Lego apparently 'made too many brocks'

BooTheMightyHamster

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43298897

BooTheMightyHamster

Brocks?

Really?

Doh!

Si_UKNZ

Yeah, they just set their factory going, didnt check it for a few weeks, and by the time they realised their typo, they had 30 million brocks.

They all feature the brand name 'Leyo' and they have decided to start a new range of Leyo Brocks to use them all up. 

Apparently, a new site, 'Brockset' has been set up to help people keep up with these new releases and manage their Brock collections. 

MaffyD

I came here to find out what a brock was. I'm staying to laugh (good naturedly) at @BooTheMightyHamster :-)

If you're French and you put them in milk is it "brock-au-lait" and so count as plant-made pieces?

Yes, I know that was tenuous.

AndyPol

Now I have an official reason why my LEGO has flooded my house... I've been helping LEGO with their surplus! 

Polyphemus

"2017 was a challenging year and overall we are not satisfied with the financial results".

Ha! That pretty much describes the state of my bank account after last year's epic product lineup...

CCC

2015 and 2016 were very high performing years and they took on many new staff expecting the same growth. Clearly that post-TLM growth was not sustainable.

LEGO is becoming over-saturated everywhere. Barely a week goes by without LEGO or something made from LEGO or an explanation using LEGO is in the news. Some of my son's friends' parents have even asked that their kids don't get lego for birthday presents as they already have enough of it ...

Plus, to me, they are taking the mickey with pricing these days. I don't think I have paid retail price in ages and if I did it was for PAB not sets. Any normal retail set will be discounted by 30% at some stage, so I'll wait. This tends to keep me out of LEGO stores and in supermarkets. Or we'll go to the LEGO store, collect a promo (like the birthday set with the calendar voucher) and then shop in a supermarket instead.

Ayliffe

Si_UKNZ said:

Yeah, they just set their factory going, didnt check it for a few weeks, and by the time they realised their typo, they had 30 million brocks.

I too can't wait for the Pokemon Collectable Minifigures series featuring 20 mostly identical variants of Brock with slightly different facial expressions

Bobflip

There we go... now we know for sure they have extra production capacity, why don't they kick off a Bricks-on-Demand service? They could easily charge extra to cover the extra costs, with the bricks themselves still costing less than excessive aftermarket prices for certain parts.

jmeninno

Brock Lesnar is quite expensive (for Vince, at least)...

Bumblepants

My favorite Brock is Brock Sampson.

monkeyhanger

They could put on a Venom (Eddie Brock) polybag promo to get rid of the excess.

GeordiePaul

Time for Lego to finally get the rights to make Star Trek sets so we can have an Admiral Cartwright minifig as played by... Brock Peters!

SumoLego

Only $6B in revenue... and only $2B in pre-tax profit.  It amazes me sometimes what people dismiss.

CCC

^ That's only @sumolego!

SumoLego

CCC said:

^ That's only @sumolego!

Precisely!  I'm sure there are plenty of toy industry executives happy the spotlight isn't on them.

I remember when Hasbro, Mattel, Tyco... were just too powerful for a silly blockmaker to ever challenge their revenue...

Astrobricks

The typo has been fixed.

Aanchir

something something megabroks

pharmjod

SumoLego said:

Only $6B in revenue... and only $2B in pre-tax profit.  It amazes me sometimes what people dismiss.

That's one of the reasons I'm glad LEGO is privately held. A publicly traded company would have gotten slaughtered most likely and fans would all suffer. LEGO is still wildly profitable.

blokey9

There is only 1 true Brock. all others are just poor clones.

SumoLego

pharmjod said:

SumoLego said:

Only $6B in revenue... and only $2B in pre-tax profit.  It amazes me sometimes what people dismiss.

That's one of the reasons I'm glad LEGO is privately held. A publicly traded company would have gotten slaughtered most likely and fans would all suffer. LEGO is still wildly profitable.

Unless it's a sexy stock like Apple or Google, mostly pedestrian stocks don't take the public industry beatings.  Nobody cares about the boring bauxite company that has managable growth every year since the '60's and operates at a healthy margin.  Zzzzz...

Praxair is a company that literally harvests, separates and bottles elements and compounds in the air.  How uninteresting...

Buy Webistics!!!!

Lyichir

SumoLego said:

pharmjod said:

SumoLego said:

Only $6B in revenue... and only $2B in pre-tax profit.  It amazes me sometimes what people dismiss.

That's one of the reasons I'm glad LEGO is privately held. A publicly traded company would have gotten slaughtered most likely and fans would all suffer. LEGO is still wildly profitable.

Unless it's a sexy brock like Apple or Google, mostly pedestrian brocks don't take the public industry beatings.  Nobody cares about the boring brauxite company that has managable growth every year since the '60's and operates at a healthy margin.  Zzzzz...

Praxair is a company that literally harvests, separates and bottles elements and compounds in the air.  How uninteresting...

Buy Webistics!!!!

Saw a couple of typos in your post so went ahead and fixed 'em for you. ;)

Shib

The oversaturation thing is really interesting. It’s being said a lot about Star Wars merch in general as well so there could be a certain irony in Star Wars being a theme that helped save LEGO in the past but slowly starts to hinder them now.

Bumblepants

Aside from the polybags the cheapest Last Jedi set in the initial wave was $30 and five of the sets could all easily be considered 'high' in price categories with the Kylo Ren ship $80, then $100, $109, $150 and $160. And US prices are typically cheaper than the rest of the world in Star Wars at least. I see that line up and those price tags and immediately don't want to bother with any of it. I love big, complex sets but its just gotten to be too much.

Pebbles

Bumblepants said:

Aside from the polybags the cheapest Last Jedi set in the initial wave was $30 and five of the sets could all easily be considered 'high' in price categories with the Kylo Ren ship $80, then $100, $109, $150 and $160. And US prices are typically cheaper than the rest of the world in Star Wars at least. I see that line up and those price tags and immediately don't want to bother with any of it. I love big, complex sets but its just gotten to be too much.

You make a valid point regarding pricing. That's the first comment I get whenever anyone learns I buy/ collect Lego, "how do you afford it" or "It's so expensive" basically their first response is to mention price, and it's never in a positive way.

SearchlightRG

@Ayliffe and @blokey9 gave me an idea-the clandestine cloning operation behind all the visually identical characters in Pokémon has been exposed.

Oldfan

SumoLego said:

CCC said:

^ That's only @sumolego!

Precisely!  I'm sure there are plenty of toy industry executives happy the spotlight isn't on them.

I remember when Hasbro, Mattel, Tyco... were just too powerful for a silly blockmaker to ever challenge their revenue...

Maybe not a block maker, but a brock maker, now that one has a chance to rule the world...

daewoo

Lego__Minon said:

Bumblepants said:

Aside from the polybags the cheapest Last Jedi set in the initial wave was $30 and five of the sets could all easily be considered 'high' in price categories with the Kylo Ren ship $80, then $100, $109, $150 and $160. And US prices are typically cheaper than the rest of the world in Star Wars at least. I see that line up and those price tags and immediately don't want to bother with any of it. I love big, complex sets but its just gotten to be too much.

You make a valid point regarding pricing. That's the first comment I get whenever anyone learns I buy/ collect Lego, "how do you afford it" or "It's so expensive" basically their first response is to mention price, and it's never in a positive way.

I wear a Lego lanyard at work and I get comments about how pricey Lego are all the time.

datsunrobbie

Lego__Minon said:

Bumblepants said:

Aside from the polybags the cheapest Last Jedi set in the initial wave was $30 and five of the sets could all easily be considered 'high' in price categories with the Kylo Ren ship $80, then $100, $109, $150 and $160. And US prices are typically cheaper than the rest of the world in Star Wars at least. I see that line up and those price tags and immediately don't want to bother with any of it. I love big, complex sets but its just gotten to be too much.

You make a valid point regarding pricing. That's the first comment I get whenever anyone learns I buy/ collect Lego, "how do you afford it" or "It's so expensive" basically their first response is to mention price, and it's never in a positive way.

I hear the same comments about price, and just tell people they have to learn how to shop, and to be patient. I got lucky and found a local thrift store that has had more LEGO than I could really afford to buy, with prices too low to pass up. And I buy lots of stuff on clearance. I'm guessing overall I have spent around 30% of MSRP for the bricks I own, but at least half of it is currently unsorted. 

MAGNINOMINISUMBRA

Looks like @blokey9 beat me to it, there's only one Brock.
All hail Peter Perfect, King of the mountain!
And as far as the story at hand goes, it seems apparent that there were definitely supply  issues created by both expanded product lines and licensing requirements. I wonder how many more millions of dollars worth of Apollos or Falcons could have been sold
if demand allowed while warehouses full of Joker Balloon Escapes sit unsold...

CCC

There is only one brock in these parts ...

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/brock

It's @bendybadger!

GothamConstructionCo

^Miss that guy.

Pebbles

datsunrobbie said:

I hear the same comments about price, and just tell people they have to learn how to shop, and to be patient. I got lucky and found a local thrift store that has had more LEGO than I could really afford to buy, with prices too low to pass up. And I buy lots of stuff on clearance. I'm guessing overall I have spent around 30% of MSRP for the bricks I own, but at least half of it is currently unsorted. 

I suppose being patient works for collectors (although even we can't help buying on day one sometimes) However, for people buying for a present they're restricted by the price they see in the main stores or on the day they go shopping for the present. Sometimes it pays to wait but for many casual Lego buyers that's not an option so they see Lego as an expensive toy because more often than not they paid RRP

CaptainLego

blokey9 said:

There is only 1 true Brock. all others are just poor clones.

This guy gets it.

TheFew

How about Kelly LeBrock?

SumoLego

CCC said:

It's @bendybadger!

Breaking news...

(not a meme)

daewoo

Lego__Minon said:

datsunrobbie said:

I hear the same comments about price, and just tell people they have to learn how to shop, and to be patient. I got lucky and found a local thrift store that has had more LEGO than I could really afford to buy, with prices too low to pass up. And I buy lots of stuff on clearance. I'm guessing overall I have spent around 30% of MSRP for the bricks I own, but at least half of it is currently unsorted. 

I suppose being patient works for collectors (although even we can't help buying on day one sometimes) However, for people buying for a present they're restricted by the price they see in the main stores or on the day they go shopping for the present. Sometimes it pays to wait but for many casual Lego buyers that's not an option so they see Lego as an expensive toy because more often than not they paid RRP

You hit the nail on the head.  I've suggested certain sets to friends and coworkers who asked about Lego to give as a gift.  The typical response is always how much are they going to pay.  Mentioning waiting for sales isn't really helpful when the party is that weekend.

Pebbles

@daewoo It's a shame that people have the same responses, but I can see why they worry about the cost, especially when thinking about buying Lego as a present. Sometimes it looks like quite a small gift even if you've spent quite a bit. It's such a fantastic toy, but price definitely puts people off. :(

Brixfan02

SumoLego said:

CCC said:

It's @bendybadger!

Breaking news...

(not a meme)

Don't you mean... BROCKING NEWS?

SumoLego

('Brocking' News was a bit too close to a meme for my comfort.)