5 ms·

I don’t want to minimize the work of engineering the product design of Lego sets, but my goodness Lego sets are shockingly expensive for what they are. It feels

I don’t want to minimize the work of engineering the product design of Lego sets, but my goodness Lego sets are shockingly expensive for what they are. It feels to me like they should be 50% or less the price they tend to retail at - it’s not hard to understand why the Chinese knock-off sets were so popular.

dangus 4y ago
The knockoff brands have issues fitting together due to lower tolerances and QA issues. [1] [2] LEGO bricks are built to a completely insane tolerance for a children's toy. 10 micrometers, according to the company. Have you ever found a single LEGO piece that was defective and didn't fit into another one snugly? I've been playing with them for 25 years and I don't think I've found a single one. IMO, LEGO is expensive but so is a lot of other stuff. We're in a period of high inflation, and most of us aren't used to that with very low inflation being the norm for the past ~10 years. Chipotle wasn't selling $15 burritos 20 years ago. [3] On top of that, LEGO exploded in popularity after their licensing deals with names like Star Wars, Harry Potter, Disney, Batman, Mario, Minecraft, and the list goes on and on. LEGO used to be somewhat of a nerdy toy, only for boys, with a very small adult market compared to today. They're just charging what people are more than willing to pay. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/lego/comments/2orjay/why_are_mega_bloks_so_bad/ https://www.reddit.com/r/lego/comments/2orjay/why_are_mega_b... [2] https://www.reddit.com/r/lego/comments/2aj3un/are_legos_really_that_much_better_than_mega_blocks/ https://www.reddit.com/r/lego/comments/2aj3un/are_legos_real... [3] https://www.reddit.com/r/Chipotle/comments/t905uc/those_of_us_who_have_been_going_to_chipotle_for/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Chipotle/comments/t905uc/those_of_u...
- saulpw 4y ago
  Good points about tolerance. LEGO wasn't a nerdy toy though; it had the same mass-appeal that minecraft did/does. Also this LEGO ad from 1981: https://imgur.com/xwAsW56 https://imgur.com/xwAsW56
  - sircastor 4y ago
    This ad was the subject of a debate a few years back about what's happened to LEGO in general - it's large scale shift to licensed properties, and specifically the introduction of specific girl-targeted LEGO sets. This seems like the best article I could find on it: https://mashable.com/archive/girl-1981-lego-ad-found https://mashable.com/archive/girl-1981-lego-ad-found Also, there is this really great monologue on LEGO from Community, delivered by Michael K. Williams that is delightful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVCOAFKjaoY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVCOAFKjaoY
- piceas 4y ago
  The tolerances are impressive. Not perfect. I had electric Lego parts as a kid, bought new in the late 80s, that had trouble fitting together. It was annoying at the time. My kids have a lot of old Duplo. Unlike the Lego it has not aged well. The fit between parts is all over the place.
  - bombcar 4y ago
    Duplo is designed with less “clutch” so tiny hands can take it apart successfully. That and the size of the pieces leads to flex that you don’t get much with Lego. Primo (rare) and Quattro (super rare) are even bigger and have more flex.
- petodo 4y ago
  I have Lidl model of police station, roughly 1000 pieces and they fit perfectly exactly same as original Lego for like 1/5th of price in discount so some insane tolerance at Lego sounds to me only like someone trying to justify their purchase though I recently bought Lego classic sets for my kids and those don't seem to be that overpriced

dangus 4y ago

The knockoff brands have issues fitting together due to lower tolerances and QA issues. [1] [2] LEGO bricks are built to a completely insane tolerance for a children's toy. 10 micrometers, according to the company. Have you ever found a single LEGO piece that was defective and didn't fit into another one snugly? I've been playing with them for 25 years and I don't think I've found a single one. IMO, LEGO is expensive but so is a lot of other stuff. We're in a period of high inflation, and most of us aren't used to that with very low inflation being the norm for the past ~10 years. Chipotle wasn't selling $15 burritos 20 years ago. [3] On top of that, LEGO exploded in popularity after their licensing deals with names like Star Wars, Harry Potter, Disney, Batman, Mario, Minecraft, and the list goes on and on. LEGO used to be somewhat of a nerdy toy, only for boys, with a very small adult market compared to today. They're just charging what people are more than willing to pay. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/lego/comments/2orjay/why_are_mega_bloks_so_bad/ https://www.reddit.com/r/lego/comments/2orjay/why_are_mega_b... [2] https://www.reddit.com/r/lego/comments/2aj3un/are_legos_really_that_much_better_than_mega_blocks/ https://www.reddit.com/r/lego/comments/2aj3un/are_legos_real... [3] https://www.reddit.com/r/Chipotle/comments/t905uc/those_of_us_who_have_been_going_to_chipotle_for/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Chipotle/comments/t905uc/those_of_u...

saulpw 4y ago
Good points about tolerance. LEGO wasn't a nerdy toy though; it had the same mass-appeal that minecraft did/does. Also this LEGO ad from 1981: https://imgur.com/xwAsW56 https://imgur.com/xwAsW56
- sircastor 4y ago
  This ad was the subject of a debate a few years back about what's happened to LEGO in general - it's large scale shift to licensed properties, and specifically the introduction of specific girl-targeted LEGO sets. This seems like the best article I could find on it: https://mashable.com/archive/girl-1981-lego-ad-found https://mashable.com/archive/girl-1981-lego-ad-found Also, there is this really great monologue on LEGO from Community, delivered by Michael K. Williams that is delightful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVCOAFKjaoY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVCOAFKjaoY
piceas 4y ago
The tolerances are impressive. Not perfect. I had electric Lego parts as a kid, bought new in the late 80s, that had trouble fitting together. It was annoying at the time. My kids have a lot of old Duplo. Unlike the Lego it has not aged well. The fit between parts is all over the place.
- bombcar 4y ago
  Duplo is designed with less “clutch” so tiny hands can take it apart successfully. That and the size of the pieces leads to flex that you don’t get much with Lego. Primo (rare) and Quattro (super rare) are even bigger and have more flex.
petodo 4y ago
I have Lidl model of police station, roughly 1000 pieces and they fit perfectly exactly same as original Lego for like 1/5th of price in discount so some insane tolerance at Lego sounds to me only like someone trying to justify their purchase though I recently bought Lego classic sets for my kids and those don't seem to be that overpriced