• SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml
    10·
    1 year ago

    When does the patent expire? I feel like Lego needs to become an open standard that had multiple competing suppliers (or at least something similar to Lego)

        • Phuntis@sopuli.xyzEnglish
          3·
          1 year ago

          yeah the trademark is a bit of a thing I do feel like that should probably be genericised as that’s just the name of the object at this point but not all lego alternatives are bad I’m pretty sure you can find good alternatives for a decent price I don’t know for certain as I’m not into lego but I highly doubt lego the company are the only company that make decent lego

          • SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml
            2·
            1 year ago

            There are Chinese companies that make ripoffs but it’s made of much cheaper plastic and the shape of the bricks is different (edges are rounded instead of right angles)

            • Phuntis@sopuli.xyzEnglish
              3·
              1 year ago

              yeah I’m not saying there aren’t bad ones but I’m sure if you looked you could find a midzone where they aren’t that cheap cause they use better materials and have higher quality but without the insane prices of lego the company

    • discodoubloon@kbin.social
      2·
      1 year ago

      Manufacturing them would be a really high bar. Someone would have to equip themselves to manufacture them and also chase the sponsorships that make it sell so well.

  • qyron@sopuli.xyz
    9·
    1 year ago

    LEGO was very affordable when I was a kid.

    There were the themed sets: race, fire patrol, police and some other mundane sets and it was enough. It was really enough and really fun as it was because the basic premise was to get the person started on discovering how to build anything with those basic plastic pieces.

    Then, at some point, you start to get the movie themed sets and the prices skyrocket.

    Any set related to Starwars, which implies Disney, is stupid expensive. The Harry Potter and Minecraft as well. Ninjago. And by extension, any LEGO set today is stupid expensive. The Technix line was always expensive but on that front I could understand.

    As we speak, in my country, there are retaillers importing from China construction brick sets that are as good as LEGO at a fraction of the price.

    I have two sets laying around, one of which is 600+ pieces that cost less than €15. The same money would get a very small LEGO set.

    As someone who grew playing and loving LEGO: fuck you, you sellouts.