Lego is now number two (overtaking Hasbro)

[griffin]

Apparently the global sales figures are showing that Lego is now the number two toy company, replacing Hasbro, and now behind Mattel.

This is probably more to do with Lego improving sales and profit faster than Hasbro... rather than Hasbro losing sales.

[Lint]

Apparently the global sales figures are showing that Lego is now the number two toy company, replacing Hasbro, and now behind Mattel.

This is probably more to do with Lego improving sales and profit faster than Hasbro... rather than Hasbro losing sales.

This news does not surprise me as Lego have been growing their product line very well, especially in the last 5 years. Which is a huge turnaround from about 10 years ago where the company was nearly bankrupt. They've kind of 'sold-out' by marrying themselves to other licensed franchises (e.g Star Wars, Disney) and creating their own action-figure orientated sets with cartoon tie-ins which both have far less focus on the 'construction' and 'creativity' roots of the brand.

However they have not completely forgotten their roots and used the ill-gotten gains to grow their more construction-focused product lines such as Technic and Creator as well as an explosion in new elements (pieces) and new product lines such as the collectible minifigures, architecture and the crowd-sourced CUUSOO initiative. All this without a significant drop in product quality (though some hardcore fans might argue otherwise).

This shows that LEGO are very much in touch with what their customers want as opposed to Hasbro with whom I still get the "we'll tell you what you want and you'll buy it" vibe (although in fairness have given us a wonderful year if not decade of Transformers but I still feel like there is much room for improvement).

The only detriment I can see with LEGO is that year after year the prices of their sets are growing beyond the reach of family households (at least here in Australia). However it is my opinion that, unlike Hasbro, LEGO have a huge and significant adult market that is going to get bigger every year and adults, unlike children, have money and the authority to spend it. This is going to carry them well into the future.

[Omega Metro]

I'm not a huge fan of Lego mainly because of price. It's too expensive for what it is. And when Lego tells its sellers such as BBTS that it is not allowed to sell Lego to Australian customers, that really rubs me up the wrong way.

[Trent]

The licensed stuff is expensive. I can't believe what an X-wing costs these days. But their own lines are quite reasonably priced.

Just depends on what you're into I suppose.

[Sam]

The cost of LEGO is definitely growing so much that it's sometimes cheaper to buy good quality used sets of discontinued themes from bricklink.

But I think they are branching out to other areas such as LEGO oriented video games so they can thrive.

[Jetfire in the sky]

I pretty much only buy Star Wars Lego now and it is a bit steep in price at times, but even back in the day (80's) Lego was at the higher end of the price scale for what you got.
It's great that the brand survived the late 90's early 2000's near demise, I think this downturn was lead by poor sets, and pieces getting larger so therefore less building was required. I also thought at the time that they were heading down the wrong path and over-extending themselves with the licensed items. As a traditional builder it put me off the brand. I think as this idea wore off people like me came back especially once I saw the quality of the sets and the amount of construction required, although the easiness of the instructions now is a bit ridiculous, its the opposite of recent Transformers instructions
Recently they have tried to break into the girl market with the Friends line, I think this will work unlike the Paradisa line which tried but failed. They even have the Friends Lego at our TRU in the girls toy section not with the other Lego. A step in the right direction for sure.

I think Lint is pretty much spot on with the comments made in his post.

[griffin]

Taking on the board-games market 4 years back boosted their revenue massively, to the point of taking on Hasbro's dominance in that field.
After losing the exclusivity on the regular brick design (and facing bankruptcy), Lego started focusing on areas that prevented imitations/competition - like the board-games, computer games and Licensed/themed block sets. Anyone else trying to produce cheap versions to compete would be encroaching on their IP.
It makes sense - if you can't compete with the cheaper competition with your old products, find/create new products that you can sell exclusively, at inflated prices.

[Jetfire in the sky]

Taking on the board-games market 4 years back boosted their revenue massively, to the point of taking on Hasbro's dominance in that field.
After losing the exclusivity on the regular brick design (and facing bankruptcy), Lego started focusing on areas that prevented imitations/competition - like the board-games, computer games and Licensed/themed block sets. Anyone else trying to produce cheap versions to compete would be encroaching on their IP.
It makes sense - if you can't compete with the cheaper competition with your old products, find/create new products that you can sell exclusively, at inflated prices.

+1