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.