Lego Space Issues (Part Two)
I hadn't planned on doing a series for this particular topic, but some more thoughts came to mind.
Earlier I mentioned that UCS-scaled ships outside of the Star Wars line might be cool, but what about larger space ships in general?
I'm looking around my Lego wall and there are several Lego Star Wars ships sitting around and they are all of a larger size than the general space-themed lines tend to get. I've complained before about the conflict-in-a-box issue. When you put resources into multiple vehicles and accessories, you take away from the main feature of the set.
What if, instead of forcing the blue viper ship into an $80 set (which was designed with a "jail", rover, and alien ship besides the main defense vehicle), the viper ship had been redesigned as a stand-alone $40-$50 set? I'm looking at my revamped Star Wars Arc Fighter and wondering why Lego thinks they have to force the main themes to have all that action packed into the box when stand-alone vehicles can sell very well on their own.
I understand that they've done their market research and that the main themes are designed with a younger audience in mind. I can't help but wonder why Lego won't add a few higher priced, stand-alone models into a few of their play themes...test the waters so to speak. They take so many more risky gambles that a couple of test sets couldn't hurt that badly if they failed to sell.
This train of thought is incomplete. It has a few holes. For instance the Mars Mission line went bonkers near the end of its shelf life and a few really cool things happened with it. On the other hand, the Space Police line sort of fizzled. The limo was interesting but really deserved a larger budget and the "transformable" police cruiser thing had a nice profile but turned out to be an abomination once built. There should have been a high-end police bus model in this theme instead of the shallow base (which had some really great parts but was otherwise rather pointless)
Obviously I'm speaking as a model builder of sorts. I can make my own stuff if I'm unhappy with what Lego produces. I'm just saying, "Hey, I actually like some of these sets as limited kit models and would like to buy more." I don't mind following instructions if I'm building something cool.
Just give me more cool.
Earlier I mentioned that UCS-scaled ships outside of the Star Wars line might be cool, but what about larger space ships in general?
I'm looking around my Lego wall and there are several Lego Star Wars ships sitting around and they are all of a larger size than the general space-themed lines tend to get. I've complained before about the conflict-in-a-box issue. When you put resources into multiple vehicles and accessories, you take away from the main feature of the set.
What if, instead of forcing the blue viper ship into an $80 set (which was designed with a "jail", rover, and alien ship besides the main defense vehicle), the viper ship had been redesigned as a stand-alone $40-$50 set? I'm looking at my revamped Star Wars Arc Fighter and wondering why Lego thinks they have to force the main themes to have all that action packed into the box when stand-alone vehicles can sell very well on their own.
I understand that they've done their market research and that the main themes are designed with a younger audience in mind. I can't help but wonder why Lego won't add a few higher priced, stand-alone models into a few of their play themes...test the waters so to speak. They take so many more risky gambles that a couple of test sets couldn't hurt that badly if they failed to sell.
This train of thought is incomplete. It has a few holes. For instance the Mars Mission line went bonkers near the end of its shelf life and a few really cool things happened with it. On the other hand, the Space Police line sort of fizzled. The limo was interesting but really deserved a larger budget and the "transformable" police cruiser thing had a nice profile but turned out to be an abomination once built. There should have been a high-end police bus model in this theme instead of the shallow base (which had some really great parts but was otherwise rather pointless)
Obviously I'm speaking as a model builder of sorts. I can make my own stuff if I'm unhappy with what Lego produces. I'm just saying, "Hey, I actually like some of these sets as limited kit models and would like to buy more." I don't mind following instructions if I'm building something cool.
Just give me more cool.
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