By Mark Seavy  

Jazwares and Mattel’s recent forays into building sets will not only expand their brands but also grow licensing opportunities within the construction set category.  

LEGO, a global leader in building sets, has seen success in branded collaborations for more than 20 years. In 1999, the company inked an agreement to license Star Wars characters and vehicles—since then, it has expanded its branded efforts to include Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, DC Comics, Marvel, Disney, and more. Now, industry executives estimate LEGO controls more than 90% of the U.S. market for plastic building sets.  

Jazwares, which also expanded into the costume business in 2021, recently launched its new BLDR brand. The line will start with its own Squishmallows IP as well as licenses for Sanrio’s Hello Kitty, videogame developer Uplift Games’ Roblox hit Adopt Me!, and Crunchyroll’s Chainsaw Man and Jujutsu Kaisen. These properties are new to the building set business save for Hello Kitty & Friends, which was introduced into the construction set category by Mega Brands in 2011. 

Jazwares hired former Mattel executive Nicolas Allaire in 2023 as VP Brand BLDR and developed sets with more rounded pieces to stand out compared to the square bricks used by other companies. There have also been other efforts to bring innovation to the category. BLDR’s two-inch Squishmallows minifigures, for example, feature a soft middle in an homage to the plush product. The Crunchyroll-related products, meanwhile, will be 300-piece sets that can also be assembled into nine-inch articulated figures.  

Jazwares’ BLDR sets, which use ABS plastic, will be priced ranging from $4.99 for an Adopt Me! two-inch single pack figure to $29.99 for the Squishmallows Sunny with Botanical Gardens building set. The products have launched through Target, Amazon, and Walgreen’s. 

“There are lots of things [bigger companies in building sets] aren’t doing or willing to do that customers are asking for,” said Allaire, citing BLDR’s Squishmallows range. “We have been looking at not going head-to-head with LEGO but rather complementing the offering, and we have a vast portfolio of properties that haven’t been done before in construction,”  

For Mattel, Brick Shop is another attempt to shake up the building set category. It acquired Mega Brands, since renamed Mega Construx, for $460 million in 2014 and has since competed with other companies in the construction set landscape for licenses. This includes Activision’s Call of Duty and Microsoft’s Halo videogame brands, the latter of which became a strong seller for Mega Construx after it launched in 2020. Mattel hasn’t released further details regarding Brick Shop, but the first products will launch in May. Mattel has said it will maintain the Mega and The Brick Shop brands but scaled back Mega in closing its Montreal factory in 2020. 

“Our commitment is to deliver building sets that surpass builders’ expectations, with elevated designs and authentic details at accessible price points,” Roberto Stanichi, Mattel’s EVP and Global Head of Vehicles and Building Sets, said in a news release. 

The common thread between Mattel and Jazwares’ new building set efforts appears to be “accessible” price points, which is sub-$30 at retail. Other companies have made similar attempts to stake a claim in the building set business.  

Basic Fun launched C3 Construction building sets under Worldwide Wrestling Entertainment (2003) and Batman (2013) licenses, but “couldn’t make it happen,” said Basic Fun CEO Jay Foreman, whose company was previously known as The Bridge Direct. But the line did have “some success” with Moose Toys’ Shopkins brand under the C3 Kinstructions label (2015), Foreman said.  

“LEGO was too strong then and is today,” Foreman said. “The customer base is too devoted to the brand. It is hard to drive one construction SKU to sales levels higher than the average LEGO SKU and that won’t get a [retail] buyer out of bed.”