One Brick To Rule Them All

[woodwardiocom]

Having already assimilated Star Wars, DC Comics, Spider-Man, Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, Frank Lloyd Wright, SpongeBob, Cars, Toy Story, Winnie The Pooh, Speed Racer, The Last Airbender, Ben 10, Indiana Jones, Mickey Mouse, and Prince of Persia, we can now eagerly anticipate Lord of the Rings Lego sets.

Comments

[bluegargantua]

Lego: Where you can build anything our carefully branded sets allow you to build.

:)
Tom

[woodwardiocom.livejournal.com]

You say something similar every time I post about Lego, Tom.

[bluegargantua]

Really?

Huh. Well, I do recognize the glass house I live in what with the Star Wars spaceships and SeaWorld Cargo Container Ship.

later
Tom

[ceo]

Even my 7-year-old knows that's nonsense.

[notthebuddha.livejournal.com]

Dude, did you never attempt to combine parts from more than one set?

[srakkt.livejournal.com]

This makes some sense, given the recent history of the brick, and litigation surrounding it.

Lego famously lost a trademark case around the design of the brick - and more importantly the size and shape of the studs - in (I think) 2007, leaving the field wide open for competitors to mass produce similar and compatible building bricks.

Their only real option then is to be more successful than their competitors at licensing properties to make construction toy kits for, which is why all the branding shenanigans. It's silly, but that's the stuff that keeps them afloat so that they can continue to release things like the Emerald Night train, and other truly beautiful but less popular kits which have no branding and thus are open for duplication by competitors.