Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Lego to open 160 new stores as other toy retailers suffer

ft.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 155 posts

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

#131

Post by rdtwo »

bluetomcat wrote: post #130
replicatorblog wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an often stated criticism of modern Lego designs, but I wonder if anyone has tried to test this empirically? E.g. if you gave a group of kids a "classic" set and another a themed set, with no further instructions, would the first group produce more "creative" designs? I think the critics of the branded sets undervalue the Piagetian concept of scaffolding, basically that having the Harry Potter superstructure…

Let's do a direct comparison of [1] "70412-1: Soldiers Fort" (2015) to [2] "6263-1: Imperial Outpost" (1995): - Older set has a big baseplate which enables a child to start building a new structure easily - Older set has well-pronounced architectural elements like arcs and slopes and feels like a solid structure, newer set feels airy and ad-hoc - Older set has minifigs with a simple paint, newer set has cartoon-like…

They look like different tiers of sets the first one is like a 20$ set while the second is a 10$ one

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

#133

Post by blacksmith_tb »

replicatorblog wrote: post #121
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.

This is accurate, but the sense I get is that there's a deliberate effort to move from licensed IP to Lego-created brands. E.g. there are vastly more "Friends" kits, the Lego house brand targeted at girls, than Disney princesses. Ninjago has become a perennial answer to the sword fighting action that Star Wars only delivers intermittently. Lego's new "Hidden Side" brand seems clearly targeted at being a Lego-owned al…

As the parent of a Lego-consuming youngster I have to agree - but it's also interesting to watch Lego try to create lines that fail to thrive (compare Chima to Ninjago, both started at about the same time, only one remains...) Partly that seems to be about story-telling, maybe ninjas just easier to work with.

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

#134

Post by jacquesm »

sethammons wrote: post #90
martin_bech wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thats not completely true, I know people at LEGO, and the best selling sets are Legos own Lego City and Lego Friends.

Best selling doesn't necessarily mean most profitable.

Those are royalty free.

It should be easy to determine if they are more profitable assuming some kind of percentage going to the brands. If the mark-up is lower than a small percentage they are likely not more profitable, otherwise likely they are more profitable on a unit basis (per set).

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

#135

Post by jacquesm »

varjag wrote: post #123
jonathanlydall wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems unlikely that they are making more profit per licensed set because they are likely having to pay a cut to a third party (for example, Disney gets a cut of each Star Wars set sold). So if their license free sets sell better, then it would stand to reason they make more profit off of these.

And a licensed set often has to amortize the cost of tooling made specifically for it.

LEGO is very good at recycling shapes in different colors as special parts for sets. The biggest tooling costs are in the minifigs for special sets, those are almost always there because custom minifigs are an easy way to make a set unique. That way you drive sales because people can't make the set from loose parts.

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

#136

Post by jacquesm »

jncraton wrote: post #28
megaremote wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> IMO LEGO thrives thanks to their relentless focus on product quality. This makes no sense, otherwise only things that are high quality would survive. Everything proves otherwise. Lego works because it is so versatile.

I'm not saying nothing else survives. Mega Bloks have been around for 30 years and are still filling their market niche well as far as I know. I'm simply saying that quality has been what sets LEGO apart from its competitors. They make great products and target wealthier populations. Their prices (and likely also margins) are higher than their competitors. They're basically the Apple of toys.

Check out Blox bricks for a scary good clone for regular bricks. I can tell every other clone from LEGO bricks with my eyes closed but that one is very good, even the color is fine and they age well too.

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

#137

Post by jacquesm »

hos234 wrote: post #63
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…

> best plastic and tightest tolerances What all stories people tell themselves to shell out wads of dough on bullshit no one asked for. Apple and every other luxury brand in the world makes use of this story telling subset of the population as an external evangelizing church to keep the dogma flowing. I have a bunch of Lego from decades ago that I am slowly offloading to kids of family and friends. I never bought any…

> have a bunch of Lego from decades ago that I am slowly offloading to kids of family and friends.

I think that proves the grand-parents point about quality just fine, even if you didn't buy it with that bonus in mind. People today do know that LEGO lasts for decades and it may factor into their decisions. It may also factor into yours now if you buy a new toy for a kid.

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

#138

Post by jacquesm »

mcv wrote: post #128
nf8nnfufuu wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

It's not bullshit. In the 1970s, Lego marketed equally to all kids, but towards the 1990s, they were marketing increasingly towards boys and not girls. You can also see it in the selection of minifigs: originally they were fairly unisex, but as they became more gendered, female ones turned out to be quite rare. When called on it, instead of making their general line more unisex again, Lego tried introducing lines spe…

The minifigs are themselves an interesting departure from the figs that preceded them. The figs were simply too large, they stood about twice as tall as a minifig. But there were all the elements of a family in there, including grandmothers and babies. The first time a female minifig was made came a long time after the first male minifig.

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

#139

Post by jacquesm »

teniutza wrote: post #53
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

I can only say that my 6 yo daughter has more LEGO (Frozen and/or Friends) sets than I have (Technic or Creator).

Shouldn't that be the expectation ;) ?

/me is still way ahead of his children, hah!

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

#140

Post by jacquesm »

kuschku wrote: post #82
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…

> 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 happened has seven figure views. He tried to trademark t…

LEGO was built on the premise of patent infringement and the blatant copying of others designs. They have a 'play nice' slogan that they use to try to pretend that they are 'playing nice' if others play nice as well but they're quick to engage their legal department.

The LEGO brand is forever tarnished by this.

Post reply on HN