Yet Another Frustrated Rant

Recently I have felt terribly disenfranchised. I followed the lead of the higher ups; forgave them for their departures from their core principles; faithfully endorsed their ventures; eagerly anticipated their dicta; answering their questions and reading their publications, not complaining about their ever increasing cost....

I am, of course, referring to the Lego company.

If you know me well at all, you will know that I am a die hard Lego fan. I love my Legos.
In more recent years though I have seen a steady and increasing disparity between my hopes and expectations and the delivered product. In short, I feel that Lego is losing its spark. In an attempt to become more marketable and profitable they have departed from what was, in my opinion, mind you, their greatest appeal, that Legos are what you make them to be. You do not need some sort of convoluted plot line about ninjas with super natural elemental spinning powers. The Lego sets are ultimately meant to be taken apart and reconfigured into the creations of your mind; zany starships, massive castles, obscure architecture, or maybe just a quiet little town. (Soon to be destroyed by aliens mind you.)

Lego's strategy is brilliant though. Create a storyline revolving around a dozen or so sets then sell them as a progressing story that you can partake of if only you would purchase all those sets. The plan is perfectly keyed towards those who lack imagination.

I have followed Lego for many years, and I believe that I have pinpointed the dock and vessel of this sad departure.

The year was 2000, the world of Lego consisted of very few genres, Star Wars Legos had just hit the scene, the Pirates were gone, Johnny Thunder was raiding tombs, the Bull knights were threatening the Kingdom, City Legos were prevalent. All of these groups and none of them really had a story to speak of, there were bad guys and good guys and adventures, everything else was up to you. Then, on December 30th, the Legos company released its new highly anticipated series.... "Bionicle" was highly successful. Featuring named elementally supercharged heroes and a flashy comic book series, the Bionicle franchise went on to have over eight re-inventions over the next ten years, and still lives on under another name.

Of course it wasn't an overnight change and perhaps I'm too critical, I loved Bionicle up until it had been going for over five years, then I got frustrated with it. However, after Bionicle's creation, the nature of Lego genres began to morph. Overtime it came to be that everything was a gimmick, everything had special powers or special abilities. The stories no longer consisted of the classic cops and robbers kind of set up. Legos started to be less about what you could build on your own and more about what you could build if you would only buy all of the sets.

Now, earlier I mentioned prices. I realize it is more economic reality than it is anything else. Legos are made out of plastic, plastic means oil, oil prices go up the cost of plastic goes up and Legos are more expensive to manufacture, not to mention the increase in prices for the shipping of the Legos from where they are made.

As well as this there is inflation. A weakening dollar which makes it more expensive to run their business forces Lego to place some of that cost on the consumer. There is of course also an element of profit in this equation. Lego is more popular than ever and they are able to charge what they do because of their company's strong name, people know that Legos are a high quality product, and the children don't care how much it costs... just as long as they get their Legos.

I used to have a very accurate rating system, Legos were an .8:10 ratio, for eighty cents you received ten Lego pieces. Then it increased to a 1:10, every dollar was ten Lego pieces. And now, more recently, the ratio has been 1.2:10 and the price keeps rising. It seems every time I enter a store the price of Legos has gone up. Even the used Lego market on Ebay is steep.

I still love Legos, and I still go to the Lego aisle and look at the sets there on the off chance that there will be something that I want, but there never is and every two months the salt is rubbed into the wounds by the Lego magazine whichs always reveals Lego's next big story genre.

I am disenfranchised, torn by my life long love of Legos and my ever increasing cynicism concerning the future of the brand for which I used to save my every penny.
That's all, I'm done now. Sigh....