Overseas revenue soared by 899%. A new chapter in Bruk's story has emerged.
Author | Zhong Yixuan
Editor | Qiao Qian
The Chinese version of Lego has a new story.
Brickmax, the world's third-largest and China's largest building toy company, released its mid - term financial report for 2025. In the first half of the year, Brickmax's revenue was approximately 1.338 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 27.9%. The profit during the period turned from a loss of 255 million yuan in the same period last year to a profit of 297 million yuan.
On paper, after four consecutive years of losses, Brickmax finally turned a profit. However, excluding the losses from preferred stock changes and the provision for equity incentive expenses, Brickmax had already achieved profitability at the operational level as early as 2023. Its adjusted profits in the first half of 2023 and 2024 were 73 million and 292 million yuan respectively, and the adjusted profit margin in the first half of 2024 reached 27.92%.
The fact is that Brickmax's revenue growth rate in the first half of the year was lower than expected. Compared with the revenue growth rates of 56.1% and 47.1% in the same periods of the past two years, this year it slowed down to 27.9%. In terms of changes in the domestic market, Brickmax continued to focus on products in the 9.9 - yuan price range this year and achieved good results. Since November last year, Brickmax began to sell the 9.9 - yuan Transformers Star Edition. Within the seven months up to the reporting period, this small toy in the form of a blind box, due to its low price, simple assembly, and official authorization, quickly sold 48.6 million boxes, contributing more than 200 million yuan in revenue.
However, the biggest highlight of this financial report lies in the growth of overseas performance.
In the first half of this year, Brickmax's overseas revenue reached 110 million yuan, a year - on - year increase of 899%. North America and Asia (mainly Southeast Asia) contributed to the core growth. In addition, Brickmax is still continuously strengthening its IP matrix. There have been new changes in R & D, mold - opening, and new IP signings in the first half of the year. For this young company, whether in the Chinese market or in global operations, IP is the key to whether it can continue to tell the story of cost - effectiveness.
Brickmax product matrix
The North American market is the biggest surprise
Just a year ago, Brickmax's overseas revenue was negligible.
Before 2024, the proportion of Brickmax's overseas revenue had long remained at around 2%. It wasn't until the second half of 2024 that the overseas growth rate accelerated, but by the end of that year, it still only accounted for 2.9% of the total revenue.
2025 is a year of explosion for Brickmax's overseas business. In the first half of this year, the overseas revenue exceeded 100 million yuan, accounting for 8.3% of Brickmax's total revenue. Asia (mainly Southeast Asia) and North America made the main contributions. The former's revenue in the first half of the year reached 57.12 million yuan, a 6.5 - fold increase compared with the same period last year, while the latter's revenue reached 42.81 million yuan, a staggering 21 - fold increase compared with the same period last year.
Breaking it down further, according to the financial report, Indonesia and the United States were the two countries with the highest overseas revenues for Brickmax in the first half of the year.
Just as Pop Mart and Miniso chose Thailand as their first stop for overseas expansion, Southeast Asia, with its large Chinese - speaking population and geographical proximity, is the first stop for many Chinese IP companies going global. As for Indonesia, as the largest country in Southeast Asia and the fourth - most populous country in the world, it's not surprising that it has become a high - ground for Brickmax's overseas expansion.
However, the United States is an exception.
Brickmax has always been good at the Ultraman IP. At its peak, the revenue brought by Ultraman to this company once exceeded half of the total. This Japanese IP, which was first born in 1966, didn't become completely popular in China until 38 years later because of the TV series Ultraman Tiga. Even today, behind the question "Do you believe in light?", Ultraman has become a social phenomenon that transcends age, cognition, and class.
Compared with the Asian population deeply influenced by the Japanese anime industry, the United States, with its globally leading cultural industry, prefers family - friendly IPs represented by Disney and hardcore collectibles represented by Transformers. The toy sales data in the United States from January to April 2024 released by the international market research institution Circana shows that the main consumers in the US toy market are concentrated in traditional dominant categories such as Lego, Transformers, and Disney IP co - branded products, and toys related to Ultraman did not appear in the top ten list, which forms a sharp contrast with the Asian market.
Looking at Brickmax itself, in the first half of the year, the company launched 273 new SKUs, including well - known American IPs such as Minions, Sesame Street, Transformers, and Marvel: Infinite Legends, which are very popular among American consumers. Brickmax even held the debut of new Minions and Sesame Street products at the New York Toy Fair, one of the world's three major toy expos.
Some of Brickmax's existing IPs
Overseas, Brickmax's biggest competitive advantage is still its mid - to low - price positioning as a building toy category. The premise is that the global building character toy market has a high degree of industry concentration. In terms of market share, Bandai Namco and Lego rank ahead of Brickmax, but the mainstream price range of both is between $20 and $200, while Brickmax, which focuses on cost - effectiveness, has a price range of $3 to $16.
Different from the more than 90% offline channel proportion in the domestic market, according to industry records, the online - to - offline proportion of Brickmax's overseas channels is 3:7. In the United States, online channels represented by Amazon are the main ones, while in Southeast Asia, high - cost - effective products are quickly promoted through a mature offline distribution system and the demographic dividend.
Referring to the overseas expansion space of Pop Mart's IP, and considering that Brickmax itself relies on global IP monetization, overseas may become the core business growth point for Brickmax in the future. To some extent, although its overseas expansion is still in the early stage, the coverage of developing and developed countries represented by Indonesia and the United States is also a verification of Brickmax's overseas expansion ability.
However, price - sensitive consumers are like a double - edged sword. On the one hand, it enables differential competition, and on the other hand, it requires a high - speed iteration of SKUs to continuously maintain customer loyalty. Brickmax has a relatively low proportion of self - owned IPs, not to mention its overseas influence. It is difficult for it to, like Pop Mart, create a big splash with self - owned IPs and conduct local operations, and take control of the gameplay and rhythm of the story. For a long time in the future, how to stand out with licensed IPs and improve channel efficiency will be the core variables for Brickmax's overseas expansion.
Continue to increase IP investment
Today's Pop Mart may be the envy of all IP companies, but not everyone can become it. Since 2022, after officially transforming from a building block toy company to a building toy company, Brickmax's high dependence on the Ultraman IP has always been the biggest controversy surrounding it.
It both thrived and was restricted by Ultraman. Since 2024, Brickmax has been reducing the proportion of the Ultraman IP. In 2023, the Ultraman IP contributed as much as 63.5% of Brickmax's total revenue, which dropped to 49% in 2024. Although the latest financial report did not disclose the specific figures, Brickmax revealed that in the first half of 2025, the top four IP products accounted for 83.1% in total. Compared with the same period in 2024, the revenue contribution of only the top three IP products accounted for 92.3% in total.
Diversifying risks and expanding self - owned IPs have always been what Brickmax most desires to do. However, referring to Lego's story, we can understand that limited by the long supply chain and high mold - opening costs, the upstream barriers in the building toy market are extremely high, and the cost of trial - and - error for developing new products is very large. Moreover, the reason why Lego has a strong brand image is not only because it has the most influential and profitable IPs but also because of its mainly direct - sales channel model. However, Brickmax currently mainly relies on the offline distribution system and sets up collection stores, so its brand awareness is relatively weak. Consumers' impulse to buy is more due to the existing influence of popular IPs, and the attention to its self - owned IPs is relatively low.
As of mid - 2024, Brickmax only had two self - owned IPs, Brickmax Heroes and Infinite Heroes. The former, as a building block product, made a very small contribution, accounting for only 0.9% of the total revenue, while the latter is currently the fourth - largest revenue - generating IP for Brickmax, but its revenue contribution is far from that of licensed IPs, only 16.5%.
Currently, Brickmax is facing the risk of a lack of new IPs. Apart from the three classic and well - known licensed IPs represented by Ultraman, Transformers, and Kamen Rider, it has not yet presented a convincing and powerful IP.
Brickmax's main products
However, no matter how difficult it is, the diversification of the IP matrix, including self - owned IPs, is an inevitable path, and Brickmax clearly understands this. The latest financial report shows that in the first half of 2025 alone, Brickmax added 13 new IPs. As of 2024, the total number of its IPs was about 50. In addition, Brickmax also increased its expenditure on self - developed IPs. The R & D expenditure in the first half of 2025 was 129 million yuan, a 69.5% increase compared with 76 million yuan in the same period last year.
Based on IPs, Brickmax added 273 new SKUs in the first half of this year, accounting for 53.1% of the total revenue in the same period. One of the purposes is to continuously expand its customer base.
All along, Brickmax's core customer group has been consumers aged 6 - 16, especially the "little boys" who are deeply in love with Ultraman. However, Brickmax has not given up on the "adult" and "young female" markets. In 2024, Brickmax expanded its product line for adult hardcore players, with product prices ranging from about 100 to 200 yuan. In the first half of this year, the product revenue proportion of consumers over 16 years old increased from 10.4% in the same period last year to 14.8%. As for the female market under 14 years old, the sales of the Ye Luoli and Pokémon IPs were mediocre before. Brickmax may shift from human - shaped building blocks to scenario - based building blocks this year.
Due to the increase in R & D costs, the increase in mold - opening fees brought by new SKUs, and the launch of products in the 9.9 - yuan price range, Brickmax's gross profit margin decreased by 4.5% compared with the same period last year.
In addition, the financial report specifically mentioned the user experience.
Different from Pop Mart, if the stickiness of trendy toy IPs comes from their ornamental and collectible value, then the core of building toys lies in creativity. This is also the reason why Lego has been focusing on community operations and user co - creation for many years and even spared no expense in holding theme exhibitions/parks to reach more people - to maximize the concept of "creation".
Therefore, the IP operation of building toys is far more than just cooperation. How to stimulate users' imagination and playability will be an important part of testing Brickmax's brand and user stickiness. Brickmax mentioned in the financial report that the 2025 Brickmax BFC Creation Competition will still be one of the key directions in the future, and this competition will cover 150 cities in China. On social platforms, some parents even travel hundreds of kilometers with their children to participate in the offline BFC competition. The reason is simple. As long as parents believe that such competitions can stimulate the fun of creation, they will be enthusiastic.
After its establishment in 2014, Brickmax was a player in the building block track for the next eight years. It wasn't until the key transformation in 2022 that it began to officially focus on building toys. Since then, it has been on a high - growth path. The business with high revenue and high gross profit enabled Brickmax to successfully list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Compared with Bandai Namco and Lego, Brickmax's development is quite remarkable. After obtaining the authorization of core IPs, it successfully avoided competing with Lego, which has become the dominant player in the small - particle building block market, and turned to large - particle building blocks, thus having the opportunity to enter the cost - effective market segment. Relying on a large - scale distributor system, it quickly expanded into the offline market and became the world's third - largest building toy company in just a few years. As of mid - last year, Brickmax had cooperated with more than 450 distributors, covering all first - and second - tier cities and more than 80% of third - tier and lower - tier cities.
As a young company, Brickmax has its own new path to follow, but the strategies of established players are still the key. No matter where the next growth point lies, the most core proposition surrounding Brickmax today is still the continuous monetization ability of its IPs, which is the core of fulfilling all its stories.