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Posted: 8/22/2022 3:07:57 PM EDT
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? |
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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? View Quote Because our dumb AF millennial generation is having nostalgia and loves china so they pay the prices. |
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The answer to the ‘why is X so expensive’ is always the same. The answer is : Because it can.
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Part of it is the quality of the plastic used iirc. Manufacturing and packaging is largely automated, so labor is not a big factor.
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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. |
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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. View Quote 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. |
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Lots of IP and tooling to make plastic pieces.
Same reason PMAGs are so expensive |
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They have large attorneys bills defending themselves from lawsuits by unsuspecting parents who are permanently disabled from stepping one the fucking things at 0230 while attempting to take a piss in the dark.
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Quoted: Because our dumb AF millennial generation is having nostalgia and loves china so they pay the prices. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: 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. Very few elements are manufactured in China. Mostly Europe. Some Mexico. |
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Quoted: Because our dumb AF millennial generation is having nostalgia and loves china so they pay the prices. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: 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. 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... |
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There's this thing in economics/capitalism called supply and demand....
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Quoted: Part of it is the quality of the plastic used iirc. Manufacturing and packaging is largely automated, so labor is not a big factor. View Quote There’s got to be a lot of truth to that. When my grandparents were moving a while back we found all of my mom’s old toys. All of them were degraded and leaching plasticizer (the bad shit) except for the Legos, which looked brand new. They were probably from the first year or two Lego was available in the US. |
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"Lego," not Legos or Lego's
They have always been "pricey" for a kids toy. They are premium. Add in their continual march upstream with larger more collectible sets geared towards adults. They have clearly realized the profit margins on a $500 set that tugs at an adults nostalgic heartstrings are high. They just raised all their pricing by 5-30% on August 1, also, due to "inflation and global challenges." |
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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. View Quote Even used wholesale lego bricks are running 3-4 cents a piece. 1.5 lbs of used blue Lego bricks about 500 pieces - $18.49 |
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Quoted: Because our dumb AF millennial generation is having nostalgia and loves china so they pay the prices. View Quote Most all Lego in North America come from their Mexico factory. Lego is currently building a new factory in Virginia to the tune of $1billion. https://www.lego.com/en-us/aboutus/news/2022/june/the-lego-group-to-build-us-1-billion-carbon-neutral-run-factory-in-virginia-usa There is one factory in China, but our Lego does not come from there. There are also factories in Vietnam, Hungary, Denmark and Czech Republic. |
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Quoted: Then why is Lego City sub-theme expensive? https://www.kindpng.com/picc/m/153-1537675_lego-city-2020-sets-hd-png-download.png View Quote Is it expensive compared to other lego sets or just too expensive for your wallet? |
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Quoted: The answer to the ‘why is X so expensive’ is always the same. The answer is : Because it can. View Quote Exactly.... Sadly, we live in a time where basic things like glasses, braces/dentures, puppies - "somehow" have been turned into "luxury" items where the industry is allowed to exaggerate how much they cost. |
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To create demand of course. It's also in cahoots with shoe or sandal makers. Ever step on a lego?
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Tell me about it. I’ve probably spent 2k in Lego this year. Disney castle was for the wife and she loved it.
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I had a friend who interned with LEGO. The quality control is off the charts. something like 98% rejection rate. the tooling wears out incredibly fast with those kind of standards to maintain
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Quoted: Because our dumb AF millennial generation is having nostalgia and loves china so they pay the prices. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: 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. LoL @ boomers and their baseball cards |
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Quoted: Is it expensive compared to other lego sets or just too expensive for your wallet? View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Then why is Lego City sub-theme expensive? https://www.kindpng.com/picc/m/153-1537675_lego-city-2020-sets-hd-png-download.png Is it expensive compared to other lego sets or just too expensive for your wallet? Expensive compared to licensed IP sets, as quoted. |
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Quoted:). 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. View Quote 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 |
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Quoted: They have large attorneys bills defending themselves from lawsuits by unsuspecting parents who are permanently disabled from stepping one the fucking things at 0230 while attempting to take a piss in the dark. View Quote Attached File |
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What's funny is Lego tried to roll their own MMORPG several years back and the fans were pretty stoked about it.
About a year later, they shut it all down. Few players and wasn't making money. Everybody wondered why!? The answer was pretty obvious-- They made an MMORPG targeted for kids inspite of the fact that it is clearly an adult hobby. They threw in chat filters and other kid friendly features, not realizing it was adults who were willing to shell out for the $300 Millennium Falcon. It isn't Little Timmy with mom and dad's credit card willing to shell out for a monthly subscription for a hobby that costs hundreds, even thousands of dollars. |
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Lego instructions and documentation far exceed anything else out there. I don't know how much of an expense that is in the final cost but Ive seen several of the Lego alternative instructions that left my son (4-5yr old) highly frustrated. It really lessened the enjoyment for him.
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Quoted: Expensive compared to licensed IP sets, as quoted. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Then why is Lego City sub-theme expensive? https://www.kindpng.com/picc/m/153-1537675_lego-city-2020-sets-hd-png-download.png Is it expensive compared to other lego sets or just too expensive for your wallet? Expensive compared to licensed IP sets, as quoted. Reasons for one set to be more expensive than other sets with the same number of parts: 1) Minifigs 2) Specialized pieces 3) Stickers & printed items |
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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. |
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Quoted: 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. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: 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. 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. All this. I used to try and buy Lego sets with my dividend money back when I was in school. They were 30's to 80's per box back then. If anything they have been trying to hold their prices. |
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They have always been expensive but now with all of the licensing it just adds to the cost. I think tho that the cost vs how much they get played with is a good trade off.
You have to look for sales - they often get discounted. r/legodeals on reddit is a good source. I loved Lego as a kid but don't buy them now. I have enough crap filling up my house haha. |
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Quoted: Then why is Lego City sub-theme expensive? https://www.kindpng.com/picc/m/153-1537675_lego-city-2020-sets-hd-png-download.png View Quote Because a man has fallen into the river All “a man has fallen into the river in LEGO city” NORMAL memes I can find |
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Try Cobi blocks. Lego compatible and they have some pretty cool kits.
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To be honest we had more fun as kids building towers and buildings out of simple wooden blocks than playing with legos.
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Quoted: Exactly.... Sadly, we live in a time where basic things like glasses, braces/dentures, puppies - "somehow" have been turned into "luxury" items where the industry is allowed to exaggerate how much they cost. View Quote Those have always been luxury items. *Eye roll* Go back 100 years and you just did without. Puppies are $20 at the local pound. Sorry you want some $5000 designer dog. |
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It is Lego (The name of the company)
Lego Blocks are expensive Lego |
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Quoted: Legos have ALWAYS been expensive. View Quote Yup, and they are generational. My kids will be playing with my 30 year old LEGO sets which look brand new. Funny, dudes drop $500 on 800rds off .223 to blast away (or never use) cry about a few hundred bucks in LEGO kits that will last a lifetime. |
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They were always pricey. Back in the 80's when the shit was still made in Denmark a small set would be $30 or so.
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