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Comment by agumonkey | Hacker News Reader

They had no choice, the "univeral building blocks" patent ended not long ago, facing competition now, they had to find sustainable cash flow.

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The competition is terrible though. Have you tried assembling any other "compatible" building set?

The bricks aren't finished properly, some just pop off, and it all falls to bits easily.

I'd say the nearest competition to Lego is probably 60% the quality of Lego.

No I'm just telling what I read from an article a few years back when new brands started to pop in stores. I wonder if parents/kids may see the quality rightaway. LEGOs were an expensive gift in my days. If I was asking for more toys, I'm sure my parents would be tempted to buy a lower priced brand.

I grew up in India during the 90s when Lego had no proper establishment here. There was a very similar kit called 'mechanix' which I fondly remember to date. Would surely recommend still if can't find Lego or on budget.

Lego is expensive. As a former employee, I've heard this complaint many, many times. The thing that people don't realize (because hey, it's just plastic) is that Lego is really really high quality. Getting the right stickiness requires very high precision in those little bricks. Also, if like me you have Legos from your childhood you will probably notice that they last long.

The quality really cannot be understated, they last forever. When I was growing up, my brother and I had a mix of "modern" (early 90s) kits and my dad's legos he had growing up in 1950s and 60s Germany. Now my cousins' kids have inherited both and are mixing them with 2010s kits. The 50 year old blocks fit precisely with the blocks made in the past year, and when you throw them all in a bin together you can hardly tell the difference.

It's rare to think of a toy that you can play with as "heirloom quality," but I have no doubt my kids will inherit a portion of the family set when it becomes time, and their kids just might too.

I never believed this until I experienced it myself with my 4 year old. LEGOs are damn expensive but the competition simply just doesn't work.

Given how long ago it expired and how terrible the competition is I think Lego is the poster company for showing that execution quality is crucial.

That's weird, I read about it really not long ago. Maybe they tried to delay things through legal means. That said yes, the LEGO company put a lot of thinking in their 'toys'. I think it's also the way things were done in those days, now it's all ship often, ship cheap.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lego_Group

Heading 'trademarks and patents', the last patent expired in '89.

Aight, so I heard about the post 2000s lawsuits but didn't understand the grounds on which LEGO was able to sue.

Actually, it expired quite a while ago, in 1989.

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