Lego IKEA Bygglek – First Look | Hacker News Reader

Lego IKEA Bygglek – First Look

brickfinder.net

253 pointsrobin_reala133 comments

As for the set (and the LEGO economics that HN loves), 201 pieces for €14.99 is 7.45 eurocents per piece, which is lower than the average price per piece for all sets (around 11 cents per piece) but around the average price for this style of sets (which is around 6/7 cents per piece.) However, unlike most Bricks and More sets, this one includes two minifigures and some nifty window/door pieces.

I think the main issue with Brick sets is supply. My step-mum ran a toy store a few years ago, and Lego wouldn't sell her sets of bricks unless she bought several hundred pounds worth of the themed sets.

For some reason I feel really saddened by that. The management at Lego are the custodians of a significant cultural artifact. Really seems like they've lost their way.

LEGO went through a period of financial difficulty around the turn of the century. The pivot to more themed and licensed brand sets is one of the things credited to turning around the company. They still sell the basic stuff but they can’t survive on that alone.

I imagine video games have eaten up a lot of the market for traditional toys like Lego.

Probably, but Lego does have their own video games that do pretty well, and probably motivate some people to buy the real thing.

Helps that the Lego video games are all surprisingly very good - far better than the standard for most cash grab themed games

I can say exactly why I feel saddened by that. I miss the Lego that did things like this. http://www.whatitisisbeautiful.com/1981-lego-ad

In the US Lego won't supply toy shops that don't commit to $15,000 of orders annually.

That's what distributors are for?

I'm curious if that varies by region. I've seen stores that basically only sell the creative sets. Just not in the USA.

I love your math! My website [0] does literally only this calculation. I’m super excited about this collaboration between LEGO and IKEA.

[0] https://unitprice.org/lego

You can buy used sets on ebay even cheaper. They usually sell them by the kilo.

Without the guarantee that they are authentic LEGO. I find that the off-brand "compatible" pieces to be of significantly worse quality.

100% agree. A few have slipped into our collection, and they are very noticeable.

Buying the Creative sets [0] are a fairly cheap way to get brand new official Lego and build out your collection. 4 cents a piece isn’t too bad!

[0] https://unitprice.org/lego/sets/creative

Absolutely. You can also find great deals at thrift stores. But there’s nothing like having your kid open up a brand new set of Legos.

I’m getting ready to move to a new apartment this fall and I’ve also recently gotten back into Lego so this is a welcome surprise!

Storage has always been a pain point given the amount of LEGO you need to have to be able to freely model things.

Aside from this LEGO has been innovating in other areas. I absolutely love the new art pieces - they’ve got mini sets [1] and larger pieces [2] that are going to be used in my new home. They’re a little different from traditional LEGO use but I appreciate them branching out. They look expensive until you actually try to buy wall art for real and suddenly they’re a bargain.

There are lots of adults now with nostalgic LEGO memories and they seem to be doing a great job capitalizing on it.

[1] https://www.lego.com/en-us/themes/brick-sketches?icmp=LP-SHD...

[2] https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/andy-warhol-s-marilyn-mon...

i am still working on that storage problem. however i think transparent boxes are better for lego

look into hardware storage shelves

That's what we did. Transparent storage or drawers means you're constantly opening and closing, opening and closing. Instead we got this [1] hardware shelf. The bins are open to view so examining and storing requires no interaction with the bin itself. The bins also come off the rack, so you can grab 2-3 bins and move them to your play area.

[1] https://smile.amazon.com/Performance-Tool-W5193-Half-Storage...

i like this approach. we actually had something similar (of much cheaper quality) but the 2year old liked to pull the bins out and empty them, so that didn't work. need to wait until the kids are older, or find a childproof way to secure the bins.

could you elaborate that please? how does hardware storage look like?

do you mean, these tiny drawers for screws and elecric parts?

i am not sure that helps much. many parts are hard to categorize. you'll end up searching through many drawers. i think larger groupings that don't sort every part into a different drawer are better. i just haven't found the right kind of shelf for that.

I'm using this : https://www.amazon.com/Keter-17185073-KETER-boite-outils/dp/...

The little boxes come in different size and are removable from their enclosure. the boxes are -of course- stackable

how much do you get into that? we have more than 40kg of bricks to organize :-)

probably looking at something like it's shown in the first lego movie, but with larger drawers.

I use a bunch of these in Clear with the inserts they sell to divide them. I stacked my 10 drawers high, anything higher and you need to secure them to the wall. They're 1000X better than the cheap flimsy drawer systems at Target/Walmart.

https://reallyusefulproducts.co.uk/usa/html/onlineshop/rub/r...

You pay more for really useful boxes, but they're quality is top notch.

I have around half of Technics and I managed to sort and store all my sets with 3 boxes like that.

Next time I need an upgrade, I might just build similar larger boxes myself. The design is pretty good, the only improvement would be to adapt the bucket size to the lego parts length.

Yeah like tiny drawers. Or big drawers. however you like.

You could glue a couple example pieces to the face of the drawer to easily see what sort of parts are stored inside without searching. That way you can just look at your wall of drawers and see everything at once without lifting a finger.

What are LEGOs good for? They are good for explaining Graphical Linear Algebra:

https://graphicallinearalgebra.net/2015/04/29/dumbing-down-m...

Or in this absolutely mind blowing article showing different groups and classes of interfaces

https://www.designedbycave.co.uk/2020/LEGO-Interface-UX/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuisenaire_rods

"Modular arithmetic leading to group theory" can also lead to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyominoes:_Puzzles,_Patterns... , which is the book that made a lot of theory CS click for me.

(The Cuisenaire colours would make a nice alternative to resistor colours for low-bandwidth covert channels. I enjoyed one of the Aubrey/Maturin books in which the ballroom has been decorated with the following signal flags: http://tmg110.tripod.com/SigFl/sig-1.gif , encouraging the maritime wallflowers who could read them to "engage the enemy more closely.")

That's really adorable! I need to pick up that series again, and actually read it all the way through this time...

Less advanced, there was a few pdfs on the geometrical and arithmetical ratios used by lego pieces (including technics) that shed light on the brilliance and versatility of the product.

It's not this one but the spirit is there https://joncraton.org/media/files/UnofficialLEGOAdvancedBuil...

Also pointers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5NszbIerYc

After you learned about linear algebra you can use a LEGO scrumboard in the office as a lot of companies are already using them ;)

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=lego+scrumboard&ia=images&iax=imag...

Yes, these ones look nice: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/419327415295108149/

Danes and Swedes collaborating?

I am thinking the big motivation here is the tax-free booze on the ferry ride to meetings.

It's funny, the biggest Danish multinational (by some measure) is a company that lets people build stuff themselves, and so is the biggest Swedish multinational. Is this something in Scandinavian culture? Denmark is also overrepresented in software tooling, such as inventing C++ (Stroustrup), PHP (Lerdorf), Turbo Pascal and C# (Hejlsberg), Unity, etc.

Even Denmark's actual biggest corporation (by market cap), Maersk, became big by inventing modular, stackable shipping containers!

DIY is quite Swedish. Not uniqly Swedish, I can't comment on that, but historically (until end of the 80s especially), the income tax levels made it so expensive to pay someone else to do things such as paint your house, renovations of various kinds etc, that people either did it themselves, or paid someone to do it "without receipt". There was a tax reform around 1990, that put a more reasonable ceiling on taxes on labour, and later also additional tax exemptions for some renovation work, which turned a black economy more white. Today it is much more common to pay for home renovations, but I think a DIY culture remains.

To add to the software list:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lars_Bak_(computer_programmer)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Heinemeier_Hansson

The new Viking Age is upon us. Soon they will have all our yellow round 1x1.

Broen/Bron was just a warmup?

As long as its rooted in blocks, I'm all for it. If it becomes rooted in precast IKEA specific shapes, its no better or worse than the Star Wars branded trash. If it becomes dominant, and removes the impetus for non-directed play in blocks, its net-negative.

Lego now is not what it used to be. Minifigs changed it. If you want what lego used to be, Meccano or roblox or some of the other undirected play spaces may be better.

"Lego now is not what it used to be."

Of course not. If LEGO did not change they would be out of business right now.

Your comment is about nostalgia.

You can still buy the basic LEGO blocks. So why would you advice someone to use Meccano or Roblox? You can even buy LEGO Architecture Studio (set 21050) exactly for the reason you call 'non-directed play'. And all those blocks are still compatible with the 1970's blocks.

So in a way LEGO did not change at all.

>Your comment is about nostalgia.

Nostalgia is thrown out as some kind of accusation all too often, but (and this is a trivial observation) things can absolutely worsen with change/time too.

Just because LEGO "had to adapt" doesn't mean that (given some set of principles on might have about it) any adaptation is equally good or as good as what was before...

E.g. on such principle could be: "What is good is building stuff with blocks from imagination, not pre-made movie-based themes"

> Nostalgia is thrown out as some kind of accusation all too often,

Didn't read this as an accusation, simply a remark that the original comment was not necessarily about declining quality or compatibility (as proven by the comment you're responding to) but mostly that LEGO has changed its focus, making it different from what it used to be when we were younger, but not objectively better or worse.

I have always been fond of duplo blocks for this reason. They are totally undirected and up to the imagination. The resolution is too poor to really model what you want, so you have to dream instead. As a child my "tree house" was an 6x6 box on top of a 2x2 tower.

I wish this were true but the new stuff is just like Lego -- one-off shapes and special pieces, lots of decals and characters and animals.

It's still pretty great though!

Toolo is pretty good. Even if character personified, It is pretty good.

Kids are never going to be happy with just assembling the bricks into the Star Wars configuration outlined in the directions. Initially it's a challenge to put kits together according to the plans but once they're built any clever kid is going to mod them and eventually dismantle them and use the parts for something new entirely. That said, there are the Technics kits which have functional components that are largely useless outside of their intended configuration unless you have a massive amount of gears and spare pneumatic parts.

> That said, there are the Technics kits which have functional components that are largely useless outside of their intended configuration unless you have a massive amount of gears and spare pneumatic parts.

This series of books is a good antidote:

https://www.amazon.com/Klutz-Lego-Gadgets/dp/1338219634

What timeframe do you refer to as "what it used to be"?

I owned lego castles and spaceships sets even 30+ years ago.

I was a kid in the 90s so that's when I bought my Lego.

One specific example I can give is with the chassis for small cars. In the 90s they were fairly generic. They were obviously intended to make cars with but you could build any kind of car or boat or plane or spaceship using it as a base.

Now I'm buying Lego for my kid and the car chassis have integrated tyre pins and mudguards, so it's hard to put on e.g. monster truck wheels (won't fit) or build it into a boat/plane.

So while specialized pieces aren't new, they're so very single purpose now. Not every piece, but enough of them that it's problematic.

Lego sets intended for younger children tend to have more large, single purpose pieces. For example, [0] is a set intended for children as young as 4 and it has the single purpose car chassis pieces you mentioned. However, in the same City theme this set intended for 5+ year olds [1] has the same sort of generic chassis you remember. The city theme as a whole though does tend to have more single purpose pieces such as plane cockpits or boat hulls, but even then you can use the pieces to build new boats or planes. Furthermore, the Creator theme has no single purpose pieces for at all, those models are made completely out of generic pieces (not just bricks mind you, there are lots of slopes and other kinds of really useful pieces used). For example, [2] is a pirate ship made completely out of generic pieces that even has instructions to rebuild it into a Pirate inn or a skull island. If pirates aren't your fancy, how about a monster burger truck [3] or a twin rotor helicopter [4]? Again, no single purpose pieces in sight. Even the modern Star Wars sets tend to have mostly generic pieces and even the custom pieces made for the set tend to be things like windscreens that can be used for custom spaceships.

[0] https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/garage-center-60232

[1] https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/service-station-60257

[2] https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/pirate-ship-31109

[3] https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/monster-burger-truck-3110...

[4] https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/twin-rotor-helicopter-310...

Maybe that's what I've been experiencing. He's four and a half so mostly we've been buying slightly "younger" Lego I guess.

Those 3-in-1 sets really impressed me though! We've got two of them and as you say they come with instructions for several different ways of using the same pieces, and they're generic enough that you can build mostly anything.

We're definitely picking up more of those as both me, my dad, and my kid all like to just free-form build things most of the time. The creator pieces are actually really great because of the slopes and curved pieces that complement your ideas and help put the finishing touches on things.

Got it, thanks for taking time to explain.

I stopped playing with lego as a child around 1975. I've played with lego as a parent and inveterate fiddler ever since.

I freely admit by the time I stopped, Lego was well beyond blocks: fences, animals, plants, roofing elements, train elements, turntables, windows, car elements...

I think you're going too radical. I get that LEGO gradually shifted from pure blocks to more and more specific things for aesthetics (and sales), but even up to the 90s the main focus was functional blocks. It was still geometric in spirit and very free.

I had a spaceship in the late '80s which was full of custom pieces (like V shaped blue windows with yellow glass). Anecdotal I know, but still..

those were my gear (6685 :)

The weirdest and less reusable were hollow corners (for the V shaped windows) the oval feets. The rest was very generic.

I understand and agree with your sentiment, but just don't buy the uni-tasker type lego. They make plenty of sets where most if not all of the parts are general and can be used for undirected play.

You can repurpose a lot of the space and themed bits, and some of them are truly wonderful, the ones which functionally allow bump-to-bump placement.

And for lego fanatics you can buy specified unit-sizes in specified colours, so there is that.

We got a lot of themed play stuff, fences, trees, animals. I do recognize how much kids love themed play too.

Back in the 60s/70s I had the trainset, which included a "one noise forward two noise stop three noise backward" controller. There were two or more generations of the train motor: the one with rubber anti-slip on the wheels and the one without. depending on how much you enjoy crashes, either were useful...

IKEA press release [1] is clear

> The two brands have joined forces to create a playful storage solution called BYGGLEK

Finally useful box. I do not think it is possible to stack Lego Quatro on Lego Classic Box.

Lego is a tool. I've built a ton of brick characters like [2] for my 4 years old son, they are adorable. Minifigs stale clear emotions makes me uncomfortable, I try to think of it as theater, have not managed yet.

We have construction sets at home - Fischertechnik, Eitech Construction (like Meccano), Twickto, Tinkertoy. Lego vibrant colors and unique parts puts it in another category — design — together with Laq, Artec Blocks, play dough. And Lego Technic construction is an art [3].

[1] https://newsroom.inter.ikea.com/news/all/play--display-and-r...

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yktNo0O60-8

[3] JK Brickworks https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUaiGrBfRCaC6pL7ZnZjWbg

As with a lot of IKEA product names, this references what the product is: 'bygg' is 'build', and 'lek' is 'play'.

Lek also refers to LEGO which is short for danish leg godt (play well)

lek (Swedish) = leg (Danish), so lek is short for leg godt in the same sense play is short for play well ;)

It is also one of those cases where one word in English becomes two words in a different language. Play as in playing a video game, or chess, or something similar, is called "spela", while play as children do is called "leka".

This is an interesting pair, as both leke/lege/leka and spille/spela apparently comes from proto-Germanic, but via Norse (leikr) for the former and German (spelen/spielen) respectively.

Interestingly Old English apparently has "lac" which belongs to the former group, while "play" is also of Germanic origin, but derived from words implying moving about and being engaged in rather than directly from the more specific Germanic words for play.

When I looked it up I expected to see one of the more usual examples when there are pairs like this of one Norse/Germanic source and one imported and bastardised from latin or a romance language.

For anyone using this for actual modular storage, Everblock is also worth considering: https://www.everblocksystems.com/

It's remarkably well constructed. Here's some examples: https://www.everblocksystems.com/modular-furniture

Have you used them? What was your experience?

Yes, they did everything they claimed and they’re really sturdy, even without the rod that can be inserted in a hole in the center. The two downsides I know of are that shipping is relatively expensive (these blocks are the opposite of flat-pack..) and that the shelves can’t be placed right next to one another on the long edge. I wanted to use 2 6x48” shelves (https://www.everblocksystems.com/accessories/48-lintelshelf) as 1 12x48” and the current shelves don’t permit that. It appears to be possible but isn’t. Their team told me before I ordered. The team seems very committed.

I also recommended it for a large set of modular office walls/phone booths a few years ago. That company used it for years and was very happy.

For the right situation, I’d gladly buy it again.

Feels obvious in retrospect, because both brands have a pretty similar vibe (at least for me). I don't really get it, though – is this fundamentally different from a plain old Lego Starter Set, apart from the nicer box?

To me this looks more like LEGO Starter Set Classic, and actually appeals to me quite a bit more.

What's not to get?

Legos to me are bit more premium than Ikea. Ikea for the most part, with some exceptions, comes across as cheap and disposable —the opposite of Legos which have durability built in.

The main commonality may be the “design language” but not so much the engineering language. Ikea plastics are cheap and degrade rapidly (compared to Legos’s premium polymers).

>Ikea for the most part, with some exceptions, comes across as cheap and disposable

I wouldn't really call IKEA furniture "disposable". I've had my glass IKEA desk since like 2006 or something. And even though my MARKUS chair recently broke down, I did have it for 5+ years and I got it exchanged for a working one under warranty as it has one for 10 years.

I think most of my stuff is from IKEA and that pretty much all of it beats stuff from other stores at the same price range. My TV stand is quite nice and robust and only cost me like 120 euro. I only found really shit, low-quality alternatives for the same price where the doors didn't have any soft closing and there were no ready-made holes for cable management.

Almost my entire house is furnished with IKEA stuff, bought between 10-15 years ago, and I've so far never had to throw stuff away because of wear or breakage. It's not like any of it will be family heirlooms handed down through generations like really high end furniture easily can, but I can easily see most of it lasting another 10-20 years or more.

My couch has survived 10 years of my son treating it as a trampoline, for example. Last couple of years I've had to constantly try to get him to stop jumping onto it from a running start through the living room...

I thought this too until I started buying the solid wood IKEA furniture. That stuff will be with me for a long long time.

Solid solid or the finger jointed stuff glued together stuff —I’ve tried their pine and it was on the thin side. The solid solid stuff is as expensive as dedicated furniture stuff. They also have pretty veneered stuff but it’s not to my taste.

I can’t help with taste but Good furniture is expensive. I realised that when I bought my house and my dad gave me some wonderful pieces from his grandfather.

Not that ikea is an heirloom but good furniture is bought once and wears gracefully. The kids have put dings in the stuff but they’re just that. Dings. They’re not fake wood texture peeling to expose particleboard.

I encourage people to reconsider the value of good furniture.

I believe my kitchen table was bought at Ikea by my parents inlaw in the seventies... It's a solid build and has been moved many times over the years. The chipboard stuff often breaks when moving between homes.

Yes, we have a solid wood kitchen table from Ikea. It's well made, I expect it will outlast me.

> solid wood IKEA furniture

Interesting, got a list somewhere.

My new IDÅSEN powered stand up desk is quite sturdy, albeit with a considerable premium from ikea is fantastic. Since I’ll be WFH for awhile I thought it worthwhile.

The electronics and frame of IKEA's electronic standing desks are whitelabled products from Rol Ergo - so that's probably why it feels premium, as it's not made by IKEA :-)

https://www.rolergo.com/products/

I have feeling that the list of items made by IKEA is non-existant. Everything is done by subcontractors. I am saying this neutrally.

For example, I am buying some stuff specifically from IKEA, because: 1. They provide longer warranty 2. It's cheaper than the non-white label alternative (looking at you, Blum furniture fittings for example)

I need a super good reason why my next gas stove, oven and dishwasher are not from IKEA.

Well these are all European products, so yes if you are in the US it's probably cheaper to buy them from IKEA. In Europe you can get the non-IKEA branded version (their appliances are made by Electrolux AB, which has many brands such as AEG, Zanussi, etc) for cheaper from any home appliances store.

If you spend what you think is way too expensive for ikea furniture, that’s the stuff. I have a $400 ikea table that is basically bulletproof.

> comes across as cheap and disposable

I think they get a bit of a bad rep because, yes you can get a $10 MDF nightstand that will probably last a couple years... but once you stop scraping the bottom of the barrel, their mid-range and up stuff does complete really well on quality and price, especially if mid-century style aesthetics appeal to you...

> I think they get a bit of a bad rep because, yes you can get a $10 MDF nightstand that will probably last a couple years...

Their Lack coffee table is an iconic POS. It’s almost completely hollow but I’ve seen them last years and it doesn’t look that bad. It’s also really cheap so I’ve seen lots of hacks for it.

I think the hacking is where IKEA really shines. If you’re careful of what you buy, you can reconfigure, paint and chop up their furniture on the cheap and make it your own.

>Their Lack coffee table is an iconic POS. It’s almost completely hollow but I’ve seen them last years and it doesn’t look that bad. It’s also really cheap so I’ve seen lots of hacks for it.

I've had mine for several years and despite the top surface having some wear on it, it's just fine. Definitely a solid purchase considering it costs about as half as much as a takeout pizza.

Makes for a great play table for kids as well. We bought one and put a custom sticker of roads/trees/houses on it that the kids can play with toy cars on, or amend with additional lego houses/trees etc.

Such as the Lack Rack :) https://wiki.eth0.nl/index.php/LackRack

Yes their MDF is terrible, but also their plastics are inferior polymers that don’t age well. Some metal furnishings are sheet metal thin and lack structural rigidity/strength as well.

Obviously they make compromises to meet a price point, so given the price points of these products I believe they well lean heavily to the Ikea quality rather than Legos quality.

I would almost say if people have kids it’s maybe an option since they’d grow out of it, but then engineered wood would have lots of chemicals in them.

You get what you pay for, but not all their plastics are like that. For example, the few plastic parts used in the kitchens are quality plastics where needed. The metal used is the same, with some Blum parts and the material the cabinets are made out of is quite substantial.

That may be true, but most people go to Ikea for the cheap stuff, otherwise they would go to a "real" furniture store.

The problem is the “real” furniture with a decent design aesthetic and quality is 10x the cost.

The rest of “real” furniture shopping involves sifting though large volumes of future which are nearly as bad as ikea’s worst quality for some multiple of the price, or of decent quality with a “grandma’s house” look or cheap suburban look.

Reasonably priced, reasonably designed, furniture of reasonable quality is very hard to find.

Expensive furniture would own me, as in the value lost through worry about damage, time spent finding, or moving hassle outweighs the value gained with aesthetics, durability, and other quality.

Ikea furniture is often of questionable quality, but frequently of acceptable design and price such that i can’t find anything of middling price that i actually want. In other words, I want a $300 couch or a $3000 couch but can’t find or am not willing to spend any more time looking for something in between.

FWIW I got my couch at Costco for $1500 and it’s great. And comes with a lifetime warranty.

It really depends on the category.

If you're going to IKEA for a sofa, mattress, or coffee table -- yeah, it's going to be super-cheap stuff that doesn't last.

But IKEA's phenomenal at a whole range of other stuff that's just as high quality but far cheaper than elsewhere. Lighting/lamps, storage boxes, kitchenware, a lot of their chairs/stools, bathroom, and so on.

They're also really good for a lot of "basic" apartment pieces like bookshelves, dressers, storage cubes. A lot of people shop for those things at IKEA not for the price, but simply for the aesthetics.

People with a lot of money and good taste still often wind up buying a bunch of stuff at IKEA because it works well. Not for a nice wooden coffee table mind you, but a nice white media stand for sure.

I sold my Beddinge sofa after 7 years. You can replace the mattress and covers separately

IKEA mattresses have lasted fine for me - and they come with a 25 year warranty.

People who buy $100 couch are not the ones who's going to buy $3000 couch anyway, even if IKEA doesn't exist. They --- including me --- are not going to buy, period.

I just personally don't see a piece of furniture worthy of that much money.

Well someone's buying the more expensive stuff or Ikea would stop bothering.

My heart skipped a beat, thinking for a moment the possibilities of LEGO-like furniture. Oh well.

Something like this?: https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/this-life-size-leg...

That sounds uncomfortable.

easy to assemble, easy to move, modular, sturdy but lightweight furniture is my dream product. hope someone invents something like that!

Sounds like Kallax (nee Expedit)

Me, looking over the printed product images...

...is that a double-decker couch I see?

I got that reference!

√ I like shopping in IKEA

√ I like Lego

√ I like boxes..

Why now, and not thirty-plus years ago? I suspect this may be the result of some lengthy negotiation process.

IKEA could have brought in off-brand LEGO-compatible blocks years ago. It seems like a no-brainer. Any half decent dollar store in North America has them.

Maybe IKEA carrying off-brand LEGO-like blocks would have pissed off LEGO, who protect their brand quite vehemently.

So then if you want real LEGO(tm) blocks that are simultaneously IKEA-branded, you need a deal; and who knows how long that had been brewing.

Ikea seems to have a relatively new effort to do these kinds of collaboration.

The other one i’m aware of is with Teenage Engineering https://www.ikea.com/us/en/news/frekvens-limited-collection-...

They've also got a thing going on with Sonos, and the Ikea-branded Sonos-compatible speakers are the cheapest ones you can get for that ecosystem currently.

Wow this stuff is pretty neat. Shame it's not available everywhere.

Not available in IKEA, USA :(

TFA says October was the planned launch. This early release in Munich might be a test market thing.

It's getting more and more used as an embedded thing. Many times people showed ideas how to integrate legos for practical use (electronic cases, lego patterned strip to attach stuff). Quite fun

Ikea has been doing a lot of cool collaborations these days, with a wide variety of focuses. Its pretty cool to see and hopefully they produce enough so its not sold out everywhere on the first day.

That's pretty cool. Definitely would get younger me to stop groaning and sighing for the remainder of the shopping trip, it's unique, and the price seems reasonable.

forget that, where is the new mindstorms inventor 51515?

With so many lego collaborations, special sets, special parts, I kind of miss the days when lego was more simple and required more imagination.

Licensed sets saved them from bankruptcy, and now that they're healthily profitable again they've been releasing more "classic" sets like the Lego City, Lego Creator (and Creator Advanced), and Technics sets.

As someone who's been into Lego for life, and as a middle-aged parent who still regularly buys sets to build myself independent of the sets I buy for my kids, I'm more than happy for them to crank out the licensed sets (which I ignore) in exchange for them to still be here making those Creator/Technics ones for me.

>Licensed sets saved them from bankruptcy, //

Do you have a source on this?

Not doubting it, Lego is a good product with almost indefinite reuse, so it's not surprising if sales can't perpetually expand.

If we're to make it through the resource and energy crunch we're facing we need an economic system that allows entities to continue even when everything they make is made to last as long as possible - be repairable, reusable; heirloom grade.

> Do you have a source on this?

This is a late reply so you might not see it, but:

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/how-lego-made-a-huge-turn...

> The only reason Lego survived during this difficult time was due to the success of the Bionicle and “Star Wars” series. The first “Star Wars” Lego kits launched in 1999 and represented the company’s first foray into licensed series, many of which became integral to the company

Infographic showing the revenue curve before/after licensed sets were introduced:

https://www.wired.com/images_blogs/underwire/2024/01/in_lego...

There is a good documentary on Netflix and a different good one on HBOMax about lego. If you watch both there is some overlap and also different info in each one, but you get a pretty complete picture of why they do all the special sets.

The summary is that they almost went bankrupt and licensing basically saved them.

It’s interesting that you identified the documentaries by topic and where to find them, not by title. Is this the Google generation, or does it herald a return of the AOL keywords?

Or, in other words: What are the titles of those documentaries?

To be honest I wrote that because I couldn't remember the names and was too lazy to look it up. On Netflix it's The Toys that Made Us and on HBOMax its A Lego Brickumentary.

I really wish lego would create expansion packs for mindstorms. In mind, thats their most underrated set.

How is this not just spam for a new IKEA item?

hacker news is for topics that we might find interesting:

> On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.

> Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.

(from https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

this definitely falls into the former for me.

Receiving 42 comments so far supports that quite a few of us find it sufficiently interesting!

Finally a reasonable comment. I was looking for it thinking that I've gone crazy and it's only me who thinks there is not much to talk about an advertisement for an overpriced crap item. Most of those comments seem to be paid content as well as the original article.

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