Potential Lego-Produced Lighting Kits

[MusiKyle]

Saw this over on Brickset this morning.  Apparently the boxes are empty and are to gauge interest.  It's interesting watching Lego these days, especially after buying BrickLink and wanting to better understand what the end-user wants.  Their research must be taking them to other aftermarket-type products such as lighting kits.  If they can be cost-competitive I see lighting kits making sense.  If I can get an equivalent kit for less elsewhere, I'm not sure I would buy the Lego brand store.  Essentially, someone else got to lighting kits first, Lego, how are you going to differentiate to make me want to buy it from you?  I suppose if do end up pursuing this direction, it would bring lighting functionality much earlier into the design phase so that lighting kits are available at the same time as the release of a set, getting them to market faster than the aftermarket producers of lighting kits.  Will be interesting to see how this plays out.

https://brickset.com/article/48887/lighting-kit-boxes-on-display-in-copenhagen

 

Edited February 13, 2020 by MusiKyle
Added pictures

[CosmicSpeed]

I have honestly never bought the lighting kits because I haven't done enough research to see how hard they are to install with the wiring. If Lego were to make it a seamless kit, I would totally be fine with them branding their own.

[odysea11]

It was a matter of time I suppose. Keep them reasonably priced and they will sell. I'd be willing to bet only a small percentage of the LEGO audience even know lights exist for sets...now that they can buy the set and the light kit in the same transaction, they will be a hit.
Now....make it so I can hook them to a central hub that is remote controlled so I can control my lights without opening and closing my cabinets....winner!

[KShine]

I don't want a bunch of wires running throughout my builds.

[Huskers1236]

Sign me up.  Every Creator Expert set at a minimum should have this option to upgrade the model.  Surely a company the size of Lego can streamline the process to bring costs down vs. the smaller companies that do this now.  The question will be whether Lego does this with their current catalog or if they go back and create these for sets that have already retired. My guess would be no, but maybe they surprise me if they go through with this.  

[Alpinemaps]

I'm in.

Actually, the first light kit I've ever bought arrives today, for the Palace Cinema.

I love the idea of "add-ons" like this.  I would prefer to have LEGO bricks, with the LED's integrated into the bricks, rather than some knock-off brick.  Instructions, quality - I assume it would be light years ahead if LEGO was behind it.  Add in ease of ordering, and it'd be a hit.

Cost is always the issue - I don't want to pay another 50% of the cost of the set, just to light it up.  Having a lit up Ecto-1 would be awesome.  But paying $30 on top of the $60 RRP is not.  So that will factor.

[jaisonline]

Just saw this article. 
 

 the light designs Lego are using might be from a company stolen from Brickstuff? 
 

https://medium.com/@brickstuff/lighting-the-lego-world-eff6e41e94d6

[Alpinemaps]

35 minutes ago, jaisonline said:

Just saw this article. 
 

 the light designs Lego are using might be from a company stolen from Brickstuff? 
 

https://medium.com/@brickstuff/lighting-the-lego-world-eff6e41e94d6

Yikes.

Well, first, if I were Brickstuff, I would have talked with a lawyer before posting that.  Maybe they did.  Maybe it doesn't matter.  But just in case.

Morally, I don't think this was the right thing for LEGO to do. But, we know that hasn't stopped LEGO in the past (*cough* Ghostbusters Firehouse *cough*).  Where Brickstuff is potentially screwed is not filing patents.  But even if they aren't screwed there, a lawyer to fight LEGO is going to cost them money.  Lots and lots of money.  And if they don't fight it, LEGO could turn around sue them.

[Shortbus311]

Just saw this article. 
 
 the light designs Lego are using might be from a company stolen from Brickstuff? 
 
https://medium.com/@brickstuff/lighting-the-lego-world-eff6e41e94d6

Interesting read... I am generally always on the side of small business over large corporations, but what did these people think would happen when they made the decision not to patent their designs? Even if it applied to only one country they could have registered it in the US and that would have prevented TLG from using their stuff or anyone who copied their stuff in the US without first reaching an agreement with Brickstuff.

[exracer327]

"Some estimates have put the potential market size for LEGO® lighting at $60–75 million annually. That’s no small potatoes."

Then why in the world did they NOT invest $10k / patent to protect their work?  There are so many stories like this that local investors come up with a great idea and do not protect their property.  I'm sad for them, but they best cut their losses now and be happy that LEGO deemed their product worthy of the LEGO name.

 

Edited February 14, 2020 by exracer327

[MusiKyle]

"We’ve always considered it better to invest in amazing new products than to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars we didn’t have on lawyers."

Edited February 14, 2020 by MusiKyle

[CosmicSpeed]

NEW AT 11: LEGO BUYS 3M BECAUSE KRAGGLE

[Alpinemaps]

Quote

LEGO has posted its own statement on the LEGO Ambassador Network:

“To clarify and hopefully reassure everyone here, those products are a concept test, it’s not something that will go into the market in that current state. We wanted to test if regular consumers find it appealing and used it as a conversation starter to figure out if and how consumers see lights fit as part of the LEGO experience. We spoke about quality, price, building experience, etc. From that to having an actual product in the market there’s still a long path, so it doesn’t mean there’s going to be a product out ‘tomorrow’. Especially on the toy safety compliance there are things that need to be in place beforehand.

“We’ve also been engaging with many lead users that do lights, for finding potential pilot candidates, and we had dialogues with quite a lot of them. We continue to evaluate how to best engage in a potential pilot. I want to reassure everyone here that in Lead User Lab we have the very best intentions when it comes to collaborating. We’ll try to have a close dialogue with Rob and solve any potential misunderstandings.

“In the meantime, we’ll continue to evaluate the light product concept testing at LEGO World and to understand how a light kit product could be brought to market in collaboration with a lead user, since that’s what Lead User Lab is all about, finding and trying to scale outside-in ideas.”

via Brickset