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You know, I don't think I've ever seen anything negative about Lego as a company in any serious way. Staff reports are uniformly 'this place is amazing to work'

You know, I don't think I've ever seen anything negative about Lego as a company in any serious way. Staff reports are uniformly 'this place is amazing to work', customers love their products, they've kept their product line diverse and with a wide, wide range of prices so there's no exclusionary practise. Good business practises for sure.

smiler 14y ago
Have you never stood on a piece of lego? :)
- StavrosK 14y ago
  It was an amazing learning experience.
  - CaptainDecisive 14y ago
    When my wee boys stand on their Lego I see it as a wonderful teachable moment. Lego is a great company to provide me with so many educational opportunities.
    - nicholassmith 14y ago
      When you as a child stand on Lego you learn that you should tidy things away when done, when as an adult you stand on it you learn that you need to have a talk with the kid about tidying things away. Or to tidy it away after you've built another spaceship.
      - lutze 14y ago
        And when an adult stands on it in front of the kid, the kid learns lots of interesting new words! Lego: you're never not learning. The only real problem I have with Lego is the price of some of the items. A cursory search will bring you across £500 Technic sets... which is utterly bloody ridiculous.
  - gyardley 14y ago
    I used to jam those little castle Lego swords and spears into the stitching of the braided area rug in my bedroom, to create that authentic medieval battlefield look. When my dad tromped on one of those things after coming off the evening shift, it was a learning experience for both of us.
- arethuza 14y ago
  Compared to the caltrops like device that is a standard UK power plug a mere lego brick is hardly likely to cause much harm.
josephlord 14y ago
The latest 'Friends' range targeted at girls has received some bad press. Not much construction to do, all nail bars and shopping sort of sexism. Not the most serious bad press but its something.
- nicholassmith 14y ago
  I will admit I'd forgotten that, but mostly as it was complaints from consumer action groups rather than consumers, if I remember rightly Lego introduced it after parental request/requests from girls and saw a profit spike. I don't particularly like the idea of Lego falling into gender categories as it's a toy for creative minds, but if the market wants something then the market wants something.
  - koide 14y ago
    Some creative minds are more interested in nurseries and tea parties than in trains or robots. And it's natural for it to be so. It's evident once you have some kids. I truly wanted that not to be the case, but reality bites. For the PC crowd: This of course doesn't mean that girls will never play with robots or cars or that boys won't play with nurseries or tea parties. Of course a mix is healthy and should be encouraged. But the stereotypical preferences are truly marked in most cases, before parental intervention.
    - josephlord 14y ago
      To be honest I think my biggest complaints about lego are cost and that it is hard just to get a big bag of basic bricks. However I think the 'Friends' thing could have been better handled with modest tweaks. Why aren't there any boys/men in 'Friends'? What if boys want to play nurseries or tea parties. When I was young the lego characters were mostly gender free but it seems increasingly that the 'boys' lego increasingly has male characters (even outside the branded Harry Potter/Lord of the Rings stuff). All the Firefighters and Police seem to be men when they could have been much more gender neutral (or mixed genders) without loss of fun to boys or girls.
    - 14y ago
datr 14y ago
I think there was a piece on hacker news attacking them a few months back for a shift in their advertising from being relatively gender balanced in the 80s to being very boyish today. Other than that though I completely agree with you. They seem like a great company.
michaelt 14y ago
Some people [1] have linked the rise of Lego and the decline of Meccano [2] to the decline of manufacturing in the western world, as Lego doesn't teach Meccano's lessons about L section beams, diagonal braces, gantries in tension and compression, and so on. [1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1333215/Why-Britain-needs-more-Meccano-and-less-Lego.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1333215/Why-Britain-n... [2] http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8Q-tdV67Suc/TfhcQxf63JI/AAAAAAAAATk/h32oKyL6xa0/s1600/MAWH_MECCANO.jpg http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8Q-tdV67Suc/TfhcQxf63JI/AAAAAAAAAT...
- eternalban 14y ago
  I got my initial (entirely empirical) lessons in mechanics via Fischertechnik [1]. Absolutely the best toy, ever. [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischertechnik http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischertechnik [p.s.: http://www.fischertechnik.de/en/Home/info/computing.aspx http://www.fischertechnik.de/en/Home/info/computing.aspx "programming is child's play" /G ]
- nicholassmith 14y ago
  I used to have a Meccano set from the early 70s, it was fantastic. I always thought it was a shame it never got as much attention.
- bcoates 14y ago
  And I thought construx were neat, that is one awesome construction set.
- xentronium 14y ago
  These Meccano constructors are similar to what we had in post-soviet Russia, although I've never heard that name. Then about the end of 90-s LEGO gained popularity, and indeed, 'soviet constructor', as we called these sets, stopped being sold. I always wondered whether they were really suitable for smaller kids, considering smaller parts et al. This is what our constructors looked like: * Constructor parts: http://blogarchive.ru/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/konstruktor-01.jpg http://blogarchive.ru/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/konstruktor... * Photos of the manual: http://vasi.net/community/kartinki/2009/08/25/sovetskijj_konstruktor.html http://vasi.net/community/kartinki/2009/08/25/sovetskijj_kon...
belorn 14y ago
There has been some criticism over their rather aggressive use of trademark to fake "patent" their designs after their original design patents had expired. I also heard (so, unverified) that users of 3d-printers has gotten some of that attention. So, great company to work with, great products, but clearly a bit overreaching in the legal department. How evil that makes them... meh, at least they are not trying to patent something that they themselves never created. Still wrong through.
kibwen 14y ago
As a child I was a huge Lego fanatic. I don't have much time for it anymore, but I still make a point to walk through the Lego aisle if I'm ever in a toy store. One thing that I'm a bit saddened about is how it feels that movie tie-ins have overshadowed the other sets. Star Wars, Harry Potter, Batman, Avengers, The Hobbit... what I loved as a kid wasn't that I was building a replica of some fictional universe, it was that I could create the universe in my head as I was building it. And yeah, the Lego Friends thing makes me rather sad. But that's not wholly Lego's fault; parents insist on segregating girls' toys from boys' toys, and Lego reacted to meet that demand. Who knows, with any luck maybe some of the girls who otherwise wouldn't be exposed to Legos at all will get introduced to Mindstorms. And I still have to give them props for this ad from 1981: http://cdn.twentytwowords.com/wp-content/uploads/Awesome-1981-Lego-ad-634x857.jpg http://cdn.twentytwowords.com/wp-content/uploads/Awesome-198...
- pyre 14y ago
  Personally, as a child, I would have loved the tie-ins because of all of the new specialized pieces that they make for them. The original sets never lasted for a super long time before it was all just component parts for building whatever I was building.
- panzagl 14y ago
  Lego was almost bankrupt a decade or so ago, and partnering with first Star Wars and then other properties helped save them. Don't blame them because kids have brands/IP shoved down their throat now.
- stuff4ben 14y ago
  I have twin 5-yo daughters and have bought only the space-themed LEGO sets for them. They've seen the "Friends" sets but really just want to build spaceships, airplanes, and cars. I guess I'm doing something right :) I also have to admit that one of the reasons I bought the space sets was in case they didn't like LEGOs. That way at least I could have some fun with them. Now I have to share...
- kenver 14y ago
  It's a shame the older stuff has gone out of fashion, but they had to do something to keep going. At one point a few years ago it seemed like they wouldn't survive. Fortunately it seems that the film tie-ins have worked so I'm grateful for that.
potatolicious 14y ago
I suppose this is the benefit of being a privately held business - you can adhere to your principles and goals without catering or placating the whims of public shareholders obsessed about this quarter's performance.
- hudibras 14y ago
  Any public company worth its salt would do the same thing. The positive PR generated would be completely justifiable if any shareholder was crazy enough to sue. It's the same reason that public companies give to charities or sponsor events.
johncoltrane 14y ago
I was a huge LEGO fan when I was a kid. I didn't have many themed boxes but the basic bricks were more than enough for a kid with a lot of imagination. As a grown up, seeing all those incredibly detailed scenes and models created by fans pop up every now and then on the net has been fun to watch. As a father, accompanying my kid through his discovery of LEGO was a treat and a great occasion to get into the "zone" for hours… with him. I must say that I wasn't convinced by their Hero Factory stuff; thinking it was too inherently violent and left too little room for my kid's imagination. Now that he has 6 or so of those and spends hours combining their parts (adding LEGO elements here and there) into gigantic — and horrific — figures I can say that I misjudged them.
runn1ng 14y ago
LEGO is just now (in process of) suing Czech Pirate Party on trademark grounds. We (as in pirate party) made a pretty mediocre (IMO) ad before elections, which used CGI models that bore some resemblance to Lego figures. They didn't like that. We think we are in the right; however, we don't particularly like LEGO corporation at this moment. The ad was just on youtube and not in any TV or amything.

smiler 14y ago

Have you never stood on a piece of lego? :)

StavrosK 14y ago
It was an amazing learning experience.
- CaptainDecisive 14y ago
  When my wee boys stand on their Lego I see it as a wonderful teachable moment. Lego is a great company to provide me with so many educational opportunities.
  - nicholassmith 14y ago
    When you as a child stand on Lego you learn that you should tidy things away when done, when as an adult you stand on it you learn that you need to have a talk with the kid about tidying things away. Or to tidy it away after you've built another spaceship.
    - lutze 14y ago
      And when an adult stands on it in front of the kid, the kid learns lots of interesting new words! Lego: you're never not learning. The only real problem I have with Lego is the price of some of the items. A cursory search will bring you across £500 Technic sets... which is utterly bloody ridiculous.
- gyardley 14y ago
  I used to jam those little castle Lego swords and spears into the stitching of the braided area rug in my bedroom, to create that authentic medieval battlefield look. When my dad tromped on one of those things after coming off the evening shift, it was a learning experience for both of us.
arethuza 14y ago
Compared to the caltrops like device that is a standard UK power plug a mere lego brick is hardly likely to cause much harm.

josephlord 14y ago

The latest 'Friends' range targeted at girls has received some bad press. Not much construction to do, all nail bars and shopping sort of sexism. Not the most serious bad press but its something.

nicholassmith 14y ago
I will admit I'd forgotten that, but mostly as it was complaints from consumer action groups rather than consumers, if I remember rightly Lego introduced it after parental request/requests from girls and saw a profit spike. I don't particularly like the idea of Lego falling into gender categories as it's a toy for creative minds, but if the market wants something then the market wants something.
- koide 14y ago
  Some creative minds are more interested in nurseries and tea parties than in trains or robots. And it's natural for it to be so. It's evident once you have some kids. I truly wanted that not to be the case, but reality bites. For the PC crowd: This of course doesn't mean that girls will never play with robots or cars or that boys won't play with nurseries or tea parties. Of course a mix is healthy and should be encouraged. But the stereotypical preferences are truly marked in most cases, before parental intervention.
  - josephlord 14y ago
    To be honest I think my biggest complaints about lego are cost and that it is hard just to get a big bag of basic bricks. However I think the 'Friends' thing could have been better handled with modest tweaks. Why aren't there any boys/men in 'Friends'? What if boys want to play nurseries or tea parties. When I was young the lego characters were mostly gender free but it seems increasingly that the 'boys' lego increasingly has male characters (even outside the branded Harry Potter/Lord of the Rings stuff). All the Firefighters and Police seem to be men when they could have been much more gender neutral (or mixed genders) without loss of fun to boys or girls.
  - 14y ago

datr 14y ago

I think there was a piece on hacker news attacking them a few months back for a shift in their advertising from being relatively gender balanced in the 80s to being very boyish today. Other than that though I completely agree with you. They seem like a great company.

michaelt 14y ago

Some people [1] have linked the rise of Lego and the decline of Meccano [2] to the decline of manufacturing in the western world, as Lego doesn't teach Meccano's lessons about L section beams, diagonal braces, gantries in tension and compression, and so on. [1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1333215/Why-Britain-needs-more-Meccano-and-less-Lego.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1333215/Why-Britain-n... [2] http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8Q-tdV67Suc/TfhcQxf63JI/AAAAAAAAATk/h32oKyL6xa0/s1600/MAWH_MECCANO.jpg http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8Q-tdV67Suc/TfhcQxf63JI/AAAAAAAAAT...

eternalban 14y ago
I got my initial (entirely empirical) lessons in mechanics via Fischertechnik [1]. Absolutely the best toy, ever. [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischertechnik http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischertechnik [p.s.: http://www.fischertechnik.de/en/Home/info/computing.aspx http://www.fischertechnik.de/en/Home/info/computing.aspx "programming is child's play" /G ]
nicholassmith 14y ago
I used to have a Meccano set from the early 70s, it was fantastic. I always thought it was a shame it never got as much attention.
bcoates 14y ago
And I thought construx were neat, that is one awesome construction set.
xentronium 14y ago
These Meccano constructors are similar to what we had in post-soviet Russia, although I've never heard that name. Then about the end of 90-s LEGO gained popularity, and indeed, 'soviet constructor', as we called these sets, stopped being sold. I always wondered whether they were really suitable for smaller kids, considering smaller parts et al. This is what our constructors looked like: * Constructor parts: http://blogarchive.ru/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/konstruktor-01.jpg http://blogarchive.ru/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/konstruktor... * Photos of the manual: http://vasi.net/community/kartinki/2009/08/25/sovetskijj_konstruktor.html http://vasi.net/community/kartinki/2009/08/25/sovetskijj_kon...

belorn 14y ago

There has been some criticism over their rather aggressive use of trademark to fake "patent" their designs after their original design patents had expired. I also heard (so, unverified) that users of 3d-printers has gotten some of that attention. So, great company to work with, great products, but clearly a bit overreaching in the legal department. How evil that makes them... meh, at least they are not trying to patent something that they themselves never created. Still wrong through.

kibwen 14y ago

As a child I was a huge Lego fanatic. I don't have much time for it anymore, but I still make a point to walk through the Lego aisle if I'm ever in a toy store. One thing that I'm a bit saddened about is how it feels that movie tie-ins have overshadowed the other sets. Star Wars, Harry Potter, Batman, Avengers, The Hobbit... what I loved as a kid wasn't that I was building a replica of some fictional universe, it was that I could create the universe in my head as I was building it. And yeah, the Lego Friends thing makes me rather sad. But that's not wholly Lego's fault; parents insist on segregating girls' toys from boys' toys, and Lego reacted to meet that demand. Who knows, with any luck maybe some of the girls who otherwise wouldn't be exposed to Legos at all will get introduced to Mindstorms. And I still have to give them props for this ad from 1981: http://cdn.twentytwowords.com/wp-content/uploads/Awesome-1981-Lego-ad-634x857.jpg http://cdn.twentytwowords.com/wp-content/uploads/Awesome-198...

pyre 14y ago
Personally, as a child, I would have loved the tie-ins because of all of the new specialized pieces that they make for them. The original sets never lasted for a super long time before it was all just component parts for building whatever I was building.
panzagl 14y ago
Lego was almost bankrupt a decade or so ago, and partnering with first Star Wars and then other properties helped save them. Don't blame them because kids have brands/IP shoved down their throat now.
stuff4ben 14y ago
I have twin 5-yo daughters and have bought only the space-themed LEGO sets for them. They've seen the "Friends" sets but really just want to build spaceships, airplanes, and cars. I guess I'm doing something right :) I also have to admit that one of the reasons I bought the space sets was in case they didn't like LEGOs. That way at least I could have some fun with them. Now I have to share...
kenver 14y ago
It's a shame the older stuff has gone out of fashion, but they had to do something to keep going. At one point a few years ago it seemed like they wouldn't survive. Fortunately it seems that the film tie-ins have worked so I'm grateful for that.

potatolicious 14y ago

I suppose this is the benefit of being a privately held business - you can adhere to your principles and goals without catering or placating the whims of public shareholders obsessed about this quarter's performance.

hudibras 14y ago
Any public company worth its salt would do the same thing. The positive PR generated would be completely justifiable if any shareholder was crazy enough to sue. It's the same reason that public companies give to charities or sponsor events.

johncoltrane 14y ago

I was a huge LEGO fan when I was a kid. I didn't have many themed boxes but the basic bricks were more than enough for a kid with a lot of imagination. As a grown up, seeing all those incredibly detailed scenes and models created by fans pop up every now and then on the net has been fun to watch. As a father, accompanying my kid through his discovery of LEGO was a treat and a great occasion to get into the "zone" for hours… with him. I must say that I wasn't convinced by their Hero Factory stuff; thinking it was too inherently violent and left too little room for my kid's imagination. Now that he has 6 or so of those and spends hours combining their parts (adding LEGO elements here and there) into gigantic — and horrific — figures I can say that I misjudged them.

runn1ng 14y ago

LEGO is just now (in process of) suing Czech Pirate Party on trademark grounds. We (as in pirate party) made a pretty mediocre (IMO) ad before elections, which used CGI models that bore some resemblance to Lego figures. They didn't like that. We think we are in the right; however, we don't particularly like LEGO corporation at this moment. The ad was just on youtube and not in any TV or amything.