Is LEGO dying?

[ummester]

LEGO isn't dying, it's stronger than ever.

The question should be has the quality of the LEGO product relative to the cost decreased over time, in an actual sense, beyond any feelings of nostalgia that AFOLs may have.

[Capt. Redblade]

Yes, but complaints have gotten much worse. When I was a kid, people used to complain really well. I miss the old complaints. They were a lot better than today's complaint.

When I was a lad we had to complain through twenty-eight inches of snow uphill both ways, and we didn't have none of them fancy Twitters and autocorrects these kids have today! We had to be extra-careful to make sure our complaints were spelled properly and we had to mail 'em through the post office like all other correspondence!

[Ardelon]

I agree that this is a golden age for LEGO, though not for me personally, since my perferred themes are getting a back seat to various action and licensed themes that Im not a fan of. But objectively: no. 1 toymaker in the world, succesful movie with more on the way, Ninjago cartoon, etc, etc. All that speaks for itself.

But its an interesting notion that with the movies, series, video games, apps, and tabeltop or card cames of whatever else they are producing, whether TLG isnt repeating the same mistake with diveersification as in the early 2000s, or what measures are they taking to ensure it doesnt happed again.

[escortmad79]

Lego most certainly isn't dying! It nearly did in the early 2000s but it has managed to turn itslef around to become the biggest toy company in the world!

Licences such as Star Wars, DC/Marvel & Disney Princess & lines such as Lego Minifigures & Modulars will ensure the brand will not die out anytime soon

[ummester]

Licences such as Star Wars, DC/Marvel & Disney Princess & lines such as Lego Minifigures & Modulars will ensure the brand will not die out anytime soon

The new Star Wars films could totally suck and Disney could fold. Superhero films have to be at the end of their popularity run, isn't everyone else bored of them yet?

It would be nice if TLGs non licensed lines became the better sellers and LEGO moved back away from licensed stuff altogether. Probably not going to happen but I imagine it would be better for the integrity of the product overall.

[Faefrost]

It's not dying by any stretch of the imagination. However we may be seeing the peak of the collectors and speculators market. Although Lego does seem to be taking steps to somewhat insulate themselves from that bubble.

The new Star Wars films could totally suck and Disney could fold. Superhero films have to be at the end of their popularity run, isn't everyone else bored of them yet?

It would be nice if TLGs non licensed lines became the better sellers and LEGO moved back away from licensed stuff altogether. Probably not going to happen but I imagine it would be better for the integrity of the product overall.

Not going to happen. However TLG does appear to be stepping up and taking ownership of the IP's. That is what Ninjago and Chima and atLM and the new Elves lines are. Not simply going back to the old days of unlicensed in house stuff, but rather they are licensed themes that Lego owns the IP to.

[TheBrickPal]

Only one, one word answer to this thread's question seems appropriate: no.

[glendo]

No*

*in terms of trade/revenue they are better than ever. They are swimming in money.

In design, they are getting better and worse.

Some of the latest sets are unbelievably amazing, and are an improvement on its replacement.

Downsizing of sets, higher price points etc are noticeable (eg: we are paying more for less). I see this as acause of complaint.

I see one trend they are slowly heading towards is one piece parts again. The new passenger train is an example of this with its front cockpit being a single piece. I also notice that new police, fire stations are made up of more large single pieces instead of opting for standard bricks.

And they are getting a little repetitive with releases.

But they are far from dying. More popular than ever.... We are just getting a little 'less bang for our bucks'

Edited February 9, 2015 by glendo

[owlbearsforall]

I hardly think they are dying.

The price point has gone up, but they've been experimenting with new themes, and starting to embrace the AFOL collectors (ghostbusters ECTO-1 for example).

[Vindicare]

While I don't watch my YouTube reviews so I haven't heard the complaints, I'd wager on them being a bit too critical and using an adult eye & forget this is a child's toy. Since the biggest complaints, more or less, seem to be repetiveness of some themes. City & Star Wars being the main offenders.

While we dislike the numerous police & fire sets that don't change substantially from year to year(although police is remedying that with the forest/swamp variants). But, it's really no shock that boys like police cars & fire trucks, so of course TLG will be popping those out regularly.

Star Wars tends to be much of the same. Vehicle after vehicle.

[GeneralWashington420]

Megaglock no.

[Bornin1980something]

My worry is that Lego will over stretch itself and like in the early 2000's will produce too many special moulds and lose focus on the basic bricks. My personal opinion is that there is too much focus on exclusive minifigures and I feel that often the minifigures take too much focus in the sets. I am also increasingly wary about the amount of licensed themes that are produced and then ditched. This approach has obviously paid off hugely for Lego and is unlikely to change, but sometimes I feel like a lot of the charm of Lego is being eroded away by complex molds, prints and minifigures.

Interesting that one of the new licensed lines is Jurassic World - a movie about failing to learn from past mistakes.

[ummester]

Not going to happen. However TLG does appear to be stepping up and taking ownership of the IP's. That is what Ninjago and Chima and atLM and the new Elves lines are. Not simply going back to the old days of unlicensed in house stuff, but rather they are licensed themes that Lego owns the IP to.

Yea, I guess those themes represent a safe guard for TLG.

It's probably nostalgia, but I don't know why everything has to be licensed and come with a film, book, cartoon series and lunchbox now. I like the idea of LEGO themes that were primarily LEGO themes, like City, Castle and Creator still are - a building toy with some human parts, rather than a pack of action figures that come with a building toy.

[Vindicare]

Yea, I guess those themes represent a safe guard for TLG.

It's probably nostalgia, but I don't know why everything has to be licensed and come with a film, book, cartoon series and lunchbox now. I like the idea of LEGO themes that were primarily LEGO themes, like City, Castle and Creator still are - a building toy with some human parts, rather than a pack of action figures that come with a building toy.

Part of me definitely agrees with you. It does seem the roster is getting dominated by licenses. I don't see City going anywhere, but I think every other evergreen theme they have has been on hiatus at one time or another, seemingly for a licensed counterpart.

[Peppermint_M]

The only themes that have been in solid production since themes began has been Town/City and Technic. Everything else has haitus from time to time and while we fans might not agree that a licensed property counts as a return of an evergreen (Say, Hobbit for Castle) business wise it does.

City repeats often as the market refreshes often. 'kay so we're adults and can remember the last three LEGO police cars we bought but a five year old isn't going to recall the previous police car in shops, let alone anything before that. Case in point, I bought an Ambulance set in 2006. In 2011 my friend's little boy was just getting LEGO mad and really wanted an Ambulance, all I could say to my friend is there would be one soon, the 2006 was impossible to find. (I get called the LEGO Guru by parents and the kids just think I'm awesome...). So if you got your first police car in 1980-something and therefore do not need another one so LEGO shouldn't make more, generations of kids are going to miss out on a LEGO police car.

Next:

This is not the same situation as around 15 years ago, LEGO at the time owned and operated the parks, tried to become a clothing brand, ran/owned a game making arm and were throwing about several risky ventures with ZNAP and Galidor and a number of loss making sets due to the number of unique parts and colours they were happy to create for even just one set.

They stripped it all back, dumped Multimedia, dropped the clothing, managed to make some money with Star Wars and refocused on the core idea of the LEGO System. Less new and unique single set colours and parts. More innovation in parts use.

They license out clothing and commission the games and TV series from other studios, outsourcing instead of costly in-house production.

A few 'fail' licenses have happened in the past but LEGO hasn't died. Avatar: The Last Airbender, Speed Racer, Prince of Persia, Lone Ranger... There have been a few flops film and toy wise but other success have been fine. Yes we AFOLs do get a little tired of licenses if we prefer another theme, but who as a kid didn't want their favourite characters to be a LEGO minifig (My first custom was to draw a black lightning bolt on a red torso so I could have a Flash Gordon figure and once I got a cape I traced it to make lots more from paper).

So, no. LEGO is not dying and it is going to take something a lot worse than youtuber apathy to kill it.

[Mandate]

Not going to happen. However TLG does appear to be stepping up and taking ownership of the IP's. That is what Ninjago and Chima and atLM and the new Elves lines are. Not simply going back to the old days of unlicensed in house stuff, but rather they are licensed themes that Lego owns the IP to.

...what? NINJAGO, Chima and Elves are not licensed lines by any stretch of the imagination. They lines developed in-house, birthed from LEGO itself and wholly, 100% owned and made by LEGO itself. Distributing licenses to 3rd party corporations (eg, Wilfilm, Advance, etc) only makes them licensed relative to the company that didn't develop the original IP.

[legoman19892]

...what? NINJAGO, Chima and Elves are not licensed lines by any stretch of the imagination. They lines developed in-house, birthed from LEGO itself and wholly, 100% owned and made by LEGO itself. Distributing licenses to 3rd party corporations (eg, Wilfilm, Advance, etc) only makes them licensed relative to the company that didn't develop the original IP.

I think the point of his comment was LEGO having TV shows and games of their IPs

[Mandate]

I think the point of his comment was LEGO having TV shows and games of their IPs

I'm aware of that. But that doesn't make them a licensed line simply because LEGO hired someone to do some 3rd party work. They're in-house lines, not franchises LEGO has borrowed the rights to temporarily.

[Faefrost]

...what? NINJAGO, Chima and Elves are not licensed lines by any stretch of the imagination. They lines developed in-house, birthed from LEGO itself and wholly, 100% owned and made by LEGO itself. Distributing licenses to 3rd party corporations (eg, Wilfilm, Advance, etc) only makes them licensed relative to the company that didn't develop the original IP.

I would argue that they do in all ways behave more as the licensed lines, with the notable exception that it is Lego that outright owns the IP. TLM is a particularly stunning example of this. They leverage the media and movie tie ins. The way they are displayed shelf wise and the size and scope of the waves vs the more traditional stuff. Etc.

[alois]

Don't forget about Fabuland which was an IP with storylines, comic books and characters already 36 years ago.

[lightningtiger]

Toy companies must evolve otherwise they fall by the wayside, so TV and video games is another port of access to fans hearts to keep them interested and wanting more.

Lego will never die......unless we let it, which I doubt would ever happen.

[HawkLord]

Definitely not dying at all. In fact probably bigger than ever with the current themes roster and introduction of Ideas. I think more IPs are opening to up Lego almost creating a "it's not cool until it's been made into Lego" dynamic.

With that said, I think Lego is seeing it's popularity and is making some financially based desicions, such as price increases and minifigure selection. Both seem to be an issue for me, as sets are either alittle higher than I'd like in some cases or the minifigure selection is lacking. I'm impressed by the recent smaller Lego movie and City Swamp sets that have a lot of minifigures for $12, but not so much impressed with a couple of the Star Wars and upcoming Avengers offerings.

None of this tells me anything negative with Lego. They're a juggernaut and will expectedly grow, which may mean price increases or so much product that not everyone gets what they'd want.

[Jared]

I've noticed a lot of people on youtube who do reviews of Lego Sets often complain that the new sets are not really very special and maybe even overpriced. Personally, I completely agree with them! What do you think?

Oh boy, a bunch of 12-year-olds-trying-to-act-like-grown-ups-that-had-it-good are trying to make an opinion! Everyone head for the hills!

Here's some advice: Sometimes it's just a loud few ;)

In all earnesty though, it's really hit and miss. Just like it used to be, AND JUST LIKE HOW IT WILL ALWAYS BE. LEGO usually makes sets that can be hit and miss. I think these reviewers (the ones that aren't 12 years old anyway) are letting nostalgia cloud their judgement too much. ^_^

[Breakdown]

One thing that I've found increasingly frustrating is that the staples of hospital, police, fire & gas station are there for the kids sets for the city/town/whatever theme you want to call it.

Seldom if ever a grocery store, a sizable restaurant (shocked that they haven't attempted to work with Subway/McDonald's or something), they've had a couple of banks, but they are beyond bad, especially 1490.

Perhaps it's just me sounding like an old man with the whole: "Back in my day . . . . " but I don't get some of the new sets. When you look at some of the planes specifically they hurt my brain. 60022 looks like they didn't even want to put studs on the wings, someone said, you should have just a few . . . make sure that people know it is lego when they see it.

One of the things that my parents loved about my lego as a kid is that I'd pick up a set like 7720, one minute it would be a train and the next ever piece other than the magnets and wheels would be incorporated into a office or house or something. That was cool. When I look at the parts to that 60022 plane I honestly have no idea what on earth you can make with 80% of them (volume and not quantity) that isn't pretty much an airplane that looks pretty much the exact same. That's supposed to be the "magic" of lego. You build epic and limitless things with many small pieces. I think that's what parents like about lego as well.

I'm still on the fence as to whether having sets like Star Wars is a needed evolution in the product? Or just a bastardization of the product.

[Lankygit]

Just to add my 2 pence :) I agree with many other posts. The LEGO Moive was pure, marketing genius and why it didnt happen alot sooner will remain a mystery. I think we are entering a golden age for LEGO, we are hungry for it and they are feeding us. The continual adding of new products and retiring old ones will keep the wheels of commercial progress turning for years. Hell yea its still a toy, but all of my adult friends always ask to see the 'town' when they come over to the house and even a few of them have come of of the dark ages becuase of it. As long as LEGO continue to appeal to kids AND adults, long may it prosper. Now, what of the kids toys can I sell on ebay next to pay for my addiction...