Why Lego Isn’t (Just) a Toy Company | WSJ The Economics Of

Content helped build Lego into the world’s largest toy maker. Its movies, TV shows and video games take advantage of licensing deals with some of the world’s biggest brands, like Batman and Star Wars, to grow its customer base.

Photo illustration: Ryan Trefes

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[BroughtCat]

Let's not forget the quality and interchangeable aspects of their brand. Lego bricks and plates from the 70s and 80s (if they're in good condition) are still compatible with pieces nowadays.

[gulorful]

The adults sets have also branched out to ideas that aren't solely attached to licensed themes like their Botanical Collection, which has exploded in popularity online. Tapping into various niches from florists, artists, gamers, etc. has proven to be very beneficial.

[BeyondtheBrick]

You can build some cool stuff with those bricks.

[AverytheCubanAmerican]

The reason Lego changed from wood to plastic is because of a fire that burned down Ole Kirk Christiansen's wooden toy inventory in 1942. In fact this was actually the second fire Ole faced at his workshop. These tragedies would become part of a big comeback story, however. He took the first fire as an excuse to build a bigger workshop, stock market crashed in 1929, his wife died in 1932, and then facing financial disaster he let go of most of his staff. But he made a big decision, he decided to use his wood that he originally used for furniture to create cheap, wooden toys that would sell.

He slid into bankruptcy by doing this but he kept going, refusing to stop making toys. He changed his company's name to Lego (leg godt; play well) to reflect its new direction, and then when the second fire happened in 1942, he had enough to bounce back and move forward, deciding that wood was too prone to fire and jumped to plastic when traditional stuff used to produce goods weren't available. Using a plastic molding machine invented in the UK, Ole bought Denmark's first in 1946 and called the new product the "Automatic Binding Brick", a name in English rather than Danish to honor the Allies who liberated Denmark.

[NoConsistency]

What also seperates lego is its utility. You take away the ip, the value in flipping, the nostalgia. Strip away all intangibles, you still have a interlocking brick system that is fun for everyone. you do that with barbie and all you have is a unposable mannequin.

[djrock]

Was not expecting Bionicle to get as much screen time as it did.

[christopherroa]

Bionicle totally captured my imagination when I was about 7/8 years old. Surprised to see no mention of the Lego Star wars video games here, or the other Lego video games such as Lego racers. Those had a huge impact on my fondness of the brand

[taylorallen]

The genius of lego now is that they’ve almost grown up with the consumer where a person might have used to play with the kid legos now they have the huge adult centric legos that are currently offered.

[kimberbauer]

I had lego when I was a child and now my daughter has too. She plays with my vintage 90’s lego and I play with hers 😅

[empirestate]

LEGO Star Wars and Ninjago are so awesome. Bionicle was the thing that started it all.

[ZebbyBricks]

A key point missed here is Legos sustainability efforts. This is hugely effecting the brand and the companies performance as they look to future proof the company and look after the planet

[cometome]

I really love watching the economic series. Thank you

[avicohenk]

I like the constant innovation from Lego but I do miss the unbranded Lego from my childhood like medieval castles and space station..

[SupremeLeaderKimJong-un]

You know WSJ are people of culture when they include the holy figures of BIONICLE! Another thing Lego is doing to prosper in the Chinese market is opening four Legoland parks (owned by Merlin Entertainment) in Shenzhen, Chengdu, Beijing, and Shanghai. As well as creating sets specifically for a Chinese audience (though popular with others too) like Chinese New Year sets every year and a theme called Monkie Kid inspired by Journey to the West.

[swagnilla_ice]

One thing my brothers kept building with their Lego was a ship, sorta like a cruise liner, but more along the lines of a giant private yacht. Back then, I didn't own much Lego, so I preferred using Plasticine and still do prefer using modelling clay over Legos, though these days I build in Modded Minecraft (which once had a Lego texture pack for the Java edition).

[kimberbauer]

Duplo was a great idea too, there are not so many toy options for 2+ and lego is the greatest of them all

[srw]

The simplicity of the LEGO is the reason why they are widely accepted.

[patrickrico]

There is no greater toy! I'm 39 years old and I still buy myself a new lego technics every month.

[diatomicmetal]

The videogames are also a big part of Lego. Usually great games with a big level of detail and very appealing for kids. The LEGO games were the ones I enjoyed most playing as a child

[fortimusprime]

This is great stuff. But man, do I miss when LEGO came up with good original themes like Bionicle, Hero Factory, Power Miners and Space Police... I just wish they did that along the licensed themes.