Talk:Lego/Archive 2

message: Style issue: Spelling of LEGOLAND-LEGOland-Legoland needs to be standardized...
:That's easy - all caps, according to the company. -- Wapcaplet 01:19, 29 Feb 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: Hmm, maybe not as straight-forward as you might think: companies seem to like capitalizing their trademarks, I guess it makes them less word-like or something; but more often than not, it just looks silly to do so. There has been discussion over whether Nintendo GameCube should be NINTENDO GAMECUBE, for similar reasons. Personally, I think it just looks ugly and strange, but I suppose it's best to go with the "correct" version. - IMSoP 14:56, 29 Feb 2004 (UTC)

text: Agreed. We have always tended to go with "correct" versions for lots of other problematic names whenever possible; the LEGO Group is the only real authority on the issue, so I think it's best to stick with their preference, especially since it's a trademark. For the Nintendo GameCube, even Nintendo's official website uses mixed case in some situations; I don't think the LEGO Group has ever used anything other than "LEGO" and "LEGOLAND." -- Wapcaplet 16:28, 29 Feb 2004 (UTC)
thread_title: Spelling Style

message: "Despite initial criticism, the Kirk Christiansen's persevered." Is the first sentence of the last paragraph in the "beginnings" section? I was wondering if anyone had any information as to what sort of criticism there was, and if they could be so good as to add mention of such specifics to the article? I'm quite curious. Great article, by the way Sam Spade 01:18, 6 Mar 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: Good point. I've clarified it a bit. -- Wapcaplet 03:07, 6 Mar 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: The sentence likely refers to initially cold reception and poor sales Lego's had as a plastic product. -- 207.224.122.151 00:58, 2 Jun 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Beginnings  

message: Annual production of LEGO bricks averages approximately 20 billion (2 × 1010) per year, or about 2.3 million per hour.  Totally frivolous musing, but I wonder how many of those are the 2 x 4 red bricks which seem to me to be somehow the most "basic" bricks of all.  How many millions of them must there be in the world?  --Sewing 05:56, 11 Mar 2004 (UTC)
thread_title: Quantities of bricks produced

message: Lego is beautiful. Sigg3.net 11:28, 11 Mar 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: I've not had any experience with Ikea, though did assemble a lot of Sauder furniture at my last job. Sauder's instructions are phenomenally good, especially in comparison with those from other do it yourself furniture brands (several of which I've had the displeasure of experiencing). I've seen instruction manuals where the part illustrations were so small or indistinct that a black speck could be a nail, screw, bolt, or piece of lint on the photocopier. I've seen diagrams showing the six different kinds of fasteners included in the box in which none of the six resembled their real-life counterparts, and which looked like they were xeroxed from a doodle on a napkin by a five-year-old. Instructions, which essentially consisted of one step: put all this stuff together. Ta-da! Instant furniture. It would be interesting indeed to know what kinds of academic studies have been done on the subject. I imagine that any company with ambitions of selling their products worldwide has put more effort into making friendly, intuitive instruction manuals. Marketing products to young children has to be a strong motivating factor as well. If a child can't understand it, chances are an adult won't either. The LEGO Company's are certainly among the best, ever. -- Wapcaplet 19:26, 11 Mar 2004 (UTC)
thread_title: Instructions

message: I've removed some bits about LEGO being accused of racial bias in the yellow skin tone used for minifigs. A google search didn't reveal any such accusations, aside from occasional statements posted on newsgroups and the like; if anyone knows of actual claims of racism against LEGO, please provide a source. I've rephrased the paragraph in question. -- Wapcaplet 22:40, 10 Jul 2004 (UTC)
thread_title: Racial Bias

message: I'm certainly as much at fault as anyone for this, but I've just replaced numerous occurrences of "LEGO" being used to refer to the toy itself, rather than the company producing that toy. For example, "LEGO as artists' material" became "The LEGO system in art." It got me thinking, though: it's sort of astonishing that in all these years, the LEGO company hasn't come up with an actual name for their flagship product, so it's pretty hard to refer to it except by calling it "LEGO bricks", "the LEGO system", "LEGO sets", etc. Phrases like "LEGO creations" are sort of problematic; it implies that they are creations of the LEGO Company, when in reality they're creations using the unnamed plastic toy that the LEGO Company produces. I'm hoping we can keep the article free of any kind of trademark dilution and genericization of the word "LEGO", but it can be cumbersome to have to distinguish the company from the toy. Something to keep in mind, for future edits... -- Wapcaplet 22:56, 23 Jul 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: Surely, the toy is called "LEGO"? Andy Mabbett 23:06, 23 Jul 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  LEGO trademark dilution