The Lego Group's Worst Mistakes

[Hapori Tohu]

As Mattel moves to buy Mega brands in a desperate attempt to compete against the largest toy company in the world, it's good to take a look at how far our favorite toy company has come. There have been some great ideas on the subject of TLG's dark years, and Business Insider has compiled a good list of sets that nearly destroyed LEGO. I recommend giving it a read, particularly if you can't get enough of people talking down on Galidor. Nobody likes Galidor.

 

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[Obsessionist]

I really like Znap. I don't have much, just a couple of the motorized sets, but they are a ton of fun to play around with. The connections are sturdy and it's great for building very large frameworks for Technic models. I can see how terrible and idea Znap was, though...

[Art Vandelay]

I was thinking of commenting about Galidor just before I got to the last three words.

 

I've gotta say that Star Wars: Final Duel II was pretty darn horrible. It's one of the only bad sets I've ever had. I think I got it a party favor or something. I know it was intended as a small set, but they could have at least included more of the hallway...

 

[Gatanui]

There truly are a few things where you have to wonder what led LEGO to make them (I'm looking at you, Galidor). Glad those days are over.

 

-Gata

[Lyichir]

I don't hate Galidor so much as I think it was a poor concept for a Lego theme. As a standalone story, it had some big ideas held back by often mediocre acting, and wasn't the worst kids show on TV by any stretch of the imagination. And the sets were pretty good quality, with the ABS making them a great deal better than most other action figures on the market (at least those marketed at kids). But it was an expensive theme without an audience and didn't play well with other Lego parts, sets or themes. In the hands of a company like Hasbro or Mattel that maintains a variety of brands both strong and weak, Galidor might be remembered more fondly. But Lego is a company that does one thing and does it well, and Galidor was the farthest from that "thing" that the company has gotten.

[Aanchir]

The original Reddit post was really informative, and the article does a great job attaching pictures to the product names in that post so that people not familiar with those sets can get a sense of what they are. But it does make one mistake — while some of the Znap sets used Technic motors, none of them used the Micromotor, the one Mark is referring to in his post. That part appeared in just ten sets.

[~Shockwave~]

I don't think Galidor was terrible. Speaking just on the sets I used to have, they where actually kind of fun, but they didn't feel like Lego at all.

I agree with Lyichir. Hasbro or someone else might have been able to make it work.

[~garnira returns~]

Galidor was the first thing that came to my mind when I read the title.

[LordofBionicles]

Reading the book "Brick by Brick" I could learn of unsuccessful lines such as "LEGO Explore".

[J46 Nui]

I can hardly blame Lego for taking chances on these lines. After all, this site's and my favorite theme was quite a departure from what Lego usually makes, and it became one of Lego's biggest successes.

[northmarch]

Wow ive never even heard of Znap. My Lego knolage is not absolute!?

It's all kinda funny looking back now at these, um, things?

[Steve the Squid]

The article mentions twice that parts are incompatible with lego, which I assume was them completely misunderstanding mark; it said that scala used few bricks, and that the brick flowers that it had were incompatible, when they are of course completely compatible, arguably more so that normal lego studs, and those flowers are even still used today. Primo is of course compatible with lego/duplo as well, as explained here. There's even a wonderful but small and obscure theme of mocs called "primopunk".

 

this site's and my favorite theme was quite a departure from what Lego usually makes, and it became one of Lego's biggest successes.

Um, this site was not made by lego?

Edited March 19, 2014 by Steve the Squid

[Chro]

this site's and my favorite theme was quite a departure from what Lego usually makes, and it became one of Lego's biggest successes.

Um, this site was not made by lego?

I think he's referring to the topic of this site.

 

Which is, well, Lego.

 

Also, I know that I'm to blame for it, but the comic sans really isn't working.

[J46 Nui]

 

this site's and my favorite theme was quite a departure from what Lego usually makes, and it became one of Lego's biggest successes.

Um, this site was not made by lego?

I think he's referring to the topic of this site.

 

 

Yep, I was just referring to Bionicle and the constraction line in general.

[Makaru]

Nobody likes Galidor.

 

First of all, how dare you.

[tahukan]

 

Nobody likes Galidor.

 

First of all, how dare you.

 

A pat on the back to you my friend, Galidor was a fine set of sets no one should dare speak of it in this manner or else Gorm may come for thee

[Manducus]

Maybe ending Bionicle.

 

But I was pretty sad when they ended Exo-Force. So many questions left unanswered. My theory is that they all died by an asteroid.

[Brappy Hour]

"The company continued to grow the success of the massively popular Bionicle line"

 

Now that's what I like to hear/read.

[Steve the Squid]

 

this site's and my favorite theme was quite a departure from what Lego usually makes, and it became one of Lego's biggest successes.

Um, this site was not made by lego?

I think he's referring to the topic of this site.

 

Which is, well, Lego.

 

Also, I know that I'm to blame for it, but the comic sans really isn't working.

 

It's staying

[Aanchir]

The article mentions twice that parts are incompatible with lego, which I assume was them completely misunderstanding mark; it said that scala used few bricks, and that the brick flowers that it had were incompatible, when they are of course completely compatible, arguably more so that normal lego studs, and those flowers are even still used today. Primo is of course compatible with lego/duplo as well, as explained here. There's even a wonderful but small and obscure theme of mocs called "primopunk".

The article is not referring to the same flower as you're thinking of, I don't think. It sounds like you're referring to this. The article is referring to the actual studs on the Scala building plates, which were flower-shaped. See here. Each flower stud is the size of four LEGO System studs.

 

They are not COMPLETELY incompatible with regular LEGO studs — a 2x2 brick can fit on a single "flower" stud just as easily as it can fit on a single Duplo stud. But they still reduced the compatibility between basic LEGO and Scala building plates. Larger studs make sense for Duplo, which is aimed at young kids. Their manual dexterity is limited, and you don't want the parts to be choking hazards. But for older girls this reduction in intercompatibility is utterly pointless and a bit insulting.

 

The compatibility between LEGO and Primo is mostly incidental. Even the compatibility between Duplo and Primo was much less than the compatibility between Duplo and System. There has never been need for any "converter element" between System and Duplo. Duplo bricks fit on top of System studs just as easily as System bricks fit on top of Duplo studs. The Primo stud, in contrast, could not be attached to basic System OR Duplo bricks. It needed a special converter piece to do so.

 

Primo had more of an excuse for this incompatibility than Scala did, since there were legitimate safety and dexterity concerns for its audience, but the article is right that there was not a whole lot of money to be made off of building toys for a pre-Duplo audience, an extremely limited age range.

Edited March 19, 2014 by Aanchir: Rachira of Time

[Phovos]

Znap actually looks rather cool, but I probably wouldn't have bought it at the time, since K'Nex got to me first.