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Inside the Lego Factory
An anonymous reader writes "Gizmodo has a fascinating report and video tour inside the Lego factory, which is full of robots and controlled by a mainframe. 'This video shows something that very few people have had the opportunity to witness: the inside of the Lego factory, with no barriers or secrets. I filmed every step in the creation of the brick. From the raw granulate stored in massive silos to the molding machines to the gigantic storage cathedrals to the decoration and packaging warehouses, you will be able to see absolutely everything, including the most guarded secret of the company: the brick molds themselves.'"
Legos have always been expensive, but a lot of people don't realize that there are plenty of used legos for sale. Ebay and yard sales are often full of them. A great deal of the time, the instructions are included or are available elsewhere.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 is the magic number.
Indeed. There are Lego bricks in my kids' collection that are 40 years old from when I was but a tyke. The bricks that old seem to be a little more brittle than they are now, but otherwise are perfectly durable and compatible with the current Lego. It's cool to occasionally see the old logo on the studs.
Lego is very expensive, but it's worth it. They've been through many changes, including some that I thought moved away from the core of what Lego is all about, but they still make a great product, and I still buy plenty for my kids.
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
I also remember reading a story once about a guy who makes giant works of art, using Legos like pixels. I believe they said that if you want to buy like 10,000 blue bricks, you can get bulk prices straight from Lego.
I've had a set missing a piece. Heck, the last set I purchased for my kid didn't match what was on the cover. When we opened the box up our Lego Star Wars set actually contained Indiana Jones pieces. Even worse, the retards at Target almost didn't take the set back. It's no wonder that people shop at Wal-Mart.
I buy Lego sets because that's what my son wants, and my son wants Lego because Lego is way better at marketing than the competition.
As an example. My kids liked Star Wars, but they didn't become obsessive over Star Wars until they played the Lego Star Wars video games. Next thing I know even my girls want Legos, and my boy has gone completely crazy.
I don't mind. I happen to like both Star Wars and Lego. I just bough my kids the Lego Indiana Jones video game and I hope it has the same effect. I'm going to spend quality time with my kinds anyhow, but I would much rather play Indiana Jones or Star Wars than American Girl Doll or Power Rangers.
The thing with Lego is that if the molds aren't just right then the blocks either fall apart or jam together. Getting that right is a big factor of the success of Lego - it just feels so good when it all clicks together.
HowStuffWorks says the mold tolerance is 0.002mm. That's 500 to the milimetre.
My best (unverified, speculative) guess, is that the shape of the Lego is trademarked.
Trademarks are more lasting than copyright/patents, and probably a sleazy way of maintaining a monopoly on a product ...
Sure... Call me when your molds and method are good enough to produce parts with tolerances of 2 microns, with only 18 bricks in a million failing QC. Reference, see page 18.
it's actually amazing that all of the sets over the years are pretty darn compatible. It's the rare Lego that simply falls off.
Very good point, I have some nearly 20 year old legos that fit with brand new ones like they were from the same batch. I suppose I took it for granted without really thinking how much work would go into this level of quality control.
I've always wished they made real-brick sized legos. I would make furniture and build houses out of them.
I hit my LEGO peak about 15 years ago, when Castles (Knights, Woodsmen, Dragons) were the rave. I recall getting a full castle set and integrating the pieces into larger, more substantial castles. The pieces were very specialized (i.e. parapet pieces, pre-built castle walls) but what this did is allowed me to construct more elaborate add-ons since I didnt have to exhaust my regular pieces on building spires, walls, etc.. So yes, I would say even 15 years ago the sets were certainly specialized, but you could really use it to your advantage. My nephews and nieces now play with my old stuff and I find their newest sets are even MORE specialized, but yet again, they use it in a similar manner when I was a kid. Speaking of which, I have a 1 month old so I have to make plans on getting my lego back for my little one!
They still have the mixed bag packs, technics sets, etc. - it's just that most toy stores don't carry them. There's more money to be made in selling the smaller (less shelf real estate) movie-licensed themed sets (presumably better selling for younger children, the target market).
Amazon.com has a fabulous selection, and I'm sure with a little searching you could find an online retailer which had an even better selection with the same quality (or better) customer reviews.
I bought a Technics front-loader from them last Christmas when I needed some cheering up and was pleased that the quality was as high as ever, the instructions were just as graphic and cleanly presented, and the process was just as mystifying until it all came together.
It filled me with that same glee of discovery and revelation that I'm sure anybody who remembers Lego from their childhood knows.
The land shall stone them with the bread of his son.
It's true... I was scanning for a post that mentioned this so I wouldn't repeat; the quality of Lego is REALLY fantastic.
Still, it's just injection molded plastic... if you look at average per-piece prices, it comes in at around 9 cents per piece... smaller sets are higher, larger sets are somewhat cheaper per piece. To me, that's outrageous for a mass produced piece of injection molded plastic.
Don't get me wrong... I'm still a sucker... I buy a lot of Lego for both me the boy; I've even bulk purchased on bricklink.com thousands of 1x2 and 1x1 to build just about whatever I want, and they ended up being sometimes less than 1 cent per piece. But it's not always easy to find what you want in quantities you want at decent prices...
If you think about large scale Lego creations, they can take tens of thousands of pieces. Even at 5 cents a piece, that gets very expensive very fast. I actually feel cheated when I see... well, for example, the model of New York that was made for the movie "Elf." I know they could have taken EVERY SINGLE package they had on the shelves in a typical department store and never even build one model of the Empire State building.
Stupid sexy Flanders.
I had some of the earlier lego people - the ones about three inches tall which were all normal bricks except the head/shoulders/arms. For some reason I usually made them into centaurs.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."