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Lego to open 160 new stores as other toy retailers suffer

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Re: Lego to open 160 new stores as other toy retailers suffer

#111

Post by arrrg »

Symbiote wrote: post #83
celticninja wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is modern military and weapons that are not made. Not weapons per se

This is the best Quora answer I've ever seen. It has illustrations! https://www.quora.com/When-did-LEGO-set-start-containing-con... The introduction of weapons was gradual, and except for Batman, they are either historical or futuristic. From my observations as a foreigner in Denmark, historical or fantasy weapons like swords, spears, shields, clubs acceptable and common. A 6 year old might have a wooden one, and be…

If you want an overview of minifigure weapons Lego has used over the years you can get a pretty complete picture here: https://www.bricklink.com/catalogList.asp?v=2&pg=1&catString...

Even though Lego sets do sometimes include weapons, even very gun-like weapons, to me there is still a pretty clear line Lego draws. Their City sets don’t include guns and guns are the exception, not the rule, otherwise.

Look at Lego’s competitors if you want to get an idea of what Lego could be doing. Obviously those are looking for their niche, so that’s to be expected. They have modern and 20th century military equipment sets and I could never imagine Lego releasing sets like that.

Re: Lego to open 160 new stores as other toy retailers suffer

#112

Post by SaturateDK »

Svip wrote: post #88
jncraton wrote: post #24

IMO LEGO thrives thanks to their relentless focus on product quality. The phrase "det bedste ir ikke for godt" (roughly "only the best is good enough") has a long history in the company. The fact that they have been able to thrive like this in a market with many competitors cloning their product is a a testament to their product quality and related brand strength. If you've used and compared the various brands in thi…

> The phrase "det bedste ir ikke for godt" (roughly "only the best is good enough") has a long history in the company. Just for the record, the phrase is »kun det bedste er godt nok«. Your phrase would translate as 'the best is not too good', or in more natural English 'the best is bad' (which more accurately conveys the same meaning).

It's "kun det bedste er godt nok" alright and I would translate that to "Only the best is good enough". Just for the record.

Re: Lego to open 160 new stores as other toy retailers suffer

#113

Post by nicoburns »

nf8nnfufuu wrote: post #59
tr3ndyBEAR wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sad that legos were/are traditionally thought of as boy toys and a generation of women grew up without them. It's basically what happened with computers too. Many of the most important early computer pioneers were women

That's just bullshit, a narrative feminists peddled by posting selective pictures and ads of LEGO sets. They even complain about modern "girl's Lego", instead of being happy that it brings girls to using Lego. It also doesn't make sense to complain about a Lego car as enforcing gender stereotypes. Don't they want girls to build cars? It is so illogical. They claim girls are not interested in engineering (cars), becau…

> The new "themed" sets apparently sell better than the "random box of colored bricks" from the past.

That's at least partly because Lego won't sell you coloured bricks unless you buy a certain number of their sets anymore. (source: my step-mother who owned a toy-store).

Re: Lego to open 160 new stores as other toy retailers suffer

#114

Post by vidarh »

braythwayt wrote: post #21
foobarian wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely. We have a bunch of Megabloks mixed in with our Legos and I can separate them even without looking. The difference in tolerances is pretty interesting.

I seem to recall a post on the front page of HN discussing the incredible tolerances they achieve, at an almost unthinkable scale. You can buy Lego blocks anywhere in the world, and they click perfectly with Lego blocks purchased anywhere else in the world, and purchased at just about any time in the past or present.

I think one of the best illustrations is the connecting pins [1], as the link shows people don't even always realize why they specifically distinguish them. But the black one has a fraction of a mm indentation that produces extra friction, and so makes structures connected with it more rigid, but they still fit in all the same holes.

Apart from the tolerances that also illustrates what their competitors rarely get right - Lego tends to opt for pieces that are generic enough to be reusable in as many contexts as possible where a lot of the competitors have sets full of pieces that are unmistakably one specific thing. That lets them not worry so much about the tolerances - if it works in that one context reliably, then it's fine. But the downside is it makes the sets even less flexible.

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/lego/comments/4uv5tl/why_does_lego_...

Re: Lego to open 160 new stores as other toy retailers suffer

#115

Post by animal531 »

jedberg wrote: post #49
OriginalPenguin wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know how many stores they currently have worldwide, but 160 new stores across the entire world is nothing. That's less than one new store per country on average. To put it in perspective there are 37,000 McDonald's and 11,766 Wal-Marts in the world. Even Levi's has 750 of their own stores worldwide.

They have 180 in the world and about 80 are in the United States. 160 more almost doubles their worldwide footprint.

But there are tens of thousands of other toy stores that sell virtually all their products, so the percentage increase is rather small.

Re: Lego to open 160 new stores as other toy retailers suffer

#116

Post by dbcurtis »

scandinavegan wrote: post #65
dbcurtis wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

pfft. Built any “City” theme sets lately? All the police minifigs pack pretty realistic-looking semi-autos.

Do you have a reference to an official Lego City set with semi-autos? I find that hard to believe.

https://www.bricklink.com/catalogList.asp?q=gun

try this

Re: Lego to open 160 new stores as other toy retailers suffer

#117

Post by vidarh »

CannisterFlux wrote: post #57
martin_a wrote: post #55

Lego is becoming more and more of a scumbag company. First hit this year was that they sued a small Lego shop in Frankfurt called "Held der Steine". His logo was a standing brick, but it could have been any brick, no Lego logo was seen or whatnot. They sued him for infringement of their trademarks anyway. That gave quite a huge media wave, I think the video of "Held der Steine" on YouTube where he lays out what happe…

Not only the model quality, but the Lego bricks themselves are pretty disappointing too. If you drop a normal brick on a hard floor the brick is likely to shatter. More models have special parts with narrow waist sections that easily snap. The c-shaped grips that hold poles either warp or snap and become useless. More and more sets come with stickers rather than printing the pattern onto the bricks like they used to…

I've never seen a Lego brick shatter. I just threw a few of my sons Lego bricks as hard as I could at a brick wall, and they were all fine (but I nearly weren't, as I almost got a few of them back in my face).

If those are actually Lego and not counterfeit or another brand, then it sounds like a defect.

I also can't find any examples of those narrow waist sections you refer to, which makes me think maybe it's a different brand?

Re: Lego to open 160 new stores as other toy retailers suffer

#118

Post by xenocyon »

jncraton wrote: post #35
ebg13 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> IMO LEGO thrives thanks to their relentless focus on product quality. I'm sure that doesn't hurt, but these days LEGO thrives because of their relentless promotional brand tie-ins. It's not just LEGO anymore. It's LEGO Star Wars, LEGO Batman, LEGO Harry Potter, LEGO Disney's Frozen, LEGO Toy Story 4, and so on.

You aren't wrong, but the two are tightly related. LEGO's competitors are also selling many licensed products, but LEGO's position as the best quality brand in the market has allowed them to secure contracts for the most popular IP (Star Wars, Marvel, Minecraft, etc). Their competitors are left with less popular or less family-friendly IP such as Halo or Star Trek. Its also worth noting that some of LEGO's competitor…

I grew up with Lego in the 1980s; back then they had zero or few tie-ins with branding other than Shell IIRC. There were also fewer specialized pieces, meaning greater emphasis on kids' using their imagination.

Re: Lego to open 160 new stores as other toy retailers suffer

#119

Post by bluetomcat »

nf8nnfufuu wrote: post #106
bluetomcat wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The new "themed" sets apparently sell better than the "random box of colored bricks" from the past. In the 1990s, almost no sets were "random boxes of colored bricks" and they were all themed, but the themes weren't the commercialized junk they are today. You had Castle, Pirates and Space without any references to movie characters and the structures were rather harmonic without too many special or overly-sized part…

Apparently the "commercialized junk" sells better, though. Lego was close to going bankrupt in the 90ies. Apart from the price, I personally can't really complain about the modern Lego sets, either. They are nice puzzles, and my kids like to play with them. After a while they fall apart, and new things can be built. I don't think Lego wants to pay for expensive Hollywood brands. They always try to establish their own…

Lego was actually flourishing in the early 90s particularly with Castle and Pirates. Each year brought new sub-themes and factions, and newer sets coexisted nicely with older ones. It started to go downhill with the advent of PC and PlayStation gaming in the late 90s. Kids suddenly had their attention elsewhere. Lego then changed the formula to launching short-lived flashy themes with spiced-up minifigs and unusual parts, and the old spirit of calm playfulness was largely gone.

Re: Lego to open 160 new stores as other toy retailers suffer

#120

Post by bhaak »

arrrg wrote: post #111
Symbiote wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the best Quora answer I've ever seen. It has illustrations! https://www.quora.com/When-did-LEGO-set-start-containing-con... The introduction of weapons was gradual, and except for Batman, they are either historical or futuristic. From my observations as a foreigner in Denmark, historical or fantasy weapons like swords, spears, shields, clubs acceptable and common. A 6 year old might have a wooden one, and be…

If you want an overview of minifigure weapons Lego has used over the years you can get a pretty complete picture here: https://www.bricklink.com/catalogList.asp?v=2&pg=1&catString... Even though Lego sets do sometimes include weapons, even very gun-like weapons, to me there is still a pretty clear line Lego draws. Their City sets don’t include guns and guns are the exception, not the rule, otherwise. Look at Lego’s c…

> Their City sets don’t include guns and guns are the exception, not the rule, otherwise.

That line got me thinking. I think you are right and I've never seen a police minifig with a weapon.

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