LEGO Employee: *Makes a huge and expensive mistake* LEGO: "It's ok, we're all human. Here, let's get you some better lighting so this doesn't happen again." You love to see it.
@@The_Shadow_Emperor Where? What countries were affected by this is important since in Scandinavian countries there's a large social safety net to catch people in that situation and getting fired is far from the end of the world.
Assuming this was somewhere in Europe and that this was an honest mistake, firing that person would have simply been illegal and thus not an option. This was not corporate niceness, but worker protection laws at their best.
That's probably because LEGO is a Danish company, I'm sure that firing people is lot harder or even illegal in Denmark and most of Europe. If LEGO was American, I'm sure they'll yell "you're fired!!!" at their employees instead of adding better lighting.
Small fun fact: in 2008 the pieces declined in quality because lego decided to save some money on plastic injectors, getting ones that cool down much quicker, causing the plastic to lose durability. The greatest victim was bionicle line in 2008, where durability of the pieces was pretty important. The biggest victim however was any set using lime green pieces, which cracked in few minutes of use.
The very first set I bought for my own money was almost the last, due to some similar screwup years earlier. Back in 1992, I bought a set called "Space Shuttle Transporter", 6346, after having saved up for months.... and then parts started cracking as I built it. Antenna/lever bases, clips, the cup pieces used for the exhaust stacks, the 1x1 brick with vertical bars, the 1x2s with vertical ribs on one side and horizontal on the other side, the five-finger hinge plates, the 1x8 tiles.... everything cracked, just from normal play. I didn't buy anything else from Lego for more than two decades after that, though I got a couple of sets as gifts that stood up a little better.
Mad respect for not blaming the worker, this is a classic example of "people are imperfect, so the process has to be designed to account for that. If it does not, then there is a problem with the process, not the person".
None of them fall into the "catastrophic failure" category, not even taken together. Let's talk about LEGO's current brick quality. uneven color shades, injection residues, even on premium sets. that's the catastrophe.
A good one to mention is the new UCS republic gunship, in which the box and instructions had a misprint where the Republic insignia, they printed the imperial insignia instead. It was hugely noticeable and they had to stop producing the sets for a bit to produce the corrected ones.
A recalled set to mention: Lego 8939 Lesovikk, a 2007 Bionicle box set exclusive to Walmart that was released with a missing piece, shortly re-released with all pieces accounted for. Had to get Bionicle in there 😉
He probably loaded plastic pellets into a machine that actually makes the bricks and loaded the wrong color pellets. I can't see a guy bagging up that many pieces but a machine could make and bag that many in pretty short order.
I would like to point out how LEGO's rules of what's appropriate are strange As they won't make any sets based on military but they will make Nazis for the Indiana Jones sets. And make characters like Joker, Deadshot, Harley Quinn, Killer Croc, Captain Boomerang, Deathstroke, Two-Face, Penguin, Riddler, Red Skull, Crossbones who are all comic book characters who notably have committed quite a few heinous actions over the course of their long history as characters.
Unfortunately, those are the franchise's that sell. Before they started making their first Star Wars sets the company was in trouble. Sales were declining as the pieces don't wear out and people were passing them down through families. The themed sets did a bit to revive the company's fortunes, but nowhere near as much as taking up product licences did.
They will sacrifice these policies really fast in the coming years, since their customer base is no longer kids (as can be seen in what kind of sets they sell and for what price) but adults. They are essentially going from making creative toys to making one-build models. And when these customers want military stuff, they will get it...or they will take their money to Cobi and other brick companies that DO specialize in those themes. Unfortunately, with the declining overall quality of their bricks and lackluster sets, into which a unicorn threw up, they are losing customers so fast, they resorted to going from finding creative engineers and designers to stocking up on lawyers. If your product sales decline due to the competition having better quality and ideas, suing them is much more profitable than getting better products and ideas yourself. There are over 100 hundred companies out there that make brick-based sets. Most are not on LEGOs level, a dozen or so are and a hand full are even better.
Lego saying they won’t do Military stuff as if a bunch of the Indiana Jones sets from like a decade ago didn’t have literal Nazi and Soviet mini figs with Military vehicles in them lmao
Yeah HS I wasn't too fond of as although I brought a set I couldn't find the app in the Google Play Store and I was told my phone should work with it. It was like having the venue but no show. As for G2 Bionicle, the sets didn't seem too bad; to me it was the lore that sucked, especially with how it was addressed (no comics or books, just 2-3 min vids. Probably why it only lasted a few years and Lego knew it.
The cynic in me guesses that LEGO found a way to get rid of that employee once nobody was paying attention anymore. Perhaps they just put him somewhere, where he couldn't possibly do that much damage.
It could be the gearbox problems, as well, in a combined cause. The military connection might make the company look more ethical, though, rather than just hiring sloppy designers...
It's ironic too, as the Osprey is - like the Chinook & Huey - not explicitly a military vehicle... but Lego has always been hypocritical & daft on stuff like this. Still: more money for Kobi or Megabloks, when inevitably they release one.
@@jimtaylor294 all the research was led by military, so it wouldn't have even been mass produced if the US of A wasn't using it to monopolize power globally 😉 also wished we would've had it, but I'm not gonna call someone daft for sticking to a set of principles
There are reviews where this theory is tested, and while the clutch does impressively work to prevent motor damage from blocked rotors, it does look/feel a bit delicate
Okay the crooks set really confuses me They are concerned the set ''goes against their values'' ? Lego have went back on their values so many times now their ''values'' dont mean diddley
As strange as it is to say, this is likely what happened: If you recall, that was around the time that BLM (black lives matter) reached a new peak. A big part of the BLM protesting at the time was against Police Brutality, with many berating the police, calling for them to be defunded, etc. Now it is just a theory, but I'm imagining Lego decided not to release the set because it featured active police officers, which, sadly, would go against the 'media storm' at the time. In fact it is around this time they stopped selling a few other police-themed sets as well, if I recall correctly.
The reason of the cancellation of the "Osprey" is quite dubious as they had already released 3 other sets tied to the real military, although old ones: 10226 and 3451 Sopwith Camel (including machine guns) and set 10024 the most (in)famous blood red Fokker DR.I Triplane flown by the (in)famous Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen.
I think one of the reasons they were fine releasing those sets is because they are depicting planes from WW1 . In the company's early years, the company's creator, Ole Kirk Christiansen, created the policy that they would never depict modern war in their toys because of the 2nd World War happening at the time. Now of course they've broken this rule for licensed themes like Indiana Jones and Captain America, but, it does explain why they've made unlicensed sets and minifigures depicting Union soldiers in their western theme, as well as minifigures based off of Continental soldiers from the Revolutionary war
@@crash8542 yeah i just started to think something similar. If it's modern military Lego has a policy against, which i guess can include anything from 1980-present, anything before that would probably be considered "historical." The Sopwith Camel set, both the late 1990s and 2002 versions, were from WWI and were probably considered historical, if this is making sense (honestly, when was the last time a WWI plane was used in Iraq or Afghanistan?)
@@djk6297 I think that they just make that specific rule to avoid some themes like WWII, Cold war ETC... but why do we have star wars? i mean, the imperium it's just based on nazi germany, they uniforms kindda look the same
@@mrkeykush693 when you mean imperium do you mean the first order? In the seventh movie when the general is giving that speech followed by starkiller base unleashing that blast to destroy those planets, that assemblage it did remind me of a rally, black symbol on white background on red banner and all, minus the planet-destroying blast. Heck, aside from star wars, stormtroopers were also a German force. As for Lego and how they're allowing sets could mainly be the license contract they've had with star wars. Let's face it, it's been Lego's longest running theme and one of the best selling. Perhaps lego has to make sets or it could violate the contract. Other than that, while star wars exhibits some WWII elements, its not direct, and it's more scifi, so it doesn't violate Lego's terms.
@@djk6297 "honestly, when was the last time a WWI plane was used in Iraq or Afghanistan?" 1st World War plane, good point. But 1st World War *tank*? Renault FTs were found in Afghanistan in the 2000s.
That's very nice of them to not fire or punish the employee for the mistake and extremly nice to hear that there's companies that don't fire or punish employees for mistakes.
Other companies when a worker fucks up: "YOU'RE FIRED" LEGO when an employee makes a mistake: "Nah, man, it's cool. Clearly we must've set you up for failure somehow. Let's fix that, shall we?"
Another possible reason the dynamite factory was cancelled was because Lego thought it resembled police brutality, as the set itself depicts a police raid on a criminal hideout
this is the correct answer- at the time IIRC was when there were multiple protests against police brutality by American cops against black Americans. The police in America has become more and more militarized and LEGO smartly read the room.
@@nilzero5686 Except that there's quite a bit of police brutality that was wildly blown out of proportion or even brazenly lied about. Even now there's a bunch of incidents that despite all evidence showing justified shootings, people will still call them unjustified brutality. Not so fun fact, one of the very first cities to become a victim of violent "anti-police" riots in recent history was Ferguson, and Ferguson burned in memory of a person who was shot by police while quite literally in the process of committing a massive violent crime spree across the city. I legitimately kid you not, the list of crimes committed in that single night by the guy shot reads like a 5-⭐ GTA rapsheet. And Ferguson still gets treated like a case of brutality.
So Lego is not selling Military Vehicles? I remember that Lego in the early 2000s had a Set depicting the Redbarron Set Number 10024... Red Baron you know imperial Germanys fighter pilot? They canceled the civillian Osprey but delivered the Richthoven plane?
@@coltpiecemaker I did specifically remember the Red Barron but yeah when I think about it in the catalogue they had a British WWI plane… Yeah it has been the sopwith camel 10226… They even have a Fighter out in this moment… What if not a military vehicle is the supersonic jet 31126
On numerous occasions Lego has made sets resembling military vehicles. such as in 2013 released a creator set where one of the options was to make a vtol plane similar to the banned Boeing one.
LEGO: We will never sell you anything that looks even remotely military; war isn't fun! Also LEGO: Yo, wanna see the latest ludicrously priced Star *Wars* sets?
I'm still salty for the osprey because it was a model I actually wanted and also because yep, the aircraft was used in real war but as far as I know it was used as medevac, not in combat
@@Kuro_Nguyen So next to none? The majority of military transports are armed, because protecting oneself is pretty damn important when you're in a huge steel death box fighting people who know that the big car is the one with the people in it, and so focus on that transport. Or is it just a matter of making a real transport but taking the weapon off? So you can have a Stryker APC or something, but it just can't have a gun up top?
@@skoiloine5809 NGL I would happily buy a Technic M1A2 Abrahms. Would not even hesitate. Would be the first technic set released since the 8455 I wanted to buy in fact.
That Osprey debacle is such a bs. I mean, didn't they somewhat recently released the 31039 "Blue Power Jet" clearly patterned after the F-35 fighter? Not to mention that 90% of their Star Wars line, while fictional, has stronger militare connection than civilian SAR version of the Osprey.
At my summer job teaching young kids I enjoyed using the build-anything sets to make "un-PC" stuff like tanks and jukebox cars (to which some girls added a water slide... what a missed opportunity for those IRL manufacturers in the 50's). I was working on a WW2 Japanese aircraft carrier, but didn't get time to finish it.
that story about the worker mistake is incredible. At my company my product manager told the story about how a QA guy messed up, costed alot of money and then got fired. He was so proud of that firing
Legos has really come down in quality. Their sets are super overpriced, and they don't even require much building. They've replaced small pieces with big chunks of plastic.
I remember they were doing the same thing circa 2007, as apparently kids like the "instant gratification" of videogames, so they "want a toy straight away" without "wasting time" building it. Apparently these people were never kids themselves. Anyway they went back to basics for a while, but appear to have since gone back back to complicateds. So to speak.
speaking of catastrophic mistakes... 1. Town Jr, 2. Jack Stone, 3. Galidore, 4. LEGO's decision to change the main shade of classic light grey, classic dark grey, and classic light brown to light bley, dark bley and reddish brown. This decision was made because "focus groups" thought that the new shades "looked better". I know there were a lot of fans who quit collecting because the new elements didn't go with the older sets they had collected already. What was worse was LEGO's management said the decision was "locked" and "final" without talking to any other interested stakeholders.
When it comes to the Technic Osprey, the weird thing imo is that it was canceled so late. LEGO was always kinda weird in its policies, especially with the Indiana Jones theme. But here I feel like LEGO should have addressed the potential controversy with the Osprey quite a bit sooner.
LEGO: "We will not produce military themed products, EVER." Also LEGO: "These Star Wars models of space fighters, space tanks, space soldiers, and space WARSHIPS are okay!"
7:21 yet i recall old western style sets having minifigure scale dynamite... 8:00 and this is where companies like megablox raise ahead because kids especially young boys like this sort of thing and honestly the Osprey is a transport for the most part and doesn't really carry weapons aside from some defensive ones, apparently they picked a arm or non-navy version as it's missing the refueling probe.
Actually the three biggest mistakes in Lego's history are: 1) not understanding the cost of their sets correctly which almost sent the company bankrupt 2) the browning issue which plagued sets for a number of years in the early 2010s. This caused brown pieces to shatter and chip and left many fans unhappy. 3) the transition from old grey to the newer bluish- hued greys. This drive many Afols away from lego for a time as the new colour dropped without warning and is aesthetically incompatible with the old grey.
"Some people will find any reason to file a lawsuit against a hugh company like Lego". This one is really funny knowing what the company does itself all the time.
Part of the street sweeper thing is that not very long before this that was produced, there was a major controversy with a gun called the street sweeper. It was a drum magazine fed semi-automatic shotgun called the street sweeper. It's marketing was a little odd. People found it very threatening and the government stepped in. They probably didn't want to be connected to something like that because the product shared the same name
It’s weird that Lego will go so far to not make any sets that resemble the military or violence. When they made soldiers and ww2 vehicles for Indiana Jones sets without a problem
Amazing that a search and rescue Osprey is too militant but they have 3 sets representing specific WW1 fighter aircraft, with appropriate markings, color schemes, and machine guns.
It's nothing compared to what happened to Lego's rival Mega Bloks. In the peak of their success they bought a company that made among other things, a knockoff of geomag. This got them involved in the whole "strong magnets are dangrous" scandal and lead to a massive recall which from what I can tell basically broke the company. What was left was eventually bought by Mattel.
I was hoping to see mention of Power Miners. I remember loving the set i got from that franchise, only for it to disappear entirely, and i never knew why LEGO discontinued it; i still don’t know why
I understand that LEGO doesn't make military sets, however, I made a Navy base with an aircraft carrier, battle cruiser, Submarine, Destroyer and a Cruiser for my Lego City. All brick built. Most are MOCs. Hello from Japan 🗾🇯🇵
The color packaging mistake is what's knows as a "process indicator". I'm certain in the end even after the mistake they were happy to have had an opportunity to make a process improvement.
It is a bit hypocritical to avoid military but produce hundreds of sets with Star Wars. Dozens of lasers, cannons, Fighter ships and walking tanks, war droids and Something called a “death star “that destroys whole planets! 😗🤣 (❤️Lego)
Lego: we refuse to make models that can be linked to (real world) military vehicles (with possible exception if linked to a major IP, see Indiana Jones sets) Cobi: History/military nerd, we'll take your money, here is your favorite ship/tank/plane
I was just curious after you mentioned the steamboat willie thing and checked mine that I got with Christmas money and I guess no one shops around me because mine said #24 P.s. I already opened and built it P.s.s. no I will not be selling the box because one most of the value went away when I'd opened it and 2 I got it because of my love for animation and its history
Lego needs to lighten up on the no-military-sets policy. They could sell alot of sets around that theme, especially to their adult customers. Remember, LEGO, WE'RE the ones with the money.
A recent set that vanished from the Lego site and from stores, like it no long exists: Lego Brand Store set 40574. It was a brand new set this year and it’s already gone, like no record of it on the Lego site.
Wasn’t there a LEGO Toy Story set with the soldiers and a little Willys Jeep? What about the Indiana Jones sets with “very mean Germans?” But a search and rescue V-22 is too much? Strange.
Yeah,the Idniana Jones sets which they've made several had the "very mean Germans" in the WW2 style vehicles. I agree,that is conflicting and odd about there policy. 😐
@@Mr.AtheTriggerGalleon6310 I think is about military stuff coming directly from THEM specifically. Indiana jones is not theirs and so the inclusion if the "very mean germans" is not theirs
I feel the difference is between making a set about a story with bad people and making a set about bad people. To make an extreme example, Lego could never make a set about "very mean germans", like a model of the car guided by "a failed Austrian painter", because in some way such a set could be interpreted as a way to portray them in a good way. But making a set about a story where the "very mean germans" are defined (by the story itself) as bad is different. If you think about it, any of the vehicles from Star Wars are basically military, but they come from a story where the good and the bad people are well defined and, most importantly, LEGO as a company does not take any responsibility in the morality compass of the portrayed characters.
@@giannipiccioni8411 Absolutely agree, although I did some research, and unfortunately a group called the German Peace Society essentially threatened to “cancel” Lego if they released the set, as it was directly licensed by the V-22’s manufacturer Boeing, and they would in turn get a cut of the sales. I don’t know about you, but to me that’s the most 2020 reason imaginable. 🙃
It’s not that the Osprey is a military craft. It’s that it has a reputation of killing its passengers due to the multiple accidents and crashes it’s experienced during its shakedown period.
A recent mistake was the technic formula 1 car that had a company's name on the tires without the license. Lego reissued the set without the name on the tires
Funny they said that they didn't fire the guy but then they automated the entire packing process taking human error completely off the table years later.
At the Renaissance Festival a little girl had dropped her teddy bear in the crowd gathering at the jousting field. The bear got kicked several time until it went under the rail. The little girl was crying to I went through the railing to retrieve it. When I handed it back to her she borrowed her father's sword and knighted me as, "Defender of the small and helpless, and Champion of the hopeless cause".
Ya that grey brick lighting issue. ....I've been there. lol I'm surprised by Lego's 'no military stuff' policy. Like I understand the premise but they take it too far like with the no grey bricks, no ospray rescue vehicle, etc... But then they'll make an entire castle line for 10+years with only 2-non military buildings(blacksmith & Inn) and very few pesants. ...as a kid I was looking at the 'City' sets and wondering why there were no Medieval Windmill, Tavern, Farm, etc.. sets.
8:15 The Ospey has never been used for search and rescue; the USN was considering the aircraft for military search and rescue, but chose an alternative in 2001.
"Didn't align with the brand's values" my @ŕ$3. They canceled the dynamite hideout because of politics, especially when they also for a hot minute were seriously considering discontinuing the entire Police _and Fire_ subthemes (plus the White House Architecture set) at the exact same time. It was absurd then, and it's absurd now. Edit: The Osprey was BS too. Especially when the Coast Guard is entirely a branch of the Military. LEGO internally clearly doesn't actually really care about their own guidelines.
Weird how Lego didn't go through with the VTOL craft for being too military, but then there's the Indiana Jones sets with a German military aircraft and Russian soldier transports, and there's the Toy Story Army Jeep set.
People are getting snowflakey here because of the better lightning for the worker and forget that Lego is as any other big company - only greed fuels it.
LEGO Employee: *Makes a huge and expensive mistake*
LEGO: "It's ok, we're all human. Here, let's get you some better lighting so this doesn't happen again."
You love to see it.
Also Lego when profits decrease by 5%: *Hands pink slip to 1,400 employees*
Meanwhile at any other company:
*Fired*
Hey that's a really great way to handle it I think.
They have insurance for these kind of mistakes
The lights are a nice tax wright off
And they can always fire him later for a " different" reason 😋
@@The_Shadow_Emperor Where? What countries were affected by this is important since in Scandinavian countries there's a large social safety net to catch people in that situation and getting fired is far from the end of the world.
Absolutely love that LEGO added better lighting instead of firing.
Better to find the long term fix then the fire the guy and hope this doesn't happen again
Assuming this was somewhere in Europe and that this was an honest mistake, firing that person would have simply been illegal and thus not an option. This was not corporate niceness, but worker protection laws at their best.
That's probably because LEGO is a Danish company, I'm sure that firing people is lot harder or even illegal in Denmark and most of Europe.
If LEGO was American, I'm sure they'll yell "you're fired!!!" at their employees instead of adding better lighting.
In Europe it is normal for companies to improve the workplace for errors to never occur again instead of firing
it's nice to see lego adopting the "a worker mistake is a company mistake" philosophy
Fortnite = Kiddy Crack
@@Bart-Did-it yeah
Basics of internal audit. When you find a problem you back track it with the "5 times why" rule to get to the root cause of the issue.
Another forkjign listical....
@@goofycker wdym listical?
Small fun fact: in 2008 the pieces declined in quality because lego decided to save some money on plastic injectors, getting ones that cool down much quicker, causing the plastic to lose durability. The greatest victim was bionicle line in 2008, where durability of the pieces was pretty important. The biggest victim however was any set using lime green pieces, which cracked in few minutes of use.
The very first set I bought for my own money was almost the last, due to some similar screwup years earlier. Back in 1992, I bought a set called "Space Shuttle Transporter", 6346, after having saved up for months.... and then parts started cracking as I built it. Antenna/lever bases, clips, the cup pieces used for the exhaust stacks, the 1x1 brick with vertical bars, the 1x2s with vertical ribs on one side and horizontal on the other side, the five-finger hinge plates, the 1x8 tiles.... everything cracked, just from normal play.
I didn't buy anything else from Lego for more than two decades after that, though I got a couple of sets as gifts that stood up a little better.
That explained why one of the heads of mine broke
The Bionicle "Lime Disease" Memes make more sense now
Hahli Mahri and Lesovikk were the worst victims.
The color of current pieces doesn’t properly match anymore
Mad respect for not blaming the worker, this is a classic example of "people are imperfect, so the process has to be designed to account for that. If it does not, then there is a problem with the process, not the person".
Employee: Changes colors of brick in a set and loses Lego over $1,000,000
Lego: Installs better lighting for the employees
*True Jedi Unlocked*
More likely: worker protection laws made it illegal to fire that employee so better lighting it was
Imagine banning gray bricks one of the most useful colors in Legos what would we do with out them
Star wars be like "wtf lego"
Have better Star Wars ships and playsets...
Go yellow. They did it for the og knights castle set.
Back to building yellow castles without gray bricks lol
@Someonewhoexists 🤓🤓🤓
None of them fall into the "catastrophic failure" category, not even taken together. Let's talk about LEGO's current brick quality. uneven color shades, injection residues, even on premium sets. that's the catastrophe.
I see a lot of people selling there lego, including me
These last sets are over 500 euro
For about 3000 bricks thats insane
Or the 42125 Ferrari 488 GTE which was not stable and had other problems, the new street plates, which do not fit with older sets.
If LEGO was American, it would been a catastrophic failure.
A good one to mention is the new UCS republic gunship, in which the box and instructions had a misprint where the Republic insignia, they printed the imperial insignia instead. It was hugely noticeable and they had to stop producing the sets for a bit to produce the corrected ones.
Foreshadowing, maybe?
@@Appletun503 Thanks. It's a picture of my cat I took that looks funny.
Probably a gunship during the republic to empire transition.
I have one sitting in front of me, with the correct insignia.
@@berniethekiwidragon4382 Nice. I managed to get the one with the flaw. It was a big thing and Lego even responded to this with an apology.
A recalled set to mention: Lego 8939 Lesovikk, a 2007 Bionicle box set exclusive to Walmart that was released with a missing piece, shortly re-released with all pieces accounted for.
Had to get Bionicle in there 😉
the dream
Lime green parts
@@mrkicker11181 Bionicle Lime Disease 😂
$6M mistake, omg! That’s crazy. Also, one dude packed over 120,000 bags… I’m very curious as to how long that took.
Yeah, seems strange to me. Does he fin and pack the pieces by hand? I would assume it was a robot that spit them out in bags.
@@ano_nym I guess, that robot just got fed with the wrong box for supply. But then I wonder what bad light they had to mix those…
He probably loaded plastic pellets into a machine that actually makes the bricks and loaded the wrong color pellets.
I can't see a guy bagging up that many pieces but a machine could make and bag that many in pretty short order.
The last time I owned a LEGO product was over 12 years ago. Just found your channel and binge-watched for about two hours, earned the sub.
Lego
wow how old r u
Be careful the legos are way more addictive
@@camsellstoys Not a problem, they're disgustingly overpriced now.
@@PlazDreamweaver the themes are creativity were way better back then anyway.
Lego's response to that last one almost put a tear in my eye.
I would like to point out how LEGO's rules of what's appropriate are strange
As they won't make any sets based on military but they will make Nazis for the Indiana Jones sets. And make characters like Joker, Deadshot, Harley Quinn, Killer Croc, Captain Boomerang, Deathstroke, Two-Face, Penguin, Riddler, Red Skull, Crossbones who are all comic book characters who notably have committed quite a few heinous actions over the course of their long history as characters.
No pew pew, pew pew = bad. Oh na zi’s? That’s fine
They also made a Sopwith Camel - a WW1 fighter aircraft.
I mean what are the 77 years old Nazi corpses going to do stop them , comeback to life and sue lego ?
Unfortunately, those are the franchise's that sell. Before they started making their first Star Wars sets the company was in trouble. Sales were declining as the pieces don't wear out and people were passing them down through families. The themed sets did a bit to revive the company's fortunes, but nowhere near as much as taking up product licences did.
They will sacrifice these policies really fast in the coming years, since their customer base is no longer kids (as can be seen in what kind of sets they sell and for what price) but adults. They are essentially going from making creative toys to making one-build models. And when these customers want military stuff, they will get it...or they will take their money to Cobi and other brick companies that DO specialize in those themes. Unfortunately, with the declining overall quality of their bricks and lackluster sets, into which a unicorn threw up, they are losing customers so fast, they resorted to going from finding creative engineers and designers to stocking up on lawyers. If your product sales decline due to the competition having better quality and ideas, suing them is much more profitable than getting better products and ideas yourself. There are over 100 hundred companies out there that make brick-based sets. Most are not on LEGOs level, a dozen or so are and a hand full are even better.
Lego saying they won’t do Military stuff as if a bunch of the Indiana Jones sets from like a decade ago didn’t have literal Nazi and Soviet mini figs with Military vehicles in them lmao
Didn't they removed the nazi stuff ?
Lol. Lego went woke. They support Black Lives Matter and the alphabet community.
I hope they bring back sets like these one day. Those sets were mostly amazing and highly playable. Well, kids use lego figs as an army anyway.
Apparently they’re remaking the set with the REAL nazi plane
@@stringjamer No, it's always been LEGO policy. They just bend it sometimes.
It is nice that they were able to fix sets and possibly get the money back. Wonderful video, thank you.
Personally, I consider their handling of Bionicle G2 and Hidden Side catastrophic failures of their own.
Yeah HS I wasn't too fond of as although I brought a set I couldn't find the app in the Google Play Store and I was told my phone should work with it. It was like having the venue but no show. As for G2 Bionicle, the sets didn't seem too bad; to me it was the lore that sucked, especially with how it was addressed (no comics or books, just 2-3 min vids. Probably why it only lasted a few years and Lego knew it.
Bionicle G2 run still makes me cry at night
The quality has REALLY gone down hill in recent times. Literally every other kit I buy from their own website contains missing pieces now. >.>
The cynic in me guesses that LEGO found a way to get rid of that employee once nobody was paying attention anymore. Perhaps they just put him somewhere, where he couldn't possibly do that much damage.
The Osprey cancellation makes me beyond furious. I really think that they only recalled it because of the gearbox problems.
It could be the gearbox problems, as well, in a combined cause. The military connection might make the company look more ethical, though, rather than just hiring sloppy designers...
It's ironic too, as the Osprey is - like the Chinook & Huey - not explicitly a military vehicle... but Lego has always been hypocritical & daft on stuff like this.
Still: more money for Kobi or Megabloks, when inevitably they release one.
@@jimtaylor294 all the research was led by military, so it wouldn't have even been mass produced if the US of A wasn't using it to monopolize power globally 😉 also wished we would've had it, but I'm not gonna call someone daft for sticking to a set of principles
There are reviews where this theory is tested, and while the clutch does impressively work to prevent motor damage from blocked rotors, it does look/feel a bit delicate
@@snipingwes A fixable issue though; which makes Lego cancelling the entire set all the more illogical.
Okay the crooks set really confuses me
They are concerned the set ''goes against their values'' ?
Lego have went back on their values so many times now their ''values'' dont mean diddley
if the problem is the giant dynamite then that's sad since lego has made tiles with dynamite printed on them, along with other bombs in their history
As strange as it is to say, this is likely what happened: If you recall, that was around the time that BLM (black lives matter) reached a new peak. A big part of the BLM protesting at the time was against Police Brutality, with many berating the police, calling for them to be defunded, etc. Now it is just a theory, but I'm imagining Lego decided not to release the set because it featured active police officers, which, sadly, would go against the 'media storm' at the time. In fact it is around this time they stopped selling a few other police-themed sets as well, if I recall correctly.
The reason of the cancellation of the "Osprey" is quite dubious as they had already released 3 other sets tied to the real military, although old ones: 10226 and 3451 Sopwith Camel (including machine guns) and set 10024 the most (in)famous blood red Fokker DR.I Triplane flown by the (in)famous Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen.
I think one of the reasons they were fine releasing those sets is because they are depicting planes from WW1 . In the company's early years, the company's creator, Ole Kirk Christiansen, created the policy that they would never depict modern war in their toys because of the 2nd World War happening at the time. Now of course they've broken this rule for licensed themes like Indiana Jones and Captain America, but, it does explain why they've made unlicensed sets and minifigures depicting Union soldiers in their western theme, as well as minifigures based off of Continental soldiers from the Revolutionary war
@@crash8542 yeah i just started to think something similar. If it's modern military Lego has a policy against, which i guess can include anything from 1980-present, anything before that would probably be considered "historical." The Sopwith Camel set, both the late 1990s and 2002 versions, were from WWI and were probably considered historical, if this is making sense (honestly, when was the last time a WWI plane was used in Iraq or Afghanistan?)
@@djk6297 I think that they just make that specific rule to avoid some themes like WWII, Cold war ETC... but why do we have star wars? i mean, the imperium it's just based on nazi germany, they uniforms kindda look the same
@@mrkeykush693 when you mean imperium do you mean the first order? In the seventh movie when the general is giving that speech followed by starkiller base unleashing that blast to destroy those planets, that assemblage it did remind me of a rally, black symbol on white background on red banner and all, minus the planet-destroying blast. Heck, aside from star wars, stormtroopers were also a German force. As for Lego and how they're allowing sets could mainly be the license contract they've had with star wars. Let's face it, it's been Lego's longest running theme and one of the best selling. Perhaps lego has to make sets or it could violate the contract.
Other than that, while star wars exhibits some WWII elements, its not direct, and it's more scifi, so it doesn't violate Lego's terms.
@@djk6297 "honestly, when was the last time a WWI plane was used in Iraq or Afghanistan?"
1st World War plane, good point. But 1st World War *tank*? Renault FTs were found in Afghanistan in the 2000s.
Improved the lighting instead of firing the guy. I wish that was more the standard behavior instead of the exception
They can still fire him later for a "different " reason
This video would be a lot better if you showed videos of the failure - eg. the metal axle, the floppy neck etc.
That's very nice of them to not fire or punish the employee for the mistake and extremly nice to hear that there's companies that don't fire or punish employees for mistakes.
Why is everyone saying this like it's fact? Just cause they don't say they fired someone doesn't mean they didn't.
@@TheTrueSpottedStripe I thought it was nice hearing companies that don't and who said that my opinion was facts?
Other companies when a worker fucks up: "YOU'RE FIRED"
LEGO when an employee makes a mistake: "Nah, man, it's cool. Clearly we must've set you up for failure somehow. Let's fix that, shall we?"
Another possible reason the dynamite factory was cancelled was because Lego thought it resembled police brutality, as the set itself depicts a police raid on a criminal hideout
this is the correct answer- at the time IIRC was when there were multiple protests against police brutality by American cops against black Americans. The police in America has become more and more militarized and LEGO smartly read the room.
@@nilzero5686 Except that there's quite a bit of police brutality that was wildly blown out of proportion or even brazenly lied about. Even now there's a bunch of incidents that despite all evidence showing justified shootings, people will still call them unjustified brutality.
Not so fun fact, one of the very first cities to become a victim of violent "anti-police" riots in recent history was Ferguson, and Ferguson burned in memory of a person who was shot by police while quite literally in the process of committing a massive violent crime spree across the city. I legitimately kid you not, the list of crimes committed in that single night by the guy shot reads like a 5-⭐ GTA rapsheet. And Ferguson still gets treated like a case of brutality.
@@nilzero5686 "brutality" in this case meaning "criminals being correctly treated".
Another example was Galidor, it was such an expensive mistake
yeah i still don't understand that one. It like lasted for one year and was based on a show that I never even watched
Lego replacing the lighting to help an employee who accidentally cost them millions is both hilarious and incredibly heartwarming. Chad company
1:56 i have 2 of those blue sweeper pieces and they are so satisfying to spin around.
So Lego is not selling Military Vehicles? I remember that Lego in the early 2000s had a Set depicting the Redbarron Set Number 10024...
Red Baron you know imperial Germanys fighter pilot?
They canceled the civillian Osprey but delivered the Richthoven plane?
Yep! They've even released models of the famous Sopwith Camel WW1 fighter plane... twice!
@@coltpiecemaker I did specifically remember the Red Barron but yeah when I think about it in the catalogue they had a British WWI plane… Yeah it has been the sopwith camel 10226…
They even have a Fighter out in this moment… What if not a military vehicle is the supersonic jet 31126
As a chess player I am proud to say that I noticed the mistake on the chess set immediately after seeing it.
On numerous occasions Lego has made sets resembling military vehicles. such as in 2013 released a creator set where one of the options was to make a vtol plane similar to the banned Boeing one.
They literally had a Sopwith Camel set
The new 3 in 1 supersonic jet is loosely based on an F14
And Dino Attack was a whole theme dedicated to the military fighting dinosaurs
Dont forget the real nazi plane in the one last crusade set (the flying wing doesnt count because its not a real plane)
LEGO: We will never sell you anything that looks even remotely military; war isn't fun!
Also LEGO: Yo, wanna see the latest ludicrously priced Star *Wars* sets?
I'm still salty for the osprey because it was a model I actually wanted and also because yep, the aircraft was used in real war but as far as I know it was used as medevac, not in combat
Tbh they should allow only unarmed transport vehicles from the military
From the review from the few guys that got one, it looks like it had a massive gearing issue
@@Kuro_Nguyen So next to none? The majority of military transports are armed, because protecting oneself is pretty damn important when you're in a huge steel death box fighting people who know that the big car is the one with the people in it, and so focus on that transport.
Or is it just a matter of making a real transport but taking the weapon off? So you can have a Stryker APC or something, but it just can't have a gun up top?
@@skoiloine5809 I guess
@@skoiloine5809 NGL I would happily buy a Technic M1A2 Abrahms. Would not even hesitate. Would be the first technic set released since the 8455 I wanted to buy in fact.
That Osprey debacle is such a bs. I mean, didn't they somewhat recently released the 31039 "Blue Power Jet" clearly patterned after the F-35 fighter?
Not to mention that 90% of their Star Wars line, while fictional, has stronger militare connection than civilian SAR version of the Osprey.
Star Destroyers, Death Stars, various tanks and starfighters, tie-in games and magazines...😂 I'm not complaining.
I mean, just look like the Imperium, they look like a bunch of space Nazis
It was green that Lego didn’t want to use for fear of children building tanks, not grey.
Gray too, but that was rescinded in 1978 when they launched the space lineup.
At my summer job teaching young kids I enjoyed using the build-anything sets to make "un-PC" stuff like tanks and jukebox cars (to which some girls added a water slide... what a missed opportunity for those IRL manufacturers in the 50's). I was working on a WW2 Japanese aircraft carrier, but didn't get time to finish it.
I’m glad they didn’t sack that employee. It’s such an easy mistake to make. Those shades of grey are so similar.
that story about the worker mistake is incredible. At my company my product manager told the story about how a QA guy messed up, costed alot of money and then got fired. He was so proud of that firing
Lego : makes The Red Baron as a Set
Also Lego: noo this copter is used by the millitary too..
I would wish me more critc in the video
I would rather lose $10,000,000 instead of stepping on a Lego brick.
Legos has really come down in quality. Their sets are super overpriced, and they don't even require much building. They've replaced small pieces with big chunks of plastic.
I remember they were doing the same thing circa 2007, as apparently kids like the "instant gratification" of videogames, so they "want a toy straight away" without "wasting time" building it. Apparently these people were never kids themselves.
Anyway they went back to basics for a while, but appear to have since gone back back to complicateds. So to speak.
"Why don't yhey just give kids a huge brick, shaped like a Lorry -_- " - James May, 2007
speaking of catastrophic mistakes... 1. Town Jr, 2. Jack Stone, 3. Galidore, 4. LEGO's decision to change the main shade of classic light grey, classic dark grey, and classic light brown to light bley, dark bley and reddish brown. This decision was made because "focus groups" thought that the new shades "looked better". I know there were a lot of fans who quit collecting because the new elements didn't go with the older sets they had collected already. What was worse was LEGO's management said the decision was "locked" and "final" without talking to any other interested stakeholders.
"Not visually appealing" shows two of the best low/mid price sets ever
Anytime a Pop Star cries and Angel gets their Wings
When it comes to the Technic Osprey, the weird thing imo is that it was canceled so late.
LEGO was always kinda weird in its policies, especially with the Indiana Jones theme. But here I feel like LEGO should have addressed the potential controversy with the Osprey quite a bit sooner.
LEGO: "We will not produce military themed products, EVER."
Also LEGO: "These Star Wars models of space fighters, space tanks, space soldiers, and space WARSHIPS are okay!"
What a shame that V22 Osprey wasn't released.
Lego: "we won't make any sets that resemble a military thing!"
Also Lego: **Sopwith Camel go brrr**
Queen always starts on her own color - that makes it easy to remember how the board should be correctly oriented :)
7:21 yet i recall old western style sets having minifigure scale dynamite...
8:00 and this is where companies like megablox raise ahead because kids especially young boys like this sort of thing and honestly the Osprey is a transport for the most part and doesn't really carry weapons aside from some defensive ones, apparently they picked a arm or non-navy version as it's missing the refueling probe.
Crooks with their own dynamite factory have more sour connotations, than crooks just carrying a few dynamite sticks...
@@hakanstorsater5090 who said it was their dynamite factory? they could have stolen it.
@@sheilaolfieway1885 Still, it carries problematic undertones if they control the production...
^ Hardly. Kids couldn't care less about such details; nor most [sane] adults.
That, and "problematic" is such a cliched nonsenseword XD.
I actually had that Duplo Super Truck in the early 2000s and I remember my parents never accepted the recall. great list!
LEGO canceled Osprey because it's a military vehicle but had no problem with releasing Sopwith Camel with machingeuns mounted on it...
Actually the three biggest mistakes in Lego's history are:
1) not understanding the cost of their sets correctly which almost sent the company bankrupt
2) the browning issue which plagued sets for a number of years in the early 2010s. This caused brown pieces to shatter and chip and left many fans unhappy.
3) the transition from old grey to the newer bluish- hued greys. This drive many Afols away from lego for a time as the new colour dropped without warning and is aesthetically incompatible with the old grey.
I'm having hard time wrapping my head around how #2 can qualify as catastrophic.
"Some people will find any reason to file a lawsuit against a hugh company like Lego".
This one is really funny knowing what the company does itself all the time.
Part of the street sweeper thing is that not very long before this that was produced, there was a major controversy with a gun called the street sweeper. It was a drum magazine fed semi-automatic shotgun called the street sweeper. It's marketing was a little odd. People found it very threatening and the government stepped in. They probably didn't want to be connected to something like that because the product shared the same name
Thank goodness other companies are willing to make military Lego sets when the official company doesn't have the balls to make them.
It’s weird that Lego will go so far to not make any sets that resemble the military or violence. When they made soldiers and ww2 vehicles for Indiana Jones sets without a problem
Also the toy soldier set from the early 2010s toy story line. Literally 4 ww2 soldiers and a ww2 jeep. They even came with rifles lol
Amazing that a search and rescue Osprey is too militant but they have 3 sets representing specific WW1 fighter aircraft, with appropriate markings, color schemes, and machine guns.
On top of that countless star wars sets, which are fictional but still depict military vehicles and guns
It's nothing compared to what happened to Lego's rival Mega Bloks. In the peak of their success they bought a company that made among other things, a knockoff of geomag. This got them involved in the whole "strong magnets are dangrous" scandal and lead to a massive recall which from what I can tell basically broke the company. What was left was eventually bought by Mattel.
Sued?!...and they would settle out of court.
Catastrophic? They still make billions in profits...lol.
I was hoping to see mention of Power Miners. I remember loving the set i got from that franchise, only for it to disappear entirely, and i never knew why LEGO discontinued it; i still don’t know why
I understand that LEGO doesn't make military sets, however, I made a Navy base with an aircraft carrier, battle cruiser, Submarine, Destroyer and a Cruiser for my Lego City. All brick built. Most are MOCs. Hello from Japan 🗾🇯🇵
The color packaging mistake is what's knows as a "process indicator". I'm certain in the end even after the mistake they were happy to have had an opportunity to make a process improvement.
Lego: Never want to create military vehicels.
Also Lego: Star Destroyer, TIE-Bomber, AAT.......
It is a bit hypocritical to avoid military but produce hundreds of sets with Star Wars. Dozens of lasers, cannons, Fighter ships and walking tanks, war droids and Something called a “death star “that destroys whole planets! 😗🤣 (❤️Lego)
Won’t make military vehicles, but makes “Star Wars” and various other fighting genres. Kids don’t know difference between real and fake.
Funny how they have vowed to not make any sets depicting war, but then go on to make star wars sets
There were bigger catastrophes, like the Lego TV show, and the fact Lego didn't keep track of finances until the late 90s.
Lego: we refuse to make models that can be linked to (real world) military vehicles (with possible exception if linked to a major IP, see Indiana Jones sets)
Cobi: History/military nerd, we'll take your money, here is your favorite ship/tank/plane
What should be on this list is the new At te . The main reason it was delayed was due to a missing brick in the set.
Lego - ooga booga no military vehicles
Cobi, coming to save the game -
I was just curious after you mentioned the steamboat willie thing and checked mine that I got with Christmas money and I guess no one shops around me because mine said #24
P.s. I already opened and built it
P.s.s. no I will not be selling the box because one most of the value went away when I'd opened it and 2 I got it because of my love for animation and its history
You will be surprised how valuable second hand sets are, but I am glad you want to keep it.
Animation is respectable. But Disney gone so corrupt, I dont think I will support them in any way.
Lego needs to lighten up on the no-military-sets policy. They could sell alot of sets around that theme, especially to their adult customers. Remember, LEGO, WE'RE the ones with the money.
A recent set that vanished from the Lego site and from stores, like it no long exists: Lego Brand Store set 40574. It was a brand new set this year and it’s already gone, like no record of it on the Lego site.
Dang.
Wasn’t there a LEGO Toy Story set with the soldiers and a little Willys Jeep? What about the Indiana Jones sets with “very mean Germans?” But a search and rescue V-22 is too much? Strange.
Yeah,the Idniana Jones sets which they've made several had the "very mean Germans" in the WW2 style vehicles. I agree,that is conflicting and odd about there policy. 😐
Lego Dino Attack too
@@Mr.AtheTriggerGalleon6310 I think is about military stuff coming directly from THEM specifically. Indiana jones is not theirs and so the inclusion if the "very mean germans" is not theirs
I feel the difference is between making a set about a story with bad people and making a set about bad people.
To make an extreme example, Lego could never make a set about "very mean germans", like a model of the car guided by "a failed Austrian painter", because in some way such a set could be interpreted as a way to portray them in a good way. But making a set about a story where the "very mean germans" are defined (by the story itself) as bad is different.
If you think about it, any of the vehicles from Star Wars are basically military, but they come from a story where the good and the bad people are well defined and, most importantly, LEGO as a company does not take any responsibility in the morality compass of the portrayed characters.
@@giannipiccioni8411 Absolutely agree, although I did some research, and unfortunately a group called the German Peace Society essentially threatened to “cancel” Lego if they released the set, as it was directly licensed by the V-22’s manufacturer Boeing, and they would in turn get a cut of the sales. I don’t know about you, but to me that’s the most 2020 reason imaginable. 🙃
It’s not that the Osprey is a military craft. It’s that it has a reputation of killing its passengers due to the multiple accidents and crashes it’s experienced during its shakedown period.
lego: you cost us millions you MAKE US RECALL 100.000 PRODUCS YOU lego employ: yes. lego: you get better lighting
A recent mistake was the technic formula 1 car that had a company's name on the tires without the license. Lego reissued the set without the name on the tires
My question is how the branded tires ended up being produced in the first place.
Funny they said that they didn't fire the guy but then they automated the entire packing process taking human error completely off the table years later.
At the Renaissance Festival a little girl had dropped her teddy bear in the crowd gathering at the jousting field. The bear got kicked several time until it went under the rail. The little girl was crying to I went through the railing to retrieve it. When I handed it back to her she borrowed her father's sword and knighted me as, "Defender of the small and helpless, and Champion of the hopeless cause".
That's cool, which ren fest was it?
Ya that grey brick lighting issue. ....I've been there. lol
I'm surprised by Lego's 'no military stuff' policy. Like I understand the premise but they take it too far like with the no grey bricks, no ospray rescue vehicle, etc... But then they'll make an entire castle line for 10+years with only 2-non military buildings(blacksmith & Inn) and very few pesants. ...as a kid I was looking at the 'City' sets and wondering why there were no Medieval Windmill, Tavern, Farm, etc.. sets.
imagine lego factory become kamino facility with the lightning upgrade
8:15
The Ospey has never been used for search and rescue; the USN was considering the aircraft for military search and rescue, but chose an alternative in 2001.
"Didn't align with the brand's values" my @ŕ$3. They canceled the dynamite hideout because of politics, especially when they also for a hot minute were seriously considering discontinuing the entire Police _and Fire_ subthemes (plus the White House Architecture set) at the exact same time. It was absurd then, and it's absurd now.
Edit: The Osprey was BS too. Especially when the Coast Guard is entirely a branch of the Military. LEGO internally clearly doesn't actually really care about their own guidelines.
#9 LEGO: No war related content. Also LEGO: STAR WARS! Yeah!
the last recalls ending warms my heart
My grandparents had that truck and I would play with it whenever I went over. It didn't break (and show the metal axel) until I was much older.
Wow that’s a lot of cash just gone
W lego for not firing that guy
The crook hideout was possible cancelled due to the helicopter resembling to the KA-50 helicopter. Which goes against their no military or army policy
Weird how Lego didn't go through with the VTOL craft for being too military, but then there's the Indiana Jones sets with a German military aircraft and Russian soldier transports, and there's the Toy Story Army Jeep set.
People are getting snowflakey here because of the better lightning for the worker and forget that Lego is as any other big company - only greed fuels it.
LEGO won't make sets based on real tanks and such, but will happily do so if it's sci-fi?
Then there's the fibre-optic catastrophe
Yeah, I'm surprised that wasn't mentioned.
Its interesting theyre anti military and yet star wars is like the biggest lego line.
I feel like it being specifically a police raid is why it got canceled
yeah back in the day when lego cared about customers and employees rather than exploiting both for profit
I'm trying to work out why people just didn't flip the chess squares when building it.