Lego Finds Discontinued Set For Boy Who Saved Up For 2 Years

http://consumerist.com/2012/12/03/lego-finds-spare-discontinued-set-so-boy-who-saved-up-for-2-years-wouldnt-be-disappointed/

by wyclif • 14 years ago

557 194 14 years ago

consumerist.com

generalpf• 14 years ago

As the parent of a child with Asperger's Syndrome, I know what this must have meant to him, and I'll continue to be a Lego customer for life because of this. Kudos to Lego.

tmh88j• 14 years ago

Any child who has the willpower to save for over two years would be crushed.

charlieok• 14 years ago

What is this “Asperger's” you speak of? It doesn't seem to be in the new edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/asperg...

nicholassmith4• 14 years ago

You know, I don't think I've ever seen anything negative about Lego as a company in any serious way. Staff reports are uniformly 'this place is amazing to work', customers love their products, they've kept their product line diverse and with a wide, wide range of prices so there's no exclusionary practise. Good business practises for sure.

smiler• 14 years ago

Have you never stood on a piece of lego? :)

StavrosK• 14 years ago

It was an amazing learning experience.

arethuza2• 14 years ago

Compared to the caltrops like device that is a standard UK power plug a mere lego brick is hardly likely to cause much harm.

josephlord4• 14 years ago

The latest 'Friends' range targeted at girls has received some bad press. Not much construction to do, all nail bars and shopping sort of sexism. Not the most serious bad press but its something.

nicholassmith4• 14 years ago

I will admit I'd forgotten that, but mostly as it was complaints from consumer action groups rather than consumers, if I remember rightly Lego introduced it after parental request/requests from girls and saw a profit spike.

I don't particularly like the idea of Lego falling into gender categories as it's a toy for creative minds, but if the market wants something then the market wants something.

debacle• 14 years ago

Really? There's also zoos and a camping set, a few pet-oriented set, a farm, and a horse truck thing.

It's the best in-road they've made into "Legos for Girls" ever. I can finally buy my nieces sets that they're interested in.

kjeldsendk• 14 years ago

In that regard almost everything was sexism up and until the released of the friends series. Weapons, firemen, policemen etc etc.. I am happy that my daughter got to experience Lego like a girl.. and look, it works with the sons Lego as well..

Millinium Falcon meets Friends: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ia-V08uRi6Y/T8Mi2SzWVaI/A...

Jack Sparrow kisses before he enters the Beauty Salon https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-lODix9_sQBM/T5sLmfnEcMI/A...

And just like many girls wants it, accessories in every shape and color: https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-12WsmYNOILY/T5sLjk6O3_I/A...

datr• 14 years ago

I think there was a piece on hacker news attacking them a few months back for a shift in their advertising from being relatively gender balanced in the 80s to being very boyish today.

Other than that though I completely agree with you. They seem like a great company.

michaelt• 14 years ago

Some people [1] have linked the rise of Lego and the decline of Meccano [2] to the decline of manufacturing in the western world, as Lego doesn't teach Meccano's lessons about L section beams, diagonal braces, gantries in tension and compression, and so on.

[1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1333215/Why-Britain-n... [2] http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8Q-tdV67Suc/TfhcQxf63JI/AAAAAAAAAT...

eternalban• 14 years ago

I got my initial (entirely empirical) lessons in mechanics via Fischertechnik [1]. Absolutely the best toy, ever.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischertechnik

[p.s.: http://www.fischertechnik.de/en/Home/info/computing.aspx "programming is child's play" /G ]

nicholassmith4• 14 years ago

I used to have a Meccano set from the early 70s, it was fantastic. I always thought it was a shame it never got as much attention.

bcoates• 14 years ago

And I thought construx were neat, that is one awesome construction set.

xentronium• 14 years ago

These Meccano constructors are similar to what we had in post-soviet Russia, although I've never heard that name. Then about the end of 90-s LEGO gained popularity, and indeed, 'soviet constructor', as we called these sets, stopped being sold.

I always wondered whether they were really suitable for smaller kids, considering smaller parts et al.

This is what our constructors looked like:

* Constructor parts: http://blogarchive.ru/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/konstruktor...

* Photos of the manual: http://vasi.net/community/kartinki/2009/08/25/sovetskijj_kon...

dbaupp• 14 years ago

While mostly reasonable, I think this is brushing over two large sections of Lego's products: Technic and Mindstorms.

The pieces from Technic are much more Meccano-like, in that they don't all have studs on top, and there are holes down the sides of the pieces with "bolts" to connect them together at arbitrary angles. (And there is cogs, axles, chains and motors.)

Mindstorms is an actual real robot, in the hands of kids, along with a fairly well defined progression of methods of programming it[3] (the Lego supplied methods have several stages of simple/easy to more complicated/powerful, and the third party languages include C/C++ and so on). It is actually one of the major factors in my learning to program. Having a programmable microcontroller so tightly integrated into a 3D-printer-like system gives so much power and flexibility for experimentation, especially in the hands of intelligent 10-15 year olds, who aren't being stimulated by school at all.

As someone who loved/loves both his Meccano and Lego, I think the normal Lego < Meccano < Lego Mindstorms, in terms of promoting technical thinking & experimentation.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego_Technic [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego_Mindstorms [3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego_Mindstorms#Programming_la...

mwexler• 14 years ago

For those in the US, Meccano's are what are now sold here as "Erector" sets. The older Erector sets were actually a slightly different design from the 1920s by Gilbert, but those are long gone and sorely missed by many.

vacri• 14 years ago

Half the fun I had playing with Lego when I was young was unfolding plots between the minifigs - you'd build something, then have your minifigs interact with it. I'm not really familiar with Meccano, but as I understand it there's no 'human' in it with which you can project yourself. Meccano can let you build cool items, but Lego can let you build cool items, an environment to put them in, and people to interact with both of those things. Lego seems more versatile in satisfying a flexible imagination.

Also, suggesting that the decline in quality of modern engineers is Lego's fault is an interesting variant on the usual 'kids these days' crotchety-old-man talk.

belorn• 14 years ago

There has been some criticism over their rather aggressive use of trademark to fake "patent" their designs after their original design patents had expired.

I also heard (so, unverified) that users of 3d-printers has gotten some of that attention.

So, great company to work with, great products, but clearly a bit overreaching in the legal department. How evil that makes them... meh, at least they are not trying to patent something that they themselves never created. Still wrong through.

kibwen• 14 years ago

As a child I was a huge Lego fanatic. I don't have much time for it anymore, but I still make a point to walk through the Lego aisle if I'm ever in a toy store.

One thing that I'm a bit saddened about is how it feels that movie tie-ins have overshadowed the other sets. Star Wars, Harry Potter, Batman, Avengers, The Hobbit... what I loved as a kid wasn't that I was building a replica of some fictional universe, it was that I could create the universe in my head as I was building it.

And yeah, the Lego Friends thing makes me rather sad. But that's not wholly Lego's fault; parents insist on segregating girls' toys from boys' toys, and Lego reacted to meet that demand. Who knows, with any luck maybe some of the girls who otherwise wouldn't be exposed to Legos at all will get introduced to Mindstorms.

And I still have to give them props for this ad from 1981:

http://cdn.twentytwowords.com/wp-content/uploads/Awesome-198...

pyre2• 14 years ago

Personally, as a child, I would have loved the tie-ins because of all of the new specialized pieces that they make for them. The original sets never lasted for a super long time before it was all just component parts for building whatever I was building.

panzagl3• 14 years ago

Lego was almost bankrupt a decade or so ago, and partnering with first Star Wars and then other properties helped save them. Don't blame them because kids have brands/IP shoved down their throat now.

stuff4ben• 14 years ago

I have twin 5-yo daughters and have bought only the space-themed LEGO sets for them. They've seen the "Friends" sets but really just want to build spaceships, airplanes, and cars. I guess I'm doing something right :)

I also have to admit that one of the reasons I bought the space sets was in case they didn't like LEGOs. That way at least I could have some fun with them. Now I have to share...

kenver• 14 years ago

It's a shame the older stuff has gone out of fashion, but they had to do something to keep going. At one point a few years ago it seemed like they wouldn't survive. Fortunately it seems that the film tie-ins have worked so I'm grateful for that.

jswinghammer3• 14 years ago

I wouldn't be so down on Lego Friends. My oldest daughter is a huge fan of Lego and has different sets that are Friends and some that are Star Wars. She combines them and plays with them together. Han Solo has a dog and a cat. One of the girls flies the X-wing. It's pretty cute.

Girls love role-playing and Friends provides another outlet for them. My oldest daughter loves building and then she plays with what she created quite extensively.

89a2• 14 years ago

"what I loved as a kid wasn't that I was building a replica of some fictional universe, it was that I could create the universe in my head as I was building it."

Completely agree, this really saddens me too. Played with lego so much as a kid and I never tried to build things from films. It should be about your own imagination

potatolicious• 14 years ago

I suppose this is the benefit of being a privately held business - you can adhere to your principles and goals without catering or placating the whims of public shareholders obsessed about this quarter's performance.

hudibras• 14 years ago

Any public company worth its salt would do the same thing. The positive PR generated would be completely justifiable if any shareholder was crazy enough to sue. It's the same reason that public companies give to charities or sponsor events.

johncoltrane2• 14 years ago

I was a huge LEGO fan when I was a kid. I didn't have many themed boxes but the basic bricks were more than enough for a kid with a lot of imagination.

As a grown up, seeing all those incredibly detailed scenes and models created by fans pop up every now and then on the net has been fun to watch.

As a father, accompanying my kid through his discovery of LEGO was a treat and a great occasion to get into the "zone" for hours… with him.

I must say that I wasn't convinced by their Hero Factory stuff; thinking it was too inherently violent and left too little room for my kid's imagination. Now that he has 6 or so of those and spends hours combining their parts (adding LEGO elements here and there) into gigantic — and horrific — figures I can say that I misjudged them.

runn1ng• 14 years ago

LEGO is just now (in process of) suing Czech Pirate Party on trademark grounds.

We (as in pirate party) made a pretty mediocre (IMO) ad before elections, which used CGI models that bore some resemblance to Lego figures.

They didn't like that. We think we are in the right; however, we don't particularly like LEGO corporation at this moment.

The ad was just on youtube and not in any TV or amything.

djt2• 14 years ago

I heard an interesting story that Lego faced a crisis where they were losing market share and profitability and so they decided to do some licensing deals which have had a very positive effect on their bottom line.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Lego

z02d• 14 years ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdDU_BBJW9Y

sareon3• 14 years ago

Yeah it was in the late 90s I believe that they were almost going bankrupt. Part of it too was the number of special pieces they would use for only one set. I have the Lego Book and it's a great read, goes into a lot more detail than that Wikipedia page.

djt2• 14 years ago

which book is it? I'd be interested to read it!

xsace2• 14 years ago

Brings me back when I was a kid. Playing my new set of Lego every single minute of the days following Christmas.

larsmak• 14 years ago

Yeah, I can relate as well. Spending countless, restless hours building small lego-cities. I have no doubt in my mind that that's what got me into an engineering-career. Except now I'm spending countless hours designing complex, high availablity, high scalability, backend systems..

kaolinite• 14 years ago

Absolutely. The Lego Mindstorms set I got for Christmas one time pretty much guaranteed I would become a programmer. On another note, it always saddens me when I hear of kids who don't have Lego. Just like how kids get milk at school, they should also get little boxes of lego too :-)

paulbunn• 14 years ago

At the age of 30, I still get a sense of excitement when I see Lego. I don't know of any engineers who never played with Lego as a kid (or even Meccano to a lesser degree)

VexXtreme• 14 years ago

Same here. I am positive that it was Lego that influenced me to become an engineer. Ever since I was a small kid I just loved building stuff. Making something out of almost nothing, with most of your creation backed by the power of your intellect is something that is very special. After I outgrew Lego, I started building cities in Sim City... and shortly after that I started coding. It's a logical progression, isn't it?

Plus, for me there literally was something magical in Lego. Every new set would bring such an unparalleled amount of joy and happiness that is hard for me to verbalize now, but I can still vividly remember that feeling of getting a new set and just feeling ecstatic about it... ah, the childhood.

bluetidepro• 14 years ago

While often seeing so many posts with a negative connotation on HN, I love seeing posts like this. I realize some of the negative posts need to be heard, but it's optimistic/awesome posts like this that can brighten the past 100 negative articles I may have read. Well done, LEGO. This is the definition of a great company with great customer satisfaction! My faith in humanity has been fully restored, for the time being. ;) Ha

uptown• 14 years ago

Good job LEGO. The kid looks thrilled.

On a related note, when did LEGOS become absurdly expensive? I've noticed that most of what they market these days are themed sets with price-tags well beyond what I can imagine the plain blocks used to cost. For instance - their Lego Ninjago series can command anywhere from $10-$30 for a little miniature figure - you know - the guys that are about 3/4 of an inch tall. What am I missing? Have they just figured out how to create artificial demand by playing the "limited edition" game, or have plastic toys suddenly got more expensive to manufacture?

jiggy2011• 14 years ago

I guess it's all about having valuable brand, IP and tie in deals with movies etc.

See also Games Workshop.

paulbennett• 14 years ago

> I guess it's all about having valuable brand

Yet still people call it Legos :(

sareon3• 14 years ago

There is reason for their seemingly high prices it is because of how accurately the bricks are built. They are meant to be a precise size to something like 0.002 mm and you can see it is a quality product compared to Mega Blocks which just feels cheap.

I'd say a normal set goes for about $0.10 a piece, prices will go up if they require a license (Star Wars) or have lots of special abnormal pieces.

Minifigs cost a lot more to make, they are also collectable themselves. I have collected sets since I was three years old and I have only recently discovered how valuable and collectable just the minifigs are to some people.

icebraining• 14 years ago

Yeah, they may be expensive, but I've played with multiple "clones" as a kid and none got even close to their quality. Even the colors were often off.

mtts• 14 years ago

They've always been absurdly expensive. Maybe you didn't notice it in the US before since the dollar was so strong, but over here in Europe it's always been pricey stuff.

rquirk• 14 years ago

The Ninjago and film tie-in Lego is overpriced, but the Creator range has been good value. These sets cost $5-$25, with 3 "official" ways to build each one and loads of make-your-own possible models thanks to a good mix of regular bricks, plates and fancy pieces.

The problem with the themed stuff is that it isn't really Lego. It's more like any other plastic toy - pre-built (or made from a few big pieces), not much replayability but "looks cool" on the box and in toy catalogs.

On the company - another anecdote - my son lost a piece of one set, I went through the "lost a piece" process on their web-site and to my surprise they sent it us, for free. Although given all I've spent over the years on Lego, I think I was due a 1x2 grey slope with grill :-)

rhplus• 14 years ago

Is it possible that inflation[1] has outpaced your childhood memories? Assuming 1990 is a mid-point for peak LEGO buying among HN readers, here's a couple of basic 'space' sets with comparitive prices:

6923 "Particle Ionizer", a small space ship: $24 in 1990 would be $42.48 in 2012

1616 "Space Combo", couple of minifigs and mini vehicles: $10 in 1990 would be $17.70 in 2012

[1] http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm

[2] http://guide.lugnet.com/set/6923

[3] http://guide.lugnet.com/set/1616

polshaw• 14 years ago

Heh, lovely story, but isn't this type of post what Reddit is for?

Which is where i saw it on Friday, and 'shockingly' is the source (well, originally youtube).

On the topic; it is surely obvious to anyone in marketing/PR these days that doing something like this is almost always going to be a profitable move. The guy provided the story, even if they had to do something like this 10 times for it to 'go viral' it would be one hell of a lot of promotion for the money. It's not going to harm the recipient's Lego buying habits either.

Tyrannosaurs• 14 years ago

Bah humbug, don't be snobby about these things, it's not as if HN is overrun with them.

Just enjoy it as a break from the norm.

olalonde• 14 years ago

Or maybe most of us who up voted knew it was PR and we want their PR to work?

douglasfshearer• 14 years ago

When they say it was out of his price range, many mint-boxed sets are available on Bricklink that are the same as or less than the original retail price.

http://www.bricklink.com/search.asp?pg=1&q=10194&sz=...

gonzo• 14 years ago

We make a LEGO-compatible case for iPhone 4, 4S and 5 (and the 4th-gen iPod Touch). (I'm sure that one admission will drive my karma into the basement.)

Shortly after we began shipping, LEGO called. They were very gracious, and only had a couple of TM-related issues they wanted fixed. Nothing unreasonable, really.

When were were done, I offered to send the attorney on the other end of the call a BrickCase. He declined, as he already had one on his phone.

So it's not just kids that they have a great interface with.

j_s• 14 years ago

I'll downvote you for not linking to your product on Amazon with your referral code! (j/k, :P, etc.)

Based on what I've learned here, it's my understanding that shameless self promotion is a spectacular way for individuals to provide for their own needs and for people important to them. It is foolish to begrudge anyone this when they are contributing value to the conversation.

sixothree• 14 years ago

And the context is certainly appropriate.

engtech• 14 years ago

You make a really cool product I'd never heard about before. Definitely of interest to parents who let their kids play with an ipod touch.

Kudos.

(link for the lazy: http://smallworks.com/ )

I love your slogan: "brick your phone"

michaelbuckbee• 14 years ago

I have one of these and it is hands down the most practical smartphone case I have ever had.

Need a stand to watch a movie on a long flight: add some stubby wing pieces from my Y-Wing set.

Need a way to hold the phone on a stand for Facetime between the toddler and Grandma: a few extra pieces of lego and a rubber band.

Need to hold the phone in place on my car's dash: the studs of the not-legally-lego back help hold it in place.

The only real downside is that the shape of the hole in the back for the camera and flash (iPhone 4 model at least) isn't large enough that the flash doesn't kick off a bad reflection across any image you use it with.

unreal374• 14 years ago

I am sure they were extremely easy to work with, since they no longer have a patent on the LEGO brick and thus have no leverage over you:

http://boingboing.net/2011/10/21/expired-patent-of-the-day-l...

stewartbutler• 14 years ago

Patent =/= trademark.

high5ths• 14 years ago

FYI, I went to check out your case (which looks cool!) and you have a dead YouTube link on your iPhone page [1]. ("This video is no longer available because the uploader has closed their YouTube account.")

[1] http://www.smallworks.com/iphone.php

akincisor• 14 years ago

I love it. If only there was an option for other phones (Galaxy Nexus here).

veb• 14 years ago

If it's not available, make it! Stir the hacker spirit up from deep inside :)

jebblue• 14 years ago

There are 18 on Amazon? Did he not check there?

ygra• 14 years ago

Priced $229. Which is more than twice the price he expected. As noted in the article.

Avshalom3• 14 years ago

As far as I know LEGO actually has a vault with a couple sets of all their products. Which of course means some body has the job description of official LEGO librarian.

richardlblair• 14 years ago

My faith in humanity has been restored.

Lego did a really great thing here. It could impact this young man's life forever.

Also, shout out to his parents. They seem like they have done a great job in a tough situation.

scrumper7• 14 years ago

Lego is fantastic, and it's worth re-discovering if you haven't played with it since childhood. My wife bought me a 2,500 piece Star Wars kit last year (the Emperor's Shuttle) and it bought me to a place of zen-like calm for the two weeks it took me to build it. I'd sit down, and bang, instant flow. Best of all, I could carry that over to the computer if I wanted to do some programming. It's almost drug-like in its power.

There's something amazingly satisfying about unquestioningly following detailed instructions and seeing something tangible emerge before your eyes. I love it.

dquigley2• 14 years ago

Totally agree. I picked up a box of plain Lego blocks for my desk at work a little while back. They start conversations, are great to fidget with while on the phone, and can provide a nice distraction when needed. Definitely a good investment.

arethuza2• 14 years ago

Great idea - "Lego - Conference Call Set".

jmj42• 14 years ago

I agree. We bought a mindstorms kit for me daughter a year ago (she has engineering aspirations).

I have to confess, I've had as much fun with it as she has.

user242• 14 years ago

Mindstorms is a brilliant product. They used it to teach robotics for undergrad IT at university. I built a machine that could play blackjack (light sensor moved over the pips of a playing card, discovering the card value). It was brilliant.

scrumper7• 14 years ago

I have a 3 month old daughter. It is my secret wish that she'll want to play with this kind of stuff when she's old enough. If I keep the wish a secret then there's a chance she'll come to it on her own.

scrumper7• 14 years ago

I'll add something else for balance here: I went to see The Avengers after studiously avoiding any marketing for the film. I wanted my mind free to experience every scene for the very first time, like a pledge-ring wearing co-ed looking forward to her wedding night. I didn't even know that Loki was the villain, that's how innocent I was.

My friends and I arrived at the cinema early, secured great middle seats and sat back to endure endless local commercials (Annie got it done no less than four times.) Then it was time for the very last advert before the trailers started: Lego. A Lego set featuring the Avengers. An animated Lego set where the various characters recapitulated the plot of the film in thirty seconds. Many, many angry voices cried out, to the general tune of, "That better f-ing not be in the movie." It all was.

It tainted our experience pretty badly. Even if the advert had featured a completely different story we'd still have been looking out for similarities. This was a few days after opening weekend, too!

I still love Lego, but she's given me my first disappointment. I guess I'm growing up.

podperson2• 14 years ago

In general, tie-in ads that are full of spoilers are extremely annoying and, I suspect, do not help anyone.

JoeCortopassi• 14 years ago

Had this exact same experience, and you are the first person I know of that saw it as well. I distinctly remember (SPOILER) when they were on the roof, about to disable the device, going "I can't believe that Marvel allowed Lego to do this before their big movie blockbuster". For that matter, who was the marketing genius who thought that surmising the entire story arc would make for a good commercial at any time?

89a2• 14 years ago

Lego sets based on movies are such BS. It should be about your own imagination not just recreating star wars and harry potter crap

throwaway19792• 14 years ago

Heh .. good for you! I'm an AFOL (adult fan of lego). For me, it started when I got a Mindstorms set to play with robots. I needed pieces for more sophisticated contraptions and the addiction began.

As with all things, moderation is key. I've got about a dozen high-end technic sets at this point. And I realized I had a problem ... my lego addiction was insatiable. Addictions aren't always bad .. but for me personally ... my lego addiction was bad. I didn't learn anything about building. All I did was follow the instructions to build the model. It was ... as you said .. zen like. But I got no feeling of accomplishment. I'm not an artistic person and have no interest in building MOCs (My Own Creations, in Lego community speak).

Anyways ... I have gone cold turkey. Haven't bought one in 8 months or so. I could crack any day if there are any good holiday sales :-p

scrumper7• 14 years ago

Not to sound like an enabler, but did you try the Unimog set? That's educational: transfer cases, gearboxes, portal axles... All true-to-life. You'll learn some mechanics from it.

czstrong• 14 years ago

Your experience sounds great and something I've been trying to replicate. Building something with your hands and watching it come together provides a different level of satisfaction and enjoyment than hacking on your computer. Recently, I've been trying to come up with ideas of "adult" things I could build in my spare time without taking up too much space in my apartment - such as model vehicles or aircraft. I hadn't even thought to just revert back to Lego, which I enjoyed a lot as a kid. I think I'll give it a try, thanks!

scrumper7• 14 years ago

Enjoy! Start big, I'd say :)

Do read throwaway1979 above. Building Lego sets brings quite a different sense of accomplishment to programming (or carpentry, painting, cooking etc.) I think that's why I like it: I can switch off very effectively. It becomes a little like meditation. I'm not an addict though; one set a year since I rediscovered it (only two in total.)

jeffbarr• 14 years ago

I can really identify with that flow state you describe so well.

I have built 5 or 6 of the larger Technic and buildings (each thousands of parts) over the last year or so.

The structured play (simply follow the directions and you will get to the goal) is a very welcome counterpoint to the somewhat unstructured way in which I spend my days (here's a blank page, describe a complex product in any way that you see fit).

pcote• 14 years ago

I can feel you there. However, there is a certain zen in the opposite as well. Having a general idea of what to build and a general plan and direction but little else. The specifics are left to between you and the thing you are building as you build it.

And that's what's beautiful about a good general purpose bucket of bricks. It's right brained creativity which complements Lego's instruction-based kits.

gknoy3• 14 years ago

One thing I've noticed is that many of the (secondhand) buckets of bricks we've found are NOT a general purpose bucket of bricks. It seems like half the pieces are special-made for a specific purpose. ("Oh, this is a squid-head. This is a custom-made tailpipe for a race car. This is a police-car-top-shell. This is a Gungan head.") I exaggerate, but it's very noticeable when I went to build something with my son this past holiday. Looking at sets in the store (I still ogle them ;)), it seems to match this pattern as well.

Granted, you can buy them in bulk, and you can special order ones you need, but ... it seems not quite the same. I'm sure part of it was that the legos we were rummaging through were poorly organized (color? size? vintage?), and could not be used more than one pucket at a time due to spatial constraints. ;)

I think that the key may be to buy large-ish sets which have enough general purpose things: plates, angled plates, angled blocks in varying directions, etc, or to special-order bulk collections of things.

jeremyarussell• 14 years ago

I can't believe I forgot about that with LEGO's. I find puzzles are good for that too. I think I'll have to buy myself some kits.

sharkweek• 14 years ago

For me, I got really into Minecraft for a while and felt that same magic and wonder that Lego offered as a kid -- Creating mockups and wireframes of things I wanted to create, then building them in the game, was just a ridiculously awesome experience.

shaunxcode• 14 years ago

indeed, also the experience of collaborative development is hard to get over. So hard to shake that my entire focus has now shifted to creating a collaborative development environment which facilitates a similar experience for creating software.

jellicle• 14 years ago

Speaking as a parent, Lego is a terrible toy. Legos are only available in build-one-thing sets now - 100+ tiny pieces which build one thing, and if you lose a piece, you can't build that one thing any more, and the pieces aren't suited to building anything else. Plus the resulting toys are terrible - you can't play with them, they fall apart! I suppose I could glue every piece together, but that seems tedious. It makes for very profitable presents-from-grandma, but it's a crappy toy. I've embargoed Legos in my house.

Speaking as a marketer, HN should understand that this is a piece of viral marketing from Lego. It was created by an ad agency, not by good customer service.

tricky• 14 years ago

I promise you, my friend, that any 10 year old with a little imagination can build a thousand treasures with any 100+ piece lego set.

SatvikBeri• 14 years ago

Edit: as the commenters below pointed out, I was completely wrong-generic lego bricks are still being sold.

Legos were much more customizable 15 years ago than today. Here's a comparison: http://betterwrappedinbacon.wordpress.com/2012/03/31/lego-bl...

mdc• 14 years ago

I didn't realize you couldn't reuse the Legos from the specialized kits. I better go tell my kids who have built all kinds of crazy contraptions over the years. Frankly, I think having a bin full of parts that used to be a few different kits makes for a lot more creativity than having a bin full of standard Legos. There are so many more options.

Legion• 14 years ago

Repurposing special kit parts for your own builds is one of the best parts of Legos.

It's an early age manifestation of the hacker ethos - taking some thing and finding all the ways you can use it outside of its original intent, and then putting those disparate things together to build something entirely new.

Avshalom3• 14 years ago

The Lego creator sets are built with the generic bricks and and they reintroduced the City line which also uses far fewer specialized bricks than the licensed sets. The big tub'o'bricks are still on sale as well.

mbrenig• 14 years ago

Lego's very close to my heart - so I had to check they still sold bins of bricks. V glad you're right!

Boxes of bricks: http://creative.lego.com/en-us/products/Default.aspx#5749

Lego City: http://city.lego.com/en-us/Products/Default.aspx

dquigley2• 14 years ago

The simplest solution then is to avoid the fancy "sets" and just buy the Lego generic collections. For example, this is what I got for my desk at work - http://www.amazon.com/LEGO-Bricks-More-Builders-Tomorrow/dp/... granted I wish they had included fewer small pieces, but it has no specialty parts so your limit is just your imagination.

acron0• 14 years ago

What makes you think it's viral marketing and not just a company doing a cool thing?

codeulike3• 14 years ago

> and the pieces aren't suited to building anything else

You are doing it wrong!

elliottcarlson• 14 years ago

While I can see how LEGO sets have indeed become less imaginative in the box (all these sets that are specific for one use) unlike the creativity that was required when I was a child playing with LEGOs, that does not change the fact that you can use all the pieces in creative ways. Instead of embargoing LEGOs, maybe you should use them to teach your children to be creative in coming up with new ideas. (This is not meant as a commentary at your parenting skills - while typing this I can already see it as potentially coming across like that since I can't convey the proper emotion with text on a screen - just offering it as an alternate viewpoint).

LEGOs gave me the power to use my imagination and creativity to build what I wanted, and this empowered me as a child, and honestly I believe that it also gave me the analytical mindset that has translated over to my programming career.

wvenable• 14 years ago

When I was a kid (many years ago) Lego, surprise surprise, also came in kits usually to build one and only one thing. I'd always build that thing once, maybe twice, and then all those pieces went into the bigger pile. The kits always had the best pieces; it's actually harder, in my opinion, to build cool stuff if you have nothing but regular old bricks.

panzagl3• 14 years ago

Lego still sells more 'old school' style sets, along with tubs of generic blocks. The sets also usually include extras of the smallest pieces.

Lemme guess, you've hated Lego since before it was cool to hate Lego?

mibbitier• 14 years ago

It's surprising your comment hasn't been down-voted to oblivion. It's so factually incorrect.

jlgreco2• 14 years ago

It is just ridiculous enough to me that Poe's Law came to mind. I have no idea if he is serious, or sarcasticly praising Lego.

arrrg• 14 years ago

You are doing Lego wrong!

When I was a kid (and that was during the horrible late nineties and early 2000s, when Lego was all about cramming as many special pieces into their sets as possible – a trend that has reversed by now) I of course needed generic bricks, but even the horrible sets of that time provided them in large enough numbers. What I also loved was repurposing special parts in novel ways. That was always possible, with every part.

My multifunctional super-car obviously needed all the special computer bricks I could get my hands on!

The only thing I never liked where bricks with stickers. Luckily those were and still are rare.

FlukeATX• 14 years ago

Did you just refer to the Consumerist as an ad agency?

pyre2• 14 years ago

The 'genius' of Lego is that the pieces from one 'build one thing' set work with the pieces from other 'build one thing' sets. I had a ton of those as a kid and they all ended up just being source material for whatever I was building. As a kid, whenever I saw new sets the things I was most interested in were all of the new custom pieces. "Wow! That set comes with a shark!" instead of "Look I can build some underwater vehicle!" I don't think that I ever rebuilt any of my sets after they were deconstructed back into 'source material.'

wiredfool2• 14 years ago

I love the shark. It's the best single purpose 2 pieces ever.

wiredfool2• 14 years ago

As a parent of 3 kids who have more lego than they know what to do with, I disagree. They've got a ton of lego city stuff, a few technics, and a couple of the character/themed ones. That's enough to cover the living room floor about an inch deep, with a few spare pieces to hide near their beds for me to step on at night.

There are special parts, not that many of them really. A lot of them can be worked around with a little builder's ingenuity. The special parts that are the most annoying are the ones where we have one or two, they're small, and they're somewhere. Not where we're looking, or where we've been looking for the last half hour.

My kids build the kit design once. Then the pieces go into the bins. They'll build it again, in motley color schemes, with adaptations. They'll build boats, cars, towers, trucks, and spaceships. And some things that I can't name, but they can tell you exactly what each piece is for.

And in the last year or so, they've started downloading the instructions for sets that they don't have from the lego site, going through them and figuring out what pieces they don't have and need to work around, and deciding if they can build those items. (This is a 5 and an 8 yr old). At 5, the kid is looking through a set of instructions, identifying pieces, remembering if there is one of them in the thousands of pieces we have, and deciding if it's something that can be worked around. That's pretty good training for engineering.

unreal374• 14 years ago

I don't know if you have a Lego Store near you, but you can walk into a Lego store and buy generic Lego bricks in every color. They also have a great website that lets you order 1 of any specialized brick they make or the generic bricks in bulk for pennies each.

Not sure what the problem with that is. And as others have said, after a week all those legos just go into one pot anyways and mix together to make anything.

Jupe• 14 years ago

I'm 46 and have a collection of over 18,000 Lego pieces. This includes several of the 1200 piece buckets they were selling in the US for $20 about 10 years ago, and the sets my kids have collected.

When I was their age (~10) I only had a few hundred pieces, but I learned to build and re-build those same 100 pieces in many different ways (sheds, space ships, bull dozers, you name it). Lego's certainly had a hand in shaping my future as a developer/engineer. I'm extremely happy to see my kids enjoying them as well.

I think Lego is the best toy in the world! (and an excellent company).

jamesjguthrie• 14 years ago

Lego definitely are a great company. I lost a few pieces of a train set I had as a kid and when I put in a request to Lego (it was either by e-mail or their website) they sent me the pieces for free!

Zanyinj• 14 years ago

Tears in my eyes after reading this, seeing the "What it is is beautiful" commercial and remembering. Everything.

smokinjoe• 14 years ago

It's stuff like this that not only makes consumers love LEGO, but also just gives the impression that you want to work there when you grow up.

Such a perfect method of satisfying customers while ensuring a steady pool of enthusiastic potential employees.

jkonowitch• 14 years ago

That's the most delightful random act of kindness that I've seen in a while. Bravo Lego!

snake_plissken• 14 years ago

Best LEGO sets ever? GO!

SPACE POLICE http://paperspaceships.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/lego.j...

and

Early-Mid 90s City jump offs http://www.onetwobrick.net/2008/08/set-database-6541-interco...

nlavezzo• 14 years ago

This kind of amazing customer care is something every company can aspire to - and not just for the obvious reason of making people smile. This cost LEGO maybe $300 and has netted them an incredible amount of positive press and rekindled emotional connections with their brand.

If you want to read two great and inspiring books about this, read The Thank You Economy by Gary Vaynerchuk and Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh. We're working to build a culture of over the top customer service and these books are our bibles.

joshaidan• 14 years ago

I'm assuming something that was not mentioned in this story, the kid also got to keep the $100 he had been saving all this time? :)

unreal374• 14 years ago

The video mentions that his parents allowed him to buy another set, but he still was sad that he didn't get the set he wanted.

So the $100 was spent on Legos.

darrenkopp• 14 years ago

Lego is great. A while back they had something where you could design your own hero factory on their website, so my son started saving up and doing chores so that he could get one.

Well, after a couple of weeks, we went to build one, but we couldn't find anywhere where we could do it. The website said we could, but we couldn't find where to. My wife emailed Lego and asked them how to do it, but it turns out they were no longer doing it, but the website had not been updated (in fact, they had stopped doing it before we had even seen it to begin with).

My son was very sad of course, but Lego sent him a $20 gift card and a bunch of stickers and some stuff so that he could buy some other hero factory stuff, which made his day and allowed him to get much more than he could of with what he saved up.

headbiznatch• 14 years ago

Cool story, legendary toys.

Their manufacturing practice is also impressive, paying special regard to their consistency: tolerances like 2 micrometers, ~18 fails in a million bricks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego#Manufacture). Any LEGO fan knows the difference between the real deal and "compatible" sets.

outworlder• 14 years ago

This is not the first time I've heard good things about Lego, the company.

A friend of a friend (I will try do double-check the story) wanted to use photographs of situations built with Lego to use as illustrations in a internal campaign she created for a company. She wrote to Lego headquarters and they authorised the use of the bricks in her materials, after some minor requests, such as attribution and trademarks.

dllthomas• 14 years ago

Awwwww...

bwag• 14 years ago

Kudos to Lego. I think the majority of us agree their product is full of awesome, and to see them providing this level of customer service is awe-inspiring.

That said, I think we're missing the crux of the story here. These parents let their child save every penny for two years. There's something to be said for teaching your children to save money for something they want, but to let it go on for two years seems overly cruel. As a parent, you need to make sure they get enough money in birthday cards, allowance, etc. to cover the total in a reasonable amount of time.

bobochan• 14 years ago

My kids took part in the First Lego League robotics competition for this first time this year and it was one of the greatest things ever. For those that do not know, it is a competition where teams build Lego robots to navigate around a board and solve different challenges. The teams also do a project (complete with a market survey, product design, testing, and then a product pitch) as part of the competition.

The Lego robots are easy to build and fun to play with. The default visual programming language is pretty limited, but it is very easy to get started with.

b3b0p• 14 years ago

Regarding Lego's in general. I love them! I had a ton as a child. My best friend had all the castles and my cousin was obsessed beyond anyone I have ever met, even today.

Currently I am into the Mindstorms sets. I buy them all. Right now I have 2 of them and I want very badly some of the 3rd party accessories to make some unique fun robotic machines or robots. The possibilities seem endless. There are so many neat ones I can't decide what I should build to use them now. I find my self thinking of robots that could do something only to make an excuse to buy the part and build it.

This situation that the boy was in reminds me of Nintendo games.

1. A new fun game I wanted would come out.

2. I would save up the funds to buy it or I was currently playing something else I would need to finish first.

3. By the time I got the money or finished the previously mentioned game, the game I wanted would be out of print and the prices would be in the stratosphere.

4. Sometimes, Christmas or birthday would come around and mom would be the savior. I would drop my jaw she was willing to and paid so much money for some of my games. I keep the ones she bought me not only to play again, but for sentimental reasons.

EliRivers• 14 years ago

Many years ago, my youngest brother had some kind of Lego train set game on the PC. He built little Lego train layouts on there. Maybe it's like Hornby; I don't know.

The game had a network play option. A player could play together with someone else over the internet who had the same game. I don't recall how many years ago this was, but I've got the idea in my head that there was no central game managing server. You had to already know who to play with. Possibly even knowing their IP address.

Anyway, he didn't know anyone. He really wanted to play, so he wrote to them asking if they knew anyone he could play this game with.

Someone wrote back, apologising for not knowing anyone he could play with, and included a mousemat and a pack of lego.

I'm welling up here. I'm going to go out and firebomb the Duplo factory.

jmharvey• 14 years ago

Duplo is made by Lego (and Duplo bricks are compatible with Lego bricks).

Lego Finds Discontinued Set For Boy Who Saved Up For 2 Years

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