Chicken or the Egg: The LEGO® Group and the LEGO® Community Continue to Grow
For Fans of All Ages.
There was something for everyone at Builders’ Bash 2023 in St. Joseph Michigan. The show highlighted fan favorites including Pixar, Star Wars, comic book characters, and more alongside LEGO® planes, trains, and automobiles.
Nearly 300 banana LEGO® minifigures got in line to ride the giant roller coaster. Across the room people of all ages gathered around tables strewn with loose LEGO® building elements. Excited children pulled on the arms of their parents, pointed to buildings twice their height, and chased after model LEGO® trains.
Over the two-day public event around 2500 people of all ages visited the Silver Beach Carousel to see the 20 by 30 foot LEGO® city display, play with LEGO®, and gaze awestruck at builds highlighting characters from Pixar, Disney, Star Wars, comic books, and more.
“It was really fun to see all the kids light up when they looked at those,” said my wife Hannah Pruim, a recent Adult Fan of LEGO® (AFOL) convert.
Snuck in amongst the LEGO® City display, Hannah and I built a small one foot square dog park, packed full of LEGO® minifigs and dogs. It was our first time presenting our own creations with the West Michigan LEGO® Users Group (WMLUG) and was a fun contribution to the largest display ever put on by WMLUG. In the end, 26 full and aspiring members of WMLUG worked together to set up, display, and take down the event, over four days.
The growth of events like Builders’ Bash 2023 is just one example of how The LEGO® Group is growing rapidly, both in Denmark where it was founded and internationally in places like the United States.
The recent growth of The LEGO® Group, the parent company for all LEGO® sub brands, is not just about a line on the ledger of the world’s biggest toy manufacturer, it's about the LEGO® community at the local level and the strengthening of relationships.
A Success Around the World and For the World
2022 marked 90 years of play for The LEGO® Group. The successful company was founded in 1932 by a Danish carpenter. He combined the two Danish words “leg godt”, meaning “play well” into “LEGO®” and built a variety of toys under the brand. LEGO® bricks as we know them today began production in 1949 and in 1979 LEGO® introduced the current LEGO® minifigure design for the first time.
Today The LEGO® group is run by a grandson of the original founder and continues to outpace their competitors in the “building sets” market according to The Toy Association. The LEGO® Group's own annual results state that the revenue for the company grew 17% and that profit was up 5% in 2022. This is a monumental feat when after three years of record growth the toy market in the United States decreased by .2%.
The LEGO® Group has attributed their success to “momentum driven by large-scale investments in long-term strategic initiatives.” These initiatives included opening 155 new stores around the world in 2022, building new carbon-neutral factories in the United States and Vietnam, and beginning the transition from plastic to paper based packaging inside set boxes. The LEGO® Group also partnered with organizations such as Save the Children and UNICEF to “reach more than 9.8 million children and families in need.
You may begin to see other changes beyond paper packaging to the LEGO sets in your local toy isles as The LEGO® Group expands its efforts “to improve representation and remove gender stereotypes in its portfolio and marketing activity.” In 2021 The LEGO® Group released the “Everyone is Awesome” set to “celebrate the diversity of our fans and the world around us.” And in 2022 they introduced “differently abled characters” to both LEGO® and LEGO® Friends sets.
The Toy Association also pointed toward the strong performance of LEGO® Star Wars, ranking the theme in its top ten toy properties of 2022. BrickEconomy data shows that the theme has been in production since 1999 having produced 869 different sets with an average annual growth rate of 7.72%.
A Market for Second-Hand Parts
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BrikLink 〰️ BrickEconomy 〰️ BrickOwl 〰️ Brickset 〰️ Rebrickable 〰️
LEGO® crashes over itself as I try to see what’s at the bottom of bags, boxes, and bins. If I find something good I might ask my wife whether we should invest. My wife and I regularly spend our weekends searching thrift stores, rummaging at antique stores, and scrolling through listings on Facebook Marketplace.
As I write this my office is filled not just with sets, minifigs, and MOCs (My Own Creations) but also more than 30 lbs of miscellaneous used LEGO® my wife and I have gathered. The miscellaneous parts are waiting their turn to be sorted in search of valuable parts that can either be incorporated and shown off in future LEGO® builds or sold to continue funding the hobby.
The state of my office exemplifies a key factor in the growth of LEGO®, the creation of a second hand market for resale of LEGO® parts.
According to BrickEconomy no year has had less than a 4% average annual growth rate (CAGR) since BrickEconomy data begins in 1955. BrickEconomy is a site that provides economic analysis on the themes, subthemes, and release years of LEGO® products. It is a go to source for LEGO® investors and collectors to see what their collections are worth over time and compare current prices on key market places.
This market for used LEGO® began organically between members of the LEGO® community. As they ended up with parts they were never going to build with and pieces they didn’t know how to find. Today people continue the tradition by gathering for set drafts - a process by which many people buy the same set and then divide them by part so that they can get multiple rare parts they need and avoid accumulating parts they won’t use.
For those not gathering for set drafts, the growth of the internet has created many sites that serve as marketplaces for buying second-hand LEGO®.
The biggest online LEGO® marketplace is BrickLink, a site that allows people to buy and sell new and used LEGO elements. It is key in tracking recent sale prices for the LEGO® community and is typically used to determine the current value of any given LEGO® piece.
Bricklink has maintained its place in the community despite the growth of competitors such as BrickOwl, BrickSet, and Rebrickable, because of its Studio program that allows users to digitally design, and then order parts from Bricklink stores.
Studio was so successful that The LEGO® Group discontinued their own program LEGO® Digital Designer (LDD) tied to their new parts store and bought BrickLink in November of 2019 “to strengthen its connection with its adult fan base.” themes popularized in these ways include Classic Space originally according to Brickipedia.
The LEGO® Group has also put their hands on the scale through releases of updated or expanded sets from older themes and showcasing older LEGO® products in The LEGO® Movie and The LEGO® Movie 2. They released Blacktron in 1987 and Classic Castle started in 1978.
Among the updated sets, in 2022 LEGO® released Lion Knight’s Castle allowing adult fans to reimagine a classic for only $399. In 2023 Blacktron made a reappearance, continuing an ongoing trend.
LEGO® Invests in LEGO® Masters
Image sourced from here.
Convincing my wife that getting into LEGO® was a good idea, began with watching LEGO® Masters. At first she did it to hang out. But after a few seasons she was invested, trying to figure out building techniques and guessing what stunts the hosts would do next.
The LEGO® Masters TV franchise includes different versions of the show in different countries. The plethora of local shows allows LEGO® communities to see their best builders compete on television for the title of LEGO® Master.
The rise of LEGO® Masters shows hosted by celebrities like Will Arnett in the United States and Hamish Blake in Australia have provided new star power behind the franchise.
Inclusion of LEGO® community icons such as Ryan “Brickman” McKnight, the only LEGO® certified professional in the southern hemisphere, on the Australian show and LEGO® set designers Amy Corbett and Jamie Berard on the show in the United States has provided credibility and wide acceptance for long time fans.
Here in Grand Rapids we got to see Maria and Philip become LEGO® celebrities. Their presence on the LEGO® Masters show has inspired many local builders of all ages. They have also participated in local LEGO® events such as the opening of the Bricks & Minifigs store in Grand Rapids.
Resale Bricks & Mortar Stores Build Community
Original Photo.
When Julia Patersen and her husband Nathan moved to Grand Rapids they had one pressing question: “Where are the LEGO® stores?” Coming from a place that had five LEGO® stores and a thriving LEGO® community they felt that Grand Rapids needed a place for LEGO® fans of all ages to gather. On December 10, 2022 their dream became a reality when they opened Bricks & Minifigs Grand Rapids.
Starting a local owned Bricks & Minifigs franchise location wasn’t always a dream for Julia and Nathan. When the Petersens first started dating Nathan proposed they build LEGO® together. Julia was skeptical. “I was like, really? LEGO®, really?” says Julia. In the end they had so much fun building together that their collection began to expand.
As their collection expanded Julia noticed two things: first, they were buying parts online that they needed and second, they had parts they knew were “probably, something we’ll ever use in a build”. With these realizations Julia and Nathan decided to start selling online and fell in love with it.
As time passed Julia and Nathan began to envision having a brick and mortar store and looked into the Bricks & Minifigs franchise. “Everything was fantastic. We loved getting to know the company. We loved everything that they were about,” says Julia. Julia and Nathan’s enthusiasm for opening a store was met by enthusiastic fans like me who began promoting the store and connecting the dots of our local LEGO® community. The support from the LEGO® community blew Julia and Nathan away.
Today Julia says her role as store manager is to make sure that Bricks & Minifigs Grand Rapids is a really awesome environment for people. “Our goal is just to show off LEGO®, to give people a place to share what they've been building and just to be able to see each other's builds.”
“We've seen a couple of different trends emerge” says Julia, “we've definitely noticed that we engage a whole variety of different audiences.” Every age group is represented from people in their seventies and eighties looking for parts to three and four year olds buying LEGO® Minifigs.
As a new AFOL Hannah has really appreciated being able to visit the store often seeing that there is “a decent amount of women there that are also interested in LEGO® as a creative outlet.”
Julia finds it very fun to watch people of different age groups interact and she hopes that the Bricks & Minifigs Grand Rapids store will get community connections going. Because at the end of the day emphasizes Julia “we're about creativity, community and LEGO®.”
Bricks & Minifigs Grand Rapids is just one of several recent new franchisee stores. Since opening in 2010 and launching its first franchised stores in 2011, Bricks & Minifigs has grown to include more than 75 stores and planned locations Today. This is up from only 40 franchisee operations in 2021. According to official “Financial Performance Representations” with just 36 qualifying franchise units the Bricks & Minifigs brand made over $14.3 Million in 2021.
It is through the Bricks & Minifigs Grand Rapids store that I was introduced to my local LEGO® Users Group or LUG.
Have You Met Your Local LUG?
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many people rediscovered their love of LEGO®. Stuck at home with free time on their hands, they tipped their bricks to pass the time. More than just the pandemic says Jason Spears, WMLUG president, “the opening of Bricks & Minifigs stores in both Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids has really helped the hobby grow and AFOLs connect.”
LEGO® User Groups or as they are more commonly called --LUGs-- are a big deal in the LEGO® community. BrickLink has more than 80 LUGs with different statuses in its database. They provide a structure by which LEGO® fans can organize, learn more about LEGO®, and present their projects.
At the close of 2022 WMLUG held a meeting in the event room at Bricks & Minifigs Grand Rapids. The rapidly growing group elected a new Vice President and reviewed how the group operates and its relationship with The LEGO® Group. As a registered LEGO® Users Group (RLUG) WMLUG is required to host meetings, participate in public events, have a web presence, and provide space for a discussion group.
WMLUG was started by Jason Spears, David Kohram, and Lary Pienaizek in 2011. According to Spears they split amicably from the Michigan LEGO® User Group (MichLUG) on the east side of the state in order to have their own leadership, web presences, finances and club property. It also allowed them to enjoy the LEGO® hobby closer to where they lived on the westside of Michigan.
Today new members join WMLUG by attending a meeting and helping for at least two hours at a show. To remain in good standing they are required to continue attending at least one meeting and one show each year.
The unprecedented LEGO® display by WMLUG in St. Joseph was made possible due to recent growth in both interest and membership in the group. The WMLUG welcomed 20 new active members in the last year bringing official club membership to 59 people with many more working towards their membership requirements to be fulfilled at the upcoming club meeting in May.
Further Reading Recommendations
Check out this story from BrickSet where Amy and Jamie as they talk about the development of LEGO® Masters in the United States vs. Other Countries.
Checkout my portfolio post highlighting past work for Bricks & Minifigs Grand Rapids.
Disclaimer
I am an avid LEGO® fan who has participated in events on behalf of WMLUG throughout West Michigan. I have also worked on marketing for Bricks & Minifigs Grand Rapids. The conclusions of this report are my own and do not represent the official position of The LEGO® Group, Bricks & Minfigs, BrickLink, BrickEconomy or any of the other brands mentioned.
A version of this story was first written for COMM 522 at Calvin University as part of the Masters in Media and Strategic Communication program. Edits have since been made on the recommendations of course faculty.