LEGO achieves substantial growth in first half of 2024

Scathing comments about "corporate greed" and "growth over quality" and "Maybe, but they dared to release three sets not exactly according to my wishes!" incoming in 3...2...1...

Yes, I critizise some aspects about TLG as well. But the fact remains: They manage to remain relevant in a toy sector were others, even big names, are struggling.

Did not expect to see Icons, Technic and City in the top five themes! I always thought licensed stuff would be way more up there.

Showing that there was no need for all those sets price increases

Not many people know how this is actually bad.

@GirlWoman said:
"Not many people know how this is actually bad."

Care to elaborate, please? Genuinely curious

@gsom7 said:
"Showing that there was no need for all those sets price increases"
Sadly also showing that the price increases don't bother consumers too much. And that there's no need to do anything about the dropping quality of the products.

Great to see that LEGO continues to do so well. The diverse range of products has helped me fine tune my buying decisions and get more intrinsic value for my dollar, for sure.
I hope Niels B Christiansen also appreciates that adults too need play more than ever to help them tap into their own natural enthusiasm and balance out the responsibilities of adult life. I'm guessing someone in the LEGO Group does:)

TLG to toy industry: Call an ambulance! But not for me.

Anyway, being as a Technic fan, it's nice to see the theme in the top five best selling themes for several years in a row. I hope that means Technic is more accepted worldwide and can expand its territory (i.e. making other themes with Technic pieces like Racers).
Speaking of price increases only, it doesn't bother me *that* much, because when I buy sets, it's always at a huge discount, but what stresses me out is the decreasing quality of the LEGO pieces themselves - AND the price increasings.

How are we already halfway through the year????

@Retroblox77 said:
"How are we already halfway through the year????"

We are already 1/3 of the way through the second half of the year ;)

I looked up what the statement means by mass balance and found a good explainer here:

https://www.iscc-system.org/news/mass-balance-explained/

My problem with LEGO Star Wars isn't that it should be a "premium item" like MandRProductions claims - it is still a toy, after all - it's that LEGO isn't putting more money into the theme. Seriously, it clearly says on that financial chart that Star Wars is one of their top 5 most popular themes! So why aren't you funneling more budget into it to make it better and more appealing? Clearly it wouldn't hurt to cut some money from less successful themes to continue improving their most popular one!

About the "top 5 themes":
They are likely not. The wording on both the picture and in the text seems so intentionally vague - "popular themes", "some of the top performing themes were..." - that I bet the top 5 are all licensed and they just wanted to mix things up to showcase some of their own.

@Tuzi said:
"Did not expect to see Icons, Technic and City in the top five themes! I always thought licensed stuff would be way more up there."

In this year 17 Technic sets out of 23 are licensed.
Also, there are a lot of big sets and 2 in 1 seems to be over.

Good to know that any complaints we read online (including my own) are going to waste. Seeing Technic continuously in the top 5 in its current state means people will just buy anything. Good for Lego I guess.

The Lego Group is a business. The point of running a business is to make a profit. Good for them.

So given the growth, increased sales and profit of TLG I suppose we should brace for prices to go down in the months ahead then...?

They should consider resurrecting some of classic retired themes such as Scala and Galidor. They would probably make it into the top 5 and boost LEGO sales significantly.

Glad to see that, after being gone for a while and essentially not having checked any Brickset comments, this forum is as cynical and toxic as it ever was. Nothing but bitter middle-aged dudes pretending they know perfectly how to make LEGO better, and complaining that LEGO currently is nothing but a money-grab-a-tron.

So, toodels, again.

@MrBedhead said:
"Glad to see that, after being gone for a while and essentially not having checked any Brickset comments, this forum is as cynical and toxic as it ever was. Nothing but bitter middle-aged dudes pretending they know perfectly how to make LEGO better, and complaining that LEGO currently is nothing but a money-grab-a-tron.

So, toodels, again."

Wow, your comment was neither cynical nor toxic. Cheers to that.

@MrBedhead said:
"Glad to see that, after being gone for a while and essentially not having checked any Brickset comments, this forum is as cynical and toxic as it ever was. Nothing but bitter middle-aged dudes pretending they know perfectly how to make LEGO better, and complaining that LEGO currently is nothing but a money-grab-a-tron.

So, toodels, again."

Translation: "Anyone I don't agree with is cynical and toxic."

@Fan_Of_Bricks said:
" @MrBedhead said:
"Glad to see that, after being gone for a while and essentially not having checked any Brickset comments, this forum is as cynical and toxic as it ever was. Nothing but bitter middle-aged dudes pretending they know perfectly how to make LEGO better, and complaining that LEGO currently is nothing but a money-grab-a-tron.

So, toodels, again."

Translation: "Anyone I don't agree with is cynical and toxic.""
Hit a little too close to home with his comment didn’t he?

@MrBedhead said:
"Glad to see that, after being gone for a while and essentially not having checked any Brickset comments, this forum is as cynical and toxic as it ever was. Nothing but bitter middle-aged dudes pretending they know perfectly how to make LEGO better, and complaining that LEGO currently is nothing but a money-grab-a-tron.

So, toodels, again."

Calm down, pal, it’s just a kids toy range. No need to be so toxic and negative. Hashtag bekind.

@TheRichrocker said:
"Scathing comments about "corporate greed" and "growth over quality" and "Maybe, but they dared to release three sets not exactly according to my wishes!" incoming in 3...2...1...

Yes, I critizise some aspects about TLG as well. But the fact remains: They manage to remain relevant in a toy sector were others, even big names, are struggling."

Could have closed the thread after this comment and we'd have missed nothing.

@gsom7 said:
"Showing that there was no need for all those sets price increases"

Exactly the inverse for the company. Now, if necessary, they will increase more to beat the 13% mark of this year.

@ShinyBidoof said:
" @TheRichrocker said:
"Scathing comments about "corporate greed" and "growth over quality" and "Maybe, but they dared to release three sets not exactly according to my wishes!" incoming in 3...2...1...

Yes, I critizise some aspects about TLG as well. But the fact remains: They manage to remain relevant in a toy sector were others, even big names, are struggling."

Could have closed the thread after this comment and we'd have missed nothing."
We'd miss your comment, so maybe you're right.

I'm still waiting to see the mythical sustainable paper bags show up in my new sets.

I know they would never release this info but I assume the volume of sets sold year on year is stagnant or growing very marginally and that the sales revenue growth is pretty much down to price increases rather than growth in total sets sold.

@WolfpackBricksOfficial said:
"My problem with LEGO Star Wars isn't that it should be a "premium item" like MandRProductions claims - it is still a toy, after all - it's that LEGO isn't putting more money into the theme. Seriously, it clearly says on that financial chart that Star Wars is one of their top 5 most popular themes! So why aren't you funneling more budget into it to make it better and more appealing? Clearly it wouldn't hurt to cut some money from less successful themes to continue improving their most popular one!"

Because the results show Star Wars fans will still buy the toys in their current state. Upping quality will cost more with negligible revenue gains

The LEGO Foundation owns 25% of the LEGO Group. 25% of this profit will go to charity.

Good for them. I have used Lego products since I was a child, it has basically been a companion throughout my life. It is one of the few companies where I can say that if the company disappeared, I would actually miss it, so I want the company to be strong enough to stick around for the rest of my life too.

@Banners said:
".. I also wonder why Tesco appear to have stopped stocking LEGO, something which seems out of step with the growth reported."

Yes why is that exactly? I've noticed that the toy aisles in big Tescos are some kind of tie-in with The Entertainer chain, and I know that The Entertainer have problems with some Lego products like Harry Potter so I wonder if it is something to do with that but it's still a bit weird that there seems to be no Lego at all

Oh and yes, Brickset comment threads are usually irredeemably toxic.

@Delta said:
"I'm still waiting to see the mythical sustainable paper bags show up in my new sets."

Same, I don't think they're using them in the states for whatever reason.

@sipuss said:
" @gsom7 said:
"Showing that there was no need for all those sets price increases"
Sadly also showing that the price increases don't bother consumers too much. And that there's no need to do anything about the dropping quality of the products."

I've said it before: they've gone from Only the best is good enough to If it sells it's good enough.
Lots of AfoLs (myself included) complain about quality issues and price increases, but keep buying the sets. So why would they keep prices low and invest more of their profits into fixing those quality issues?

No mention of Dreamzzz, I assume it wasn't a hit?

LEGO is making a lot of money, good for them. They are getting less from me as this latest price hike has changed my purching habits. Signifignatly, I have only purchased four sets this year.

@Tuzi said:
"Did not expect to see Icons, Technic and City in the top five themes! I always thought licensed stuff would be way more up there."

I'm not surprised at all. Technic and City are nearly always in the top five, especially as Technic is now almost all licensed and a lot of it is aimed at older buyers. Icons is essentially all the system 18+ sets, so it is not really surprising they have broken into the top 5. And then there are the two big licenses SW and HP. Many of the other licenses (and in-house themes) tend to be quite small themes compared to the number of sets released in City and Technic.

The surprise for me is that they don't mention Friends, even though it is outside of the top five they occasionally refer to themes being consistent sellers.

@Squicman said:
"No mention of Dreamzzz, I assume it wasn't a hit?"

With the number of sets in the theme, it was never going to break into the Top 5. They did mention it in the last financial press release, when it was first released.

@EvilTwin said:
"Good for them. I have used Lego products since I was a child, it has basically been a companion throughout my life. It is one of the few companies where I can say that if the company disappeared, I would actually miss it, so I want the company to be strong enough to stick around for the rest of my life too.

@Banners said:
".. I also wonder why Tesco appear to have stopped stocking LEGO, something which seems out of step with the growth reported."

Yes why is that exactly? I've noticed that the toy aisles in big Tescos are some kind of tie-in with The Entertainer chain, and I know that The Entertainer have problems with some Lego products like Harry Potter so I wonder if it is something to do with that but it's still a bit weird that there seems to be no Lego at all
"

It wouldn't surprise me if LEGO are squeezing the margins on The Entertainer (and hence the appearance on Tesco shelves). LEGO is at a point, at least in the UK, that it doesn't really need smaller toy stores or the traditional supermarkets to sell sets any more. The small made-for-supermarket price points sets still appear, but are just as likely to appear in ALDI or LIDL. LEGO gets to keep the majority of the more expensive sales either in-store (there are about 20 stores now in UK) or online, and the bigger sets go just to premium retailers such as John Lewis and Smyths get the full toy set type ranges.

I guess The Entertainer get a better deal on that Zuru Max stuff they fill their shelves with.

@EvilTwin said:
"
Oh and yes, Brickset comment threads are usually irredeemably toxic."

The ignore user feature is a real bonus there. I soon realised which users' comments I don't want to read or even see, and which users keep repeating those comments.

They priced me out. I can only afford one maybe two sets and only when there is a gwp or double points that I can use. Star Wars is just re-treds, and now smaller. I really wish we as consumers would really slow down on buying and send Lego a message that Lego is getting to expensive and we can not keep up with prices in this world economy.

@The_Cellarer said:
"So given the growth, increased sales and profit of TLG I suppose we should brace for prices to go down in the months ahead then...?"

No. This just allows them to milk us more. Obviously its working. If we want prices to go down, boycotting is the only option.

Yet Quality is lower and lower

@HOBBES said:
"On the other hand, if the company was public, some corporate raiders would get their hands on it, extract all the value from it and then let the resulting shell drift to nothingness."

Yeah, I don't need Lego to go public. Don't want to see that happen.

@ML said:
"They priced me out. I can only afford one maybe two sets and only when there is a gwp or double points that I can use. Star Wars is just re-treds, and now smaller. I really wish we as consumers would really slow down on buying and send Lego a message that Lego is getting to expensive and we can not keep up with prices in this world economy. "

Same here. With the big spike in revenue they saw during covid now behind them, and with the price hikes and just generally more expensive product portfolio, I was hoping customers would retaliate with their wallets. Doesn't seem like that has happened. So since Lego has not been punished for their decisions, my guess is they will continue to test the upper levels of what the market will bear. You bought a $90 Marvel set with 420 pieces (76232)?? Okay, how about $100 for a set with 300 pieces! Coming next year!

At least as far as City is concerned I can understand the popularity this year since by and large City had imho some really awesome sets in 2024, far better than the offerings in the past couple of years.
Technic? Well I guess modern consumers have been so conditioned over the last few years to even accept what they are given nowadays as proper Technic.

What I wonder is why whenever I visited an official LEGO store oder the past few months I rarely ever saw anyone purchase anything. There were always people browsing, but rarely did I see anyone actually buy a set. Then again, why would any sane person buy a LEGO set at RRP anyway other than for store exclusives or during an attractive GWP and/or double points event?

I think LEGO makes up in volume of customers now instead of volume of purchases by an individual. Unlike Austin's experience, my local LEGO store (Meridian, ID) is constantly packed with people who ARE buying. It used to be pre-pandemic that I could walk the aisles of my local Wal-Mart and Target and never see another soul in the LEGO section. Now there are constantly people there looking at the products and (most of the time) making purchases. For those of us who have had to trim our want lists due to cost, expansive number of sets per product line and quality dissatisfaction, there are other people stepping up to fill in that gap. They may not buy the number of sets that I used to as an individual, but for every set I drop now, I guarantee another person who never bought before is coming right behind me to make a purchase.

@AustinPowers said:
"At least as far as City is concerned I can understand the popularity this year since by and large City had imho some really awesome sets in 2024, far better than the offerings in the past couple of years.
Technic? Well I guess modern consumers have been so conditioned over the last few years to even accept what they are given nowadays as proper Technic.

What I wonder is why whenever I visited an official LEGO store oder the past few months I rarely ever saw anyone purchase anything. There were always people browsing, but rarely did I see anyone actually buy a set. Then again, why would any sane person buy a LEGO set at RRP anyway other than for store exclusives or during an attractive GWP and/or double points event? "

Or, you know, modern consumers enjoy Technic the way it currently is because that's what they enjoy? Conditioning, jeez, you make it sound like LEGO has brainwashed people.

As to the anecdote about browsing and buying, I don't want to say you're being untruthful, but anyone who has wandered into a LEGO Brand store in the past ten years knows you're wrong about that.

Poverty affects billions of people each year and it's happening right now in Denmark.

Max Emim - Bloxfam "This board director hasn't eaten caviar in three days."

Pru Fit - Save The Companies "This family can't even afford a third Mercedes."

In the first half of this year, CEO Niels could only scrap together $3.1 billion Danish krone to feed his family. He was forced to fly business class on his holiday to Bali instead of first class like his friends.

You can help people like Niels by making a small donation of $400, $800 or $1000.

Sponsor a CEO today.
Call 1800 GREED to make a donation.

Given the incessant whining in brickset comment sections when sets are priced >$4, it's hard to believe this company makes any profit at all.

It's almost as though all the complaining is...incoherent, irrelevant noise.

It just re-enforces, apparently much the the chagrin of the blind loyalty cheerleaders, that inflation was really a boogeyman for all companies to raise prices. Well I mean, Ferrari's are increasing in prices so maybe not...
I think the other shoe that may drop is the over extension of credit and credit card usage which is starting to impact the US economy. I wonder how much of this 'growth' were people who should not have been spending money and if that really keeps up over time.
Im just amazed that a company can be supposedly doing so well despite how expensive the sets are, and the decreasing quality.

@hawkeye7269 said:
" @AustinPowers said:
"At least as far as City is concerned I can understand the popularity this year since by and large City had imho some really awesome sets in 2024, far better than the offerings in the past couple of years.
Technic? Well I guess modern consumers have been so conditioned over the last few years to even accept what they are given nowadays as proper Technic.

What I wonder is why whenever I visited an official LEGO store oder the past few months I rarely ever saw anyone purchase anything. There were always people browsing, but rarely did I see anyone actually buy a set. Then again, why would any sane person buy a LEGO set at RRP anyway other than for store exclusives or during an attractive GWP and/or double points event? "

Or, you know, modern consumers enjoy Technic the way it currently is because that's what they enjoy? Conditioning, jeez, you make it sound like LEGO has brainwashed people.

As to the anecdote about browsing and buying, I don't want to say you're being untruthful, but anyone who has wandered into a LEGO Brand store in the past ten years knows you're wrong about that. "
Sure it's anecdotal, but I've observed this on many visits. Plus the stores were the ones in Hamburg, Frankfurt, Dresden and Munich, three of which are the cities in Germany with the highest average income in the country (plus plenty of tourists), so one would expect products to be flying off the shelves.

As for the conditioning aspect, I compare it with other products that have slowly but surely lost consumer value but increased drastically in price over the same timeframe, with companies trying to do this as sneakily as possible.
Pringles are a perfect example. They used to be (when I first became aware of them) 225 grams per package, with an RRP of 1.89 Euro. Over a period of around ten years they have decreased the content of the package to now 150 grams. The first couple of reductions (210 grams, 200 grams) they kept the size of the packaging, until it was no longer possible due to local consumer protection laws forbidding the contents to drop below a certain ratio of product versus air in the package.
As for the RRP, first they kept it at 1.89 Euro while reducing the contents, then when customers got used to the lower content they raised the price. Nowadays the RRP is 2.49 Euro for the 150 grams.

With Technic it's exactly the same thing. I'm not talking about subjective qualities like design preferences or some such.
There used to be B models (sometimes even C and D models) with Technic sets, all with printed instructions.
In a first step the B models were reduced to digital instructions only.
The second step was to remove B models entirely.
And prices have increased not only nominally, but by giving customers less for their money too. More tiny parts like pins in relation to the total parts of the set. Less electronic components like motors, servos, etc. on flagship sets.
The list goes on.
As for people nowadays preferring the current style? I would argue that most modern customers don't even know how much more they could have gotten in the past, and without comparison sure, they will think what is available today is the best. After all, there is nothing else.
Unless they would start to compare the current offerings of alternatives, but I bet the majority of customers still will not even be aware these exist at all.

Interesting and timely article published by Pro Publica this morning about the U.S. EPA rejecting mass balance as a method for advertising recycled content.

"It involves a number shuffle, done only on paper, that inflates the advertised recycledness of one product by reducing the advertised recycledness of another, often less lucrative, product. Done purely for marketing, it has been criticized by environmentalists as a greenwashing tactic."