From Jake McKee
In the last few days, I’ve seen much discussion, and recevied many questions about the future of the company. As you probably saw/heard, 2003 was a rough year for the LEGO Company, for a number of reasons. Kjeld has retaken the helm, and has said that we are returning to “our core”.
Rest assured, “our core” simply means our toy business. Which is to say, our toy product lines present and future.
Licenses
Harry Potter and Star Wars are NOT going away any time soon. Licenses are not going to stop, simply continue to improve. We have to take (and have taken) steps to ensure we manage the peaks and valleys that licensing brings with it (Movie years vs. non-movie years, for example). We are still going to be going after the top licenses with the right brand fit.
In fact, we have announced what I think is going to be a great license today:
Dora the Explorer
Mindstorms
Mindstorms is not going away, but may continue to evolve. Like all technology products, Mindstorms will continue to grow and improve as consumers gain new technology knowledge and technology itself continues to get better and smaller.
WWYM Line
Another fear I’ve heard is that the “What Will You Make?” line is going away. This is not true, and the 2003 product line showed great success and potential. Stay tuned for more great WWYM products in 2004!
More information will be forthcoming, as the changes progress.
Thanks!
Jake
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Jake McKee
Community Development Manager
LEGO Community Development
I'd like to thank Jake for letting us pass this along to everybody!
