16 ms·

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

557 points by wyclif 14y ago

generalpf 14y 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 14y ago
  Any child who has the willpower to save for over two years would be crushed.
- charlieok 14y 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/aspergers-label-gone-psychiatrists-change-diagnosis-manual-first-time-in-almost-20-years/2012/12/01/bf2c6c7a-3bef-11e2-9258-ac7c78d5c680_story_1.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/asperg...
nicholassmith 14y 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 14y ago
  Have you never stood on a piece of lego? :)
  - StavrosK 14y ago
    It was an amazing learning experience.
    - CaptainDecisive 14y ago
      When my wee boys stand on their Lego I see it as a wonderful teachable moment. Lego is a great company to provide me with so many educational opportunities.
      - nicholassmith 14y ago
        When you as a child stand on Lego you learn that you should tidy things away when done, when as an adult you stand on it you learn that you need to have a talk with the kid about tidying things away. Or to tidy it away after you've built another spaceship.
        lutze 14y ago
        And when an adult stands on it in front of the kid, the kid learns lots of interesting new words! Lego: you're never not learning. The only real problem I have with Lego is the price of some of the items. A cursory search will bring you across £500 Technic sets... which is utterly bloody ridiculous.
    - gyardley 14y ago
      I used to jam those little castle Lego swords and spears into the stitching of the braided area rug in my bedroom, to create that authentic medieval battlefield look. When my dad tromped on one of those things after coming off the evening shift, it was a learning experience for both of us.
  - arethuza 14y 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.
- josephlord 14y 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.
  - nicholassmith 14y 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.
    - koide 14y ago
      Some creative minds are more interested in nurseries and tea parties than in trains or robots. And it's natural for it to be so. It's evident once you have some kids. I truly wanted that not to be the case, but reality bites. For the PC crowd: This of course doesn't mean that girls will never play with robots or cars or that boys won't play with nurseries or tea parties. Of course a mix is healthy and should be encouraged. But the stereotypical preferences are truly marked in most cases, before parental intervention.
      - josephlord 14y ago
        To be honest I think my biggest complaints about lego are cost and that it is hard just to get a big bag of basic bricks. However I think the 'Friends' thing could have been better handled with modest tweaks. Why aren't there any boys/men in 'Friends'? What if boys want to play nurseries or tea parties. When I was young the lego characters were mostly gender free but it seems increasingly that the 'boys' lego increasingly has male characters (even outside the branded Harry Potter/Lord of the Rings stuff). All the Firefighters and Police seem to be men when they could have been much more gender neutral (or mixed genders) without loss of fun to boys or girls.
      - 14y ago
- datr 14y 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 14y 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-needs-more-Meccano-and-less-Lego.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1333215/Why-Britain-n... [2] http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8Q-tdV67Suc/TfhcQxf63JI/AAAAAAAAATk/h32oKyL6xa0/s1600/MAWH_MECCANO.jpg http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8Q-tdV67Suc/TfhcQxf63JI/AAAAAAAAAT...
  - eternalban 14y 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 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischertechnik [p.s.: http://www.fischertechnik.de/en/Home/info/computing.aspx http://www.fischertechnik.de/en/Home/info/computing.aspx "programming is child's play" /G ]
  - nicholassmith 14y 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 14y ago
    And I thought construx were neat, that is one awesome construction set.
  - xentronium 14y 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-01.jpg http://blogarchive.ru/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/konstruktor... * Photos of the manual: http://vasi.net/community/kartinki/2009/08/25/sovetskijj_konstruktor.html http://vasi.net/community/kartinki/2009/08/25/sovetskijj_kon...
- belorn 14y 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 14y 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-1981-Lego-ad-634x857.jpg http://cdn.twentytwowords.com/wp-content/uploads/Awesome-198...
  - pyre 14y 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.
  - panzagl 14y 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 14y 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 14y 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.
- potatolicious 14y 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 14y 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.
- johncoltrane 14y 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 14y 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.
mytrile 14y ago
If this set means so much for this kid, his parents should have bought it. I'm not sure they cannot afford it when there are wireless headphones for $60 on the table
djt 14y 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 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Lego
- z02d 14y ago
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdDU_BBJW9Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdDU_BBJW9Y
- sareon 14y 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.
  - djt 14y ago
    which book is it? I'd be interested to read it!
    - sareon 14y ago
      Literally ``The Lego Book'' - http://www.amazon.ca/Lego-Book-Dorling-Kindersley/dp/0756656230 http://www.amazon.ca/Lego-Book-Dorling-Kindersley/dp/0756656...
xsace 14y ago
Brings me back when I was a kid. Playing my new set of Lego every single minute of the days following Christmas.
- larsmak 14y 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 14y 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 14y 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)
    - xsace 14y ago
      Actually I remember hearing over the radio some statistics like over 70% of engineer and architect played lego being kids.
  - VexXtreme 14y 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 14y 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 14y 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 14y ago
  I guess it's all about having valuable brand, IP and tie in deals with movies etc. See also Games Workshop.
  - paulbennett 14y ago
    > I guess it's all about having valuable brand Yet still people call it Legos :(
    - codeulike 14y ago
      Haha. Yes, a quick lesson for those stateside: Lego is the brand. One of the bricks is called a 'lego brick'. A collection of bricks is called 'lego bricks'. But there is no such thing as 'Legos'.
      - mercutio2 14y ago
        That's not how English vernacular works, sorry. LEGO is welcome to market its brand as an adjective, and English speakers are welcome to call them Legos, as every Lego-loving child and adult I've ever known personally does.
        codeulike 14y ago
        Normally I would agree with you; Language is open-source, people can adapt it as they like as long as they are commonly understood by those around them. But not in this case. Definitely not 'legos'. Never ; )
polshaw 14y 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 14y 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 14y ago
  Or maybe most of us who up voted knew it was PR and we want their PR to work?
douglasfshearer 14y 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=10&searchSort=P http://www.bricklink.com/search.asp?pg=1&q=10194&sz=...
gonzo 14y 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 14y 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 14y ago
    And the context is certainly appropriate.
- engtech 14y 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/ http://smallworks.com/ ) I love your slogan: "brick your phone"
- michaelbuckbee 14y 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.
jebblue 14y ago
There are 18 on Amazon? Did he not check there?
- ygra 14y ago
  Priced $229. Which is more than twice the price he expected. As noted in the article.
Avshalom 14y 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 14y 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.
scrumper 14y 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.
- dquigley 14y 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.
  - arethuza 14y ago
    Great idea - "Lego - Conference Call Set".
- jmj42 14y 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.
  - user24 14y 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.
    - drivers99 14y ago
      That is pretty cool. What did you do about face cards though?
jellicle 14y 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 14y 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 14y 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-blocks-are-killing-our-future/ http://betterwrappedinbacon.wordpress.com/2012/03/31/lego-bl...
    - Avshalom 14y ago
      that's not a comparison it's at best an anecdote.
    - iy56 14y ago
      Those are cherrypicked examples. 15 years ago they still had the custom horse, dragon, stone wall, etc pieces and today they still have sets of just plain pieces.
      - recoil 14y ago
        Longer ago than that... More than 30 years ago there were themed sets with somewhat custom pieces: http://letsbuilditagain.com/instructions/6630/ http://letsbuilditagain.com/instructions/6630/ http://letsbuilditagain.com/instructions/6880/ http://letsbuilditagain.com/instructions/6880/ (To pick 2 completely random examples) Back in '82 there weren't as many different themes (afaik there were maybe 4: space, town, castle and trains), but the concept definitely existed. Some might even argue about the gender-neutrality of those themes too: the majority of Lego I owned around that time was the space-themed stuff, and my sister had some of the town sets. In fact, as long ago as 1979 Lego brought out a range called Scala [1] that was targeted almost exclusively at girls (my wife has really fond memories of those sets!) [1] http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/Scala http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/Scala
Jupe 14y 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 14y 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 14y ago
Tears in my eyes after reading this, seeing the "What it is is beautiful" commercial and remembering. Everything.
smokinjoe 14y 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 14y ago
That's the most delightful random act of kindness that I've seen in a while. Bravo Lego!
snake_plissken 14y ago
Best LEGO sets ever? GO! SPACE POLICE http://paperspaceships.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/lego.jpg 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-intercoastal-seaport.html http://www.onetwobrick.net/2008/08/set-database-6541-interco...
nlavezzo 14y 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 14y 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? :)
- unreal37 14y 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 14y 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 14y 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 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego#Manufacture). Any LEGO fan knows the difference between the real deal and "compatible" sets.
outworlder 14y 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 14y ago
Awwwww...
bwag 14y 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 14y 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 14y 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 14y 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 14y ago
  Duplo is made by Lego (and Duplo bricks are compatible with Lego bricks).

557 points by wyclif 14y 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 14y ago
Any child who has the willpower to save for over two years would be crushed.
charlieok 14y 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/aspergers-label-gone-psychiatrists-change-diagnosis-manual-first-time-in-almost-20-years/2012/12/01/bf2c6c7a-3bef-11e2-9258-ac7c78d5c680_story_1.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/asperg...

nicholassmith 14y 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 14y ago
Have you never stood on a piece of lego? :)
- StavrosK 14y ago
  It was an amazing learning experience.
  - CaptainDecisive 14y ago
    When my wee boys stand on their Lego I see it as a wonderful teachable moment. Lego is a great company to provide me with so many educational opportunities.
    - nicholassmith 14y ago
      When you as a child stand on Lego you learn that you should tidy things away when done, when as an adult you stand on it you learn that you need to have a talk with the kid about tidying things away. Or to tidy it away after you've built another spaceship.
      - lutze 14y ago
        And when an adult stands on it in front of the kid, the kid learns lots of interesting new words! Lego: you're never not learning. The only real problem I have with Lego is the price of some of the items. A cursory search will bring you across £500 Technic sets... which is utterly bloody ridiculous.
  - gyardley 14y ago
    I used to jam those little castle Lego swords and spears into the stitching of the braided area rug in my bedroom, to create that authentic medieval battlefield look. When my dad tromped on one of those things after coming off the evening shift, it was a learning experience for both of us.
- arethuza 14y 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.
josephlord 14y 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.
- nicholassmith 14y 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.
  - koide 14y ago
    Some creative minds are more interested in nurseries and tea parties than in trains or robots. And it's natural for it to be so. It's evident once you have some kids. I truly wanted that not to be the case, but reality bites. For the PC crowd: This of course doesn't mean that girls will never play with robots or cars or that boys won't play with nurseries or tea parties. Of course a mix is healthy and should be encouraged. But the stereotypical preferences are truly marked in most cases, before parental intervention.
    - josephlord 14y ago
      To be honest I think my biggest complaints about lego are cost and that it is hard just to get a big bag of basic bricks. However I think the 'Friends' thing could have been better handled with modest tweaks. Why aren't there any boys/men in 'Friends'? What if boys want to play nurseries or tea parties. When I was young the lego characters were mostly gender free but it seems increasingly that the 'boys' lego increasingly has male characters (even outside the branded Harry Potter/Lord of the Rings stuff). All the Firefighters and Police seem to be men when they could have been much more gender neutral (or mixed genders) without loss of fun to boys or girls.
    - 14y ago
datr 14y 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 14y 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-needs-more-Meccano-and-less-Lego.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1333215/Why-Britain-n... [2] http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8Q-tdV67Suc/TfhcQxf63JI/AAAAAAAAATk/h32oKyL6xa0/s1600/MAWH_MECCANO.jpg http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8Q-tdV67Suc/TfhcQxf63JI/AAAAAAAAAT...
- eternalban 14y 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 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischertechnik [p.s.: http://www.fischertechnik.de/en/Home/info/computing.aspx http://www.fischertechnik.de/en/Home/info/computing.aspx "programming is child's play" /G ]
- nicholassmith 14y 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 14y ago
  And I thought construx were neat, that is one awesome construction set.
- xentronium 14y 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-01.jpg http://blogarchive.ru/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/konstruktor... * Photos of the manual: http://vasi.net/community/kartinki/2009/08/25/sovetskijj_konstruktor.html http://vasi.net/community/kartinki/2009/08/25/sovetskijj_kon...
belorn 14y 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 14y 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-1981-Lego-ad-634x857.jpg http://cdn.twentytwowords.com/wp-content/uploads/Awesome-198...
- pyre 14y 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.
- panzagl 14y 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 14y 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 14y 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.
potatolicious 14y 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 14y 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.
johncoltrane 14y 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 14y 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.

mytrile 14y ago

If this set means so much for this kid, his parents should have bought it. I'm not sure they cannot afford it when there are wireless headphones for $60 on the table

djt 14y 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 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Lego

z02d 14y ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdDU_BBJW9Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdDU_BBJW9Y
sareon 14y 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.
- djt 14y ago
  which book is it? I'd be interested to read it!
  - sareon 14y ago
    Literally ``The Lego Book'' - http://www.amazon.ca/Lego-Book-Dorling-Kindersley/dp/0756656230 http://www.amazon.ca/Lego-Book-Dorling-Kindersley/dp/0756656...

xsace 14y ago

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

larsmak 14y 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 14y 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 14y 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)
  - xsace 14y ago
    Actually I remember hearing over the radio some statistics like over 70% of engineer and architect played lego being kids.
- VexXtreme 14y 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 14y 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 14y 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 14y ago
I guess it's all about having valuable brand, IP and tie in deals with movies etc. See also Games Workshop.
- paulbennett 14y ago
  > I guess it's all about having valuable brand Yet still people call it Legos :(
  - codeulike 14y ago
    Haha. Yes, a quick lesson for those stateside: Lego is the brand. One of the bricks is called a 'lego brick'. A collection of bricks is called 'lego bricks'. But there is no such thing as 'Legos'.
    - mercutio2 14y ago
      That's not how English vernacular works, sorry. LEGO is welcome to market its brand as an adjective, and English speakers are welcome to call them Legos, as every Lego-loving child and adult I've ever known personally does.
      - codeulike 14y ago
        Normally I would agree with you; Language is open-source, people can adapt it as they like as long as they are commonly understood by those around them. But not in this case. Definitely not 'legos'. Never ; )

polshaw 14y 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 14y 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 14y ago
Or maybe most of us who up voted knew it was PR and we want their PR to work?

douglasfshearer 14y 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=10&searchSort=P http://www.bricklink.com/search.asp?pg=1&q=10194&sz=...

gonzo 14y 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 14y 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 14y ago
  And the context is certainly appropriate.
engtech 14y 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/ http://smallworks.com/ ) I love your slogan: "brick your phone"
michaelbuckbee 14y 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.

jebblue 14y ago

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

ygra 14y ago
Priced $229. Which is more than twice the price he expected. As noted in the article.

Avshalom 14y 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 14y 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.

scrumper 14y 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.

dquigley 14y 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.
- arethuza 14y ago
  Great idea - "Lego - Conference Call Set".
jmj42 14y 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.
- user24 14y 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.
  - drivers99 14y ago
    That is pretty cool. What did you do about face cards though?

jellicle 14y 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 14y 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 14y 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-blocks-are-killing-our-future/ http://betterwrappedinbacon.wordpress.com/2012/03/31/lego-bl...
  - Avshalom 14y ago
    that's not a comparison it's at best an anecdote.
  - iy56 14y ago
    Those are cherrypicked examples. 15 years ago they still had the custom horse, dragon, stone wall, etc pieces and today they still have sets of just plain pieces.
    - recoil 14y ago
      Longer ago than that... More than 30 years ago there were themed sets with somewhat custom pieces: http://letsbuilditagain.com/instructions/6630/ http://letsbuilditagain.com/instructions/6630/ http://letsbuilditagain.com/instructions/6880/ http://letsbuilditagain.com/instructions/6880/ (To pick 2 completely random examples) Back in '82 there weren't as many different themes (afaik there were maybe 4: space, town, castle and trains), but the concept definitely existed. Some might even argue about the gender-neutrality of those themes too: the majority of Lego I owned around that time was the space-themed stuff, and my sister had some of the town sets. In fact, as long ago as 1979 Lego brought out a range called Scala [1] that was targeted almost exclusively at girls (my wife has really fond memories of those sets!) [1] http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/Scala http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/Scala

Jupe 14y 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 14y 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 14y ago

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

smokinjoe 14y 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 14y ago

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

snake_plissken 14y ago

Best LEGO sets ever? GO! SPACE POLICE http://paperspaceships.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/lego.jpg 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-intercoastal-seaport.html http://www.onetwobrick.net/2008/08/set-database-6541-interco...

nlavezzo 14y 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 14y 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? :)

unreal37 14y 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 14y 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 14y 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 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego#Manufacture). Any LEGO fan knows the difference between the real deal and "compatible" sets.

outworlder 14y 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 14y ago

Awwwww...

bwag 14y 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 14y 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 14y 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 14y 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 14y ago
Duplo is made by Lego (and Duplo bricks are compatible with Lego bricks).