Hasbro vs Lego

[sadowsk1]

I hear this mentioned time to time about Lego not coming straight out with minifigures of things like the Star Wars line and how they can't because of Hasbro. What is the deal with that?

[ncbarrett]

Hasbro has convinced Lucasfilm that LEGO minifigures are "action figures", which Hasbro has exclusive rights to produce.

[lukeskywalker]

I think lego needs to get a really good lawyer and convince lucasfilm the other way.

[sadowsk1]

That seems silly. I wonder if Hasbro is scared that minifigure popularity will slowly overtake action figures. I suppose Lego already has an edge since they only use a fraction of the materials and charge nearly as much.

[lukeskywalker]

That seems silly. I wonder if Hasbro is scared that minifigure popularity will slowly overtake action figures. I suppose Lego already has an edge since they only use a fraction of the materials and charge nearly as much.

That's probable considering that while a ton of kids are interested in lego, (at least that I know of) Not many like the hasbro figures.
Alsoo, If they didn't feel that lego was encroaching on their sales, Why would they care?

[vynsane]

I think, now that Hasbro has their own clone brand of inferior building sets, LEGO should disregard any contention of unfair competition Hasbro claims and start pumping out SW minifigs by the ton.

[sadowsk1]

I think, now that Hasbro has their own clone brand of inferior building sets, LEGO should disregard any contention of unfair competition Hasbro claims and start pumping out SW minifigs by the ton.

That's a good point. They really have a glaring double standard with their Kreo attempt. I don't know for how long it will hold water though because I think Kreo is going to be a short lived cloning attempt that may have hitched to the wrong wagon. I just found out the other day that Transformers 3 isn't in my local theatre anymore. Then again, I'm not too up on what movies are popular.

[legitimatealex]

Kreo is going to hit the dust really quickly. LEGO will continue to be around forever.

[Legobrandon]

Kreo is going to hit the dust really quickly. LEGO will continue to be around forever.

I wonder what would happen if LEGO hits the dust. What would the fans do? LOL

[Mantisking]

I wonder what would happen if LEGO hits the dust. What would the fans do? LOL

We had that discussion already, it wasn't pretty.

[gator06]

I wonder what would happen if LEGO hits the dust. What would the fans do? LOL

We had that discussion already, it wasn't pretty.

If lego hit the dust there would be some collectors or investors that would buy up the molds etc. and start making them again, I'd invest some cash in a company that did that... for dividend payments in LEGO. :)

[legohunter]

Hasbro has convinced Lucasfilm that LEGO minifigures are "action figures", which Hasbro has exclusive rights to produce.

IMO, Lego minifigures and Hasbro action figures are two different things in terms of playability and scalability. Hasbro was meaningless and childish to file this kind of complain, in which wasting the time. While they have time and effort to make this claim, why don't they spend their resource on making their product better?

I used to be an action figure collector; however, I didn't like Hasbro product. Their products were cheap and bad quality. Speaking of action figure, look at Mcfarlane, Hot toys, Sideshow, bandai, and some japanese toy makers, they were thousand time better than Hasbro.

Crying to the mom was all Hasbro could do. Hey, Lucasfilm could you change the diaper for Hasbro, couldn't you? Oh, my god. Give me a break.

P.S. No offense to all hasbro fans.

[sadowsk1]

Hasbro has convinced Lucasfilm that LEGO minifigures are "action figures", which Hasbro has exclusive rights to produce.

IMO, Lego minifigures and Hasbro action figures are two different things in terms of playability and scalability. Hasbro was meaningless and childish to file this kind of complain, in which wasting the time. While they have time and effort to make this claim, why don't they spend their resource on making their product better?

I would guess that it is because they knew they couldn't compete as easily.

[vynsane]

Speaking of action figure, look at Mcfarlane, Hot toys, Sideshow, bandai, and some japanese toy makers, they were thousand time better than Hasbro.

Not to derail this topic, but I have to interject that my brother and I amassed quite a few McFarlane toys when we were younger and most of them, while intricately detailed, were relatively not geared towards actual play. They were more like inaction figures, sculptures with minimal articulation, and a lot of them broke relatively easily.

[lukeskywalker]

Not to derail this topic, but I have to interject that my brother and I amassed quite a few McFarlane toys when we were younger and most of them, while intricately detailed, were relatively not geared towards actual play. They were more like inaction figures, sculptures with minimal articulation, and a lot of them broke relatively easily.

That's true, There's really two types of "action figures" The playable kind and the displayable kind. Lego is one of the brands that fit's into both categories(though they are more playable) I think that hasbro makes cheap figures, and lego makes quality ones. And that is why they hasbro is worried.

[smoreyjinza]

I really don't get why Hasbro is doing this. Their kre-o line is just a rip of Legos. Really, it feel like an unfair competitive technique only designed to hurt Lego.

[koromo]

Well I have abandoned adding to my Collection of Hasbro figures in favor of Lego. As prices on both went up plus the advent of Lego battlepacks (and the beginning of clonewars) I'd be more delighted to have a battle pack of 4 minifigures instead of maybe-maybe 2 bubblepack figures for the display shelf.

[sadowsk1]

I think Lego has more edge with the customizable environments that can be created to go along with minifigures. Action figure playsets and buildings are too rare. That was my experience back when I collected Star Wars action figures more seriously.

[ncbarrett]

I really don't get why Hasbro is doing this. Really, it feel like an unfair competitive technique only designed to hurt Lego.

I think it was
Maybe Hasbro knew LEGO was getting super hero license.

[sadowsk1]

I really don't get why Hasbro is doing this. Really, it feel like an unfair competitive technique only designed to hurt Lego.

I think it was
Maybe Hasbro knew LEGO was getting super hero license.

Maybe the super hero licenses through Marvel and DC are jumping ship from action figures to minifigures. I wonder what is more popular with children, the main target audience.