The LEGO Group is preparing to launch its latest £ 400 + set, we’ve drawn a line with another company that makes things you don’t need, but really want, and we’ve found they’re not that different.
They design and manufacture products that are sold in countless places around the world. Plus, they have their own target stores with a unique design language. Enter any branch and you will immediately feel at home. It is comfortable. Familiar. There are products willing to look, examine, touch. The staff are friendly and committed. For them it’s not just a job. I’m a fan of the products. Just like you.
Welcome to the Apple Store.
And elsewhere, perhaps in the nearest town or town, sometimes just a few doors from a faceless mall, there is another store that shares the same characteristics. While one Apple store is a temple of effortless elegance, a wood and glass design statement, the other store is a riot of primary colors. Primarily a bright, friendly shade of yellow, it’s like a children’s coloring book coming to life.
Welcome to the LEGO Store.
On paper, a line drawn between the two companies – one manufacturer of children’s toys (okay, toys) and the other manufacturer of high-end computer equipment – is a tenuous connection at best. But look a little closer and it gets a little louder, a little clearer. Both exist as large fish in large, competitive ponds. Both take pride in designing products that are not only “good enough”, but excellent. They innovate where others copy. And they both generate something akin to fanaticism in their target audience.
Have you ever found yourself outside a new branch of WHSmith, or Sainsbury’s, on opening day, sitting on the sidewalk from 5am, waiting for the store to open for the first time? I doubt it, and frankly if I am, then I’m just judging you right now. But if Apple or the LEGO Group opens a new store, arrive at 5am and you’ll likely find yourself surrounded by dozens, sometimes hundreds of others, all looking for that shared experience of “being there.” “.
In fact, the only difference between the two is that when a LEGO Store opens, the chatter is constant. There are few things a LEGO fan loves more than discussing LEGO with another fan. “What are you here to buy?” “What was your latest build? “What’s your favorite theme?” ” etc.
Opening an Apple store, on the other hand, tends to be a quieter affair. There are 200 people looking at their phones.
When it comes to products, fans – it seems wrong to call both groups ‘customers’ – tend to have a similar mindset about their favorite brands, namely, keep the faith. If you look at a typical Mac user, he is pretty sure his phone will be an iPhone and his tablet, if he has one, will be an iPad. There are many other compatible products, usually cheaper, but they won’t be on the limited list either.
And for LEGO fans, there may now be a proliferation of compatible “building systems”, but breathing their name, let alone suggesting that a LEGO collection could be tainted by such products, amounts to heresy. Other brands – I won’t name them here, but we all know what I mean – will be ridiculed on Internet forums and Facebook groups with a wink and smile on the writer’s face.
It’s just a little funny, they don’t really hate those other brick systems. How can you hate a toy? But I guarantee you that if you looked at their collection, they would just be 100% original LEGO elements. Sure, they’re laughing, but deep down they’re terribly serious.
Lately another parallel has emerged, that of the halo product. The astronomically priced object that captures the titles of the titles coming out of the world of fans and into the real world. You’d think the mobile phone was so ubiquitous nowadays (there are reports that 5.3 billion phones will be scrapped in 2022) that it wouldn’t be worth mentioning a new phone.
But the advertising campaign on the new iPhone 14 looks like the second on the way. And Apple knows full well that for every £ 1000+ phone launched, it’s bringing another group of newbies into the family, most of whom will be buying cases, cables, chargers and more. Yes sir, I can collect payment here – no need to queue.
Even the LEGO Group seems to be following this path. Not so long ago, news of a £ 250 + set was a once-a-year event, at most twice a year. The LEGO community would collectively pause to marvel and, above all, to discuss at length this new online offering. Which often generated enough buzz online for the media to post some “How does a LEGO set cost that much ???” titles. Did someone say free advertising? I don’t mind if we do.
These days, a £ 250 set barely raises an eyebrow, so the LEGO Group has raised the bar on their game – and their prices – and now £ 400 seems like the minimum price to cause the astonishment and outrage of the public community. (See Hulk Buster 76210.) And the more people talk about LEGO, the more they buy it. Maybe just a £ 20 set here or a £ 40 set there, but the LEGO Group will take it all day.
In fact, one of the few differences between the two brands is how people perceive their older products. In most cases, a LEGO set that has gone out of production will increase in value, as those who got lost the first time scour the secondary market to fill a gap in their collection. Aged Apple products, on the other hand, don’t seem to enjoy the same reverence.
A few years ago, I took a MacBook to an Apple store. It worked perfectly fine except for one glitch with the charging port. I explained the situation to an assistant and asked for a repair. He glanced at the laptop, then looked at me with the kind of pity reserved for those who use an Apple product that was almost five years. “Sorry, sir,” he said. “We don’t deal with vintage items.”
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