I was recently reviewing LEGO catalogues from 1999, 2000 and similar period of time and I reminded my feelings about sets from these years. I was very disappointed. Sets were very poor and not smart comparing to the other years. This problem touched all the themes (Town, Technic and others). The kind of harmony in sets and "LEGO way" disappeared in this period. Launching the Lego Scala (dolls) was also a great mistake. For me Lego Scala is actually not the LEGO, the spirit of LEGO does not exist there.

Fortunately LEGO changed this wrong way after a few years and now the general image is very good (however it could be better if less stickers and more universal parts were used).

What is your opinion about these "dark years" and what is a reason of it?

Examples of LEGO sets from 1999 (and similar):

Edited September 19, 201410 yr by Tommi1

What is your opinion about these "dark years" and what is a reason of it?

At this time, they were losing money, lots of money.

LEGO was worried about losing their audience in a rapidly changing society and attempted to redefine themselves as a brand offering a larger 'experience' with lots of highly varied products covering everything from robotics to human clothing. I think that there was also some fear that children would loose interest in the core LEGO sets if they were to complicated to build. the Town line, in particular, got hit really badly, being retooled into a new theme called LEGO City Center with highly simplified models designed for the youngest customers in LEGO's target demographic, a la today's LEGO Juniors line.

Of course, all of these efforts were unsuccessful and LEGO found themselves on the verge of bankruptcy in 2004. It was then that they turned back to their core values and reestablished the normalcy we are accustomed to.

Edited September 19, 201410 yr by Tazakk

Set 6330 was one of my first lego sets ever and at the time I remember being thrilled with it. It's true looking at it today it looks kind of plain but the parts it had were important in letting me create MOCs but I guess I'm biased as everyone will defend their first lego set

Yes, they were about to go bankrupt. Fortunately, the Star Wars license saved the day!

Anyway, there were some pretty cool themes in that period like Adventurers, Rock Raiders and Knights' Kingdom

Edited September 19, 201410 yr by Robert8

Yes, they were about to go bankrupt. Fortunately, the Star Wars license saved the day!

Star Wars was around from 1999, and didn't save the day, though I'm sure it was still profitable.

I've read the history, either here or elsewhere (probably in one of the many business reports around the time of the Friends launch), but the key points in getting out of the red were getting rid of everything not related to brick building (i.e. jewellery, theme parks <now licensed out>). I remember one of the production costs were a huge variety of bricks. The company had made so many molds of pieces that they used to make from a few common bricks. They cut down the number of bricks in production by half (this is by memory, forgive me if that number is off). They streamlined a lot. It made all their sets more profitable.

They really are an impressive success story.

Regarding the original topic, as much as they had some weak products at that time, they still produced some lines that were solid in this era. I love the Adventurer and Ninja lines from this time. The company just suffered growth bloat.

Yes, they were about to go bankrupt. Fortunately, the Star Wars license saved the day!

Anyway, there were some pretty cool themes in that period like Adventurers, Rock Raiders and Knights' Kingdom

Star Wars was around from 1999, and didn't save the day, though I'm sure it was still profitable.

I've read the history, either here or elsewhere (probably in one of the many business reports around the time of the Friends launch), but the key points in getting out of the red were getting rid of everything not related to brick building (i.e. jewellery, theme parks <now licensed out>). I remember one of the production costs were a huge variety of bricks. The company had made so many molds of pieces that they used to make from a few common bricks. They cut down the number of bricks in production by half (this is by memory, forgive me if that number is off). They streamlined a lot. It made all their sets more profitable.

They really are an impressive success story.

Regarding the original topic, as much as they had some weak products at that time, they still produced some lines that were solid in this era. I love the Adventurer and Ninja lines from this time. The company just suffered growth bloat.

You are both right. Streamlining saved them from 2004 on. But they would already have gone bankrupt some years earlier if it hadn't been for Star Wars, Harry Potter and Bionicle. They made their hugest losses in years without a new Star Wars movie coming out.

BTW, do a google search on 'Poul Plougmann´. This will clarify some things.

I'd suggest reading a book "Brick by brick". Lots of information, facts and interesting stuff there just about the period you are interested.

From the images above it`s not hard to see why they almost went "down under". They`re all embarrassing.

From the images above it`s not hard to see why they almost went "down under". They`re all embarrassing.

In fairness, some of those weirder products were the LEGO Group's flailing attempts to get OUT of a financial slump, not the original causes of it. But for the most part they certainly didn't achieve what they were meant to.

However, there were still a few of those, that, even though they were <insert that tiresome argument>, they are still well-made compared to others. I'm mostly saying the Shell Car Wash, Gas Pumps, and Select Store trio, and a bit of Highway Construction.

I have to laugh... the year in question is dead-on. As someone who originally got back into LEGO for the trains, the 90's had some of the greatest sets released, including the classic Metroliner, some of the nicest train stations, the Club Car, Crocodile....

And 1999 produced what is perhaps the worst 9V train set ever made: the Railway Express:

Luckily, it was because they were trying to clear these out at cheap prices a couple of years later, I'm the proud owner of two - and it's what got me back into LEGO. I just didn't realize what had been available before - it was the first time I'd ever even seen an electric rail driven train set by LEGO. I was so in the dark, I bought two so I could have some extra track and a motor to hopefully build my own, decent looking train with.

I have to laugh... the year in question is dead-on. As someone who originally got back into LEGO for the trains, the 90's had some of the greatest sets released, including the classic Metroliner, some of the nicest train stations, the Club Car, Crocodile....

And 1999 produced what is perhaps the worst 9V train set ever made: the Railway Express:

hmm, the croco doesn't look like a very good set in my opinion.

at least 4559 doesn't look the same...

Edited July 22, 20159 yr by THERIZE