Since I saw this comment on all three versions of this post, care to elaborate on what makes Lego evil? (Outside of standard “capitalism bad” explanations, like have they actually done bad things?)
Outside of standard “capitalism bad” explanations, like have they actually done bad things?
I mean, there’s a difference in having to do some things because we so live in a capitalist society and that’s how our market economy works and exploiting the ever living shit out of the system.
Other companies make products and sell the, and to do that sustainable they have to sell stuff for money. They sometimes also have to protect their trademark with copyright laws and such.
Lego however goes beyond that. Put aside their sub par quality in comparison to their premium prices. Lego has in the past abused copyright and trademark law to bully smaller competitors, for example sue competitors for selling minifigures that do not look similar to Lego’s own, then had the german customs authority seize shipments to a store because that store has products by those competitors in stock even though the competitors already took out the minifigures for the european market. Also, Lego sued another, tiny store over it’s logo, because that store’s logo contained a brick (but was completely dissimilar to Lego’s own logo).
And Lego always tries to publicly justify such behavior with ‘concerns for customers’ safety’ while buying their parts from the same Chinese factories as most of their competitors.
I find that unethical enough to label them evil and not buy new Lego for my niece’s presents.
I can follow you on most of your comment here. But the quality of Lego bricks is far superior to any of their competitors. Find me any other plastic toy that was made 40 years ago and functions exactly as well today as it did then. Their bricks are rigorously tested and extremely consistent. And that quality does cost money.
the quality of Lego bricks is far superior to any of their competitors
That is flat out wrong. It was true a couple of years ago, but things have changed rapidly recently.
Lego’s quality has dropped quite a bit in the last 40 years, while some competitors have caught up and superseded. Sure, it’s still mostly pretty good, but things like brittle brown or the lime bionicle joints should be ample evidence that Lego is by far not infallible.
And if you look at the quality of current day bricks - Lego is having huge consistency issues, especially when it comes to certain colors, but also the bricks themselves. Running over the flat back of my Tudor Corner with a fingernail reveals inconsistencies in the width of regular bricks. Huge visible mold marks are everywhere. These issues were much less present 40 years ago, and high-quality competitors like Pantasy or Lumibricks are currently outcompeting Lego on basically every quality metric (except maybe glossy tile surfaces), at half the price.
Lego made 40 years ago is still good, Lego made today is worse or no better than some big competitors who have mostly caught up to the standard set by Lego, especially colour variance. Never mind the set designs themselves, they just don’t seem to know how to design good sets anymore. Look at the Lego technic Bugatti, it’s crap. Barely identifiable, stupid coloured parts, and shitty stickers in a supposedly premium set. Most of the Bluebrixx StarTrek sets used printed pieces instead of stickers, which you never get in Lego Star Wars, not even in the insanely expensive collectors editions.
Since I saw this comment on all three versions of this post, care to elaborate on what makes Lego evil? (Outside of standard “capitalism bad” explanations, like have they actually done bad things?)
I mean, there’s a difference in having to do some things because we so live in a capitalist society and that’s how our market economy works and exploiting the ever living shit out of the system.
Other companies make products and sell the, and to do that sustainable they have to sell stuff for money. They sometimes also have to protect their trademark with copyright laws and such.
Lego however goes beyond that. Put aside their sub par quality in comparison to their premium prices. Lego has in the past abused copyright and trademark law to bully smaller competitors, for example sue competitors for selling minifigures that do not look similar to Lego’s own, then had the german customs authority seize shipments to a store because that store has products by those competitors in stock even though the competitors already took out the minifigures for the european market. Also, Lego sued another, tiny store over it’s logo, because that store’s logo contained a brick (but was completely dissimilar to Lego’s own logo).
And Lego always tries to publicly justify such behavior with ‘concerns for customers’ safety’ while buying their parts from the same Chinese factories as most of their competitors.
I find that unethical enough to label them evil and not buy new Lego for my niece’s presents.
I can follow you on most of your comment here. But the quality of Lego bricks is far superior to any of their competitors. Find me any other plastic toy that was made 40 years ago and functions exactly as well today as it did then. Their bricks are rigorously tested and extremely consistent. And that quality does cost money.
That is flat out wrong. It was true a couple of years ago, but things have changed rapidly recently.
Lego’s quality has dropped quite a bit in the last 40 years, while some competitors have caught up and superseded. Sure, it’s still mostly pretty good, but things like brittle brown or the lime bionicle joints should be ample evidence that Lego is by far not infallible.
And if you look at the quality of current day bricks - Lego is having huge consistency issues, especially when it comes to certain colors, but also the bricks themselves. Running over the flat back of my Tudor Corner with a fingernail reveals inconsistencies in the width of regular bricks. Huge visible mold marks are everywhere. These issues were much less present 40 years ago, and high-quality competitors like Pantasy or Lumibricks are currently outcompeting Lego on basically every quality metric (except maybe glossy tile surfaces), at half the price.
I’m not talking about individual bricks but about the sets and what you get for your money.
Also, there are plenty of other brands with equally good bricks out there, like Bluebrixx.
Not as much as Lego wants you to believe.
Lego made 40 years ago is still good, Lego made today is worse or no better than some big competitors who have mostly caught up to the standard set by Lego, especially colour variance. Never mind the set designs themselves, they just don’t seem to know how to design good sets anymore. Look at the Lego technic Bugatti, it’s crap. Barely identifiable, stupid coloured parts, and shitty stickers in a supposedly premium set. Most of the Bluebrixx StarTrek sets used printed pieces instead of stickers, which you never get in Lego Star Wars, not even in the insanely expensive collectors editions.