Well that’s another cultural difference right there.
I’m Canadian. Expressing regret and saying we’re sorry is a reflexive social necessity.
We even have federal and provincial legislation (Apology Acts) to prevent an express of regret from being used against us in court.
But it’s also true that ‘Sorry, not sorry’ is a thing.
English usage varies. That usage of ‘passed’ isn’t top of mind for me.
Regrets to have evoked death for anyone.
I thought she’d directed episodes of Voyager too.
Memory Alpha credits her with Voyager episodes ‘Riddles’ and ‘Workforce Part II’.
The point is that this doesn’t work at all.
I’m in Canada, and our local hobby, game and comic stores are dependent on the distributors or the ability to order directly from the manufacturer. We usually start with them, and when we can’t order through them, go online.
Even for some of the small specialty presses producing Star Trek books, we’ve been obliged to order through Amazon because the publisher isn’t working directly with Canadian stores, even though the books should move without difficulty under the North American free trade agreement.
Final point, Canada has the most intense Trek following in the world, even more than in the United States. TNG was the top rated show during its run - of any television show, not just in its genre. So, if a company can’t sell Trek merch here, they won’t be successful.
The company needs to get some representatives out to the toy trade shows and conventions in North America to break into the market. That’s how the models get picked up by genre sellers and distributors.
Even getting a representative seller at various Comic-Con’s and regional cons would be worth it to sell to core fans and build a base. Our kids have walked around cons with money to spend and come away with nothing but a t-shirt and pins because there really wasn’t much on offer for Star Trek suitable for their ages.
Wish these had been available a few years back when our kids were in their peak Lego building phase.
The key question I have is about BlueBrixx distribution to places that science and tech oriented kids (and gift-giving extended family) look for toys and models. Does BlueBrixx have any distribution other than online?
While adult fans will find things online, having boxes and models physically on display somewhere that kids can see them makes a huge difference to whether a certain kind of model ever gets considered for a wish list and can even determine whether or not it gets built.
While our kids loved to peruse catalogues to decide what projects they wanted to do next, our occasional visit to the Lego store outside Montreal or a Playmobil vendor really sparked their enthusiasm. I don’t think that it’s only the Lego branding that gets in the way of building the North American market for a competitor.
Beyond online purchases and catalogues, our kids picked up their advanced LEGO, Playmobil, SnapCircuits, Smithsonian models etc. at museums, hobby stores, a few toy stores that targeted learning toys across a broader age range and even children’s hospital gift stores. It seems like family had picked up gifts from similar places where they lived.
Cool. My Mastodon account is on that instance, but I created it after the one here. See you there.
For many of us, Lower Decks already established itself a few seasons back.
Also, I’d argue that Lower Decks success in attracting its own fans, new to Star Trek, and convincing them to tryout other shows in the franchise is the key measure of its success in broadening the base Trek audience.
This just seems to be one of the last turnovers from Paramount’s policy to bring all its new Trek content to its own streamer.
But then it removed Prodigy and is marketing its second season to others….
OP isn’t American. It’s not a universal euphemism.
Even having lived in the US at one point it’s not an automatic connection.
Canadians (at least in my experience) use the expression ‘passed away’ if at all to avoid saying ‘died.’
But also being Canadian, I’ve given my regrets elsewhere on this thread. And I’m sorry for the unintended shock to any and all who don’t share my dialect.