Lego: The Resurrection!

Hello everyone,

I'm sure (I'm serious) that you've at least heard of Lego. But what you probably haven't heard is that Lego, despite being a household name was on the brink of death not too long ago. Let's look into it, shall we?

This iteration of the Lego Logo has been plastered on boxes for nearly 30 years. Previously, the logo frequently went through several design changes.

I'm sure that many of you found great joy in the Castles, Spaceships, Pirates and the like. While those years certainly were fantastic, Lego began to decline once the late 90's hit. It was at this time that Lego got rid of all of their designers, and gathered 30 'innovators,' a group of top graduates in design colleges across Europe. Lego assumed that these innovators were going to design some of the greatest Lego sets to be manufactured. Now, in the eyes of a child, they did exactly that. From programmable robots, to pneumatic and pressure elements, rounded out with fiber optic cables that could be run throughout the Lego set they were included in.

Lego's programmable robots live on with Lego Mindstorms EV3.

So what's the issue? Well, what if kids dropped their robot? What if the pressure container was to, oh... I don't know, blow up? What if a child suffocated on the fiber-optics? These 'innovators,' as senior designer, Mark Stafford, puts it**, were "...great designers [but] they knew little specifically about toy design and less about LEGO building." These designers payed to much attention to the other toy markets instead of approaching Lego as it's own market (not a monopoly, mind you). Suddenly, there were Lego-built action figures, and doll house sets that included Lego manufactured dolls and specialized parts. Such themes as Galidor (often regarded as the worst Lego theme ever), Scala/Belville, and Znap (similar to k'nex) were the product of this dark age of Lego design.

I will admit though, I'm always wearing nostalgia goggles when viewing those sets, so I'm unbelievably biased, due to my appreciation for them as a child... and an adult.

*Ahem*...Back to our subject at hand, one of Lego's head managers decided to crunch the numbers regarding the cost it was to make all of the bricks they were producing. Not a big deal, right? This just so happened to be the first time someone had ever done that! Over the course of 50+ years no one thought of how costly molding their parts were! And thanks to those 'innovators,' there were now so many specialized pieces, many of which had no use anywhere else but in one set that may sell. The amount of parts they were manufacturing was rapidly climbing, meaning that the cost of parts manufacturing was more costly than the suggested retail price of the set they were going to be made into!

Despite the turn of the century being VERY difficult for Lego, they didn't file for any form of bankruptcy. Why is that? Well it was those 'innovators' who decided that getting a license from another company would be most profitable. This meant that, using the storyline and characters from this license, Lego could manufacture sets with the license's logo and all.
Lego signed with Lucasfilm, and acquired the license for Star Wars in 1999. Star Wars was an unbelievable success, and today, is now Lego's best selling product line overall.

The Bionicle called "Tahu" as he appeared in 2001

But that's not all, in 2001, these 'innovators' also took a dangerous turn into the action figure world. Although these figures looked cool and had a lush back story, most of them were costly to produce and had little success...

Tahu as he appeared in 2015. Uncannily similar, no?

...except for an oddball by the name of Bionicle. They were odd looking, but they were cool! They sold well, but they still weren't cost effective. Yet, Bionicle lasted for 10 years, and was the first Lego theme to ever be fully rebooted, as it did in January of 2015 (after a painful hiatus for some super fans. This is one of those series that had a huge fan following, similar to the series mentioned in my last blog post).

Despite Star Wars and Bionicle's success, there was still the matter of making everything more cost effective, so a new, more knowledgeable CEO, Jorgen Vig Knudstorp (isn't Danish fun!) came in, fired all of the innovators, and whittled down at the huge parts lineup Lego had to offer. Many of these retired molds now sit buried beneath a concrete slab, lost to the hills of Denmark.

In the following years, Lego saw a new spark of life light within itself. Lego acquired more licenses. They started to craft more specific themes that weren't simply decided on all "willy-nilly." These include: Licenses (like Star Wars, and Indiana Jones), Action (includes secret agents, pirates, ninja, and even space), buildable figures (Bionicle), toddler toys (giant sized pieces called Duplo), models (includes the Architecture and Creator themes) and the ever classic City theme (speaks for itself).

Ninjago would ultimately claim Bionicle's title of Lego's best selling non-licensed theme. It was entirely developed in house, and had a TV show to boot!

Lego managed to be extremely successful in the 2000's. They started to publish video games, opened up nearly triple the amount of Lego Brand Retail stores across the globe, and managed to overcome Ferrari as the most powerful company in the world. That was, however, due to some recent jumps in success including the introduction of girl specific themes like "Friends" and "Elves", and media driven action themes including "Ninjago," and the cult classic, "The Lego Movie."

If there is anything you did in life that you should admit to everyone, it's that you saw this movie.

Today, Lego may just well be in its golden age. After a hard battle restructuring everything that had happened over the course of the late 1900's, here they are now.

From this point, it's more than likely that Lego will be around for quite some time. I'm glad that I can be a part of it. Maybe you should check out a few of their sets yourself. You never know, you might find something really cool to enjoy.


Thanks all,

-Peter

EDIT: Some images were not showing upon initial publishing. They have been relinked, now giving you more of a visual experience.

**Mark Stafford spoke about Lego's past under his pen-name "Nabii" on Reddit.

Composed Writers + Fanfiction: My true OTP

Hello everyone,

What with all of the entertainment material that is being released, a quick glance on social media can tell you that some, if not all of them have some sort of following. There are those that are simply interested in the subject matter, and then there are those that furiously passionate about their love for the material.

These people are called "the fanbase," by most, but can also be given a more specific name, such as Lady Gaga's "Monsters," or American anime fans referring to themselves as "Otaku" (that's Japanese for nerd).

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic has a massive fanbase that dominates the internet. This is spearheaded by a primarily male fanbase known as "Bronies" (a combination of "bros." and "ponies")

 Something present in most of these fanbases are obsessive fans that write fanfiction. Now this doesn't apply that often to superstars, but many shows, books, video games, and even toys with a cult following have hordes of fans that write these story expansions based off of what they believe. Such beliefs include telling the story of a forgotten character, to having two unlikely characters have... *ahem*... sexual interactions (these unlikely characters are typically referred to as a person's "One True Pairing,"or "OTP," the namesake of this post. Another term is "shipping" characters, using the analogy of setting these characters off on a boat into what lies ahead. As a noun it is referred to as a "ship.").

The issue here is that some of these fans (let's refer to them collectively as "Dave")... Dave is so unbelievably passionate about his fanfiction, that nothing else stands. His stance: This is the story, and how it ends. You nor anyone can change that.

This usually leads to other fans (many of which have conflicting fanfictions of their own) to absolutely destroy Dave's fanfiction, often done by either waving their own "OTP flag" to outright threatening Dave's life.

Legend of Korra, along with it's prequel, Avatar: The Last Airbender is full of lush characters that fans adore to pair up together, some a bit more outrageous than others...

Dave's passion for his fanfiction can also lead to him being absolutely enraged that his fanfiction has been destroyed by how the official canon (storyline) of the official show, book, etc. has turned out. This again leads to other fans wanting to rage war on his self esteem.

The issue, is that Dave is a little too passionate about his story, and that there are others like Dave who are as well. All of the Daves out there need to be a little bit more composed when it comes to their fanfiction, because, if they are flagrant with their story, they will ultimately be defeated by those who have no interest. If Dave presented his story as a possible storyline, and posted his fanfiction where composed fanfiction writers gather, he may just find that although he is passionate about his source material, just as many, many others, he may find constructive criticism that may blossom into something totally new.

In all honesty here, we all will have our own little fanfictions, but why not develop that into something more, create something out of that and accept the criticism of others. That's how I developed my love of writing (not the sexual kind, mind you), and I even touch up some old fanfiction fossils to this day.

Rooster Teeth's RWBY has a fanbase that is also susceptible to pairing characters up. The issue at hand is that Rooster Teeth loves to poke fun at these pairings and fuels the OTP fires.

Just be passionate, but don't get out of hand. It's okay to love these stories with a passion. That's why most forms of entertainment are created, right?

Let me know what you think in the comments.

Thanks all,

-Peter

NOTE: All of my examples are shows from the animation industry. A fanbase, and fanfictions are not limited to only animations, but even branch to live-action programs, such as The Walking Dead, that have massive followings and a fanfiction writing fanbase to boot!

Star Wars: The Universe That Never Ends!

Hello everyone,

Today I'm going to let you in on something that very few people know about me... I'm a huge Star Wars buff. I don't know if it was me being five when Lego first started to produce Star Wars sets, or that I played Star Wars: Racer for the Nintendo 64 religiously when I first got my hands on it.

There is something a little off about it though. It's nearly forty years strong and there is no end in sight. Literally. There are so many planets and moons in this series, and I don't mean the ones that get mentioned in an off conversation. So then, what makes it stand out?

I don't know what George Lucas was thinking, but somehow I can't help but be inspired. He managed to create a world and make it into something that people love. It's been a dream of mine to do the same. So much so that I have my own world/universe in process. But that's for another time.

Salicious Crumb

Ponda Baba

Have you noticed that pretty much all of the characters in Star Wars have some unbelievably outlandish names? Sure names like Luke Skywalker don't seem so out there, but names such as Salicious Crumb and Ponda Baba? (The former is seen aside Jabba the Hutt in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, and the latter gets his arm chopped off by Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope). I feel that these names make this Universe so lush with diversity. They really feel like they are creatures from different worlds. I mean come on, names like Bob and Fred aren't really going to cut it.

Even then, the look of the worlds and the locales are so drastically different from each other. There is just so much to absorb. So many interesting things to enjoy in every building. Every Weapon. Even every vehicle!

Who doesn't love this modified YT-1300 light freighter?

Now who would have thought that the "Millennium Falcon" would become a household name?

Obviously there is so much to enjoy from the fantastic space opera that Star Wars is. I urge you, maybe even beg you (just a little bit) to see all six of these movie (please start with the Phantom Menace first, you won't enjoy the Prequel Trilogy (Episodes I, II, and III) as much if you have the Original Trilogy (Episodes IV, V, and VI fresh in your mind). Episode VII is just around the corner as well. The Sequel Trilogy begins the Winter.

You should check out the cartoon series (plural) too. Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels aren't just for kids.

Thanks all,

Peter