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Comment by egeozcan | Hacker News Reader

Regarding Lego, as long as that IP stuff allows them to keep producing the excellent generic stuff (which is still easy to buy online, less so in stores, at least in Germany), more power to them!

I think the biggest threat to the generic lines is the fact that they have to compete against other generic stuff that's produced cheaper. So they need to differentiate. Amazon is filled to the brim with the no-name generic building blocks that are not as high quality as Lego, and apparently you can't differentiate purely base don the quality alone.

Even in clothing, there are less and less, not high-fashion but high quality for not totally unreasonable price brands.

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> I think the biggest threat to the generic lines is the fact that they have to compete against other generic stuff that's produced cheaper.

I'd say the biggest threat is Lego's pricing. Even Lego's small generic sets are sold for over 20€. Even Lego fans pause when faced with that kind of price tags.

Fortunately, hundreds of billions of Lego bricks were sold over the years, many of which survive, making for a very deep secondary market. On average, families only seem to grow wealthier, in terms of the amount of Lego they acquire.

Lego's secondary market works for the benefit of diehard fans, but it doesn't help finance Lego the company.

The non-diehard fans can simply buy Lego knockoffs.

I'd like to support Lego but I don't get to do that by buying used sets or knockoffs, but Lego's pricing also prices me out of the market.

It benefits die hard fans, including the kind that's not tall enough to ride a rollercoaster, because they're routinely gifted Lego by the bucket. I think an argument could be made that there is enough Lego in rotation that we can stop making more of it for a couple of decades.

Lego Corp. bought Bricklink, so they at least benefit from sales there.

From evidence not directly stated they bought it more to keep it alive than to make millions. Bricklink is a value add; what other toy can you get spare parts for sets 30+ years old even on the secondary market?

Inflation considered, and set size, Lego has gone down in price since I was a kid, and generic sets (Creator) are still available.

What’s also amazing is the “licensed premium” isn’t that high if you do direct comparisons.

They did perfect low quantity manufacturing which is evident by the vast numbers of obvious for-adults “Ideas” that are produced.

The knockoffs are still of less quality, especially the manuals.

In my opinion, the strategy of quality-first is the main reason for lego's sustainable success.

As evidenced by my four year old who is eagerly anticipating the day my childhood boxes of Lego will come to him (as they will later this year; being the only grandchild). He is already very happily playing with them over at his grandparents house of course.

He has three sets of his own (gotten at 3¾ and his fourth birthday), and has now progressed from building the sets (the 5+ Lego City generic stuff) to disassembling them and building his own things.

I an happy that Lego Pick a Brick exists. Sure, it costs small fortune, but if you are interested only in building parts collection for experimentation, eg. you need 20 black beams of every type and bricklink has no people selling in your region.

In-store pickabric is fun because you get to try to spacially maximize the container you get. Well worth the trip if you’re ever near a Lego store.

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