I haven’t had room to fit this news in last week when it was originally announced, but as it could have interesting implications for LEGO fans, I still wanted to make sure we have a chance to discuss. Last week, LEGO announced that they are collaborating with IKEA, to enable more play and creativity. Below is the full press release.
We know that play is an important part of life and we believe in the power of play. Play lets us be creative, explore, experiment, dream and discover. IKEA and the LEGO Group, join forces to encourage more play.
Play is key to develop. And it is an essential part of a better everyday life. Play is so many different things, for so many different people. In the everyday life there are different barriers for play. Some of the barriers are more evident for grown-ups. One being that grown-ups think that playing can be messy. Other barriers are more evident to children – like grown-ups trying to create order in the play environment, where children in fact enjoy and often immerse themselves in the midst of it all.
“It started with an invitation from the LEGO Group ‘Do you want to play?’. Of course we said yes to this and together we now want to enable more play by triggering play in the functionality of the everyday life. At IKEA we first and foremost want to resolve this built in or maybe just perceived conflict that play is messy in a creative, humanistic and playful way. Because we believe more play makes the home and the world a better place”, says Fredrika Inger, Business Area Manager for Children’s IKEA, at IKEA of Sweden.
In the IKEA Play Report, IKEA asked children what they want and 47% of them said that they want more playtime with their parents. At the same time 90% of the asked parents believe play is essential to wellbeing and happiness, building on to the belief that play is important. In an upcoming study on play made by the LEGO Group, 95% of parents responded that play is fundamental to their child’s development and that playing with LEGO bricks helps their children to be creative. Then why don’t we play more? The collaboration aims to increase the opportunity for playing more. First out is to try to make the whole home a better functioning and more fun place.
“In the LEGO Group our mission has always been to inspire and develop children through play, and there’s an exciting and fun challenge in finding a solution that can encourage more creative LEGO play while at the same time pleasing parent’s interest in household look and feel to enable children and their parents to play together. We know that creativity is a critical skill needed for the future, but we also know that tinkering, experimenting, being creative and trying out new things can be messy. In our collaboration with IKEA we therefore wish to deal with the challenge that some parents might have with the – wonderful – mess that play creates”, says Lena Dixen, Senior Vice President, Product Development at the LEGO Group.
“Bringing people together over play and enable more play are things that are key for both us and the LEGO Group based on our respective visions, missions and values. That is why we want to explore what can happen when we work together, trying to get more of the many people to say yes to play”, says Fredrika Inger, Business Area Manager for Children’s IKEA, at IKEA of Sweden. In the next couple of years the first outcome of the collaboration will reach customers in IKEA stores.
As you can see, the press-release does not specify what kind of products we can expect from this collaboration between LEGO and IKEA, but my guess would be play-tables, and storage, organization and display solutions for LEGO and other toys. If done right, this could be a very welcome development to LEGO fans of all ages. IKEA products are already very popular with LEGO fans, especially their modular shelving systems and storage solutions.
What do you think? How do you like the idea of LEGO and IKEA collaborating? What kind of products do you think they will make? And what would you like to see them make? Feel free to share your thoughts and ideas in the comment section below!
And you might also like to check out the following related posts:
Already using IKEA, so I’m excited to see what kind of storage and display solutions will be coming out of this collaboration. Any news on when we should be seeing these products?
My guess is that we should be hearing something by next year. At least have a sense of what we are going to get. 🙂
What a natural collaboration. Looking forward to it.
I’m curious what this is going to include. Although it could be anything, based on the press released repeatedly talking about cleaning up the messiness of toys, I assume it’s some kind of storage. I just hope it won’t be something half-hearted.
IKEA is pretty good at releasing products that are useful and versatile. And the same thing can be said about LEGO. In general, I have a good feeling about this. 🙂
This could be big. While there are some good storage solutions out there already, many of the Lego branded ones are very expensive. IKEA is known for their affordable prices so this could be good news for afols who are looking for an affordable Lego-branded storage solution.
Yes, perhaps, although AFOLs have pretty specific needs when it comes to LEGO storage. Kids and adults generally don’t store LEGO the same way.
We so need some good storage that’s affordable! We keep everything together in a big box, then just dump it out on a sheet. It’s hard to find the right pieces though, but the cleanup is easy. A storage and play system that is easy for kids and parents to use would be appreciated.
I’m very curious to see what will this collaboration include. Maybe some play tables with storage and included baseplates on top? Drawers for lego pieces and minifigs? Display shelves?
All of those are possibilities, but we will have to wait and see. 🙂
I look forward to seeing what products the collaboration produces. We renovated our playroom upstairs into a LEGO building and storage center using mostly IKEA products already. We all love the space, and it stays a lot cleaner than it used to.
Hm… if your LEGO room is already using IKEA, you should be able to easily incorporate whatever this collaboration will bring. 🙂
That is what I am hoping!