from the lego magazine... so i'll assume that it's an official document and therefore correct... in other words: we'll get a starfighter in bright red, like it or not... i do :P the suggestion that it might only be a prototype is wishfull thinking, i'm affraid... After all, it is just a copy of the yellow starfighter and we know that's no longer a prototype but the real thing...

i can't tell if it's one the best, but, sure, you will find a lot of usefull parts there, like all sorts of plates and bricks in different colors, parts to construct trees, transparant bricks, parts to assemble minifigs,... there isn't much room to move around tho... and you also have to pay taxes. i think it's VAT, but i'm not sure anymore... in the end, i don't believe that buying lego there is cheap... so it's not the same as in any pick a brick store where you just pay for a bag or a tub. in this case you pay for the weight of your bag plus i believe 200 crowns or so... yeah... that was a nasty surprise...

i guess you will find that on the lego website, Erik however, i would like to have a list of all pick a brick stands. obviously, there is at least one in every lego store, but there are a lot more. I know of one in Copenhagen, what is unfortunately not very close by... don't know any in belgium :() *sick* *sing*

the guys from Lego Belgium said that Begium takes 2% of TLC's total turnover... That's really a lot... but still... no lego shop... i've tried to buy lego via American online shops, like amazon.com,... but they're not allowed to send most of the Lego stuff to Europe. it's all in the taxes, i'm afraid. with 25% VAT on every set, a high Euro and high taxes in general, there simply isn't any margin for huge price cuts. i've never seen a large price cut of a large set, like the AT AT. Sometimes, shops reduce the price of smaler sets by 10 or 20%, but that's as far as it goes in Belgium. 50% off for a millennium Falcon or AT AT is something i can only dream of... :()

they had a truck driving throu europe last year, unfortunately, only with the sets on display. that was disappointing... you can forget about TRU as well. they've indicated that their future focus will be on younger children. tlc is setting up a franchise network of toyshops so it's possible that they will organise pick a bricks in future for those limited stores. we had a pick a brick last year as an experiment... perhaps they're thinking about it already. i'm going to Aachen in 14 days... perhaps some shops have supplied themselves with sets from the lego shop in K

i'm not even sure that our market is smaller...

by the way, does anybody have pictures of those new mini models? according to people of fbtb.com they are in the Lego magazine... at first i liked the trifighter and i still do... BUT: the canopy has this modern hinge, what makes it incompatible with the "life on mars" trike's canopy. Damn! *sing* and yes... the vultures are becomming a problem... for all the reasons that have been mentioned...

it's getting frustrating not to have a shop like this in my own country. i wish tlc would at least set up one shop in every European country... god this looks great :oD :oD

i thought that tlc is against guns/violence? so why are they showing a model of a modern weapon? some models are interesting, however, i'm not really happy with the b-wing and hope it will never be released. tlc has so much more parts these days to make a b-wing model that is a lot better than anything they could have made in the past with the parts they've used in this models.

i really don't think we're gonna get a third x-wing. or a snowspeeder for that matter. all we can hope for is that tlc will rerelease other stuff, but in the mean time will come up with new craft from the classic movies. i expect quite a lot of new sets and remakes in the third and fourth quarter. let's just hope they're any good...

especially the number 4778 is a puzzle to me... other numbers 4777, 4779 are of duplo sets. 4780 doesn't exist. so 4778 seems a stand alone set to me... i think it is a promotional set and not part of a theme. the parts are pretty "basic" as well. this plane is quite primitive compared to other planes of the adventure theme... A desert theme, you say? did you see the background of this set? there's an ocean! :P

your link doesn't work, Brickster... but set 4778 is on the brickshelf database. according to brickshelf, this a promotional set from the "basic" theme for Dutch Royal airlines KLM, produced for 2005. it seems to be the only promotional basic set for the time being.

wow!! this download seems to be extremely popular. i just got the message of my mirror server that it was already at maximum capacity and cannot take another one...

thanks for all the work you're doing on this, double T. I DO appreciate it, we all do... |-D

you're ABSOLUTELY right... my job is also in the back of my mind. unfortunately, as a researcher, you're not entirely in control of deadlines... the calendar is still blank on those days, let's hope it's stays that way... :P :P :P :P :P i still love this face :P :P :P :P

changing from yellow to flesh is probably one of the key-decisions from tlc. they either have to update ALL former sets, which we will ALL buy (as you say, for compatibilty reasons), or they have to come up with fig-packs, which is impossible because of the Hasbro-licence... therefore, my conclusion is: tlc will produce several updates of major sets of the past in time :P :P :P or perhaps this is just wishfull thinking from my part...