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So the price has remained constant, even if just reduced a little. That actually surprises me more than any other change; Hasn't the manufacture process changed

So the price has remained constant, even if just reduced a little. That actually surprises me more than any other change; Hasn't the manufacture process changed? How the royalties on sets based on 3rd party Intellectual Property play into the costs? How the logistics costs impact the price? Has there been any impact on the Chinese knockoffs? I recently bought some knockoff sets that are no longer made by lego. Not only they were cheaper than the second hand market which we can agree is crazy, but also they were cheaper than the retail price when lego sold them. I certainly don't notice anything wrong with the set quality, so I would expect the difference in price to be by not paying IP.

cortesoft 7y ago
Yeah, I remember reading that Lego goes heavy with the IP licensing because that is the only thing they can do to differentiate; they can't patent or copyright the brick design, so knockoffs can copy any plain brick design. They do a lot of license agreements for IP so they can have unique offerings. I bet that is a big part of the price.
- yardie 7y ago
  The designs are copyrighted and the manufacturing is a trade secret. This is the only thing preventing makers like Lepin from selling in the US/EU market. They’d rather rip off a popular LEGO design rather than invest the time, money, and marketing to come up with their own.
  - geomark 7y ago
    I have a bunch of different knock-off brands and, although the quality is pretty good, none approach the quality of Legos. You would think that by now someone would have reverse engineered their manufacturing trade secrets to get the same quality. Or could it be that to achieve that level of quality the recurring cost is really much higher?
    - yardie 7y ago
      In addition to keeping the ABS chemical composition a trade secret they also replace their molds frequently. This keeps the tolerances high and the quality of the bricks consistent. But it’s costly. If you’re a competitor you’d probably use your molds 2x-3x longer to save money. In the short term you can pass the savings to consumers as a cheaper alternative. But since QC isn’t high you get the reputation as not being as good as LEGO.
      - geomark 7y ago
        That makes sense that competitors who can only compete on price can't keep up the quality due to mold wear even if they do know the recipe for the plastic.

cortesoft 7y ago

Yeah, I remember reading that Lego goes heavy with the IP licensing because that is the only thing they can do to differentiate; they can't patent or copyright the brick design, so knockoffs can copy any plain brick design. They do a lot of license agreements for IP so they can have unique offerings. I bet that is a big part of the price.

yardie 7y ago
The designs are copyrighted and the manufacturing is a trade secret. This is the only thing preventing makers like Lepin from selling in the US/EU market. They’d rather rip off a popular LEGO design rather than invest the time, money, and marketing to come up with their own.
- geomark 7y ago
  I have a bunch of different knock-off brands and, although the quality is pretty good, none approach the quality of Legos. You would think that by now someone would have reverse engineered their manufacturing trade secrets to get the same quality. Or could it be that to achieve that level of quality the recurring cost is really much higher?
  - yardie 7y ago
    In addition to keeping the ABS chemical composition a trade secret they also replace their molds frequently. This keeps the tolerances high and the quality of the bricks consistent. But it’s costly. If you’re a competitor you’d probably use your molds 2x-3x longer to save money. In the short term you can pass the savings to consumers as a cheaper alternative. But since QC isn’t high you get the reputation as not being as good as LEGO.
    - geomark 7y ago
      That makes sense that competitors who can only compete on price can't keep up the quality due to mold wear even if they do know the recipe for the plastic.