With TLG growing faster than most toy companies, a smash hit movie, extremely popular themes like NINJAGO and LEGENDS OF CHIMA, more licencing partners like Viacom, Warner Brothers, Disney, Cartoon Network, and Mojang, and an expansion into digital play, the future seems bright for LEGO. Because of this I was thinking about how LEGO would change in the future.

In the future, I see more digital play as part of the LEGO play experience, with augmented reality, and games like the HERO FACTORY games. I also see more themes like NINJAGO, with more of a media push. On the sets side of things, I see more pieces, and more of a focus on minifigs.

What do you think? How do you see LEGO in the future? A year from now? 5 years? 10?

Better relationships between the physical 'brick' and the digital world, I would imagine that sets would eventually integrate with augmented reality apps on devices such as iPads to bring what you've just built, alive. This has already been seen to some degree with certain themes and recent launches.

I see it remaining headquartered in Billund, Denmark.

Oh, okay, seriously. I see it continuing to experiment with various sorts of digital experiences, as both of you have said - perhaps with RFID-embedded bricks that enable new kinds of functionality, for example. LDD may become more powerful and / or simpler to use. LEGO will continue to try (albeit cautiously) more in the way of videogames, interactive digital building experiences, etc., and eventually try again something as ambitious as, say, LEGO Universe, possibly incorporating elements from that.

I see the licensing partnership with Disney and its major subsidiaries Marvel and Lucasfilm continuing, with Star Wars in particular remaining a LEGO mainstay throughout the sequel trilogy era and beyond. I see additional licensing with other rightsholders also becoming an increasingly important part of their overall market strategy.

I see CUUSOO developing further, perhaps ramping up to more review periods and production slots each year, and probably approving a greater variety of projects than before. At some point they may approve a proposal very very similar to one they've rejected in the past. The site will come out of beta and see various refinements, such as improved organizing / indexing / searching, and perhaps might add functionality, like some sort of LDD integration.

I see Friends (or minidoll themes generally) expanding beyond its current milieu as essentially a town / city variant, branching out into more adventurous play themes (it appears to be doing this already with the imminent wave of jungle-themed sets), and the Friends characters perhaps getting "grown-up" personas with full-blown careers in exciting fields.

I see the Minifigures line settling in at one or two new numbered series releases a year, alternating with more special / "one-off" releases like The LEGO Movie and The Simpsons.

I see various advances in manufacturing technology and practices allowing for greater flexibility, including more specialty-oriented production, allowing for more in the way of special elements with limited production runs (allowing for things like CUUSOO sets going through that wouldn't have before, or more in the way of other special limited releases like the Team GB Minifigures).

I'd be happy if they'd make Lego City Undercover not a Wii exclusive game. Hahaha

..the game I really want to play on the system I don't own. *sigh*

I can easily see them buying Hasbro outright.

I can easily see them buying Hasbro outright.

Frankly, I don't see it happening. A Hasbro buyout would eliminate a prime competitor but as much as I'd like a Lego My Little Pony theme, such a buyout would probably be less valuable to Lego than it would seem. Look at it this way—Transformers and G.I. Joes are traditionally action figures. My Little Ponies are traditionally (for lack of a better word) fashion dolls. Lego doesn't really work with those kinds of products (not after themes like Scala and Galidor proved that Lego is better off sticking to building toys), so these brands' core products would fall by the wayside. And without that core product, would the brands themselves retain all that much value? And that's just the big names. Smaller brands (especially ones that are mostly incompatible with the Lego System, like Lincoln Logs) would be as good as dead.

What we AFOLs who share a fandom for one or more of Hasbro's brands REALLY want is a licensing deal, not a buyout. And while the former is unlikely so long as Hasbro remains on a similar (if smaller) scale to Lego, the latter isn't exactly on the table either. Lego is a company that has over the course of many years learned to stick to its roots while at the same time carving its own path, and it could do neither with the acquisition of such a diverse and disorganized toy company.

I reckon they'll still be based in Denmark.

In 10 years I see the Dowager LEGO Lady Edith Kirk Christiansen (daughter-in-law of LEGO founder Ole Kirk Christiansen, widow of Godtfred Kirk Christiiansen), and mother/grandmother/greatgrandmother of LEGO owners Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, his children Sofie, Thomas and Agnes, and their children... celebrating her 100th birthday.

The dear lady herself celebrates her 90th birthday on May 29! God Bless her!!

(Seen with her son-in-law Mogans Johansen and daughter (Kjeld's sister) Gunhild Kirk Johansen...)

Edited April 12, 201410 yr by LEGO Historian

I want to say something about 3d printing, but I can't see additive manufacturing affecting LEGO too much.

I want to say something about 3d printing, but I can't see additive manufacturing affecting LEGO too much.

Although it could be beneficial for AFOL customizers... I don't know much about 3D printing but does the quality of the output measure up to LEGO standards?

Although it could be beneficial for AFOL customizers... I don't know much about 3D printing but does the quality of the output measure up to LEGO standards?

It doesn't currently, and even once the technology is capable of matching Lego's quality, there's no telling whether fan-designed or printed bricks will necessarily reflect the quality and safety standards Lego aims for in their own bricks. It'll be interesting to see what effects there will be on the secondhand Lego market when 3D printing becomes available to the majority of consumers.

Although it could be beneficial for AFOL customizers... I don't know much about 3D printing but does the quality of the output measure up to LEGO standards?

Nowhere close at the consumer level. Obviously the higher end machines will come close. Lego uses them for prototyping. But I can't see us having instant home replicators for Lego any time soon.