Toys For Tots update

 

  • Toys For Tots update

    Posted by Huw, 09 Dec 2011 10:39. Filed under Miscellaneous.

    LEGO Santa YodaThank you to everyone that's sent greetings in response to the campaign that FBTB, myself and The Brothers-Brick are running.

    The number of toys LEGO is donating to Toys For Tots currently stands at 352,000 which is fantastic given the figure was around 1000 when we started.

    However, there's been some disappointing developments (possibly as a result of this). To discourage people sending loads at once, LEGO first limited it to three per 'From' address but given that was easily worked around, they've now used senders' IP addresses to restrict them which is much harder to get around.

    Ace at FBTB has had his IP address blocked completely so he can't read anything sent to him any more, which is a bit heavy-handed: it's almost as if LEGO don't want to donate the 1 million toys...

    Nevertheless, I still encourage you to send all your friends and family greetings from LEGOSantaYoda.com and let's see how close we can get to that 1 million mark by Christmas Eve.

    Read more about LEGO's antics over at FBTB.


    13 comments, latest one posted 17 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)
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Comments

Posted by serviceburo in United States, 09 Dec 2011 11:21

If LEGO are willing to donate 1,000,000 toys, then they also have a right to get some promotional benefit from it as well. THEY ARE A BUSINESS NOT A CHARITY.

If you have a problem with their approach - then you should thing about better corporate targets like Apple (which has NO philanthropy programs AT ALL).

Lego fans out there really need to stop biting the hand that feeds them.

Posted by itsaturkey in United States, 09 Dec 2011 11:37

Wow, heavy-handed indeed. I didn't know they could just stop letting you sign in! It's nice that Lego is agreeing to do this, but it seems a little hypocritical. If they agreed to sell donate 1,000,000 toys, then why are they trying to stop people from doing just that?
P.S. Congrats on 352,000 donations! :)

Posted by Andhe in United Kingdom, 09 Dec 2011 11:39

They are getting some promotional benefit, by lego fans going on their website, so I don't see why they care that I send 3 or 30 emails. It doesn't stop anyone else from also sending emails. If it was a competition we were entering then I could understand the restrictions. But it does seem a bit bad form on TLG's part to restrict the very communities that are publicizing and promoting the charity drive.

For the tots!

Posted by Gandalf1 in United States, 09 Dec 2011 12:06

I don't even get why they can't just donate all the toys anyway, without us sending e-greetings. Well, I guess maybe it's to make it more exciting, kind of like gift cards.

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 09 Dec 2011 13:12

Serviceburo has hit the nail on the head: they are not necessarily doing it entirely for the chariy's benefit, it is a marketing exercise to promote the brand, to sell more LEGO, and to make more money. By 'nobbling' the site in the way they have, it could be said it goes some way to prove this.

I am trying not to personally criticise LEGO for doing this, they can obviously do as the please. I'm just trying to point out the facts so you can make your own minds up as to whether they should have done this or not.

Posted by LEGOSLUG in New Zealand, 09 Dec 2011 13:17

Nail on the head Huw! I think it's disgusting that LEGO Would advertize this, but half way thru add "rules". Really, LEGO isn't interested in charity, but in money.

Posted by legogeek in United States, 09 Dec 2011 14:05

I'm probably in the minority, but I'm on LEGO's side on this one.
They have every right to do it the way they want.
IMO people sending a high number of e-greetings are abusing the system.
Maybe LEGO should have been wise enough to set restrictions from the beginning, but the people doing the mass-sendings should also have been wise enough to expect this to happen...

Posted by StevePoulsen in United States, 09 Dec 2011 14:28

I can completely understand Lego's take on the matter. Neither am I terribly upset about it. But if they had allowed it to continue I would on the opposite side have been very impressed and pleased. I can't imagine how pleased I would have been with LEGO for their commitment to the integrity of the matter,I would have been. But alas, corporate profits, and some short sighted middle manager didn't see the big picture, so here we are.

Posted by itsaturkey in United States, 09 Dec 2011 17:40

I wouldn't really care if Lego set the restrictions from the start, it jsut seems kind of strange they're doing this all the sudden. And here's an interesting question, do you think it's right for others to 'abuse' the system, but so that more young children can have toys for Christmas? There isn't a right or wrong answer, I just thought it was an interesting, thought-provoking question :)

Posted by TooMuchLEGO in United States, 09 Dec 2011 22:42

@itsaturkey: That's something you have to think of yourself. By people doing this, toys are donated to children around the world, but at the same time TLG has to buy the gifts and send them away too. So they kinda lose money this way. It's for a good cause but they can't lose too much money!

EDIT: Actually they said they'd donate up to a million toys. They should keep that promise.

Posted by Greyface in United States, 10 Dec 2011 00:36

I think it's a bit silly that they're not just donating a million toys from the getgo, but promotions are promotions, I guess, so I'm fine with that - but I'd still like to see them say "well, you didn't get it, but we'll still donate the full million because we're LEGO." That would appease everyone, wouldn't it?

Posted by meyerc13 in United States, 10 Dec 2011 02:42

It seems LEGO had two goals with this. The first goal which was stated outright was to donate toys to the kids. The second goal was unstated, but it must have been to advertise Star Wars LEGO, perhaps to people who might not be familiar with the products. Contests like the one at FBTB achieve the first goal, but not the second goal.

In hindsight, LEGO should have specified that they would donate one toy for every unique email recipient. That would have achieved LEGO's unstated goal, but would as many toys have been given away? If the early numbers were any indication, probably not.

It's a messy situation for certain, but I don't think LEGO is the bad guy for wanting to get more people familiar with Star Wars LEGO by fixing what they see as a loophole. After all, they are making a generous donation even if it's only thousands of toys instead of a million, and if they gain more customers they will be able to afford to do things like this in the future, whereas if they end up donating a lot of product but not seeing any new business from this they may decide not to make an offer like this again.

Posted by BJMdotLEGO in United Kingdom, 10 Dec 2011 04:25

I'm100% with TLG on this one. Sorry, but running bots and sending the same email to the same recipient over and over again, does that really sound like that's what LEGO wanted to achieve?

Should there have been rules and regulations in place beforehand? Perhaps, but I guess LEGO assumed that this "competition" wouldn't be ruined by people gaming the system, since there wasn't any personal gain to be had. But then others made it into a competition...

IMHO FBTB owe LEGO an apology for this; they're supposed to be grown-ups and they should understand the goals of LEGO's action (publicizing LEGO Star Wars); adding a competition on top of that is already rather dubious, and then urging people on to game the system...

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