>>8792364>Can you clarify the 90s weirdness? You seem like a man what can spin a fine taleLego had a ton of success in the late 1980s and early 1990s because they had terrific designers and a limited number of pieces so the production costs were cheaper (fewer types of pieces = fewer molds required = less production cost). The 90s saw a huge expansion in lots of parts that were only in production for a year or two and only used in a handful of sets (some parts were only used in one or two sets).
At the same time, they were putting huge molded baseplates into all the flagship sets. Almost all of the molded 32x32 baseplates were made for a single set, although molds were reused with different colors, like the infamous Paradisa Poolside Paradise baseplate used for Ogel's fortress.
While all this was going on, Lego was blindly groping outward for new markets beyond building sets (the Barbie clone lines of Belville and Scala, for example). The competent corporate leadership of the 80s had retired and been replaced by people who didn't know the company as well, and were blind to how production and employee costs were outstripping profits. At the end of the 1990s, there was a very real possibility that Lego was going to go bankrupt.
And then Lego partnered with Lucasfilm to produce Star Wars sets. This was a tremendous cash injection that did a lot to keep the company afloat, although there were lots of seriously bad decisions well into the 2000s (like partnering with a film company to produce the Galidor TV series and tie-in sets) before Lego's leadership got their heads on straight and started streamlining labor and production.
Now, there are lots of pieces available, but they're all used in all lines. The same light azure macaroni bricks that decorate a Friends hospital are also used as mudguards on a Creator monster truck, sewer pipes in a Batman set, and sidewalk railing in a City set.
