Toy industry giant and LEGO competitor Mattel has announced the launch of a new construction toy brand later this year.
While the Nuremberg International Toy Fair has been light on LEGO news so far, Mattel has revealed the first look at Mattel Brick Shop, which it’s calling ‘a new brand in the building sets category’. The company says the brand is designed ‘to disrupt the status quo’ with ‘innovative features, materials and techniques’.
Specific products under the new brand have yet to be revealed, but it appears to be a separate entity to MEGA, which Mattel also owns and operates. The target audience for Mattel Brick Shop’s products has also yet to be confirmed, but the language used in the press release suggests they could be aimed at an older demographic.
“Today marks an exciting new chapter as we introduce Mattel Brick Shop,” said Roberto Stanichi, executive vice president and global head of vehicles and building sets. “Our commitment is to deliver building sets that surpass builders’ expectations, with elevated designs and authentic details at accessible price points, and I’m looking forward to revealing our first product line in a few months.”
Mattel is one of the LEGO Group’s biggest competitors in the toy industry, and though it’s still growing – it outperformed the wider industry in 2023 with net sales up 16% – it has struggled to keep pace with the Danish giant in recent years. The LEGO Group’s revenue in 2023 reached $9.2bn, far outstripping Mattel’s $5.4bn.
And while Mattel has had one hand in the construction toy market through MEGA (formerly Mega Bloks), as of 2017 it commanded just 11% market share in the US (according to research compiled by Euromonitor) . The company has seemingly now identified construction toys as one avenue for continued growth.
Mattel says the goal of its Brick Shop is to ‘deliver value with every product, including more surprise features, more post-build opportunities like customisation and more piece count, all at a competitive price’. The first products will apparently debut in May, with plans for several years of building sets in the pipeline.
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