LEGO Group reports strong growth in 2020

LEGO certainly helped me cope through the plague...

Cheers, LEGO!

Looks like they are targeting China hard to combat Lepin et al.

What paper bags? They keep talking about them but I don't think any customer has ever seen them. Or did they trial them with a limited selection of people who are bound by NDA or something?

It's nice to see that Lego's top themes consist of 4 original IPs. I want to see more unlicensed themes in Lego. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of licensed themes too but there's something about the originality of unlicensed themes in Lego that I really like!

And they still print pieces poorly, if they even print them at all. Collectible Minifigures are cheap off-brand plastic priced as if they were made of the real thing. Prices inflating even as the company’s finances grow secure beyond belief. Brand collaborations that reek of greed and a CEO being pressured to increase profit margins. I’m happy that LEGO is doing well; many of their products are still phenomenal and the world is better with them in it, but it feels like the innocence and the original heart of the company has been lost.

I'm surprised that Technic is a top theme. Apart from Huw, I haven't seen that many people excited by the theme. It always felt like more of a niche, while also serving as further consolidation of all the Technic pieces now necessary even in System builds. Good for the fans though, that means more stuff will be coming for the line!

as a huge Nintendo fan, I'm really enthusiast about the Super Mario lineup having a great launch!

@LegoSonicBoy said:
"What paper bags? They keep talking about them but I don't think any customer has ever seen them. Or did they trial them with a limited selection of people who are bound by NDA or something?"

They did. Not sure about an NDA, they simply might not find it interesting enough to share with the world, that'd be perfectly normal (but we did see some for sale on eBay.)

I quote, from the report:
========================
In 2020 we used a total of 68,697 tonnes of packaging material. By 2025, we aim to have 100% sustainable packaging. As a next step,we will begin to phase out single-use plastic bags used in LEGO® boxes to package the loose bricks. Several prototypes made from a range of different sustainable materials have so far been tested with hundreds of parents and children. From 2021, recyclable paper bags, certified by the Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®C117818) will be trialled in boxes, if successful the new bags will be phased in over a four-year period, from 2021
================

On a more positive note, I'm with the rest on being thrilled at the success of LEGO Super Mario. I remember @Zordboy talking about the sets being shelf-warmers in Australasia — where I live, Toys "R" Us is literally trying the stupidest ways to get rid of their excess stock of the Starter Course, such as the current 40% discount with a purchase of one of 80105, 80106 or 80107. Yes, a PWP. So I'm glad the markets here didn't significantly hurt the theme's overall success.

@Laz: Oh, thanks. So I take it that we can look forward to starting to see them in the near future.

With Mario doing well, I hope we could get Zelda sets in the future.

That's good news and I am looking forward to reading the entire report. Getting rid of the one use plastic is resonsible and I hope more toy companies follow Lego's lead. As the CEO credits the tireless work of their employees for the for success this year, I hope the employees get some sort of financial acknowledgement for that contribution to the company's success. Thanks for the link to the report, Huw.

I hope Friends gets some much deserved love for its 10 year anniversary after returning to be one of the top selling themes. :D

Well done Lego, why not share with your customers who have helped achieve this result and give some good VIP discounts ect on some of your top products.

I wanted to see Ninjago in the top :(

@cr0004 said:
"I’m happy that LEGO is doing well; many of their products are still phenomenal and the world is better with them in it, but it feels like the innocence and the original heart of the company has been lost. "
Wholeheartedly agree with everything you said.
As for that last part, this is so true as TLG is currently showing the nastiest side of their face over here in Germany. It probably won't be noticed in other parts of the world, notably non-German-speaking ones, but suffice it to say that TLG is losing a lot of brand loyalty and positive image just now.

@ClassicDragon said:
"With Mario doing well, I hope we could get Zelda sets in the future."

I hope Nintendo has something on the works for the 35th anniversary in this year.

@AustinPowers said:
"As for that last part, this is so true as TLG is currently showing the nastiest side of their face over here in Germany. It probably won't be noticed in other parts of the world, notably non-German-speaking ones, but suffice it to say that TLG is losing a lot of brand loyalty and positive image just now. "

I’m curious: how so?

And still, this ‘powerhouse’ is afraid of legal Chinese brick building brands getting a piece of the European market. So they bully people and small businesses with false claims of copyright violations.

“I hope Friends gets some much deserved love for its 10 year anniversary after returning to be one of the top selling themes.”

I’m glad to see how Friends continues to evolve from its original rather overtly stereotypical foundation. There’s a sense of imagination and thematic diversity shown in those sets that is frequently more interesting than City, not only in terms of what you end up with but also the builds. Whereas I was once reluctant for my daughter to get Friends sets, I’m more positive on them now (although still dislike various aspects of the minidolls, which for me remain flawed in key ways).

@Phoenixio said:
"I'm surprised that Technic is a top theme. Apart from Huw, I haven't seen that many people excited by the theme. It always felt like more of a niche, while also serving as further consolidation of all the Technic pieces now necessary even in System builds. Good for the fans though, that means more stuff will be coming for the line!"

There are plenty of us who love Technic. Most of my collection comes from that theme, with probably less than half being that weird stuff with the knobs on.

We tend to just keep quiet about it though. First rule of Technic Club etc etc...

;o)

@HoodedOne said:
"And still, this ‘powerhouse’ is afraid of legal Chinese brick building brands getting a piece of the European market. So they bully people and small businesses with false claims of copyright violations."

@Bricklestick : the above.
TLG (in the form of the law firm of Hogan Lovells) are currently trying to threaten/right out bullying private customers of Chinese brick sets (not illegal ones mind you) as well as trying to stop the Qman brand (also a completely legal alternative) from getting a foothold in the European market by trying to ruin the person who is the general importer and who also happens to be one of the largest German brick related YouTubers.

Also, as impressive as those numbers sound, considering the circumstances and the hefty price increases (remember, a set does not need to have a higher RRP, you only have to reduce the amount of pieces etc. you get for the money in order to become more expensive), the numbers don't look as impressive anymore. Also, seeing how much focus LEGO puts on all of their licenced themes, yet none of them other than the "evergreen" Star Wars appears in the top theme list speaks volumes imho.

@grandadlegoman said:
"Well done Lego, why not share with your customers who have helped achieve this result and give some good VIP discounts ect on some of your top products. "
Companies don’t react to good profit figures by giving those profits away in the form of discounts. They do, however, take more chances with innovative products/lines and services. So we can expect the unexpected so to speak. LEGO might go for licences it had not before for example, tap its own IP with a focused ‘heritage’ line (Classic Space, Castle etc) or try a new connectivity system (one based more on organic motion for example).

So happy to see Lego Friends as a top theme, as we are big fans of that theme! The overall numbers don’t surprise as I believe Lego was and still is a mental saviour to a lot of people during this pandemic. The high number of stores in China makes sense, get rid of Lepin and then step in and charge premium ;) it will be interesting to see what their digitalisation efforts will result in ...

On the paper bags: in JANG's Pure Build video of the CITY Shopping Street, it struck me that the instructions were actually in a paper envelop. See here:
https://youtu.be/IksdjJClxS4?t=147

Interesting to see the Mario sets do so well. I initially wasn't going to collect them but as I started to see builds of them together it reminded me a lot of the overworld in Mario where you choose your levels, and it actually looks really neat once you get a decent setup going. The individual sets are hit or miss though.

@ClassicDragon said:
"With Mario doing well, I hope we could get Zelda sets in the future."

It's gotta be happening this year. Last year was Mario's 35th Anniversary and this year is Legend of Zelda's 35th. There's been what? Like 7 Legend of Zelda projects that hit 10,000 on Lego Ideas? The demand is absolutely insane.

Great that Lego is doing well, I guess it's no surprise to anyone that they would have a fantastic year in 2020 with kids and adults stuck at home many of the latter presumably rediscovering their love for the brick while buying sets to keep their little ones busy.

Now, what would be even better is if some of that profit is invested in fixing the quality of the printing process so that we no longer get heads and torsos with poorly printed yellow color... and creating a new mould for goats pleeease, is that too much to ask? ;)

>Super Mario was one of the company’s most successful theme launches
This scares me on many levels. This is just wrong.
Also for my own observations - yes the first wave of Starter courses sold well - rest of the set shelfwarms badly
I am glad Friends is growing strong. Lets hope for another minidoll theme!

CAN THEY FINALLY TAKE CARE OF QUALITY?

@Bricklestick said:
" @AustinPowers said:
"As for that last part, this is so true as TLG is currently showing the nastiest side of their face over here in Germany. It probably won't be noticed in other parts of the world, notably non-German-speaking ones, but suffice it to say that TLG is losing a lot of brand loyalty and positive image just now. "

I’m curious: how so?

"

Lego is getting a shitstorm from the German AFOL community right now because they desperately try to ruin small shops again and again. After several questionable law suits they now blocked a shipment of a well-known Youtuber and shop owner for "alternative bricks" in German customs via unwarranted copryight claims with the obvious aims to ruin the business for his still small, but successfully expanding company. With the legal costs and fees it could ruin him even if he wins this at court. Quite a portion of the German AFOL community is showing solidarity with him and shows Lego the middlefinger. Lego must be careful. The increasing number of shitstorms against Lego could proof a long-term problem. So far its seems to be a local problem, but who knows.

As for the topic. I am suprised about the mentioned bestsellers. Friends is the one I expected as well. But I did not expect Super Mario and Technic being in the top list. Where is Ninjago? With the ongoing Corona pandemic the overall good numbers are not very surprising.

Some things worry me. How feasible is this aggressive expansion in China with so many stores? The report describes China as a strategic growth market, but gives no facts - and besides Monkie Kid and some seasonal sets there aren't even localised chinese language sticker sheets for City sets or anything else. I think China's potential in sales is wishful thinking - in Europe I'd guess at least 50% of families are potential LEGO buyers, whereas in China it might be less than 5%, perhaps 10% in 10-15 years. Actual sales figures we'll probably never know. Yet even if LEGO indeed does well in China, subsidiaries there may end up getting sold for one reason or another...
Also launching Monkie Kid should have been way more successful than Super Mario, or did MK actually flop in other regions just for exclusivity (not being available in normal stores)?

Probably I'm reading this wrong but if inventories quadrupled (provided it means finished products), did distribution stop altogether and are there mountains of sets sitting in some warehouses? Shelves here didn't get that much new stock, shops were mostly closed worldwide but yet sales were up - it would be interesting to know, where from people (worldwide) bought their sets during lockdowns.
Also, it is nice to see that even during a difficult year, some people are deemed worthy of a hefty raise (Remuneration to Executive Management and the Board of Directors was 31mDKK in 2019, but 51mDKK in 2020...) ;-)

@lordofdragonss said:
">Super Mario was one of the company’s most successful theme launches
This scares me on many levels. This is just wrong.
Also for my own observations - yes the first wave of Starter courses sold well - rest of the set shelfwarms badly
I am glad Friends is growing strong. Lets hope for another minidoll theme!

CAN THEY FINALLY TAKE CARE OF QUALITY?"

One’s own observations are often nor reflective of sales figures.

13% revenue increase, 19% profit increase. That growth gap will be a result of increased efficiency and cost structure, despite increased costs for expansion, more varied portfolio, licensing costs, currency fluctuations, aggressive supplier negotiation, R&D etc.
However, you don't get such differences without "improvements" to your core business, products and processes. Somewhere in there will be a contribution due to conscious quality deterioration, by use of less raw materials, cheaper raw materials, cheaper equipment, fewer quality inspections, poorer maintenance, etc.

When looking at such healthy numbers so many years in a row, I honestly cannot see the need or long term benefit in ruining their (former?) primary advantages over their competitors; innovation, quality and customer friendliness.

Just my 2 cents from a business point of view...

@AustinPowers said:
" Also, seeing how much focus LEGO puts on all of their licenced themes, yet none of them other than the "evergreen" Star Wars appears in the top theme list speaks volumes imho. "

Their top product launch (Mario) is a licensed theme. I’d also venture a guess that the reduced sale of Super Heroes and the like is due to the lack of new films and TV this year. Star Wars had The Mandalorian and The Clone Wars, whereas Super Heroes only had Birds of Prey, with no LEGO tie-ins, and WW84, at the very end of the year, whereas last year they had an Avengers movie, a Spider-Man movie, a Joker movie, etc. I also think that licensed themes like that one are likely top sellers in America, but are edged out by others in Europe. The American top 5 themes are probably City, Ninjago, Star Wars, Super Heroes, and either Minecraft, Friends, or Harry Potter.

"134 new retail stores opened, including 91 in China, bringing the total to 678."

And still not a single one in Switzerland... :-(

@yuffie said:
"^ I guess that explains why one or two German members appear to criticise nearly everything Lego does at the moment."
It's part of the explanation.
But compared to the small marketing blunders TLG had in Germany in recent years, this current situation is very different.

Having a law firm threaten private customers of legal alternative sets, even going so far as to mention threats of up to three years imprisonment unless you agree to have your ordered sets destroyed (even though said theoretical punishment does not even apply in these cases), is something other than else.
Add to that the case of Qman/Steingemachtes/Johnny's World and the whole affair turns really nasty.
I mean, just look at the associated protest donation campaign towards children in need that Thorsten (the man behind Steingemachtes) initiated a couple of days ago. He hoped to get to around 30,000 Euro if things went well. The current total is going on 350,000 Euro already, with more than 10,000 backers. And the comments to the campaign by those backers speak volumes. Also just look at the community of well-known German brick related YouTubers and their reactions. This time TLG definitely went a step too far.

I am well-known for having been critical about many things I think LEGO did wrong in recent years, but those criticisms usually were about quality issues or product policies I don't personally agree with.
This situation is totally different from any minor gripes about too many stickers, bad Technic sets, high prices, milky transparent pieces or colour inconsistencies.
This is about using highly questionable tactics to ensure continued market dominance and basically cementing a monopoly. I wonder whether the top managers at TLG went to the Disney school of evil business methods since the beginning of their cooperation.

If I open home page of the completely 'innocent and legal' company whose products were stopped being imported in Germany I see one after another trademarked minifigures
http://qman-brick.com/eng.html

@lordofdragonss said:
">Super Mario was one of the company’s most successful theme launches
This scares me on many levels. This is just wrong.
Also for my own observations - yes the first wave of Starter courses sold well - rest of the set shelfwarms badly
I am glad Friends is growing strong. Lets hope for another minidoll theme!

CAN THEY FINALLY TAKE CARE OF QUALITY?"

I get curious when people talk about things being shelf warmers. Perhaps it just means that Lego has enough product available to meet demand? And that full shelves is a sign that Lego is getting their merchandise to the stores in a good fashion? And I don’t know why it scares you that a theme they invested in is doing well? It means they recognized a good opportunity and delivered on it. That’s good.

If only TLG could realize that they've made so much profit that it's useless to have different prices for one and the same set across the Eurozone… (I'm looking at you, 10295, 21325, 21326, 80106, 80107…)

@papluh said:
"If I open home page of the completely 'innocent and legal' company whose products were stopped being imported in Germany I see one after another trademarked minifigures
http://qman-brick.com/eng.html
"

Yikes, those are VERY similar! A few of those even mimic the style of past themes, if not take the prints outright. I probably would mistake that for a bootleg if I didn’t know better. They’re not helping their case.

I think anyone who wants to introduce a competing brick should take some notes from K’nex and Mega Blocks. While they’re both building toys, they tend to have distinct differences (figures being more like mini action figures, for example).

As for Mario being a hit, no surprise. That plumber can print money. Though I’ve stopped at two blind bags, the Yoshi set, and Mario himself. That stuff adds up fast!

Nice to see the top themes aren’t all licenses. The classic bricks still being a hit is oddly reassuring.

As for expanding into China, I think LEGO really needs to be careful. The market is lucrative, and I want for the people there to enjoy what I have for years, but let’s just say their government took all those dystopian novels as instruction booklets.
(Not to mention China has an ongoing genocide that no one will do anything about because of said lucrative markets). So far though, it seems like they haven’t become cartoonishly evil like Disney did.

Though that last point and the whole Germany debacle kinda highlights something I always worry about with lego. I worry about them one day just becoming like any other faceless corporation that doesn’t give two cents about either their consumers or the world around them for the sake of profit. And yes, this is a company for a children’s toy, but I think that’s why they should be scrutinized even more. Let’s hope they don’t get so blind to chasing profits they turn into something wicked.

@AustinPowers said:
" @yuffie said:
"^ I guess that explains why one or two German members appear to criticise nearly everything Lego does at the moment."
It's part of the explanation.
But compared to the small marketing blunders TLG had in Germany in recent years, this current situation is very different.

Having a law firm threaten private customers of legal alternative sets, even going so far as to mention threats of up to three years imprisonment unless you agree to have your ordered sets destroyed (even though said theoretical punishment does not even apply in these cases), is something other than else.
Add to that the case of Qman/Steingemachtes/Johnny's World and the whole affair turns really nasty.

This is about using highly questionable tactics to ensure continued market dominance and basically cementing a monopoly. "

This is practically a brick-for-brick copy of an official unique design. That is not legitimate. https://www.steingemachtes.de/Wange-5227-Architect-Set-The-Statue-of-Liberty-New-York-Freiheitsstatue/5227

Most of Qman is derivative at the absolute best, but they literally just have minidolls. Unlike any other minifig-esque characters in legitimate competitor bricks. That's not legitimate.

Also, excusing Qman by saying that the minifig isn't legally protected anymore in Germany is the weakest argument I've seen. Semantics doesn't make them not a rip-off.

Also please spare us the "market domination" doomsday. Is it not weird to you that they only go for "market domination" with companies that steal official set designs and very unique elements? What was the last thing they did to go after Megablocks or Knex or Kreo or Laser Pegs or Nanoblocks? All of those are legitimate competitors. They have some slight resemblance to Lego, but they do unique things. They don't rip set designs, they make their own. They don't rip element designs, they make their own. The same cannot be said for any of the German companies you've mentioned. It takes away a lot of the possible empathy.

@fakespacesquid : we are talking about Qman, not Wange, which is a totally different manufacturer. The products held back by customs are Qman only, not Wange or any other brand. Just for the record.

Believe what you wish. Not a single design by Qman destined for Europe is stolen from LEGO. Sure, City-like sets are similar, but not what do you expect? A fire engine for example looks the way it does. From the Qman sets I have seen there is not one that could be mistaken for a LEGO one. Not the box art, not the contents, not the figs.

@AustinPowers said:
" @fakespacesquid : we are talking about Qman, not Wange, which is a totally different manufacturer. The products held back by customs are Qman only, not Wange or any other brand. Just for the record.

Believe what you wish. Not a single design by Qman destined for Europe is stolen from LEGO. Sure, City-like sets are similar, but not what do you expect? A fire engine for example looks the way it does. From the Qman sets I have seen there is not one that could be mistaken for a LEGO one. Not the box art, not the contents, not the figs. "

You specifically mentioned Steingemachtes, and that product was directly on their website. Just for the record.

Seeing is believing. As I said, they're derivative at best, and that makes it really hard to feel bad about them facing legal troubles. If they were doing actually unique things (or posting actually unique things on their websites), like legitimate competitors do, then you'd have a point. But that's not that what they're doing. So far, all of the evidence points to Lego going after a copycat rather than a competitor.

I do not support Lego trying to take down legitimate competitors. I fully support them going after copycats. The line is clear, and Qman is clearly on one side of the line.

@AustinPowers said:
" @papluh said:
"If I open home page of the completely 'innocent and legal' company whose products were stopped being imported in Germany I see one after another trademarked minifigures
http://qman-brick.com/eng.html
"
An observation from some one who work in ethics daily: I can see Lego's point of view here.... while internationally the idea of the plastic building brick and tube and stud design is now universally considered 'open', there is a fair amount of illegal/unfair copying by Qman (or whatever) just from looking at the images on their website. While all the designs are intrinsically unique, the intent is CLEARLY taken from work Lego did. How many decades of work did Lego do to perfect the look and feel of City sets? All that intellectual work has been taken from Lego. Look at all the specialized pieces/ brick which are NOT tube and stud (space shuttle cockpit, mech's joints) which have been unfairly copied? Lego literally spent a decade trying to figure out how to design and market building brick to girls (and interested boys) which resulted in the FRIENDS line. This clone brand thinks all that work is just free to take? I call BS..... I do see some products (the model of the SU-35 and Military line) which don't blatantly rip off Lego products... but the the City and Friends clones are just infuriating and I would do the same to protect my family's work and investments. "

I hope that LEGO will fix the online ordering issues, when it is a big release day. A customer shouldn't have to work so hard to order products, or be so frustrated just trying to place an order. If they can't fix the IT issues, then improve the big release day process internally by finding other solutions so that their site can handle the incoming orders.

May be there is need to start banning all clone brand advocacy?

@GHED said:
"May be there is need to start banning all clone brand advocacy?"
If you are talking about me, I am not in any way trying to advocate clone brands.
I merely tried to explain why LEGO in Germany currently is under fire and undermining their own image. I mentioned that fact, someone else asked about the details, so I elaborated.

I had been asked by Huw a while ago not to mention alternative brands anymore and I fully intended to do so and still do.

This discussion only arose because of the current special situation in Germany that is different from anything I have ever experienced in terms of LEGO my whole life.

Plus, I have zero personal interest in Qman failing or succeeding, just to set the record straight.

The vast majority of my brick collection is made up of LEGO sets. And if LEGO continues to offer enticing sets of good quality I don't see this ever changing, even if I also buy from alternative manufacturers now and then.

And now I will stop mentioning/commenting on this subject.

@GHED said:
"May be there is need to start banning all clone brand advocacy?"

Reaching a majority-agreed definition of 'clone brand' would be the first hurdle, and I think there are so many personal feelings involved in what people consider 'fake'.

From my own perspective, all compatible but non-Lego-brand bricks are 'fake', even though the law no longer aligns with this. I started with Lego in the 70's and still consider it the 'real' brand, but I'm well aware that my opinion is coloured by my own experiences, including the fact that I can afford premium pricing and that Lego make all the products I want to buy.

@ComfySofa said:
" @GHED said:
"May be there is need to start banning all clone brand advocacy?"

Reaching a majority-agreed definition of 'clone brand' would be the first hurdle, and I think there are so many personal feelings involved in what people consider 'fake'.

From my own perspective, all compatible but non-Lego-brand bricks are 'fake', even though the law no longer aligns with this. I started with Lego in the 70's and still consider it the 'real' brand, but I'm well aware that my opinion is coloured by my own experiences, including the fact that I can afford premium pricing and that Lego make all the products I want to buy."

My general opinion is that a product needs to have it’s own identity for me to not consider it a clone.
Funny enough, I don’t consider Mega Blocks to be clones anymore. Building a Mega Blocks set is a lot more like building a play set for action figures than a lego Kit. Heck, the biggest distinction of MB is that their minfigures are really more like very tiny action figures. I don’t think you get MB for the building, but for the action-figure type of stuff.

And then there’s K’nex. They have similar locking bricks, but their sets are focused on using beams and axels. They look a lot more like they’re made of beams than bricks more often than not, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Their figures also don’t resemble LEGO Minifigures as much.

So... mega blocks focuses on play sets and action, rather than the build from my experience. K’nex focuses more on functionality and building with beams, so it has a lot more of a construction-site kind of look.

Tell you what Lego, if Super Mario sets have been so popular you can buy all my stock back, because it has been sat on my shop shelves doing nothing even at 25% off

@paulrothwell said:
"Tell you what Lego, if Super Mario sets have been so popular you can buy all my stock back, because it has been sat on my shop shelves doing nothing even at 25% off"

I've seen it out of stock in chain stores around where I live. Possibly the audience is different? I don't have a local toy shop to compare, not that it would have been open that much between the lockdowns.

I'm not surprised by any of the top selling themes except possibly Technic. City, Classic, Friends and Star Wars are so easily available in supermarkets and other chain stores like B&M for impulse buys or easy gifts. I find Classic heartening, because though I like sets with instructions it's good to know that parents and kids want freestyle LEGO play too.

Would be good if only the quality of product increased as well. Sadly, more and more AFOLs are reporting issues with the sets - particulary in the color consistency which has never been worse.

I'm happy for Lego to do well, as I always have been, and it makes particularly good sense this year where families were forced to spend so much time home and needed new ways to fill the time. However, given that many people were out of work for 3-4 months or longer, it would have generated a lot of goodwill and possibly equal profits if they had temporarily lowered prices. CMF bags went up 25%, many sets kept the same price point but with fewer pieces, and new lines like the Helmet Collection and Brick Sketches were introduced without using printing or new molds at high prices per piece.

@lordofdragonss said:
" @The_Toniboeh said:
" @lordofdragonss said:
">Super Mario was one of the company’s most successful theme launches
This scares me on many levels. This is just wrong."

How is it "wrong"
"

It shows Lego they can sell overpriced, "not rebuildable" licenced sets freely.
I am already woried that Lego becomes more and more single use toy instead of new toy every day."

99% of the Mario sets are rebuildable, the only component that isn't is Mario himself. All of the other sets are composed of System and Technic elements, which are indeed rebuildable. Part of the point is to rebuild the track into different layouts, but you can also just rebuild the sets themselves. My little brother didn't have the starter pack for months and he was still fully able to reuse the sets. If he can do it, I have full faith in you.

@HoodedOne said:
"And still, this ‘powerhouse’ is afraid of legal Chinese brick building brands getting a piece of the European market. So they bully people and small businesses with false claims of copyright violations."

There's nothing "legal" about 99.9% of the Chinese LEGO clones out there.
People seem to think that just because the patent for the LEGO brick has expired, that means LEGO-clones are automatically legal.
They're not.
The patent only protects the interchangeable locking mechanism. So you can make other building blocks based on the LEGO brick.

However, you can NOT produce "sets" that are pretty much a copy of the LEGO set, using those legal brick-knock offs. It doesn't matter if you changed the face of a minifigure or enlarged it.
If the overall product still resembles a LEGO set and might induce consumers in mistaking it for real LEGO, it's a violation of LEGO's copyrights and they have all the legal right in the World to do what they can to prevent those products from entering Europe.

LEGO maintains the copyright to every set they produce. Even licensed IPs, while the prints and designs of ships and stuff are the property of the licensing entity, the design of the set is the property of TLG.

All those cheap Chinese brands produce copies of LEGO sets. Products that infringe on LEGO's copyright. If some German YouTuber is importing them, he's assisting in a crime. So it's normal that LEGO goes after him.

But LEGO shouldn't even have to go after these Chinese companies. (***moderator edited***), all of those Chinese companies would have long been banned from Europe, for targeting and stealing property from an European company.

Unfortunately, Europe lacks the courage to stand up to Winnie the Pooh.
So, LEGO has to try to do it themselves.
If that means going after some "famous YouTuber", so be it.

@holdre007 said:
"Some things worry me. How feasible is this aggressive expansion in China with so many stores? The report describes China as a strategic growth market, but gives no facts - and besides Monkie Kid and some seasonal sets there aren't even localised chinese language sticker sheets for City sets or anything else. I think China's potential in sales is wishful thinking - in Europe I'd guess at least 50% of families are potential LEGO buyers, whereas in China it might be less than 5%, perhaps 10% in 10-15 years. Actual sales figures we'll probably never know. Yet even if LEGO indeed does well in China, subsidiaries there may end up getting sold for one reason or another..."

China is one of the few places in the world with a growing and wealthier middle class. Plus with 1.3 billion people, even if you are correct about a 10% market share, that still comes out to a much larger market than pretty much anywhere but the US.

But here’s the thing about China, you probably know very little about the country. You are most likely familiar with St. Louis in the US and Sarajevo in Bosnia, but neither of those cities have a population over a million. Yet because they are major American and European cities you are familiar with them. In China you know Beijing and Shanghai, you may even have heard of Guangzhou and Xian. You probably are familiar with the province of Sichuan as many Chinese restaurants have Szechuan in their name. But what about Dalian, Xiamen, Datong, Qingdao, Zhengzhou, Shenyang, Harbin, Chengdu, Chongqing, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Nanjing, Shenzhen,... I’m going to stop there as I need to sleep this week, but several of those cities have populations over 10 million, and most of not all are over 5 million.

I have family in China and they love Lego, their kids even go to Lego classes and camps. And yes, Lego is outrageously overpriced in China, easily 2-3x the cost it is in the US, yet the Chinese are willing to purchase it for their kids. Of course due to the one child policy you have 6 adults (2 parents and 4 grandparents) who only have a single child to take care of and spoil. It’s quite reasonable to believe that more Lego sets could be sold in China than in the rest of the world combined. Everyone is assuming that the pandemic is what drove Legos growth this year, but you are forgetting about the massive unemployment and insecurity that the pandemic has caused many families. I would think that Legos customer base in the west declined, although those who are buying are probably spending more money, resulting in a wash. I visited Legos flagship store in Beijing in 2019 and lets just say it probably had more customers in it that night, than I had seen all year in my local Lego store in Chicago. I bet that China is probably the main reason for Legos tremendous growth last year. Not to mention, China defeated the virus and life has returned to normal there.

Just over a billion euro in profit. That's nice. Mr K doesn't have to worry about buying his next Ferrari.
Now can you spend a few of those millions to finally after 15 years solve the issues with inconsistent colours and cracking parts?
Maybe take a fraction off the profit margin on UCS and Creator Expert sets and replace all stickers with printed parts?