Lately, I’ve developed a conflicted relationship with Lego. I love it. There’s a lot Lego in our condo which you could take away the brick and mortar, and I would still have a standing home.
However recently, I’m getting fed up with how exhausting the Danish firm is pushing it. Pushing the absurd licensing offers. Pushing nostalgia. Pushing the big units that adults need, youngsters dream of, however so many mother and father can’t afford.
And positive. I can’t actually blame Lego for eager to earn cash. It’s a personal firm, and they’re within the enterprise of, you understand, promoting stuff. However by pushing so exhausting in each division, Lego dangers model exhaustion. A minimum of, it’s exhausting the brick out of me.
Lego is without doubt one of the biggest, most beloved manufacturers on the planet. One which resonates with adults and youngsters at many ranges. Emotionally, millions have that memory that makes us teary. I feel again on latest reminiscences of crafting Lego worlds with my son, in addition to distant reminiscences, like assembling spaceships with my father and siblings.
Rationally, there’s a definitive attraction within the engineering of constructing advanced designs from quite simple items. Culturally, Lego is iconic by itself and sometimes turns into entangled with different iconic manufacturers, from Star Wars to Harry Potter. Sensorially, the contact, the clickity-clack-click of the constructing expertise itself brings calm and anchors you to the current, making you overlook issues and worries.
Clearly, Lego has many paths to our pocketbooks.
It’s simply that now, it feels just like the worldwide Lego craze is on overdrive, and it’s turning into manner an excessive amount of.
There are lots of issues that hassle me. The corporate’s increasing reliance on licensed IP themes is certainly one of them. Whereas some licensed units from Star Wars and Ghostbusters are nice due to their intelligent design and engineering, many others really feel like money grabs. Just like the latest Marvel logo set, a monument to shilling that lacks each the creativity and playability that these toys at all times strived for.
Others really feel misplaced, like their deal with FIFA, a shady sports activities group plagued with corruption scandals and wrongdoings. That can not be additional away from the Danish firm’s alleged harmless spirit and its learning-through-play philosophy. For a corporation that bans miniature replicas of weapons from its units, it’s appalling to see it related to brutal dictatorial regimes, even when it’s only by proxy. Plus, Lego’s World Cup trophy appears as hideous as Donald Trump’s FIFA Peace Prize.
Sufficient already
The 1×1 plate that spilled my psychological Lego cup was the ad that introduced its newest toy line: Pokémon. It’s such a smarmy play for millennials that—whereas I love each Pokémon and Lego—I couldn’t assist however have an on the spot visceral hate for it.
That licensing deal additionally highlighted one other big drawback, which is the proliferation of high-priced units. The corporate historically goals huge multi-thousand-piece units at adults. However it’s one factor to promote adults the Taj Mahal, the Titanic, or the Roman Colosseum, and it’s one other to place out a $1,000 Death Star or this $650 Venusaur, Charizard, and Blastoise set. Each sold out in a few hours. Positive, adults will purchase these, however do you actually count on youngsters to take a look at these toys and never need them?
Lego has at all times bought the occasional dear set—particularly within the Star Wars line—however the measurement (and worth) improve is nuts. Information from the favored Lego set tracker Brickset exhibits that, in all the pre‑2000 period, there have been solely 28 units with over 1,000 items. By mid‑2025, there have been already 80 such units launched in six months alone, exhibiting an enormous improve within the annual quantity of huge units.
The identical information exhibits that there was a giant price increase. In 2016, the typical Lego set value about $40. From 2024 to 2026, that common had grown to round $70. That’s about a 75% price increase over the last decade, attributable to the rise of licensed IP units (which add an additional margin to pay the mental property homeowners around 20%).
Six years in the past, Lego licensing labored from the “bodily world” to the “brick world.” Exterior companions had been primarily automotive producers or leisure studios like Disney and Warner Bros., which resulted in some enjoyable toys.
For many years, nevertheless, Lego was fiercely protecting of its model, not often permitting it on merchandise it didn’t manufacture. Beginning in 2020, this technique flipped. Lego started aggressively pursuing “life-style partnerships” to make the model a standing image for adults in vogue and residential decor quite than only a toy for youths. From that time on, Lego has been launching collaborations with Adidas, Levi’s, Ikea, Nike, Target (with products for pets too!), Moleskine, Concept One, Hype, and even Pottery Barn. I’m positive I’m lacking some.
I discover the most recent collab with Crocs to be significantly offensive, and the information drove me over the sting when it popped up in my social media feeds in late January. The Lego Brick Clog incorporates a molded brick design on the midsole. There’s nothing else to it. It simply appears dumb. Given its form and large measurement, it might function a bento field, one can solely think about.
It’s attainable it is a “me” drawback. Possibly others don’t discover or don’t care. However there’s a hazard of being so overexposed, all over the place. Possibly it’s good to sluggish it down a bit, Lego. Not everything has to be AWESOME all of the bloody time.
