The LEGO Group argues its quality justifies its high prices
The LEGO Group has suggested its premium quality will help shoppers accept its high price tag.
LEGO sets have established a firm reputation as a premium product, but that means a premium price tag often accompanies it. At the extreme end of the scale we’ve see the launch of models like 75313 AT-AT, with an RRP of £734.99 / $849.99 / €849.99. However, even LEGO fans with less expensive tastes have had to make some tough choices.
That’s because several LEGO sets have seen significant price increases over the last few months, with sets like 10255 Assembly Square climbing to an eye-watering £259.99 / $299.99 / €299.99. Our complete guide to LEGO price rises offers more information, but it seems that to the LEGO Group, these price increases are justified.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Niels B. Christiansen (The LEGO Group’s CEO) argues that the quality of LEGO will help to make it appealing to families – regardless of the price. He hopes that “high quality products with a long life cycle”, will prove an attractive investment as opposed to “toys that may only grab children’s attention for two weeks or so”. He also says it “remains to be seen if [pressure on households] will affect presents or if consumers scale down on things like cars or travel”.
The LEGO Group’s own numbers suggest that many LEGO fans are accepting this argument of high quality over low cost. According to a recent report by the LEGO Group, the company’s financial performance in the first half of 2022 was ‘above expectations’. Consumer sales grew by 13% in this period, while revenue climbed to £3.25 billion.
That said, these sales figures are from before the LEGO Group increased its prices. It remains to be seen how the price increases will impact our shopping habits in the future. In any case, our new LEGO deals section will help you avoid spending more on LEGO than you need to.
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Lego Quality? Half the sets I get have issues – missing pieces, misalligned prints, scratches over windshields, nasty moliding marks, different color shades etc. And it happens ALL the time. Had issues with Sian (color issues), Ecto1 (windshield scratches), Ideas Tree House (misalligned and missing prints), Technic sets (missing pieces – and they were not small, broken servo motor), recent Galaxy Explorer (nasty scratches on both windshields), Aston Martin 007 from the Speed Champions – nasty mold marks, severly misalligned front grill print – barely fits on brick at all, 1mm blank space on the roof. Sorry – this is far from high quality. I report all the issues to Lego, and with more or less success I always get the replacement parts. Still, I want to enjoy the set I buy, not to wait several weeks to complete it. I prefer to not have to rely on customer support. The recent price increase was the breaking point. No more. There is no justification for such price with quality that sucks. There – I wrote it. The legendary Lego Quality is not superb – it sucks. It’s bad, it feels cheap. The lighthouse is not worth more than 50% it’s current price from my experience. Even the cheap AliExpress imitations are currenlty BETTER (I have one Lepin set to compare to). Not to mention other quality products like Megaconstrux (I have the Deanarys dragon) or Cobi. Have dozens of Cobi II world war sets. Not a single missing piece ever. Perfect prints covering multiple pieces (yes, they can do that), perfect clutch power. No cracks of small cheese slopes, no yellowing. And guess what – Cobi costs 2,5x less than Lego (comparing sets of similar piece count where I live). Wakanda Forever for over 350$? Razor Crest for 500$? Lighthouse for 299$? (it will get yellow in a year or two anyway). This is a joke. For a price that high I expect the highest possible quality. I do not get it from the recent sets – the pieces have visible molding marks, have different shades of the same colour, transparent pieces are damaged out of the box. Prints are often far from perfect. This is not acceptable in a premium product. It is also not acceptable for a simple children toy. I decided to stick to second hand, used Lego market and concentrate on collecting older sets from the 90ties. No more cash from me.
I’ve had it with Lego and their excuse for raising prices. Why have they raised their prices? it’s not because of fuel costs; it’s not because of shipping cost, it’s not because of increased cost of plastic or paper. It’s to pay for their bonuses. See when they reach sales goals they get a beefy bonus. Who pays for that bonus it’s not the company it’s the consumer. So I’ve decided to go with bootleggers and I have had some quality sets at normal prices and it’s worth the value. In fact some of the instruction manuals are better than Lego.
“The General Court of the European Union, the bloc’s second-highest court, struck down a 2019 decision by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) on Tuesday, ruling that the design of Danish toy manufacturing giant LEGO’s building blocks are protected by patent”
This is why their prices are rising. They are starting to experience competitors who use the same technology, has better designs and are significantly cheaper. I am a lego fanatic. But they priced me out and now I buy more from knockoff brands than I do with Lego.
this may have been true once upon a time, but now, knockoffs like Mould King are just as good of quality. like identical. for 1/6th the cost. I’ve gotten 6000+ piece sets for less than Lego charges for 1000 piece sets. that’s insane and really greedy on their part.
I would buy this if they weren’t trying to lower the quality by making everything a sticker instead of a printed brick.
they made 8 billion last year… 8 billion! that’s after they hid an enormous amount in the books.
Lego has always been part of my childhood.
But Lego seems to appeal those people who buy Lego sets and treat them like stocks.
These hawkers buy out, say, like the Saturn 5 set, leaves none available for space nerds like me, and hold on to it for 24 months and sell them unopened for three times the price!
We all know how a superficially limited supply drives prices, and a lot of the more beautiful sets cost as much as my monthly salary!
And we all know how economy of scale works, the more you make a product, the cheaper it is to make them. But Lego seems to ensure to avoid that by limiting sets and catering to these price gougers more than actual enjoyers of this hobby.
Executives are largely either out of touch with “common folks” or don’t care about how they’re affected. They are gouging and trying to justify it, and their stated reasoning in the above statements is weak. Yes, quality is important, but they’ve surpassed the threshold of reasonableness (ex: The Justifier–INSANELY poor value for the cost). At a time when costs for basic needs like food have skyrocketed, claiming that raising prices for luxury products is justified for a company that makes billions of dollars is abominable.
Hiking prices and doing things like moving to cardboard boxes for Minifigures without a way to know what you’re buying (QR code), are disappointing.
I used to buy every Star Wars set (except UCS), most super hero, and most Minecraft. Now, I’m much more selective.
Meanwhile, the quality of bootlego continues to increase and is far more affordable. Lego is pushing customers more toward affordable alternatives.