It's like how some online milsims know to put obscene prices on detail accurate vehicles. Just get one model right, and you have a windfall* of up to $100 per unit sale per virtual new vehicle model, because you're essentially being paid by military and ex-military breadwinners with either nowhere to spend money or too much of it. Very price inelastic market- if the model is good, they'll shell out.
And realized how pathetic, gullible and willing they are to pay over 100x the cost of the products. Then they figured out lemmings would pay 500x the cost if it was a limited edition.
... lego was saved by a handfull of loyal fans... exactly those fans who are nowadays being scrwed... lego messes up colors... rarely and randomly does prints... no innovation... signigicantly less good parts... smaller parts... and always less for much higher prices... for the emporers thrown room which is a joke... you could get an evoke village and would have had still $40 to spare... packaging and transport is more expansive then the pieces which are less than $0.3 per... piece... ask actual lego fans instead of fan boys and you will hear that lego has become worse to such a point... in terms of cost, qualitly and the sets... like they literally do not even think... they once sold half an atst.. for double the price and it includet an elevator that would not even go to the top...
This could’ve been a bit more critical. Looking at the pricing is one thing, but you should’ve also looked at the quality of bricks, prints and builds. And also the behavior of Lego when it comes to competitors, resellers and critics. That would’ve painted a different picture.
@@Nevir202 Did you even read my comment? They didnt answer the question fully. They left out important parts, like brick quality as i said. Decreasing the quality of bricks while keeping the price the same is a price increase. Since you pay more for less. How have they answered this or even touched upon it? They dont need to "flame" lego, but they shouldnt avoid uncomfortable truths. this makes it seem like a payed article, which is in fact highly likely.
Legos choice to start marketing to adults has got to be one of the single most profitable business decisions in recent memory across any kind of market. I didnt get my first lego set till 3 years ago at the age of 34 & it was the 7K+ piece Ultimate Collector Series Millennium Falcon. At the time being the largest set they made. Just jumped straight into the deep end and have had a blast since.
You probably didn’t get it because it was so expensive. The adult market will eventually literally die off unless Lego makes Lego cheaper so parents can buy them for their kids again.
@@TheBooban That's why they have lego sets targeted to kids that are simpler to build and less pieces which they can sell at a lower price and vice versa for lego sets meant for adults.
profitable for them but detrimental for people who aren't rich. Exclusive pricing aimed at adults. Meanwhile kids and people in worse financial situations are priced out altogether. Shameful business decisions by Lego.
@@swambturtle4203 It was tv spots for the upcoming sets i think. I had several ones as a kid but didn't have a computer at home so i couldn't watch them. I sold them at 14, biggest mistake of my life. But i restarted my collection ^^
Im 19. As much as I love displaying sets and Minifigures from properties that I love, i always feel were getting to a point where lego is so expensive and there isn't enough "toys" for kids anymore. I remember vividly what the early 2010's shelves looked like, the sets were colorful, cool, fun 5o play with etc. Buying 1-3 wasn't a huge ask, but it was enough to grow your creativity. The space sets this year(2024) were some of the first in a long time that made me feel that way again. I just don't see kids nearly as excited for lego anymore. I think profit is important obviously but I wish they would create more unique themes targeted for the younger audiences.
you can buy a ton of cool $20-$30 sets. just bought the set of the parrot for $30 for my cousin, he's 12 and loves it. same with the aquarium, NASA rocket, etc. not to mention all the licensed sets, the City sets, and all the other Lego Creator sets. there's still tons of reasonably priced sets aimed at kids. I see kids buying them all the time, you might not notice because you yourself aren't a kid anymore. but kids also have a lot more to do now. most of them play video games and stuff, they aren't going for Lego. they could have the coolest, cheapest set, and a kid would still rather play some roblox.
@@chipskylark8475 Inflantion isnt an argument inflation is not a natural event.They have almost no competition on the market and the increase of cost making plastic toys dont compare to the increase in prices
Yuuuuup, I will never move my gigantic custom Bionicles. They're so cool and it's so wicked to see the piston joints function when moving joints, but the risk of them breaking now after so many years T_T
+ if you let a model assembled for years, parts become harder and harder (maybe plastic dry in some way) and they tend to break, especially weak hinge plates, the part 2430 little tip brake. So it's quite religious belief to claim Lego parts can stand the test of time.
Bro lego Technic sets might cost 10 cents per brick but half of the bricks are tiny pins so the price to brick ratio is not good to look at these days.
There's no medium priced and sized technic kits an6more. It either a tiny vehicle or a super expensive collector's edition. Meanwhile there are many knock-off brands making some decent kits with pieces that seem to be good quality.
"This toy is worth more than a phone" is a horrific example of both industries. Imagine telling someone that 20 years ago and hearing their confusion. Maybe in 20 years we'll have "this bottle is worth more than a belt"
I agree partially with your comparison. However, cellphones were always expensive, especially during their first few generations. Cellphones were heavy, big and expensive. Nowadays, phones contain a lot of technology and encompass things like camera, flashlight GPS and steps monitor, etc. I'd say they are worth their price today more than ever before.
@@breadpitt9687 Never specified cellphones just phones. But once they got mainstream they had lots of cheaper options. The old Nokia brick phone was less than $200 when it came out. Now they expect everyone to dish out around a grand every few years for a new phone. Also incorporating a flashlight as a feature isn't much praise, lol. You can buy a flashlight for $1
Compared to many other "So Expensive" episodes, this one was very onedimensional in how it presented LEGO. It would for example have been interesting to see values for their margins across the years, to see how much money goes into manufacturing, into set design, into licensing. There are many competitors out there who sell better quality products without licenses for sometimes half the price, which is continually alienating parts of their long-standing fanbase. Not making this the focus of the video is absolutely understandable, but not even acknowledging the situation makes this feel more like an advertisement than an article/essay. A follow-Up would be very welcome though, the subject is extremely interesting
In addition, the price per piece metric is a really stupid one. There are enormous amounts of most tiny parts. Compare 60060 and 60408. And even if you take price per piece: The Millennium Falcon might be an example in favor of Lego. But 10 years ago, the prices were simply not at 10 cents per piece, at least not for kids series like City or Ninjago - and nowadays they often are: 70595 has twice as many parts as 71820 for the same UVP (90 € in Germany) in just 8 years.
I'm from Brazil, "so expensive" can't even begin to describe how costly Lego is here... 8.699,99 BRL, that's the price for the millennium falcon (7k pieces) on the official Lego website; in direct conversion, 1,589.53 USD. This is absurd. It's multiple MONTHS the Brazilian minimum wage's worth. I'd love to have the Rivendell set, it looks beautiful, but again, 4.799,99 BRL (876 USD).
I'm glad to see lego turn around so well from a potential failure point. However, I've been priced out as an adult and have mostly moved on from lego outside of some creations from 10 years ago.
actually it was recalled cause of gearbox issues they just didn't wanna admit it . they made a f35 race jet and the f35 has no applications outside of warfare. the osprey is actually better in terms of image it does plenty to help people in need outside of warfare.
@@jameslochhead5068 Pretty sure it was a mix of it, since i did read about the structural issues. But while they disguised the other military jets as show vehicles, which likely can be true. They didn't call them after their actual aircraft names, they were called like "Air show plane" or something. The Osprey was called the osprey and was even licensed with the actual company making it, which likely pushed things too hard. I've also never seen the osprey anywhere outside of military transport. Its a complex vehicle and if i recall, a real pain to maintain, so anything but the most well funded army (US) in the world could even get or use such a machine. I think they made it a bit orange to pass it off as a coastguard vehicle? But i don't think the coastguard would ever use one.
@@Iris-jw3ci the us coast guard is in fact part of the US military.The Osprey is only flown by the US military and Japan there are no civilian owned ones
What they showed is that lego isn't that expensive, comparatively. There are simply more cool sets that are expensive. You can still buy $30-40 sets. They just aren't as complex and interesting as the $60-150 ones
yeah all the nasty schemes Lego is pulling. Producing some plastic in China is not expensive. Competitors are not even half as expensive and make better sets
@@da3dsoul so i could offer you a 200g apple for 100$ and a 100g apple for 75$ and comparatively the 200g apple is not so expensive. Don´t compare the brand to itself, but all brands in the market. Thats really bad research from Buisness Insider.
@@metois1 funny you should pick an Apple. I could buy a phone for $100, but it wouldn't be an iPhone. The same applies to LEGO. There are other options, some even competitive, but they are LEGO
This felt like I was being advertised to. No criticism of the price gouging? No criticism of the decline in quality of set design and brittle and discolored plastic? No criticism of Lego buying up the aftermarket so they can profit off of used bricks too? No criticism of them abandoning their core customer base of children? No criticism of their focus on new customers who have never touched lego instead of their fans? Not to mention the anti-consumer business practices of their exclusive GWPs and blind boxes. The price per piece argument is borderline misinformation when you look at what those pieces are. Modern sets are crammed with hundreds of tiny bricks that didn't exist 20 years ago. Price per piece isn't a valid measurements since bricks were on average much much larger back then. There is a growing community of AFOLs who haven't bought a new set in years. At the rate Lego is going right now it will go the way of the model train or the metal soldiers. Forgotten and irrelevant.
Not to mention that there are good alternatives to Lego like Bluebrixx, Cada and Mould King, that are way cheaper, but quality wise better than Lego. There is no valid argument for Lego to be this expensive, especially not with their quality loss...
Those tiny bricks add details that make the set look more refined. No one would buy Lego if it would still look like those ancient blocky sets. I don't want larger bricks, I want a good looking set. And what's wrong with new customers who "never touched Lego" before? Isn't this how fans are made? You weren't born with Lego in your hands. And as far as I know, the sets for kids are still here.
@@sendmorerum8241 I can already see that you are part of the problem. But let me enlighten you: lego is not engaging in a sustainable business strategy if they focus so heavily on display items for adult collectors instead of toys. This might seem like a great solution right now since lego can't keep the interest of the ipad generation who has so many digital toys and distractions to choose from. Lego was saved from bankruptcy by this pivot to an adult customer base. But in the long term this strategy means Lego won't nurture it's fanbase and no new AFOLs will be created since lego will have no appeal to someone who hasn't played with it in childhood. Every lego display piece will always be two steps behind an actual display piece because of its brickbuild-nature it will never really look truly accurate. The only reason you'd prefer a brick build alternative to the real thing is that you already like the brick. It's nostalgia-driven. So if people don't play with it as kids they won't become AFOLs. The AFOLs community will become older and older since less and less young people grow up with the toy. Hence my comprison to model trains: it will be an old-people hobby and eventually die out.
@@sendmorerum8241 The Problem isn't that there are more smaller pieces in the sets. I think most would agree that that makes the sets better. The problem is that a small piece doesn't have the same value as a large one. So with the average piece size decreasing, the price per piece should be going down. This is reflected in the in the price per gram. Taking the Millennium Falcon from the Video as an example, the old one cost 7.9 ct/g while the new one costs 11.8 ct/g. This same reasoning applies to nearly all newly released sets.
16:00 I used to work at Legoland and that Rivendell set was set up on a LOTR stand I had a buddy who really wanted it and would always talk about it. Sadly he passed later that year. The whole time he wanted that set was to gift it to someone he fancied. One of the kindest souls. Ill never forget him and especially when I see that set 💙
Yet Lego treats us Bionicle fans like crap. Even rigged the 90th anniv vote when Bionicle was winning, then proceeded to give amazing sets to numbers 1 and 3, but ignored Bionicle who made it 2, and only missed on one because Lego bundled multiple themes into one after Bionicle was ahead far and away. The Lego Group of today isn't the one we grew up with. They care more about wasting plastic on boring super heroes than creating original, unique themes. Edit: My bad they did give us _something._ They gave us a knock-off, half-arsed GWP if we purchased $200 of a few specific themes Bionicle fans are likely to not care about. I skipped that "Tahu and Takua" official bootleg, of course. May as well have given us literally nothing, would have been less insulting.
@@PlazDreamweaver Unfortunately you're correct about the Lego of today being a different company from 20 years ago, but the reason they don't want to bring Bionicle back is most likely the same reason why shit like Galidor was an utter failure. It uses a ton of unique pieces that are nowhere to be found in other Lego sets and they don't integrate well with the Lego brick system. They are more an offshoot of Technic, but I think Technic has kind of shifted to a more STEM-focused image rather than being a glorified action figure line. Seriously, there were quite a few different Technic themes that preceded Bionicle that were pretty similar, namely the Slizers. I just don't think they want to go back to making "action figures" that only consist of ~30 pieces and want to focus more on the building aspect of the brand, because lets face it the basic Toa were not very fun to build, we liked them because they looked cool. You also have to account for the fact that no one under 27 likely has any attachment to Bionicle whatsoever. I really miss the 90s when Lego had UNIQUE themes with original characters and stories, but the fact of the matter is that Star Wars DID save their asses and licensed IPs sell a lot easier. I think this is why they released the brick-built Tahu, it was basically their compromise to say "hey, we know that Bionicle fans are out there, but there's just no way we can justify digging out these old molds/making new ones and producing these unique pieces for a set that a small fraction of our market are even interested in." Like they only even gave us Tahu, the other 5 Toa would've probably done very poorly in sales, particularly Gali and Onewa.
@@Weewoo12It’s still disappointing though given how big Bionicle was. You’d think having their own IP they don’t need to pay for licensing would still convince them to at least try. They had their own lore, comics, etc. I don’t see why they think there isn’t a market for them, even if they don’t fit in as well with typical legos. Honestly I’ve rarely ever been interested in normal legos, but I loved Bionicle. And sure maybe they weren’t as complex build-wise(though some of the bigger sets had hundreds of pieces) but that didn’t really matter to me. Hero factory killed Bionicle and I’m not really sure what happened from there since I was never interested in them.
Fr thats why I stopped playing legos as a kid. I rarely got them for my birthday, because of the pricing. Even those tiny lego sets that weren't fun was $20 USD
If you actually see the video, you'll learn that the price didn't really change much in terms of $ per piece adjusted for inflation. It's just that there are bigger (more pieces) sets now than before, so it gives the impression that they are more expensive.
@facuigua12 Their not talking about price change, their talking about how Lego's are expensive nowadays. And _actually_ Lego's prices changes *alot* along time ago. The main reason is just because a lot of time, materials, and planning go into ensuring every brick is a perfect representation of the brand as a whole. While LEGO is one of the most expensive brick-building companies out there, it’s fairly easy to justify the price point when taking the brand’s quality, reputation, educational value, and more into consideration. Ik there's a lot more math to it, but that's a simple answer for you
They actually did though, they told that they're marketing those very expensive sets to adults who earn their own wage rather than children who have to beg their parents.
@@sapphyrusThey also mentioned similar business practices destroyed them in the 90s. Affordable child's toy. Not odd cross leg sitting man's expensive way of not having children...
Storytelling and editing in this piece is masterful. I, as someone who has never felt a love for legos, became an AFOL for 30 minutes, heard the remarkable story of a business that works for its customers, and was reminded that creativity shines when constraints become the framework around which the solution is built.
When I moved to Japan I switched from Lego to Gunpla etc, and I’m still consistently surprised by how cheap and ingenuously designed the sets are. They’re as easy to build as Lego, but cheaper (and way cheaper per hour of build time), more unique, and display better. Of course the also have Nanoblock here (smaller and more efficient!), but as someone who used to be really into Lego I think more adult Lego enthusiasts should give models a chance.
“I don’t buy to resell” proceeds with “this Harley Quinn is worth $400, the set worth $1200 and I’m not going to build it”. Okay, so you’re reselling? 😂
She had another interview where she states she’s only sold a few of them. I think the value shock stops here from enjoying it which is sad. I see this in many collection based hobbies
Do you know the price of things in your home? Are you reselling those things? You're making assumptions simply because she's aware of the value of her sets. It's normal to understand you own something of value, have no desire to sell, but reconsider from time to time when that profit is so big that it makes you rethink that decision.
@@WishItWas1984 exactly, imagine if your washing machine was suddenly worth $50k on the market. You would definitely reconsider using it even though you would have used it normally.
You should be collecting things you like first and foremost, if your goal is only money you better have the capital at the start to stock easy items to sell or you’ll face plant almost always
There is a very notable difference between lego and comic books, there’s only so much you can do with printed pages, lego’s creativity is limitless unlike a comic book.
The same thing will happen to Lego. Now that people know the sets go up in value no one will open the boxes and play with them, just like how comics were bagged and never read by kids in the 90s, cause everyone thought their value would go up so they had to stay “mint”. Kids today aren’t going to open a Lego set that they think may be worth much more in the future, so there won’t be nostalgia for this stuff in 30 years.
comic books' value would degrade the more you removed them from the slipcase and read em. they also weren't something you could apply your own creative input into
@@direktive4 I mean legos can lose value from being worn down by play too, at least to some extent. Obviously not as much as comics though, given one is made of durable plastic.
No it doesnt, and certainly not for lego. They have a tools shop and CNC machines. Make a mold costs a couple hundred max for them not including design costs of the artists.
I think I have this deep connection with Lego because I grew up in a poor family, so the cheapest sets were best sets! Like now it’s not much more different but Lego has a huge place in my heart
@@kylepope1186 I still own jabba's Sail Barge 6210 and I have done EVERYTHING IN MY POWER to not let any sunlight cast itself on it since every-time i have to clean my sets, that one always makes some cracking sounds. And don't get me started with bionicles that is a whole jar of pickles lol
True but it's still the right thing to criticise them for it - I hope enough people learn about alternatives and Lego can finally go bankrupt like they should have years ago with the decisions they make
That has to be the most sinister building technique I’ve ever seen, 2000 Lego Light Sabre Rods to make a tiny 10cm bathroom floor? That’s utterly Diabolical.
The fact that I read this comment the same time it was said in the video is at least 1 in 600 just based on one factor not to mention my neurons firing for me to scroll down to the comments and also for youtube to list your comment where it listed it
@@Andy-fd5fg actually, popular sets have a big increase in price after retirement. With active investment you can get easily over 10% of yearly rate. The trouble is it's not easily scalable - if you want to invest twice as much money, you buy twice as many sets, but then you have twice as much work when selling
Crazy how they thought targeting adults wouldnt be profitable. "People who earn money and have conplete control over how to spend it? What worthless customers!" Is a crazy way to think.
It's a nice long form advertisement. But it's doesn't really answer the question of why it's expensive. It offers like 1 minute on price per piece ratio. It doesn't include competitors who manage to sell at a much lower price of around 30-40% of Lego price at the same (and sometimes higher) level of quality.
My son loves Lego and I hope that he can continue to enjoy it throughout his life. Life is short and tough sometimes. So I really hope that Legos will remain a happy little corner of life for him.
You should check out what LEGO competitors are up to. Their sets are incredible for often half the price. Only thing they often don't have are iconic mini figures.
@@CountCocofang that's a good point. As it stands now he seems to appreciate the building of them more than sort of the collecting side. So that might be a good option. Then save some for occasional splurge on a Lego that maybe is branded to one of his favorite characters or movies.
Grew up in the early 2000s, around the Bionicle and Star Wars era. Loved Lego. But I think the modern company has been twisted by an expectation of corporate profits.
The video quite literally explains and proves that Lego prices have remained the same since late 90s. Creators like jangbricks have proved this time and time again yet people just don't seem to understand
I disagree with this opinion as Lego has always been a private company and therefore no shareholders to adhere to, and if you still disagree I recommend checking out the town of billund in Denmark
@@lulushishi Lego can screw you over again and again but people like you just want to keep their eyes shut, huh? Luckily there are dozens of better quality (and of course much cheaper) alternatives.
Wild that a 28 minute video on Lego, can't be bothered to mention that Lego is Danish, apart from a tiny hint when it says that "these cost 20 danish kroner".
Bigger sets, and *licensing* Consider just how many of Lego's themes these days are based on a License they do not own. Super Mario, sonic the hedgehog, Minecraft, Star Wars, Marvel superheroes, DC superheroes, Harry Potter, real life car manufacturers, and the list goes on and on. Compare this to the number of themes they have running that are 100% their own: Ninjago, DreamZzz, Friends, City, and Creator. Now compare The prices of sets based on parts count, Set in the former list Are far more expensive for a comparable parts count to Original themes, and this is because LEGO has to give a cut of all sales to the license holder, And by virtue passes that cost off to customers by increasing the price.
Watching this video made me realize that growing up my cousins and older brother and I have been playing with legos from the 80s. For some reason I never questioned the dated legos and other toys until I saw the Space Cruiser set. It's crazy to think that my mother and her brothers and their kids have been playing with the same toys since toddlerhood and those toys are now being played with my second cousins. It's been near fifty years and three generations and only the helmet straps are broken
I grew up with the Space Cruiser set, in the 2000s! We found them in a wooden box in our attic, clearly already well-loved, and yet have still lasted another couple decades already.
@@raquelfantoni2812 That set brought so many happy memories for my cousins and I, my brother didn't really like playing with Legos as much as we did. I hope that you got to have as many happy memories with them as we did 💙
I wasn't allowed to play with Lego as a kid in the 2000s because it was "for boys" (according to my mom). I was only able to start exploring the pieces as an adult when my partner asked to build a set with me a few years ago. I completely get the hype around Lego now and love that the sets are a mix of fun and learning. We get so excited when we discover a new piece and really appreciate the ingenious designs people have made (the recent Jaws set had us celebrating over "natural curvature" and how it was built for adults to actually *play* with). I'm hope there's more sets put out in an intermediate price range so we can build more often and gather a better range of pieces🤞
looking only at price per piece is so disingenuous. When a single set can cost multiple months wages in some countries, and they keep releasing more and more expensive larger sets, without also releasing smaller, cheaper sets to get equivalent parts, then clearly it has gotten more expensive to the point of excluding millions. This is the opposite of true community. This is a gated community made with lego brick fences.
As most hobby communities are these days, or just any fandom really. We are living in a world where everything is seen as an investment, wonder when this bubble will burst and make it affordable to enjoy things again.
There are cheaper alternatives, and they aren't essential like food and shelter. It's like complaining you can't afford a designer handbag when you either don't need it or there are cheaper alternatives.
The price-per-piece ratio is more or less redundant these days with more recent sets having a lot of smaller pieces for detailing. The 2 falcons mentioned on the video (10179 and 75192) are the same physical size despite the newer one having two and a half thousand more pieces.
I'll save you the video... the reason it went from not expensive to expensive is because the people that grew up with it got older, got jobs and Lego decided to capitalise on the nostalgia.
But... Lego was never cheap? When I was a kid in the late 80's, I begged for the "big" Lego boxes, like pirate ships and islands, but my parents found those way too expensive even then. Since then, boxes just have become bigger. As an adult, I again look at those boxes and think: well, I'd love to have it, but I'm not gonna pay €400 for a Lego set...
Lego was always expensive. When I was a kid I got 1 big Lego set a year and they were usually $200-$300 per set in 90's dollars. $300 in 1995 is over $600 today, and I guarantee you a $300 set in the 90's was substantially less complex and had way less pieces compared to a $600 set today. I'm not saying Lego is a great value or anything, but the cost has gone down if anything.
Lego lasts a long time..... my childhood Lego went to my sisters children.... and they have added more to it, which will then get passed to their children. It would not surprise me that when humans become extinct and some alien archaeologist land here , they will think everything was made out of Lego because that is all that will be left. If it was cheap tat then it would not last that long
You know, Lego is the hobby I vicariously look at, and never touch. It’s not the stigma of being 30 - it’s the fact it’s more expensive than most hobbies - probably even more than Warhammer, if you get down to it. The Lego execs realized that the people willing to pay absorbent prices - adults - are pretty easily separated from their money if you attach a theme to it, like Star Wars, Marvel, Minecraft, etc., and I feel Lego capped at Bionicle’s early days, in terms of creative sets. It’s depressing, because at the end of the day, you’re better off booting up Minecraft in creative mode, and having a grand ol’ time, and it’ll save you a TON of money. If you want the struggle and time investment, just do it in survival mode. Money is a huge part of it, but I think the hardest part of Lego, personally, is SPACE. You need shelves, sorting trays, a work space, space if you plan on keeping the box, space for the final product… it’s insane to me, and I commend those that can do it, but it’s so inaccessible to the average person. I do 1k piece jigsaw puzzles, and it’s a cheaper hobby, and the nicest thing is that it’s barely 5$ to hang and glue the finished product. You don’t get the same creative expression as Lego, yes, but you do get a more challenging and satisfying experience at the end, unlike the planned and detailed booklets of a Lego set. Plus, you can use ANYTHING to sort and store puzzles as you work, and a finished puzzle (glued and attached to a foam board) is very thin, and aren’t usually more than 26 inches in length. Lego is only crazy-expensive because adults, like the ones shown here, give too much value to plastic bits, and the Lego company exploits that mentality. I know how Legos are made - I’ve seen a few documentaries on it - but it never feels justified to gouge people like that, when a 3D printer, a repro seller, and other fans could do just as fine of work - or even better.
Sadly, no mentioning of the declining brick quality. Especially the colors of the bricks are so varying when they are supposed to be the same color. That was better in the past.
I noticed this with my newly bought hotel set. The tan bricks have varying pigments. Meanwhile my Indiana Jones temple from 2008 has perfect tan color matching.
I have a bunch of 20 years old bricks and they are still perfect to the day, now I have a kid of my own and by lego again and half of the modern bricks develop cracks very fast, wtf
Amazing to see Dave Kaleta on here, it's great to see him still so engaged in the hobby (and I had no idea he'd been on TV!). I remember seeing his work in the MOCOlympics back on the now defunct MOCPages website, I think it was an undersea arena he made in a round against Flare that is the first build of his I saw. He was always such a great sport in competitions like that and a very creative builder, so it's absolutely lovely to see him here. A shame my memory of MOCPages is not better, there were so many great builders like Dave and fantastic interactions throughout the community that have been lost now that the site is shut down.
I would have liked to hear more about the engineering and manufacturing of the blocks. The new specialty blocks and how a designer utilizes the pallet of existing blocks to come up with the new sets.
That's the neat part: You don't 😅 Molding plastic into shape isn't rocket science anymore so the production itself isn't all that interessting. I really belive that in the design department of Lego there are some real passionate builders. But then they collide with the higher ups and have to butcher their project until it meets certain demands (cost). I don't think Lego is planing compatibility in any way. Why would they? Why would I want to sell 2 products for the price of 2, that my customer can build a 3rd one by himself for free when I can just sell him 3 products. Especially since others like Cada are blowing Lego out of the water in terms of build quality, innovation and price.
@@Tinyflower1 Ich bin Deutsch, also habe ich da nicht so viel ahnung, aber ich erinnere mich daran das ich ein video gesehen habe, in dem es sich um so ein geschäfft handelte. Ich glaube es war in Wien, und der name des geschäfts war irgend etwas ganz simples, also etwas wie "Alternativ-Klemmbausteinladen" oder "Klemmbausteinemarkt Wien". Ich bin mir da nicht so wirklich sicher, es sind schon so einz zwei jahre her seitdem ich darüber mich informiert habe.
I’m so glad the builder they interviewed mentioned how he built that mosaic floor, that was driving me crazy trying to figure it out until he said it was just bar elements on end stacked together
Im glad you mentioned how much the older sets would cost if they were sold today, showing that even though they would be cheaper than LEGO is today, they were never actually "cheap"
@@dr.angerousevery new piece would require new machinery, and would probably be used in a limited set of sets, so it would be much costly. The larger classical pieces are cheaper simply because they are so standardized. Just because something is tiny, doesn’t mean it should cost less - actually it’s often the opposite.
It's funny: When I was a kid, I got a few tiny LEGO sets. I always wanted to get the bigger sets but I could have 2-4 other cool things for the money it would cost to get ONE of the bigger LEGO sets. So, I never got any of the bigger sets. As I got older and got more income, I would occasionally check LEGO set prices and every time I did, it seemed like the prices kept raising beyond what I was willing to pay. Now, it's choosing between vacations or weekends out or a LEGO set. That's f++king ridiculous. We are talking about plastic bricks that cost pennies on the dollar to create at scale for them. Why is it SO EXPENSIVE? Because the c-suite at LEGO is populated with greedy a++holes. ------------------------- EDIT: // "Yes, if you want the nicer sets you pay more but thats the same with everything." These are plastic blocks that are cheap to make at scale but they charge Louis Vuitton prices. The issue is the historically stupid & greedy markup on these toys. Not whether they're nice or not. EDIT 2: It's unreal how many simps are out there for late-stage capitalism and greedflation.
Did you even watch the video? It literally says price per piece stayed the same for the past 10-20 years. Yes, if you want the nicer sets you pay more but thats the same with everything. No different than buying a $100 jacket to a $10 hoodie.
Lego will last you beyond the weekend so thats right there is, what you said again? Oh right “value”? Bro just admit you don’t want one, stop blaming everything else except for yourself, period. Would you give me lets say “something you love” for 5 bucks? C mon.
Many of these Lego simps are employees for firms made specifically to pretend to be grassroots people and spread misinformation by simping for whatever company's hiring their firm. There's a word for this, and it's "Astroturfing."
I am 54 years old, I started playing with Legos very young. I just finished a flower Lego set. I LOVED it when my son was finally into playing with Lego in the mid 90s. We saved all of my son's Legos, and I am excited for my granddaughters find their passion.
So lego thought of adults playing with their products as annoying trash until they saw profit in us, then used their ideas to further their business and charge exorbitant prices for cheap plastic stamped into shapes. Thats my summary
That's exactly the summary of this. And now they are really aggressively trying to find the absolute maximum they can squeeze out of their customers, by dropping quality and raising prices at the same time. I desperately hope they get humbled by the competition soon and start making actually attractive products at reasonable prices again.
I encourage people to learn how to use a 3D printer and print lego parts or 3D print whatever you like. Don’t get sucked into this corp BS! Have fun with the future now and get 3D printing!
@@michaelrfx7the fun of Lego is the process of building the sets. 3d printers don’t even come close to the level of satisfaction that Lego brings. Trust me, I’m an enthusiast of both lol.
@@trulsdiriothe big problem is there really isn’t any competitor (that I have found, at least) that comes close to the quality and building experience that Lego provides. I’ve tried several of the cheaper companies out there, and half the time the pieces won’t even fit together and are just a hassle to build in general. Never had a single issue with any Lego products at all. Lego is really in a whole other league in terms of quality. Overpriced, yes, but you do at least get a good product and a satisfying and fun building process. No current competitors can come close.
you didn't watch the whole thing apparently, there's a section on a rough pricing per part for 2 different millenium falcon sets that disprove your use of 'exorbitant.'
Lemme help you with some logical thinking. They mentioned Lego found a new customer, one thats spending a lot of money. older people. So in theory this would explain why it become more expensive? Kids buy less these days, adults with more money buy more? it's become more of a collectors item. so that all seems logical right? I think you should spend less time googling stuff and try to use your brain a bit more so that you can think for yourself. I understand you expected a straight forward answer, but not everything in life has a straight forward answer.
The Dave guy said his collection is around 50,000 dollars, kids dont have that kind of money. They also mention sets are only made for a limited time. It creates a limited market, rarity and collectors value. Again, use some logic, there are many answers to why its become expensive.
I feel like people also forget that part of what they are paying for is the licensing of whatever theme they are buying, especially with star wars, lego still pays Disney to be able to use the logos and ships and characters so you are helping them pay for that not just the bricks themselves
I recived a Porsche 911 set for my 48th birthday. I slowly put it together over the following year and completed it on my 49th birthday. Little by little. No rush. Many relaxing evenings with a glass of bourbon and Miles Davis records playing in the background.🙂
I'm glad you mentioned the exploding brown bricks. I never had Lego myself, but the children's section in the library had an entire graveyard box of them.
16:06 - "I don't really have a strategy or approach to buying Lego, I buy what I like. Unfortunately, I like a lot!" Hahahaha I'm totally using this as my motto to justify my collections from now on
Watched this video for the business breakdown. Found my eyes watering as the collector describes exactly what it feels like to be a MOCist. My BIONICLE collection, at price point, is worth like 3,000 dollars. Its crazy that now, I could make hundreds selling singular pieces. But I love all my parts chilling in their organized boxes, by collectible, color, function, and importance to my build style.
"Stand the test of time", except for cheese slopes and in general 1 x n size elements, like bricks 1 x 1, 1 x 2, developing cracks even after being assembled for a few weeks
I still have the Lego from my 80s childhood, and a lot of it has lost most of it clutch power (and not because of playing with it, but just from being in a box for a few decades). And we also had some older stuff from the 60s and 70s, and most of it got warped or has become brittle. We'll have to see if nowadays Lego is better, though one thing is still very much the same: white pieces (that aren't so white to begin with...) will yellow in just a few years.
deteriorating brick and color quality, lazy designs, insane prices and license markups, less and less original series. Lego's monopolistic fall off needs to be studied.
My issue with the price is not really the price but the quality of some of the sets you get for the price. Especially in the lego technic area there have been quite some bad sets for outragious prices.
@@Skaftholu But that is still weird. Like AT and XT computers, we don't pronounce it as "Add computer" and "Ex computer". Or Geforce GTX is not Geforce Geetext. F/A 18 jetfighter is not "Far 18". Or the Ford GT is not Ford Git or Ford Get. Add-add sounds like a cool little pet. I am sure the Empire isn't some Hello Kitty minded people. They are some seriously power user who wouldn't mind wiping out a whole planet with a blink of an eye.
As a kid without even knowing what pronunciation was at-at was my goto so it's just as fine now in fact more so because of it 👍, but for you adults getting mad over it im sorry😂😂
it's literally just because "At" is an actual word. This whole comment section is making too big of a deal of it. This only happens for the AT-AT. You don't see people pronounce R2-D2 weird or AT-DP weird. It's also a fantasy space walker not everyone is a nerd about. Oh and it's shorter to say, less syllables.
There is another important reason for Lego's pivot to adult builders and collectors: declining birth rate and population ageing. Fewer and fewer young adults are interested in having children these days and this trend of birth rate going down is now worldwide, but especially profound in rich countries. For toy companies, traditional customer bases are shrinking and the only way out in the long term is focusing on adults. I also suspect that by releasing 18+ sets, Lego can avoid complying with safety regulations for young children's toys like restrictions on minimum piece sizes for preventing choking hazards, which can save manufacturing costs while making sets more expensive.
I wish it was less expensive because just playing with the pieces and building can be very good for kids. Many engineers state that their favorite toy as a child was Lego. I like just the bricks for kids and encourage creativity.
Minecraft replaced lego for the youth. It is much cheaper (1 time ~20 euro purchase and you get free updates), allows for arguably more creativity than lego, and is even a social platform.
I fell back in love with Lego as an adult because of the minifigs. The faces and hair elements had evolved so far from what I played with. I made minifigs of myself and most of my family. Everything I get is focused on "what adventures can my minifig have with this?" I'm trying to help impart that to my nephew as well. I want him to see his minifig as a small version of himself. So he sees himself driving the car, flying the plane, or crossing lightsabers with Darth Vader.
Two things you didn’t mention…Lego manufactures the most tires in the world and the most expensive pieces are the multicolored ones that come when you change the color in the molds in the first run their multicolor
There's a video on UA-cam from a man who got home and realised someone had broken in and stolen all his Lego. He was crying because he would never be able to replace what he had been collecting for so many years. The Internet being what it is, I was sure that the comments section would be full of people making fun of him, a grown man crying because someone stole his Lego...but to my surprise, everyone was supporting him! This shows how much people love Lego and respect people who are passionate about Lego!
@@AC3handle This was a long time ago but as far as I remember, he launched a gofundme campaign (or someone did it for him) and just after a few days, he asked people to stop donating money because he got more than enough to replace all the stolen Lego.
@@UnCoolDad no reason if you somewhat understand that lego made sets worse over the year and made them more expensive. in addition to suing other companies who try to sell systems that are lego-like, suing content creators who call all block based toys lego because "only lego can be called lego" while everyone knows that every block toy is lego in everyone's head. they want money, and they want a lot of it. more profit, more expensive prices and shifting away from children to adults who more often than not behave like a cult. price per piece shot up rapidly and not because plastic got more expensive or the building techniques are harder/sets are more elaborate. they copy and paste all the sets, dont print on bricks anymore and just give you stickers which fall off after a few months to years and the quality of the pieces went downhill a LOT
Kind of amazed that the research into less caustic/more biodegradeable plastics wasn't mentioned in here (something Lego has been working on for years), but a lovely dip into the deep world of Lego. Excellent video!
The biggest German Lego UA-camr and shop owner always says that "The foxes at Lego drink paint to get to these prices". And without their 3D brand, which they use to sue all competitors out of the market, they would certainly no longer be the market leader. Their quality in both color fidelity and construction is declining and they have already lost the rank for the best bricks on the market to Gobricks.
They don't sue competitors out of the market anymore because their IP protections expired. Now anyone can make lego-style products, as long as they avoid copying existing sets or using the handful of piece shapes that remain protected.
@@yurisei6732That isn't necessarily correct. They still sue 'competitors' and even AFOL companies in some cases. I have closely followed the court cases around Lego suing HA Bricks, just as an example. (HA Bricks was an AFOL ran company specialising in parts and custom sets to support the Lego train community, and was around for many years. While expensive, it was well thought of in the community.) It was such an unnecessary action and some of Lego legal team's requests to HA Bricks in court documents broke EU data protection law, yet Lego went about destroying HA Bricks (the life long Lego fan owner has likely €100,000s to pay minimum ~ the court documents had Lego requesting 500 euros per custom set across the entire life of sales, which runs into 1000s of these custom sets)... It just shows the position Lego has in a legal sense in Europe. After taking a look into it, I found Lego could never take this particular legal action in the US against AFOL companies as their law currently stands. It seems clear that companies like Brickmania would be a likely target. Btw, there is also indication of another legal challenge from Lego against yet another AFOL ran company in the EU, likely within the next 12 to 18 months. It's kinda sad that a lot of this stuff has/will barely get a mention anywhere...
@@ReddoFreddo charging hundreds of dollars for plastic that cost literally pennies. Taking away small children's ability to grow their engineering skills. When I was a child I had literally buckets of Legos. And my family was poor. Mind you.
Currently unwashing my brain, lego uses ABS plastic which is by the far the best, compared to other companies that use PVC plastic with very occasional ABS. I could make the argument that it doesn’t matter what wood you use for your house, it’s all wood isn’t it?
It is always amazing to see collector items, because that woman shows you her hidden room, and it is cool, but then you learn that there are like 200k, a small house, worth of material there and you feel that you are breathing too much and are going to damage something by mistake.
One of my hobbies is 3D photography and because it's pretty hard to get a 3D camera I had to build one by myself and I made the casing of the camera from LEGO, so it can be used not just as a toy.
In the early 2000s it was annoying trying to collect discontinued sets off eBay from nerds that raised the price. My dad was the eBay account holder, but paid for by my chore money. It's a shame that kids are priced out of kids toys.
I honestly don’t see the value in buying Lego anymore. I don’t know how it is over in the Us, but here around Europe there are multiple brick manufacturers, and some of them they started to reach Lego quality in the bricks while selling you bigger and better sets for less money. Especially in the technic section. The best comparison is for that is in my opinion Cada. They acquired the AMG license and made the AMG One in technic, equipped with red control and motors etc etc, for just around 250€, while Lego released F1 cars with wrong tire sizes and colors on the cars and helmets. You may argue that these aren’t comparable, but for me it shows that Lego doesn’t care about their customer, only about the money
Agreed. It's the beginning of a golden era for Lego competitors. Lots of very high-quality sets with interesting designs and licenses, often far cheaper than Lego.
They just focus much more on larger sets than they used to decades ago. Its typically uncommon for there to be more than one or two sets in a wave of sets for a theme that are affordable for kids - the vast majority of themes will have more sets that easily cost £50 and up, which is much more of a struggle for a kid to be able to afford by themselves. Then with licensed sets, often times they are massive, one-off builds that cost in the triple digits because they are always catered to the adult market, even if smaller sets of the same theme would be appealing to younger fans. Look at the recently announced Deku Tree from Zelda, for example - enormous set, £260, and it will be a long while until we would likely see a proper full theme of Zelda sets. And even then, I can guarantee that the majority of that theme would be higher in price and generally unaffordable for the average person or child.
9:25 - I am an enthusiast of metal sculpting and I happen to have welders and tools for about 20 thousand dollars in a dedicated room called a garage. Others have fishing gear, others have an automechanic setup, others have a man cave with sports memorabilia. Why is this depicted in the video as something eccentric? This man has a hobby like most of us but all of us have that thing in common, to have a dedicated space for it, because otherwise it wouldn't be worthwhile to keep around.
The thing is, metal is metal and can be rather expensive from materials to the tools necessary to work with it, Lego is just cheap plastic, nothing more.
@@erinclarke2715 Yeah, I didn't see anything pejorative about that segment at all. Or put another way, if someone did a video about an automechanic setup or a room full of fishing gear or a man cave of sports memorabilia, it would be played exactly the same way. If the producer wanted to make Dave out to be weird/eccentric, they easily could have inserted some whimsical music or sound effects there. But they didn't. It was pretty straightforward.
My friend, the garage is the great home of hobbies. Mine houses two sports cars, shelves of parts for them, stacks of wheels, my rolling and non rolling toolboxes and so on. But There is a corner with a workbench with a heavy vice.. that also houses my 3D printers, print medium, and paints for the more fanciful things I make with them. What is that old saying? "The difference between boys and men are the price of their toys", or something like that? You work so you can pursue your hobbies, whatever they may be.
I have always loved the idea as an adult, 37 years old, I grew up on Legos as well, I even still have the popcorn bucket from the 90s filled will old time Legos from my child hood. It is a great way to pass time by, relax and not stress about our daily lives when it is stressful, much like video games.
Lego realized that adult fans come with adult budgets.
LOL
It’s really that simple, also, my daughter see’s that I like Lego’s, so now she likes legos,so they get double the revenue.
Did they also realize that they also come with adult credit cards to buy competitor sets on aliexpress?
Plastic...all this...for plastic...
I spent $800 on a Prusa 3D Printer instead.
Have had more fun with it than I ever did with LEGO.
So litteraly what saved lego was just understanding who was paying for their products lol
It's like how some online milsims know to put obscene prices on detail accurate vehicles. Just get one model right, and you have a windfall* of up to $100 per unit sale per virtual new vehicle model, because you're essentially being paid by military and ex-military breadwinners with either nowhere to spend money or too much of it. Very price inelastic market- if the model is good, they'll shell out.
One and only correct answer. Everything else is a paid add👍
And realized how pathetic, gullible and willing they are to pay over 100x the cost of the products. Then they figured out lemmings would pay 500x the cost if it was a limited edition.
... lego was saved by a handfull of loyal fans... exactly those fans who are nowadays being scrwed... lego messes up colors... rarely and randomly does prints... no innovation... signigicantly less good parts... smaller parts... and always less for much higher prices... for the emporers thrown room which is a joke... you could get an evoke village and would have had still $40 to spare... packaging and transport is more expansive then the pieces which are less than $0.3 per... piece... ask actual lego fans instead of fan boys and you will hear that lego has become worse to such a point... in terms of cost, qualitly and the sets... like they literally do not even think... they once sold half an atst.. for double the price and it includet an elevator that would not even go to the top...
So easy, yet so hard to understand for some company, specially in gaming
They stole $1,500 in Legos? so you mean 2 sets
hey, they were heavy, next time help me out instead of judging 😒
(for legal reasons this is a joke)
It's Lego not legos
@@AllTheNamesAreGone
*Lego packages
@@kyletrevino5168 lol 🤣
@@KangJangkrik no its just lego
Legos are expensive because people are still in line to buy them.
Every time I pass by the Lego store it’s PACKED.
This could’ve been a bit more critical. Looking at the pricing is one thing, but you should’ve also looked at the quality of bricks, prints and builds. And also the behavior of Lego when it comes to competitors, resellers and critics. That would’ve painted a different picture.
Absolutely, taking a look at various Lego court cases (the one against HA Bricks being a good example of this) certainly paint it differently!
LOL why would it need to be? They set out to answer a question, and they answered it.
@@Nevir202 Did you even read my comment?
They didnt answer the question fully. They left out important parts, like brick quality as i said. Decreasing the quality of bricks while keeping the price the same is a price increase. Since you pay more for less. How have they answered this or even touched upon it?
They dont need to "flame" lego, but they shouldnt avoid uncomfortable truths. this makes it seem like a payed article, which is in fact highly likely.
What do you expect from Business Insider. Look at the name.
True. But that really wasn't the title of the story.
The StarWars "AT-AT" killed me xD
It's the Star Wars @@
Business Insider's geek card has hereby officially been revoked
yeah, that was jarringly bad
@@Bekayvd it's the official pronounciation
my jaw dropped lol
Legos choice to start marketing to adults has got to be one of the single most profitable business decisions in recent memory across any kind of market. I didnt get my first lego set till 3 years ago at the age of 34 & it was the 7K+ piece Ultimate Collector Series Millennium Falcon. At the time being the largest set they made. Just jumped straight into the deep end and have had a blast since.
You probably didn’t get it because it was so expensive.
The adult market will eventually literally die off unless Lego makes Lego cheaper so parents can buy them for their kids again.
@@TheBooban That's why they have lego sets targeted to kids that are simpler to build and less pieces which they can sell at a lower price and vice versa for lego sets meant for adults.
Say you're rich without saying your rich…
profitable for them but detrimental for people who aren't rich. Exclusive pricing aimed at adults. Meanwhile kids and people in worse financial situations are priced out altogether. Shameful business decisions by Lego.
Never used legos before but decided to drop $1k on it, who would have guessed (besides Lego, clearly).
i miss when it wasnt so Expensive and had unique style to them, now its just themes and not random parts u can put together
Exactly
You can still buy random part boxes.
Ever heard of pick-a-brick?
@@zachjones2346 no i havent, where can i go for that? that sounds like what im looking for to get back into lego building/playing
@@kittyjoy9690 On the lego website. But look also for bricklink.
I think Lego owes all of our moms a big thank you for holding it down during our Bionicle phase
Bionicle even had game disc inside if remember correctly?
Bionicle was my childhood
@@swambturtle4203 It was tv spots for the upcoming sets i think. I had several ones as a kid but didn't have a computer at home so i couldn't watch them. I sold them at 14, biggest mistake of my life. But i restarted my collection ^^
Bionicle slapped wonder what happened with that
Bionicles; that’s a throwback
Im 19. As much as I love displaying sets and Minifigures from properties that I love, i always feel were getting to a point where lego is so expensive and there isn't enough "toys" for kids anymore. I remember vividly what the early 2010's shelves looked like, the sets were colorful, cool, fun 5o play with etc. Buying 1-3 wasn't a huge ask, but it was enough to grow your creativity.
The space sets this year(2024) were some of the first in a long time that made me feel that way again. I just don't see kids nearly as excited for lego anymore. I think profit is important obviously but I wish they would create more unique themes targeted for the younger audiences.
20 here and have the exact same feeling. I may be wrong but I remember buying (well, my dad) the tiny star wars lego sets at 5€ when they're 10 now.
@@shuwap INFLATION
you can buy a ton of cool $20-$30 sets. just bought the set of the parrot for $30 for my cousin, he's 12 and loves it. same with the aquarium, NASA rocket, etc. not to mention all the licensed sets, the City sets, and all the other Lego Creator sets. there's still tons of reasonably priced sets aimed at kids.
I see kids buying them all the time, you might not notice because you yourself aren't a kid anymore. but kids also have a lot more to do now. most of them play video games and stuff, they aren't going for Lego. they could have the coolest, cheapest set, and a kid would still rather play some roblox.
@@inyrui real
@@chipskylark8475 Inflantion isnt an argument inflation is not a natural event.They have almost no competition on the market and the increase of cost making plastic toys dont compare to the increase in prices
"99% of LEGO stand the test of time"
Tell that to my dozens of Bionicle that have snapped at the limbs 😂
Have youever written Lego about it? I've had a couple of pieces replaced for no cost or anything. They even sent a couple of extras or some pr set.
The majority of my green pieces just gave up at the joints 😢
Yuuuuup, I will never move my gigantic custom Bionicles. They're so cool and it's so wicked to see the piston joints function when moving joints, but the risk of them breaking now after so many years T_T
balljoints literaly flaking like a croissant
+ if you let a model assembled for years, parts become harder and harder (maybe plastic dry in some way) and they tend to break, especially weak hinge plates, the part 2430 little tip brake. So it's quite religious belief to claim Lego parts can stand the test of time.
Bro lego Technic sets might cost 10 cents per brick but half of the bricks are tiny pins so the price to brick ratio is not good to look at these days.
There's no medium priced and sized technic kits an6more. It either a tiny vehicle or a super expensive collector's edition. Meanwhile there are many knock-off brands making some decent kits with pieces that seem to be good quality.
"This toy is worth more than a phone" is a horrific example of both industries. Imagine telling someone that 20 years ago and hearing their confusion. Maybe in 20 years we'll have "this bottle is worth more than a belt"
the video is full of such bad comparisons
You mean like Stanley bottles?
I agree partially with your comparison. However, cellphones were always expensive, especially during their first few generations. Cellphones were heavy, big and expensive. Nowadays, phones contain a lot of technology and encompass things like camera, flashlight GPS and steps monitor, etc. I'd say they are worth their price today more than ever before.
@@breadpitt9687 Never specified cellphones just phones.
But once they got mainstream they had lots of cheaper options. The old Nokia brick phone was less than $200 when it came out. Now they expect everyone to dish out around a grand every few years for a new phone. Also incorporating a flashlight as a feature isn't much praise, lol. You can buy a flashlight for $1
Lego are just plastic molding bits, it shouldn't cost so much. The cost to make them are like 1% of their retail price.
Compared to many other "So Expensive" episodes, this one was very onedimensional in how it presented LEGO. It would for example have been interesting to see values for their margins across the years, to see how much money goes into manufacturing, into set design, into licensing. There are many competitors out there who sell better quality products without licenses for sometimes half the price, which is continually alienating parts of their long-standing fanbase. Not making this the focus of the video is absolutely understandable, but not even acknowledging the situation makes this feel more like an advertisement than an article/essay. A follow-Up would be very welcome though, the subject is extremely interesting
Preach bro. This is most likely a cover piece for everyone rightfully complaining about the constant price increases lately.
what competitor has better quality products? Everytime I've bought off brand I've been disappointed.
Lego is the only product “brand” I would buy. You think there’s anything better quality than lego? Those cheap plastic chinese ones? lol bye 😂
@@2cool4u61 As if Lego would not produce in China!? There are plenty brands of same or even better quality by now, be it Cada, Coby or Pantasy.
In addition, the price per piece metric is a really stupid one. There are enormous amounts of most tiny parts. Compare 60060 and 60408. And even if you take price per piece: The Millennium Falcon might be an example in favor of Lego. But 10 years ago, the prices were simply not at 10 cents per piece, at least not for kids series like City or Ninjago - and nowadays they often are: 70595 has twice as many parts as 71820 for the same UVP (90 € in Germany) in just 8 years.
I'm from Brazil, "so expensive" can't even begin to describe how costly Lego is here... 8.699,99 BRL, that's the price for the millennium falcon (7k pieces) on the official Lego website; in direct conversion, 1,589.53 USD. This is absurd. It's multiple MONTHS the Brazilian minimum wage's worth. I'd love to have the Rivendell set, it looks beautiful, but again, 4.799,99 BRL (876 USD).
Try using megablocks instead
Tbh the lego i have is almost 10 years old lol thats how old it got and i still kept it since then because afterwards the price gone high
The MF is like double the price because of tariffs from the Military Government that never went away
WTH, seems like I as Taiwanese, should stop bitching about the price a little bit. Rivendell is about 333 US dollars here.
stop being poor I guess
I'm glad to see lego turn around so well from a potential failure point. However, I've been priced out as an adult and have mostly moved on from lego outside of some creations from 10 years ago.
That Osprey set was never actually released. A few got out but it was recalled since it's a military vehicle. Most sets don't go up 1000% overnight.
actually it was recalled cause of gearbox issues they just didn't wanna admit it . they made a f35 race jet and the f35 has no applications outside of warfare. the osprey is actually better in terms of image it does plenty to help people in need outside of warfare.
@@jameslochhead5068 Pretty sure it was a mix of it, since i did read about the structural issues.
But while they disguised the other military jets as show vehicles, which likely can be true. They didn't call them after their actual aircraft names, they were called like "Air show plane" or something.
The Osprey was called the osprey and was even licensed with the actual company making it, which likely pushed things too hard.
I've also never seen the osprey anywhere outside of military transport. Its a complex vehicle and if i recall, a real pain to maintain, so anything but the most well funded army (US) in the world could even get or use such a machine.
I think they made it a bit orange to pass it off as a coastguard vehicle? But i don't think the coastguard would ever use one.
It's not actually a military vehicle, that set was of a coast guard osprey, but it looked too similar to the military osprey.
Ships of the line. Killer droids. Death Stars. Jeeps. Dinosaurs with lasers. Militaries hate stuff like this.
@@Iris-jw3ci the us coast guard is in fact part of the US military.The Osprey is only flown by the US military and Japan there are no civilian owned ones
These business insider “so expensive” videos feel like advertisements that push all of the bad things under the rug.
Especially since they didn't really show why it is so expensive. I mean they had theories but...
What they showed is that lego isn't that expensive, comparatively. There are simply more cool sets that are expensive. You can still buy $30-40 sets. They just aren't as complex and interesting as the $60-150 ones
yeah all the nasty schemes Lego is pulling. Producing some plastic in China is not expensive. Competitors are not even half as expensive and make better sets
@@da3dsoul so i could offer you a 200g apple for 100$ and a 100g apple for 75$ and comparatively the 200g apple is not so expensive. Don´t compare the brand to itself, but all brands in the market.
Thats really bad research from Buisness Insider.
@@metois1 funny you should pick an Apple. I could buy a phone for $100, but it wouldn't be an iPhone. The same applies to LEGO. There are other options, some even competitive, but they are LEGO
This felt like I was being advertised to. No criticism of the price gouging? No criticism of the decline in quality of set design and brittle and discolored plastic? No criticism of Lego buying up the aftermarket so they can profit off of used bricks too? No criticism of them abandoning their core customer base of children? No criticism of their focus on new customers who have never touched lego instead of their fans? Not to mention the anti-consumer business practices of their exclusive GWPs and blind boxes. The price per piece argument is borderline misinformation when you look at what those pieces are. Modern sets are crammed with hundreds of tiny bricks that didn't exist 20 years ago. Price per piece isn't a valid measurements since bricks were on average much much larger back then. There is a growing community of AFOLs who haven't bought a new set in years. At the rate Lego is going right now it will go the way of the model train or the metal soldiers. Forgotten and irrelevant.
Thank you
Not to mention that there are good alternatives to Lego like Bluebrixx, Cada and Mould King, that are way cheaper, but quality wise better than Lego. There is no valid argument for Lego to be this expensive, especially not with their quality loss...
Those tiny bricks add details that make the set look more refined. No one would buy Lego if it would still look like those ancient blocky sets. I don't want larger bricks, I want a good looking set.
And what's wrong with new customers who "never touched Lego" before? Isn't this how fans are made? You weren't born with Lego in your hands. And as far as I know, the sets for kids are still here.
@@sendmorerum8241 I can already see that you are part of the problem. But let me enlighten you: lego is not engaging in a sustainable business strategy if they focus so heavily on display items for adult collectors instead of toys. This might seem like a great solution right now since lego can't keep the interest of the ipad generation who has so many digital toys and distractions to choose from. Lego was saved from bankruptcy by this pivot to an adult customer base. But in the long term this strategy means Lego won't nurture it's fanbase and no new AFOLs will be created since lego will have no appeal to someone who hasn't played with it in childhood. Every lego display piece will always be two steps behind an actual display piece because of its brickbuild-nature it will never really look truly accurate. The only reason you'd prefer a brick build alternative to the real thing is that you already like the brick. It's nostalgia-driven. So if people don't play with it as kids they won't become AFOLs. The AFOLs community will become older and older since less and less young people grow up with the toy. Hence my comprison to model trains: it will be an old-people hobby and eventually die out.
@@sendmorerum8241 The Problem isn't that there are more smaller pieces in the sets. I think most would agree that that makes the sets better. The problem is that a small piece doesn't have the same value as a large one. So with the average piece size decreasing, the price per piece should be going down. This is reflected in the in the price per gram.
Taking the Millennium Falcon from the Video as an example, the old one cost 7.9 ct/g while the new one costs 11.8 ct/g. This same reasoning applies to nearly all newly released sets.
16:00 I used to work at Legoland and that Rivendell set was set up on a LOTR stand I had a buddy who really wanted it and would always talk about it. Sadly he passed later that year. The whole time he wanted that set was to gift it to someone he fancied. One of the kindest souls. Ill never forget him and especially when I see that set 💙
I'm really glad they mentioned how Bionicle practically single handedly saved Lego
Yet Lego treats us Bionicle fans like crap. Even rigged the 90th anniv vote when Bionicle was winning, then proceeded to give amazing sets to numbers 1 and 3, but ignored Bionicle who made it 2, and only missed on one because Lego bundled multiple themes into one after Bionicle was ahead far and away. The Lego Group of today isn't the one we grew up with. They care more about wasting plastic on boring super heroes than creating original, unique themes.
Edit: My bad they did give us _something._ They gave us a knock-off, half-arsed GWP if we purchased $200 of a few specific themes Bionicle fans are likely to not care about. I skipped that "Tahu and Takua" official bootleg, of course. May as well have given us literally nothing, would have been less insulting.
@@PlazDreamweaver Unfortunately you're correct about the Lego of today being a different company from 20 years ago, but the reason they don't want to bring Bionicle back is most likely the same reason why shit like Galidor was an utter failure. It uses a ton of unique pieces that are nowhere to be found in other Lego sets and they don't integrate well with the Lego brick system. They are more an offshoot of Technic, but I think Technic has kind of shifted to a more STEM-focused image rather than being a glorified action figure line. Seriously, there were quite a few different Technic themes that preceded Bionicle that were pretty similar, namely the Slizers. I just don't think they want to go back to making "action figures" that only consist of ~30 pieces and want to focus more on the building aspect of the brand, because lets face it the basic Toa were not very fun to build, we liked them because they looked cool.
You also have to account for the fact that no one under 27 likely has any attachment to Bionicle whatsoever. I really miss the 90s when Lego had UNIQUE themes with original characters and stories, but the fact of the matter is that Star Wars DID save their asses and licensed IPs sell a lot easier. I think this is why they released the brick-built Tahu, it was basically their compromise to say "hey, we know that Bionicle fans are out there, but there's just no way we can justify digging out these old molds/making new ones and producing these unique pieces for a set that a small fraction of our market are even interested in." Like they only even gave us Tahu, the other 5 Toa would've probably done very poorly in sales, particularly Gali and Onewa.
@@Weewoo12there are many sets I find not that good, but I like the car sets. It’s still only good for genres you like
@@Weewoo12It’s still disappointing though given how big Bionicle was. You’d think having their own IP they don’t need to pay for licensing would still convince them to at least try. They had their own lore, comics, etc. I don’t see why they think there isn’t a market for them, even if they don’t fit in as well with typical legos. Honestly I’ve rarely ever been interested in normal legos, but I loved Bionicle. And sure maybe they weren’t as complex build-wise(though some of the bigger sets had hundreds of pieces) but that didn’t really matter to me. Hero factory killed Bionicle and I’m not really sure what happened from there since I was never interested in them.
I remember when bionicals came out I immediately combined them with normal legos
Fr thats why I stopped playing legos as a kid. I rarely got them for my birthday, because of the pricing. Even those tiny lego sets that weren't fun was $20 USD
If you actually see the video, you'll learn that the price didn't really change much in terms of $ per piece adjusted for inflation. It's just that there are bigger (more pieces) sets now than before, so it gives the impression that they are more expensive.
If there is a higher number on the receipt, it's not an impression. It's fact. @@facuigua12
@facuigua12 Their not talking about price change, their talking about how Lego's are expensive nowadays. And _actually_ Lego's prices changes *alot* along time ago. The main reason is just because a lot of time, materials, and planning go into ensuring every brick is a perfect representation of the brand as a whole. While LEGO is one of the most expensive brick-building companies out there, it’s fairly easy to justify the price point when taking the brand’s quality, reputation, educational value, and more into consideration. Ik there's a lot more math to it, but that's a simple answer for you
@@facuigua12 when I get charged for goods and services, it leaves a negative impression on my bank account 😭😞😭
Lucky to even get a battle pack with 2 minifigs and a tiny build like a speeder bike or something
Amazingly, you guys completed a 28-minute movie without even addressing the title's suggested question! Well done!
They actually did though, they told that they're marketing those very expensive sets to adults who earn their own wage rather than children who have to beg their parents.
@@sapphyrusThey also mentioned similar business practices destroyed them in the 90s.
Affordable child's toy.
Not odd cross leg sitting man's expensive way of not having children...
I'd wager they work for our government
@@sapphyrus I think people were hoping they'd explain why regular sets are so expensive now too.
I was hoping they'd explain why the cost per piece is about 10 cents. E.g. Is that the going rate for that amount of plastic?
Storytelling and editing in this piece is masterful. I, as someone who has never felt a love for legos, became an AFOL for 30 minutes, heard the remarkable story of a business that works for its customers, and was reminded that creativity shines when constraints become the framework around which the solution is built.
When I moved to Japan I switched from Lego to Gunpla etc, and I’m still consistently surprised by how cheap and ingenuously designed the sets are. They’re as easy to build as Lego, but cheaper (and way cheaper per hour of build time), more unique, and display better.
Of course the also have Nanoblock here (smaller and more efficient!), but as someone who used to be really into Lego I think more adult Lego enthusiasts should give models a chance.
“I don’t buy to resell” proceeds with “this Harley Quinn is worth $400, the set worth $1200 and I’m not going to build it”. Okay, so you’re reselling? 😂
She probably intended to build it, but then later found out it’s worth a lot, which gives her pause to build it.
maybe the one set out of a whole room full of em, duhdoi🤣
She had another interview where she states she’s only sold a few of them. I think the value shock stops here from enjoying it which is sad. I see this in many collection based hobbies
Do you know the price of things in your home? Are you reselling those things? You're making assumptions simply because she's aware of the value of her sets. It's normal to understand you own something of value, have no desire to sell, but reconsider from time to time when that profit is so big that it makes you rethink that decision.
@@WishItWas1984 exactly, imagine if your washing machine was suddenly worth $50k on the market. You would definitely reconsider using it even though you would have used it normally.
As someone who remembered the comic book crash of the 90s, I hope collectors today are being cautious and don't over-estimate their value.
You should be collecting things you like first and foremost, if your goal is only money you better have the capital at the start to stock easy items to sell or you’ll face plant almost always
There is a very notable difference between lego and comic books, there’s only so much you can do with printed pages, lego’s creativity is limitless unlike a comic book.
The same thing will happen to Lego. Now that people know the sets go up in value no one will open the boxes and play with them, just like how comics were bagged and never read by kids in the 90s, cause everyone thought their value would go up so they had to stay “mint”. Kids today aren’t going to open a Lego set that they think may be worth much more in the future, so there won’t be nostalgia for this stuff in 30 years.
comic books' value would degrade the more you removed them from the slipcase and read em. they also weren't something you could apply your own creative input into
@@direktive4 I mean legos can lose value from being worn down by play too, at least to some extent. Obviously not as much as comics though, given one is made of durable plastic.
The answer is greed. It's literally the cheapest thing you can make, injection molded plastic.
You do realize that each mold needed to create those cheap bricks costs around a quarter of a million dollars.
@@BawesomeBurf you do realize it's just painted/colored plastic?
@@bedundauniverse2447 you know nothing about plastic production lol, its a LOT more expensive then you think
injection mold is not cheap
No it doesnt, and certainly not for lego. They have a tools shop and CNC machines. Make a mold costs a couple hundred max for them not including design costs of the artists.
I think I have this deep connection with Lego because I grew up in a poor family, so the cheapest sets were best sets! Like now it’s not much more different but Lego has a huge place in my heart
"Stand the test of time" - screams in sadness for all the old brown and lime colored bricks-
Yeah some of my old pirate set stuff definitely didn't hold up. Those thin brown pieces are like glass.
@@kylepope1186 I still own jabba's Sail Barge 6210 and I have done EVERYTHING IN MY POWER to not let any sunlight cast itself on it since every-time i have to clean my sets, that one always makes some cracking sounds. And don't get me started with bionicles that is a whole jar of pickles lol
ah yes the horror of the lime green bionicle sockets
😢👍
rip any bionicle set from 2008-2010
“Because they keep buying it” that’s the one and only answer you need.
fancy seeing you here!
And no scalping protections
You did a better job at answering the question in their title. They barely answered it themselves.
No person with an iq above room temperature is buying Lego, all competitors make better models for half the price.
True but it's still the right thing to criticise them for it - I hope enough people learn about alternatives and Lego can finally go bankrupt like they should have years ago with the decisions they make
That has to be the most sinister building technique I’ve ever seen, 2000 Lego Light Sabre Rods to make a tiny 10cm bathroom floor? That’s utterly Diabolical.
"The Star Wars Athh-Athh"
I can't even.
😂
This made me sad too
The fact that I read this comment the same time it was said in the video is at least 1 in 600 just based on one factor not to mention my neurons firing for me to scroll down to the comments and also for youtube to list your comment where it listed it
it's pronounced @@
The sad thing is, that's how George Lucas called it back in the day.
That one lady’s credit card statements have to be as much as the U.S. National debt 💀
Hummm.... if it was brought on credit then i doubt she'll actually make much profit when it's sold.
@@Andy-fd5fg actually, popular sets have a big increase in price after retirement. With active investment you can get easily over 10% of yearly rate.
The trouble is it's not easily scalable - if you want to invest twice as much money, you buy twice as many sets, but then you have twice as much work when selling
She most definitely resells them lol
Crazy how they thought targeting adults wouldnt be profitable. "People who earn money and have conplete control over how to spend it? What worthless customers!" Is a crazy way to think.
It's a nice long form advertisement. But it's doesn't really answer the question of why it's expensive. It offers like 1 minute on price per piece ratio. It doesn't include competitors who manage to sell at a much lower price of around 30-40% of Lego price at the same (and sometimes higher) level of quality.
My son loves Lego and I hope that he can continue to enjoy it throughout his life. Life is short and tough sometimes. So I really hope that Legos will remain a happy little corner of life for him.
You should check out what LEGO competitors are up to. Their sets are incredible for often half the price. Only thing they often don't have are iconic mini figures.
That might be not the most expensive hobby out there but Lego is still ridiculously expensive for series of items that supposed to be child's toy
@@CountCocofang that's a good point. As it stands now he seems to appreciate the building of them more than sort of the collecting side. So that might be a good option. Then save some for occasional splurge on a Lego that maybe is branded to one of his favorite characters or movies.
Well said. That’s a very nice thought! 😊
Grew up in the early 2000s, around the Bionicle and Star Wars era. Loved Lego. But I think the modern company has been twisted by an expectation of corporate profits.
The video quite literally explains and proves that Lego prices have remained the same since late 90s. Creators like jangbricks have proved this time and time again yet people just don't seem to understand
Also Lego isn’t publically traded on any stock market so while they have a profit incentive they are not legally compelled to act on it or maximize it
@@lulushishibut isn’t that when they said Lego was going down in sales? That price point for plastic bricks was too expensive then and still is today.
I disagree with this opinion as Lego has always been a private company and therefore no shareholders to adhere to, and if you still disagree I recommend checking out the town of billund in Denmark
@@lulushishi Lego can screw you over again and again but people like you just want to keep their eyes shut, huh?
Luckily there are dozens of better quality (and of course much cheaper) alternatives.
After 2 years building a MOC military base I have to say a meth addiction would be much cheaper....
upload a video of this PLEASE
*years
Apostrophes don't make a word plural.
lmao
@@idonthavh1n166☝️🤓
@@idonthavh1n166 HeeHaw
Wild that a 28 minute video on Lego, can't be bothered to mention that Lego is Danish, apart from a tiny hint when it says that "these cost 20 danish kroner".
yeah true, Lego has just turned into a capitalist american nightmare.
Bigger sets, and *licensing*
Consider just how many of Lego's themes these days are based on a License they do not own. Super Mario, sonic the hedgehog, Minecraft, Star Wars, Marvel superheroes, DC superheroes, Harry Potter, real life car manufacturers, and the list goes on and on.
Compare this to the number of themes they have running that are 100% their own: Ninjago, DreamZzz, Friends, City, and Creator.
Now compare The prices of sets based on parts count, Set in the former list Are far more expensive for a comparable parts count to Original themes, and this is because LEGO has to give a cut of all sales to the license holder, And by virtue passes that cost off to customers by increasing the price.
I wish they'd do more in the non-IP sets.
Lego City has been somewhat ignored the past few years.
Corporations scratching each other's backs. Lining each other's pockets, keeping out any competition.
Watching this video made me realize that growing up my cousins and older brother and I have been playing with legos from the 80s. For some reason I never questioned the dated legos and other toys until I saw the Space Cruiser set. It's crazy to think that my mother and her brothers and their kids have been playing with the same toys since toddlerhood and those toys are now being played with my second cousins. It's been near fifty years and three generations and only the helmet straps are broken
I grew up with the Space Cruiser set, in the 2000s! We found them in a wooden box in our attic, clearly already well-loved, and yet have still lasted another couple decades already.
@@raquelfantoni2812 That set brought so many happy memories for my cousins and I, my brother didn't really like playing with Legos as much as we did. I hope that you got to have as many happy memories with them as we did 💙
Sold all my Legos when I emigrated, but it was tremendous fun even in adulthood. I watched this with a smile on my face. Heartwarming fun.
I wasn't allowed to play with Lego as a kid in the 2000s because it was "for boys" (according to my mom). I was only able to start exploring the pieces as an adult when my partner asked to build a set with me a few years ago. I completely get the hype around Lego now and love that the sets are a mix of fun and learning. We get so excited when we discover a new piece and really appreciate the ingenious designs people have made (the recent Jaws set had us celebrating over "natural curvature" and how it was built for adults to actually *play* with). I'm hope there's more sets put out in an intermediate price range so we can build more often and gather a better range of pieces🤞
The first Lego sets had girls on the box
looking only at price per piece is so disingenuous. When a single set can cost multiple months wages in some countries, and they keep releasing more and more expensive larger sets, without also releasing smaller, cheaper sets to get equivalent parts, then clearly it has gotten more expensive to the point of excluding millions. This is the opposite of true community. This is a gated community made with lego brick fences.
As most hobby communities are these days, or just any fandom really. We are living in a world where everything is seen as an investment, wonder when this bubble will burst and make it affordable to enjoy things again.
Luckily there are many alternatives, all cheaper and at this point many have even better quality.
Its insane what kind of sets other brands release.
There are cheaper alternatives, and they aren't essential like food and shelter. It's like complaining you can't afford a designer handbag when you either don't need it or there are cheaper alternatives.
Now you can understand warhammer 40k tabletop fan
"..@ gated community ... made with lego brick fences" 😂
The price-per-piece ratio is more or less redundant these days with more recent sets having a lot of smaller pieces for detailing. The 2 falcons mentioned on the video (10179 and 75192) are the same physical size despite the newer one having two and a half thousand more pieces.
Are they? At 23:35 they showed two millennium falcons of different sizes. I thought they were comparing the old one and the newer one.
@@Raphael4722 The smaller one at the bottom isn't a UCS one - it's the 75375
I'll save you the video... the reason it went from not expensive to expensive is because the people that grew up with it got older, got jobs and Lego decided to capitalise on the nostalgia.
But... Lego was never cheap? When I was a kid in the late 80's, I begged for the "big" Lego boxes, like pirate ships and islands, but my parents found those way too expensive even then. Since then, boxes just have become bigger. As an adult, I again look at those boxes and think: well, I'd love to have it, but I'm not gonna pay €400 for a Lego set...
@@MartijnPennings Same feeling (back then and now) ... miss the simplicity and reduced catalog from years past
Lego was always expensive. When I was a kid I got 1 big Lego set a year and they were usually $200-$300 per set in 90's dollars. $300 in 1995 is over $600 today, and I guarantee you a $300 set in the 90's was substantially less complex and had way less pieces compared to a $600 set today. I'm not saying Lego is a great value or anything, but the cost has gone down if anything.
Dude, it was ALWAYS expensive.
Lego lasts a long time..... my childhood Lego went to my sisters children.... and they have added more to it, which will then get passed to their children.
It would not surprise me that when humans become extinct and some alien archaeologist land here , they will think everything was made out of Lego because that is all that will be left.
If it was cheap tat then it would not last that long
You know, Lego is the hobby I vicariously look at, and never touch. It’s not the stigma of being 30 - it’s the fact it’s more expensive than most hobbies - probably even more than Warhammer, if you get down to it.
The Lego execs realized that the people willing to pay absorbent prices - adults - are pretty easily separated from their money if you attach a theme to it, like Star Wars, Marvel, Minecraft, etc., and I feel Lego capped at Bionicle’s early days, in terms of creative sets.
It’s depressing, because at the end of the day, you’re better off booting up Minecraft in creative mode, and having a grand ol’ time, and it’ll save you a TON of money. If you want the struggle and time investment, just do it in survival mode.
Money is a huge part of it, but I think the hardest part of Lego, personally, is SPACE. You need shelves, sorting trays, a work space, space if you plan on keeping the box, space for the final product… it’s insane to me, and I commend those that can do it, but it’s so inaccessible to the average person.
I do 1k piece jigsaw puzzles, and it’s a cheaper hobby, and the nicest thing is that it’s barely 5$ to hang and glue the finished product. You don’t get the same creative expression as Lego, yes, but you do get a more challenging and satisfying experience at the end, unlike the planned and detailed booklets of a Lego set. Plus, you can use ANYTHING to sort and store puzzles as you work, and a finished puzzle (glued and attached to a foam board) is very thin, and aren’t usually more than 26 inches in length.
Lego is only crazy-expensive because adults, like the ones shown here, give too much value to plastic bits, and the Lego company exploits that mentality. I know how Legos are made - I’ve seen a few documentaries on it - but it never feels justified to gouge people like that, when a 3D printer, a repro seller, and other fans could do just as fine of work - or even better.
Sadly, no mentioning of the declining brick quality. Especially the colors of the bricks are so varying when they are supposed to be the same color. That was better in the past.
I noticed this with my newly bought hotel set. The tan bricks have varying pigments. Meanwhile my Indiana Jones temple from 2008 has perfect tan color matching.
As with anything nowadays
I have a bunch of 20 years old bricks and they are still perfect to the day, now I have a kid of my own and by lego again and half of the modern bricks develop cracks very fast, wtf
Or resorting to cheap stickers instead of printing bricks.
My Saturn V has so many yellowed white parts 😭
Amazing to see Dave Kaleta on here, it's great to see him still so engaged in the hobby (and I had no idea he'd been on TV!). I remember seeing his work in the MOCOlympics back on the now defunct MOCPages website, I think it was an undersea arena he made in a round against Flare that is the first build of his I saw. He was always such a great sport in competitions like that and a very creative builder, so it's absolutely lovely to see him here. A shame my memory of MOCPages is not better, there were so many great builders like Dave and fantastic interactions throughout the community that have been lost now that the site is shut down.
I would have liked to hear more about the engineering and manufacturing of the blocks. The new specialty blocks and how a designer utilizes the pallet of existing blocks to come up with the new sets.
That's top secret
i'm sure their competitors would love to know their trade secrets as well
That's the neat part:
You don't 😅
Molding plastic into shape isn't rocket science anymore so the production itself isn't all that interessting. I really belive that in the design department of Lego there are some real passionate builders. But then they collide with the higher ups and have to butcher their project until it meets certain demands (cost).
I don't think Lego is planing compatibility in any way. Why would they? Why would I want to sell 2 products for the price of 2, that my customer can build a 3rd one by himself for free when I can just sell him 3 products. Especially since others like Cada are blowing Lego out of the water in terms of build quality, innovation and price.
The only engineering at Lego is how they can scam more money
Well, it wouldn’t be a so expensive video if it only showed the manufacturing process… that’s the super cheap part
I love how organized Dave is. He was perfect to interview.
In Austria, there is an entire community of people dedicated to lego alternatives. They even have stores.
wie heist die community und wie heisn die gschäftln?
@@Tinyflower1 Ich bin Deutsch, also habe ich da nicht so viel ahnung, aber ich erinnere mich daran das ich ein video gesehen habe, in dem es sich um so ein geschäfft handelte. Ich glaube es war in Wien, und der name des geschäfts war irgend etwas ganz simples, also etwas wie "Alternativ-Klemmbausteinladen" oder "Klemmbausteinemarkt Wien". Ich bin mir da nicht so wirklich sicher, es sind schon so einz zwei jahre her seitdem ich darüber mich informiert habe.
@@itryen7632oh, how I love German "it was something really simple" **continues with an unreadable word** 😂
@@Airgam1 Alternativ-Klemmbausteinladen
@@itryen7632 Die Klemme - Lego hat es gekillt.
I’m so glad the builder they interviewed mentioned how he built that mosaic floor, that was driving me crazy trying to figure it out until he said it was just bar elements on end stacked together
20:44 no way they actually called the AT-AT like thay lmaooo
Hahahaha
Was looking for this! Hilarious... At At
like...
ät ät
Came looking for this 😂
"My kids aren't allowed in my room full of toys for kids"
Im glad you mentioned how much the older sets would cost if they were sold today, showing that even though they would be cheaper than LEGO is today, they were never actually "cheap"
It's anyway still an illusion, they added just tiny parts that costs lot less to produce
@@dr.angerousevery new piece would require new machinery, and would probably be used in a limited set of sets, so it would be much costly. The larger classical pieces are cheaper simply because they are so standardized. Just because something is tiny, doesn’t mean it should cost less - actually it’s often the opposite.
Lego's CEO being like "eveythin is awsommm :>" is just genius and funny
Everything is cool when you're a part of the team!
It's funny: When I was a kid, I got a few tiny LEGO sets.
I always wanted to get the bigger sets but I could have 2-4 other cool things for the money it would cost to get ONE of the bigger LEGO sets. So, I never got any of the bigger sets.
As I got older and got more income, I would occasionally check LEGO set prices and every time I did, it seemed like the prices kept raising beyond what I was willing to pay.
Now, it's choosing between vacations or weekends out or a LEGO set. That's f++king ridiculous.
We are talking about plastic bricks that cost pennies on the dollar to create at scale for them.
Why is it SO EXPENSIVE? Because the c-suite at LEGO is populated with greedy a++holes.
-------------------------
EDIT:
// "Yes, if you want the nicer sets you pay more but thats the same with everything."
These are plastic blocks that are cheap to make at scale but they charge Louis Vuitton prices.
The issue is the historically stupid & greedy markup on these toys. Not whether they're nice or not.
EDIT 2:
It's unreal how many simps are out there for late-stage capitalism and greedflation.
Did you even watch the video? It literally says price per piece stayed the same for the past 10-20 years.
Yes, if you want the nicer sets you pay more but thats the same with everything. No different than buying a $100 jacket to a $10 hoodie.
Nice you mentioned Louis Vuitton 😂
Lego will last you beyond the weekend so thats right there is, what you said again? Oh right “value”? Bro just admit you don’t want one, stop blaming everything else except for yourself, period.
Would you give me lets say “something you love” for 5 bucks? C mon.
Many of these Lego simps are employees for firms made specifically to pretend to be grassroots people and spread misinformation by simping for whatever company's hiring their firm.
There's a word for this, and it's "Astroturfing."
Time to buy a plamo set instead. Might I recommend the Zeta Ver.Ka? You'll need nippers and sandpaper for it but it's totally worth it
I am 54 years old, I started playing with Legos very young. I just finished a flower Lego set.
I LOVED it when my son was finally into playing with Lego in the mid 90s. We saved all of my son's Legos, and I am excited for my granddaughters find their passion.
So lego thought of adults playing with their products as annoying trash until they saw profit in us, then used their ideas to further their business and charge exorbitant prices for cheap plastic stamped into shapes. Thats my summary
That's exactly the summary of this. And now they are really aggressively trying to find the absolute maximum they can squeeze out of their customers, by dropping quality and raising prices at the same time. I desperately hope they get humbled by the competition soon and start making actually attractive products at reasonable prices again.
I encourage people to learn how to use a 3D printer and print lego parts or 3D print whatever you like. Don’t get sucked into this corp BS! Have fun with the future now and get 3D printing!
@@michaelrfx7the fun of Lego is the process of building the sets. 3d printers don’t even come close to the level of satisfaction that Lego brings. Trust me, I’m an enthusiast of both lol.
@@trulsdiriothe big problem is there really isn’t any competitor (that I have found, at least) that comes close to the quality and building experience that Lego provides. I’ve tried several of the cheaper companies out there, and half the time the pieces won’t even fit together and are just a hassle to build in general. Never had a single issue with any Lego products at all. Lego is really in a whole other league in terms of quality. Overpriced, yes, but you do at least get a good product and a satisfying and fun building process. No current competitors can come close.
you didn't watch the whole thing apparently, there's a section on a rough pricing per part for 2 different millenium falcon sets that disprove your use of 'exorbitant.'
wow guys you managed to do a 28 minute video without even answering the question suggested in the title, bravo! 👏🏼
My thoughts exactly
Lemme help you with some logical thinking. They mentioned Lego found a new customer, one thats spending a lot of money. older people. So in theory this would explain why it become more expensive? Kids buy less these days, adults with more money buy more? it's become more of a collectors item. so that all seems logical right?
I think you should spend less time googling stuff and try to use your brain a bit more so that you can think for yourself.
I understand you expected a straight forward answer, but not everything in life has a straight forward answer.
The Dave guy said his collection is around 50,000 dollars, kids dont have that kind of money. They also mention sets are only made for a limited time. It creates a limited market, rarity and collectors value. Again, use some logic, there are many answers to why its become expensive.
18:38
And you missed the entire point of the video, bravo.
still hate my parents for throwing away my saved lego pile when i was getting 'too old'
I feel like people also forget that part of what they are paying for is the licensing of whatever theme they are buying, especially with star wars, lego still pays Disney to be able to use the logos and ships and characters so you are helping them pay for that not just the bricks themselves
I recived a Porsche 911 set for my 48th birthday. I slowly put it together over the following year and completed it on my 49th birthday.
Little by little. No rush.
Many relaxing evenings with a glass of bourbon and Miles Davis records playing in the background.🙂
I'm glad you mentioned the exploding brown bricks. I never had Lego myself, but the children's section in the library had an entire graveyard box of them.
16:06 - "I don't really have a strategy or approach to buying Lego, I buy what I like. Unfortunately, I like a lot!" Hahahaha I'm totally using this as my motto to justify my collections from now on
Watched this video for the business breakdown.
Found my eyes watering as the collector describes exactly what it feels like to be a MOCist.
My BIONICLE collection, at price point, is worth like 3,000 dollars. Its crazy that now, I could make hundreds selling singular pieces.
But I love all my parts chilling in their organized boxes, by collectible, color, function, and importance to my build style.
"Stand the test of time", except for cheese slopes and in general 1 x n size elements, like bricks 1 x 1, 1 x 2, developing cracks even after being assembled for a few weeks
I'm having more problems not losing those small pieces, than them breaking.
@@TheDukeOfThunder That can be a challenge too
I still have the Lego from my 80s childhood, and a lot of it has lost most of it clutch power (and not because of playing with it, but just from being in a box for a few decades). And we also had some older stuff from the 60s and 70s, and most of it got warped or has become brittle. We'll have to see if nowadays Lego is better, though one thing is still very much the same: white pieces (that aren't so white to begin with...) will yellow in just a few years.
ahh yes, cheese slopes, a thing that people care about
deteriorating brick and color quality, lazy designs, insane prices and license markups, less and less original series. Lego's monopolistic fall off needs to be studied.
My issue with the price is not really the price but the quality of some of the sets you get for the price.
Especially in the lego technic area there have been quite some bad sets for outragious prices.
You guys should see the third party market. Their prices are more insane.
"There's probably 10000 pieces right here."
Points at a box with like 600 pieces in it
Those single studs add up fast. 10,000 is not a lot for that part.
20:43 "the star wars @-@"??? Lmao
That's literally the official correct pronunciation according to Lucasfilm.
@@Skaftholu But that is still weird. Like AT and XT computers, we don't pronounce it as "Add computer" and "Ex computer". Or Geforce GTX is not Geforce Geetext. F/A 18 jetfighter is not "Far 18". Or the Ford GT is not Ford Git or Ford Get.
Add-add sounds like a cool little pet. I am sure the Empire isn't some Hello Kitty minded people. They are some seriously power user who wouldn't mind wiping out a whole planet with a blink of an eye.
NOTHING said throughout the whole video caught my attention or sounded weird. But this... THIS, sicks out like a sore thumb.
As a kid without even knowing what pronunciation was at-at was my goto so it's just as fine now in fact more so because of it 👍, but for you adults getting mad over it im sorry😂😂
it's literally just because "At" is an actual word. This whole comment section is making too big of a deal of it.
This only happens for the AT-AT. You don't see people pronounce R2-D2 weird or AT-DP weird.
It's also a fantasy space walker not everyone is a nerd about. Oh and it's shorter to say, less syllables.
There is another important reason for Lego's pivot to adult builders and collectors: declining birth rate and population ageing. Fewer and fewer young adults are interested in having children these days and this trend of birth rate going down is now worldwide, but especially profound in rich countries. For toy companies, traditional customer bases are shrinking and the only way out in the long term is focusing on adults.
I also suspect that by releasing 18+ sets, Lego can avoid complying with safety regulations for young children's toys like restrictions on minimum piece sizes for preventing choking hazards, which can save manufacturing costs while making sets more expensive.
I wish it was less expensive because just playing with the pieces and building can be very good for kids. Many engineers state that their favorite toy as a child was Lego. I like just the bricks for kids and encourage creativity.
Minecraft replaced lego for the youth. It is much cheaper (1 time ~20 euro purchase and you get free updates), allows for arguably more creativity than lego, and is even a social platform.
@@bloemkoolendestreetgang450 Meanwhile me who both played with lego and minecraft
I fell back in love with Lego as an adult because of the minifigs. The faces and hair elements had evolved so far from what I played with. I made minifigs of myself and most of my family. Everything I get is focused on "what adventures can my minifig have with this?" I'm trying to help impart that to my nephew as well. I want him to see his minifig as a small version of himself. So he sees himself driving the car, flying the plane, or crossing lightsabers with Darth Vader.
Two things you didn’t mention…Lego manufactures the most tires in the world and the most expensive pieces are the multicolored ones that come when you change the color in the molds in the first run their multicolor
Do you mean pieces when they recolor them or dual molded pieces?
@@jijowajaknxanma3439 recolor them
@@jijowajaknxanma3439 Dual molded, some of the previous plastic remains so it gets mixed
The “At At” 😂 It is the “A T A T”!
enragement engagement.
To be fair, i made the same mistake as a kid
Bro I was looking for this comment
george lucas himself calls them at ats
@@gutdupois2809 Does he also call APC's "Apkuh's?" Does he call ATV's "Atvuhs"?
There's a video on UA-cam from a man who got home and realised someone had broken in and stolen all his Lego. He was crying because he would never be able to replace what he had been collecting for so many years.
The Internet being what it is, I was sure that the comments section would be full of people making fun of him, a grown man crying because someone stole his Lego...but to my surprise, everyone was supporting him!
This shows how much people love Lego and respect people who are passionate about Lego!
But he didn''t get his sets back?
@@AC3handle thats how i remember it
@@AC3handle This was a long time ago but as far as I remember, he launched a gofundme campaign (or someone did it for him) and just after a few days, he asked people to stop donating money because he got more than enough to replace all the stolen Lego.
That's because youtube censors people that aren't made out of marshmellows and kittens.
@@fgoogleinthea7475 Agreed, having a soft side is fine, however being a wimp is made far too acceptable nowadays.
Very well-researched and produced video. Thank you for covering this hobby in such a professional and well-informed way!
It's expensive because of corporate greed, no other reason.
Totally agree. It’s gone from being a toy to a luxury.
Did you watch the video? Probably not.
They literally talked about price per brick being almost the same for years.
@@UnCoolDad no reason if you somewhat understand that lego made sets worse over the year and made them more expensive. in addition to suing other companies who try to sell systems that are lego-like, suing content creators who call all block based toys lego because "only lego can be called lego" while everyone knows that every block toy is lego in everyone's head. they want money, and they want a lot of it. more profit, more expensive prices and shifting away from children to adults who more often than not behave like a cult. price per piece shot up rapidly and not because plastic got more expensive or the building techniques are harder/sets are more elaborate. they copy and paste all the sets, dont print on bricks anymore and just give you stickers which fall off after a few months to years and the quality of the pieces went downhill a LOT
Also because of people buying as 100% investments which drives up the cost of second hand kits.
Can we talk abt the lady with the secret mirror door????? TO HIDE HER LEGO SETS??? GENIUS!!!
genius? Reseller like her are roaches to hobbies. Despicable fits better.
I need this for my whisky collection.
I love the star star "At-At" pronunciation 😂
Kind of amazed that the research into less caustic/more biodegradeable plastics wasn't mentioned in here (something Lego has been working on for years), but a lovely dip into the deep world of Lego. Excellent video!
So much profit, so many releases and still no new Bionicles 😢
20:33, I had to stop and go look at the comments lol
20:43 tell me you havent watched star wars without telling me you havent watched star wars.
I'm calling it @@ till the day i die even Lucas and Hamill say it like that 🤣
Lucasfilm itself has stated that the pronunciation was always intended to be at-at rather than A T A T.
That Lego collector guy is so wholesome by the way he talks. What a nice guy.
The biggest German Lego UA-camr and shop owner always says that "The foxes at Lego drink paint to get to these prices".
And without their 3D brand, which they use to sue all competitors out of the market, they would certainly no longer be the market leader.
Their quality in both color fidelity and construction is declining and they have already lost the rank for the best bricks on the market to Gobricks.
They don't sue competitors out of the market anymore because their IP protections expired. Now anyone can make lego-style products, as long as they avoid copying existing sets or using the handful of piece shapes that remain protected.
@@yurisei6732That isn't necessarily correct. They still sue 'competitors' and even AFOL companies in some cases.
I have closely followed the court cases around Lego suing HA Bricks, just as an example. (HA Bricks was an AFOL ran company specialising in parts and custom sets to support the Lego train community, and was around for many years. While expensive, it was well thought of in the community.) It was such an unnecessary action and some of Lego legal team's requests to HA Bricks in court documents broke EU data protection law, yet Lego went about destroying HA Bricks (the life long Lego fan owner has likely €100,000s to pay minimum ~ the court documents had Lego requesting 500 euros per custom set across the entire life of sales, which runs into 1000s of these custom sets)...
It just shows the position Lego has in a legal sense in Europe. After taking a look into it, I found Lego could never take this particular legal action in the US against AFOL companies as their law currently stands. It seems clear that companies like Brickmania would be a likely target.
Btw, there is also indication of another legal challenge from Lego against yet another AFOL ran company in the EU, likely within the next 12 to 18 months.
It's kinda sad that a lot of this stuff has/will barely get a mention anywhere...
I agree. Their new sets like "Friends" look atrocious & so much more awkward/unappealing than what I remember from Lego as a kid.
@@yurisei6732 sure their patents for a majority of parts have expired, but that doesn't stop them or retailers to sue.
Why do I have a feeling this is just going to be a LEGO company apologist rather than actually criticize Legos horrible business practices
Bingo.
This was basically an ad for LEGO.
Horrible business practices such as:
@@ReddoFreddo charging hundreds of dollars for plastic that cost literally pennies. Taking away small children's ability to grow their engineering skills. When I was a child I had literally buckets of Legos. And my family was poor. Mind you.
Good news, it’s called Lego classic, it’s sold literally everywhere, and it’s cheaper now than it’s ever been in history relative to inflation.
Magnatesmedia has a video exposing its business practices
Legos are too expensive for what it is, its just plastic molding bits. They literally cost 1% of their retail price to make.
True yes, but what about transportation, labor and storage. A lot of add-on costs in business.
You are paying for brand name. There are alternatives.
And there are alternatives for every market in the world, quality is what decides the two
@@jameslynch1602 Its the same quality, its just all plastic...... dont be brain washed.
Currently unwashing my brain, lego uses ABS plastic which is by the far the best, compared to other companies that use PVC plastic with very occasional ABS. I could make the argument that it doesn’t matter what wood you use for your house, it’s all wood isn’t it?
This documentary is geniuenly the best one I've watched so far about Lego and what it feelings it triggers deep inside me.
It is always amazing to see collector items, because that woman shows you her hidden room, and it is cool, but then you learn that there are like 200k, a small house, worth of material there and you feel that you are breathing too much and are going to damage something by mistake.
It’s always amazing when someone manages to give me a brain aneurysm just by attempting to write a cohesive paragraph.
@@WigneyR3rd grade is hard for everyone. But keep trying and some day you'll be able to read chapter books too!!
One of my hobbies is 3D photography and because it's pretty hard to get a 3D camera I had to build one by myself and I made the casing of the camera from LEGO, so it can be used not just as a toy.
In the early 2000s it was annoying trying to collect discontinued sets off eBay from nerds that raised the price. My dad was the eBay account holder, but paid for by my chore money. It's a shame that kids are priced out of kids toys.
We love custom LEGO builds! Great video!
I honestly don’t see the value in buying Lego anymore. I don’t know how it is over in the Us, but here around Europe there are multiple brick manufacturers, and some of them they started to reach Lego quality in the bricks while selling you bigger and better sets for less money. Especially in the technic section.
The best comparison is for that is in my opinion Cada. They acquired the AMG license and made the AMG One in technic, equipped with red control and motors etc etc, for just around 250€, while Lego released F1 cars with wrong tire sizes and colors on the cars and helmets.
You may argue that these aren’t comparable, but for me it shows that Lego doesn’t care about their customer, only about the money
Agreed. It's the beginning of a golden era for Lego competitors. Lots of very high-quality sets with interesting designs and licenses, often far cheaper than Lego.
They just focus much more on larger sets than they used to decades ago. Its typically uncommon for there to be more than one or two sets in a wave of sets for a theme that are affordable for kids - the vast majority of themes will have more sets that easily cost £50 and up, which is much more of a struggle for a kid to be able to afford by themselves. Then with licensed sets, often times they are massive, one-off builds that cost in the triple digits because they are always catered to the adult market, even if smaller sets of the same theme would be appealing to younger fans. Look at the recently announced Deku Tree from Zelda, for example - enormous set, £260, and it will be a long while until we would likely see a proper full theme of Zelda sets. And even then, I can guarantee that the majority of that theme would be higher in price and generally unaffordable for the average person or child.
9:25 - I am an enthusiast of metal sculpting and I happen to have welders and tools for about 20 thousand dollars in a dedicated room called a garage. Others have fishing gear, others have an automechanic setup, others have a man cave with sports memorabilia. Why is this depicted in the video as something eccentric? This man has a hobby like most of us but all of us have that thing in common, to have a dedicated space for it, because otherwise it wouldn't be worthwhile to keep around.
The thing is, metal is metal and can be rather expensive from materials to the tools necessary to work with it, Lego is just cheap plastic, nothing more.
Could you rewrite the script for that part so it wouldn't hurt your feelings?
I don’t think it was portrayed as eccentric. She just said it’s common for fanatics to have a separate room. Which is what you also said.
@@erinclarke2715 Yeah, I didn't see anything pejorative about that segment at all. Or put another way, if someone did a video about an automechanic setup or a room full of fishing gear or a man cave of sports memorabilia, it would be played exactly the same way.
If the producer wanted to make Dave out to be weird/eccentric, they easily could have inserted some whimsical music or sound effects there. But they didn't. It was pretty straightforward.
My friend, the garage is the great home of hobbies. Mine houses two sports cars, shelves of parts for them, stacks of wheels, my rolling and non rolling toolboxes and so on. But There is a corner with a workbench with a heavy vice.. that also houses my 3D printers, print medium, and paints for the more fanciful things I make with them. What is that old saying? "The difference between boys and men are the price of their toys", or something like that? You work so you can pursue your hobbies, whatever they may be.
I have always loved the idea as an adult, 37 years old, I grew up on Legos as well, I even still have the popcorn bucket from the 90s filled will old time Legos from my child hood. It is a great way to pass time by, relax and not stress about our daily lives when it is stressful, much like video games.