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Lego Secret Vault Contains All Sets In History
An anonymous reader writes "Gizmodo has an exclusive video and feature of one of the most heavily guarded secrets in Lego: the security vault where they store all the Lego sets ever created, new in their boxes. 4,720 sets from 1953 to 2008. Really amazing stuff and a trip down memory lane to every person who has played with the magic bricks. All combined, the collection must be worth millions, not only because of the collector value, but also because Lego uses it as a safeguard in copyright and patent cases."
One would think this is the case, but many companies fail this. It takes an archivists' mindset to institute this as policy in the early days of a small company.
In fact I know that Microsoft was pretty bad about this in years past. Even though storage is cheap, they have had to ask employees for old products like MS-DOS 1.1 or MS-DOS 2.0 floppies from time to time, as the official archivists were unable to produce the "silvers" (copies from their golden masters sent to reproduction) or in fact any boxed copies at all.
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That's a pretty standard layout for many archival places. Library stacks are nearly always like this - there's too many journals and books in most large libraries for open shelf access for all so the older stuff is graded by size and put into stacks. Often, you can approach nearly complete space usage with well designed shelves and identical volume sizes. Tours of the Bodleian library book stacks in Oxford are available to members of the University. They're really something to behold.
There are a few sites out there that still have them. It will cost you probably about 50-80 bucks each. The BIG one probably 200 or more. http://www.bricklink.com/index.asp
But for free there is
http://www.ldraw.org/
and
http://www.peeron.com/
I have been having so much fun with this these programs recreating virtual lego sets and I dont have to DIG through my massive box of em. Plus the programs are more cad like (and have more pieces) then the offical lego editor.
No karma for underrated, either, because there is no meta-moderation on under and overrated.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
I don't think they had patents. They tried using Trade Mark infringement law to prevent competition, but lost in Canada.
Great minds think alike; fools seldom differ.
I don't think it came shrinkwrapped. The cardboard flap opened so that buyers could see the parts.
Whoops! I'm WRONG. They did have patents which expired in Canada in 1988. The Trade Mark dispute they did lose, however.
(Goes and beats himself with fanfold paper).
Great minds think alike; fools seldom differ.
Maybe this one:
http://guide.lugnet.com/set/420_1 (US version)
Or less likely:
http://guide.lugnet.com/set/600_2 (also US version)
Buy here:
http://www.bricklink.com/search.asp?itemID=6270
etc.
Is this an American thing? Here in .uk I've never heard them referred to as 'Legos', only ever as 'Lego'. As if it's a continuum, like water, or cheese, rather than a set of discrete objects.
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
Actually, even though LEGO famously patented the basic stud-and-tube brick design decades ago, the company has filed for numerous patents since then on all sorts of things.
You can view them on Google's Patent Search. Many are filed by INTERLEGO AG of Switzerland.
http://www.google.com/patents?q=interlego&btnG=Search+Patents
Among other things, LEGO has patented the track and car designs from its monorail system, a "brick vacuum" for picking up bricks, and a linear actuator system that is going to be used in the 2008 LEGO Technic sets released this fall.
I'd sell that idea to them.
I could see them creating a 1:1 car model out of metal that actually works. But ... knowing how they changed in the years, the kit would probably consist of 10 parts that only fit together how they "should". No generics, just prefabricated reassembly kits.
It's a shame, really. I loved the old "generic" Legos a lot more. Maybe with a handful of "special" parts (that could still be used in other ways). Oh, it changed so much in the past 20 years...
'scuse me while I go mourn.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
from wikipedia:
i also called the blocks themselves legos and will continue to forever!
http://www.accountkiller.com/removal-requested
About to prove I'm one of the biggest geeks here, and that's saying something: AFAIK, Lego boxes have never been shrinkwrapped.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
I have to correct myself... I wasn't quite clear in my expressions.
The total number of combining 6 blocks is in some 900 million ways. The exact number is on Soren Eilers site.
The other number that tages so long to compute is how to combine 25 blocks!