Comments on: LEGO Wants Fan input on the next City Set [News]

By: jpmanalo

jpmanalo — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 04:28:16 +0000

@eti –> Many of the sets that have been labelled as “Toys ‘R’ Us Exclusive” in the United States / North America, have often been released in Australia as a non-exclusive item available at a number of the different department store chains in Australia. Similarly, sets that have been marked as “non-exclusive” in North America have sometimes only been sold by one chain *exclusively* in Australia.

I suspect that if/when this new “Toys ‘R’ Us Exclusive” set is released, that it might not be a “Toys ‘R’ Us Exclusive” item in Australia (Yes, we do have Toys ‘R’ Us stores here down-under…).

By: eti

eti — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 15:41:04 +0000

So first Toys ‘r us changes it name to something else (maybe because they don’t sell enough – at least in my city Toys ‘r Us is in a very awkward area where nobody ever comes) and then we get to vote for a Toys ‘r us exclusive… apparently there still is a Toys ‘r us in other countries.

Have there been Toys ‘r us exclusives in the past? Were they sold at all in other countries or were they US only?

By: Dan

Dan — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 17:30:36 +0000

Weird that the link they provided doesn’t work. I’ve changed it to yours. Thanks.

By: TooMuchDew

TooMuchDew — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 17:11:14 +0000

Link doesn’t work… try http://www.toysrus.com/shop/index.jsp?categoryId=3088672 I just voted for Choice 1: City Square and received message “Votes will be tallied, ideas consolidated and the full finished set will be unveiles in February at the 2010 New York International Toy Fair, then will be available at Toys ‘R’ Us stores nationwide in the second half of 2010! Thank you for taking the time to vote!” No, you don’t have to register with TRU, I think the site/poll just uses cookies to tell if you’ve voted already.

By: peterlmorris

peterlmorris — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 14:23:19 +0000

What is the story here? Do I have to actually create an account at tru.com and log in to vote?

That’s stupid. I have no desire to create yet another online shopping account that some potato-chip stained miscreant living in his mom’s basement can attempt to hijack for his own nefarious ends.

It sounds like we’re voting for sets that have already been leaked anyway. Need more info, plzkthnxbai.

By: Herman

Herman — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 09:53:22 +0000

Park!

I can’t see any more gas-stations, fire stations, hospitals or police stations.

We need some normal stuff, a Lego City should not be filled exclusively public services and social workers.

A Park could contain a lot of fun stuff and more straightforward minifigs.

By: David4

David4 — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 01:20:57 +0000

It took the train people awhile to convince LEGO to make one new train wheel, they then got two. The train wheels can be used in several sets.

They had Cypress trees in bulk bags for about 2 months. The mold broke and they saw no point in wasting money to bring them back. There is no need to waste money on a new mold for a tree to be in one set. LEGO would just use what they have, or make brick built. If a new theme of LEGO City Parks were being made then maybe they would make a new tree, however this would be a one off special edition set.

Plus the tree would never look the same, the pointy tip is most likely a legal issue now a days.

By: thebfg

thebfg — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 23:31:19 +0000

>>>”So mold cost is probably pretty high (which is probably why things like the turkey and cows are only in expensive sets, smaller quantities and bigger profits)”

Moulds for injection moulding cost a fortune, for the small scale machiene at the uni (and that runs at about 1 peice every min or so), it costs in the thousands for each mould. Scaling it up would be considerably more expensive.

And hurray for a park! About time!

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 23:09:42 +0000

The voting is probably on Toys R Us’s website for the same reason that the voting that got us the Mon Cal bridge playset was. This set will probably be a TRU exclusive.

By: eti

eti — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 23:02:09 +0000

One thing surprises me – why is voting at the Toys ‘r Us website?
Especially for us it doesn’t make any sense since Toys ‘r Us changed it name to Toys XL (and they’re not an imporant reseller anyway)…

By: eti

eti — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 23:00:12 +0000

Park! Well, all AFOLs will vote for the park, obviously, but for kids transportation seems to be the obvious choice.
On the other hand, we will already get a bus stop and we have plenty of cars – and park is a great opportunity for sets boys and girls will like.

What about a power functions merry go round with the upcoming microfigs as toddlers? Yes!

By: Motor.On

Motor.On — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 22:42:35 +0000

I’d bet the mold cost isn’t so much raw materials but engineering. They _do_ have to make it work with the system, make sure it can be produced (within their ridiculous millionths-of-a-percent accuracy), and then make sure it’ll work within their storage system.

So mold cost is probably pretty high (which is probably why things like the turkey and cows are only in expensive sets, smaller quantities and bigger profits)

By: tiberium blue

tiberium blue — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 22:39:15 +0000

Adding a popular rare piece like that would only improve sales in my opinion, even if they had to pay for a new mould. How many people sprung for medieval marketplace with the incentive of getting their hands on a turkey? How many more people would buy the farm if they’d brought back the pitchfork?

I know they make these things for kids but my experience of the AFOL community is most people are more interested in new or rarer pieces when a set comes out and not so much what they can make from pieces they already have.

How much does a mould cost? Does anyone know?

By: Motor.On

Motor.On — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 22:06:34 +0000

I was thinking truck stop, but the point about trees is oh so true.

Also, what happened to the multi-part palm trees?

Why the new POOP palms?

By: MDC

MDC — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 21:50:03 +0000

DOT. maybe we’ll get a mono-rail for the city, or at the very least a light-rail system that links into the rest of the city sets.

Truck stop could be good too, but I’ll sit and hope for (and build my own) “PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION CENTER” With Lego Train Stations dropping and picking up passengers, cargo, and just passing through. What a grand idea to create more trainbased sets (now that we have that new rail system).