LEGO in Australia

Hello Lili,

Welcome to ANZFOL. There are no kangaroos or koalas here but lots of talk about LEGO.

Q. "I wonder why Lego does not have so many Stores in Australia. What can the reason be?"

A. LEGO in Australia is very expensive; almost double the price in USA. It would be viable for LEGO to open stores in the capital cities of Australia but only if the prices were halved.

Most AFOLs in Australia will source parts and kits from overseas because it is much cheaper [ even including postage ].

Q. "What do people think about Lego?"

A. I LOVE it! My grandchildren love it!

There are many AFOLs on this site who all love those little plastic bricks.

Q. "Do you use Lego in schools or kindergardens?"

A. You will find LEGO available in some schools where the teacher has a passion for using LEGO.

With younger children, most schools use other building block systems because LEGO sets from the Australian LEGO Education supplier are VERY EXPENSIVE.

It is the same with the LEGO Education Technic and MINDSTORM sets; there has to be a teacher who knows the benefits of the sets for the students and willing to justify a large part of the school budget for a small amount of LEGO.

In summary, Lego Australia has priced itself out of schools to a large extent.

Best wishes with your project.

Hi Lili,

I'm not sure all the above is correct. I'll give some other possible answers to your questions.

Q. "I wonder why Lego does not have so many Stores in Australia. What can the reason be?"

Lego has a minimum order amount which means many small toy stores don't stock it. There is a buying group that buys LEGO but you need to be part of their franchise to use it. We don't have any LEGO brand stores yet because we are a relatively small market so other markets will get in ahead of us.

Q. "What do people think about Lego?"

There is a wide range of thoughts on LEGO, some love it, others are not interested, many see it as too expensive compared to other toys. It does sell at the current prices, so not everybody thinks it's too expensive. Some parents see it as more educational or creative than other toys.

Q. "Do you use Lego in schools or kindergardens?"

I'm not sure about this, but I'd be surprised if many state schools spent any budget on something not on the syllabus. In those cases if it exists it is probably owned by the teacher. Kindergartens might have Duplo, but might have other blocks instead.

BTW Lego Australia sets the pricing by negotiation with the major retailers, so retailers are at least partly responsible for the prices here.

The state schools in my area (Tasmania) have LEGO in every class room.
This is owned by the school not the teachers, though some teachers do add to the collection so it varies class-room to class-room some may have a 5 litre bucket while others have 50 litre tubs.

Another reason for the high price of LEGO in Australia is due to our high standard of living, the minimum wage here is almost three times that of the USA.

I'm sure LEGO stores would do good business here but instead we get authorised re-sellers....no substitute in my opinion!

Oh yeah I love my LEGO just look down there.

I would also like to add (as it may help you out)

Q. "Do you use Lego in schools or kindergardens?"

Our local schools (rural New South Wales) have a small amount of LEGO in the Kindergarten class which is owned by the school as well as donated from parents, also the local Library also has a large box of LEGO for use by all kids in the library

Q. "What do people think about Lego?"
Most people I speak to (who have kids) love it, they love the way it helps the kids use their imaginations instead of just sitting at a computer, at a recent school assembly for my son all the children gathered from Kindergarten to Year 6 were asked by one of the guest speakers who has LEGO at home, my guess would be 95% or higher raised their hands.

I wonder why Lego does not have so many Stores in Australia. What can the reason be?
Whilst we have no dedicated LEGO stores, the product can be found in every major retailer of toys as well as most smaller chain retailers, as has been said the minimum yearly spend is generally too high for independent toy stores to purchase, however as an online retailer of this fine product, I find that this is slowly changing as well

So thats my 2 cents worth, I wish you all the best for your project....good luck

peterab

Don't give up your day job to start a career as an educational curriculum consultant.

With regards to LEGO being used in school, when I was in primary school back in the 80's we had a maths book called HBJ which used a lot of LEGO pictures, most notably the classic space theme. I'm not sure if these text books were used anywhere outside QLD though...

Hi Lili, My name is Kallen and i live in Queensland, Australia. i have a hole collection of lego. (some of which i had to order overseas) it really annoys me how we dont have much lego! iv never seen a LEGO store anywhere in AU. The only shops that have lego in Australia are Myer,Kmart, Target, David Jones, Big W and Toy stores. but all of them have the same lego and not much of it. i think australia doesnt have much lego because we dont have as many people as USA or Japan etc. Do u know if there is any lego factory, store or HQ in Australia? if so, where are they? I LOVE LEGO AND THINK IT SHOULD BE INTRODUCED MORE INTO AUSTRALIA!

Hello Kallen,

There is no Lego factory in Australia; most of the Lego in shops comes from Europe.

Lego Australia have their main office in Sydney.

There is no official Lego store here but there are a number of small retailers around who stock mainly Lego in a physical shop setting.

The only one of these that I know of in Queensland is "Bricks n Fun" at Capalaba. Gary stocks a wide variety of sets [ ancient and modern ] + lots of parts.