Is Lego heading for a fall?

Greendude

i fear over-saturation.  Lego is everywhere this year.  It's almost like there's no other toys or if there is, there's a Lego variation of it.  With the price of Lego what it is, I can see parents getting pretty sick of Lego.  The more the merrier imo but I am a little worried.

Shib

Its just a popularity peak. After the Success of the Lego Movie they are riding high. I do think they are running too many themes etc at once, but the "fall" after this peak won't be the company falling apart, it'll likely be more of a readjustment to '"how things were before."

timt

It's not like LEGO has stockholders to keep pushing for higher returns   :p

richo

Lego is in a golden age, has been for about 5 years. Golden ages never last for ever, the clues in the title, it's a finite period of time. When will the adjustment come?, who knows. The main thing is the genuine fans will still like the core product come what may. My personal view is that they are over doing the licenced themes, which means they don't feel special anymore, they feel the norm. I would like these cut back on a bit.

madforLEGO

I believe there are multiple threads talking about this (though too lazy to look for them)

I think if LEGO is not careful they could see another late 90's swoon.
There seem to be parallels to now and the late 90's:
-Supply chains spread out everywhere
-Too many part types causing strains on the production capacity.
-Designs that seem 'phoned in' but sets still costing more for what they are (looking at Pirate and even SW lines).
And now add:
-Poor QA
-Too many sets, apparently straining capacity for manufacturing sets causing many to be temporarily out of stock.

If it was not for the licenses (specifically SW now Disney) I think LEGO would be in deep trouble and they are only one license away from having financial issues I think.

akunthita

As a LEGO blogger I was recently in touch with someone inside the company who told me that LEGO is threading waters very carefully right now. While for us they look like they are everywhere and hugely expanding with abandon, on the inside they are being very conservative, keeping everything in a tight grip. They know this is a wild ride and have to keep a cool head.

Will there be problems? Probably. It is already happening with not being able to keep up with demand on LEGO sets, the online shop not being able to keep up with traffic, and quality slipping here and there. These are inevitable side-effects of so much growth. But the point is that they are not just going with the flow starry eyed, but making every effort to keep their feet on the ground.

mathew

I see it happening within two years.  The saturation point is now.  I remember reading that toys like Lego tend to do better when the economy is bad.  Well it's been bad for almost 8 years.  Which coincides with the current "golden age" of Lego.  

madforLEGO

akunthita said:

As a LEGO blogger I was recently in touch with someone inside the company who told me that LEGO is threading waters very carefully right now. While for us they look like they are everywhere and hugely expanding with abandon, on the inside they are being very conservative, keeping everything in a tight grip. They know this is a wild ride and have to keep a cool head.

Will there be problems? Probably. It is already happening with not being able to keep up with demand on LEGO sets, the online shop not being able to keep up with traffic, and quality slipping here and there. These are inevitable side-effects of so much growth. But the point is that they are not just going with the flow starry eyed, but making every effort to keep their feet on the ground.

The problem is LEGO seems to be ignoring these trends. I do not think they are treading carefully here, not based on the number of sets being made this year (maybe it just seems like more when it really is not) but look at some of the licensing 'flops' lately, LoTR and to a lesser extent PoTC. Many stores had to clearance many of the sets to rid themselves of them, that usually translates to stores being wary of what they are putting on their shelves in the future. Are times good now? Sure, but I just see it more likely they get too big for their britches. Often companies fall into familiar patterns when things are going good and do not see warning signs. IF LEGO was really treading carefully you would think they would crack down on these Chinese super hero knockoffs, and cure the part cracking issues many seem to be reporting. How about making a sticker that does not peel back about 6 months after applying it? QA seems worse than ever.. How about using strong packaging method to ensure that when I buy a LEGO set in the store it is actually the LEGO set on the box, and not garbage, a mis-mosh of parts to other sets, or figures are missing?
It seems like LEGO is trying to do more for less and more often than naught companies that do this tend to ignore warning signs until it is too late.

Aanchir

akunthita said:

As a LEGO blogger I was recently in touch with someone inside the company who told me that LEGO is threading waters very carefully right now. While for us they look like they are everywhere and hugely expanding with abandon, on the inside they are being very conservative, keeping everything in a tight grip. They know this is a wild ride and have to keep a cool head.

Will there be problems? Probably. It is already happening with not being able to keep up with demand on LEGO sets, the online shop not being able to keep up with traffic, and quality slipping here and there. These are inevitable side-effects of so much growth. But the point is that they are not just going with the flow starry eyed, but making every effort to keep their feet on the ground.

So much truth in this. The book "Brick By Brick" by David C. Robertson goes into a lot of detail about what went wrong for LEGO in the late 90s and early naughts, and how they turned things around. And a big thing to realize is that their mistake wasn't innovating. Their mistake was not innovating responsibly. They poured money into unproven new initiatives while letting their more reliable business practices fall by the wayside.

During the early naughts, LEGO fired a lot of their designers and instead hired outside "experts" who were unfamiliar with LEGO brand strategy — people who did not have faith in the selling power of the traditional LEGO building experience. They misread the rising popularity of video games and assumed it meant kids wanted nothing more than instant gratification (hence the "juniorized" builds of the time), when in fact it had more to do with kids wanting to put their skills to the test and master new challenges.

These days, I don't see much risk of this. LEGO Star Wars is still big money for the LEGO Group (more so than any other license), but the top-selling themes also include in-house themes like LEGO City, LEGO Friends, LEGO Duplo, and LEGO Creator, and the LEGO Group continues to invest heavily in those themes.

Additionally, LEGO puts lots of research and development time into new initiatives instead of just throwing money at them and rushing them to production before they even know that there's a market for them. LEGO Friends and The LEGO Movie were each in development for about four years, and that means LEGO had time to get them right. The most radical new initiatives, the ones like LEGO Life of George and LEGO Fusion that come out of LEGO's "Future Lab", are designed as low-risk initiatives so that should they fail, they don't take a huge bite out of the company's bottom line.

I really encourage all LEGO fans to read "Brick By Brick" to get a better sense about just why the LEGO Group fell to the brink of bankruptcy in the early naughts and how they turned it around and developed a strategy for SAFE and RELIABLE innovation.

TheLoneTensor

Aanchir said:

The most radical new initiatives, the ones like LEGO Life of George and LEGO Fusion that come out of LEGO's "Future Lab", are designed as low-risk initiatives so that should they fail, they don't take a huge bite out of the company's bottom line.

The problem I see with this is that both of those were...not so hot.  If I were to draw a comparison with Apple, they try to release everything top notch before it's in the market.  For example, they know what's going to sell, even if there's never been anything like it before (e.g. the ipad, and the watch).  They know this because of incredible investment into research, development and timing.  It's the old Sun Tzu adage that every battle is already won before it is even fought.  In other words, release no product that can possibly fail.

I tend to think that product gambles like that, even though they are innovative, landing with a thud in the marketplace hurts the brand.  Sure they can absorb the $ impact of the fail, but honestly, why even allow anything like that to happen at all?  Fail in the R&D stage, not in the home of a consumer.

Greendude

I wouldn't like to see only 100% safe products tbh.  There has to be some room for little gambles.  I suppose that's what the Ideas theme is but there's room for more innovation or even just quirkier themes that may not have mainstream appeal.

dougts

All I know is that the amount of shelf space dedicated to LEGO in all my local Targets, Wal-Marts, etc, has been steadily shrinking the past 3 or 4 years.   Meanwhile, shelf space for Mega and Kreo has grown from none to nearly as much space (combined) as LEGO is getting.

Not sure what, if any, conclusions to draw from this

Greendude

Hmm, uk I think is different, my local smyths has 2 aisles almost exclusively dedicated to lego and my local toys r us has an entire corner dedicated

binaryeye

dougts said:

All I know is that the amount of shelf space dedicated to LEGO in all my local Targets, Wal-Marts, etc, has been steadily shrinking the past 3 or 4 years.   Meanwhile, shelf space for Mega and Kreo has grown from none to nearly as much space (combined) as LEGO is getting.

I've been out of my dark ages only three years, but I've seen similar over that time. The "boy's" LEGO at my local Target used to have both sides of a full aisle; it now has 75% of that with clone brands taking up the rest. The same thing has happened at Meijer. Most notably, it used to take up 75% of both sides of one aisle at my local Wal-Marts and is now reduced to half of one side of an aisle.

cheshirecat

It feels like there's more megabloks in both tru and the entertainer near me than their used to be, might be more megabloks than Lego in the latter.

mathew

dougts said:

All I know is that the amount of shelf space dedicated to LEGO in all my local Targets, Wal-Marts, etc, has been steadily shrinking the past 3 or 4 years.   Meanwhile, shelf space for Mega and Kreo has grown from none to nearly as much space (combined) as LEGO is getting.

Not sure what, if any, conclusions to draw from this

Megabloks really caters to the tweeners better than Lego nowadays.  Even my six year old son prefers the articulation of Halo minifigs to Lego ones.  I'm not saying that Lego should modify things.  But it's something to consider why they may be losing some marketshare to other brands.  I know when I was about twelve years old, I had lost interest in Lego because of the basic designs of the time (which I now appreciate).  GI Joe, Transformers, MASK, Voltron etc. all offered more interesting play experiences.  

KiltyONeal

dougts said:

All I know is that the amount of shelf space dedicated to LEGO in all my local Targets, Wal-Marts, etc, has been steadily shrinking the past 3 or 4 years.   Meanwhile, shelf space for Mega and Kreo has grown from none to nearly as much space (combined) as LEGO is getting.

Not sure what, if any, conclusions to draw from this

I've seen a mix at stores in my area.  The ones is economically good areas have increased shelf space for Lego and clone brands, but in bad areas the shelf space has descreased by up to half.  One of the Targets in a nice area even has nearly 2 full aisles dedicated to Lego.

I imagine during the next economic recession, these stores will scale back on the shelf space since Lego is a pretty expensive toy.

monkey_roo

Everything is cyclic but I doubt lego will fall off a cliff. They learnt some very tough lessons back in the day and I doubt very much they will repeat them. That said the high they are on now won't last forever and they know that.

I'm sure we can all remember brands and toy lines that have dominated the landscape over the years. Hasbro's Star Wars line is a great example, through the 80's it was indestructible and then it wasn't but 10 years later it came back, lessons learnt and it has been going strongly since the mid 90's, evolving and trying new things, some years better than others but thats life.

Lego as a brand is now doing the same thing, lines are kept fresh, strong IP's are partnered with and they are trying new things (for them) in a measured way. Some will work, some won't, they may slip back down to second or third in the worlds biggest toy manufacturer rankings at some point but that will be about as bad as it gets I think.

77ncaachamps

dougts said:

All I know is that the amount of shelf space dedicated to LEGO in all my local Targets, Wal-Marts, etc, has been steadily shrinking the past 3 or 4 years.   Meanwhile, shelf space for Mega and Kreo has grown from none to nearly as much space (combined) as LEGO is getting.

Not sure what, if any, conclusions to draw from this

Lego's brand is solid. Iconic. But the company (children and others) know it needs to be handled correctly.

Mega and Kre-o are trying to get a larger foothold by going the licensing route, which Lego has had success with.

They may be offering a larger profit margin to the big box stores so that's why they are more prominent. And while Lego continues to sell out, remain in low quantity, or rotates new items, the same Mega and Kre-o boxes sit on the shelves.

Heck, Kre-o has been on advertised sale TWICE in the past few months at TRU!

I have some Kre-o Transformers and GI Joe for nostalgia, but the playability (balancing the figure with the parts/accessories) is awful. They're best put together and placed on a shelf to gather dust like a model.

samiam391

All I know is that whether LEGO goes in the tank or continues to grow, I'll still have my collection. Its monetary value may sink, but it will still be priceless to me.

As long as I have my plastic blocks, I'm happy :)

matticus_bricks

I have also noticed a steady decrease in shelf space for LEGO here in NJ. My local Target, for instance, has all of their "boys" LEGO, "girls" LEGO and clone brands crammed into one aisle. I remember there used to be at least two aisles for "boys" LEGO with the "girls" LEGO in one of the pink aisles. 

Xefan

TheLoneTensor said:

The problem I see with this is that both of those were...not so hot.  If I were to draw a comparison with Apple, they try to release everything top notch before it's in the market.  For example, they know what's going to sell, even if there's never been anything like it before (e.g. the ipad, and the watch).  They know this because of incredible investment into research, development and timing.

No, no company is magical. Even Apple has had just as many flops as successes. For example, the MacBook Air was their answer to the NetBook market, which was really the forerunner to the tablet market. The NetBook market created the realisation people wanted a cheap and small computer for their coffee table or handbag, so Apple came out with a computer that was large, flat and expensive, which is exactly what people didn't want.

It wasn't a complete waste of time of course, because the technology went on to be used to integrate the Air into their standard offering of premium laptops where it managed to fit much more sensibly, just as Lego has taken elements of it's flops and integrated them into successful lines.

So you can't really expect Lego to have no flops, because no company has this, not even Apple. Even having more flops than successes isn't the end of the world- look at Google, they've tried so many things and failed but they have such a strong bottom line from their ad business it doesn't matter.

What really hurts companies is when they started having repeated expensive flops. That's the real warning sign. Say for example that Lego decided to revamp it's Star Wars line with some stupid new idea that killed interest in the entire line, that's when you know management has lost competence and will struggle to recover.

waynegg

Of course they're heading for a fall. It generally follows summer you know. :p

CCC

cheshirecat said:

It feels like there's more megabloks in both tru and the entertainer near me than their used to be, might be more megabloks than Lego in the latter.

I get the same feeling. Although I think there is still just as much, if not more, lego too. When lego does well, the clones do well too. As they are the same to some people.

Aleydita

The nearest toy shop to me is still trying to sell of their MB Halo range, and it's been discounted like crazy for months now. The Lego section is smaller than 12 months ago but the stock they carry changes week to week - I think they're shifting so much more Lego now than before.

Shib

I think that you have to remember that what's on the shelf does little to indicate true popularity, especially when you consider that many shops also have an online presence and you can rarely know what's in the stock room.
It certainly wouldn't surprise me if the other brands are giving retailers extra discounts/incentives to get more shelf space at a time when Lego is proving very popular.
The end buyer normally only knows a very small part of what went on to get that product to them.

Dedgecko

They used to say the same thing about PC gaming... What everyone in the news didn't realize is that more (nearly all nowadays) retail sales are occurring online, where most places don't report sales numbers. It's a perception thing. Also, keep in mind that retail shelf space is a cost to not Target, but Lego. They know they can do the same or better deals online than in the store in terms of product movement, so why waste retail shelf space.

ACWWGal2011

Greendude said:

i fear over-saturation.  Lego is everywhere this year.  It's almost like there's no other toys or if there is, there's a Lego variation of it.  With the price of Lego what it is, I can see parents getting pretty sick of Lego.  The more the merrier imo but I am a little worried.

I can pratically here the doomsday clock ticking down.  between new themes and themes that already exist, them approving of more movies after the "success" of the over-rated TLM, that stupid thing that's a copy of skylanders/disney infinity/amiibos being announced, the lego MMO thing, and basically everything else they are doing; it's not going to end well.

They need to stop for 5 minutes and stop making stupid choices. Why is it with the prices being so high, we are stuck with mostly stickered stuff? I haven't applied the stickers in years and the model looks really bad at times w/o the detail. Why is it they are creating more and more specialized stuff that has little value like even more stinking vehicle parts or weird stuff like 2x2 round jumpers?

EddieDoesntMind

ACWWGal2011 said:

I can pratically here the doomsday clock ticking down.  between new themes and themes that already exist, them approving of more movies after the "success" of the over-rated TLM, that stupid thing that's a copy of skylanders/disney infinity/amiibos being announced, the lego MMO thing, and basically everything else they are doing; it's not going to end well.

They need to stop for 5 minutes and stop making stupid choices. Why is it with the prices being so high, we are stuck with mostly stickered stuff? I haven't applied the stickers in years and the model looks really bad at times w/o the detail. Why is it they are creating more and more specialized stuff that has little value like even more stinking vehicle parts or weird stuff like 2x2 round jumpers?

Why do you put success in quotes? It made a lot of money in the box office, and critics and audiences loved it. Who wouldn't they  make more movies after that? And you may call Dimensions dumb, but who knows? People may like it. Also, Lego is a high-quality product, so it's a bit expensive, but you get what you pay for. If everything was printed, all the prices would be even higher.

I think Lego is fine. Things will go back to normal when the talk about the movies settle down and maybe when Lego is done with some of it's themes (Simpsons, Scooby Doo).

Xefan

ACWWGal2011 said:

I can pratically here the doomsday clock ticking down.  between new themes and themes that already exist, them approving of more movies after the "success" of the over-rated TLM, that stupid thing that's a copy of skylanders/disney infinity/amiibos being announced, the lego MMO thing, and basically everything else they are doing; it's not going to end well.

They need to stop for 5 minutes and stop making stupid choices. Why is it with the prices being so high, we are stuck with mostly stickered stuff? I haven't applied the stickers in years and the model looks really bad at times w/o the detail. Why is it they are creating more and more specialized stuff that has little value like even more stinking vehicle parts or weird stuff like 2x2 round jumpers?

Given that you hate every product that TLG releases, why are you even here?

bobabricks

I think a "fall" would actually not be bad news for collectors. Since the Lego Movie and Lego's boost in popularity I've seen some collectibles sky rocket in price, especially CMFs and classic space astronauts. 

EddieDoesntMind

bobabricks said:

I think a "fall" would actually not be bad news for collectors. Since the Lego Movie and Lego's boost in popularity I've seen some collectibles sky rocket in price, especially CMFs and classic space astronauts. 

I remember a few months back I tried to get both, but the prices were so dang high I refused to get any. So I agree, I hope this happens.

CCC

I'm not so sure prices for them (the collectable stuff) would drop that much if there was a fall. For that to happen, you have to get people to hate what they have so that they want to get rid of it, not just stop buying more.

SithLord196

I'm not too worried their actual toy line will fall anytime soon, but I could see the video game/movie side heading for a downfall.

On the other hand, I expected the whole superhero movie craze to die down too, so who knows?

Lego does seem to be learning though. As mentioned, LotR/Hobbit and PotC were big flops. I feel like that's because more adults than kids were interested in those sets, and the sets weren't the big, complicated builds that adults enjoy. So with The Simpsons being very much an adult centered license, they have shifted to just releasing big collector's sets. 

Just my thoughts on it.

BrickDancer

^I agree on all points with you @sithlord196. The Video Game category is in danger, especially with the drastic price drops just a few months after initial release. But luckily for Lego, it's cost is mostly for the license and TT Games handles the heavy work. Same could have been said about the board game category (except TLG carries the full load), that did eventually get killed off.

TLG is indeed learning what works well in terms of set design and size allocation. Just look at the recent Superhero lines, all are near perfectly sized and priced to move. Especially the low to mid tier sets like Green Lantern, Brainiac, Hulk Buster. The new Pirates line was downsized to fit their young child demographic better. And then they hit the hardcore collectors hard in the wallet at max price range because they know they can get away with it such as the Helicarrier, Sandcrawler, SOH/TB, etc.

My critique on them wouldn't be on the set design/license area as much as it would be about their draconian retail policies (in the US at least) and turning a blind eye to escalating Quality issues. The former was very off-putting on a personal level, the latter is concerning for all collectors whether casual or hardcore. Crazy part for me, is the lack of even acknowledging there's an issue with their brick quality nowadays as if it's not real or happening.

But when it comes to the Superhero movie part, you're on your own buddy. Because IMO, we're only getting warmed up with the best stuff yet to come. So buckle up, it's gonna be a long decade of Superheros :p

Sethro3

I do think with the constant rehash of video games will change their sales overtime. Granted they've been coming out for multiple years now with very little differences and people are still buying them (although the exclusive figure helps). I've come to the point in my life where I buy the games JUST for the figure then re-sell the game on electronic Bay for what I paid for it so I get the figure free. I don't have time to play games. I don't have time to build LEGO. I only have time to collect figures.

And I do agree about the Simpson related idea. It is a "family/kid" theme, but in reality adults are the people buying it. My problem is, why didn't they do this with LOTR!! I'd love some better detailed larger scaled locations...My favorite theme mishandled, so sad.

dougts

SithLord196 said:

Lego does seem to be learning though. As mentioned, LotR/Hobbit and PotC were big flops. I feel like that's because more adults than kids were interested in those sets, and the sets weren't the big, complicated builds that adults enjoy. So with The Simpsons being very much an adult centered license, they have shifted to just releasing big collector's sets. 

Just my thoughts on it.

This is a great point.  One has to wonder how the LotR license would have looked if it was done as 1 or 2 D2C sets per year supplemented by collectible minifigures.  Man, that just sounds so so so good to me right now.  It could have gone on for years.  think of all the yummy ~$200 sets we could have gotten.

ACWWGal2011

EddieDoesntMind said:

ACWWGal2011 said:

I can pratically here the doomsday clock ticking down.  between new themes and themes that already exist, them approving of more movies after the "success" of the over-rated TLM, that stupid thing that's a copy of skylanders/disney infinity/amiibos being announced, the lego MMO thing, and basically everything else they are doing; it's not going to end well.

They need to stop for 5 minutes and stop making stupid choices. Why is it with the prices being so high, we are stuck with mostly stickered stuff? I haven't applied the stickers in years and the model looks really bad at times w/o the detail. Why is it they are creating more and more specialized stuff that has little value like even more stinking vehicle parts or weird stuff like 2x2 round jumpers?

Why do you put success in quotes? It made a lot of money in the box office, and critics and audiences loved it. Who wouldn't they  make more movies after that? And you may call Dimensions dumb, but who knows? People may like it. Also, Lego is a high-quality product, so it's a bit expensive, but you get what you pay for. If everything was printed, all the prices would be even higher.

I think Lego is fine. Things will go back to normal when the talk about the movies settle down and maybe when Lego is done with some of it's themes (Simpsons, Scooby Doo).

I said "success" since I honestly question some factors of the movie from the plot and plot twist to how can lego movie sets exist in the movie when the plot is being made right then and there. I saw the movie and I hated it. I've tried to like the movie but i just can't.

And quality product? Ok sure, let me see. I pay 10 dollars for a lemonade stand and the flush mounted stud brick is CRACKED after a week in a container and the thing was only assembled, not used. I pay 13 dollars for a fire truck on sale(the 20 dollar one) and i find that the spare hose is CRACKED. The only use it has gotten was when i attached it to a spare winch and wound it up. I've lost count on the number of people complaining about cracked parts w/ white parts and cheese slopes being 2 common stories. There's a person over on EB that had to send in over a hundred cracked parts of a HH to lego and another that wound up having to send back a bunch of simpson parts 

when I pay extra for a lego set, or would be paying extra if it wouldn't be for the sale going on, instead of going for a mega blok or kreo set where the quality is nearly as good, it shouldn't be unreasonable to want printed stuff that lasts. Printed to me = a quality.

"Given that you hate every product that TLG releases, why are you even here?"

i don't hate everything the release dude! I love the looks of the minecraft stuff. I have the cave, have my fingers crossed for the C.B. to go on sale, and i want at least one summer release set. I have some interest in friends, especially when animals AND printed stuff is involved. I have interest in Ninjago to some extent and i love chima if i can catch it on sale. I love creator stuff sometimes and i used to be a MAJOR city fan until it began with the 3 tons of police and fire stuff with not much focus on other stuff. Even though i don't like TLM, i love the 2-in-1 vehicles since they look wacky. 

And then lets not forget the moc catagory. When i do moc, it tends to be attempts and vehicles or buildings. i just finished one project(more or less) and I'm going to be doing a Bricklink order for parts that i need for at least 2 projects i want to do, possibly as high as 4 projects since i just had 2 major brainstorms come to light thanks to typing this stuff out. 

why am i here? Mostly to read the brag thread, what are you buying, what are you building,the predictions thing.

". So with The Simpsons being very much an adult centered license, they have shifted to just releasing big collector's sets"

 But that's really unfair to those on a tight budget and there should be different set sized available. I don't have 200 bucks to throw at a simpsons house or kwik-e-mart. If i was sitting on 200 bucks, i'd dragging my happy little tail in for a cleaning/xray/exam at the dentists office so i don't fall back into a severe phobia that's left me with 14 extractions(4 wisdoms that were past the of saving and 10 regulars) and partials!

why can't they have a wider variety of stuff so people have options? Can you really say there aren't people begging for a krusty burger, comic book shop, vehicles from the show, a hospital, etc? What about a homer in space ship set? What about a series of shops that hook together and could be a kind of like a mall set up? what about itchy and scratchy themed sets or the krusty show? There's enough stuff from the simpsons alone to keep that type of theme running for YEARS.

drdavewatford

Greendude said:

I wouldn't like to see only 100% safe products tbh.  There has to be some room for little gambles.

Agreed, and for every "Life of George" there's a success in the form of the Architecture line or LEGO Ideas.

Solarious

@ACWWGal2011

The Lego Movie was a commercial failure because you didn't understand that the 1st part of the movie was in the boy's imagination?
Dude, the point was the kid was making the models while he went. The process of the master builders throwing shit together in a few seconds isn't "real" time- it probably took a few minuets for the boy to do it.

Or were you surprised at how sets that appeared on shelves could have been put together by the boy because that's when they were created (if that makes any sense)? Because that logical falicy is even more mind blowingly wrong

Movies use tiny plot holes like this all the time
What's your favorite movie? I don't care what it is I can absolutely tear it apart. That's not the point of watching films though.
Just me entertained for a couple hours

BACbrix

If Lego takes a hit, It will be okay. Because once you get to the bottom of a hole, there is nothing left to do but climb. o:)

Solarious

One of my favorite quotes from my favorite band is "The roller coaster's gotta hit bottom before it can climb to the top again"
Not exactly the exact context here but it works

ACWWGal2011

Solarious said:

@ACWWGal2011

The Lego Movie was a commercial failure because you didn't understand that the 1st part of the movie was in the boy's imagination?
Dude, the point was the kid was making the models while he went. The process of the master builders throwing shit together in a few seconds isn't "real" time- it probably took a few minuets for the boy to do it.

Or were you surprised at how sets that appeared on shelves could have been put together by the boy because that's when they were created (if that makes any sense)? Because that logical falicy is even more mind blowingly wrong

Movies use tiny plot holes like this all the time
What's your favorite movie? I don't care what it is I can absolutely tear it apart. That's not the point of watching films though.
Just me entertained for a couple hours

What i can't understand is how can lego, a company that big and full of imagination, use a plot in 2014 that feels more like something that'd be better suited for the 1990's. As far as favorite movie?

Taking into account i don't see movies much and prefer stuff like worlds dumbest, good eats, newlywed game, and rupauls drag race: the only movie i call my favorite would be the simpsons movie. You want to tear apart that movie? knock yourself out dude! Oh, and to save you a step, don't bother pulling the "dr nick died but seen alive later in episodes" card since it's already been discussed on wiki. The incident has been explained as he actually just passed out and was fine.

And what doesn't make sense is that the stories and characters were being created there during the movie so some of the parts, you know stuff like the piece of resistance and Emmets hair, shouldn't of even existed!

what about parts in colors that didn't even exist until the sets were made so where did THOSE parts come from?

Solarious

That's a pretty nit-picky reason to hate a movie
Besides, there is a loooooooonnnnnnggggg history of cartoons that are basically just commercials for selling toys. Actually pretty much every single one- even down to something like Seasame Street
I figured that's explination enough

And I'm not sure the whole "90's story" argument is all that valid either. It's been well stated by people way smarter then either of us that all stories ever told in the history of mankind follow basically the same storyline.
(It's part of the reason I don't understand why people spend money to watch romantic comedies. You know how the entire thing is going to play out just from the commercial)

PS- I havnt seen the Simpsons Movie since it was in the theaters. Not a terribly huge fan myself.

PPS- I hope it's obvious that I'm playing Devil's Advocate here because it's the nature of my personality type. The Lego Movie was a fun flick about toys but we arnt talking about Citizan Kane here

AndyPol

Greendude said:

i fear over-saturation.  Lego is everywhere this year.

I hope there will be a crash, then I can snap up sets at bargain prices..... oh sorry, did I say that out aloud, it's just my wishful thinking! :wink:

Seriously, I don't think LEGO will be going anywhere, it will just have ups and downs like any business, although I think the development of other certain countries copies might be somehting to worry about, but that's another thread already being discussed.

Sethro3

In reality, all we can hope for are themes that don't sell well so we can pick them up on clearance and gets some interesting pieces for cheap prices...I'm looking at you Chima. I seem to find those sets on 30-50% clearance prices all of the time.

karmajay

I think a lot of AFOL forget that purchases for kids are a big part of the Lego business. The Lego store near me is almost always busy and kids are always having fun and their parents are buying stuff for them. 

Lego is fine and their bottom line is as well. 

Dedgecko

I'm looking forward to the huge collections that will be available in garage sales in the coming years...

LordofLego

At Target where I live, we have one side of an aisle for Friends, Elves and I think some girly knockoffs, an aisle of something else, and then an aisle for Lego. One side is completely licensed Lego and half of the other side is house themes. The remaining quarter-aisle is for knockoffs.

At Walmart, Lego has a much longer full aisle with two end caps, but the sets aren't stacked as deep. I haven't seen the friends aisle.

Lego may rise and fall, but unless something really bad happens that is completely beyond their control, like Kre-o bombing the Lego corporate headquarters, I don't think they will go out of business.

CCC

I assume by knockoffs you mean perfectly legal non-lego building sets? I'd be surprised if target and Walmart were selling counterfeit knockoffs.

Legopassion8

Satan runs Lego. All is well and good....