Let's talk about: Divers!

[natelite]

@Section8: not trying to be rude here but i dont think it was popular with the other 99 kids when you were growing up. do you know what you and your friends played together as? i doubt that you can find many who find deep sea interesting. let's not forget that during the 80s was when jaws was famous. diving? seriously? most people probably forbid their kids from going to the ocean. probably just stick to the pool or something.

[xwingyoda]

I was raised in the mid 70's and I was fascinated by the sea: I watched all those Cousteau shows, I loved shipwrecks documentaries and I spent 1 month vacation each year devoted to swimming, fishing and boating !!

I always feel good and free on the see !! Really piloting a speed boat when you are 11 is a feeling of absolute power !! Then as I grow older I had my boat and my dad changed his engines for more powerfull ones, it was heaven !! I felt like Sonny Crocket racing off shore boats along the Florida Keys :-D !!

I even took my small boat for long test drives in the middle of the ocean alone when I was 12/13 and I never ever suffered from the

[Section8]

Or TLC could do a fantastic thing IMO: TLC could mix up adventurers and divers (ok I

[natelite]

does spongebob count as an underwater/diver theme? :-P

[xwingyoda]

does spongebob count as an underwater/diver theme? :-P

How dare you >:-( ?? loool :-D

*yoda*

[snefroe]

well i guess divers was just a city subtheme, never meant to be the next best thing... just a nice subtheme

in that regard, it just did what was expected, it sold for a while, perhaps not all that well, and a year later it was all over again, nothing more to it, really...

i think Space was launched at the right time for lego. it was the time of the first Space Shuttle from NASA, in the year of the first sw film that lead to an explosion of highly popular tv series and films thru out the 80's. No doubt in my mind that the first space sets, which had a production run of a staggering 5 years, are still amongst the best sold lego sets ever.

I guess space lost interest because it didn't really evolve with the new generation of kids. Kids need more today than we used to. we were quite happy with simple models with basic bricks and plates, today, sets need to be far more complex and sophisticated. space also wasn't aggresive enough, it was all about exploration or catching thieves without any laser gun involved... that type of naivity is gone, these days... kids want to have armies with guns, cannons,... a space theme today would be far more like exo force: 8 sets or so, all heavy artillery, gunships,... weapons of whatever kind... that's why the old space stuff is part of history and will never ever come back... in return, however, we get sw, that allows us to build the starships we want to build... Still, it would be nice to have an official, but modern, space theme again...

[alex54]

2. during the 80s and the 90s space was the most popular thing ever. engineers, pilots, astronauts were the career of choice for most kids. not to mention a ton of popular tv series or movies on space theme such as star trek, star wars, battlestar galactica, odessey 2000, etc.

I'm not agree with that Natelit.

In fact, when I was a child (I was born in 1984), I spent more time seeing the Cousteau shows that space tv series. I collect all the Cousteau small paper in my grand mother TV program! the sea always make me dream and a bit afraid, a lot more than space, because is a facinated world that you can explore in real. I remebered the firts time I saw a rorcal or those beautifull shark in a aquazoo. It was magical!

I don't have the opportunity like you XWingYoda, but I have already do some boat like trimaran, and it was a really great day for me! sea means liberty and quite to me.

and a JT divers line would be great!

oh, I'm aquarius... a destiny sign?

[xwingyoda]

Well you know Alex Boating is boating no matter on what boat you are ;-) You have the same feeling of absolut freedom 8-

[natelite]

Lets just hoe that TLC in their '07 line up has some nifty sea sets ;-) I'm getting tired of cops, firemen and what have you !!

*yoda*

ahem...did you miss the coast guard set from world city series? *wacko* i think it is still available from kbtoys at like $30 orange tag...which is currently on further sale (buy 1 get 1 50% off!). :'-)

[snefroe]

Well you know Alex Boating is boating no matter on what boat you are ;-) You have the same feeling of absolut freedom 8-

[alex54]

anyway, if kids in belgium ever had to chose between cousteau or space shuttles, no doubt in my mind, they'd all go for space...

Yes, it's in your mind! you're not in all the children head!

[Jipay]

I think cousteai is still pretty famous and not only in France. He did a lot for modern diving !

[natelite]

http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9706/25/cousteau.obit/

if this is the guy you are talking about...sorry, i think for the most part the world was preoccupied with neil armstrong landing on the moon in 1969.

[alex54]

if this is the guy you are talking about...sorry, i think for the most part the world was preoccupied with neil armstrong landing on the moon in 1969.

Maybe but there is not only 1969 in the history of the world!

During the end of the 80's and the beginning of the 90's, they shown the Cousteau discovery on tv the saturday, and we watched them. Armstrong appears more like a stranger than Cousteau for me (maybe I'm too young to be marked by the armstrong adventur!)

[Jipay]

Natelite, I think you're just not into the sailing / diving thing, this explains your lack of knowledge concerning this man.

[snefroe]

hehe we struck a french sensitive element here! :-P

again, Cousteau may have been a god in france, like Louis de fun

[Jipay]

Sorry to sound rude, but you are surely not knowing everything on this matter. Cousteau in not known only by french people from France. He is known in the divers community. Like other people are known for their belonging to a community. It's not a question of country, it's a question of specialty.

And we never said he was a god. And that's not a french misplaced pride of some sort as I'm only french because I was born in France, my origins being various.

Now I'd like this topic to go back on it's orginal subject otherwise I might have to close it (which would be bad for everyone)

[xwingyoda]

Well Cousteau was indeed a pionner in his domain which he revolutionised and thats why he was internationaly known and admired !!

Back on ths lovely topic :-D

I would love a Cousteau hommage theme with a MF version of "La Calypso" with its various diving equipment !! It would be like a much bigger version of the previous Divers ships (NO floatable crappy hulls though !!) and the sub would be a little old fashioned !! That would be sweet !!

I was talking to a TRU employee today and he told me that the whole Playmo maritime line is such a great hit !! This really means that sea sets interest lots of people ;-) Its synonym of vacation, sun, good times...life !!

We really are fed up with those police, firemen (...) sub city themes !! I don't want my city to be a ghetto with numerous police cars :-| I want a marina and sea life !! Lego is a dream toy !! TLC tend to forget that giving only real life sets >:-(

Dive On !!

*yoda*

[Jipay]

in fact you don't know it yet but they are making a lot of cop cars cause they bought the gta licence *sing*

[xwingyoda]

in fact you don't know it yet but they are making a lot of cop cars cause they bought the gta licence *sing*

Bring on the bazookas and rocket launchers :-D

Oh oh we are going off topic again !! Not really actually, in GTA there are lots of maritime missions :-P And a beautifull Scaarab *wub* and Cigarette *wub*

*yoda*

[Jipay]

you are missleading, that's miami vice !

[xwingyoda]

you are missleading, that's miami vice !

What do you think Vice City was inspired by ? Scaraab, white Testarossa, Florida feel and even music by Jan Hammer ;-)

*yoda*

[snefroe]

you are missleading, that's miami vice !

What do you think Vice City was inspired by ? Scaraab, white Testarossa, Florida feel and even music by Jan Hammer ;-)

*yoda*

sounds like an overdose of 80's to me! :-P

[highlandcattle]

http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9706/25/cousteau.obit/

if this is the guy you are talking about...sorry, i think for the most part the world was preoccupied with neil armstrong landing on the moon in 1969.

Err Who?

Just kidding, Really in Belgium and france Cousteau was very popular. Everybody loved him. I always watched his movies. Altough I must admit I was a bit of a spacehead myself. (Not amercian but russian spacecraft kept my daydreams busy).

[Hobbes]

I was talking to a TRU employee today and he told me that the whole Playmo maritime line is such a great hit !! This really means that sea sets interest lots of people ;-) Its synonym of vacation, sun, good times...life !!

That may all be true, but I think the true reason of its succes is - it swims.

I just saw a documentary the other day where they showed the effects of... I dunno... something with water (duh), and to make this "visible" and understandable to the average viewer they used a small water tank and - the Playmo Freighter.

I think the possibility to let the models swim has a lot to do with the success among kids. Sure, I don't want those dull swimming hulls, either, but if it means success in selling, well, then go ahead, produce more of 'em (we adults just modify the damn thing). This year's police boat is the second of its sort, anyway. Maybe it does sell well, I dunno, I don't have it. But there were swimming boats in the past, remember the boat weights? I had a few of those and they were around for some time...

So, I guess, I'll go out and buy twenty of those new police boats and all that's still available of the speed boat. I just don't like speed boats, I'm a sailor, but it'd be a sacrifice for the greater good ;-)

... and then I'll equip the ships with some SAM launchers to get those pesky space ships >:-)