“Adults Welcome” LEGO Sets Aren't Working...

[@firebirdbricks]

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[@gag-dodgers]

Hi 👋

[@LuMnOsITi]

All lego is currently 2.5x the price it's worth. This works with every set you can think of.

[@jonesstinger]

Lego doesn’t choose what goes on Walmart shelf’s, Walmart executives and managers choose.

[@JamesSmith-zk8gl]

I love my Rivendell Lego set ,I had to save for it ,though

[@EastonSzulwach]

A lot of the 18 plus sets I love the look of but almost never buy them because of the price.

[@firebirdbricks]

Yeah it’s unfortunate that they are so expensive :/

[@maxs-lz4pn]

I've just started trying to get back into Lego and it's insane that the average set is almost 100 bucks. Even the little kiddie sets are crazy expensive. It was definitely considered expensive when I was a kid but this is out of hand. There are so many sets that are a whole paycheck for the average person

[@joshuamueller3206]

Same. The list of wants is always much higher than haves.

[@Quick-Silver206]

You just described the entire collecting Lego process.

[@realnerdethan]

Honestly that's the answer right there. Who has $200-$800 to spend on Lego when groceries have gone up like 20% in two years?! I think the sets are cool but I can't ever buy them unfortunately.

[@Croz89]

LEGO have found out that selling $500 sets to adults is more profitable than selling $50 sets to kids. The problem is if you ignore the kids they won't become those adults who buy those $500 sets when they grow up. LEGO is reaping the benefits from selling affordable sets to kids 20 years ago without doing the same for the next generation.

[@RoninCatholic]

And some of us retain nostalgia for the playstyle and amount of time between opening the box and actually playing with the toy we had 20 or 30 years ago. I don't want to spend 5-45 minutes applying individual 1x1 tiles and plates to a larger plate or brick to make something look _less_ like a Lego surface, and in fact want as many studs of floor space exposed as I can to place figures or small builds of my own on and move them around during play.

[@pwcorgi2000]

Um..even as an adult, I'm not about to pay $500 on a set. Below $200 would be my ultimate max. All of my current sets are well below $100.

[@Solaxe]

@@pwcorgi2000 good for you, but others buy these like crazy

[@zekkie54]

literally could not have worded it better. i wholeheartedly agree

[@Cobainlive4ever]

My family never could afford Lego's, and that's probably the reason I spent so much money on them now.

[@maydayfigs]

walked into my local lego store and the entire shelf was just massive black boxes 😅😅I do really enjoy when they launch sets together like the $15 Land Rover with the technic Defender.

[@HIIMPIEZ]

Wild mayday spotted

[@mattd2026]

​@@HIIMPIEZyou love to see it

[@firebirdbricks]

I miss diverse box art!

[@bloodymarvelous4790]

One entire shelf was just massive black boxes. The other side of the LEGO store were playsets you weren't interested in.

[@MrAwesome_69]

Adults don’t want creativity, don’t be ridiculous!

[@lavishbricks]

I've always wished Lego would make smaller sets that could be combined to make a big one! This would work so well!

[@firebirdbricks]

I love collecting models that combine together. Always a good time!

[@zedvee2668]

Castle sets in the 80s were like this, you could get a blacksmiths workshop, etc… to extend the castle walls.

[@Alabaster-Revenge]

Where you born yesterday?

[@Red_Steampunker]

I know there was a marvel Spider-Man no way home diorama set that does. Sandman was seperate. Theres also that pyramid that needed to be bought twice for a full pyramid. That was like hundreds lol

[@t3hrobzlqx]

This reminds me of the Life on Mars theme. I had the Aero Tube Hangar, and it had these dock gates for two of the mech sets, and there was a third mech that came with its own dock gate that could be added to the hangar. Themes like that where there was genuine and intentional interactivity between the sets were the bee's knees!

[@BouwerBricks]

Wow.. Never thought we needed more playsets in a child-focused brand, but you have a point. Bring back cheap playsets lol

[@firebirdbricks]

Bring em backkkkk

[@JosiahFickinger]

I mean, just like pixels in an image, the more Lego bricks, the more detailed of a set

[@JosiahFickinger]

@@LavenderMike77 Lol, too bad Lego doesn't make micro-scale bricks like some other competitors

[@silvy3047]

They still make them...

[@owenbourque1016]

The main thing I don’t like about the focus on 18+ sets is that they just don’t promote creativity like smaller play sets do. Building Mocs has always been central to the Lego experience, even for adults, but no one is ever gonna dismantle a $500 display set to make other stuff with. Instead, it’s gonna sit on a shelf collecting dust until the end of time, defeating the purpose of Lego as a re-buildable, re-useable expression of creativity.

[@EduFirenze]

Ironically that was the plot of the Lego movie

[@jamesmunn576]

Totally right man!

[@cccpredarmy]

re-buildable, re-usable and RE-PLAYABLE expression of creativity. LEGO should remain a TOY in first place and a display model somewhere down the line, for those who want to display it.

[@mikeymike7431]

This is my problem with Lego aswel. But I dismantle my sets after around 2 months so I can enjoy building them again later.

[@keanoshea4033]

They still have those sets, nothing stopping people from that.

[@CatalystBricks]

I never really thought about it but you’re honestly 100% right. I remember back in 2013 me and my brothers all getting different play sets to build the entire geonosis battle. Now the best you can hope for are 2 or 3 sets from a recent tv show and another xwing or tie fighter. I do feel like they’ve almost lost touch with their audience and at this point I don’t buy sets unless they have good minifigures like you said.

[@Lastclonestudios]

Yooo catalyst

[@firebirdbricks]

We need more mid sized playsets!

[@arbitrary2868]

2013 was a fantastic and very affordable year. I have an old catalogue from that year and the reasonability of the prices just blows my mind.

[@stalinzd2580]

My boy the piece amount has increased a lot. youre comparing 100 dollar 500 pieces to 500 dollars 5000 pieces. yall are dumb af

[@mathewcurtis8484]

@@arbitrary2868 I mean in terms of how prices look today yeah it appears that they were affordable but since 2013 global prices across all markets have gone up 42%, so the prices would match up decently well for today’s lego environment

[@jalapenoofjustice4682]

this reminds me of what happened to superhero comics. In the 90s companies like Marvel and DC started targeting older audiences with a lot of their comic books, and nowadays the vast majority of their output is aimed towards them with almost nobody buying them anymore because they haven't been attracting new fans

[@hawktalon7890]

The most recent DC reboots have been pretty bad. It's telling that I could only afford to get into comic books recently and yet I mostly read things published before 2015....which at the time of writing this comment is nearly 10 years ago!

[@vast9467]

it doesn’t help that the actual quality is also going down and nobody wants to read them anyways

[@thomas.thomas]

@@vast9467 That wouldn't even be that big of a deal. They could just reprint old issues for an affordable price. I bet many children would love to read cool comics but they are extremely expensive, especially compared to just watching youtube or netflix all day

[@mrblond750]

Lego has recognized that nostalgia sells and 30+ is where the nostalgia is at.

[@FastCarNascar]

No 20+

[@blakearius]

@@FastCarNascar Nah bro, 20+ people were growing up during lego's bad years or purely star wars fans(which are any age) 30+ people like myself invested in castle, pirate and space are where the nostalgia bucks are.. Its criminal how expensive getting an old pirate ship or castle is.

[@Skankhunt668]

@@blakearius disagree dude 20+ had the best creative lineups

[@blakearius]

@@Skankhunt668 There are dozens of sets from the 90's I'd kill to have from the castle, pirate and space lineups. You think Rock raiders compares to Ice planet.. your insane. All the 2000's had was bionicle and star wars its the only reason the company didn';t die. and the star wars stuff all has newer more detailed replacements. Show me a set worth buying cause i'm curious..

[@Skankhunt668]

@@blakearius lego ultra agents, pharoahs quest, atlantis, power miners and many more

[@roelhendrickx4302]

I routinely prefer the minifigure sized playsets over the equivalent "adult sets". For Star Wars there is often the option to choose: X-wing, Millennium Falcon, Slave I, etc: all are available in playsets and in UCS versions). Same for Batman, etc. Same for Speed Champions cars over the Bigger Ideas or Icons or Creator Expert vehicles (although I like those for the number of alternative builds that are available). I just feel like the playsize sets are better value for money and a nicer build: an hour or 90 minutes and done! Great for a quick fix of lego relaxation. Besides, I often admire the design better in smaller sets: I feel it is more of a challenge (and achievement) to create something recognizable with 200-300 pieces, than the same with +2000 pieces.

[@hejotobroto]

I agree, I’ve wanted a LEGO castle since I was a kid but could never afford one. I finally got my hands on the Lion Knights Castle, but that was after saving VIP points for years to bring it down to a price I could afford haha. I love the 18+ sets but they’re so inaccessible for the average Joe now.

[@firebirdbricks]

100% - I would love to see more affordable sets for Castle

[@Sir_Adam]

The only good LEGO theme left is the Creator theme, I bought the Creator castle (not full price) and would buy it again over the adult castle.

[@berrevanriest7686]

The biggest problem is the quantity, pumping out multiple 100-500 dollars set every month is putting ppl off from buying them.

[@monkeyrun]

yeah, one or two expensive sets a year would feel special, now it's back to back.

[@berrevanriest7686]

@@monkeyrun it feels like every week a $200+ set gets announced, if it was one a month it would already be a lot but now it's even more! I feel like one big set every 1-2 months would be ideal, still a lot but a major improvement over what we have now.

[@Shamilscorner]

Even smaller ones are getting too expensive when they know is adults who are going to buy them, the new xmen jet has less pieces than the old one and sells for like double or more of the price, the new smaller batwing that came out around the same time is like 30 something and it has like 3 to 4 less pieces and the jet is like 350 something for almost 85$ is absurd, lego is becoming greedy and it will make them lose money

[@thomas.thomas]

@@Shamilscorner Lego did become greedy, but you also have to account for inflation which is 44% ($ 2010 to 2024)

[@alphaenterprise2232]

@@thomas.thomas that's just an excuse, lego simply has a monopoly in this niche market and they can retail their products for as much as they want because there's no concurrents to contend with them.

[@orka5352]

My big issue is that they refuse to go back to old base plates and raised base plates. So you'll get this castle set that has hundreds of pieces of gray rocks as a foundation that just allow for a 100$ price increase. I loved the old tacky raised base plates that cut down massively on pieces and by extension price.

[@RoninCatholic]

I'm a big fan of large wall pieces too. I think the 1x5 footprint for "normal" Castle walls was weird, but the 1x6 for the wooden pallisade wall used in Western and Ninja was great. Bring back that piece and add a brick texture one and maybe a riveted steel panel one and we'll be golden.

[@Boltscrap]

The large baseplates and wall pieces also meant that you don't need to spend as long disassembling sets to customize them, unlike with the million uselessly small piece builds that are unwieldy for anything but display.

[@nyekomimi]

As person who recently went out of Lego as hobby, I must admit that the raised baseplates were peak. Alone, with friends... They sparked so many ideas.

[@martinhill9561]

From what I’ve seen and experienced the baseplates (the raised/ “special” ones) are almost guaranteed to collapse under their own castles weight if you make your own. I switched from the baseplates to brick to save the plates for smaller projects.

[@ZachBobBob]

When I was a kid too the raised baseplates really ignited my imagination and were super fun to play with and build on top of

[@Mick0Mania]

I think there has been a shift in media in general to target the adult collector demographic at the expense of kids. I think we see this with Video Games too, as I doubt most kids had access to a credit card, yet almost every major game shipped with tactics to try and get people to spend money on games continually, rather than a one time purchase a parent would provide.

[@benjwgarner]

That's the main reason that LEGO Universe failed. They didn't understand that kids don't have credit cards and that their parents weren't going to drop $10 per month on an online game subscription.

[@SuperCosmicMutantSquid]

The thing that's so bad is they don't know how to market to adult collectors either. Even as an adult, 500 dollars is insane for a LEGO set and it's just saying that as an adult, you have to pay more just to enjoy something. So two demos loose out; the kids the toys are aimed for and the adults who just want to try something new.

[@peterbumper2769]

I noticed this a few years ago. The local LEGO shops, one whole wall is taken up by sets aimed at adults. Too many sets are 'build and display', not build it, tear it apart and put the bricks in with everything else, too many parts that can only be used one way

[@ALovelyLad]

I like build and display especially for vintage sets. I agree that recycling established sets into new moc creations is good for innovation but it loses investment value

[@peterbumper2769]

@@ALovelyLad Lego is an investment in fun

[@AndyCandyZeroSugar]

90% of the fun I had playing with Lego as a child came from disassembling and combining different sets. For short times I'd assemble several, but that way they'd only end up collecting dust, literally, and be a huge pain to clean. These adult sets look incredible, but I can't see anyone playing with them as many of us did as kids, especially the ones that are super specific in their design. Though, as an adult, I can't see myself sitting down and playing around, so I can see the merit of these 18+ sets as well.

[@GamaniacMike14]

No such thing as a lego part that can be used only one way

[@ganymedehedgehog371]

@@ALovelyLad it’s not real estate. It’s Lego. I get that there’s a huge resale market but most people shouldn’t be looking at Lego sets like assets.

[@jongudmund]

Really good points - particularly about pricing kids out of buying Lego sets. I remember being able to buy small sets like minifigure packs or a space scooter with pocket money and those sorts of sets don't seem to be available as much now.

[@Boltscrap]

Lego turned the little boxes with one minifig and some weapons rack or other tiny build impulse sets into polybags, and then gave those polybags as limited distribution as possible. Which is bad since the polybags are actually great for the money, but good luck ever seeing them on the shelves.

[@ganymedehedgehog371]

Yeah I remember being able to buy small sets or my parents buying one for something like getting all As. Now the only thing near that price point is CMF. The only way to keep Lego going is if AFOLs buy their kids lego even at the higher price point.

[@grumioiscool6190]

@@jongudmund I mean there’s still plenty of sets under 20/10$

[@InsaneSeishiro]

Hey there, grown adult with adult money here! Recently tried getting back into lego since I was looking for hobbys that got me away from my PC. Since I'm a huge LotR fan the Riverdell(or "Bruchtal" as it's called in german)-set immidiatly stood out to me but I was hesitant since I expected a set that big to cost more than 200€. My jaw literally dropped when I saw it was 2x that. Even with adult money, most of these pricetags are just unjustifyable expenses to me, so I'm messing around with some legaly distinct knockoff legobrands that r basically indistinguishable from the real thing but cost 1/3-1/2 the price. It's a shame that thats the way it has to be but actual legos are just an upper class toy now :(

[@jamesmunn576]

I've been really enjoying WholeFun as an alternative. Same boat, kind of. I'm just getting back into Legos after 30 years and having my 90s sets in bins. I'm building a large MOC and have spent way too much already on the pieces. It's my year-long project, but never again will I spend that much again on Lego.

[@mocsmore1308]

@@jamesmunn576 we will see about that lol, good luck to you

[@jamesmunn576]

@@mocsmore1308 😉

[@AvgBlue]

I recommend you try Gunpala (plastic model kit). For the price of 30 euros, you can get a good-sized kit that can take you more than 12 hours to build.

[@lindboknifeandtool]

The worst part? It’s injection molded ABS… Probably the cheapest possibly production of any dimensional part ever. They sneak the price up. We should ALL buy knockoff, then Lego will get it.

[@KZP2009]

Another aspect of the store-shelf debacle is, if you are a parent you’re not taking your 7y/o to the Lego section anymore. There’s no way to explain to small kids a wonderful castle or a pirate island TOYS are not for them, but adults. And that’s not even mentioning the unreal price. I’ve noticed recently some Toy Stores in my area don’t put the adult sets on shelves anymore - they are on order only… but that means the Lego section has shrunk, because the other lines don’t really have that many sets anymore.

[@kapiteinlulhaas7612]

@@KZP2009 store shelves are basically 90% Star Wars lego where i live.

[@silvy3047]

Walmart has two aisles for Legos

[@Wingspan_5]

Lego's prices are INSANE. At the end of the day it's just injected modeled plastic. And their quality control has not been the best in the last few years. Really don't see how they can justify these prices.

[@Wingspan_5]

I'm sure a big part of it is the crazy prices of retired sets and rare minifigs on the secondary market. I'm sure Lego want's a bigger piece of all that disposable income from nerds with tech jobs like me (which is why they bought Bricklink of course).

[@firebirdbricks]

@@Wingspan_5I wonder what conversations go on behind the scenes now that they’ve owned bricklink for a while. I’m sure it has to be quite interesting!

[@sirw7630]

@@Wingspan_5 most monopoly driven move they ever made. Brilliant business move. Terrible for consumers.

[@DK-lz7kg]

Lego has dipped in quality from my childhood, but their bricks are still way better than knockoffs. I was helping my nephew build a knock off set and it didn’t come close to legos fit and finish and it was frustrating trying to get the pieces to fit because of bad tolerances

[@jacobelmslie3862]

Yeah I do not think any of my vintage bricks had stickers.... my nephews has plenty.

[@Goldfyre]

Fantastic video! I've felt the same for a while now. As someone who makes videos about LEGO Castle one of the most common sentiments I see is that people would love to get into Castle but the high prices are locking them out of the theme. There are no entry level or affordable sets to get new fans interested and it's a shame. This obviously is seen most in kids and young teenagers that can't afford to spend $100 just to get the cheapest set currently available. If battle packs, small playsets, and others were on shelfs like they were for nearly 35 years every Castle fan would be able to enjoy the theme but that sadly isn't the case.

[@firebirdbricks]

I want another castle battle pack so bad…

[@noahmolchain]

Totally agree with you, I want the Lion knights castle but can’t afford it, also you got me back into castle lol I ordered a bunch of parts for knights from Lego pick a brick!

[@MT-jt5uo]

Man I really want the Lion knights castle, hope I can get it before they retire cause no way can I afford spending 800-1,000 2nd hand. Lotr and old castle prices 2nd hand are insane.

[@johnreynolds4213]

I agree, I want to start building castles after doing architecture sets and I have to wonder how many $500 Harry Potter castles they really sell.

[@MKMBrick]

I definitely agree with you! It's pretty crazy how pricey sets have gotten now. I think LEGO is starting to realize their pricing model needs to shift a bit. We saw that last year with a lot of the 18+ sets going on sale soon after release.

[@firebirdbricks]

The current pricing model excludes a whole demographic of people. Hopefully that changes.

[@altairibn-laahad1309]

though the question is, is it actually lego dropping the prices or just the seller? i rather often see sets in toy stores and retailers with 30% off or more but i am pretty sure thats the retailers sale and not an official lego sale

[@lukestarkiller1470]

In regards to minifigures you have to keep in mind that they’re trying to sell these displayable sets to people who aren’t already big fans of Lego. For someone who just wants to buy a displayable helmet or small scale ship they have no use for a minifigure. They’d have to find somewhere else to put it because it’s not part of their display piece. I’m also just against the idea of buying an entire set for one figure. You should only buy a set if you want the actual set. I think that was made very clear with all the people who bought the UCS Venator just for an “exclusive” Captain Rex that turned out to not be exclusive, and everyone threw a fit because apparently the only reason they bought that $600 set was for one figure. They still have $600 worth of Lego and the minifigure that they wanted but instead they act like it’s worthless just because the figure isn’t rare anymore. The set was the UCS Venator not the UCS Captain Rex that comes with an entire 3.5 foot long Venator as a bonus. They all got exactly what they paid for

[@VestedUTuber]

Yeah, people MASSIVELY overvalue minifigures.

[@Jimpiedepimpie]

Well it's an "investment", isn't it? You're never going to break even selling the pieces the ship is made from but if the guy goes for $200 you could keep it on your shelf for years and still get ahead.

[@lukestarkiller1470]

@@Jimpiedepimpie well most people who buy a thing don’t immediately try and sell that thing. And yeah the pieces alone aren’t going to make the money back, that’s why you sell the whole set all together. You’d have to wait for it to go up in value, but most resellers don’t want to wait, they just want to make a quick buck by selling a 5 piece minifigure for hundreds of dollars, which is just a dick move and I’m really sad that anyone actually spends that kind of money on something so small and unimportant.

[@Jimpiedepimpie]

@@lukestarkiller1470 Whenever they open Pokémon cards on my shorts the reveal comes with little dollar signs, there are plenty of people who only buy toys and the like to sell for a profit. "Buy in threes, one to use, one to store mint and one to scalp" is a joke from a ~2000s cartoon so it's not a new thing either. If there wasn't a chance to sell that minifigure for a huge profit I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of those big LEGO sets stayed on the shelf the same way Magic the Gathering boxes without potentially valuable cards do.

[@byDzign777]

As an older LEGO enthusiast who had LEGO as a kid and loved the original Pirate theme, I have been observing LEGO in more recent years and I see a big problem which I believe adds to your point about LEGO’s focus on adult sets. I have observed that LEGO is missing something or more accurately has lost something. When I was a kid, I remember getting that featured set that I had my eye on. I couldn’t wait to get home and get started building that set. But there was something on the boxes of every LEGO set of those days. and it was simply this; LEGO featured ideas of what could also be made with that set but did not include instructions. In other words they were inspiring creativity! LEGO has forgotten this and only showcases the featured item. They have lost the idea of inspiring creativity in kids and adults alike.

[@ROMANTIKILLER2]

Right! I used to love those alternative construction suggestions on the back, even though I could rarely pull them off!

[@Kins_things]

Lego has got round that by labelling one range as “3 in 1” sets. Proving that they are very aware that most of their set boxes can only be used for one specific purpose..

[@ghostbricksters7445]

They stopped that because too many people complained there weren't instructions for those builds :( For me the fun was figuring out how to build them without instructions

[@byDzign777]

@@ROMANTIKILLER2 I was the same way. At the time I wished I had the instructions, but I now realize that I was learning how to be creative with the pieces I had. I would get tired of trying to figure it out, so I would go and make my own creations. That was the inspiring part that LEGO created in my opinion.

[@byDzign777]

@@ghostbricksters7445 I would try and build those, but would get board. So, I went and built my own creations. That is where the inspiration aspect kicked in.

[@mihailos8701]

As someone who wasn't a fan Lego's modern approach to adult sets from the start, because it seems like mostly just an excuse for the company to make more of expensive sets, I wanna say thanks for the video. I'm happy that you have pointed out the prices, and other problems these sets are bringing.

[@Lamentably]

So what I’m hearing is that we’ll get a nostalgic Bionicle re-relaunch in 2031? Please Lego…

[@Bionicleforever]

lego doesnt care about bionicle, maybe a ucs toilet build

[@davidbeer5015]

Just reminding me that back in the day, while Lego and inflation were at different points then, the theme was super approachable with small and canister sets ranging from $5-8 for a figure. They went up over time, but that’s a wild price point to think about.

[@technobladeleakedclips1827]

They already did a bionicle relaunch forever ago and it failed

[@legoman2313]

I hate the ungrateful for what is available so we just have to deal with it argument. LEGO is a multibillion dollar corporation that just wants our money. We need to decide with our wallets with what we want, the issue is LEGO has such a rabid fanbase that they keep making money before they’ll make a difference. I’m a huge LEGO fan so I understand both sides of the argument but yeah way too pricy I don’t buy as much LEGO as I used too

[@jasonmonks8423]

We need to speak with our wallets and stop buying the damn sets, it's the only way to get them to listen

[@snafu4696]

Back in my day Lego Star Wars used to be play sets first, now they just make display sets. Just look at the latest gunship for example, those used to be packed with features, now it just focuses on looking good on a shelf to satisfy afols. Feels bad man.

[@firebirdbricks]

Yeah it’s interesting to see how Lego is handling the split between making sets for adults and kids. Kids need to be the focus though.

[@dcarbs2979]

Back in 'my day', Lego Star Wars hadn't been invented yet. You had Lego, or you had Star Wars. Franchised sets hadn't happened. Even special pieces just for a set were rare.

[@MarineMike]

The only “Lego adults” left are the scammers that grab up all the stock and resell it for double the price.

[@edwardmemwah1610]

As someone who grew up with the LEGO "System" of the 1980s, I think the undercurrent of all of the points made in this video is that the vast majority of LEGO sets today have completely strayed from the core idea of LEGO as a modular construction toy. LEGO today is mostly extremely expensive models that are meant to be put on a shelf with many tiny elements to add superficial details to those models.

[@mantisbog]

Keep crying.

[@LutraLovegood]

They have tons of specialised pieces now, which almost caused their downfall at one point, but most of their system sets don't really make use of those pieces to make interesting builds, and they're not pushing their creative books much either. Their flora and fauna themes are the most interesting they've made in years.

[@denyfixe1000]

I love LEGO System, is unique, have a charm, is nostalgic

[@bruceballygar4880]

Lego is more about selling models to adults rather than promoting toys to develop children’s creativity. They’ve diverged heavily from their original vision.

[@DarksaberProductionsOfficial]

Wow, I haven’t really thought of this before. I do agree that these 18+ sets are taking over, Lego might want to chill out a bit.

[@firebirdbricks]

For real haha

[@althechicken9597]

Just because im over 18 doesn't mean i have $500 to drop on a castle

[@InventorZahran]

If there are not many interesting and affordable playsets available, the next generations of kids might not have a chance to experience the joy of Lego building during childhood. It's those formative early experiences that turn ordinary children into lifelong Lego fans who will probably go on to buy more sets in the long run. If Lego wants to stay popular and relevant in an era of increasingly pervasive digital entertainment, they're gonna have to make products that are accessible to kids and affordable to their parents.

[@manuxx3543]

If they want to make 18+ premium sets, PRINT ALL Stickers for a premium causes problems down the years, and in the secondary market its a big gamble Theres a few sets with all prints and its awesome looking 18+sets in store is great, it means -30%/50% discount

[@firebirdbricks]

Getting those sets on clearance is definitely a benefit of them being on store shelves.

[@manuxx3543]

@@firebirdbricks Not even clerance a few stores put good 30% promo when the set is only 2 or 3 month old Or the blackfridays in store or easter promo

[@ganymedehedgehog371]

I agree that it’s egregious when I spend hundreds and I get sheets of stickers with a handful of printed pieces.

[@N5hot]

You should NEVER feel grateful towards a company. You don't owe them ANYTHING. They have an obligation to provide a high quality, high value product.

[@LuluCasper-yg6jc]

True however if nobody can afford the high quality high-value product it's not going to be bought and they're not going to make money I think that's what he's trying to say you are also not going to have anybody buying your product for nostalgic reasons because they grew up with it and it brings them a sense of Joy if they never got to play with it in the first place because it was too much money

[@LuluCasper-yg6jc]

Who's gonna buy the product if it's to expensive though. Your also not going to have people buy it in the future because of the nostalgia factor if they never got to play with Legos because they could never afford them

[@Huntanor]

This is a false argumemt because these​ set sell out over and over both in shops and online. Lego doesn't need to sell to you to have a valid market. It just has to sell to someone. You don't have to buy it. But if you don't buy it and someone else does thats all lego needs.

[@RB-ll8qc]

You articulated my thoughts on this perfectly. Ive struggled buying a lot of new sets for my son because of the lack of affordable options and the lack of original lines with smaller sets. Ive turned to ebay more often now to buy things from a few years ago because the options just arent there anymore. Lego makes the best product by far, but to pretend that their main target audience is still kids is a lie.

[@Bosthian]

It's getting insane, with all that prices and "adult sets only". I also don't see a reason for price hike. LEGO had almost 2 billion net profit in 2023, so it's all about greed in the end. So yeah my family stopped buying LEGOs.

[@GravityTrash]

The problem is that Lego is too busy with making their sets look like an "art piece" rather than being a fun toy to play with, customize and display. Bionicle is, ironically, the best example of a toy marketed for "kids", but is so easily displayable and customizable that even adults are fond of it. There's also so many unnecessary pieces are shoved into sets nowadays to artificially boost the price. Also the black background on boxes is DISGUSTINGLY boring, and with so many of them on a single shelf, it looks painfully average. Ninjago 2023 had some of the coolest hand-painted box art ever, even if I didnt really care for the sets. At this point its much easier to collect minifigures than anything else, and even those are costing an arm and a leg

[@aquaticllamas28]

It’s not a problem. It’s a good thing the new Lego sets are amazing. Sorry but most people have no use for a Lego miners or city set after they are 12 years old

[@pbailed8007]

I just think it’s crazy that people think it’s reasonable at all to spend more than $200 on any LEGO set

[@cryptidbug]

i’ve been thinking this for a while, small, cheaper sets aimed towards the impulse buy would create more fans. using star wars as an example; imagine a small $20 diorama that has a lightsaber duel or just recreating a scene with 1-2 minifigures. 18+ should also be it’s own individual theme that does not take away from play sets and such.

[@firebirdbricks]

Absolutely! Those impulse buys are what get people into the hobby to begin with.

[@8instantramen]

God thank you for talking about this annoying habit with LEGO lately. They've already pushed everyone in the building block industry out of retails and now they're just wasting it with these sets no one would buy except for collectors. Pretty sure I bought LEGOs for the cool theming and fun sets, not these luxury set pieces.

[@peterpolus5272]

I agree with you on all 5 points! I think that going back to producing more sets for kids while also improving on minifig quality consistency and quantity per price across themes (star wars😉) would solve a lot of issues.

[@drowningin]

Newest console, or a single Lego build? That price is insane. Lego’s weren’t meant to be the big ticket item on Christmas. If a box cost 500 I never would have got them as a kid. It’s plastic, and dye. There is no reason for it to cost so much

[@Glass-Eye25]

Man I miss Knights Kingdom 2. Growing up, the earliest LEGO set I remembered getting was Sir Jayko and Sir Santis. My brothers got Sir Rascus and Sir Danju. One of the sets had Lord Vladek. They were so much cheaper back then. We weren’t able to get a set with King Mathias. After that, I’ve always wanted castle sets, but we couldn’t afford any more LEGO. Now that I’ve grown up, I can finally get my own LEGO, but the Castle and Kingdoms sets/pieces are WAY too expensive these days. I hope they bring these themes back!

[@SuperCosmicMutantSquid]

Your pfp is awesome.

[@gasonfeist7238]

For starters, most adult collector items at premium prices from other brands don't have stickers...

[@daftmell5237]

I refuse to believe the castle theme doesn't work. There just aren't any licences for it so lego doesn't wanna sell it.

[@mrfld]

Licensing and royalties. As a kid, legos were exciting because of the limited number of piece shapes. Now they just make new pieces as needed. Complexity = cost

[@InfiniteGameReviews]

I'm amazed about the explanations that "we don't need a new castle set or space set, they won't sell well" since there are SOOO many fans out there CRYING for such sets and buying whatever they can get their hands on, both old and new sets (whenever Lego decides to publish a few sets of them every second year or so). So HOW is it that Lego thinks there is NO demand for those themes when there clearly IS a huge demand for it, at least among established fans? Sure, kids today might not know or understand the old castle and space sets...but we have the new NASA-themed and more realistic space sets, and they seem to sell just fine? What I think is the real reason is this: A new unrealistic space set would compete with the Lego Star Wars sets. We know that theme literally saved Lego at one point, and they want to keep their license but those sets are unrealistically expensive due to the licensing fees. We new space set would cost less, and if grandma is buying a spaceship set for her grandson, she will surely pick the cheaper set, and which set is that? Well, it sure isn't the set with the expensive licensing fee...so introducing a new space set would decrease the sale for the overpriced Star Wars sets (ie all Star Wars sets). Same goes for castle...Lego has the Harry Potter license now and those sets are almost as overpriced as Star Wars. New castle sets without an expensive license would be cheaper, and would decrease sales for Harry Potter sets, so... ...so Lego deciedes to make a claim that there is no demand for a new space theme or castle theme. And I say "yeah right", while totally ditching both Lego Star Wars and Lego Harry Potter, because even though I LIKE those franchises, I want them to stay the way they are...Star Wars should be Star Wars, Harry Potter should be Harry Potter, Marvel should be Marvel...WITHOUT LEGO! And Lego should be Lego, WITHOUT licenses that make the sets horribly overpriced!

[@1ofthe3]

You’re absolutely correct. And, in this economy, not many parents are going to be hitting up Lego purchases that something cheaper will suffice for their child’s attention span. More unlicensed themes are needed again to give kids that lore engagement. So far, Minecraft (though licensed) seems to be the one theme carrying the weight of this issue

[@pinobluevogel6458]

Lego is at a very bad spot for kids these days. Minecraft is probably one of the few bright spots, as are the explorer city sets. Although the latter do not have as much value is in it, they are good builds and introduce a lot of animals, which kids love. It is completely jarring to see a ton of IP based sets in the stores, with extremely expensive and very unimaginative designs, basically a copy-paste of existing stuff as much as possible. A whole new generation seems like they will never get to experience the awesomeness that are the original Lego themes we used to have when we were kids. Even stuff that I would never consider buying (as I thought them to be absolute crap) like Bionicle .. at least that had a massive audience coming into Lego as a hobby.

[@1ofthe3]

@@pinobluevogel6458 spot on! Yes: to everything you just said from the mass IP’s to the abysmal copy&paste sets like the helmet buss, and heads. If I’m not mistaken, I could have sworn my Technic SW battle droid model had additional parts to swap colors back then which Lego should have done so with these buss’s; but, nope. I’m not sure what Lego is up to but, from my observations and guess, I’m seeing that the design team is pretty much made up of everyone being in their mid-thirties and older who are now getting the chance to make their childhood a reality and are setting their focus on sets that cater only to our generation’s nostalgia - then go on to claim that their sets like Titanic and Radio are “underrated” 😂 it’s like: No. We see the details, the majority of us just don’t want them. I completely agree and think about it often that Lego is nearly a whole generation behind - leaving kids with no nostalgia for their sets. Shoot, my late father adopted me when he was 48 and absolutely loved everything Lego had to offer for kids in the 80’s and 90’s! I used to catch him reading the catalogs and booklets from time to time growing up 😂 That’s the memories Lego won’t be able to give future generations at this going rate

[@pinobluevogel6458]

@@1ofthe3 Great points. I remember staring at those old booklets in wonder when I was little too. Lego is still a hobby for everyone, although as an adult, you generally play less and build and collect more. I don't even mind that they release sets like the Radio or the Titanic, I personally know people that love those sets. If it can bring in some money to sponsor the design of sets that they are sorely lacking, I'm perfectly fine with it. Luckily, what I am seeing is a very slight move from Lego to make their stuff that is meant for kids a little bit more cheaper and a little bit more value, while trying to hammer the full price stuff for adults, for sets that they know will sell regardless. We can question the ethics of this involved, but I for one still prefer to see kids have enough available in the long run. Some of these 'playsets' are still the sets that most old-school lego collectors and builders love. They are generally a little cheaper, have a lot of fun features and can easily be upgraded, or rebuilt into something else. For adults, there is always the option of getting some fancy Mocs from rebrickable. They are often not too easy to build, not too cheap if you have to get all the parts for it, but they can be worth it from a design and display perspective. It is also fun to be able to reward people for coming up with something really original, clever or well designed.

[@deskfulloftoys]

I expressed this exact concern to my wife recently. I am an AFOL as well as having a son who loves LEGO. I am completely priced out of sets that fall within the themes I am interested in, and it is even difficult to find things for my son. Every new set he sees that he likes is at least $200+. LEGO is becoming unaffordable even as a big Christmas or other holiday gift. If LEGO continues down this path, they will not have AFOL in 20-30 years.

[@micahnike18]

I'm a simple man who likes to get lots of minifigs in small sets because I love minifigures. I rarely care about most 18+ sets and that's one of the reasons I've been buying less and less Lego lately. I hope Lego starts prioritising affordability again

[@firebirdbricks]

Yeah… I hope they do too. I don’t see it happening if people keep buying so much 18+ though.

[@Shorjok]

I do miss the days of action-packed boxart for every theme, original IPs, and of course, affordable lego. I agreed with everything you said here. I'm a huge castle fan but there's nothing for me because I don't want to spend 1/4th of my monthly income on a toy.

[@scottdavis_34]

Great vid Caleb and agree! One other thing I’ll mention is the box art. On each set by itself I’m a fan of the black boxes. However with multiple like sets on a shelf it does kinda create a negative contrast to the brightly colored Lego stores and the boxes all seem to blend into one another and not in a good way.

[@firebirdbricks]

Yeah, they definitely look nice but they lack personality when you see them all together.

[@LaSprigattio]

Not only that but even these smaller sets are more expensive now. Remember the early 2010s ninjago sets? Most of them were selling for 30-60$. Nowadays they would cost 50-100$. You could get a whole truck with 4 minifigs for 60$. Good ol times...

[@ErikHendrix-hi9ft]

I will never spend more than 150 dollars on a Lego set. Period. I'm a huge LOTR fan, but there's no way I will ever be able to display such a gigantic piece. Forget about price, where am I supposed to find the space?

[@Slider712]

They're too expensive...period. Even the kids sets prices are insane

[@pink_ice9454]

Completely agree. I like the 18+ sets, but as a young adult myself, I actually prefer the more affordable play scale sets. They really remind of what I grew up with, which is why I keep coming back to them. Like the new City space wave for instance. I really think Lego should invest in more things like that, where there are still bigger and more expensive sets, but there are also really good affordable options for people who want a good toy but don’t wanna drop 80-90 plus dollars on a Lego set.

[@draigon]

Lego has been suffering from short term vision for quite some time. I used be an avid collector of the castle sets, but Lego decided to go all in on licensed products, but not that some of those franchises are past their prime, they are scrambling to bring back old collectors. Problem is after more than a decade of no new sets I had moved on and the ever rising prices of sets has done nothing to tempt me back.

[@himbeertoni08]

I'm happy, LEGO isn't the only company making brick toys and collectibles. There's a fine selection of affordable alternatives often with higher quality for both, kids and adults out there. Only the minifigure is remaining unique. But what's the point, if LEGO is not putting them into their sets anymore.

[@Etienne.6329]

They could take example from (or acquire) rebrickable : design a nice cheap play set and sell an upgrade box to turn, for example, a city building into a modular. It would be a complete overhaul of their design process(they already do somewhat that with 3in1) and line but it'd work.

[@JumbleJammyJokes]

A great idea would be for LEGO to have small waves of sets dedicated to updated versions of old themes (Alpha Team, Rock Raiders, Knights Kingdom for example). That way it appeals to both the imagination for children and the nostalgia for adults.

[@picivyvortac2641]

Here's my pitch: lego starts a service where you can buy any lego piece. Then they can sell retired sets as a sort of "print on demand". My understanding is that they are already affiliated with bricklink. Would be easy. Just do the math for a preferred profit margin/piece and sell them at that rate. Ps. I know they cannot practically produce all pieces at the same time, but they can print the ones they need in reasonable quantities, then rotate through as some pieces become sold out. This wouldn't have to come at the cost of their FOMO business model either because they could keep non-generic mini figs and certain unique design aspects as exclusive to the sets.

[@RedDesertRoz]

Yep, our kids stopped buying Lego (and we stopped buying it for Christmas and birthdays) because you can't get a good set for a reasonable price anymore. They love Lego, it isn't that they aren't interested anymore, but Lego has priced itself out of their reach so their money goes on other toys and games instead. To be fair, we have a LOT of Lego already, so it's perhaps a mercy that we can no longer afford to buy it. My husband and I both have our own collections as adults, but again, we stopped buying in recent years. Rivendell, Medieval town square, castle, these are themes we would buy but not to the tune of Australian $400-$800 each. Something smaller and affordable and we would have been in the market, but we've all abandoned our Lego hobbies now due to affordability.

[@GordonFreeman307]

Yea well some of us don’t mind saving up for a set that’s more realistic in terms of scale to the mini figures. Some of us never got castles when we were kids and now we have the option of buying one 5 times bigger than the 90s versions.

[@farhadnikzad1514]

Thanks for this great video. My first Lego sets were 1695 and 1696. To this day after all these decades, I haven't forgotten the joy they gave me. That's why small Lego sets have a specific place in my heart, particularly Pirates and Castle. No massive overpriced Lego set could have or can have done that for me neither then nor now.

[@viks4an]

Just a note about the lego store - they don't ship to a bunch of countries and let me tell you, it's an extreme pain to get your hands on a set like the lions castle.. you'll either have to deal with scalpers or hope you can find someone who knows someone that knows someone that has something to do with the shipping routes from Europe to the US. I wish all sets would be made available via retail. So there's that angle too.

[@LordShrub]

Yeah, exclusives suck. Some of them are timed exclusive for 3m or 6m. But some are permanent like the entire Monkie Kid and Lunar New Year lines. Even in countries where they sell them it's pretty bad because there is no competition on price.

[@connormccleary587]

Exactly, and a lot of other countries that have LEGO stores don’t even have insider points, which can save you a ton of money in the long run and may incline people to spend more money knowing they could get something back

[@ElectricianTS]

It's also hard to find some of the new assorted bricks sets. While the stores are flooded with only four of them, the other more interesting sets (11035, 10703 for example) seem rare and /or sell out fast.

[@notenoughmemes1847]

1:35 Even as an adult with a bit of disposable income $500 dollars for a single set is just blatantly stupid. I thought model kit building was an expensive hobby but I could literally buy and build several kits and all the supplies necessary to detail them for far cheaper. I’d rather spend $500 on like a pc part or a car expense than a lego set.

[@djt08031996]

As an AFoL myself, I actually tend to enjoy play aimed sets that happen to also have display potential

[@nisfh420]

You are so right on! I was in the lego store last saturday and my girlfriend and I had a hard time finding something fun and affordable. I gave her a small €30 Harry Potter And I myself bought set 60440 the Lego Delivery Truck that is €99. And It was an awesome build, but 1061 pieces to build one truck is over the top in my opinion If I look at it from the perspective of somebody with kids and a smaller budget. Set 3221 had 278 pieces back in 2010 also looked great and costed just €35! The days that you could just buy a cool lego set as a small gift or surprise for your kid because of some achievement are gone. And I think that sucks

[@yurenchu]

@@nisfh420 At local stores where I live, I see there are plenty of enjoyable LEGO sets at affordable prices, that would be a perfect spontaneous gift for kids. There are LEGO polybag sets, they cost 3 or 4 euros (and at sale/discount they are even cheaper). Some of them consist of 70 to 100 pieces. And they come in many diverse themes. For example: #30641 Creator 3in1 Panda Bear [83 pcs], #30666 Creator 3in1 Gift Animals [75 pcs], #30657 Speed Champions McLaren Solus GT [95pcs], #30404 Friends Friendship Flower [100pcs], #30655 Technic Forklift & Pallet [78pcs], #30654 Star Wars X-Wing Starfighter [87pcs], etc. And then there are sets of between 100 and 200 pieces, that cost less than 10 euros (or even as low as 6 euros, at sale/discount, when you're lucky), also available in diverse themes; such as: #31140 Magical Unicorn, #31134 Space Shuttle, #42147 Technic Dump Truck, #11017 Creative Monsters, #43214 Disney Rotating Rapunzel, etc. So I don't agree that those days are "gone".

[@BrickBuiltLabs]

Hmm, not sure I entirely agree about there not being sets for kids. I'm not sure why you put the arbitrary range of $50-100 for # of kid's play sets, if you include $1-$100 then there is a plethora of sets.... all the battle packs, the juniors sets, yoda's star fighter, obiwan's starfighter, etc. And that's just viewing the sets with the blinders of just the Star Wars theme. Once you look beyond that, you have City, Dreamzzz, Ninjago, etc that's almost entirely kid's playsets. So I have to say I kinda of disagree with your viewpoint.

[@8bitphilosopher286]

Agreed. A kid's not going to care about helmet holes, or the fact that we're getting mechs instead of microfighters, and while, as adults, we can just throw down $50 or $100 on a set we want and not think much of it, a kid would likely have to spend weeks or months saving up for a single set in that price range. Because children have less means to buy sets than we do, their demand is also going to be less. Ironically, I think the oversaturation of "adult" Lego sets actually hurts the adult collectors more than it does kids

[@bloodymarvelous4790]

@@8bitphilosopher286 And kids generally ask their parents for LEGO sets. They don't go out to buy them themselves. Yeah, the number of massive, expensive, 18+ sets has skyrocketed over the past years, but not at the expense of children play sets. There are almost 500 different children play sets available, ranging from $10 to $200, or even $300 if we're talking NINJAGO, but AFOLS aren't looking at many of those sets, and you're not seeing many KZbin videos on them either.

[@Studebricker]

Exactly. Dude just made this video to get clicks and peddle surfshark. He has no real argument.

[@jeffc4862]

Some of his financial examples don't really hold up, but I get where's he's coming from. If your a kid and want a Castle oriented set - there isn't anything... if you want a Lord of the Rings oriented set - there isn't anything... and I think with the Dagobah example was a good one. Lego COULD make a more affordable set/design, but they've amped it up and increased the price. You mention City, Dreamzzz, Ninjago etc... but that's kind of an example of an adult projecting and spinning... When a kid looks at Rivendell or the Lion Knight's Castle and gets excited, they're going to want that theme. Years ago, their were affordable Castle, Lord of the Rings, and The Hobbit sets covering a variety of price points, and that did the trick. Now, we have the Medieval Town Square coming out for 229.99 and that's it.... another pricey model that COULD have been split in half just like the Harry Potter sets have been to make an affordable option available. Lego needs to have products in that 20.00 to 50.00 price point that coattails on themes that are getting attention from the adults, and are being pushed in the adverts, catalogs, and are featured in emails and on the website... (that the kids are seeing just as the adults are).

[@8bitphilosopher286]

@@jeffc4862 I guess the thing I'm not sure about is: do kids these days care about Lord of the Rings? I really hope so, because Lord of the Rings was a huge part of my childhood and is very near and dear to my heart, but it's been...a decade, I wanna say? (correct me if I'm wrong) since the last Hobbit movie. I still think they should make Lord of the Rings playsets, because adults will still buy them, but I honestly don't know if kids would or not

[@Bricky_88]

I am a kid, and love the old themes like castle and knights, and this has become a problem for me latelly, not only because of the price, but also how big these sets are. I actually have the space explorer, because in the end, us, children and lego fans are gonna have to buy these if we want something a bit more complicated than the 4+ ones. Sad...

[@Goddot]

lego is premium-priced rather than premium. I've had more and more often lacking or broken pieces, wild colour variations, and scratches. Premium-priced and Premium quality would be Cobi.

[@ganymedehedgehog371]

I’ve always had great quality but the prices still outpace the quality especially when they’re cutting corners on minifigs.

[@LutraLovegood]

Ironically I'd love to have more variations in my pieces. Cheap way to make walls and co look more interesting with little effort.

[@yung-chinchen2228]

As a LEGO fan and customer, I fully agree with the host. LEGO 's focus has been changed. They just want to make more and more money. I would say it is the most expensive plastics in the earth. The inflation of the price is faster than other stuffs. It is no longer affordable for kids and parents. I don't think their cost has been increased that significantly. The durability is getting worse. Pieces can break and color can fade. Nowadays these sets use so many special pieces. You can only put the set together following the instruction. It is hard to re-purpose the pieces to show our creativity.

[@Dinoknight-to5oy]

It feels like Lego is just like "okay guys, I have an idea for an awesome set. Make sure to use as many pieces as possible!" A few hours go by, "Okay the set's perfect, but there are still some pieces we didn't use. Let's use them to make a crappy playset that cost $10k, even though it's worth -$183,485,394,485,495,449,294,954,145,409

[@flyhigh6814]

I just don't think a Lego set should rival what people have to pay in rent. I love LOTR but when Lego makes only $500 LOTR sets it makes me feel like Lego hates me a customer because I'm not part of the 1% who can drop a thousand dollars for only TWO Lego sets.

[@JigglyPKMN]

Living in Japan, Lego is really out of touch with apartment sizes. Most of the adult oriented sets are too big to buy.

[@firebirdbricks]

Interesting point but that totally makes sense!

[@matthewelliott1834]

I've always wondered about this situation in nations more urbanization like Japan where the majority of people live in small apartments! Definitely not something Lego seems to take into account for these sets!

[@ravenspurplebeats5412]

true seen few apartment video's of japan and there tiny compared to price you pay to live in it.

[@SuperIvanGrozni]

I always loved small/medium sets like Adventurers and pirates... and you had so much to do when you had a few of those sets, so many possibilities

[@Gangdump]

SOOOO expensive. It cannot be understated what a huge barrier this is for consumers. LOTR set is amazing, but way way way too much.

[@heyheyitsjae2475]

2:01 I second this. As a kid I always loved LEGO sets where you could slowly combine them and piece together a larger build. Harry Potter's castle system being both purchasable piece by piece and modular is great, let's you really balance your budget vs set size vs space. The Lion Knights Castle is so cool, but I still haven't managed to buy it. I think I'll finally pull the trigger this spring, but saving up for it has been a hassle. If LEGO were to make say, a Dragon Knights castle, that also had $400 worth of parts *but* was split up into 8-12 sets I'd find that much more manageable. I could get a new expansion to my castle every month and slowly build it up! The sad thing is, you don't even have to look big to see how high prices have gotten. Toa Tahu from BIONICLE was sold for just $8 back in 2001. The 2015 version was $20. Now the closest line up we've got to BIONICLE action figures are those Super Hero ones that go for $25-40 Something that's core design principle was being affordable with pocket money ended up doubled in price, and then it's replacements nearly doubled again!. Similar case to those Vidyo boxes that came out a while back. $20 for a gimmick set that would've gone for $10-13 if it were Ninjago or Chima. Even the small fries are getting bigger!

[@cliffcampbell8827]

If lego is posting profit gains year over year...what would be their motivation to change their business model?

[@kapiteinlulhaas7612]

Short term vs long term profit. Adults that buy lego today played with lego when they were kids. If kids today dont interact with lego, 30 years from now nobody will buy lego.

[@princessarah115]

My son is 8 and has been into Lego for the past 3-4 years. I don’t know if it’s his skill level improving or just the increase in prices but it seems like just in this time frame the sets that release are higher and higher price and fewer sets that are reasonable for incentives for a young child. If all the sets they want are close to $100 it’s crazy.

[@mrrandom1265]

That's why people buy alternative bricks from China: they are affordable, there are thousands of sets available online and they don't retire as long as they keep selling.

[@xakosme]

And brands like CaDa are already getting official licenses from car brands and other. Something that was just not happening when I was a kid, all the “alternative” bricks were super low quality but now I am considering trying some out.

[@GordonFreeman307]

Let’s see how those Chinese bricks look in 20 years. Probably in the garbage long before that

[@xx-dp-bw-xx2546]

@@GordonFreeman307 Ah yes, cuz the unofficial bricks are so different from LEGO quality... produced in the same factories. In the same country. People need to realize that LEGO is no longer the only quality brick producer. Look at COBI or CaDa. They can actually compete now.

[@sophiesong8937]

I'm a millennial who played with Fabuland, Pirates, Paradisa and Belleville series lego as a kid, and now raising kids who love Friends and Ninjago lego and I agree with what you are saying about the moderate price playsets being pushed out.. but I wanted to add there is another big change, which I think stems from an increased adult audience across all Lego series and that is build complexity in all series- in my era, there were sets that had pressed plastic formed bases, which obviously simplified the build, but also reduced piece count which assisted with price point. We have a friends lighthouse from 10 or so years ago that has so many blocks just to build the base terrain, and I can't help but wonder why that was necessary. It does add to the enjoyment of building the set, but it does not enhance playability after assembly. Some sets are so complex that the kids worry about playing with them because reassembly if they bumped them apart, seems daunting.

[@bathbrickers]

Really good argument here - agree with your points. There's a lot of heavy lifting being done by Lego's own IP themes (Ninjago, Friends, City, and Dreamzzz more recently), but it would be great if there were more smaller set options for other IPs (most obviously Star Wars) and some of the older themes (castle, space etc.)

[@13aceofspades13]

My theory, Legos current themes are very Disney and other movie based because they probably get paid to advertise for big companies like Disney The castle sets, the pirate ship sets, city sets, ect. And then they had their own themes like the adventurer sets which I think were cooler than the indiana jhones sets. These sets now go the way of the dodo bird not just because people get tired of them but because they take a back seat to these big movie sets.

[@SeithonJetter]

Personally, i think BlueBrixx has the right idea, they release a core modular set, and then you can buy "addons" to expand it into a bigger display piece, or you can build your own modules. I really think that lego would be better off if they expanded on that idea of smaller interlinked modular pieces that you can buy and build over time into larger themed pieces.

[@abeevers583]

Lego should remember it was Bionicle sets that saved them from bankruptcy, not 18+ sets. I'm to the point where I just wait until May 4th to buy stuff or wait for Walmart clearance and rollback.

[@jacobseeley2753]

I honestly think that 18+ sets shouldn’t just be complex and expensive but also just regular sets that might deal with more mature themes. For example I think it could work if Lego brought back Bionicle as an 18+ theme and really leaned into those aspects of the theme in order to win the sales of older fans. Much like when paramount rebooted Icarly somethings work best when the mature alongside the fanbase.

[@arnaldojunior8924]

This problem is even worse if You check this situation in other countries such as my country Brazil The Diorama of Luke and Vader fighting costs 80% of my entire earnings in a whole month If I wanted to buy the UCS Venator I would neeed to work 5 months non stop without spending money on anything, I could not buy food, pay my needs, nothing.

[@Gregory11811]

Adults can’t afford LEGOS. Adults can barely afford food and shelter these days.

[@thatonepossum5766]

Wait, this is a thing? My local Walmart has an entire isle dedicated to Lego, and only a small portion is black box. A lot of it is still expensive, but there’s something from most major themes available at an affordable price. And the unlicensed (non 18+) sets tend to be much more affordable. I was in there just earlier today, and had to choose between several appealing sets in my very low price range ($15). Ended up spending $10 on a 3-in-1 spaceship set, with 144 pieces.

[@joncarroll2040]

Lego needs to learn the lesson of superhero comics: appealing to adults is one thing, but alienating the core kid audience will only cannibalize your core audience and lead to reduced sales overall.

[@cyristroy9795]

I've been a fan of Lego all 48 years of my life, I remember buying those little sets, building up towards a holiday when I could get that pirate ship or castle. I miss those little sets, I wish like star wars we had more pirate or army building type sets even varied forest or castle theme

[@jameswarden2691]

The black boxes are what got me into Lego a couple years ago as an adult. From there, it was into modulars and I'm now building my first big MOC. That's an anecdote, but it worked for me. In addition, the prices are much more varied once you look beyond the branded sets. My 6 yo never has trouble finding a set at the $20-$25 price point. Finally, I've found the 18+ are as much about marketing as skill level. Aside from a step here or there, my kid is generally able to do any besides the Technic sets.

[@Alertacobra12]

If you ask me, Lego is digging their own grave right now. I'm a young adult, just finished college and started working and Lego really isn't for me anymore and not because I don't like building or "aged out" but simply because of price. I was used to buy Lego Star Wars and Lego City when I was a kid and it is very noticeable to me that the sets I used to buy for 60-80€ would now be 150+ sets and probably marked adults welcome and I end up not wanting to buy it, for that price I can get a couple video games hell even warhammer miniatures arent that expensive compared to Lego now so growing up in a world where kids are at least playing video games do you think a kid would pick a single bug lego set or two full price video games? Because I know what gets me a lot more. In my opinion Lego has either given up on the kids market/regular person market and are trying to market themselves as a premium/luxury product or are shooting themselves in the foot.

[@YoyoTanya]

As a kid, Lego are too expansive as a toy for my parent to buy it for me, so I want to buy it myself when I grown up. After I became adult , I find out it still too expansive for me...

[@denyfixe1000]

BEST COMMENT, EXPLAINS PERFECTLY ONE OF THE BIGGEST PROBLEMS WITH THE LEGO

[@joshvanv5281]

Another thing is that the sets they do market to kids are more dumbed down than they used to be, because they spend all their creativity nowadays on the adult themed sets. All the Lego city sets I see on the shelves are not quite as realistic and creative as they used to be

[@mattj809]

I think lego is losing it's way with children. There's too much focus on making huge $400 lego sets that are pricing a lot of people out of buying them. They need to go back to the simplicity and creativity of the 90s themes.

[@samtripp5476]

Totally agree with you! As a massive AFOL you can not deny the Nostalgia value of growing up playing and building with legos. Kids today are not going to grow up with that same nostalgia when their parents can not afford to buy them these sets. Thanks for calling a spade a spade!

[@floydforthought9998]

It’s like the recent Batcave for 500 dollars. Crazy price. I’d rather have a $100-200 Batcave set that would give me the same amount of fun.

[@firebirdbricks]

For real! It’s a cool set but man, haha