the Lego bricks survive the challenge of video games and electronic toys...

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...but have to sell their soul to the majors and hollywood. a bit at least



beautiful article on the NYT about this danish company that had to re-invent itself in the contemporary market.

"While that may be true of Lego’s toys, until recently it was hardly the case for Lego’s bottom line. But five years after a near-death experience, Lego has emerged as an unlikely winner in an industry threatened by the likes of video games, iPods, the Internet and other digital diversions.

Even as other toymakers struggle, this Danish maker of toy bricks is enjoying double-digit sales gains and swelling earnings. In recent years, Lego has increasingly focused on toys that many parents wouldn’t recognize from their own childhood. Hollywood themes are commanding more shelf space, a far cry from the idealistic, purely imagination-oriented play that drove Lego for years and was as much a religion as a business strategy in Billund."

NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/06/business/global/06leg...

they made my winter days during childhood and gave substance to the ghosts of my imagination.
feels good to know they're still there.

ciao DUers.

[LeftyMom]

1. I think I've personally kept them in business, judging by the contents of my kid's toybox.

Those things are not cheap.

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3. great that you did. they're not cheap, but they are fantastically sane.

and keep kids in touch with the material sensual world.
great what you did.

[LeftyMom]

5. I like that they're open-ended,

though the emphasis on movie-themed sets is a problem. I help build those sets according to the instructions once and then they go in the bucket so that they can be used for constructions of his own invention.

Lego story: One morning when my son was six or so I heard this thumping, bumping and rattling that I know is what it sounds like when you drag a giant wheeled plastic storage bin full of Lego pieces down a carpeted staircase, then silence, then "Mom, help!" So naturally I come running down the stairs to see what the crazy kid did now and how much it's going to cost me to get it fixed. I didn't see him, just the lego box in the middle of the floor.

Then he said, "look, Mom, I'm a Lego!"



He'd wedged himself in the box, on top of about 3" of Lego bricks.

[Davis_X_Machina]

2. As you bend the twig...

...so shall grow the tree. My son is a second-year architecture student, due entirely, as near as we can tell, to a life-long love-affair with Lego. Sometimes late at night this summer, we could hear the distinctive sound of him paddling through the tupperwares, looking for just the right piece. He complains about all the movie-themed stuff, though. Too many single-purpose pieces.

We'll be getting him the Lego™ Fallingwater, the famous Frank Lloyd Wright house, for his birthday. You're never too old.

[demoleft]

4. definitely never too old. :) nice story there. n/t