A Lego Easter Bonanza

So I have been a bit remiss in doing any posts recently, partly laziness, partly work has been sapping my will to live and partly I have been busy with my Lego pursuits. Being a member of a couple of Registered Lego User Groups (RLUG) there have been some building competitions for us AFOLs and children alike.

Competition 1

For 2x4 day, namely 2 April 2016, Jay's Brick Blog ran a competition to see what people could build with only 2x4 Lego bricks. This was more challenging than I anticipated, and as a lot of my Lego supplies are in storage I had to rely on the Lego Digital Designer (LDD) to formulate my design. 

This was my first foray into LDD land and I must say it was not necessarily easy or intuitive to use. I struggled through and eventually got the hang of how to make the software work for me to build me design.

My 2x4 day entry

I ended up going with a representation of the London Underground symbol as I lived in London for a couple of years and was feeling nostalgic given the recent terror incident. Now, as you may recall from my introductory post, I have no ability to visualise, which makes creating my own designs a very difficult challenge so I was pretty happy with how my design turned out given it could only consist of 2x4 bricks.

Lego 42065 Review

Lego Technic 42065 - RC Tracked Racer Review

So this is my first review of an actual Lego build and I must confess to you all that it has taken a while for me to get to as I have not wanted to stop playing with my new toy!

The Lego Technic RC Tracked Racer is Lego's modern foray into the remote controlled car space. Granted, most technic sets can be motorised but this set has been specifically designed by Lego to serve two masters - Lego toy and RC toy. 

I assume if you are reading a review about this Lego model then you are probably considering purchasing it but just in case you need it, here are the details:

Item: Lego Technic 42065 - RC Tracked Racer 

Piece count: 370 + motor functions
AU Price: $119
Availability: Most major physical and online retailers 
Average discount: 25% in 2017
Battery requirements: 3 x AAA, 6 x AA

The Lego build

The build of the actual RC was quite satisfying. It was fairly straightforward, as you can imagine with only 370 pieces, but was quality nonetheless. It was interesting to see how the track function would come together to give the RC its unique tank like handling.

The motor functions fit neatly within the body of the RC racer. Lego has really thought about the access to the motor functions and made the body easy to lift to turn the function on/off.

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.