Hasbro Dethroned by Lego Group as World's Second-largest Toy Company

I'm not surprised LEGO are doing so well. They've got the licenses to nearly every major character based IP and they charge a stupid amount of money for even the smallest sets.

Yes Legos are more expensive and all the branding is getting a little absurd. But you can't really argue with the quality. Transformers and Legos are my only real obsessions and I gotta tell you, Kre-o just doesn't cut it. They're cool yes, fun yes. But the set design is no where near the quality of Lego. Of course it's all about the bricks since the idea is to take everything apart and do what you want, but there Lego comes out on top as well, the Kre-o bricks themselves are much lower quality. Are Legos too expensive? Yeah they are, and they rarely go on sale or clearance. But it's still the Mercedes of building blocks and it shows. Hasbro tried with Kre-o to imitate, and some people buy them for the brand representation, but no one seems to be buying them for the bricks since they just don't stack up (pun intended).

I think this is really about branding and planning. Lego has a product that appeals on a brand level, but if you're like me even if you could care less about the brands you still want the sets because of the pieces that they have. Case and point, Ninjago and the Lone Ranger sets. I could care less about the brands but I still grabbed plenty of them because of all the different elements in those sets. To a Lego modeler there's some valuable stuff there. So for Lego even their less popular stuff will sell and mostly at full retail price.

Now hasbro on the other hand, (speaking strictly as a Transformers fan who cares nothing for the other lines) if you don't like the brand/line/character then you're not getting it and thus we have seemingly acres of dark of the moon/bot-shots/prime figures clogging up retail space not even getting sold at clearance prices STILL sitting in stores, and I'm pretty confident construct-o-bots will join that bunch soon. Then retailers see this stuff not selling and are hesitant to stock up on other products, some of which actually are highly desirable like generations or masterpiece.

But lets keep this in perspective, number three in the world is still pretty good. I think they just need to stay focused and stop this crap of non-transforming vinyl figures etc. Seriously, who thought that was a good idea?

I'm actually pretty surprised that Lego hasn't always been the bigger company. I have never paid any attention to the business side of toys, so I just judge by what people I know are into and what aisle I see kids in in the stores, and those both point to Lego being more popular, which I would have equated with being more profitable.

I can't say I'm too concerned either way, since I love Legos, but I hope Hasbro isn't focusing on the Kreo and Contruct-bot stuff to try and keep up with Lego on their own turf. They will absolutely lose that fight.

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

Manterax Prime wrote:Gavinfuzzy, LEGO doesn't have factories in China.

In fact, Lego doesn't even come close to Eastern Asia. It's all done in Denmark, Hungary and Mexico, with an additional plant in the Czech Republic focusing on packaging and decorations alone.

Yes JelZe, I know. They put it on every package.
Also, I knew about LEGO topping Hasbro last month (or august) as the LEGO forums caught wind of it quickly.

Manterax Prime wrote:

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

Manterax Prime wrote:Gavinfuzzy, LEGO doesn't have factories in China.

In fact, Lego doesn't even come close to Eastern Asia. It's all done in Denmark, Hungary and Mexico, with an additional plant in the Czech Republic focusing on packaging and decorations alone.

Yes JelZe, I know. They put it on every package.
Also, I knew about LEGO topping Hasbro last month (or august) as the LEGO forums caught wind of it quickly.

That wasn't towards to you, Manterax. Just adding info for those who don't know.

Where's the outcry from Legoheads worldwide on how Hasbro ripped off Lego's "IP" to design Kreo ???

Or maybe theyre not such a sensitive bunch and dont give a s**t...

njb902 wrote:In 13 years Lego went from near bankruptcy to the number 2 toymaker, that's just incredible.

And all it took was licensing of other franchises.

But how about profit wise? Who's number one then?

Megatron Wolf wrote:maybe its because lego knows what its doing where as hasbro does not.

I think Hasbro know what they're doing.

They're two different companies. Let's face it, Lego hasn't done anything ground-breaking for a long time. They developed the brick and then made said brick into various shapes and licensed a bunch of other brands.

They were on the verge of bankruptcy, only through licensing of other brands have they been able to turn things around.

Hasbro is much more diverse. They develop their own brands, new designs, new "gimmicks".

I'm a fan of both but their business models are vastly different.

Rated X wrote:Where's the outcry from Legoheads worldwide on how Hasbro ripped off Lego's "IP" to design Kreo ???

I don't think Lego has any room to complain about others ripping off the whole brick design...

Mkall wrote:

Burn wrote:Hasbro is much more diverse. They develop their own brands, new designs, new "gimmicks".

Hasbro isn't completely innocent. Their 500+ versions of Monopoly under different licenses attest to that

Yes well ... they do know how to go overboard on that one.