[anchochilis]

One major draw of Lego is their licensing of expensive creative IP. Look at the Harry Potter, Star Wars, DC, Lord of the Rings themed sets. Smaller competitors likely can not afford the same offerings. And Lego probably has deep enough pockets to ensure exclusive deals.

There's also something to be said for having such a dominant, established brand. Lego is a cultural icon, beloved by multiple generations. Picking up a knockoff kit is sort of like taking your kid to a random local theme park instead Disney World. While in theory the two options have similar features (rides! characters running around in costume!) they are of course not the same.

[routerl]

> One major draw of Lego is their licensing of expensive creative IP.

This is the real genius beyond the manufacturing (which other comments are correctly praising). Lego was/is the only brand that gets to make, e.g. both Mikey Mouse and Bugs Bunny, both Marvel and DC, etc. By making Lego versions of those properties, they've convinced those enormous IP holders that this does not compete with other products; Disney can't make Lego Star Wars themselves.

Lego's corporate accomplishment is to have elevated themselves to the status of a platform. And doing so while their product isn't software or hardware is pretty unique.

[haunter]

> Lego was/is the only brand that gets to make, e.g. both Mikey Mouse and Bugs Bunny, both Marvel and DC, Balenciaga and Ralph Lauren etc.

Fortnite does this too. They have DC and Marvel, Naruto and DBZ etc.