Two places at once...

So I have been traveling for the past few weeks - mostly family things, nothing too terribly exciting.

I have been paying attenition to some things that are going on in the community, and it's been interesting.

The LEGO Group posted a survey for AFOLs a couple of weeks ago. I took the survey and was a little struck by some of the questions - under the "statements I agree with" there are comments about color quality, production quality, and of course, 9volt trains.

What's funny for me is that these are all things that have been brought up before, so why is there a survey to seemingly confirm this?

My position is pretty clear - LEGO is free to do what it wants, and I as a customer, have a right to buy or not buy it. If I support a product, I will buy it. If I don't support it, I don't buy it. This doesn't guarantee that what I want will always be available, as what I buy reflects my tastes and bias. But it does indicate what I want in a very direct way.

My purchases are through the LEGO Store and then Target and then TRU. TRU overprices their sets, so while they have the largest selection, I tend to wait until I go to a LEGO store. From time to time, I will buy through Bricklink parts, usually of quantity.

For those who think I get free sets because of BrickJournal, you're wrong. For the most part, I buy my sets - there are review sets that are sent to me and other staffers I assign, but they are few and far between. And I am happy with that.

So what does that make me? I'm a person that buys sets at retail when they strike my fancy. If asked, I will point out what I would want if the opportunity was available. But I also respect the LEGO Group for what they have done.

What would I want?

1. Reworked monorail system. Make it such that it can use 1x bricks with tiles on the top for track, so anyone can make a loop with parts on hand. Power functions would be great for this!

This goes into another request from the LEGO Group - they asked the Ambassadors about new themes for kids - (10-14, I think) and for the community's input.

Best theme idea I have seen so far is Lego Zoo. Minifig scale zoo. I would buy sets in a heartbeat.

But that's me.