Leg godt with the Lego!

by Michael S. Kaplan, published on 2006/06/23 03:59 -04:00, original URI: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2006/06/23/643843.aspx

Though Conan O'Brien had an amusing take on it tonight, pointing out that perhaps they would not be shutting down the US plant in Enfield, CT and moving it to Mexico had they not made the factory so easy to take apart and put back together again? :-)

As someone who grew up with Lego, I am less worried about the move than I am about the fact that Lego seems to be in trouble beyond what they will save with thus particular relocation -- given the plan to get rid of another 900 employees in Denmark over then next few years.

I hope that Lego's plans to re-invent itself are successful. If anyone can rebuild themselves, then the coolest building blocks in the world have the best chance!

Well that's the way it goes. Years ago, Lego had some competitors (Playmobil, Fischertechnik, electric trains) and was happy.

Now they did two mistakes:
- Lego parts are extremely expensive (here in Germany)
- Lego parts become too specialized (for certain models only)

I'm convinced that playing with Lego is good for the children, but me as parent, I have problems buying these expensive, specialized kits. Thus our children don'T have too much of them.

And then, there are the computer games...

If Lego does not find a way to sell these things cheaper, they will lose.

Christian

I've seen a lot of reports of children being over-stimulated with media like TV and game consoles, which are not really fostering creativity - and that's something practically required for using Legos. I used the instructions only to quickly build the structure on the box, then tore it down immediately and started building something with others parts that was original (I was also a stickler for coordinated and consistent coloring). Perhaps the greater problem has more to do with society than rising costs of specialized pieces (which also take away some of the fun).

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