Lego Goes Back to the Basics: Building Blocks

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?"

Comments

Slashdot gets younger every day

[heironymouscoward]

Congratulations on news for nerds aged 3-7. I really agree that plastic blocks are the kind of thing I will come back to Slashdot for again.

Seriously, surely there are more interesting things happening out there than this?

Or, a terrifying though occurs, perhaps there are not?

I don't get the Slashdot fascination with Legos

[DesScorp]

I've never understood it. It's a child's toy, and more than that, a little child's toy. I'm 35, and when I have the urge to build something, oh, I build a computer or something. BECAUSE I'M 35 AND I DON'T PLAY WITH BLOCKS ANYMORE.

Seriously, come on. Get some circuit boards, some metal, and an arc welder. You're ADULTS now.

Playing with your kid is fine for Legos, but I'm talking about adults without kids playing with Legos. Eh, what the hell?

If you want to conceptualize something, get pencil and paper, some modeling clay, or a CAD program.

There are things from our childhoods that we've carried with us into adulthood because they've adapted. Comic books are a good example. They used to be for kids, but now they're written for a wider audience.

But blocks? I mean, model kits are fine. Model rockets, hey great, fun for the whole family. But building blocks?

Come on........