Text Mistakes in LEGO Catalogs

[Brickdoctor]

Was browsing through the Summer 2010 catalog and found these:

10213 Shuttle Adventure

Features opening cockpit with seats for 2 astronauts and realistic engines!

The engines get seats, too? The engines are inside the cockpit?

7939 Cargo Train

Cargo train is compatible with LEGO 9V tracks; Tracks not compatible with LEGO 9V trains!

An excalmation mark? So we should be happy that our old trains now require ultra-expensive second hand tracks?

Requires 9 AAA batteries!

Again, should we be happy that we have to buy a ton of batteries to run this thing?

8898 Wreckage Road

Fire missiles at your opponent!

This is a World Racers set, so is LEGO encouraging cheating? I realize that that's the point of the whole line, but....

BONUS!

8078 Portal of Atlantis

Divers must beware of the hidden traps!

<Insert Ackbar emoticon here>

[The Green Brick Giant]

OK

Really, most of your points you are just complaining about "!". LEGO wants you to realize certain things so they have "!" instead of a period.

LEGO 2-3 years ago used to make 10 mistakes per catalog and they mainly were how many mini-figures were in a set. That's a much bigger deal than bad English.

[Sisco]

!!!!

Honestly.

I don't really care about extra '!'s. That's just TLC making a product sound more exciting.

[Brickdoctor]

Really, most of your points you are just complaining about "!". LEGO wants you to realize certain things so they have "!" instead of a period.

I realize that, but they could've just put the text into the normal description with a period. It's not the thing you want someone to immediately notice when considering a set.

!!!!

Honestly.

I don't really care about extra '!'s. That's just TLC making a product sound more exciting.

Okay, okay. But the shuttle tidbit was pretty funny, at least to me. They could've just put the engine text with a picture of it's own.

LEGO 2-3 years ago used to make 10 mistakes per catalog and they mainly were how many mini-figures were in a set. That's a much bigger deal than bad English.

It's not all bad English. The World Racers text seems to contradict the LEGO philosophy. If we're going to get civilian vehicles that shoot missiles just to win a race, why not tanks and machine guns?

[Nikola Bathory]

It's not all bad English. The World Racers text seems to contradict the LEGO philosophy. If we're going to get civilian vehicles that shoot missiles just to win a race, why not tanks and machine guns?

Yes, why not? I'm crazy about WWII and would love some LEGO sets set in 1939-1945, but that will never happen.

I mean, what's wrong with violence in toys and computer games? Look at the whole Castle and Pirates themes! They have axes, swords, cannons! Oh, the horror!!

[drdavewatford]

What a pointless post - nothing you pointed out is a genuine text mistake.

I think you've got too much time on your hands.........

[Siegfried]

An excalmation mark? So we should be happy that our old trains now require ultra-expensive second hand tracks?

Happy? If that's what you think the "!" is for then your definition of the exclamation mark needs work. According to the highly regarded http://www.exclamation-mark.com/

What is an Exclamation Mark?

An exclamation mark, exclamation point or bang, “!”, is usually used after an interjection or exclamation to indicate strong feeling. An exclamation mark is a punctuation mark, and like the full stop (or period), it marks the end of a sentence. A sentence ending in an exclamation mark is either an actual exclamation (“Wow!”), a command (“Stop!”), or is intended to be astonishing in some way (“They were the footprints of a gigantic hound!”).

It's just marketing. The "!" is used to make things look exciting. I personally think it's stupid, but that's hardly surprising as I think most marketing tricks are.

I'll leave this open so you can have a rebuttal, but so far it looks like it's becoming a very un-fun topic.

[RileyC]

I just think its funny cause the catalogue is probably being produced in the 100 of thousands to be send all over the world but strange, simple text mistakes seem to fall through the cracks. I guess the editor was sleepy

[Holodoc]

What a pointless post - nothing you pointed out is a genuine text mistake.

I think you've got too much time on your hands.........

Exactly!

Or it's just "Hey, I've opened a new thread - look at me!"

Bravo.

[AndyC]

While the first sentence is semantically ambiguous, it's still correct. It's an example of why parsing English can be extremely difficult, because it relies on the reader to implicitly understand how to break it up.

Features opening cockpit with seats for 2 astronauts and realistic engines!

As opposed to:

Features opening cockpit with seats for 2 astronauts and realistic engines!

[Brickdoctor]

Okay, okay, I get the point. You can go ahead and lock the thread. But I will say that I in no way wanted to call attention to myself, I just found it funny.

[CP5670]

Was browsing through the Summer 2010 catalog and found these:

All that and you missed the one genuine mistake in that catalog. On the last page, it says "win the hottest leg of the the World Race."

[The Green Brick Giant]

The World Racers text seems to contradict the LEGO philosophy. If we're going to get civilian vehicles that shoot missiles just to win a race, why not tanks and machine guns?

Because one is a make believe world in which crazy vehicles that aren't realistic at all are fighting in a race in which no one has ever died.

Tanks are real, what would LEGO do make a World War 2 tank where 50+ million people died? Maybe they can make a modern US tank, have it in Iraq in which 250,000 innocent people have been killed.

Making sets that are based on real life also means making sets that are based on real life events, and that's where LEGO doesn't want to cross the line.

[Brickdoctor]

All that and you missed the one genuine mistake in that catalog. On the last page, it says "win the hottest leg of the the World Race."

You are...*checks catalog*...correct. :blush: :blush:

[-zenn]

Hmzz, most of the time I overread errors...

Except for this one, cause it was my first set;

September.

[vexorian]

This sounds like pointless nitpicking!

[funkybrick]

As for text mistakes in LEGO catalogs, there's one in the 2009 (I think) catalog that will enrage every Star Wars fan around: with the 8092 Luke's Landspeeder set, the description (name) above the mini-image of the Luke Skywalker minifig says... Anakin Skywalker!!!

I'm done with TLG. Wrong turns they have made, to the dark side!

[LegoDad42]

Post... zzzzz...snore...ZZZZ!!! (hey look, exclamation points).