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Subject: 
Re: LEGO Beats Hasbro as World’s No. 2 Toymaker Amid Asia Sales Jump
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.mediawatch, lugnet.general, lugnet.lego
Date: 
Tue, 10 Sep 2013 07:08:04 GMT
Viewed: 
1126 times
  
LEGO was first introduced to Asia in 1962, when sales started in Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong. Sales started off very slowly, and remained so for a very long time.

One of my new chapters in my LEGO DVD download (free to current owners when the upgrades are available) describes the struggle that LEGO had in Japan. It wasn’t just a cost issue, it was also one of culture. Just like Japanese feeling that Japanese cars are superior to foreign built... the same culture happened with toys and other household goods.

When the Ahashi Corp. first imported LEGO from Denmark in 1962, sales were very poor. It wasn’t until the Fujisho Company took over in 1969 that sales improved somewhat, but that was partly due to the 1970 importation of OLO... a TLG produced half priced LEGO clone that almost exactly duplicated Minitalia of Italy. By 1978 sales were still not significant in Japan, and that was the year LEGO A/S (the overseas subsidiary of TLG) took over sales in Japan. It wasn’t until 1986 that a LEGO Dacta type set was introduced in Japan that sales started to increase, as toy stores were being deluged by parents of children who ordered a set thru their grade schools. A big part of the problem with LEGO sales in Asia was problems with the distribution network, and the reluctance of toy store owners to supply a foreign toy. (This is Deja Vu all over again of the 1955-56 scenario of Danish LEGO imported into Germany for the first time.)

It wasn’t until the new millenium that sales in Japan and elsewhere in Asia started increasing significantly. Today... although Japan is LEGOs leading market in Asia... other lesser countries (and China) are increasing sales... and that’s where sales increases this past year have left TLG in the #2 spot. Sales in Japan, USA and Europe have been somewhat flat by comparison.

The TLG Archives have very little information on LEGO sales in Asia in the early years... but I have had some contacts with Asian collectors that have helped me to expand on history of LEGO sets and parts from 1962 onward for my LEGO DVD download. There are some very interesting sets, parts and LEGO catalogs unique to the Asian market back then.

Cheers, Gary Istok



Message is in Reply To:
  LEGO Beats Hasbro as World’s No. 2 Toymaker Amid Asia Sales Jump
 
LEGO® Beats Hasbro as World’s No. 2 Toymaker Amid Asia Sales Jump By Christian Weinberg, Sept. 5, 2013 LEGO A/S, the Danish building-block maker, said first-half sales jumped 13 percent with the strongest growth in Asia amid a slower start to 2013 (...) (11 years ago, 5-Sep-13, to lugnet.mediawatch, lugnet.general, lugnet.lego, FTX)  

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