http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techinvestor/techearnings/2004-01-09-lego-suffering_x.htm
I'm glad to see they are finally seeing the light. Star Wars and Harry Potter LEGOs could never hope to compare with the Space, Castle, and Pirate Legos of old. The best thing about the 90's era of legos was that no one told you how to play with them. No one told you who the good guys and bad guys were, no one told you had to build what was shown on the box. When you got tired of one storyline, you went and invented another one. As a kid, my space legos went through so many different factions, so many alliances and broken treaties, that the real world would be hard pressed to keep up with the amount of Political activity I invented. My sets were taken apart nearly every week and new sets were constructed, only to have the original sets put back together the week afterwards.
With the movie tie ins for Star Wars and Harry Potter, that just doesnt happen. It just doenst occur to kids that "hey, maybe I dont have to play with these in way that mimics exactly what I saw in the movie. Maybe I dont have to build what I see on the box." When kids get tired with playing with their Star Wars legos, its inconceivable that maybe they could pretend Luke Skywalker was the bad guy and Darth Vader was the good guy. It's inconcievable that maybe Han Solo could be a Jedi with a lightsaber. Its inconcievable that a Star Wars world could exist without the ships and locations they're used to. They've been bombarded with so many images in the media of how star wars works that they wouldn't dare think of coming up with something different. So when the kids get tired of the traditional storyline, the legos sit used on their shelves and in their bins gathering dust. The idea of getting new legos is quickly pushed out by other toys they get their hands on. Creativity is what legos used to be all about, and the Star Wars and HP sets stifled it a lot more than they encouraged it. No wonder LEGO lost 230 million dollars last year.
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You underestimate the power of the Dark Side...
DSettahr's Homepage
[This message has been edited by DSettahr (edited January 09, 2004).]
Quote:
<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Lego, expecting worst loss in its history, fires two executives, ponders layoffs
By Jan M. Olsen, Associated Press
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Danish toy maker Lego said Thursday it was expecting a $237.6 million pretax loss, the worst in the privately held company's 72-year history.
The company, whose colored plastic building blocks have been a favorite children's toy for decades, fired executive vice president and chief operating officer Poul Plougmann over failed marketing strategies. Lego also dismissed Francesco Ciccolella, who was responsible for corporate development.
Additionally, the company said it would possibly lay off some of its 8,000 workers worldwide. Lego has several retail outlets in the United States and a theme park in California, but no U.S. production facilities. Its North American headquarters are in Enfield, Conn. It was not known if the reductions would affect the company's U.S. staff.
Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, chief executive and grandson of the company's founder, said Lego's push to develop new products did not generate the results it wanted.
Last year was "very, very bad," he said.
Since it reported its first loss of $47.8 million in 1998, Lego has been hit hard by increasing competition from the makers of electronic toys.
Under Plougmann, the company reacted by expanding its electronic offerings, including making high-profile deals to use characters from Disney, the Star Wars films and Harry Potter books in its toys.
It also developed popular CD-ROM games and its lauded Mindstorms series, high-tech robots that are made of building blocks but can be controlled by personal computers.
As a result, sales rose but profits stagnated because of the higher cost of producing the new products.
The company now plans to stop making the electronics and movie tie-in products and return to its core mission: producing plastic building blocks for children.
"We would rather be in control of our own products, the things that we can decide," Kirk Kristiansen said. "We want to go back to our core products, and that is a key part of our future strategy."
Figures for 2003 were not released, but in 2002, Lego posted a 7% increase in sales, to $1.9 billion and a 1% gain in its net profit to $72.5 million. Until 1997, Lego did not release its financial results.
Lego will also make "necessary organizational adjustments" among its employees in nearly 30 countries. It gave no details but said an announcement would be made in a couple of months.
Founded in 1932, Lego's name was invented by combing the first two letters of the Danish words "Leg godt" (play well) without knowing that that the word in Latin means "I assemble."
</font>
By Jan M. Olsen, Associated Press
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Danish toy maker Lego said Thursday it was expecting a $237.6 million pretax loss, the worst in the privately held company's 72-year history.
The company, whose colored plastic building blocks have been a favorite children's toy for decades, fired executive vice president and chief operating officer Poul Plougmann over failed marketing strategies. Lego also dismissed Francesco Ciccolella, who was responsible for corporate development.
Additionally, the company said it would possibly lay off some of its 8,000 workers worldwide. Lego has several retail outlets in the United States and a theme park in California, but no U.S. production facilities. Its North American headquarters are in Enfield, Conn. It was not known if the reductions would affect the company's U.S. staff.
Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, chief executive and grandson of the company's founder, said Lego's push to develop new products did not generate the results it wanted.
Last year was "very, very bad," he said.
Since it reported its first loss of $47.8 million in 1998, Lego has been hit hard by increasing competition from the makers of electronic toys.
Under Plougmann, the company reacted by expanding its electronic offerings, including making high-profile deals to use characters from Disney, the Star Wars films and Harry Potter books in its toys.
It also developed popular CD-ROM games and its lauded Mindstorms series, high-tech robots that are made of building blocks but can be controlled by personal computers.
As a result, sales rose but profits stagnated because of the higher cost of producing the new products.
The company now plans to stop making the electronics and movie tie-in products and return to its core mission: producing plastic building blocks for children.
"We would rather be in control of our own products, the things that we can decide," Kirk Kristiansen said. "We want to go back to our core products, and that is a key part of our future strategy."
Figures for 2003 were not released, but in 2002, Lego posted a 7% increase in sales, to $1.9 billion and a 1% gain in its net profit to $72.5 million. Until 1997, Lego did not release its financial results.
Lego will also make "necessary organizational adjustments" among its employees in nearly 30 countries. It gave no details but said an announcement would be made in a couple of months.
Founded in 1932, Lego's name was invented by combing the first two letters of the Danish words "Leg godt" (play well) without knowing that that the word in Latin means "I assemble."
</font>
I'm glad to see they are finally seeing the light. Star Wars and Harry Potter LEGOs could never hope to compare with the Space, Castle, and Pirate Legos of old. The best thing about the 90's era of legos was that no one told you how to play with them. No one told you who the good guys and bad guys were, no one told you had to build what was shown on the box. When you got tired of one storyline, you went and invented another one. As a kid, my space legos went through so many different factions, so many alliances and broken treaties, that the real world would be hard pressed to keep up with the amount of Political activity I invented. My sets were taken apart nearly every week and new sets were constructed, only to have the original sets put back together the week afterwards.
With the movie tie ins for Star Wars and Harry Potter, that just doesnt happen. It just doenst occur to kids that "hey, maybe I dont have to play with these in way that mimics exactly what I saw in the movie. Maybe I dont have to build what I see on the box." When kids get tired with playing with their Star Wars legos, its inconceivable that maybe they could pretend Luke Skywalker was the bad guy and Darth Vader was the good guy. It's inconcievable that maybe Han Solo could be a Jedi with a lightsaber. Its inconcievable that a Star Wars world could exist without the ships and locations they're used to. They've been bombarded with so many images in the media of how star wars works that they wouldn't dare think of coming up with something different. So when the kids get tired of the traditional storyline, the legos sit used on their shelves and in their bins gathering dust. The idea of getting new legos is quickly pushed out by other toys they get their hands on. Creativity is what legos used to be all about, and the Star Wars and HP sets stifled it a lot more than they encouraged it. No wonder LEGO lost 230 million dollars last year.
------------------
You underestimate the power of the Dark Side...
DSettahr's Homepage
[This message has been edited by DSettahr (edited January 09, 2004).]
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I always wanted that huge thing they had...the big train/monster truck thing. And those Ice Planet guys were pretty cool too.![[http://forums.massassi.net/html/frown.gif]](http://forums.massassi.net/html/frown.gif "http://forums.massassi.net/html/frown.gif")
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