Gifts / Sports & Toys

In the past, the domestic building block brands were small and scattered, mostly based on OEM. Now, many brands seek innovation in original design, supply chain and process, quickly open the market, and occupy a place in the industry. At the same time, the popularity of the track has attracted a large number of players. New brands are emerging one after another. Old brand building blocks continue to be cultivated. In the face of the continuous warming of the building block track, which brands can take advantage of the wind? Which brands can break the shackles of industry homogenization competition? Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report:

Assisted by capital, players compete to enter the building block field

Among many toy categories, building blocks are undoubtedly one of the most popular players in recent years. Among them, domestic building block brands such as Senbao, Coincidence, Pinqi, Brooke, and Weikki are favored by the capital, and Internet giants are also competing for entry. In December 2021, Coincident mortise and tenon blocks obtained tens of millions of financing from Little Red Book; In December last year, Pinqi also completed the Pre-A round of financing, and the investors were Zhenge Fund and Sequoia China Seed Fund. In February this year, Senbao Building Blocks completed a round A financing of hundreds of millions of yuan. Among the investors are Alibaba, Toutou Shidao Fund and Honghui Capital.

In addition, TOP TOY, the Chaoyou brand under Mingchuangyoupin, has already put forward the slogan of "Chinese building blocks". In April this year, it launched Toptoy Chaoyou flagship store on Tmall. Recently, Spark Thinking launched the first self-developed square monkey building block toy; And the leading model star entertainment is also adding to this track. At present, it has launched many kinds of toy products such as Pagani series puzzle assembled blocks, BMW and Lamborghini creative assembled cars, Ferrari F1 assembled cars, Audi R8lmsgt3 assembled block cars, etc.

According to the observation report of Huacheng import and export data, by 2021, Taobao and Tmall building blocks have built a market of 10 billion yuan. As for the boom of building blocks, many insiders said that, on the one hand, building blocks are both educational and entertaining, which meet the needs of parents to develop children's intelligence and enhance creativity, so they are favored by consumers.

In addition, affected by the general environment, toy manufacturers that used to focus on overseas markets chose to switch to domestic sales for export, and they have obvious advantages in product development and brand building. For example, in Chenghai, the toy capital of China, there are not only a number of listed companies such as Aofei Entertainment, Xinghui Entertainment and Shifeng Culture, but also a huge industrial chain with clear division of work, such as modeling design, raw material supply, mold processing, parts manufacturing and assembly molding. According to many building block enterprises in Chenghai, there will be more than 100 building block brands in Chenghai by 2022.

Low price and homogenization are serious. How can brands break through?

Domestic building blocks have broad prospects, huge market potential and sustainable development, which has become the consensus of the industry. However, domestic building blocks still face an indisputable fact. Lego has been educating the market for a long time, and it is not easy to stand out from it. According to the Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation, Lego decided to raise prices globally this year. Among them, some package products in China have been raised since August 1, 2022, and prices in Europe and other countries have risen between 5% and 25% since September. There are more than 100 products involved in price increase, with an increase of about 5% - 25%.

It is worth mentioning that while the price of Lego has risen, some domestic building blocks have announced price reductions. On July 30 this year, Top Toy, a brand of Chaoyou, announced a 5% - 25% reduction in the price of its "Chinese building blocks" brand products that have been put on the shelves, which will take effect today.

From the perspective of market development, LEGO is dominant in the building block market, but from the perspective of product form, LEGO's product categories are not all inclusive. For example, the military IP is the focus of the building block IP series, but LEGO has voluntarily given up such IP, which undoubtedly gives each toy enterprise a chance to grow. We can see from CITIC Securities that Gufeng China-Chic+Great Power Heavy Equipment is the current IP orientation of domestic building blocks. Among 13 domestic building block brands, 10 (77%) have Gufeng China-Chic series products, and 8 (62%) have Great Power Heavy Equipment series products. Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.

Obviously, "building block+IP" has become a major trend in the trend market. However, this trend has driven the rise of popular IP, accompanied by more and more homogeneous products, with fierce internal competition.

Taking aerospace cultural and creative building blocks as an example, according to incomplete statistics, there are as many as 7 enterprises that have obtained the IP authorization of "aerospace cultural and creative" from China Aerospace Science and Industry Group, including Weisi Building Blocks, Senbao Building Blocks, Enlightenment Building Blocks, Bangbao Building Blocks, Keepley, Le Cube, Carda Building Blocks, etc. under Aofei Entertainment. No matter the appearance design or the price difference between products is small.

Let's take another look at the other side of the industry. With the rise of Chinese style building blocks and capital support, China-Chic building blocks have continuously strengthened their brand awareness and played with the characteristics of Chaozhou. A number of new players have begun to emerge in the market. For example, the coincidental building blocks, which were founded in November 2020, have numerous fans through focusing on the traditional Chinese tenon and mortise structure. At present, the ancient Chinese Terracotta Warriors series Dui Dui Sixi and ancient immortals praying for blessings and other puppet series products jointly named with Sanxingdui Museum. In addition, coincidentally, they also launched the products of honoring 1949 tenon and mortise models and the peripheral products of tenon and mortise furniture and architecture; Pinqi is to launch phenomenal "collection building blocks" Astro Boy perspective machine armour and retro TV building blocks that can be put into mobile phone projection screen. Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.

At the same time, the old players are also expanding horizontally, expanding the target circle. In addition to focusing on the building blocks required by children's growth, Bruco also aims at young people, focusing on small grain building blocks, and combining the hot IP of Altman, Naruto, Ye Luoli, etc., to create Bruco 10cm movable building block man products; For adults, the Palace Museum culture series Taihe Hall, Zhonghe Hall, and three body "Water Drop · Doomsday Campaign" products were launched.