In the past few years, LEGO has become an increasingly soulless profit-driven corporation. There, I said it.
I know any company needs to make profit to survive, but when you end up compromising what made you so successful in the first place for the sake of increased short-term profits, you are basically just selling away your soul for money.
I miss the days when they were just your neighborhood-friendly toy company, concerned only about putting out quality sets and themes that would spark the imagination of children, not being continually stressed out because they haven’t grown in one year more than in the last.
As a kid, my dream was to work as a LEGO designer, but now, after seeing what they have become recently, I would rather pursue something else.
Kind of tying into this, I feel like Lego used to be more creative. There were all kinds of original themes that felt really unique. Stuff like Life on Mars, UFO, Islanders, Fright Nights, etc, just these different random things that seemed fun and interesting. And Lego Racers 1/2 had characters from these themes, just overall I wanted to know more about these worlds. And ofc, Bionicle. I feel like Lego doesn’t have as many creative themes like that anymore, it’s mostly licensed themes.
I 100% believe the only difference between modern lego and lego in the past is they’re more successful and the toy ecosystem has changed.
the idea that Lego was ever
is a fantasy
Well, for one, LEGO wasn’t the target of mainstream media until like… 2014, when the LEGO Movie came out. Before that, LEGO was a relatively niche thing that was rarely talked about in the mainstream. Sure, everyone knew about LEGO, but nobody really saw it as a “corporation”.
And if you’re trying to prove me wrong, just look at how high in the top most profitable companies they have ranked in the past few years. That was virtually unheard of during the 2000’s and early 2010’s.
And if really believe they’ve always been the way they are now, would you please explain to me why they were previously so willing to try out so many unique things of their own that no other toy companies have tried, yet now, they rely almost entirely on external IPs to be profitable?
Maybe their intention was to be a soulless corporation all along, who knows, but it definitely didn’t feel that way to me.
You said it yourself
in the past they were smaller, sometimes on the brink of failure, so they were willing to invest in more out there ideas. But they also had the same business sense to lean on licenses they do today. (Lest we forget Star Wars is arguably just as responsible for pulling Lego out of their rut as Bionicle)
The only difference now is they’ve found greater success, they don’t need to invest in high risk ideas.
i think ever since bionicle G1 ended it just became more competitive between themes since chima, nexo knights and hidden side all really existed to replace their predecessor and it all ended up as just ninjago, city and friends
on the other hand since Monkie Kid it has given me hope of more inhouse action themes and since star wars is at a good place to end we may see less licences!
then again that could just be me
Yeah, there have been some original themes, just not as many, and it seems like besides Ninjago there’s been just one original “theme” that’s keeps getting replaced. I did really like Chima, Galaxy Squad, and Space Police 3. I think Pharoah’s Quest and Atlantis were cool too. And I thought Hero Factory and G2 had some cool sets, just not on the level of G1 for me. I’ve also really been liking the minifigures line, I think they’ve gotten really creative with these minifigures. I think it would be really cool to have a Lego Racers 3 game with some of these figures. But it seems like the amount of original themes has been gradually going down in general, with basically just Ninjago now, one other original theme, and no Bionicle or alternative to that. But hopefully they’ll start to have more original themes in the future.
there has also been this downward trend of slowly juniorising more and more themes, City, Ninjago, Marvel and Star Wars (kinda) and the more recent harry potter sets
sorry im kinda in a bad mood about the reavealed harry potter sets - they used to be great but now they just arnt that good anymore
You know, I kind of share your point of view on that. In the last couple of years I completely lost interest in Lego’s new products. Heck, I haven’t bought a single new set since 2019.
But I don’t think that it has that much to do with the Lego company “losing its soul”… I don’t think it ever had any soul to speak of. Of course the company and its policy changed a lot since the good old days when Bioncle G1 was still a thing and that’s… completely okay. Like any corporation, Lego’s main goal is to gain profit and to do so they need to appeal to their target audience (kids, in Lego’s case). Currently they are very successful with that, since many kids do enjoy their products.
The thing is, we aren’t their main target audience anymore, so there’s no point for Lego to produce the stuff we want from them. Apparently, nowadays kids want simpler, more playable sets based on famous franchises, not the complex, dark original IPs with tons of lore and worldbuilding like Bionicle.
The Voyatoran are the best matoran.
Dalu is the best Voyatoran, but that is less of a strong opinion.
The STARS look kinda cute. or maybe i just like small people/things…
I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t see anything particularly “risky” in doing something as simple as a Castle theme, a theme about Sci-Fi space, Adventurers, Pirates, etc. Those kinds of themes used to be a staple of the LEGO Brand, until they decided “nah, we don’t need those anymore”.
If Bionicle is seen by the company as “high risk” than I understand that. But you would have a hard time arguing with me that any of those more generic original themes are “risky” in any way.
As far as the argument that they had no soul to begin with goes, I wouldn’t agree with that either. If you asked an AFOL during the early 2000’s whether LEGO was loosing their soul, I am willing to bet the answer you would have gotten would have been yes. Outside of Bionicle, most of their offerings during that time where super strange experiments that desperately tried branching into other markets, with hit or miss (mostly miss) results. After that, they returned to their more “traditional” types of themes and everyone loved those.
Nowdays, it feels like they have the exact opposite problem. They rely way too much on continually pumping up new sets of their already established successful themes, and abandoned everything else in the process, completely unwilling to try out anything new (or old, for that matter).
CORDAX RUN
very true, very true
You need to recognize that that is your perspective of it. To you, it isn’t high-risk, because it appeals to you.
But LEGO isn’t really as pertinent as it was in the early 2000s. Video games are more and more quickly replacing it, so if the company has a theme like Ninjago that’s super successful in two different media, they’re going to stick with it.
I hate sounding “kids these days”, but seriously: kids these days don’t really care about Castle and spaceship playsets, and LEGO knows that. So they stick with what works, mostly.
If you want more from LEGO, you’re looking in the wrong place. The days of good stories for this toy are over. Now they’re just above-average playsets in a world where physical toys are less and less relevant. Go play D&D, or Warhammer, or a good video game.
And a final note: to portray LEGO as one benevolent, turned malicious, to think of them as this evil mega-corporation, is just … not. That’s for movies and books. Like, when you say “LEGO is a soulless malevolent company” what exactly do you mean? Who exactly do you mean?
LEGO is as soulless as every other corporation
We literally have no proof of that, and neither does LEGO right now because they haven’t attempted anything of that kind in almost a decade. Just because LEGO doesn’t care about it anymore doesn’t mean kids aren’t into it.
On top of that, other toy companies still produce Castle/Fantasy stuff without any problems. Playmobil has continually produced that kinds of stuff for decades without stopping, on top of having other types of historical themes too, like ancient Rome and Egypt.
I would love to see how in ten years after Ninjago gets cancelled and it’s die hard fans would want to see it return, they will be met with the argument “kids aren’t into ninjas anymore” 
I never said they are benevolent or evil, I just said I personally find them soulless. There is a big difference.
this is honestly, kinda sad
the fact that its kinda true - the fact that lego doesnt seem to care anymore
Me
I run LEGO
Well it’s kinda true.
But only kinda.
LEGO was started by one guy carving wooden toys as a way to make some cash on the side and put bread on the table. That business survived both world wars and two factory fires before eventually growing large enough to completely dominate the global market. They’ve nearly run aground during the very early 2000’s, but some timely arrangements with Lucasfilm and the development of BIONICLE pushed them out of bankruptcy.
Now, it’s the biggest toy company in the world. Obviously there’s going to be stigmas attached to that, and we can see some of them bleeding over into LEGO’s actual practices and approach to business. They’re not benevolent any more because they stopped being one guy making wooden trains and started being the largest toy market ever. It’s not fair to say they’re completely evil and irredeemable, but bank comes first and foremost, and I definitely wouldn’t consider them patron saints to the art of toy making.
They’ve sacrificed some morals in the past, which makes them no better than mattel or hasbro or any other major toy company. And no worse.
To be honest, I don’t say Lego has lost its soul, but its conscience has disappeared.
Oh dear, I used to complain that the G2 bionicle was too expensive, but now I’m freaked out to see the small Avengers Brick set cost $30.
Because even if thay do that, it will be sold.
If we don’t buy it, the series will be discontinued, and collectors buy it because they are desperate. It’s not good.
If a new bionicle is released, it’s going to be $40 per canister.
Even if they don’t pay for copyright.
Then they would say, “Oh, G3 wasn’t sold, so it was discontinued in a year!”
Oh, hasbro?
I was really disappointed with that company.
Rather, I will play with my country’s robot toy. It is cool, strong, and above all, it is cheap compared to its size. and even possible to combine them. even it each transform itself!