Cow-themed set ideas
Posted: Thu Apr 01, 2010 3:50 pm
Dear LEGO,
The System cow element has still only appeared in two high priced sets. It's a great mold, and deserves to find its way into other official sets as well. Here are my thoughts on what might be realistic set ideas, and I'd love to see what others say as well.
Wild West
I've long argued that the Western theme should have gone a third year, with an emphasis on 'civilian' sets. These could have the added advantage to LEGO of being more gender neutral and expand the market to more girls (think, for instance, of the popularity of Little House on the Prairie with young girls).
Cattle Drive - This could be a small pack with a cowboy and two cows. I could imagine people buying multiples to create a big cattle drive. If we really insisted on introducing an 'action' element, it could include one of the western bandit figs and be rebranded as 'cattle rustler' (really no pun intended on the term 'rebranded').
Covered Wagon - Essentially this could be a rebuild of set 6716, but instead of carrying a soldier and pulling a cannon, this would have a family of pioneers (Pa, Ma, kid). The wagon could be either pulled by an ox, or have a milk cow following along behind.
Homestead farm - The same family, but with a small home and shed, brown baseplate for a patch of plowed ground, ox and plow.
BTW, other set ideas for this 'civilian' line of Western sets include an expanded general store (yes, there was a general store in Gold City Junction), one-room schoolhouse, and train station - which leads to my next set idea.
Train theme
Cattle car - A cattle car with a couple of cows would be popular among train builders. I can imagine people buying multiples.
Alternatively to doing modern cattle cars, I could imagine a steam engine set from the late 1800s as a cross-over between Trains and Wild-West (much like the Motorized Hogwarts Express was a crossover between Trains and Harry Potter). Again, if you needed an 'action' element, you could include some train robbers.
Castle theme
Ox cart - This would be a great small set - something like the cart from the Medieval Market Village pulled by an ox and driven by a peasant. We could certainly imagine other variations on small sets with a peasant and a cow (or a pig, but I'll stay focused on cows here).
Farm subtheme
I'd love to see the Farm subtheme go at least another year. The tractors so far have been great, but we could easily imagine other farm implements to pull behind them (e.g. plow, disk, gravity wagon). When I was a kid we had these metal farm equipment toys that I used to use in the sandbox, things like these, though those look older. The big negative in the subtheme so far has been the buildings. We really should have a barn that is not just a bunch of pillars and big pre-fab roof pieces. More cows in small sets would be good, especially if they were things you could buy multiples of to build up a herd. Imagine a 'pasture pack' with two cows, two fence pieces and a bush. I'm sure a lot of us would buy a whole bunch of these.
Bruce
The System cow element has still only appeared in two high priced sets. It's a great mold, and deserves to find its way into other official sets as well. Here are my thoughts on what might be realistic set ideas, and I'd love to see what others say as well.
Wild West
I've long argued that the Western theme should have gone a third year, with an emphasis on 'civilian' sets. These could have the added advantage to LEGO of being more gender neutral and expand the market to more girls (think, for instance, of the popularity of Little House on the Prairie with young girls).
Cattle Drive - This could be a small pack with a cowboy and two cows. I could imagine people buying multiples to create a big cattle drive. If we really insisted on introducing an 'action' element, it could include one of the western bandit figs and be rebranded as 'cattle rustler' (really no pun intended on the term 'rebranded').
Covered Wagon - Essentially this could be a rebuild of set 6716, but instead of carrying a soldier and pulling a cannon, this would have a family of pioneers (Pa, Ma, kid). The wagon could be either pulled by an ox, or have a milk cow following along behind.
Homestead farm - The same family, but with a small home and shed, brown baseplate for a patch of plowed ground, ox and plow.
BTW, other set ideas for this 'civilian' line of Western sets include an expanded general store (yes, there was a general store in Gold City Junction), one-room schoolhouse, and train station - which leads to my next set idea.
Train theme
Cattle car - A cattle car with a couple of cows would be popular among train builders. I can imagine people buying multiples.
Alternatively to doing modern cattle cars, I could imagine a steam engine set from the late 1800s as a cross-over between Trains and Wild-West (much like the Motorized Hogwarts Express was a crossover between Trains and Harry Potter). Again, if you needed an 'action' element, you could include some train robbers.
Castle theme
Ox cart - This would be a great small set - something like the cart from the Medieval Market Village pulled by an ox and driven by a peasant. We could certainly imagine other variations on small sets with a peasant and a cow (or a pig, but I'll stay focused on cows here).
Farm subtheme
I'd love to see the Farm subtheme go at least another year. The tractors so far have been great, but we could easily imagine other farm implements to pull behind them (e.g. plow, disk, gravity wagon). When I was a kid we had these metal farm equipment toys that I used to use in the sandbox, things like these, though those look older. The big negative in the subtheme so far has been the buildings. We really should have a barn that is not just a bunch of pillars and big pre-fab roof pieces. More cows in small sets would be good, especially if they were things you could buy multiples of to build up a herd. Imagine a 'pasture pack' with two cows, two fence pieces and a bush. I'm sure a lot of us would buy a whole bunch of these.
Bruce
