Items 1 to 40 of 663 total Items 1 to 40 of 663 totalSANTA may leave some children disappointed this year, after one of the world’s most popular classic toy makers flagged a potential shortfall of stock ahead of the silly season.Lego said it may not be able to deliver all European orders in the run-up to Christmas due to strong demand, meaning some shoppers could face empty shelves.“When we get new orders we will face a challenge in some markets in Europe to ship those orders to the stores,” spokesman Roar Rude Trangbaek told AFP.“This comes on top of a first half of 2015 where we really outperformed our expectations for how sales would develop,” he said.All orders already placed by retailers would be delivered, he added.The privately held group declined to say which product ranges could be affected or how much of its annual revenue comes from the Christmas shopping season.Experts have flagged the possibility that the boost to toy’s popularity from the Lego Movie and its Star Wars range could be to blame for the stock shortage, Sky News reports.
About 60 per cent of Lego’s annual consumer sales typically are yet to be made at this time of the year, Trangbaek said.“We can’t guarantee that parents can go into any toy store and find specifically the product they are looking for. They may have to search another store before they can find it,” he said. The Billund-based group has outpaced the rest of the toy industry for several years, defying the rising popularity of electronic games.“If it were any other company, I would be quick to dismiss it as a marketing gimmick,” Sean McGowan, an analyst at US investment bank Oppenheimer, told AFP.Lego, whose brand was named the world’s most powerful this year in a survey by consultancy Brand Finance, doesn’t “’do’ insincere,” he argued.After posting “surprisingly strong” results in the second half of last year “it would have been genuinely prudent to expect demand to be possibly lower this year ... As it turns out, demand is very strong,” he said.The group plans to step up production by investing “significantly in factories in Mexico, Hungary and Denmark” until 2022, it said.“
We anticipate welcoming thousands of new employees to the group as we continue to expand our global presence,” chief financial officer John Goodwin said in a statement.Figures released in September showed that first-half revenue increased 23 per cent to 14.1 billion kroner ($A2.969 billion), putting the Danish company ahead of its US-based rivals Mattel — maker of Barbie — and Hasbro, whose products include the Transformers toy line.Net profit grew 31 per cent to 3.55 billion kroner, making it more profitable than its two competitors.The Lego City, Technic and Star Wars lines were among the most popular in the period, while new launches such as Jurassic World and the girl-focused Lego Elves “were received very positively,” the company said.Lego was founded in 1932 by carpenter Ole Kirk Kristiansen, who in 1934 gave it its current name, an abbreviation of the Danish words “leg godt”, meaning “play well”.Sign In or Create AccountAfter facing an international outcry over its refusal to sell its signature toy bricks to the Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei to create a series of politically sensitive artworks with them, the toy manufacturer Lego has reversed its policy on bulk orders.
According to the BBC, the international media furor caused by the dispute, heightened by Ai’s huge social media following, has prompted Lego’s sudden u-turn. The company has said it will no longer ask customers placing bulk orders what they want to use the toy bricks for. In October 2015, Ai revealed that the Danish company had refused to fulfill a bulk order of Lego bricks placed by his studio, and accused the company of turning down the order on political grounds. Ai suggested that the refusal was based on Lego protecting its commercial interests in China, after it emerged that the company had plans to build a Legoland theme park in Shanghai. 12) San Francisco – Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture, 2 Marina Boulevard at Buchanan Street, San Francisco, CA 94123, USA 13) Wellington – Pataka Art+Museum, Cnr Parumoana & Norrie Streets, Porirua, Wellington, Porirua City 5240, New Zealand. 14) Massachusetts – MASS MoCA (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art), MASS MoCA Way, North Adams, MA 01247, USA.
15) Sydney – Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery Road, The Domain, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia. 16) Toronto – Art Gallery of Ontario, 317 Dundas Street West, Toronto Ontario, Canada M5T 1G4 17) Los Angeles – The Museum of Contemporary Art, Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, 152 N Central Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90012, USA 18) Seattle – Asian Art Museum,1400 East Prospect Street, Seattle, WA, 98112. Jan. 2016 Lego announces on it’s website that as of January 1st, the Lego Group no longer asks for the thematic purpose when selling large quantities of Lego bricks for projects: “The LEGO Group has adjusted the guidelines for sales of Lego bricks in very large quantities. Previously, when asked to sell very large quantities of Lego bricks for projects, the Lego Group has asked about the thematic purpose of the project. This has been done, as the purpose of the Lego Group is to inspire children through creative play, not to actively support or endorse specific agendas of individuals or organizations.
However, those guidelines could result in misunderstandings or be perceived as inconsistent, and the Lego Group has therefore adjusted the guidelines for sales of Lego bricks in very large quantities. As of January 1st, the Lego Group no longer asks for the thematic purpose when selling large quantities of Lego bricks for projects. Instead, the customers will be asked to make it clear – if they intend to display their Lego creations in public – that the Lego Group does not support or endorse the specific projects.” A photo posted by Ai Weiwei (@aiww) on Jan 13, 2016 at 2:49am PST The artist wanted to use the toys to create portraits of notable political dissidents for a museum exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia. He took to Instagram to describe the incident as “an act of censorship and discrimination.” Lego insisted that it was its policy not to sell bricks with the purpose of making political statements. The artist made full use of his social media influence by Instagramming images of Lego bricks in a toilet and launching a highly publicized Lego brick donation campaign, with several collection points across the world.