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Posted: 8/22/2022 3:21:58 PM EST
[#1]
Quote HistoryQuoted: You ever seen a defective LEGO? Quality. This. They always work. Always. Never encountered a set with a missing piece either. |
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Posted: 8/22/2022 3:22:47 PM EST
[#2]
I have legos from over 35 years ago. They were expensive then...and they look, feel, and function as new.
Buy once, cry once. |
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Posted: 8/22/2022 3:22:59 PM EST
[#3]
Legos are fuckin awesome is why, they're a damn high quality product. Billions of pieces that all fit together perfectly, time after time, year after year.
That QC ain't free. |
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Posted: 8/22/2022 3:23:41 PM EST
[#4]
33 yo here.
Been building legos since I was a kid. Now i have 4 boys and they play with the same legos that I had. They are timeless. In all those years I have never had a single set missing a piece. Their QC has to be amazing. They truly are the perfect toy. |
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Posted: 8/22/2022 3:25:39 PM EST
[#5]
That's why you buy used LEGO instead. Check Facebook, Offerup, Craigslist, thrift stores and flea markets. But you better hurry, over the past two years I've noticed an increase in demand for lego, people are buying the crap out of it. I just scored a massive 100lb box of legos for only $200 on Facebook, I bought it within 50 minutes of seeing it listed and the seller said he was getting dozens of messages already after me. As for why it's expensive brand new, look at the production process. If you play with them enough you can easily tell a fake lego brick from a real one just by looking at it without even touching.
 LEGO Bricks In The Making Also keep in mind that the minifigure market can be really nuts. The Star Wars ones especially, some of them are really rare. 
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Posted: 8/22/2022 3:25:42 PM EST
[#6]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Part of it is the quality of the plastic used iirc. Manufacturing and packaging is largely automated, so labor is not a big factor. Quality of the plastic is a big one. Also, the quality of the molds. The LEGOs I got as a kid (40+ years ago) still work with the new LEGOs my kids get as gifts. Lego calls it "clutch power" and they are very proud of it. Another thing is quality control. If you've ever bought MEGA Bloks or other competing "building toys" you no doubt ended up with some partially molded bricks, missing bricks, and swirly colors in the parts. I have not tried the Polish ones though. COBI. They look cool and eventually I will give them a try. 
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Posted: 8/22/2022 3:27:21 PM EST
[#7]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Part of it is the quality of the plastic used iirc. Manufacturing and packaging is largely automated, so labor is not a big factor. Paying for that automation is $$$$. |
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Posted: 8/22/2022 3:30:03 PM EST
[#8]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Quality of the plastic is a big one. Also, the quality of the molds. The LEGOs I got as a kid (40+ years ago) still work with the new LEGOs my kids get as gifts. Lego calls it "clutch power" and they are very proud of it. Another thing is quality control. If you've ever bought MEGA Bloks or other competing "building toys" you no doubt ended up with some partially molded bricks, missing bricks, and swirly colors in the parts. I have not tried the Polish ones though. COBI. They look cool and eventually I will give them a try. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d3/Cobi_5512_supermarine_spitfire.jpg/1920px-Cobi_5512_supermarine_spitfire.jpg I have that one, the Bf109E, the Yak-1, the P-51D, and the Mosquito. The figures are... goofy, and the quality is not quite LEGO, but the subject makes up for all of that. Highly recommended.  Attached File |
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Posted: 8/22/2022 3:30:41 PM EST
[#9]
Quote HistoryQuoted: If you've ever bought MEGA Bloks or other competing "building toys" you no doubt ended up with some partially molded bricks, missing bricks, and swirly colors in the parts. I absolutely HATE megabloks, left some out in the shed this summer and several bricks already melted. Pure garbage plastic! The only good thing about them were the Halo megablok sets. |
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Posted: 8/22/2022 3:33:27 PM EST
[#10]
Never had Lego’s.
Too expensive |
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Posted: 8/22/2022 3:33:37 PM EST
[#11]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Yep, everyone bitching about how legos are now expensive are forgetting all the times their own parents bitched about the prices of legos decades ago. My parents wouldn’t buy us legos because “they cost too much” |
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Posted: 8/22/2022 3:36:18 PM EST
[#12]
Quote HistoryQuoted: My parents wouldn’t buy us legos because “they cost too much” Yup. Most of the big sets I had as a kid (Castles) came from my Grandpa. Too expensive for my parents. |
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Posted: 8/22/2022 3:38:01 PM EST
[#13]
My son says they get most of their Legos used off of Facebook.
Much cheaper. |
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Posted: 8/22/2022 3:42:30 PM EST
[#14]
I had a bunch of sets when I was a kid in the mid 80s/early 90s. Always used them to make what was on the box, then they devolved into "what kind of gun can I make with these".
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Posted: 8/22/2022 3:45:53 PM EST
[#15]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Because lego is made in china? FFS... Knock off Lego from China is barely cheaper (when you consider retailer margin) on products that aren't licensed which tells you that making Lego isn't so easy. Licensed products range from a bit cheaper to massively cheaper so you can get an idea of what Lego had to pay for the licenses (apparentlt VW reamed Lego over the license for the camper). Actually look at the bricks - there's no visible injection point, there's no flash or moldline. How the fuck do they do that so consistently? The molds are always in flawless condition, that's really expensive. They have a huge inventory of parts (and therefore molds), that's really expensive. Between that and the massive inventory of kits they're swapping molds constantly, each swap means a 6-7 figure injection molding machine is idle for hours as the mold is setup by a skilled operator, that's really expensive (and Danish labor is not exactly cheap). The patents are all expired if you want to offer a "value" Lego alternative... To build on that (no pun intended), I have built dozens of sets with my son, and I have not come up short on the required parts a single time. The quality control they have must be mind blowing. |
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Posted: 8/22/2022 3:47:25 PM EST
[#16]
Quote HistoryQuoted: +1 I don't actually do anything with Legos except pick up kits here and there when they are on clearance to sock away in the attic for speculation. That said yeah the cheaper knock off are quite a bit rougher , don't snap together as well , or the opposite once together you need pliers to get them apart. Whereas Lego blocks are damn near perfect My son has some Mega Construx because they have the Halo license. The quality isn't in the same league. |
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Posted: 8/22/2022 3:48:28 PM EST
[#17]
Some of my kits new were in the $800 range. Got a few UCE kits that are worth a couple grand each.
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Posted: 8/22/2022 3:48:35 PM EST
[#18]
My grandmother had a bucket full of legos when I was growing up.
No instructions . . . just make whatever you want. Usually ended up making houses/forts |
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Posted: 8/22/2022 3:59:34 PM EST
[#19]
Quote HistoryQuoted: I have that one, the Bf109E, the Yak-1, the P-51D, and the Mosquito. The figures are... goofy, and the quality is not quite LEGO, but the subject makes up for all of that. Highly recommended. https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/51323/B180D804-50F9-4500-80A7-30608757A260-445-2498879.JPG What retailer carries that brand? Or best bought online? |
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Posted: 8/22/2022 4:07:21 PM EST
[#20]
My son has tubs of LEGOs that weigh a whole lot. He is a LEGO fanatic.
In terms of LEGOs, one of the best engineered toys made in the world. The QC standards they have rival NASA. You will never find a LEGO that does not fit. Think about that. I was always happy to spend money on LEGOs As far as cost, yes they are expensive, but a top quality toy |
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Posted: 8/22/2022 4:13:21 PM EST
[#21]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Because they're toys disguised as caltrops? Haha nothing like stepping on one in the middle of the night. |
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Posted: 8/22/2022 4:15:44 PM EST
[#22]
We don't have kids, but we do have Lego. A sampling of our stuff. We just put in the shelves so they aren't really dressed yet.
   The Corsair is COBI, not Lego.    The buildings are my wife's. |
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Posted: 8/22/2022 4:23:17 PM EST
[#23]
Always have been expensive.
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Posted: 8/22/2022 4:26:02 PM EST
[#24]
As most others have pointed out QC is second to none. Also licensing and design is a huge cost. Think about some of the several hundred dollar, multi-thousand piece sets and how much goes into designing that set so it works perfectly.
LEGO collecting is a huge business. ROI with a lot of sets is crazy. |
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Posted: 8/22/2022 4:26:24 PM EST
[#25]
I have tons of LEGO in tubs. Sets, all sorts of stuff. I like to check out thrift stores and have scored big. Have a large ziplock bag of people and accoutrements.
I once found an entire trash bag filled with LEGO for like $50. My kids played with endlessly and I built castles, ships, tanks, towns, etc for them. Would even assign an historic building from an architecture book for them to build. I now have them ready for the grandkids. Did give my son some bag fulls I recently found at a thrift shop to keep at his house. |
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Posted: 8/22/2022 4:26:27 PM EST
[#26]
Quote HistoryQuoted: I have that one, the Bf109E, the Yak-1, the P-51D, and the Mosquito. The figures are... goofy, and the quality is not quite LEGO, but the subject makes up for all of that. Highly recommended. https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/51323/B180D804-50F9-4500-80A7-30608757A260-445-2498879.JPG I bought a COBI kit based on ARFCOM's recommendation. I found it to be 90% as good as Lego, and they have some good themes. I'll probably buy more. |
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Posted: 8/22/2022 4:26:58 PM EST
[#27]
In 1984 this was worth $22.13 with someone's discount at Sears. Still wrapped in it's original plastic.
 Even at the discount today that would be $62.44 in today's money. I still have the receipt for it and several other Lego toys. |
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Posted: 8/22/2022 4:36:06 PM EST
[#28]
My kids (and I) play with the sets I had as a kid.
What other toy, manufactured in the 70s/80s, would kids today want to play with? Maybe the steel Tonka trucks (but the new ones are still expensive and have gotten crappy). |
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Posted: 8/22/2022 4:38:13 PM EST
[#29]
Quote HistoryQuoted: To build on that (no pun intended), I have built dozens of sets with my son, and I have not come up short on the required parts a single time. The quality control they have must be mind blowing. Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: Because lego is made in china? FFS... Knock off Lego from China is barely cheaper (when you consider retailer margin) on products that aren't licensed which tells you that making Lego isn't so easy. Licensed products range from a bit cheaper to massively cheaper so you can get an idea of what Lego had to pay for the licenses (apparentlt VW reamed Lego over the license for the camper). Actually look at the bricks - there's no visible injection point, there's no flash or moldline. How the fuck do they do that so consistently? The molds are always in flawless condition, that's really expensive. They have a huge inventory of parts (and therefore molds), that's really expensive. Between that and the massive inventory of kits they're swapping molds constantly, each swap means a 6-7 figure injection molding machine is idle for hours as the mold is setup by a skilled operator, that's really expensive (and Danish labor is not exactly cheap). The patents are all expired if you want to offer a "value" Lego alternative... To build on that (no pun intended), I have built dozens of sets with my son, and I have not come up short on the required parts a single time. The quality control they have must be mind blowing. The Chinese Lego knock offs ALWAYS have missing pieces. Looking for a piece is a much less frustrating experience when you're confident it's there. Malformed pieces and inconsistent colors are also common. |
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Posted: 8/22/2022 4:40:56 PM EST
[#30]
Quote HistoryQuoted: In 1984 this was worth $22.13 with someone's discount at Sears. Still wrapped in it's original plastic. https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/33324/Lego_6382-2498955.jpg Even at the discount today that would be $62.44 in today's money. I still have the receipt for it and several other Lego toys. Well even in that condition it's worth several hundred now so 
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Posted: 8/22/2022 4:45:33 PM EST
[#31]
Lego is the best plastic manufacturer in the world. They have all kinds of patented processes and methods they developed to make small precise parts at an enormous scale no one else can match.
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Posted: 8/22/2022 4:47:40 PM EST
[#32]
They've always been pricey.
Tons of people are flipping their kids used bulk Legos on the bookface. I bought something like 40 pounds for my 5 year old for $150. It was a massive haul. He then discovered Millenium Falcon cockpit pieces in the box, so we downloaded the instructions and built it slowly over a few months. Digging for each piece was a bit tedious  and we had to get creative on a few parts because not all the pieces were there. But it was a well spent hour an evening with the kid for a while. We just finished last weekend.  Attached File |
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Posted: 8/22/2022 4:51:53 PM EST
[#33]
i loved legos as a kid and my parents got them for me, I remember the expert lego car I got one xmas. countless hours on the floor. i can still hear my dad yelling if I step on one more lego
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Posted: 8/22/2022 4:55:02 PM EST
[#34]
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Posted: 8/22/2022 5:01:06 PM EST
[#35]
Quote HistoryQuoted: What retailer carries that brand? Or best bought online? None that I'm aware of. A small specialty store in a large city might have some sets. I've gotten all of my sets off Amazon. |
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Posted: 8/22/2022 5:01:51 PM EST
[#36]
The injection molds aren't cheap to design and build.
Nobody wants to do that kind of work now days. My old man was a a highly skilled yet underpaid machinist his whole life working in that industry. |
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Posted: 8/22/2022 5:02:28 PM EST
[#37]
Quote HistoryQuoted: What retailer carries that brand? Or best bought online? Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: I have that one, the Bf109E, the Yak-1, the P-51D, and the Mosquito. The figures are... goofy, and the quality is not quite LEGO, but the subject makes up for all of that. Highly recommended. https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/51323/B180D804-50F9-4500-80A7-30608757A260-445-2498879.JPG What retailer carries that brand? Or best bought online? https://www.buildcobi.com/ |
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Posted: 8/22/2022 5:03:31 PM EST
[#38]
Quote HistoryQuoted: LEGO has always been expensive. They’ve pretty much been selling sets for ten cents a piece since the mid 2000’s, as far as I remember. Licensed products like Jurassic Park or Star Wars generally carry a premium. I’m pretty sure my parents paid $.10 a piece for sets in the late 70’s. I had some low three digit set numbers. Their design and engineering is where the labor is. Licensing adds for movie tie ins. I’ve started to go to the secondary market for design starting points and buy parts off BrickLink to do my own. |
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Posted: 8/22/2022 5:03:45 PM EST
[#39]
Quote HistoryQuoted: The only thing I saved my parents from donating to goodwill was the Legos and Hot Wheels cars. I am saving them for my kids. I have a HUGE tote of Legos that my future kids will love. @truedef I think the only things my parents didn’t donate was the Legos and some books. Happy that now my kids and I still build with the lego from. When I was a kid. Damn things look great too. |
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Posted: 8/22/2022 5:04:28 PM EST
[#40]
LEGO's molds are very costly..... I had some cheaper copycats from a Chineses manufacturer, their tolerance is so high that you almost cannot have a consistent assembly across blocks. I heard they are able to narrow the tolerance, but then the price would be similar to or even higher than LEGO brand because of the smaller scale in production.
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Posted: 8/22/2022 5:06:41 PM EST
[#41]
My kids use the same legos my brothers and I grew up with (late 80s to late 90s ones) and they are still in great shape! We got a huge bin of them. Everyday they are building something or I’m digging up pdf directions of the sets in there I had when I was 10 off toysperiod.com
Walmart has some crazy good pricing on clearance of sets. Got some Christmas ones (Jurassic world sets) that normally were originally $110 marked down to $65. Just buy them on sale or off Facebook marketplace for used ones. |
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Posted: 8/22/2022 5:08:57 PM EST
[#42]
Quote HistoryThis is me. Still carrying, even at 10:00pm at home, wondering why the hell the wife is screaming bloody murder down the hall. Home invader? Rapist? Nope. Lego. Roach. Gecko. Etc. |
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Posted: 8/22/2022 5:09:06 PM EST
[#43]
Quote HistoryQuoted: We don't have kids, but we do have Lego. A sampling of our stuff. We just put in the shelves so they aren't really dressed yet. https://i.imgur.com/Rfd4FH5.jpeg https://i.imgur.com/DWIXuI5.jpeg https://i.imgur.com/0Vpfi98.jpeg The Corsair is COBI, not Lego. https://i.imgur.com/QVI99gf.jpeg https://i.imgur.com/gZRhjBr.jpeg https://i.imgur.com/uI0XMxf.jpeg The buildings are my wife's. Did you consider to make the shelves out of Lego? |
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Posted: 8/22/2022 5:11:06 PM EST
[#44]
I wanted a Lego Super Star Destroyer.
But I didn't $1000 want a Lego Super Star Destroyer. So I ordered a nock off for $100 direct from China via aliexpress... Edit: it has 2 genuine Lego parts in it due to those parts being misshapen and me needing to go to a lego "brick" store to get replacements. |
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Posted: 8/22/2022 5:11:22 PM EST
[#45]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Part of it is the quality of the plastic used iirc. Manufacturing and packaging is largely automated, so labor is not a big factor. I'll argue their quality has grown more suspect. Have had 6-18 month old sets develop cracked pieces. Compared to 30 year old parts and sets as good as they were when new. Contrary to others, have also had the occasional missing piece in recent years but they are quick to send replacement. There are Chinese knockoffs at 1/3 the price that are 99.87% the quality and just missing the name. |
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Posted: 8/22/2022 5:12:18 PM EST
[#46]
Quote HistoryQuoted: The Chinese Lego knock offs ALWAYS have missing pieces. Looking for a piece is a much less frustrating experience when you're confident it's there. Malformed pieces and inconsistent colors are also common. And to make up for the inevitable missing parts, they always give you a few extra little pieces, like axles and bushings and 1x1 round bricks - the most cheap common stuff. |
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Posted: 8/22/2022 5:18:05 PM EST
[#47]
Buying used parts in bulk is nowhere near as cheap as it was pre-covid, but it's still a cheap way to build up your brick collection.
There's only one issue with buying loose bulk lots on eBay/FB/whatever... you will have to sort them yourself. If your kid (i.e. you) is just free-building random stuff, it's not that big of a deal. But if you want to build sets or mocs, then it's a lot easier to work with parts that are at least somewhat sorted. Sorting is super time intensive though... so depending on how much your time (and aggravation) is worth to you, it might make more sense to buy presorted parts on BrickLink. Not every seller will ship you parts in separate bags, so you may want to do some research. |
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Posted: 8/22/2022 5:18:38 PM EST
[#48]
Quote HistoryQuoted: And to make up for the inevitable missing parts, they always give you a few extra little pieces, like axles and bushings and 1x1 round bricks - the most cheap common stuff. Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: The Chinese Lego knock offs ALWAYS have missing pieces. Looking for a piece is a much less frustrating experience when you're confident it's there. Malformed pieces and inconsistent colors are also common. And to make up for the inevitable missing parts, they always give you a few extra little pieces, like axles and bushings and 1x1 round bricks - the most cheap common stuff. It's more that they give you extras of the parts so lightweight that they can't reliably verify them by weighing the individual little bags. That's why they're in those sub-bags and even designing the distribution of pieces between those bags so that they can be weight verified (left and right wing pieces weigh the same, different colors of the same piece with the same, etc) so that they can be verified by weight is a non-trivial piece of design. |
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Posted: 8/22/2022 5:46:01 PM EST
[#49]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Because our dumb AF millennial generation is having nostalgia and loves china so they pay the prices.  Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: My kid loves building LEGO.....I've bought her quite a few sets over the last few years. Holy crap!!! Why are they so expensive? Are they tailored more towards collectors now than the kids that actually like to play with them? A small little "camper RV" kit that fits in a little 10" x 8" box is something like $60. If you want a fighter jet kit...that will be $80. How much labor and material do they have in one of those $80 kits of plastic blocks...maybe $5? Sure...make those crazy massive collectors kits big money.....but for those small kids that little kids actually like to play with (and not just buy and resell like the adults are doing)....why are they so pricey? Because our dumb AF millennial generation is having nostalgia and loves china so they pay the prices. That about sums them up perfectly. |
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Posted: 8/22/2022 5:48:01 PM EST
[#50]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Then why is Lego City sub-theme expensive? https://www.kindpng.com/picc/m/153-1537675_lego-city-2020-sets-hd-png-download.png Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: LEGO has always been expensive. They’ve pretty much been selling sets for ten cents a piece since the mid 2000’s, as far as I remember. Licensed products like Jurassic Park or Star Wars generally carry a premium. Then why is Lego City sub-theme expensive? https://www.kindpng.com/picc/m/153-1537675_lego-city-2020-sets-hd-png-download.png They’re all expensive. There was recently a price increase as well; not across the board but many sets went up in price by a good amount. ETA some Jurassic World sets are as much as $0.17-0.18 per piece ETA: an example of price increases, the UCS AT-AT went from $799 to $849 a few weeks ago. |
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