Do you thing that this and other secondary market LEGO related sites have people from TLG that are "undercover" to see what is going on? Maybe to see what the trends are? Just curious.......maybe that is why the DS will never EOL, because we (well me) are always talking about it lol. I am sure they have people that browse the sites, but to go as far as one of them creating a profile and interacting with us....who knows???

It wouldn't surprise me. I work for a certain company whose name rhymes with Shmapple and it's well known among employees that forums, twitter feeds, enthusiast web sites, etc. are monitored and sometimes even engaged by spies.

It's a public forum, so I wouldn't exactly brand it as espionage. More of a discreet market survey.

It's a public forum, so I wouldn't exactly brand it as espionage.

More of a discreet market survey.

very true sir that is my fault!

I would totally welcome anyone from the LEGO group to join our discussions. It would be fantastic to be able to share all of our thoughts with what we feel are good or bad trends. I also think it would be smart for LEGO to have "spies" on the forums to learn how people receive their products. It really is great market research as long as you are smart enough to filter out any "trolls" that can't be taken seriously.

Agreed...if they did it as to let everyone knew who they were and weren't trying to it anonymously, just my opinion though as one of the member who previously stated this is public forum.

I have several times recently made jokes about how I hope the people from TLG are reading these threads so they can build sets based on peoples' good ideas on here. I am sure they know who all the key players (websites, etc.) are in the LEGO investing and collecting world, and they are most likely monitoring this at some level. Great theory about the Death Star! They keep it going just to make us squirm! Lol. :)

Jeff and I hung around gaming forums for a long time and various developers would post on the forums. I'm sure someone in TLG reads the forums to see what people are saying. It's also a good way to protect their brand. For as much as Jeff and I pimp LEGO sets, we should get a free minifigure or something from TLG. LOL

Lol! A free minifigure! Maybe if it was the same month as your birthday is in, you would even get two minifigures! :)

I work in the interactive space, and I can say that it is only prudent to monitor the web for anything that reflects on your company. Whether good or bad. It is more listening than spying. A lot of times this is done with tools that pool the web and look for mentions of your company. Other times, or in combination this can be done manually. We have a staff who surfs the web, reacts to posts, and keeps track of significant events both manually and with tools. This has greatly improved our web presence and reach. I would suspect that all major companies do the same, and LEGO is one of those companies.

My thing is let's say there is a TLG employee which I'm sure there is at different levels goes on this site and has inside info about certain sets but doesnt reply to forums or messages anyone. They just read the forums. Can you imagine they know which sets are gonna retire? Like if they had information that the DS will never retire, they're just laughing their butt off at us. Hahaha Man if I worked for TLG the main thing for me is just tell me when sets are gonna retire.

Well of course anyone here could be working for LEGO. It's a free web after all and besides, if a good business plans to stay that way they need to listen and find ways to keep customers (or ways to turn people into ones).

Now if there is someone from LEGO reading this then PLEASE keep making Space themes of your own original design. I'm getting tired of the only thing "space" wise I see on the shelves is more bloody Star Wars! I like the sets you guys make but when that is the only "space" related theme on the shelf anymore for long periods of time, the thought that goes right through my mind every single time I go to the store is "Greeeaaaat....more freakin' Star Wars!".

Now again, I do like Star Wars but we really need an original Space theme every now and then to help break up the monotony, okay? This is one of the reasons why I am so looking forward to the Galaxy Squad theme coming next year!

And oh yeah, can you please put the Minifigures series back down to the $1.99 each price tag? That $2.99 is killing me in the long run! There's nothing different in each package now than what was included back then. I mean that you still only get one minifigure and maybe some accessories. I am not talking about the character designs themselves since those have changed.

Lego monitors all sites pertaining to their product. They protect their brand very well and probably read the forums to get the pulse of the AFOLs out there.