Lego PAB hubris

My hubris with the Lego pick'a'brick wall

With the opening of the Lego Certified Store at Dreamworld almost two months ago, I was excited that this meant the introduction of the pick'a'brick wall (PAB). I had never had access to the wall before so was unaware of the multitude of online tips and tricks for how to make the most of a PAB haul (I am not sure why I thought that this would be a frontier without Lego fanaticism demonstrating the best ways to get maximum value).

Unarmed with any knowledge I embarked on my first PAB haul. I needed 2x4 bricks for a project I am embarking on to make a display for my minifigures. These pieces run $0.30 from Lego directly or $0.20 from Bricklink. For me that was the target price, any extra Lego was a bonus. I decided to go with the large cup at $29.95, which seems to be better value than the $14.95 cup (although after watching youtube tips I am questioning this assessment).

PAB haul

My husband went along with me, although not a Lego fan he is very supportive of my Lego hobby (obsession), and is always wiling to lend a hand. Between us we had multiple cups on the go, testing different ways to stack bricks and maximise space. Eventually he hit on a great method - 6 stacks of 2x4 bricks with 15 bricks per stack so 90 2x4 bricks in total placed in the centre of the cup. I was pretty happy with that number. We also made some stacks of 4x4 flat base plates and then went to town pouring small pieces down the sides, in-between and in the top of the cup - basically anywhere Lego would fit, it went!

I was chuffed, I was sure I had achieved maximum value in my PAB. I brought it home and began the weighing and sorting process. I was impressed with myself as I had managed to score 460 grams of Lego. However, on exploring what other people manage to cram into their PAB cup my initial hubris about my efforts was somewhat diminished. 

Made in China

Made in China: Still a mark of poor quality?

Lego Factory in Jiaxing

On 18 March 2013, Lego announced that it would be building a new Lego factory in the Jiaxing provence in China; some 100 kilometres from Shanghai. The plan for the new factory was to service the Asian market, which had been a strong growth market for Lego seeing a 30% to 50% increase annually. This is undoubtedly due to the growing middle class throughout Asia.

Then in January 2016, the new Disneyland in Shanghai announced its full retail line-up, which would include Lego's first owned and operated flagship store in Asia. The speculation around whether the store would open on the same day as the park was high, and Lego finally made the exciting announcement that the store would open on 16 June 2016 along with the new Disneyland! The store is the largest Lego store in the world (perhaps I can convince my husband to take an Asia road trip for our 10 year wedding anniversary! - wish me luck).

Lego Store Disneyland Shanghai

By 25 November 2016, Lego opened the factory in Jiaxing. The factory is only Lego's fifth in the world, covering over 160,000 square meters and employing around 1,200 staff. It is tipped to supply 80% of the bricks for Lego products sold in Asia. Lego have commented that this should enable new release Lego products to be distributed and sold within Asia much sooner than is currently the case.

This push made me wonder - does a 'Made in China' marker on a Lego product impact its perceived value and quality? For a long time China has been the cheap manufacturing arm of the world and generally that has been due to the lower quality products. There is no better example than the landmark Lego lawsuit in 2003 against Coko Toy Company. Lego commenced a copyright suit against Coko in 1999 when they saw 'Made in China' versions of their popular castles and pirate ships. In a judgement handed down by the Beijing High People's Court they ruled in Lego's favour and ordered Coko to publish an apology to Lego. This was China's first opportunity to demonstrate its seriousness about protecting intellectual property rights since it joined the World Trade Organisation in 2001. Since that time there have been an abundance of Lego imposters in the Chinese market. 

Even today, while Lego is trying to grow its foothold in Asia, it is in a bitter battle with Lepin over its IP rights given Lepin's blatant copying of popular Lego models, in particular retired modulars that go for hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in the secondhand Lego market. This is made all the worse by many Lego executives being unable to tell the difference between some Lepin and Lego products at first sight.

Lepin Fire Brigade - $80 v/s Lego Fire Brigade - $500-$700

Living in Australia I am concerned that some of the Lego products hitting our market will be coming out the Chinese factory and I am sceptical about whether the quality will be retained.  While I appreciate that Lego spent around 12 months operating the factory before bringing it officially online, all to test quality, I question whether they are willing to retain a 24/7, 365 presence to ensure standards do not slip. Time and again we have seen Chinese manufacturing plagued by problems; high levels of metals in baby formula, contaminated canned food and bleach used for meat production. All these issues drove a blackmarket of 'clean and green' products from the countries with higher manufacturing standards; that is how people in Australia were getting $200 for a tin of baby formula. 

So given the history, why does Lego believe that it is above these issues? Or do they believe that they are better equipped to manage them? There is little information directly from Lego on these issues so these are just my musings and for now I will reserve judgement. 

I would love to hear your thoughts, fears, concerns, excitement or other general cogitations about Lego's move into Asia and the maintenance of quality or the appearance of quality.

Yours in brick

C

Lego Fact of the Week

Lego 6093 from 1998

Did you know that in 1998 Lego was an original inductee to the National Toy Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame is managed by The Strong - National Museum of Play located in New York, USA. To enter the Hall of Fame a toy is judged against four criteria - icon-status, longevity, discovery and innovation. Lego entered the Hall of Fame with other toy staples such as Barbie and Monopoly. Since 1998, 62 toys have been entered into the Hall of Fame. If you would like to submit a toy for consideration of the Hall of Fame see: http://www.toyhalloffame.org/nominate. 

Lego Fact of the Week

Lego errors

Did you know that Lego is so well manufactured that only approximately 18 out of every 1,000,000 bricks fails to meet their standards. I bet Volkswagen wished its manufacturing process was so precise!

Lego - World Domination?

Side & back view of the Pistenbully

Is world domination enough for Lego?

Lego and its fans never miss an opportunity to advance Lego to a new frontier, in this case continent. In December 2016, two Lego models, designed by AFOLS, were sent to Antarctica; putting Lego on every continent on Earth. This is quite an inspirational effort and something that we have all come to expect of Lego and its followers as ingenuity and imagination are never far away.

Lego Pistenbully at South Pole

One of the Lego designs to appear at the South Pole came from two Australian builders - Tim and his brother Jeremy. They were only given two days notice to design, build and pack the Lego for its unparalleled journey. They chose to develop a Lego version of the Pistenbully.

A key feature of this vehicle is a radar mounted on a tyre that extends from the front of the vehicle; looking down into the snow to check for hidden crevasses that a vehicle may fall into (an important bit of kit in a remote, snow laden environment!).

Lego Pistenbully showing off national pride

The model designed by Tim and Jeremy is an excellent facsimile of the real life vehicle, even faithfully capturing the pile of bamboo attached to the back. In true Australian pride photos were sent from the South Pole showing the little Lego model's place in history.

The second Lego model to be captured at the South Pole comes from The Brothers Brick, who were contacted by Ethan Rudnitsky, who was spending the winter at the US Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. They were specifically asked to provide instructions for a Lego replica of the LC-130 Hercules. The LC-130 Hercules is used to transport people to and from the Station, which can only be accessed between November and February each year.

The builders from The Brothers Brick did a great job in designing the model. As you can see here it is an exact replica of the LC-130 Hercules, with identical sticker decals and a loyal recreation of the plane's shape.

I wonder if any of the scientists at the South Pole are testing the temperature limits of the Lego. 



So, as if conquering all continents wasn't enough, Lego partnered with NASA to put minifigures onboard the Juno Space Probe. The Probe was launched in August 2011 bound for Jupiter; entering its orbit in July 2016. There are three minifigures:

• Jupiter - Roman god - King of Mt Olympus (Zeus in Greek mythology)
• Juno - Roman god - Queen of Mt Olympus (Hera in Greek mythology)
• Galileo Galilei - Renaissance polymath (astronomer, physicist, engineer, philosopher and mathematician) who, in 1610, discovered four of the largest satellites of Jupiter; named the Galilean moons.

Left to right: Galileo, Juno and Jupiter

These minifigures are truly befitting their role in history. They are made of a special space-grade aluminium and were tested to ensure that they could withstand the mission. 

I must say that I find these relationships formed by Lego with pioneering projects inspiring. They invoke in me the same sense as when I watch West Wing (Season 2, Episode 9) and in the opening everyone's favourite fictional President remarks upon the next probe - Galileo V - and the adventure you feel just by repeating the name, which should cause 'your imagination, like a child, [to] explode with unrestrained possibilities for adventure'. I feel it is the same here - Jupiter, Juno and Galileo left the Earth's atmosphere bound for another planet where humans have never travelled. I must say, if minifigures really would be the largest population on Earth, they would also be the most interesting with exciting adventures not bound in reality but expressed through unlimited creativity. Which minifigure would you want as your ideal dinner guest?

Jupiter with a superimposed Juno

Acknowledgements to brickingaround.com (http://brickingaround.com/2017/03/03/lego-at-the-south-pole/#more-16514), the brother's own blog (http://imgur.com/gallery/skjPL) and The Brothers Brick (http://www.brothers-brick.com/2016/12/31/lego-hercules-travels-south-pole-interview/) for bringing these stories to life so that all Lego fans could share in the awesomeness of seeing Lego on every continent.

Lego Fact of the Week

1978 Minifigures

Did you know that the first Lego minifigure was produced in 1978 and since that time so many Lego minifigures have been produced that they represent the largest population on Earth. 

A physics student from the US calculated population growth against the production of minifigures and predicts that by 2019 there will be over 9 billion minifigures alongside some 8 billion people.

Lego Ideas Review

On 28 February 2017, Lego announced the completion of the second Lego Ideas Review for 2016. This review considered 12 Lego fan models that each reached 10,000 votes from the Lego community. There were some great contenders, including buildings that I personally would have loved to have seen explored, but ultimately Lego chose:

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See the full announcement here: https://ideas.lego.com/blogs/blog

This is not unexpected given the direction of many of the other Lego Ideas sets, including:

• 2012 - Hayabusa
• 2014 - NASA Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover
• 2014 - Exo Suit
• 2014 - Research Institute (Female scientists)
• 2015 - WALL-E
• Apollo 11 Saturn V (to come).

Lego Ideas seems to be the place that most Lego fans are actively expressing their love of the space theme, which has been a staple of Lego for many years, but appears to have lost momentum in current catalogues despite its ongoing popularity.

The Women of NASA model reached its 10,000 votes in 15 days, making it one of, if not the, fastest fan model to reach the required votes. The Lego community is clearly sending Lego a message - give us more space (the theme, don't leave us Lego)!

For those who don't know, here are some facts about the Lego Ideas project:

• Launched in 2008, the project was formerly known as CUUSOO, which is a Japanese partner of the Lego Group. The project was limited to Japan (and only required 1,000 votes) until Lego broadened the CUUSOO concept in April 2011 (and required 10,000 votes).
• In 2014, Lego went further to rebrand the project as Lego Ideas.
• Even products that do not make it through a Lego Ideas Review may still turn up in the Lego catalogue. For example, the Tumbler, Ghostbusters Firehouse HQ, Wizard of Oz and Portal sets were all rejected through the review process but were released as sets and sub themes within Lego Dimensions.

I really like the Lego Ideas project as it provides an outlet for the Lego community to share its creativity and develop sets that do not have to align with current themes.

I would love to hear about whether any of you have submitted an idea, voted on an idea or general thoughts about the value of the Lego Ideas project.

Yours in brick

C