Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Lego Announces New Furniture Line At IKEA


Billund, Denmark - The Lego Group announced a partnership with IKEA yesterday that stated the two companies would work together on a new venture. Lego, the master of puzzle block building toys, and IKEA, the kings of build it yourself furniture kits, have come together to work on a new line of Lego’s Brand furniture, sold exclusively through IKEA.

The furniture will include tables, desks, dressers, entertainment stands and accent pieces made entirely out of wooden Lego Bricks, which can be painted by the buyer to match the home decor. Lego originally tested the idea of making chairs and sitting apparatus, but the bricks proved too uncomfortable for prolonged sitting. 
IKEA is excited by this partnership. To have the fourth largest seller of toys globally working with a new product line tailor made for their retail business, it is a dream come true. IKEA is famous for Swedish accent pieces, assemble yourself furniture, and other items for the home. A novelty product like the Lego line of furniture and accent pieces will have global availability thanks to IKEAs chain of retailers worldwide.
Preliminary testing of the new Lego furniture showed that it held up rather well to food, liquid and weights. A small end table was composed of 46 wooden bricks and a clear plastic top piece, and was able to hold 120 pounds of weight before one of the legs fell to the side. None of the bricks were harmed when the table fell. A standard table meets between 80 and 150 pounds of weight, so this table is normal by that standard.
Additionally, many testers believed that Lego pieces would be jagged and tacky looking. Instead, with the way the pieces are shaped, they are rounded and smoothed giving a polished and traditional feel and appearance. A wide variety of products were tested and examined. The only product the testers had concerns about were the Lego dressers. The pieces didn’t always slide properly, and would often times fall apart under the weight of clothing. Otherwise, the other pieces were amazing.
The bricks are all numbered between 1 and the final piece, and the instructions show each piece by number, making the instructions amazingly simple. There are no tools required to assemble the furniture.  Most pieces were able to be properly assembled in under an hour. 
IKEA is hoping that enough people enjoy the novelty of a Lego accent piece to their home, to the tune of nearly 4 million Euro a month on the deal. Lego expect to be able to have the first pieces available in Sweden for sale by the end of September, while the global supply will be made available in late November. No word on how this change of venues will impact the Lego building block toy brand, though experts believe it will be unaffected by this new path for the 80 year old Danish company. 
Annabel Lee is a freelance journalist for the Baltimore Fake Times Journal. She knows that writers block is not code for a Lego desk, but it totally should be. 
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