8 ms·

With so many lego collaborations, special sets, special parts, I kind of miss the days when lego was more simple and required more imagination.

jedberg 6y ago
There is a good documentary on Netflix and a different good one on HBOMax about lego. If you watch both there is some overlap and also different info in each one, but you get a pretty complete picture of why they do all the special sets. The summary is that they almost went bankrupt and licensing basically saved them.
- teddyh 6y ago
  It’s interesting that you identified the documentaries by topic and where to find them, not by title. Is this the Google generation, or does it herald a return of the AOL keywords? Or, in other words: What are the titles of those documentaries?
  - jedberg 6y ago
    To be honest I wrote that because I couldn't remember the names and was too lazy to look it up. On Netflix it's The Toys that Made Us and on HBOMax its A Lego Brickumentary.
ObsoleteNerd 6y ago
Licensed sets saved them from bankruptcy, and now that they're healthily profitable again they've been releasing more "classic" sets like the Lego City, Lego Creator (and Creator Advanced), and Technics sets. As someone who's been into Lego for life, and as a middle-aged parent who still regularly buys sets to build myself independent of the sets I buy for my kids, I'm more than happy for them to crank out the licensed sets (which I ignore) in exchange for them to still be here making those Creator/Technics ones for me.
- pbhjpbhj 6y ago
  >Licensed sets saved them from bankruptcy, // Do you have a source on this? Not doubting it, Lego is a good product with almost indefinite reuse, so it's not surprising if sales can't perpetually expand. If we're to make it through the resource and energy crunch we're facing we need an economic system that allows entities to continue even when everything they make is made to last as long as possible - be repairable, reusable; heirloom grade.
  - ObsoleteNerd 6y ago
    > Do you have a source on this? This is a late reply so you might not see it, but: https://www.businessinsider.com.au/how-lego-made-a-huge-turnaround-2014-2 https://www.businessinsider.com.au/how-lego-made-a-huge-turn... > The only reason Lego survived during this difficult time was due to the success of the Bionicle and “Star Wars” series. The first “Star Wars” Lego kits launched in 1999 and represented the company’s first foray into licensed series, many of which became integral to the company Infographic showing the revenue curve before/after licensed sets were introduced: https://www.wired.com/images_blogs/underwire/2024/01/in_legos_large.jpg https://www.wired.com/images_blogs/underwire/2024/01/in_lego...

jedberg 6y ago

There is a good documentary on Netflix and a different good one on HBOMax about lego. If you watch both there is some overlap and also different info in each one, but you get a pretty complete picture of why they do all the special sets. The summary is that they almost went bankrupt and licensing basically saved them.

teddyh 6y ago
It’s interesting that you identified the documentaries by topic and where to find them, not by title. Is this the Google generation, or does it herald a return of the AOL keywords? Or, in other words: What are the titles of those documentaries?
- jedberg 6y ago
  To be honest I wrote that because I couldn't remember the names and was too lazy to look it up. On Netflix it's The Toys that Made Us and on HBOMax its A Lego Brickumentary.

ObsoleteNerd 6y ago

Licensed sets saved them from bankruptcy, and now that they're healthily profitable again they've been releasing more "classic" sets like the Lego City, Lego Creator (and Creator Advanced), and Technics sets. As someone who's been into Lego for life, and as a middle-aged parent who still regularly buys sets to build myself independent of the sets I buy for my kids, I'm more than happy for them to crank out the licensed sets (which I ignore) in exchange for them to still be here making those Creator/Technics ones for me.

pbhjpbhj 6y ago
>Licensed sets saved them from bankruptcy, // Do you have a source on this? Not doubting it, Lego is a good product with almost indefinite reuse, so it's not surprising if sales can't perpetually expand. If we're to make it through the resource and energy crunch we're facing we need an economic system that allows entities to continue even when everything they make is made to last as long as possible - be repairable, reusable; heirloom grade.
- ObsoleteNerd 6y ago
  > Do you have a source on this? This is a late reply so you might not see it, but: https://www.businessinsider.com.au/how-lego-made-a-huge-turnaround-2014-2 https://www.businessinsider.com.au/how-lego-made-a-huge-turn... > The only reason Lego survived during this difficult time was due to the success of the Bionicle and “Star Wars” series. The first “Star Wars” Lego kits launched in 1999 and represented the company’s first foray into licensed series, many of which became integral to the company Infographic showing the revenue curve before/after licensed sets were introduced: https://www.wired.com/images_blogs/underwire/2024/01/in_legos_large.jpg https://www.wired.com/images_blogs/underwire/2024/01/in_lego...