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A Week Of High And Lows

It’s been an emotional week for the LEGO fan, as new releases are rivalled with some big announcements.


Shockingly enough, a week full of drama is not uncommon place in the LEGO fan world. Like any passion-led hobby it’s a hungry community that craves news and rumours, a hunger that often spills over into the fictitious and dramatic. However this week saw no self-creation as news came thick and fast to satisfy the hungriest of fans.

Last weeks announcement that saw Toys R Us become the latest high street name to enter administration, meant the week started with TRU stores across the country opening their doors for the final hurrah. Windows plastered with ‘everything must go’ posters highlighted this sad position for the brand and it’s thousands of employees, but in all truthfulness the writing had been on the wall for sometime. Despite it being a household name, you could easily debate that the franchise had failed to move with the times. Its oversized properties had stagnated; pricing wasn’t competitive and consumers would leave with a less than satisfactory store experience.

From a personal point of view in the last ten years the company had failed to modernise or innovate. Visits to stores failed to offer that intimate appeal that so often comes with a toyshop, the experience wasn’t there anymore, which gave no justification to pay more for a product I could buy cheaper from the comfort of my tablet. Don’t get me wrong I am an ardent supporter of the physical toy store and happy to pay retail providing I get the experience it can provide.  The irony of this sad tale is that the giant nature of Toys R Us played a prominent role in the demise of the independent toyshop and the experience. It swept all aside, promising to deliver an enhanced toyshop experience, but now leaves us with very little. Somewhere along the way the brands overwhelming size overshadowed the essence of what a toyshop should be, losing its USP and what should have been a loyal fan-base. However does this collapse mean we could see a revival of the independents? Watch this space.

New Releases

On a more positive note this was a great week for new releases and announcements of upcoming sets. Marvel fans felt the frenzy, as LEGO released six new sets plus an exclusive, direct to consumer set, the Hulkbuster – ultron edition containing 1363 pieces to celebrate the upcoming movie Avengers: Infinity War, which I was lucky enough to build live on LEGO Lab’s Youtube Channel in 1 hour 47 minutes – definitely one to try at home!   Marvel has been a consistent best seller for The LEGO Group and so the excitement surrounding these launches came as no surprise and the fact fans have been buying them in there droves is now certainly the norm. In all this excitement fans could be forgiven for perhaps not noticing that at the same time a whole new range of Speed Champions sets have also hit the shelves. Partnering up with Ford, Porsche and Ferrari once again LEGO are giving fans more opportunity to grow their collection of classic and high performance models. From a consumers point of view it’s been a great week for choice but tough on the old wallet, I am just glad the Solo movie sets were only announced this week and not released.

Annual report

The last big news from the week was the release of The LEGO group’s annual report. It certainly made for interesting reading as the report announced a decline in operating profit but saw healthy growth in developing regions. Highlights of the report included:
·      2017's best selling themes include City, NINJAGO, Creator and DUPLO.
·      The LEGO Group's revenue decreased by 7.0% in 2017 to DKK 35.0 billion against DKK 37.9 billion in 2016.
·      The LEGO Group's net profit for the year amounted to DKK 7.8 billion in 2017 against DKK 9.4 billion in 2016.
·      Revenue in China, saw double-digit growth in 2017.
·      Decline in revenue was driven in part by the clean-up of inventories across the value chain.
·      Global consumer sales were flat but trended upwards towards the end of 2017.
·      The number of full-time employees working for the LEGO Group at the end of 2017 was 17,534 compared with 19,061 at the end of 2016. Approximately 1400 staff members were made redundant, in accordance with LEGO's report for the first half of 2017.

I am of the opinion that such reports and figures can be interrupted in so many different ways and we shouldn’t lose focus that TLG are still the biggest and are operating on a large profit, they are certainly smart enough (as proven in the past) to react to the market accordingly.
Niels B. Christiansen, the LEGO Group CEO said: “2017 was a challenging year and overall we are not satisfied with the financial results. However, we ended the year in a better position. In December, consumer sales grew in seven of our 12 largest markets and we entered 2018 with healthier inventories. In 2018, we will stabilise the business and invest to build sustainable growth in the longer-term.
“During 2017, revenue in our established markets declined, primarily due to actions we took to clean up inventories. This decline impacted our operating profits. We also simplified and reduced the size of the organisation to meet current business requirements and these difficult actions are now complete. Our balance sheet, cash flow and profitability, remain sound.

Click here to see the full report: LEGO report

This article goes into further depth:

Quartz Obsession - LEGO


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The thrill of entering a toyshop, gazing upon racks of toys and drooling over new finds is an excitement that has stayed with me since childhood. Regardless of the reason for entering, I never fail to cover the entire floor space. Weaving through the packed racks and aisles pouring over all the latest collectibles like some sort of toy-hungry Indiana Jones on an adventure to find that missing treasure. It is an excitement that seems to increase as I gain a further appreciation of the pleasurable escape that these stores can bring. As a child ‘the toyshop visit’ was always offered up as a treat or reward and rarely planned in advance. I will never forget that excitement upon entering a store to discover a LEGO® set you had never seen before. As a child in the 80s there was no internet feeding you lists of releases and sneak peaks in advance, the whole experience was based on what the store had stocked. New arrivals were seemingly intermittent and always provided a surprise, packing