Lego returning to core market
Comments: 28
Lego is apparently expecting a pre-tax loss of over 200 million dollars this year — the worst it’s ever been for them. The good news is the company has decided to stop selling electronics and movie tie-ins and return to its core business of making some of the best toys for children ever.
Lego Fires Two Executives, Mulls Layoffs
Jan M. Olsen, Associated PressThe company now plans to stop making the electronics and movie tie-in products and return to its core mission: producing colored plastic building blocks for children.
“We would rather be in control of our own products, the things that we can decide,” Kirk Kristiansen [chief executive and grandson of the company’s founder] said. “We want to go back to our core products, and that is a key part of our future strategy.”
I’m sorry to see the company having such a hard time, but I’ve ranted here before about the danger of selling toys that require you to play with someone else’s imagination. I suspect that, as painful as it may be, this is a great move for Lego. I can’t wait to see my grandkids playing with them 20 years from now.
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Posted to General Rants • 2004.01.11 (Sun) • 09:38
Comments
Posted by Kjell Olsen 2004.01.11, 09:48
If you haven’t seen some of the crap lego has been selling recently, it is so terrible it would be hard to imagine. The lego’s I played with as a kid were so great, Ice Planet or something, and then I had a great lego Castle set. Bionicles? Custom piece lego action figures? Trash. Can’t wait to see some real lego’s over at the lego store!
Posted by Kristen 2004.01.11, 10:46
Legos were OK, but I preferred the original wooden Lincoln Logs (http://lincolnlogs.knex.com/) and Tinker Toys.
Posted by patrick h. lauke 2004.01.11, 13:00
ah…the good old days of coloured blocks…i used to build cities for my hot-wheels die-casts cars to ride around in. but yes, lego sort of lost me when they started with all this bionicle crap…what the heck was that about ? how are you supposed to play with that ? hmm…
Posted by James 2004.01.11, 13:02
I always thought Mindstorms was hugely succesful. I can imagine a lot of robot-tech type people will be pretty upset by the decision not to develop it any longer.
Posted by Stephen 2004.01.11, 17:20
The problem with late-model Lego sets is that the sets don’t allow for any creations besides what it shows on the box. With a mess of custom shapes, they don’t transform into anything else.
Older series like the town sets, castle, sea-base, (old) space, and even Technic and Model Team all gave you instructions to build one or two things. But more importantly, they gave you tons of basic square and rectangular Legos that gave you the freedom to build whatever you could imagine.
Posted by Jess Have 2004.01.11, 21:45
I would say they need to find a balance. Going with the bricks alone is not a good idea. My 4-year-old is happy to play with Jack Stone, Alpha Team and some of the other stuff on their website as well as with the bricks he has. Giving the kids an option to play with their “characters” in several ways (on-line and in real life) is a good thing. Stephen is right about the custom sets though. Maybe todays children need to be guided more :)?
Posted by Mary Beth 2004.01.12, 01:14
Legos weren’t a part of my childhood (although Lincoln Logs were) so I was amazed and delighted when I worked for a dot com and we had legos all over the place. One time we mounted an exhibit after asking people to make something from the many new legos that had been brought into the building. They blew me away.
You figure that if they were so exciting to the very creative, busy-minded dot com workers, in a few years their kids will be playing with them to. Those kids won’t be making models of something they saw in a movie, but they’ll be revealing what’s in their heads! The only thing the dot commers wished for were more of the odd shaped pieces, probably because they had to share them with the rest.
Posted by Tom Callahan 2004.01.12, 03:16
I read an article in business 2.0 or fastcompany about three years ago about how lego felt they needed to change with the times by adding bionacle and other such toys. The article mentioned how this move was so different from the core of what Lego stood for—imagination. It is Interesting to read how they feel their future depends on what made them so popular. I, for one, am glad to hear that Lego is realizing their mistake and have decided to make simple blocks their focus for the future.
Posted by qB 2004.01.12, 03:42
Couldn’t agree more. It’s been very disheartening to be unable to acquire basic bricks without some mutant version of Winnie the Pooh or a jedi of some sort. My children adore making their own things and hate being prescribed by a set of instructions.
But - lego mindstorms is very popular with us the parents. I shall be rushing out to buy the bits of kit we don’t have if it’s being discontinued.
Posted by Nathan 2004.01.13, 07:15
I used to have lego creations of mine toured throughout the malls of america. I thrived on “Expert Builder” systems and the Space Legos.
Now I have kids, and find the “one use only” pieces to be deplorable. Granted, the design of the Star Wars “Destructacons” - the vaguely round shaped robo-droids is impressive, but there is very little else you can “do” with them.
I am encouraged to hear that they may return to their roots. It’s great to have themes, it’s great to have different skill levels, but we need more universally usable parts!
Thanks for the blog report
Posted by Matt 2004.01.14, 03:26
My 3 year old son plays with my old Legos (late 70’s to early 80’s) as well as a few newer kits he’s been given. We haven’t had any trouble turning the specialty parts into whatever we want, but I’ve avoided all the movie tie-ins and other similar garbage.
The prospect of discontinued Mindstorms is too bad, though- I’ve told him that when he gets bigger he can build real Lego robots.
Real. Lego. Robots.
If anybody needs me I’ll be buying up as much Mindstorms as I can.
Posted by Chris Hester 2004.01.14, 06:04
I was lucky enough to go see an exhibition a long time ago called The Art Of Lego. It was full of amazing pieces created not by children but adults. I still have the book from it.
There was a Warhol painting of Marilyn, only it was made entirely with Lego tiles. There was also a life-size chair made by a gentlemen I remember from the Lego newsletters I used to get as a kid. Other people had created abstract art by melting the pieces together, or trying to build as many figures or odd bits together in one piece. Incredible.
It showed that Lego wasn’t just for kids. I always felt sad leaving it behind - it was easily the greatest toy I had, because you could never bore of it - the possible creations were endless.
I recently went Christmas shopping for my brother’s young kids and looked at the Lego on sale in December 2003. The prices were sky high - no thanks. Most were moviie tie-ins, which didn’t look too good. No wonder sales are down.
I’ll probably never beat the thrill of getting a new Lego set as a kid myself. Or when a new type of brick came out, like the low-slanted roof one. Lego really fired the imagination.
I don’t mind Lego doing tie-ins, but they should make them good. Make the pieces reusable. And find a way to make the prices cheaper! (Use less plastic inside the bricks? But without ruining them, of course.) Maybe just a sponsorship deal would help? Get someone like Britney Spears to endorse them?
Posted by Chris Stoffel 2004.01.14, 23:57
It’s sad to see Lego in such a bad way. I do have to say, though, that some heads should roll for this. How can you lose 200 million dollars selling 20 cents worth of plastic for 20 dollars (or more - lots more sometimes)? It boggles the mind.
Posted by Josh Johnson 2004.01.18, 08:09
This is a great move for them, but I’m hoping they go WAY back to their roots, because even before the movie tie-in, etc. legos, they were already doing the ‘theme’ legos with big “pre-fab” elements. Yeah they look good when you build exactly what the company designer imagined, but they’re pretty much useless for anything else. Just give me a wide variety of plain shapes any day, and let kids build whatever THEY can imagine.
Posted by david 2004.01.22, 05:00
I played with legos for a long time — they were my favorite toy. I’m glad Lego got this kick in the head. I think it was way more fun to build my own Star Wars shit (which I did), than it could possibly be to buy it. I can’t imagine the pieces were terrible useful except for their intended purpose.
Personally I love some of the theme sets. As a child, I had many castle town and space sets, and later some of the pirate ship sets. These days, I buy the classic Star Wars sets. I couldn’t care less if Lego ditches the Jack Stone, Bionicle, and Episode I and II crap, as long as they keep makin’ those X-Wings.
Posted by ian 2004.09.20, 11:35
I agree with everyone, i think that all this new movie stuff is all junk, i think they should trie re selling all the old sets
Posted by Paul 2004.11.08, 17:02
I’d like to see Lego go back to the earlier themes such as the classic Space sets which had good models to build but were made from flexible pieces which could be easily used fo whatever imagination suggested. I can’t understand why they would stop making such succesful items. Afterall, the good thing about being in the toy business is that there are always new gnerations of kids coming along who haven’t seen it!
Posted by Ice 2005.02.20, 08:25
I like the new stuff the got, Bionicle is kinda old though. They need to stick to the original Legos. They need more space Legos, those are the best, maybe a return to Ice Planet? :D
Posted by E Rommel 2005.03.02, 05:17
Hmm, reading all of the comments here, I have to say we all seem split on our feelings. I feel the Star Wars sets have brought a considerable amount of awesome new peices into Lego, as I mostly build Military war machines and I for years have been at a loss as to how to perfectly build them. I have been playing Lego’s since the day I was born (two older brothers, they had the Lego’s first) and ever since I indulged myself into the Military and Lego’s my imagination gave me the ability to combine the two most things that I love and keep on building.
Now I feel that Lego should go back to the old ways, as I look at modern sets now and look at their total peice count, and comparing to the old sets [1990’s], the old sets have 100’s more peice’s….Hopefully things will work out, and thanks Lego for those Star Wars sets! My Military vehicles have more realism built into them!!
Posted by Darren Morris 2005.05.22, 09:36
Yes bring back the old lego! I sold all mine when I was 14 for a measly 250 old bucks, gosh how silly I was, Im now 28 and Im hunting for the good old space and technic sets yay!
Posted by Mom of 2 boys 2005.08.06, 04:07
I’ve read many of you complaining about this Bionicle “crap” Maybe you need to open your minds a bit and pitch the directions like my boys have done. They can build some of the most far out creatures you can imagine, robots, animals, warriors, etc. If you sit and play long enough who knows what you can build out of them. I like the old big box of Legos for creativity, but once you pour all of the set together, just like you can do with the Bionicles, it become an imaginative free-for-all. Open your minds….
Posted by Another Mom 2005.08.08, 16:29
Well said, Mom of 2! My son mixes all of his Legos, new, old, Bionicle, Technic, theme sets, etc. into a big old box and builds all kinds of things - from creatures to crafts. Heck, when he was in 4th grade, he even built his California Mission project (a standard for all 4th graders studying California History) out of his Legos. Usually, when he gets a new set, he builds it according to the instructions, and rather than leave it as a model on a shelf, like your boys, he tosses the instructions and uses his imagination to create something else. I guess I wouldn’t mind seeing the video games and shoes and the like become a thing of the past though.
Posted by fan of the inventors in us all. 2005.09.30, 11:43
Well, you all have good points: yes, the Bionicle is very bad now - theyve used all the storylines you could think of - but the original concept was good. i myself bought all 6 of the originals, and now ive got claws and feet everywhere. you know those big machines from The Matrix Revolutions? i built one of them using the bionicle arms and feet! i guess its up to you if you use them or not, but there are ways around it: dont buy them. also, i love some of the Star Wars sets, but wish they would bring out more sets with a mix of pieces. remember those little boxes with a fireman and pizza guy and girl on a bike with a cat and stuff? those, except purely hair, arms, heads, etc. that way you can make all sorts of little characters! im making ‘Pirates Of The Carribean’ and ‘Lord Of The Rings’ sets, and my Jack Sparrow and Aragorn both use the Gui Gon Jinn head, but i need his hairpiece in black for Sparrow! Argh! well, anyways, have fun with any sets! ive made so much with those “Wierd Pieces” that it surprises even me!!! :-)
Posted by he-who-does-everything 2005.09.30, 11:51
YEAH! GO FAN OF THE INVENTORS! i totally hear u, dude! like, ive made a LOTR set too! of course, i used all of the lego castle set pieces, but my Gandalf has an actual stick for a staff!!! and ive used like these little scraps of material as belts over the shoulder for arrows (toothpicks broken!) and then ive used like u kno those tiny metal rivets for metal tins and stuff? turns out they fitt perfectly in the hands of a lego man! so ive got about 100 little swords, all ready to go as my orcs! its great! and the plastic tubes used in the technic stuff? ive cut them into about 3’s and the rivets fit into them for scabbards! with a little blu tac, or by threading string thru the sides with a needle, i can make them atatch to the men too! u wouldnt believe wat i can do with junk! so use ur imagination and go for it!!! :-0
Posted by never go wrong with legos 2005.10.19, 12:10
I find this pretty sad, but i’ve also used the rivets as swords, so he-who-does-everything i’m right there with you man. Then agian i think lego should keep up with the bionicle, but i really want lego to go back to the old stuff, i have a set from before i was born, this set is so old, you have to build a horse, its the best. Lego has strayed from its origions, with the new pieces, you are right, the custom one time use pieces have got to go.
Posted by heather 2006.09.01, 11:41
I really miss the great big boxes of plain old lego pieces because i used to build the greatest citys for my hot wheels. now my son builds all those great things with the kits that we buy… sometimes he doesn’t even build what is on the box. he will want the kit because it will have peices that he cant get out of his standard lego pieces. if they stop making so many of the theme kits it would be nice if they still made the mini-figures…. my son loves those things, he and his friends will trade them and make their own characters but the minifigures are very important to their creations.
Posted by Bob 2006.11.21, 19:51
Forgive the spammy nature of this but II’ve been ranting about the decline of Lego for years in comic form http://clamnuts.com/rants/2006/11/crap-new-lego-gets-crapper.html
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