The entire Lego company is staffed by purists. I think the reason they took so long getting this done (despite being very higher-educated-Danish which means most employees are very environmentally-everything) is that they didn't manage to get it right until now.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm going to be very surprised if the quality is worse from this.
EDIT: translating this to finance terms: the Lego Group is still majority-owned by the founder's family. This is not your average public company which has to deal with constant shareholder pressure to make More Profit Right Now at the cost of future growth and sustainability. Lego knows that the only reason parents happily pay their obscene prices is because their minds go "well, ok, it's a fortune, but it's also very high-quality stuff". No other toy brand has this reputation. If they'd burn that, it would be the most stupid move in the company's history.
Legos Quality in the last decade has been on a steady decline to an absurd degree. Most of their sets now are substandard in part count, part quality, full of stickers and it's all star wars and other tie ins while the prices skyrocketed. Meanwhile the Competition has stepped up significantly and there are now multiple manufacturers selling lego compatible pieces and sets of equal or higher quality for significantly less.
I buy the occasional set for myself and then quite a few for my kids every year. I'm not seeing it myself, the quality seems as good as ever, and the designs better than ever. It's never been a cheap toy, and yeah prices have gone up as with everything.
I looked at them awhile ago while lamenting that Lego doesn't do a Star Trek line. But you can't tell me their designs are better. I watched the video of the 2 chaps going through the sets and they're just not things of beauty. Whereas I just put together the Lego Concorde and it looks, as much as possible, like the thing it's supposed to be.
Comparing an old police station with the modern one but at 3:57 Left side Modern Police Station 100€ with basically no parts, right side old station from the secondary market for 45€. It's literally twice the size and part count.
China cloning/being compatible with Lego isn't exactly a surprise, or I expect, particularly difficult (as they already manufacture plenty of plastic items in various quality/form).
>(despite being very higher-educated-Danish which means most employees are very environmentally-everything)
Sounds expensive. These academic purists are happy working in a factory, are they? Good for them! I always thought that housing costs there would be exorbitant, but I think I get it now. Legos must be what they build the houses from!
Solve one problem and you will probably need to solve another one. So I guess they live in the Lego houses, and they used what they learned to make a nice lil family business, selling high quality bricks made of oil to kids worldwide.
>I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm going to be very surprised if the quality is worse from this.
I have some bad news for you fam. "Biodegradable" means that they will dissolve in kid spit, and in landfills and especially when floating in the sea under sunny skies. Right now legos are one of the closest things we have to the One Ring, except that to get them melted down our Frodo would have to swim down to the subduction zones of the earth and deposit them into the mantle.
I know Greta is from Sweden, but surely there are no shortage of Danish 13 year olds who will furiously demand that a more environmentally friendly process for these toys be implemented. After all, you know the old quote right?
>God save us from the fury of the Northmen.
Purists be damned, call that presser and learn to compromise!
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm going to be very surprised if the quality is worse from this.
EDIT: translating this to finance terms: the Lego Group is still majority-owned by the founder's family. This is not your average public company which has to deal with constant shareholder pressure to make More Profit Right Now at the cost of future growth and sustainability. Lego knows that the only reason parents happily pay their obscene prices is because their minds go "well, ok, it's a fortune, but it's also very high-quality stuff". No other toy brand has this reputation. If they'd burn that, it would be the most stupid move in the company's history.