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Legoland Japan 2017

Is Lego even that popular in Japan? It seems like a massive waste of money that could be spent on making quality attractions or experiences in the current portfolio that would spin more money in the long run.
 
Danny said:
Is Lego even that popular in Japan? It seems like a massive waste of money that could be spent on making quality attractions or experiences in the current portfolio that would spin more money in the long run.
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One would assume that they've done some kind of extensive research into Legos popularity first ;)
 
The article calls Merlin a "Disney rival"; I think I've just about stopped laughing! Somehow I don't think Disney are quivering in their boots with this announcement!

:)
 
That article says it will be Merlin's 8th park, but it will be their 12th. It probably refers to Lego themselves, but the way it's written refers to Merlin.

Anyway, I didn't realise Lego was that popular in Japan to warrant its own park. Anyone know how well Legoland Malaysia is doing?
 
I've always envisioned that the culture of Japan has seen children embrace the wacky and wild oddities they have out there rather than sat in their homes playing with Lego...

They would have been better building their own concept from the ground up as opposed to tacking Lego to it, and I'd have actually given them some kudos for that. But instead of building innovative and deeply immersive attractions in the UK that are likely to bring people flocking from Europe and perhaps world wide (undoubtedly looking at Universal here), they stick to an idea that has been so overused that the whole concept of a park based around Lego no longer seems appealing. I seriously fail to understand how a creative team within Merlin haven't been able to produce a solid backbone for a brand new theme park or midway, rather than constantly recycling current products or buying into an IP from yesteryear as a new midway concept.

This whole idea has probably angered me more than it should have, but it seems there is no originality or scenario ever again that will replicate the project brains in a room with a bottle of booze until they come up with something staggering.
 
TedTheHuman said:
Anyway, I didn't realise Lego was that popular in Japan to warrant its own park. Anyone know how well Legoland Malaysia is doing?
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Very well.. well better than expectations anyway.

LEGO is really popular in these areas.. hence why Lego itself is investing (which at least should mean it's a good looking product at the end of day.. though the investment is questionable unless it's a tiny park).

I do wonder when they stop expanding and concentrating on the stuff they own. I do feel they're too overstretched to make anything out of their comfort zone though, which is a shame.
 
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AT86 said:
Is it me or does £185m seem a very low investment for building a park from scratch?
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It did - but as evidenced at its opening ceremony, this is not so much what you would expect from a typical Legoland park.

It looks very different, and very Japanese in its placement and layout. See the first minute of this video:

 
I didn't even realise this was being built, why would you shoe-horn a Park into a space where there is no room to expand with highways and buildings surrounding the perimeter of the park?
 
From BlooLoop

Legoland Japan opened in April this year. It’s the first Legoland theme park in Japan and the second in Asia. The park was projected to attract over two million visitors a year.

However there is now speculation over the success of the park, with visitor numbers much lower than anticipated.

The park was initially open seven days a week. The decision was made in June to close the park on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The official reason given was that it would offer maintenance crews time to do their work and would allow time off for service staff.

However the park has already shifted from this plan, with the attraction back running seven days a week as schools close down for the summer holidays. The end of August will see a return of the five day week but it will again be back to full-time opening for the whole of October (again tying in with the Japanese school year). The park’s diary shows that the seven-day weeks link with typically busy periods in the calendar.
 
So exactly the same as Windsor then. Hardly surprising. Any reason why they expected it to perform differently?
 
I don't pretend to know very much about this park in particular. From my time in Japan it felt like Legoland would be a good fit, they do have an awful lot of quintessentially Japanese parks, perhaps they're more of a draw.

The Tokyo Disney parks are a strange hybrid of Japenese / Disney, perhaps they didn't strike the same note with this. It's too early to say. It's not to say the park isn't profitable, it's just not making what they were expecting.

They'll have to find a way to make it work if they're looking for 20 Legoland resorts all together. Half of them will end up being in Asia/Pacific.
 
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I did a little bit of research after my last comment and found that 2 million is about the average number of guests any of the Legoland parks get each year, with Windsor being a little bit higher. In Windsors opening year I also belive that number was only 1 million, which was the most successful launch of any of the Lego built parks.

2 million for a new park is a very ambitious target, especially given the Japanese park is by far the smallest. Not to mention they only opened in April, meaning they missed out on several months of operation.

It would be interesting to see how much revenue they have made on merchandise, as I belive that is the most profitable aspect of Tokyo Disney.
 
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