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from the plastic-free-plastic....-what'll-they-think-of-next dept.
The company will spend $1 billion and employ a team of 100 to find a sustainable alternative.
Although plastic may be one of the bigger banes of the environment, I've always secretly admired Lego for making toys that are so durable and historically consistent that they don't require replacement on a regular basis. I know plastic is awful, but all Lego would have to do is to revamp the toys' connecting system and zillions of eventually non-relevant Legos would have been sent packing to the landfill to make way for new ones; and Lego would have ensured a tidy profit on the sales of replacements. But they never did that. Plus, a distinct lack of planned obsolescence is a kind thing to provide for customers.
Given the Danish company's track record on sustainability, it doesn't seem like a fluke. They have been working on reducing packaging and have investments in offshore wind farms. Last year they discontinued their partnership with the oil company Shell. But it's their latest announcement that seals the deal. The company plans to replace the plastic in their plastic blocks with a sustainable material by 2030.
The biggest question is, will Lego ever produce general blocks again that you can use to build anything? Now their kits only build exactly the thing on the front of the box, such as a dragon or spaceship.
OriginalSubmission
(Score: 5, Informative) by CRCulver on Saturday June 27 2015, @08:51AM
What a troll question, and sadly one that pops up in virtually every discussion of Lego on news for nerds sites. The slightest bit of investigation will show that, yes, Lego still makes big buckets [amazon.com] of general Lego pieces that you can still use to build anything you can imagine.
(Score: 4, Informative) by vux984 on Saturday June 27 2015, @09:12AM
Bingo. Granted the specific sets outnumber the generics 100:1 but that's the nature of the beast... what exactly would differentiate 100 sets of generic blocks? Nothing. That's the point of generic blocks.
Not only do the they have the bins... but they have the 3in1 kits; which are quite good. The lego academy master builder stuff is literally an idea box to get builders to do their own inventions.
The entire point of the lego movie was to build your own creations; mix the sets up; and just play. Seriously... even the lego sets that can only build "one thing"... once you've got 3 or 4 of them... especially if from different themes... and if you can't come up with something new... that's on you, not lego. The lego movie sets themselves are pretty awesome -- I've got Benny's spaceship; which is one of the best lego space sets ever made. But I think my absolute favorite is that podracer style vehicle built with castle wall parts.
http://www.amazon.com/LEGO-Movie-70806-Castle-Cavalry/dp/B00GSPFD26 [amazon.com]
Because everyone always says "the castle walls" pieces can only be used for castle walls.
Seriously anyone with a lego castle and a couple star wars sets... can do some pretty fun stuff.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 27 2015, @09:25AM
The *number* of specific sets is very high, but according to sales rank on amazon.com, the two *most popular* Lego sets are:
the "minecraft cave" set which although it's a "specific" set, it's actually composed entirely of classic pieces (sales rank #40, $15)
the LEGO Classic Medium Creative Brick Box (sales rank #58, $30)
(Score: 4, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 27 2015, @09:39AM
What is wrong with you people? I thought everyone knew you just built what you were supposed to once, then tear it apart and use your imagination to make as many things as possible with the same set. Eventually the pieces get mixed in with all the rest and you get to work on bigger and weirder projects. What is on the box and in the instructions are more inspiration than rules. It is the same thought process as programming. Get various blocks, look at what other people did with them then create something no one has made before.
Then again I don't at all understand people that buy Lego sets for their collection value and never use them. That is like buying icecream and choosing to never eat it. Absurd.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 27 2015, @09:58PM
Then again I don't at all understand people that buy Lego sets for their collection value and never use them. That is like buying icecream and choosing to never eat it. Absurd.
I'd say it was more like buying comics and never opening them, or wine and never drinking it. People that do that are treating it like an investment and hoping they will be worth a lot more in the future.
(Score: 1) by Francis on Saturday June 27 2015, @12:15PM
What separates them is largely a matter of precision. If you buy Lego brand bricks you know they'll fit exactly right. Here in China there's quite a few brands and I don't know which ones are properly compatible.
Other than the extremely tight tolerances needed to get the blocks to fit together without falling apart, there isn't much difference.