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Lego Goes Back to the Basics: Building Blocks

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the returning-to-basics dept.

Decaffeinated Jedi writes "Slashdot recently covered Lego's plan to stop producing its Mindstorms line in response to the Danish company's worst financial loss in history. While the original article linked focused primarily on Lego's plans to cease production on various toy lines, Yahoo News now has a follow-up article that looks in greater detail at Lego's plan for the future. 'We are returning to Lego's former concept,' says Lego owner and president Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen. 'We're going to focus on building bricks as our main product, concentrating on little kids' eagerness to assemble.' Kristiansen goes on to blame the company's financial woes on its attempt to follow trends rather than focusing on its more traditional products. In turn, the company's plan for 2004 will include a renewed marketing push for Lego bricks as opposed to licensed products like the Harry Potter and Star Wars lines. Toy researcher Joern Martin Steenhold also notes the following in the article: 'All research, including my own, shows that computer games and other electronic games take up only 20 to 30 percent of children's play time. Boys play with traditional toys up until the age of eight or 10, and it is in the zero to seven age range that Lego has its niche.' Zero to seven? What about the Slashdot crowd?"

6 of 717 comments (clear)

  1. Re:First Post by bad-badtz-maru · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Yeah, Walgreens is definitely hurting... sales up 18%, comps up 13%, no debt taken during expansion... looks like bankrupcy any day!!

  2. Re:First Post by AceCaseOR · · Score: 0, Offtopic
    Walgreens pharmacy did a similar thing. It seemed like suddenly every single corner had a Walgreens on it- everywhere you looked, another frickin Walgreens. Now, craploads of them have gone out of business, and the corner is left with a VERY cheap building. They didn't do themselves, or anyone else any good by over-expanding. (My old neighborhood had an awesome coffee shop that leased a corner building. Eventually, the landlord sold the corner lot, the coffee shop went out of business, and nice shiny new Walgreens was built. 2 years later, it is an empty building, where once my favorite coffee shop, with a fireplace even, stood.)

    Well, the rumors of Walgreen's death, then, are greatly exaggerated. Here in Oregon we've already had two new Walgreens open close to me. One in Sherwood, and one in Wilsonville, just a very short walk from my apartment. (Hmm, being a SCS, methinks I should put in an application)

    --
    Zagreus sits inside your head, Zagreus lives among the dead, Zagreus sees you in your bed and eats you in your sleep.
  3. Re:Walgreens overpopulation by Wavicle · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    They are performing a public service for the hopelessly addicted. If a junkie comes in and robs Walgreens of their Oxycontin, another junkie can't rob the same one to get his fix. However with two more stores in close proximity, as long as no more than three desperate users need a hit on any one night, they should be okay. You have to think of these things in terms of doing the greatest good.

    --
    Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army.
    Edward Everett (1794 - 1865)
  4. Re:Walgreens overpopulation by Afrosheen · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I'd consider that insightful if drugs is all Walgreens sold. Walgreens is the new Eckerd's. You can get everything from foot powder to lipstick, soda to shaving cream, paper to halloween costumes (depending on the season) from Walgreens. Americans value convenience, and having one in or near your neighborhood is very convenient.

    From where I sit, it's not half as bad as Starbucks. Within a mile of where I live in Dallas, I can go to 3 different Starbucks locations. 2 are stripmall storefronts, 1 is inside a grocery store. If you want to expand the radius to 2 miles, there are at least 4 more.

    Now if you say that there are too many Starbucks, reason being Americans are addicted to coffee, you might be onto something.

  5. Re:Damn kids by indros13 · · Score: 0, Offtopic
    I was a moderator on the game copying discussion where you asked about MS Flight Sim from the mid 80s, so I'm posting my response about copy protection here.

    There was a nifty program called Rawcopy floating around back in the day that solved many a backup problem with older games. I'm not sure if it still exists, though, as I certainly have found newer programs that are much more up-to-date.

    --
    Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.
  6. Fear not... by vaalrus · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    "Zero to seven? What about the Slashdot crowd?"

    I dunno, that seems to sum up the intellectual average of most posts... Slashdot is still firmly in the target niche. :)