They aren’t a megalomanic, malevolent, “filthy capitalist” company conspiring against us all. Acting like they are, or pretending that they are, just makes you look … Salty.
They’re a company. Furthermore, they’re a children’s toy company. They make toys for children. That means cheap stories. Kids (except the pretentious ones ) don’t buy LEGO because they appreciate the deep story and unique ideas. They buy them because they want to play with the samurai mechs and ninja cars, or they want to play with their favorite superheroes that they saw in theaters.
They’re a children’s toy company, and we aren’t children. We can’t blame LEGO that we aren’t their target audience. They don’t have unique themes and ideas? Sure, because they don’t need to.
They’re still a corporation. While they’re certainly not evil (though my eyes may be clouded by nostalgia and brand loyalty), their decisions are certainly based on what they think will make the most money. I’d say that does make them “filthy capitalists” (because all capitalists are filthy), but they’re not malevolent.
In case it wasn’t clear enough, the licensed themes are not bad in and of themselves. Since I am a fan of Star Wars, Marvel, and Harry Potter, I enjoy getting sets based on the movies that I enjoy.
But the problem is that they’re consuming Lego. All I’m asking for is a little variety.
This is still an intrinsically bad thing. A media landscape saturated with only a few IPs is never good and doesn’t so heavily encourage kids to pursue their own ideas, it just encourages them to go for a few properties without presenting something new to them. Part of the reason I became the writing-focused person I am today is the availability of Lego sets that didn’t just focus on all the other media I consumed and encouraged me to add my own ideas to them. Lego became the media I wanted to consume. It wasn’t just the stuff on TV or in the movies; in fact, licensed themes largely didn’t appeal to me.
There should be themes for kids like me. Themes that are just Lego themes for their own sake, not made solely to capitalize on popular media. Without those, I wouldn’t really have had anything.
) don’t buy LEGO because they appreciate the deep story and unique ideas. They buy them because they want to play with the samurai mechs and ninja cars, or they want to play with their favorite superheroes that they saw in theaters.