[Closed] Lego struggling

I guess everything isn't awesome.

The other employees must be bricking it.

Boom tish

The other employees must be bricking it.

Well done!

I guess they could get a new management team in to help build the company back up again

since almost going bust years ago they've had double digit growth year on year - it had to stop at some point.

Turnover down 5%, profits 3% (down to a mere £600m) and cut 8% of the workforce?

That's not struggling, that's a blip.

That would be harsh by Trump standards.

For context, they've had massive growth in the last decade or so which is now slowing down.

Surprising that they're still doing well in China despite several companies doing very high quality clones of their products.

cut 8% of the workforce?

It's just a shame that people had to be lego

Bloody roads jammed for miles yesterday with queues for Legoland 👿 . Place must be raking in loads.

Though not owned by Lego. Guess they get some money from it though, or sales related to the place.

deadkenny - Member
Bloody roads jammed for miles yesterday with queues for Legoland . Place must be raking in loads.

Though not owned by Lego. Guess they get some money from it though, or sales related to the place.

I've not been for years (and never will again) but last time they were selling tiny bags of pick and mix lego for roughly the same £ per gramme as Cocaine, there was a queue!

Without digging too much, Lego Movie which must has been massive for them was 2014 which would have given them great results in 2015. Lego Batman Movie was last year which didn't do as well as expected so whilst their downturn was mild this year and they still made £600m in profits, perhaps they projected another big year.

The next Lego Movie is 2019, so there's a bit of a gap, it still seems like an excuse to me though, they're still very profitable.

And this I think highlights an area of capitalism i'm really quite uncomfortable with. 1400 people lose their job because company 'only' made £600m profits is quite disgusting.

I guess they could get a new management team in to help build the company back up again

1400 people lose their job

Constructive dismissal IGMC

Loving the BBC's sensitive choice of picture for that article.

The next Lego Movie is 2019, so there's a bit of a gap,

What's going on?

Er, it might possibly be because it isn't about revenue and profit decreasing per se, but because their significant growth has

[i]"added complexity into the organisation which now in turn makes it harder for us to grow further"[/i]

This is hardly news in the corporate world. Fast growing businesses become messy. Transforming that "mess" is something senior management like to do to make like they're doing something useful. I should know, I work in one such business....

I am not surprised sales are sliding - the stuff is very, very overpriced.

(And no there isn't an obscure pun in there if you are looking for one).

added complexity into the organisation which now in turn makes it harder for us to grow further

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I thought Lego had got a [i]bit[/i] pricey too 😕 I love the stuff, by the way.

Too expensive, and too much choice.

Back in the day you got square and rectangle bricks so as a kid you had to use imagination to build stuff. Now each kit is very specific and kids appear to pick it up, make it, and then not touch it again.

Too expensive, and too much choice.

Back in the day you got square and rectangle bricks so as a kid you had to use imagination to build stuff. Now each kit is very specific and kids appear to pick it up, make it, and then not touch it again.

Back in the day you got square and rectangle bricks so as a kid you had to use imagination to build stuff. Now each kit is very specific and kids appear to pick it up, make it, and then not touch it again.

Groan not this again

Back in the day you got square and rectangle bricks so as a kid you had to use imagination to build stuff. Now each kit is very specific and kids appear to pick it up, make it, and then not touch it again.

Yeah but once you;d built [url= https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/31/16234244/lego-star-wars-millennium-falcon-set-7541-pieces-800-dollars ]this kit [/url] I doubt you'd take it apart again to see if you could make a crappy car or boat out of it.

It sounds like a load of blocks to me

DAMN THEM WITH THEIR SPECIFIC KITS & NON RECTANGULAR BRICKS!!!

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[img] http://media.4rgos.it/i/Argos/3042711_R_Z001A_UC17673221?$Web$&w=570&h=513&$WebPDPBadge570$&topright=empty&bottomleft=empty [/img]
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1400 people lose their job because company 'only' made £600m profits is quite disgusting.

You don't think they're playing well?

Perhaps they've run out of stuff to license, which no doubt underpinned their massive growth.
I'm just waiting for the deadliest catch & tour de france sets to come out next.

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Too expensive, and too much choice.

I think I read somewhere a little while back that, adjusted for inflation, Lego is about the same price it was when I was little.

How on god's green Earth is too much choice a bad thing? I appreciate that you don't approve of modern Lego (because you mention it on every damn thread), but Lego "Classic" is readily available.

I think I read somewhere a little while back that, adjusted for inflation, Lego is about the same price it was when I was little.

How on god's green Earth is too much choice a bad thing?

(because you mention it on every damn thread)

This is the first time I have posted on a Lego thread!

He probably meant your [i]other[/i] login.

And, anyway, it isn't 🙂 [url= https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=FunkyDunc+lego+site:singletrackworld.com/forum ]https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=FunkyDunc+lego+site:singletrackworld.com/forum[/url]

make way!

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You don't think they're playing well?

IGMC then.

I assumed the 'too much choice' comment to mean 'other kids toys that aren't lego' rather than too many Lego sets

Growing up in the '80s I recall my parents saying that Lego was an expensive toy. When I started looking after my own pocket money I think I was aware of this too. And as someone else said above, the kits are bigger now, even the little kits have more pieces and the big kits are far far larger than any from my childhood.

While I had a decent base of generic bricks, my childhood Lego collection also contained a lot of kits that had instructions to build specific things. I remember both building according to the instructions and building what my imagination suggested. I'm sure that most kids are still capable of doing the same thing.

One change that does disappoint me is that the boxes that Lego sets came in used to have pictures not just of what was covered by the instructions but also some other things that could be built with the set's contents. That may have helped kick-start some young imaginations and it's a pity it doesn't seem to happen anymore.

Back in the day you got square and rectangle bricks so as a kid you had to use imagination to build stuff. Now each kit is very specific and kids appear to pick it up, make it, and then not touch it again.

Becoming much less so, I think - it was discussed on R4 this morning, and apparently they've made a deliberate decision to cut back a lot on the special parts, be more creative about reusing the parts they've already got. Not least because the moulds for injection moulding to that level of precision are very expensive - you're not really buying plastic when you buy a Lego kit, you're buying tooling.

I never realised until yesterday, but "Lego" was invented by Hilary Page who setup Kiddicraft (now Fisher Price) in Purley, Surrey, but Lego stole the design.

Apparently he came up with the tubes in the bottom of the 2x4 brick that means it fits together better. Lego copied everything, even the dimensions (after converting from inches to mm)

Lego never say anything about it in their history!

http://www.hilarypagetoys.com/Home/History
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiddicraft

Lego just say

"Our products have undergone extensive development over the years – but the foundation remains the traditional LEGO brick.

The brick in its present form was launched in 1958. The interlocking principle with its tubes makes it unique and offers unlimited building possibilities. It's just a matter of getting the imagination going – and letting a wealth of creative ideas emerge through play."

https://www.lego.com/en-gb/aboutus/lego-group/the_lego_history

The instruction books with the earliest kits had procedures for other stuff you could build with the same blocks but as the kits became more specific the additional builds became trivial.

Always remember rocket jr dropping his Lego Batmobile that had taken him many hours to build. I think his interest in Lego ended right there.

It's just a matter of getting the imagination going – and letting a wealth of creative ideas emerge through play.

What imagination is needed to buy a specific kit and follow the instructions to make eg a Death Star?
"Here's a box of bits, build something" v "Here's some instructions, follow them"

you realise the kits like that aren't being bought for children...

Got a few 40-something friends who buy those expensive kits. I think their kids might "assist" in the building, but they're not bought for them 😀

30 something here, we (mrstomhowardtobe and i) buy them for ourselves. No outside assistance from kids, that we don't have...

You don't think they're playing well?

IGMC then.

Aha!

I thought the thing about special parts was shown to be a myth, outside of the collectors kits anyway, the average amount of special parts per kit's been pretty stable since the first space kits

BigButSlimmerBloke - Member

What imagination is needed to buy a specific kit and follow the instructions to make eg a Death Star?
"Here's a box of bits, build something" v "Here's some instructions, follow them"

It's what you do with it next.

It's quite interesting though, I've seen some really excellent knock off kits on aliexpress, but I wouldn't buy a Lepin kit because... it's bloody lego, man, you don't **** with that. But then I think, these layoffs seem like a dick move...

My kids have loads of the stuff but they aren't really interested. They prefer Minecraft.

I seem to remember that Lego is the world biggest tyre manufacturer, producing significantly more tyres that Pirel;i, Michelin etc

Not really relevant to this thread but hey, this is STW. Get over it

/\ one of my fave bits of pub quiz trivia

While there are many complex pieces these days it's uncommon for there to be pieces that are exclusive to a single set. Lego's designers are fairly clever at making extensive use of what may appear to be very specialised pieces.

BigButSlimmerBloke - Member
What imagination is needed to buy a specific kit and follow the instructions to make eg a Death Star?
"Here's a box of bits, build something" v "Here's some instructions, follow them"

What imagination is needed to buy a specific kit and follow the instructions to make, for example a Galaxy Explorer (kit 928, from 1979), a Castle (kit 375, from 1978), etc.? If you think that Lego has gotten worse because it sells sets with instructions then you must have been complaining about if for pushing 40 years!

Or, a child may build the kit according to the instructions but see the potential to change it, possibly in small ways at first then in larger ways and eventually breaking it down entirely and use it to build something else. While having the reassurance that if they end up wanting to play with the original construction again, the instructions will allow them to recreate it.

Even if a set is built once and never changed then a child will have exercised their hand-eye co-ordination, learnt a bit about following (relatively) technical instructions and will still end up with a toy that requires some imagination to play with.

I am willing to consider the point that a set for a specific licensed thing (like a Batmobile or a Millennium Falcon) may be less good for encouraging the building of alternative creations, but that's probably because they're wanted because of what they are, not what they're made from in the first place. If Lego wasn't making Star Wars toys then more regular Star Wars toys and less Lego would probably be sold, and in that case there'd be no chance that such toys could be dismantled and rebuilt into something else... With Star Wars (or Batman or whatever) Lego that's still a chance.

Er, I'm 48 and still 'play', as opposed to just following instructions.

All my LOTR/Hobbit stuff gets mixed up with the nephew's and the grand-daughter's Doc McStuffins/City/Star Wars/Marvel stuff.
It's all good.

I bought them solely as display pieces, but then remembered that they're designed to be played with too.
Glad I did.

This is the first time I have posted on a Lego thread!

May I offer my unreserved apologies. I had you confused with someone else (and irritatingly I can't remember who now).

It's what you do with it next.

It's quite interesting though, I've seen some really excellent knock off kits on aliexpress, but I wouldn't buy a Lepin kit because... it's bloody lego, man, you don't **** with that. But then I think, these layoffs seem like a dick move...

Never heard of this stuff, just looked it up, bloody hell, they're not really trying to hide away are they: 😯

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I received that Lego set for Christmas, the way it builds is nothing short of brilliant. The use of pieces to give it the articulation in the head is genius. It's great to build as it doesn't come together until the last few pages of the instructions.

I'm pretty sure that's a dick move right there.

[i]What imagination is needed to buy a specific kit and follow the instructions to make, for example a Galaxy Explorer (kit 928, from 1979), a Castle (kit 375, from 1978), etc.? If you think that Lego has gotten worse because it sells sets with instructions then you must have been complaining about if for pushing 40 years![/i]

I had technical lego as a kid. I had two different sets to build a big car and a small car. I followed the instructions and by dinner time Christmas day I had built the car...

...by boxing day I had created a V7* engine and suspension**.

*V7 because I only had 7 piston heads between the two sets of lego so it was more accurately a V6 with a single vertical cylinder at the end.

**Suspension was created by nicking the springs out of 4 pens and actually worked. 3 years latter Lego brought out a car with almost exactly the same system, bastards!

Even as I kid I thought lego was crap, don't really get the fascination with it. Always preferred a pencil and paper as a creative outlet.

One change that does disappoint me is that the boxes that Lego sets came in used to have pictures not just of what was covered by the instructions but also some other things that could be built with the set's contents. That may have helped kick-start some young imaginations and it's a pity it doesn't seem to happen anymore.

It does happen, at least with the cheaper sets. The more expensive (build a London Bus or whatever) sets don't offer this, at least not in the instructions. Nothing to stop you doing so, of course, and once the bus is broken down and just a set of pieces in the big Lego Box (you do have one, of course) you build what you like with it.

Even as I kid I thought lego was crap, don't really get the fascination with it. Always preferred a pencil and paper as a creative outlet.

You're certainly quids in then, shops selling pencils and paper are everywhere. But you're on your own with "lego is crap", it is (somewhat self-evidently going by success and variety and whatnot) the best at what it does.

My kids love it, it doesn't break & the Star Wars/ Superhero minifigures are x1000 more fun to play with than normal "action figures".

it doesn't break

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Loved that they gave a nod to the spaceman's broken chinstrap in the film

By the time that the blue spacemen like Benny were available, they'd fixed the helmet design and the chinstraps didn't break!

But still, Benny was basically put into the movie for people like me and I got his Spaceship, Spaceship, SPACESHIP!!! as soon as it was available. (And I've left it built up as such. Some Lego I rebuild but others I treat more like regular toys/display things. That spaceship has definitely been wooshed around my living room!)