Allonym
There should be more tampons in gaming
This is too funny to me because of how true it it. Stepping on Legos unintentionally barefoot is the worst! Kids never pick up their toys.
Lego to cut 1,400 jobs and 'reset company' after sales drop
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This is too funny to me because of how true it it. Stepping on Legos unintentionally barefoot is the worst! Kids never pick up their toys.
My local Toy's r us has those things locked up more secure then the video games.
PhoncipleBone
Banned
The custom molds for the mini dolls I think drive up the cost on the Friends, Elves, and Super Hero Girls sets. If they used regular mini figs it would probably help.
And while the new colored bricks are a big appeal in the Friends and Elves lines, only using them in those lines probably drives costs up too.
Also a shame that people will ignore those lines because they are "for girls." There are some really solid sets in those series.
And yes, the quality of the product is why it is expensive. I am still using bricks from over 30 years ago with stuff I bought less than 3 days ago. That is some damn good longevity.
friskykillface
Banned
How much do licenses cost for all the sets? Disney must charge a ton D:
I have a feeling lego dimensions are to blame, those things just sit on shelves and don't sell.
I have a feeling lego dimensions are to blame, those things just sit on shelves and don't sell.
You can save money by buying knockoff clothes, shoes, bootleg game carts and downloading roms too. Doesnt make it right and you are robbing the designers of their compensation.
PhoncipleBone
Banned
That hurt quite a bit I think. And them trying to launch new custom IPs like Nexo Knights and Chima only to see them flounder quickly doesn't help either.
Yooooo, I never considered bootleg Legos. Ghostbusters firehouse for $150?! Damn. I'm pretty much in!
family_guy
Member
I blame Minecraft.
Based on my experience with the company as a wholesale buyer, I'm not surprised. There are a lot of small/medium issues that add up, but the biggest problem I have is there is just way too much product. Not necessarily too many themes, but too many items under each theme.
Other issues:
Margins are terrible (discount is only 20-35% off of MSRP).
Damaged box rate is 2x-4x industry average. This is due to the fact that they use flimsy cardboard. I suggested to use double wall boxes and they said the reason they don't is because they care about the environment. Trust me, there is much more damage done to the environment today due to all the time/energy/resources spent on dealing with damaged product.
Oversupply. Not only does LEGO have too many products, they also manufacturer too much of it. I used to say selling LEGO felt like selling gold. With their changes over the last 3-5 years, the brand has really lost its mojo. They are still better than the other 2 big toy brands, but it is still really hard to make money selling their entire line.
The price has remained the same for 30 years now (when I was a kid they were $.10/brick) but when I was a kid I could spend $3 and get a little car. Now you have to spend $10 to get a small set and those are rare. I loved taking my money and spending less than $5 and building a little set. As a kid it was exciting. Plus we were poor so I never got big sets.
Now they have gone a bit too crazy with huge sets and out priced kids with allowance money, birthday money, etc. Now only mom and dad can buy sets and then it is only for birthdays and Christmas if the parents can afford it. They need to scale back and reduce the price.
Now they have gone a bit too crazy with huge sets and out priced kids with allowance money, birthday money, etc. Now only mom and dad can buy sets and then it is only for birthdays and Christmas if the parents can afford it. They need to scale back and reduce the price.
Cutting underperforming toy lines makes sense.
Although, maybe pricing sets reasonably would move more underperforming sets. The last time I was in a Target I scoped out some of the LEGO sets, and hot damn, some of the most basic sets are pretty fucking pricey, let alone some of the more elaborate ones that are in the triple digits.
Nowadays, most parents would rather buy their kid a video game for that $60 than a LEGO set. I grew up on LEGOS, and I've always loved them, but I probably had one, maybe two sets in my lifetime. Some of my cousins that were more well off than I was had garbage buckets full of LEGOS. I admit I was quite jealous. My gas station set had me thinking real fucking creatively, that's for sure. XD
Although, maybe pricing sets reasonably would move more underperforming sets. The last time I was in a Target I scoped out some of the LEGO sets, and hot damn, some of the most basic sets are pretty fucking pricey, let alone some of the more elaborate ones that are in the triple digits.
Nowadays, most parents would rather buy their kid a video game for that $60 than a LEGO set. I grew up on LEGOS, and I've always loved them, but I probably had one, maybe two sets in my lifetime. Some of my cousins that were more well off than I was had garbage buckets full of LEGOS. I admit I was quite jealous. My gas station set had me thinking real fucking creatively, that's for sure. XD
As someone who grew up with the 80s/90s minifigs, having those larger ones in the lines you mentioned does feel "un-Lego". However, my daughter was instantly drawn to those, even though we never push gendered toys on her. She's still a bit young for actual Lego, but I wouldn't mind getting her started on it in about a year.
Astral Dog
Member
Lego is old news, poor workers
That's, ummm, Age of Apocalypse Bishop and Mysterio Rogue.
PhoncipleBone
Banned
Obviously Duplo first, but after that look into the Juniors line. It is the perfect transition from Duplo to regular system sets.
If you are referring to the Mobile station, that thing rocked. It was one of the few "big" sets I had.
excelsiorlef
Member
In which employers learn that at the end of the day they all they are is just another brick in the wall
Razgriz-Specter
Member
Yup and my Walmart puts those electronic devices on like every set over $50
TBH, Mattel and Hasbro have went the same way. Who do you think buys leader class Transformers, Marvel Legends, DC Multiverse, etc. those are all toy lines that are really adult focused (transformers slightly less so).
The Illiterati
Member
But you don't understand, it cost millions upon millions of design hours and a billion dollars to redesign the Millennium Falcon to have three different pieces and a dome since the last time they designed it. You're taking avocado toast right out of these poor peoples mouths.
Lepin for life.
The toys are high quality, and I still love Lego now as much as I did when I was 5-10 (I'm 30). It's always been expensive, but the toys last and there's endless creative potential in them. My 5 and 7 year old nieces are already obsessed with them. That said, it seems their licensing has gotten out of hand (the superhero sets especially are underwhelming; Star Wars ones are quite good). The sheer number of SKUs they have is ridiculous though and leads to a lot of bloat, and like someone mentioned earlier; enough with the damn police stations and fire stations.
Generic Power Ranger
Member
I doubt they needed this. I remember hearing them having record profits last year or something.
PhoncipleBone
Banned
It is a lot more complicated than that.
TangoAlphaLima
Member
Yeah, it's more market saturation at this point than anything else. It's not the type of thing that should grow forever.
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
I had no idea LEGO paid their designers a royalty on top of their salary. That's a really amazing, progressive move. I also agree the creatives behind stuff should receive the primary benefit, not the bazillion dollar companies they work for.
If the kids are under the age of 10, LEGO. My kids spent hundreds upon hundreds of hours playing with bricks.
Now that they are a teen and preteen they game a lot but every once in a while they do break out the bricks.
Just for your information:
The recently released Lego Ninjago Ship has ~2300 pieces and currently costs 120 (160 MSRP) in Germany.
Ninjago City comes with ~4800 parts and costs 300. Those two sets have a very good value.
Then comes the Lego City Square for example. 1700 parts at 170. Ok. Thats expensive.
HOWEVER, Kylo Rens new fucking Tie fucker fighter spaceship from The Last Jedi has 630 parts, and costs 80. And that's fucked up.
They need to fix those price differences and make most of the sets cheaper overall.
The recently released Lego Ninjago Ship has ~2300 pieces and currently costs 120 (160 MSRP) in Germany.
Ninjago City comes with ~4800 parts and costs 300. Those two sets have a very good value.
Then comes the Lego City Square for example. 1700 parts at 170. Ok. Thats expensive.
HOWEVER, Kylo Rens new fucking Tie fucker fighter spaceship from The Last Jedi has 630 parts, and costs 80. And that's fucked up.
They need to fix those price differences and make most of the sets cheaper overall.
So we pro knockoff products now? How are buying knockoff products paying the original designers of the products at Lego?And actually the Ideas product creators do get royalties, soooo.
chaosblade
Unconfirmed Member
Secondhand retired sets are way worse than Lego's prices. As someone who has just started looking into modular buildings, Lepin looks pretty damn attractive - $60-$80 for the older buildings as opposed to several hundred for the Lego ones. Hard to justify spending twice as much or more on an older set that's apparently a lot less nice and less detailed than the newer ones.
WhiteRabbitEXE
Member
They could charge $1000 for those Star Wars Ultimate Collector's Series sets and they'd sell. They're Star Wars products, and they're semi-limited premium collector's items anyway. The concerns are going to be with the prices of their lower and mid-range licensed products, as well as underperforming licenses in general (I'm sure Ghostbusters, 2016 and OG, did not help at all). The bottom falling through on non-amiibo TTL and Lego joining in last and staying the longest made it worse. Wouldn't be shocked if they also over-produced the Lego Batman Movie line, which was likely hurt by the movie underperforming and the line itself not differentiating itself enough from the normal DC line to justify its existence (and an inherently shorter shelf-life being tied to a specific movie).
The real problem though is that it's 2017 and we still don't have OG Jurassic Park Lego sets and have repeatedly shut down some amazing Lego Ideas JP submissions.
WHERE'S MY LEGO DR. ALAN GRANT.
The real problem though is that it's 2017 and we still don't have OG Jurassic Park Lego sets and have repeatedly shut down some amazing Lego Ideas JP submissions.
WHERE'S MY LEGO DR. ALAN GRANT.
Star Wars tax. It's why the Death Star is like $500 USD and sets in similar size like Ninjago City are 1/2 the price.
Been dead for a year+, lol. AFAIK it didn't sell at all. They overcorrected the issue with the first gen's story bloat by paring back the story/media to almost nothing, so that probably played a part.
She'll be 4 just after Christmas, so maybe I should be looking at the Juniors line soon. Thanks.
FullMetaltech
Member
Lower the damn prices and you just might be able to get more buyers. Especially during the holiday season.
friskykillface
Banned
They should have never had bionicle in the first place 😈
Callibretto
Member
make Lego mini line that is cheaper and half the size of normal lego brick. I like Lego, but all the cool big set took so much space I ran out of shelves to put them.
Anytime a company stops growing is an excuse to restructure I suppose.
The prices should be lower across the board, but I highly doubt that will happen if revenue is lower. They probably need to branch out into other types of businesses like hotels and restaurants and stuff. They've pretty much maximised people's need to spend money on just pure lego pieces. It just becomes harder and harder to justify more and more higher priced sets after a while.
Some of the bigger sets are just way too much. I thought Assembly Square was way out of budget and waited for a 25% off sale to get it. Now its literally nothing compared to the MF (which I won't be getting anyway). I know price per piece is perfectly fine for the MF, but the overall cost is just way too much. Luckily I don't get the Star Wars sets, but I'm hoping the next Modular building go back to pricing like the Parisian Restaurant/Detective's Office.
The reboot bombed so badly that LEGO decided year 2 would be its final year before the second wave of year 1 hit store shelves. The second wave of year 2 was exclusive to Toys R Us in the US and didn't release at all in some countries. Nothing has replaced it.
WhiteRabbitEXE
Member
This is my problem. I'd buy more of the small-mid-range sets, but it feels like too much of their mid-range sets consists of diorama-style sets that take up a disproportionate amount of space and are difficult to easily move around. I really liked the Rey's Speeder set, because it's literally just a toy when it's all said and done, and a small, compact one at that:
Yeah, but I don't think that the license cost is reasonable. Especially after all these years of partnership.
The Illiterati
Member
I'm fine wearing no name clothes and eating grocery store brand food, Payless sneakers and my Chinese smartphone. I sure as hell can buy my little colored bricks from a knockoff source too.
PhoncipleBone
Banned
The no name clothing and payless sneakers are still their own designs and brand though. Buying a LEPIN set is like buying one of those 50 games in one game consoles from a mall kiosk since the SNES classic is too expensive (if you can find one that is). It is someone profiting off of someone else's work and design without paying them for it.
Dragon Puncher
Member
Basically LEGO's insane turn around means they hired too many people too quickly. This is cutting the fat, so to speak. Also LEGO has been incredible good at making users market their products for them. Which is great for the business, but also means a lot of jobs might not be as needed as they thought.
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