Lego is cool again

I found this article online today in the UK newspaper (remember newspapers?) The Guardian. I found it really interesting. Lego was near ruin just four years ago, and last year reported a record increase in sales. What fueled it? Where are they going next? Read the article and find out!

Is Lego recession-proof?

Sure looks like it, Lego's US division reported a record 38% increase in sales last year, claiming a staggering 73% share of the US market for construction toys. Check out this article at Bloomberg.

Legobama Inauguration

In case you missed it, there was a little Inauguration a couple weeks ago. When I say 'little,' I mean little. Legoland in Cali has created an Inauguration in Lego that's just plain amazing. Check out this video.

Take a look inside the LEGO factory

Ever wonder how they make all those LEGO sets? Wonder no more. In the latest part of a cool series of articles at Gizmodo, they show us three videos from inside the LEGO factory where 19 billion LEGO bricks are made each year. It's got granules vacuum suckers, it's got robots, it's got people with funny accents. It's LEGO-Reffic! Check it out here

Lego Secret Vault

Check out this website - gizmodo.com, it has a big section of it dedicated to their recent trip to the Lego factory - I am supposing it's in Denmark, since I didn't see a location listed in the article. At this factory, they store one of each and every set that Lego has ever produced - 4,720 of them - from the fifties to today. Check out the article here, which features a nifty video of some of the sets and lots of pictures.

There Will Be (Lego) Blood

Were you ever using your Lego figures playing that scene in The Matrix where Neo and Trinity are going through the lobby of that building shooting, oh, about a billion rounds into the guards, the walls, the floor, the ceiling, the light fixtures, the elevator and everything and anything around? Did you ever feel kinda empty cause your lego dudes had to make do with that little piece that kinda, sorta looks like a gun, but was actually designed to be a light fixture?

Well, my friends, your worries are over! Thanks to the folks over at BrickArms, your Lego dude will never go into a gun fight armed with a knife. You can choose from all sorts of mayhem inducing choices - pistols (with or without silencers), sawed off shotguns, sniper rifles, military weapons, hand grenades and even a rocket propelled grenade launcher for the little kid playing terrorist vs Humvee in your family.

They even have armed-to-the-teeth mini figures available for your search and destroy missions.

Lego at Toy Fair

Our Lego experience at Toy Fair consisted of a breezy 20-minute tour through the booth. We asked to be brief, and our rep complied.
What was most impressive about our Lego experience at Toy Fair were all the life-sized Lego people that were in New York City. Sunday night we attended the ASTRA Party with the Stars event at FAO Schwartz. FAO had multiple life-sized Lego people - including four Harry Potter figures (see Ron to the left with Scabbers/Peter Pettigrew), Sponge-Bob and R2-D2. They also had a huge Lego city set up. The Lego booth at Toy Fair had Indiana Jones, C3PO and a Star Wars clone figure.
Lego's new offerings this year include new Star Wars sets from the Clone Wars television show coming later this year, new license Speed Racer, updated sets in the City Line. Click here for some pics of the sets from Gearlog.

Lego Batman Video Game

In more LEGO news, apparently LEGO Indiana Jones is not the only video game coming out this year to support LEGO products. LEGO Batman is slated to arrive in Fall of 2008. This should be interesting, because LEGO Batman hasn't been the best selling of the licensed lines LEGO has produced. Actually, it's somewhat similar to the way Star Wars LEGO was selling before the advent of LEGO Star Wars. Check out the game trailer below:

Happy 50th Birthday, LEGO!

Apparently, today at 1:58 PM (er 32 minutes ago), LEGO turned fifty! I'm not sure how they pegged an exact time on the creation on arguably the most successful toy in history, but someone did. Check out this article on gizmodo.com about the last fifty years of LEGO. Click the timeline above for a bigger (more readable) version.
It's funny, we get lots of people who come in and ask what happened to the big bulk boxes (or tubs) of LEGO that didn't make just one model. LEGO still makes 'em, but only a couple. 99% of their sets go to make a specific model nowadays.
As many people who come in looking for the old fashioned bulk sets, we get at least twice as many looking for specific sets - usually Star Wars. Since Star Wars I, LEGO jumped into the licensed toy arena. As mentioned on this blog, you can now get Indiana Jones LEGO as well as Batman, Spongebob Squarepants and of course Star Wars LEGO.
Regardless of whether LEGO is in the form of a set that makes a specific toy or a bulk box, the beauty of LEGO (and all construction toys, really) is that the kids can tear it apart and make whatever comes to mind. Keep that in mind if you buy a kit to make one model, challenge your child to take that model apart and make something entirely different. It's one way to help them learn creative thinking.

Indy, Anyone?

So, back when Star Wars Episode I came out, Lego jumped into the licensed toy market by making a bunch of Lego Star Wars sets. We jumped on em and had tons in stock. Guess what? They didn't sell so well. They weren't as bad as lots of the other Star Wars toys that came out, but sales for them weren't so great. Lego whittled down the collection and moved on.

End of story, right?

Guess again. For the past several years, demand for the Lego Star Wars toys has increased dramatically. Each year, we've been sold out of stuff early into the Holiday season and have not had an ability to reorder due to overwhelming demand. Why? My guess is the interest was driven by the hugely successful Lego Star Wars video games that emerged the last couple of years. The games let kids play using the Lego sets and in the form of the Lego Star Wars characters.

So, now Lego has just released sets to accompany this year's release of the latest Indiana Jones movie. The movie is set to come out on May 22nd. Those LucasArts folks aren't dummies - there's a video game set to come out as well with Lego Indy Jones (video game trailer below). We're stocking the Indy Lego stuff (it has yet to arrive), so we'll see if the demand for Indy Lego matches that for Star Wars Lego.