Why doesn t lego make military sets ? Lego is one of the biggest brands in commerce right now, with some claiming it’s more recognizable than Coca-Cola or Ferrari. Since its humble beginnings in 1932 when Lego was only a Danish carpentry workshop, the brand has expanded massively foremost thanks to the success of its Lego bricks and iconic yellow smiley-faced figurines.
And although the last two decades have been very tough financially for Lego, which almost faced bankruptcy, the toy maker remains a household name and is still popular with children despite the market has shifted massively towards digital games and entertainment.
What made it also appealing is that you can build almost anything with Lego, even some pretty cool science experiments. Previously, ZME Science covered a Lego-made nuclear spectrometer model, a worm-brain-controlled Lego robot, and even a Lego shuttle that was sent into Earth’s orbit. Certainly, much of Lego’s success lies in this versatility.
Over the decades, Lego has released all sorts of sets following themes like Dungeons and Dragons, Star Wars, firefighters, pirates, or historical Legos which feature Medival or Colonial era figurines.
While you’ll see a lot of spaceships and weaponry like swords or tiny 18th-century muskets, you will never see military-related Lego toys. Plastic toy soldiers have never gone out of fashion among grade schoolers, but despite the promise of good profits, Lego chooses to adhere to a strict internal policy Lego.
The Danish company firmly believes that war should be seen as child’s play.
In a 2010 Progress Report, the Lego Group explained its stance on toys and weapons on page 26.
Guideline for weapons and conflict in LEGO experiences”
A large number of LEGO mini figures use weapons and are – assumedly – regularly being charged by each others’ weapons as part of children’s role play. In the LEGO Group, we acknowledge that conflict in play is especially prevalent among 4-9-year-old boys. An inner drive and a need to experiment with their own aggressive feelings in order to learn about other people’s aggressions exist in most children.
This, in turn, enables them to handle and recognize conflict in non-play scenarios. As such, the LEGO Group sees conflict play as perfectly acceptable, and an integral part of children’s development.
We also acknowledge children’s well-proven ability to tell play from reality. However, to make sure to maintain the right balance between play and conflict, we have adhered to a set of unwritten rules for several years. In 2010, we have formalized these rules in a guideline for the use of conflict and weapons in LEGO products.
The basic aim is to avoid realistic weapons and military equipment that children may recognize from hot spots around the world and to refrain from showing violent or frightening situations when communicating about LEGO products. At the same time, the purpose is for the LEGO brand not to be associated with issues that glorify conflicts and unethical or harmful behavior.
“We have a strict policy regarding military models, and therefore, we do not produce tanks, helicopters, etc. While we always support the men and women who serve their country, we prefer to keep the play experiences we provide for children in the realm of fantasy.”
In the same year, Lego also set out rules and guidelines for the use of weapons in its products. The aim was to avoid any realistic weapons and military-themed equipment that children may recognize, as quoted above.
LEG
O won’t make modern war machines, but others are picking up the pieces
This is a story about a multibillion-dollar international conglomerate, arms manufacturers, a German peace group and renegades who make miniaturized weapons systems out of small shops.
Not that those tiny weapons could actually hurt anyone. Well, not unless you stepped on one.
The conglomerate is LEGO, with worldwide revenues of $6.2 billion in 2019 from its toys, retail stores, theme parks and even movie rights. Its toy sets – which are intended to “inspire the builders of tomorrow,” according to the company’s mission statement – run the gamut, from skyscrapers to boats, police stations to castles. There’s even a kit to make Rome’s famous Colosseum. Nothing from the real world, it seems, is off limits. That is, except for anything modeled on today’s military.
“We have a long-standing policy of not creating sets which feature real military vehicles that are currently in use,” Ryan Greenwood, a spokesman for the company, said in an email to CNN.
But during the summer, the Danish company released a set for the V-22 Osprey, a tiltrotor aircraft manufactured by Boeing and Bell Helicopter Textron that is only used by the American and Japanese militaries.
The kit, set to launch under LEGO’s vehicle-focused Technic brand, depicted a search and rescue version of the Osprey. But it drew a quick, harsh protest from the German Peace Society – United War Resisters (DFG-VK in German), an almost 130-year-old anti-war group.
The V-22 Osprey, the group said, has been involved in conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Mali, Yemen and Syria. In a press release criticizing LEGO over the model, the DFG-VK then threw the toymaker’s own words from a decade earlier right back at it:
“The basic aim is to avoid realistic weapons and military equipment that children may recognize from hot spots around the world and to refrain from showing violent or frightening situations when communicating about LEGO products. At the same time, the purpose is for the LEGO brand not to be associated with issues that glorify conflicts and unethical or harmful behavior,” the peace group quoted from a 2010 LEGO report.
LEGO quickly pulled the motorized aircraft model from its inventory in late July. The few sets that had already hit store shelves made their way into the hands LEGO enthusiasts and onto internet trading sites at prices as high as $1,000 for a set that would’ve retailed at around $120.
Greenwood, the company spokesperson, refused to comment further on why LEGO changed its mind on the Osprey model or why it was produced in the first place.
But LEGO canceling its Osprey set hasn’t stopped fans from creating their own versions. In a video interview from Minneapolis, Minnesota, Dan Siskind pulled up a large model of the aircraft to the camera. Although built from LEGO pieces, this one is bigger and, arguably, even more elaborate and life-like. He spun its tiltrotor propellers in a hand-held simulated flight.
Siskind is a former “master builder,” the top LEGO designers who assemble the models you find displayed in stores. He is now part of a subculture that unites adult fans of LEGO (or AFOLs as they are known) and military buffs.
Through his company, Brickmania Toyworks, the 51-year-old takes the iconic bricks and turns them into custom military building kits spanning eras and multiple wars.
An arms bazaar for AFOLs, his inventory includes a US F-16 fighter ($425), a Russian T-80BVM main battle tank ($340) and even a Phalanx close-in weapon system, the rapid-fire Gatling gun the US Navy puts on its warships to knock out incoming threats like missiles or speedboats ($175).
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