
Lego IKEA Bygglek – First Look - robin_reala
http://www.brickfinder.net/2020/07/11/lego-ikea-bygglek-first-look/
======
owenversteeg
As for the set (and the LEGO economics that HN loves), 201 pieces for €14.99
is 7.45 eurocents per piece, which is lower than the average price per piece
for all sets (around 11 cents per piece) but around the average price for this
style of sets (which is around 6/7 cents per piece.) However, unlike most
Bricks and More sets, this one includes two minifigures and some nifty
window/door pieces.

~~~
nicoburns
I think the main issue with Brick sets is supply. My step-mum ran a toy store
a few years ago, and Lego wouldn't sell her sets of bricks unless she bought
several hundred pounds worth of the themed sets.

~~~
afandian
For some reason I feel really saddened by that. The management at Lego are the
custodians of a significant cultural artifact. Really seems like they've lost
their way.

~~~
pmorici
LEGO went through a period of financial difficulty around the turn of the
century. The pivot to more themed and licensed brand sets is one of the things
credited to turning around the company. They still sell the basic stuff but
they can’t survive on that alone.

~~~
strig
I imagine video games have eaten up a lot of the market for traditional toys
like Lego.

~~~
burkaman
Probably, but Lego does have their own video games that do pretty well, and
probably motivate some people to buy the real thing.

~~~
puranjay
Helps that the Lego video games are all surprisingly very good - far better
than the standard for most cash grab themed games

------
nxc18
I’m getting ready to move to a new apartment this fall and I’ve also recently
gotten back into Lego so this is a welcome surprise!

Storage has always been a pain point given the amount of LEGO you need to have
to be able to freely model things.

Aside from this LEGO has been innovating in other areas. I absolutely love the
new art pieces - they’ve got mini sets [1] and larger pieces [2] that are
going to be used in my new home. They’re a little different from traditional
LEGO use but I appreciate them branching out. They look expensive until you
actually try to buy wall art for real and suddenly they’re a bargain.

There are lots of adults now with nostalgic LEGO memories and they seem to be
doing a great job capitalizing on it.

[1] [https://www.lego.com/en-us/themes/brick-sketches?icmp=LP-
SHD...](https://www.lego.com/en-us/themes/brick-sketches?icmp=LP-SHD-Standard-
MT_DIsruptor_Brick_Sketches_Star_Wars_lifestyle-TH-MT-HJWHURE7YT)

[2] [https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/andy-warhol-s-marilyn-
mon...](https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/andy-warhol-s-marilyn-monroe-31197)

~~~
em-bee
i am still working on that storage problem. however i think transparent boxes
are better for lego

~~~
asdff
look into hardware storage shelves

~~~
em-bee
could you elaborate that please? how does hardware storage look like?

do you mean, these tiny drawers for screws and elecric parts?

i am not sure that helps much. many parts are hard to categorize. you'll end
up searching through many drawers. i think larger groupings that don't sort
every part into a different drawer are better. i just haven't found the right
kind of shelf for that.

~~~
Fiahil
I'm using this : [https://www.amazon.com/Keter-17185073-KETER-boite-
outils/dp/...](https://www.amazon.com/Keter-17185073-KETER-boite-
outils/dp/B003NUIUEW)

The little boxes come in different size and are removable from their
enclosure. the boxes are -of course- stackable

~~~
em-bee
how much do you get into that? we have more than 40kg of bricks to organize
:-)

probably looking at something like it's shown in the first lego movie, but
with larger drawers.

~~~
ganoushoreilly
I use a bunch of these in Clear with the inserts they sell to divide them. I
stacked my 10 drawers high, anything higher and you need to secure them to the
wall. They're 1000X better than the cheap flimsy drawer systems at
Target/Walmart.

[https://reallyusefulproducts.co.uk/usa/html/onlineshop/rub/r...](https://reallyusefulproducts.co.uk/usa/html/onlineshop/rub/rScrap09x9_5lDrawerTower.php)

You pay more for really useful boxes, but they're quality is top notch.

------
galaxyLogic
What are LEGOs good for? They are good for explaining Graphical Linear
Algebra:

[https://graphicallinearalgebra.net/2015/04/29/dumbing-
down-m...](https://graphicallinearalgebra.net/2015/04/29/dumbing-down-magic-
lego-and-the-rules-of-the-game-part-1/)

~~~
ggm
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuisenaire_rods](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuisenaire_rods)

~~~
082349872349872
"Modular arithmetic leading to group theory" can also lead to
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyominoes:_Puzzles,_Patterns...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyominoes:_Puzzles,_Patterns,_Problems,_and_Packings)
, which is the book that made a lot of theory CS click for me.

(The Cuisenaire colours would make a nice alternative to resistor colours for
low-bandwidth covert channels. I enjoyed one of the Aubrey/Maturin books in
which the ballroom has been decorated with the following signal flags:
[http://tmg110.tripod.com/SigFl/sig-1.gif](http://tmg110.tripod.com/SigFl/sig-1.gif)
, encouraging the maritime wallflowers who could read them to "engage the
enemy more closely.")

~~~
throwanem
That's really adorable! I need to pick up that series again, and actually read
it all the way through this time...

------
dbcurtis
Danes and Swedes collaborating?

I am thinking the big motivation here is the tax-free booze on the ferry ride
to meetings.

~~~
johnyzee
It's funny, the biggest Danish multinational (by some measure) is a company
that lets people build stuff themselves, and so is the biggest Swedish
multinational. Is this something in Scandinavian culture? Denmark is also
overrepresented in software tooling, such as inventing C++ (Stroustrup), PHP
(Lerdorf), Turbo Pascal and C# (Hejlsberg), Unity, etc.

Even Denmark's actual biggest corporation (by market cap), Maersk, became big
by inventing modular, stackable shipping containers!

~~~
mongol
DIY is quite Swedish. Not uniqly Swedish, I can't comment on that, but
historically (until end of the 80s especially), the income tax levels made it
so expensive to pay someone else to do things such as paint your house,
renovations of various kinds etc, that people either did it themselves, or
paid someone to do it "without receipt". There was a tax reform around 1990,
that put a more reasonable ceiling on taxes on labour, and later also
additional tax exemptions for some renovation work, which turned a black
economy more white. Today it is much more common to pay for home renovations,
but I think a DIY culture remains.

------
ggm
As long as its rooted in blocks, I'm all for it. If it becomes rooted in
precast IKEA specific shapes, its no better or worse than the Star Wars
branded trash. If it becomes dominant, and removes the impetus for non-
directed play in blocks, its net-negative.

Lego now is not what it used to be. Minifigs changed it. If you want what lego
used to be, Meccano or roblox or some of the other undirected play spaces may
be better.

~~~
Cerium
I have always been fond of duplo blocks for this reason. They are totally
undirected and up to the imagination. The resolution is too poor to really
model what you want, so you have to dream instead. As a child my "tree house"
was an 6x6 box on top of a 2x2 tower.

~~~
xyzzy_plugh
I wish this were true but the new stuff is just like Lego -- one-off shapes
and special pieces, lots of decals and characters and animals.

It's still pretty great though!

------
vidarh
As with a lot of IKEA product names, this references what the product is:
'bygg' is 'build', and 'lek' is 'play'.

~~~
legulere
Lek also refers to LEGO which is short for danish leg godt (play well)

~~~
jo-m
lek (Swedish) = leg (Danish), so lek is short for leg godt in the same sense
play is short for play well ;)

------
troydavis
For anyone using this for actual modular storage, Everblock is also worth
considering:
[https://www.everblocksystems.com/](https://www.everblocksystems.com/)

It's remarkably well constructed. Here's some examples:
[https://www.everblocksystems.com/modular-
furniture](https://www.everblocksystems.com/modular-furniture)

~~~
mrfusion
Have you used them? What was your experience?

~~~
troydavis
Yes, they did everything they claimed and they’re really sturdy, even without
the rod that can be inserted in a hole in the center. The two downsides I know
of are that shipping is relatively expensive (these blocks are the opposite of
flat-pack..) and that the shelves can’t be placed right next to one another on
the long edge. I wanted to use 2 6x48” shelves
([https://www.everblocksystems.com/accessories/48-lintelshelf](https://www.everblocksystems.com/accessories/48-lintelshelf))
as 1 12x48” and the current shelves don’t permit that. It appears to be
possible but isn’t. Their team told me before I ordered. The team seems very
committed.

I also recommended it for a large set of modular office walls/phone booths a
few years ago. That company used it for years and was very happy.

For the right situation, I’d gladly buy it again.

------
dividedbyzero
Feels obvious in retrospect, because both brands have a pretty similar vibe
(at least for me). I don't really get it, though – is this fundamentally
different from a plain old Lego Starter Set, apart from the nicer box?

~~~
mc32
Legos to me are bit more premium than Ikea. Ikea for the most part, with some
exceptions, comes across as cheap and disposable —the opposite of Legos which
have durability built in.

The main commonality may be the “design language” but not so much the
engineering language. Ikea plastics are cheap and degrade rapidly (compared to
Legos’s premium polymers).

~~~
Waterluvian
I thought this too until I started buying the solid wood IKEA furniture. That
stuff will be with me for a long long time.

~~~
WrtCdEvrydy
> solid wood IKEA furniture

Interesting, got a list somewhere.

~~~
techdevangelist
My new IDÅSEN powered stand up desk is quite sturdy, albeit with a
considerable premium from ikea is fantastic. Since I’ll be WFH for awhile I
thought it worthwhile.

~~~
fyfy18
The electronics and frame of IKEA's electronic standing desks are whitelabled
products from Rol Ergo - so that's probably why it feels premium, as it's not
made by IKEA :-)

[https://www.rolergo.com/products/](https://www.rolergo.com/products/)

~~~
ratiolat
I have feeling that the list of items made by IKEA is non-existant. Everything
is done by subcontractors. I am saying this neutrally.

For example, I am buying some stuff specifically from IKEA, because: 1\. They
provide longer warranty 2\. It's cheaper than the non-white label alternative
(looking at you, Blum furniture fittings for example)

I need a super good reason why my next gas stove, oven and dishwasher are not
from IKEA.

~~~
fyfy18
Well these are all European products, so yes if you are in the US it's
probably cheaper to buy them from IKEA. In Europe you can get the non-IKEA
branded version (their appliances are made by Electrolux AB, which has many
brands such as AEG, Zanussi, etc) for cheaper from any home appliances store.

------
ruffrey
My heart skipped a beat, thinking for a moment the possibilities of LEGO-like
furniture. Oh well.

~~~
greesil
That sounds uncomfortable.

~~~
xoxoy
easy to assemble, easy to move, modular, sturdy but lightweight furniture is
my dream product. hope someone invents something like that!

~~~
fnord123
Sounds like Kallax (nee Expedit)

------
lloyddobbler
Me, looking over the printed product images...

 _...is that a double-decker couch I see?_

~~~
hanspragt
I got that reference!

------
DocG
√ I like shopping in IKEA

√ I like Lego

√ I like boxes..

------
kazinator
Why now, and not thirty-plus years ago? I suspect this may be the result of
some lengthy negotiation process.

IKEA could have brought in off-brand LEGO-compatible blocks years ago. It
seems like a no-brainer. Any half decent dollar store in North America has
them.

Maybe IKEA carrying off-brand LEGO-like blocks would have pissed off LEGO, who
protect their brand quite vehemently.

So then if you want real LEGO(tm) blocks that are simultaneously IKEA-branded,
you need a deal; and who knows how long that had been brewing.

~~~
colechristensen
Ikea seems to have a relatively new effort to do these kinds of collaboration.

The other one i’m aware of is with Teenage Engineering
[https://www.ikea.com/us/en/news/frekvens-limited-
collection-...](https://www.ikea.com/us/en/news/frekvens-limited-collection-
pubcd6f39e0)

~~~
crooked-v
They've also got a thing going on with Sonos, and the Ikea-branded Sonos-
compatible speakers are the cheapest ones you can get for that ecosystem
currently.

------
the_arun
Not available in IKEA, USA :(

~~~
jdmichal
TFA says October was the planned launch. This early release in Munich might be
a test market thing.

------
agumonkey
It's getting more and more used as an embedded thing. Many times people showed
ideas how to integrate legos for practical use (electronic cases, lego
patterned strip to attach stuff). Quite fun

------
kart23
Ikea has been doing a lot of cool collaborations these days, with a wide
variety of focuses. Its pretty cool to see and hopefully they produce enough
so its not sold out everywhere on the first day.

------
themodelplumber
That's pretty cool. Definitely would get younger me to stop groaning and
sighing for the remainder of the shopping trip, it's unique, and the price
seems reasonable.

------
x87678r
forget that, where is the new mindstorms inventor 51515?

------
annoyingnoob
With so many lego collaborations, special sets, special parts, I kind of miss
the days when lego was more simple and required more imagination.

~~~
ObsoleteNerd
Licensed sets saved them from bankruptcy, and now that they're healthily
profitable again they've been releasing more "classic" sets like the Lego
City, Lego Creator (and Creator Advanced), and Technics sets.

As someone who's been into Lego for life, and as a middle-aged parent who
still regularly buys sets to build myself independent of the sets I buy for my
kids, I'm more than happy for them to crank out the licensed sets (which I
ignore) in exchange for them to still be here making those Creator/Technics
ones for me.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
>Licensed sets saved them from bankruptcy, //

Do you have a source on this?

Not doubting it, Lego is a good product with almost indefinite reuse, so it's
not surprising if sales can't perpetually expand.

If we're to make it through the resource and energy crunch we're facing we
need an economic system that allows entities to continue even when everything
they make is made to last as long as possible - be repairable, reusable;
heirloom grade.

~~~
ObsoleteNerd
> Do you have a source on this?

This is a late reply so you might not see it, but:

[https://www.businessinsider.com.au/how-lego-made-a-huge-
turn...](https://www.businessinsider.com.au/how-lego-made-a-huge-
turnaround-2014-2)

> The only reason Lego survived during this difficult time was due to the
> success of the Bionicle and “Star Wars” series. The first “Star Wars” Lego
> kits launched in 1999 and represented the company’s first foray into
> licensed series, many of which became integral to the company

Infographic showing the revenue curve before/after licensed sets were
introduced:

[https://www.wired.com/images_blogs/underwire/2024/01/in_lego...](https://www.wired.com/images_blogs/underwire/2024/01/in_legos_large.jpg)

------
cultofmetatron
I really wish lego would create expansion packs for mindstorms. In mind, thats
their most underrated set.

------
pengaru
How is this not just spam for a new IKEA item?

~~~
jerrysievert
hacker news is for topics that we might find interesting:

> _On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes
> more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the
> answer might be: anything that gratifies one 's intellectual curiosity._

> _Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they
> 're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or
> disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's
> probably off-topic._

(from
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html))

this definitely falls into the former for me.

