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Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

manufacturingdive.com

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Re: Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

#21

Post by samstave »

dontupvoteme wrote: post #7
minton wrote: post #5

I’m so confused by Lego’s market share. They sell cheap plastic at insane premiums. Why is there not more competition?

They use extremely high quality mechanical tooling. It's some of the most expensive plastic you can buy.

As someone who has many thousands of dollars in lego, and one who, in the course of my life has owned many many hundreds of pounds of lego....

Where the FUCK are they all? microplastic in the environment, no. it wast towed outside the environment to another environment where there are just fish, birds, sea and lego...

anyway... as much as I love lego, they need to curb their roll on the plastics they put into the environment. No, not that one. The one where the lego doesnt fall off.

Re: Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

#22

Post by skeeter2020 »

minton wrote: post #5

I’m so confused by Lego’s market share. They sell cheap plastic at insane premiums. Why is there not more competition?

look at where their focus lies - exclusive tie-ins to every possible mass-market cultural event. Sure, they make the best bricks, but they make their money with Star Wars, Super Mario, Jurassic Park, etc.

Re: Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

#23

Post by bragr »

minton wrote: post #5

I’m so confused by Lego’s market share. They sell cheap plastic at insane premiums. Why is there not more competition?

You can get knock-off or "compatible" bricks much cheaper from other companies but they suck. Lego bricks have incredibly good tolerances which allows you to build large structures without them going all banana on you, not to mention consistent holding power and material quality.

Get some Alibaba bricks and you'll see right away.

Re: Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

#24

Post by brookst »

minton wrote: post #5

I’m so confused by Lego’s market share. They sell cheap plastic at insane premiums. Why is there not more competition?

Why do CPUs cost $400 when they only have about $1 worth of sand, aluminum, and other elements in them?

Raw material cost is not a good proxy for end user value of finished goods.

Re: Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

#25

Post by [deleted] »

post_break wrote: post #18
minton wrote: post #5

I’m so confused by Lego’s market share. They sell cheap plastic at insane premiums. Why is there not more competition?

If you look on Amazon or Aliexpress there is definitely competition, just not in stores. I have a few not lego kits that are fantastic.

[deleted]

Re: Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

#26

Post by samstave »

sharkweek wrote: post #17
outlace wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone with young kids who recently bought a $70 Lego set, it’s not just the plastic blocks, it’s a whole design. My daughter built this awesome Lego tree house with over a thousand pieces. She followed the instructions and built it step by step over a few days, which was fun for her in and of itself, and now that it is complete she continues to play with it. So sure the plastic pieces are easily reproduced but c…

And honestly the pieces aren’t even that easily reproduced. Our son got a knock off brand as a gift and it was horrible to build compared to a LEGO set.

This is actually a trade secret of lego. They build to such tight tolerances that others cant compete in the interlocking... it is a known thing of theirs, and honestly - we should be building that into actual construction mediums

Re: Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

#27

Post by sprak »

post_break wrote: post #18
minton wrote: post #5

I’m so confused by Lego’s market share. They sell cheap plastic at insane premiums. Why is there not more competition?

If you look on Amazon or Aliexpress there is definitely competition, just not in stores. I have a few not lego kits that are fantastic.

Do you remember any of the brand names that was of good quality?

Re: Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

#28

Post by magnuspaaske »

casion wrote: post #13
minton wrote: post #5

I’m so confused by Lego’s market share. They sell cheap plastic at insane premiums. Why is there not more competition?

Because they are the best quality, in every dimension, and when something is almost purely a hobby then many people are willing to pay a premium for a friction-free experience. There are other brands that are just fine, but you will occasionally get missing pieces, poor fitment, poor/strange construction etc... With LEGO you'll not get any of those (except the occasional strange construction). I used to buy ~50/50 LE…

Also, the "cheap plastic" thing is clearly said by someone who don't know plastic. NASA included a bunch of pieces on one of their Mars crafts to check the cameras since they knew the parameters of the LEGO pieces losing their color better than the cameras. LEGOs are durable.

Also, even if the unit cost of injection molding plastic might not be super high, the cost of making the molds is. I've heard discarded molds are used in the concrete for new buildings as a way to know where they are and ensure they're not suddenly in the wrong hands (although that might be a rumor)

Re: Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

#29

Post by blibble »

minton wrote: post #4
taraharris wrote: post #2

Who among us hasn't stepped on enough Legos to last a lifetime? Oh well, let's have some more <3

As of July 2015, 600 billion Lego parts had been produced.[1] [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego

I wonder how many cubic kilometers of plastic that is

Re: Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

#30

Post by [deleted] »

obblekk wrote: post #6

Interesting learnings for me from this article: - Lego operates multiple $1B+ factories around the world - they are not just a design and marketing company - 1400 manufacturing jobs in Virginia expected - not just an automated thing. Anyone know what changed economically to justify the high US labor costs? Particularly compared to MX - 100% Carbon neutral via on-site Solar in Virginia (not particularly sunny). No off…

[deleted]
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