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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

#91

Post by diskzero »

audunw wrote: post #72
diskzero wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am an adult who has built several Lego kits recently. These include the NASA Saturn rocket, the NASA LEM, a grand piano and a Fender guitar amp combo. The plastic parts are more than just generic shapes; many of them are custom and designed for the specific kit. The plastic itself has a good feel and is durable. The kits are unique and must have required numerous hours of research and development, prototyping and u…

> The plastic parts are more than just generic shapes; many of them are custom and designed for the specific kit. With Lego, it's surprising how often the parts are NOT designed for a specific kit. You can look through the parts list at the end of the instruction manual. You'd be surprised how often they've re-used parts you'd think are specific to a kit. With Saturn V in particular, I was SURE the fairing must be a…

> With Lego, it's surprising how often the parts are NOT designed for a specific kit.

OK, that is interesting.

I wonder if and or what the software used by kit designers looks like? Does Lego have a custom CAD system that references the catalog of existings parts? Are they any Lego employees here that are able to comment?

Re: Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

#92

Post by routerl »

anchochilis wrote: post #53
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?

One major draw of Lego is their licensing of expensive creative IP. Look at the Harry Potter, Star Wars, DC, Lord of the Rings themed sets. Smaller competitors likely can not afford the same offerings. And Lego probably has deep enough pockets to ensure exclusive deals. There's also something to be said for having such a dominant, established brand. Lego is a cultural icon, beloved by multiple generations. Picking up…

> One major draw of Lego is their licensing of expensive creative IP.

This is the real genius beyond the manufacturing (which other comments are correctly praising). Lego was/is the only brand that gets to make, e.g. both Mikey Mouse and Bugs Bunny, both Marvel and DC, etc. By making Lego versions of those properties, they've convinced those enormous IP holders that this does not compete with other products; Disney can't make Lego Star Wars themselves.

Lego's corporate accomplishment is to have elevated themselves to the status of a platform. And doing so while their product isn't software or hardware is pretty unique.

Re: Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

#93

Post by ethbr0 »

bookofjoe wrote: post #80

A little local color from a resident of Virginia (Charlottesville): Late last year Virginia's Governor Youngkin took significant heat in the legislature and media for quashing a Chinese battery factory that was set to locate in the state. https://www.virginiamercury.com/2023/01/12/youngkin-halted-f... https://www.virginiabusiness.com/article/democrats-call-out-... He said that supporting China's venture was not in th…

I'm just glad that we're bringing LEGO manufacturing back to the US.

For too long US builders have been subject to the geopolitical risks of Denmark, the Czech Republic, Hungary, China, and Mexico.

This is a strategic raw material, without which trains, helicopters, fire engines, pirate ships, and hospitals cannot be built. To say nothing of the dependence that US media IP has on continued fresh brick availability.

It's good to see US manufacturing coming back!

Re: Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

#95

Post by justsomehnguy »

GenerWork wrote: post #70
swarnie wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My understanding is the company was pretty dead a decade or so ago, since then its had a massive revival after moving away from the family-run-inheritance model. Three (anecdotal) things i've seen with Lego: > Its a toy that old and young can play with together which is semi-intelligent/challenging. Parents and Grandparents seem to be the driver of sales for the physical product rather than the kids. > They have bran…

Thanks for the answer. I had no idea that Lego had brand deals with other IPs like Marvel, which would definitely explain the drastic ramp up in sales.

It's amusing ?hat your GP comment is downvoted, but yes, LEGO pivoted hard in recent years, most notable with Adults Welcome.

There were some threads on HN if you are interested.

https://www.lego.com/en-us/categories/adults-welcome

Re: Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

#97

Post by layer8 »

blibble wrote: post #29
minton wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Significantly less than one; probably just roughly a cubic hectometer at most. A cubic kilometer corresponds to about 1.6 x 10^15 1x1 Lego blocks, so over a quadrillion. 600 billion is only 0.6 x 10^12.

Re: Lego breaks ground on first US manufacturing facility

#99

Post by mlhpdx »

cedilla wrote: post #44
gjsman-1000 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People make this mistake all the time. “The iPhone sells for $999, but only costs $320 in materials!” Well, sure. But you aren’t including shipping costs, storage costs, training costs, labor costs, marketing costs, office costs, employee costs, research and development costs, legal costs, patent licensing costs, wasted material costs, environmental costs, electricity costs, packaging costs, margins for resellers, di…

This isn't even the mistake. Price has very little relation to costs - except that most products can't be sold below cost, at least not for long. The price of the iphone is a good example. All the costs that you name exist, but they are completely irrelevant. Apple sells the iPhone for a thousand dollars because enough people still buy them at that price.

Understanding the cost of a product to a vendor is important to me as a consumer.

If I’m having my house painted I will have many vendors willing to do the work at very different prices. It’s not a commodity since I have quality expectations and vendors have different levels of experience, skill and diligence. I know how much the paint, other consumables and equipment costs, so if they quote low or high on that I can take it into account. I can figure out what portion is labor, and conclude what level of skilled folks they’ll use. I can ballpark their profit and make sure it is in line with my values (I want them to have a successful business if they do good work, I don’t want to pay for a shiny new lifted F-350 4x4 dually Cummins diesel crime against humanity).

Maybe it’s just me.

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