Design byME to close in January

[MsRowdyRedhead]

Design byME to close in January
http://aboutus.lego.com/en-US/PressRoom/Article/360721.aspx?n=1

The LEGO Group is closing that part of the Design byMe customization service that allows consumers to order digital models in real bricks.

The LEGO Group will be accepting orders until January 16, 2012.

Consumers will still be able to design what they want with LEGO Digital Designer and upload models into a public gallery as before. All existing models will be transferred to a new gallery on the LDD website. Consumers will also be able to download the instructions generated from LEGO Digital Designer.

The HERO Recon Team Hero Creator will be unchanged and consumers will still be able to build and buy their own customized Hero. Bricks can be bought separately, using the Pick a Brick service:

http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Pick-A-Brick-ByTheme.

This is not the end of customization for the LEGO Group, but a revision. The LEGO Group believes in the future of customization, but the service offered has to be right for the consumers and Design byME has proven to be too complex for children.

The original Design byMe vision was for a unique customization service, where consumers could design whatever they imagined, display it and get the model sent to in their own LEGO box. Design byMe as a concept attracts several million people each year to build a huge range of amazing creations using the LEGO Digital Designer (LDD) software.

Over the years, The LEGO Group has also added other simpler customized building experiences like Hero Recon Team. However, the overall Design byMe experience has struggled to live up to the quality standards for a LEGO service.

The feedback from Design byMe users has taught the LEGO Group that a rebuild of the entire setup of Design byMe would be necessary to better the experience, and this would only make the service too expensive.

[Magical Girl Mimi]

tl;dr version: We can make more monies with a limited creator system, so instead of making our current system very limited and potentially alienate customers, we'll simply close off the buying portion of said current system, and leave the creator itself open for an indefinite time.

Eh? Doesn't that make sense? I mean, they even brought up the HRT, which is definitely not as customizable as Extended mode in LDD.

[mtmerrick]

No one buys anything from DesignByMe, its stupidly expensive. 

That said, I love LDD. I don't know who their target audience is, but my 8 year old sister LOVES it, its certainly not too hard for her. I'll be really PO'd if they get rid of LDD.

[MsRowdyRedhead]

Can't it be used in off line mode anyhow??

[Jayko]

Can't it be used in off line mode anyhow??

Thats how I run it!

[CheshireCat150]

That said, I love LDD. I don't know who their target audience is, but my 8 year old sister LOVES it, its certainly not too hard for her.

Yeah, it certainly isn't too hard for a 7 year old I know either. I just think that those who are old enough to make a neat enough model to buy would smart enough to search for the pieces on bricklink instead.

[MsRowdyRedhead]

That said, I love LDD. I don't know who their target audience is, but my 8 year old sister LOVES it, its certainly not too hard for her.

Yeah, it certainly isn't too hard for a 7 year old I know either. I just think that those who are old enough to make a neat enough model to buy would smart enough to search for the pieces on bricklink instead.

True enough! So we won't really be missing a thing!

[Jayko]

For those wanting to generate a bricklink wanted list I find this a very helpful program! http://www.blarworld.net/download/BrickHelper-1.1-Win32.zip (PC) http://www.blarworld.net/download/BrickHelper-1.1-CrossPlatform.zip (everyone else)

[MsRowdyRedhead]

That looks great!! Thanks, Jayko!

[Legodac]

I wonder if the inability to post or comment in LU on MLN has anything to do with this?
Not just me, others as well...

[Magical Girl Mimi]

What do you mean by that, Legodac? LU and MLN were always meant to be separate, aside from advertising campaigns in MLN. Maybe they initially had different ideas, but, well, that was dropped once LU was released...

And after all they've been doing, I'm starting to wonder about the future of MLN... Or any successors MLN might have... =/

[MsRowdyRedhead]

I believe this is the key sentence:

Over the years, The LEGO Group has also added other simpler customized building experiences like Hero Recon Team. However, the overall Design byMe experience has struggled to live up to the quality standards for a LEGO service.

Translation:
Not enough people are BUYING their designs.

[Magical Girl Mimi]

They've had the service up for so long, though, and it's never been a problem...

Though, I bet you it's partly because of the whole situation where you can't buy stuff from the extra modes; I'm sure if anyone could actually buy stuff that they made exactly as they wanted to, there would be no problem with them buying it.

[Legodac]

No one buys anything from DesignByMe, its stupidly expensive. 

That said, I love LDD. I don't know who their target audience is, but my 8 year old sister LOVES it, its certainly not too hard for her. I'll be really PO'd if they get rid of LDD.

I did when it first started, I have ordered at least 6 of my creations and at the time I believe the cost was only a mere 40 % more then if you were to buy from pick-a-brick.

Best way to tell is simply average cost per piece. 

Today though, that cost is more than doubled, for example. My latest LDD creation is 2213 very basic pieces at a cost before taxes at $450.31 Canadian,
where the Lego exclusive "Fire Brigade", a modular kit is 2231 cool pieces and only 199.00 to buy http://shop.lego.com/en-CA/Fire-Brigade-10197

Seems that in itself should tell you something...

[Magical Girl Mimi]

Yikes. That is expensive. 0_o Okay, then there's two reasons no-one buys stuff, then...

[Legodac]

Either you have money to burn or your simply Fanatical, either entity are the only ones keeping it alive thus far

[Magical Girl Mimi]

Or people buying stuff that isn't expensive at all. =P

[Legodac]

Truth be known, the reason for the end of a home delivery of your own design is simple, the cost to Lego must be monumental.
Think about it, the kits are designed by designers, then the tradesman come in and create the moulds for the injection moulding process, then the packagers and artists needed, etc., etc.

Expensive process, but they make it back and then some with multiple sales coming from a production line,

There is no production line in "Design By Me", and the huge cost to us was to offset the cost to them, it still didn't work, though they got our attention and the the building techniques they'll learn from our continued sharing will certainly promise to make them even more creative and cool.

[MsRowdyRedhead]

It's the same cost as sending a list to pick a brick, minus the box...

[Legodac]

Been a while, granted...

Though I beg to differ on the bananas