Date
1 - 10 of 10
Why LEGO is retiring Creator Expert
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Abraham Friedman
Found this interesting article about how LEGO is changing how they market to adults.
I think it’s a good idea. After all, as an adult, I would never be caught going into the toy section of a store. It’s only serious manly stuff for me. If there isn’t a power tool involved, count me out. And brightly colored fun boxes? Seriously, I’m an adult. I only buy items that are black and white or, maybe if I’m feeling wild, a bit of grey. And why would I buy LEGO, it’s a “kid’s toy”. I think they need to come put with a new type of building system — maybe one that allows you to build things out of wrenches or painting supplies. Plastic? Really? That’s just so toy like. And why would I ever be interested in a model that’s just so childish like a castle or a pirate ship. I need serious models. Ones that would look appropriate on the desk of a Fortune 500 company’s CEO. I need LEGO to tell me what to buy because I obviously can’t use my one mind. I mean, I might buy something cute or funny by mistake. Abe P.S. I just worry about LEGO sometime. Just what are they thinking? And who are they talking to? |
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I'm not actually a fan of what the Creator line has become, branding wise, in the last few years, though it has nothing to do with not being "adult enough." Creator seems to have become LEGO's catch all "other" term for anything that doesn't fit with a 3rd party license or LEGO City. The large tubs of brick or 3 in 1 sets are what I feel should be Creator, other things should either be in their own them, like "Modular Buildings" or "Expert Vehicles," if not just stand alone items the Haunted House.
I also find it annoying that LEGO is playing into the stigma against adults playing with toys. Like some people act like once you turn 18, you can only watch serious adult movies/shows, build things with tools, and maybe if you are really eccentric collect model trains. It's just dumb, so long as you can still perform the tasks you need to as an adult, people shouldn't be criticized for their hobbies. Does make me wonder how many adults give up "childish things" due to peer pressure, and not because they lost interest in them. |
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Justin Rupp
A bunch of the assumptions LEGO is making are not universally true. They don't sell where adults are? I see LEGO products in department stores already, and if the set is related to a real life place, it can almost always be found in a gift shop of that place. Maybe that isn't true in other parts of the world than where I am? Products are spread around the LBR store and not easy for an adult to find? This is not true of every store. First there are some managers that merchandise in ways they know work better for their market. Second, there is always a LBR employee waiting to help direct you to anything you want. This sounds more like them trying to play fair, where some stores are doing things better than others and the ones not doing as well are complaining. Like when they temporarily banned store employees from building pen cups because not every store had the talent to do it, so it wasn't "fair". This product isn't for me? What percentage of people who are already building would say this? If the problem is people who don't even make the initial purchase because they think LEGO products are for kids, there is likely nothing you can do for people who have that personality. They have to over come that on their own or by seeing another adult build or something. Packaging is not going to change the mind of a person like that. Justin On Mon, Jun 8, 2020 at 5:14 PM scottthewaterwarrior via groups.io <scottthewaterwarrior=yahoo.com@groups.io> wrote: I'm not actually a fan of what the Creator line has become, branding wise, in the last few years, though it has nothing to do with not being "adult enough." Creator seems to have become LEGO's catch all "other" term for anything that doesn't fit with a 3rd party license or LEGO City. The large tubs of brick or 3 in 1 sets are what I feel should be Creator, other things should either be in their own them, like "Modular Buildings" or "Expert Vehicles," if not just stand alone items the Haunted House. |
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Abraham Friedman
I think one of the problems, at least that I’ve noticed, is that the LEGO stores used to have employees who loved building with LEGO and really knew and enjoyed their product. Now they have “retail employees” that could just as easily be working for The Gap or Home Depot. It’s hard to help new adults when you can’t identify with the people you are trying to sell too.
abe |
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Amber Niblock
When it was "What I want to be when I grow up" day at school, I was asking my son what he wanted to dress up as over and over again leading up to that day. He kept saying "I don't know" and finally, the night before, I asked him again and he finally said, "I don't want to grow up. I want to stay a kid and play forever." And I thought, wow, this kid is wiser than most adults I know. And after explaining to him who Peter Pan was, he decided to go as him the next day at school 😂. There's that quote by George Bernard Shaw, "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." Someone put that as the text of a recent LEGO post on Facebook the other day and I thought it was a perfect AFOL motto! |
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Abraham Friedman
My favorite way of expressing that is “They can make me grow old. They can’t make me grow up.”
Abe |
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Amber Niblock
Ha! Love it, Abraham!
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According to my wife, I've yet to grow up. And that's after 25 years of being married to me. So, I'll take it as a compliment. :D
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I think not having grown up is the reason why I am so good at working with children: I still enjoy a lot of the same things they do, and also understand a lot of the issues they are dealing with. Actually just the fact that I am honest with them probably does a lot. A lot of the staff use "because I said so," which I always hated as a kid and rarely listened to. I always try to tell it how it is, giving reasons why certain rules exist, even if it is just "I don't know, the rule seems kinda dumb, but sadly we still have to follow it." That logic has even gotten some rules changed as the children sometimes asked my boss about a rule and then my boss realized there wasn't really a good reason for it. I really miss my work at the after school program... Not that I would want to be working in a crowded environment with little kids during a pandemic, but you know... |
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Montgomery Smith
My mom had a good observation on it from when I was a kid and she was taking me to model train shows all the time: she noticed that the adults running the train layouts wouldn't talk down to the children at shows, but instead talked to them almost as equals. I suspect this is because in that moment, when the adults are playing with toys, they're ALSO 6 years old! After all, to put it the way George Carlin put it, just because I'm 29 doesn't mean I'm not also still 6 =) On June 10, 2020 at 8:56 AM Ben Rome <benhrome@...> wrote: |
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