DailyDirt: Modern Toys, Not Just For Boys

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Thu, Dec 22nd 2011 5:00pm — Michael Ho

There are a lot of new toys out for this holiday season. There's still some time to shop for some cool toys, and here are just a few examples of toys that are expanding their markets into other uses and demographics.

Lego topped $1 billion in sales in the US in 2010, but it's only now starting to seriously target girls who are 5yo and up. It won't just be pink plastic this time. [url]
Toy helicopters are becoming pretty advanced, so it's not too surprising to see added hacks to make them more useful. Spending $15,000 to modify an RC helicopter for professional videography goes way beyond most toy budgets, though. [url]
Normally, Nerf toys are pretty safe and squishy, but apparently, they can be used to extract teeth, too. Will it hurt? Not if used on already-loose primary teeth. [url]
To discover more interesting business-related content, check out what the deal is on StumbleUpon. [url]

By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

Filed Under: girls, helicopters, teeth, toys
Companies: lego, nerf

13 Comments

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Killercool (profile), 22 Dec 2011 @ 5:10pm

Gah. Lego.
I have accounted for entirely too large a portion of that $1 billion this year...
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- Michael Ho (profile), 22 Dec 2011 @ 5:21pm
  
  Re: Gah. Lego.
  For little plastic parts, I'm always surprised at how much Lego costs... I imagine that someday 3D printers might be able to eat Lego's lunch.
  
  Printing custom blocks would be cool, too.
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  - Lawrence D'Oliveiro, 22 Dec 2011 @ 5:51pm
    
    Re: Gah. Lego.
    Why expensive? Because there�s no competition. After over half a century in production, you�d think any relevant patents would have expired, and there should be a thriving third-party market for Lego-compatible bricks and other products by now. But there isn�t.
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    - Michael Ho (profile), 22 Dec 2011 @ 11:54pm
      
      Re: Re: Gah. Lego.
      Lawrence,
      
      There actually ARE blocks that compete with Lego... but a lot of people think the knockoffs don't stick together very well and are made from cheaper materials. I've seen some generic "interlocking plastic bricks" that didn't have quite the same quality of Lego, but I don't know if that's why they don't catch on at toy stores... Lego certainly has better branding and market share than any of its competitors.
      
      Here are just a few other bricks that work with Lego:
      Knex.com
      MegaBloks.com
      best-lock.com
      
      But you're right that the patents have expired for Lego (and Lego also failed in its attempt to trademark its brick designs):
      http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2008/11/eu-court-says-l/
      http://www.techdirt.com/articles/2 0100915/01140511024.shtml
      
      So hopefully, there will be more innovation in plastic brick based toys!
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      - Killercool (profile), 23 Dec 2011 @ 12:53am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Gah. Lego.
        That has been my experience.
        
        I remember about 6-8 years back, I had to destroy a Mega Bloks brick to separate it from a Lego baseplate. The softer plastic had deformed when connected.
        That may not be common, but it kinda destroyed any small chance of me purposely purchasing non-Lego bricks again.
        Well, that and, in my experience, the pieces don't even hold to their own brand bricks very well.
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    - RonKaminsky (profile), 23 Dec 2011 @ 2:08am
      
      Re: Re: Gah. Lego.
      (Partially) because, of course (this being Techdirt), Lego has been successfully impeding competitor's market penetration via litigation.
      
      Once it was technically difficult to manufacture interlocking plastic bricks to the necessary tolerances, but I think that's much less of a challenge now. Frankly I think that the most important factor is the brand recognition that Lego has (I suppose that's the analogue of CwF for physical products?).
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  - Anonymous Coward, 23 Dec 2011 @ 5:50am
    
    Re: Re: Gah. Lego.
    Do you mean something like these:
    http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:9713
    http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1005
    http://www.thingiver se.com/thing:11422
    http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:591
    http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5699
    
    ? ??
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    - Michael Ho (profile), 23 Dec 2011 @ 12:34pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: Gah. Lego.
      Those 3D printed lego-like bricks on Thingiverse are pretty cool, but the build quality of those bricks are clearly much lower than the injection-molded ones!
      
      But I'm sure 3D printers will just get better and better...
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      - Anonymous Coward, 23 Dec 2011 @ 2:16pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Gah. Lego.
        I agree. five years ago the ones I posted wouldn't even be possible, not they are. In a few years time, you won't be able to tell the difference. Technology always advances far faster then people believe it to.
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- Chuck Norris' Enemy (deceased) (profile), 23 Dec 2011 @ 6:31am
  
  Re: Gah. Lego.
  I figured we will probably end up with over 4,000 new LEGO pieces this Christmas. Gonna need a new laundry detergent tub from Sam's Club! I also thought of 3D printing your own LEGOs, as Michael said. They already have really good CAD files for LEGO building software. Once 3D printing becomes cheap and accurate enough to replicate LEGO's tolerances we should be able resurrect some of the old designs we had back when we were kids.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 23 Dec 2011 @ 7:18am
    
    Re: Re: Gah. Lego.
    I knew there was a reason I saved all our old blue-prints from the boxes.
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Spike (profile), 22 Dec 2011 @ 8:41pm

Yeah, because we all know an Align 700E Heli (no matter how modified), is a "toy helicopter".

I stand at least 20 feet away from mine the whole time the blades are spinning and for good reason.
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- ComputerAddict (profile), 23 Dec 2011 @ 7:41am
  
  Re:
  Boy is he gonna be said when the FAA tells him he can't sell the photos/video he is taking...
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