We make a LEGO-compatible case for iPhone 4, 4S and 5 (and the 4th-gen iPod Touch). (I'm sure that one admission will drive my karma into the basement.)
Shortly after we began shipping, LEGO called. They were very gracious, and only had a couple of TM-related issues they wanted fixed. Nothing unreasonable, really.
When were were done, I offered to send the attorney on the other end of the call a BrickCase. He declined, as he already had one on his phone.
So it's not just kids that they have a great interface with.
Lego is fantastic, and it's worth re-discovering if you haven't played with it since childhood. My wife bought me a 2,500 piece Star Wars kit last year (the Emperor's Shuttle) and it bought me to a place of zen-like calm for the two weeks it took me to build it. I'd sit down, and bang, instant flow. Best of all, I could carry that over to the computer if I wanted to do some programming. It's almost drug-like in its power.
There's something amazingly satisfying about unquestioningly following detailed instructions and seeing something tangible emerge before your eyes. I love it.
I'll add something else for balance here: I went to see The Avengers after studiously avoiding any marketing for the film. I wanted my mind free to experience every scene for the very first time, like a pledge-ring wearing co-ed looking forward to her wedding night. I didn't even know that Loki was the villain, that's how innocent I was.
My friends and I arrived at the cinema early, secured great middle seats and sat back to endure endless local commercials (Annie got it done no less than four times.) Then it was time for the very last advert before the trailers started: Lego. A Lego set featuring the Avengers. An animated Lego set where the various characters recapitulated the plot of the film in thirty seconds. Many, many angry voices cried out, to the general tune of, "That better f-ing not be in the movie." It all was.
It tainted our experience pretty badly. Even if the advert had featured a completely different story we'd still have been looking out for similarities. This was a few days after opening weekend, too!
I still love Lego, but she's given me my first disappointment. I guess I'm growing up.
Heh .. good for you! I'm an AFOL (adult fan of lego). For me, it started when I got a Mindstorms set to play with robots. I needed pieces for more sophisticated contraptions and the addiction began.
As with all things, moderation is key. I've got about a dozen high-end technic sets at this point. And I realized I had a problem ... my lego addiction was insatiable. Addictions aren't always bad .. but for me personally ... my lego addiction was bad. I didn't learn anything about building. All I did was follow the instructions to build the model. It was ... as you said .. zen like. But I got no feeling of accomplishment. I'm not an artistic person and have no interest in building MOCs (My Own Creations, in Lego community speak).
Anyways ... I have gone cold turkey. Haven't bought one in 8 months or so. I could crack any day if there are any good holiday sales :-p
Totally agree. I picked up a box of plain Lego blocks for my desk at work a little while back. They start conversations, are great to fidget with while on the phone, and can provide a nice distraction when needed. Definitely a good investment.
For me, I got really into Minecraft for a while and felt that same magic and wonder that Lego offered as a kid -- Creating mockups and wireframes of things I wanted to create, then building them in the game, was just a ridiculously awesome experience.
Your experience sounds great and something I've been trying to replicate. Building something with your hands and watching it come together provides a different level of satisfaction and enjoyment than hacking on your computer. Recently, I've been trying to come up with ideas of "adult" things I could build in my spare time without taking up too much space in my apartment - such as model vehicles or aircraft. I hadn't even thought to just revert back to Lego, which I enjoyed a lot as a kid. I think I'll give it a try, thanks!
I can really identify with that flow state you describe so well.
I have built 5 or 6 of the larger Technic and buildings (each thousands of parts) over the last year or so.
The structured play (simply follow the directions and you will get to the goal) is a very welcome counterpoint to the somewhat unstructured way in which I spend my days (here's a blank page, describe a complex product in any way that you see fit).
I can feel you there. However, there is a certain zen in the opposite as well. Having a general idea of what to build and a general plan and direction but little else. The specifics are left to between you and the thing you are building as you build it.
And that's what's beautiful about a good general purpose bucket of bricks. It's right brained creativity which complements Lego's instruction-based kits.
You know, I don't think I've ever seen anything negative about Lego as a company in any serious way. Staff reports are uniformly 'this place is amazing to work', customers love their products, they've kept their product line diverse and with a wide, wide range of prices so there's no exclusionary practise. Good business practises for sure.
As a child I was a huge Lego fanatic. I don't have much time for it anymore, but I still make a point to walk through the Lego aisle if I'm ever in a toy store.
One thing that I'm a bit saddened about is how it feels that movie tie-ins have overshadowed the other sets. Star Wars, Harry Potter, Batman, Avengers, The Hobbit... what I loved as a kid wasn't that I was building a replica of some fictional universe, it was that I could create the universe in my head as I was building it.
And yeah, the Lego Friends thing makes me rather sad. But that's not wholly Lego's fault; parents insist on segregating girls' toys from boys' toys, and Lego reacted to meet that demand. Who knows, with any luck maybe some of the girls who otherwise wouldn't be exposed to Legos at all will get introduced to Mindstorms.
And I still have to give them props for this ad from 1981:
Some people [1] have linked the rise of Lego and the decline of Meccano [2] to the decline of manufacturing in the western world, as Lego doesn't teach Meccano's lessons about L section beams, diagonal braces, gantries in tension and compression, and so on.
The latest 'Friends' range targeted at girls has received some bad press. Not much construction to do, all nail bars and shopping sort of sexism. Not the most serious bad press but its something.
There has been some criticism over their rather aggressive use of trademark to fake "patent" their designs after their original design patents had expired.
I also heard (so, unverified) that users of 3d-printers has gotten some of that attention.
So, great company to work with, great products, but clearly a bit overreaching in the legal department. How evil that makes them... meh, at least they are not trying to patent something that they themselves never created. Still wrong through.
I think there was a piece on hacker news attacking them a few months back for a shift in their advertising from being relatively gender balanced in the 80s to being very boyish today.
Other than that though I completely agree with you. They seem like a great company.
I suppose this is the benefit of being a privately held business - you can adhere to your principles and goals without catering or placating the whims of public shareholders obsessed about this quarter's performance.
I was a huge LEGO fan when I was a kid. I didn't have many themed boxes but the basic bricks were more than enough for a kid with a lot of imagination.
As a grown up, seeing all those incredibly detailed scenes and models created by fans pop up every now and then on the net has been fun to watch.
As a father, accompanying my kid through his discovery of LEGO was a treat and a great occasion to get into the "zone" for hours… with him.
I must say that I wasn't convinced by their Hero Factory stuff; thinking it was too inherently violent and left too little room for my kid's imagination. Now that he has 6 or so of those and spends hours combining their parts (adding LEGO elements here and there) into gigantic — and horrific — figures I can say that I misjudged them.
As the parent of a child with Asperger's Syndrome, I know what this must have meant to him, and I'll continue to be a Lego customer for life because of this. Kudos to Lego.
While often seeing so many posts with a negative connotation on HN, I love seeing posts like this. I realize some of the negative posts need to be heard, but it's optimistic/awesome posts like this that can brighten the past 100 negative articles I may have read. Well done, LEGO. This is the definition of a great company with great customer satisfaction! My faith in humanity has been fully restored, for the time being. ;) Ha
Heh, lovely story, but isn't this type of post what Reddit is for?
Which is where i saw it on Friday, and 'shockingly' is the source (well, originally youtube).
On the topic; it is surely obvious to anyone in marketing/PR these days that doing something like this is almost always going to be a profitable move. The guy provided the story, even if they had to do something like this 10 times for it to 'go viral' it would be one hell of a lot of promotion for the money. It's not going to harm the recipient's Lego buying habits either.
On a related note, when did LEGOS become absurdly expensive? I've noticed that most of what they market these days are themed sets with price-tags well beyond what I can imagine the plain blocks used to cost. For instance - their Lego Ninjago series can command anywhere from $10-$30 for a little miniature figure - you know - the guys that are about 3/4 of an inch tall. What am I missing? Have they just figured out how to create artificial demand by playing the "limited edition" game, or have plastic toys suddenly got more expensive to manufacture?
The Ninjago and film tie-in Lego is overpriced, but the Creator range has been good value. These sets cost $5-$25, with 3 "official" ways to build each one and loads of make-your-own possible models thanks to a good mix of regular bricks, plates and fancy pieces.
The problem with the themed stuff is that it isn't really Lego. It's more like any other plastic toy - pre-built (or made from a few big pieces), not much replayability but "looks cool" on the box and in toy catalogs.
On the company - another anecdote - my son lost a piece of one set, I went through the "lost a piece" process on their web-site and to my surprise they sent it us, for free. Although given all I've spent over the years on Lego, I think I was due a 1x2 grey slope with grill :-)
They've always been absurdly expensive. Maybe you didn't notice it in the US before since the dollar was so strong, but over here in Europe it's always been pricey stuff.
There is reason for their seemingly high prices it is because of how accurately the bricks are built. They are meant to be a precise size to something like 0.002 mm and you can see it is a quality product compared to Mega Blocks which just feels cheap.
I'd say a normal set goes for about $0.10 a piece, prices will go up if they require a license (Star Wars) or have lots of special abnormal pieces.
Minifigs cost a lot more to make, they are also collectable themselves. I have collected sets since I was three years old and I have only recently discovered how valuable and collectable just the minifigs are to some people.
Is it possible that inflation[1] has outpaced your childhood memories? Assuming 1990 is a mid-point for peak LEGO buying among HN readers, here's a couple of basic 'space' sets with comparitive prices:
6923 "Particle Ionizer", a small space ship: $24 in 1990 would be $42.48 in 2012
1616 "Space Combo", couple of minifigs and mini vehicles: $10 in 1990 would be $17.70 in 2012
I'm 46 and have a collection of over 18,000 Lego pieces. This includes several of the 1200 piece buckets they were selling in the US for $20 about 10 years ago, and the sets my kids have collected.
When I was their age (~10) I only had a few hundred pieces, but I learned to build and re-build those same 100 pieces in many different ways (sheds, space ships, bull dozers, you name it). Lego's certainly had a hand in shaping my future as a developer/engineer. I'm extremely happy to see my kids enjoying them as well.
I think Lego is the best toy in the world! (and an excellent company).
Many years ago, my youngest brother had some kind of Lego train set game on the PC. He built little Lego train layouts on there. Maybe it's like Hornby; I don't know.
The game had a network play option. A player could play together with someone else over the internet who had the same game. I don't recall how many years ago this was, but I've got the idea in my head that there was no central game managing server. You had to already know who to play with. Possibly even knowing their IP address.
Anyway, he didn't know anyone. He really wanted to play, so he wrote to them asking if they knew anyone he could play this game with.
Someone wrote back, apologising for not knowing anyone he could play with, and included a mousemat and a pack of lego.
I'm welling up here. I'm going to go out and firebomb the Duplo factory.
Speaking as a parent, Lego is a terrible toy. Legos are only available in build-one-thing sets now - 100+ tiny pieces which build one thing, and if you lose a piece, you can't build that one thing any more, and the pieces aren't suited to building anything else. Plus the resulting toys are terrible - you can't play with them, they fall apart! I suppose I could glue every piece together, but that seems tedious. It makes for very profitable presents-from-grandma, but it's a crappy toy. I've embargoed Legos in my house.
Speaking as a marketer, HN should understand that this is a piece of viral marketing from Lego. It was created by an ad agency, not by good customer service.
I heard an interesting story that Lego faced a crisis where they were losing market share and profitability and so they decided to do some licensing deals which have had a very positive effect on their bottom line.
Yeah it was in the late 90s I believe that they were almost going bankrupt. Part of it too was the number of special pieces they would use for only one set. I have the Lego Book and it's a great read, goes into a lot more detail than that Wikipedia page.
Lego is great. A while back they had something where you could design your own hero factory on their website, so my son started saving up and doing chores so that he could get one.
Well, after a couple of weeks, we went to build one, but we couldn't find anywhere where we could do it. The website said we could, but we couldn't find where to. My wife emailed Lego and asked them how to do it, but it turns out they were no longer doing it, but the website had not been updated (in fact, they had stopped doing it before we had even seen it to begin with).
My son was very sad of course, but Lego sent him a $20 gift card and a bunch of stickers and some stuff so that he could buy some other hero factory stuff, which made his day and allowed him to get much more than he could of with what he saved up.
As far as I know LEGO actually has a vault with a couple sets of all their products. Which of course means some body has the job description of official LEGO librarian.
Regarding Lego's in general. I love them! I had a ton as a child. My best friend had all the castles and my cousin was obsessed beyond anyone I have ever met, even today.
Currently I am into the Mindstorms sets. I buy them all. Right now I have 2 of them and I want very badly some of the 3rd party accessories to make some unique fun robotic machines or robots. The possibilities seem endless. There are so many neat ones I can't decide what I should build to use them now. I find my self thinking of robots that could do something only to make an excuse to buy the part and build it.
This situation that the boy was in reminds me of Nintendo games.
1. A new fun game I wanted would come out.
2. I would save up the funds to buy it or I was currently playing something else I would need to finish first.
3. By the time I got the money or finished the previously mentioned game, the game I wanted would be out of print and the prices would be in the stratosphere.
4. Sometimes, Christmas or birthday would come around and mom would be the savior. I would drop my jaw she was willing to and paid so much money for some of my games. I keep the ones she bought me not only to play again, but for sentimental reasons.
When they say it was out of his price range, many mint-boxed sets are available on Bricklink that are the same as or less than the original retail price.
Kudos to Lego. I think the majority of us agree their product is full of awesome, and to see them providing this level of customer service is awe-inspiring.
That said, I think we're missing the crux of the story here. These parents let their child save every penny for two years. There's something to be said for teaching your children to save money for something they want, but to let it go on for two years seems overly cruel. As a parent, you need to make sure they get enough money in birthday cards, allowance, etc. to cover the total in a reasonable amount of time.
My kids took part in the First Lego League robotics competition for this first time this year and it was one of the greatest things ever. For those that do not know, it is a competition where teams build Lego robots to navigate around a board and solve different challenges. The teams also do a project (complete with a market survey, product design, testing, and then a product pitch) as part of the competition.
The Lego robots are easy to build and fun to play with. The default visual programming language is pretty limited, but it is very easy to get started with.
This kind of amazing customer care is something every company can aspire to - and not just for the obvious reason of making people smile. This cost LEGO maybe $300 and has netted them an incredible amount of positive press and rekindled emotional connections with their brand.
If you want to read two great and inspiring books about this, read The Thank You Economy by Gary Vaynerchuk and Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh. We're working to build a culture of over the top customer service and these books are our bibles.
[+] [-] gonzo|13 years ago|reply
Shortly after we began shipping, LEGO called. They were very gracious, and only had a couple of TM-related issues they wanted fixed. Nothing unreasonable, really.
When were were done, I offered to send the attorney on the other end of the call a BrickCase. He declined, as he already had one on his phone.
So it's not just kids that they have a great interface with.
[+] [-] scrumper|13 years ago|reply
There's something amazingly satisfying about unquestioningly following detailed instructions and seeing something tangible emerge before your eyes. I love it.
[+] [-] scrumper|13 years ago|reply
My friends and I arrived at the cinema early, secured great middle seats and sat back to endure endless local commercials (Annie got it done no less than four times.) Then it was time for the very last advert before the trailers started: Lego. A Lego set featuring the Avengers. An animated Lego set where the various characters recapitulated the plot of the film in thirty seconds. Many, many angry voices cried out, to the general tune of, "That better f-ing not be in the movie." It all was.
It tainted our experience pretty badly. Even if the advert had featured a completely different story we'd still have been looking out for similarities. This was a few days after opening weekend, too!
I still love Lego, but she's given me my first disappointment. I guess I'm growing up.
[+] [-] throwaway1979|13 years ago|reply
As with all things, moderation is key. I've got about a dozen high-end technic sets at this point. And I realized I had a problem ... my lego addiction was insatiable. Addictions aren't always bad .. but for me personally ... my lego addiction was bad. I didn't learn anything about building. All I did was follow the instructions to build the model. It was ... as you said .. zen like. But I got no feeling of accomplishment. I'm not an artistic person and have no interest in building MOCs (My Own Creations, in Lego community speak).
Anyways ... I have gone cold turkey. Haven't bought one in 8 months or so. I could crack any day if there are any good holiday sales :-p
[+] [-] dquigley|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jmj42|13 years ago|reply
I have to confess, I've had as much fun with it as she has.
[+] [-] sharkweek|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] czstrong|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jeffbarr|13 years ago|reply
I have built 5 or 6 of the larger Technic and buildings (each thousands of parts) over the last year or so.
The structured play (simply follow the directions and you will get to the goal) is a very welcome counterpoint to the somewhat unstructured way in which I spend my days (here's a blank page, describe a complex product in any way that you see fit).
[+] [-] pcote|13 years ago|reply
And that's what's beautiful about a good general purpose bucket of bricks. It's right brained creativity which complements Lego's instruction-based kits.
[+] [-] jeremyarussell|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nicholassmith|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kibwen|13 years ago|reply
One thing that I'm a bit saddened about is how it feels that movie tie-ins have overshadowed the other sets. Star Wars, Harry Potter, Batman, Avengers, The Hobbit... what I loved as a kid wasn't that I was building a replica of some fictional universe, it was that I could create the universe in my head as I was building it.
And yeah, the Lego Friends thing makes me rather sad. But that's not wholly Lego's fault; parents insist on segregating girls' toys from boys' toys, and Lego reacted to meet that demand. Who knows, with any luck maybe some of the girls who otherwise wouldn't be exposed to Legos at all will get introduced to Mindstorms.
And I still have to give them props for this ad from 1981:
http://cdn.twentytwowords.com/wp-content/uploads/Awesome-198...
[+] [-] michaelt|13 years ago|reply
[1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1333215/Why-Britain-n... [2] http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8Q-tdV67Suc/TfhcQxf63JI/AAAAAAAAAT...
[+] [-] josephlord|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] belorn|13 years ago|reply
I also heard (so, unverified) that users of 3d-printers has gotten some of that attention.
So, great company to work with, great products, but clearly a bit overreaching in the legal department. How evil that makes them... meh, at least they are not trying to patent something that they themselves never created. Still wrong through.
[+] [-] datr|13 years ago|reply
Other than that though I completely agree with you. They seem like a great company.
[+] [-] smiler|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] potatolicious|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] johncoltrane|13 years ago|reply
As a grown up, seeing all those incredibly detailed scenes and models created by fans pop up every now and then on the net has been fun to watch.
As a father, accompanying my kid through his discovery of LEGO was a treat and a great occasion to get into the "zone" for hours… with him.
I must say that I wasn't convinced by their Hero Factory stuff; thinking it was too inherently violent and left too little room for my kid's imagination. Now that he has 6 or so of those and spends hours combining their parts (adding LEGO elements here and there) into gigantic — and horrific — figures I can say that I misjudged them.
[+] [-] runn1ng|13 years ago|reply
We (as in pirate party) made a pretty mediocre (IMO) ad before elections, which used CGI models that bore some resemblance to Lego figures.
They didn't like that. We think we are in the right; however, we don't particularly like LEGO corporation at this moment.
The ad was just on youtube and not in any TV or amything.
[+] [-] generalpf|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tmh88j|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] charlieok|13 years ago|reply
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/asperg...
[+] [-] bluetidepro|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] polshaw|13 years ago|reply
Which is where i saw it on Friday, and 'shockingly' is the source (well, originally youtube).
On the topic; it is surely obvious to anyone in marketing/PR these days that doing something like this is almost always going to be a profitable move. The guy provided the story, even if they had to do something like this 10 times for it to 'go viral' it would be one hell of a lot of promotion for the money. It's not going to harm the recipient's Lego buying habits either.
[+] [-] Tyrannosaurs|13 years ago|reply
Just enjoy it as a break from the norm.
[+] [-] olalonde|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] uptown|13 years ago|reply
On a related note, when did LEGOS become absurdly expensive? I've noticed that most of what they market these days are themed sets with price-tags well beyond what I can imagine the plain blocks used to cost. For instance - their Lego Ninjago series can command anywhere from $10-$30 for a little miniature figure - you know - the guys that are about 3/4 of an inch tall. What am I missing? Have they just figured out how to create artificial demand by playing the "limited edition" game, or have plastic toys suddenly got more expensive to manufacture?
[+] [-] rquirk|13 years ago|reply
The problem with the themed stuff is that it isn't really Lego. It's more like any other plastic toy - pre-built (or made from a few big pieces), not much replayability but "looks cool" on the box and in toy catalogs.
On the company - another anecdote - my son lost a piece of one set, I went through the "lost a piece" process on their web-site and to my surprise they sent it us, for free. Although given all I've spent over the years on Lego, I think I was due a 1x2 grey slope with grill :-)
[+] [-] mtts|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sareon|13 years ago|reply
I'd say a normal set goes for about $0.10 a piece, prices will go up if they require a license (Star Wars) or have lots of special abnormal pieces.
Minifigs cost a lot more to make, they are also collectable themselves. I have collected sets since I was three years old and I have only recently discovered how valuable and collectable just the minifigs are to some people.
[+] [-] rhplus|13 years ago|reply
6923 "Particle Ionizer", a small space ship: $24 in 1990 would be $42.48 in 2012
1616 "Space Combo", couple of minifigs and mini vehicles: $10 in 1990 would be $17.70 in 2012
[1] http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm
[2] http://guide.lugnet.com/set/6923
[3] http://guide.lugnet.com/set/1616
[+] [-] jiggy2011|13 years ago|reply
See also Games Workshop.
[+] [-] Jupe|13 years ago|reply
When I was their age (~10) I only had a few hundred pieces, but I learned to build and re-build those same 100 pieces in many different ways (sheds, space ships, bull dozers, you name it). Lego's certainly had a hand in shaping my future as a developer/engineer. I'm extremely happy to see my kids enjoying them as well.
I think Lego is the best toy in the world! (and an excellent company).
[+] [-] EliRivers|13 years ago|reply
The game had a network play option. A player could play together with someone else over the internet who had the same game. I don't recall how many years ago this was, but I've got the idea in my head that there was no central game managing server. You had to already know who to play with. Possibly even knowing their IP address.
Anyway, he didn't know anyone. He really wanted to play, so he wrote to them asking if they knew anyone he could play this game with.
Someone wrote back, apologising for not knowing anyone he could play with, and included a mousemat and a pack of lego.
I'm welling up here. I'm going to go out and firebomb the Duplo factory.
[+] [-] jmharvey|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jellicle|13 years ago|reply
Speaking as a marketer, HN should understand that this is a piece of viral marketing from Lego. It was created by an ad agency, not by good customer service.
[+] [-] djt|13 years ago|reply
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Lego
[+] [-] sareon|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] z02d|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] darrenkopp|13 years ago|reply
Well, after a couple of weeks, we went to build one, but we couldn't find anywhere where we could do it. The website said we could, but we couldn't find where to. My wife emailed Lego and asked them how to do it, but it turns out they were no longer doing it, but the website had not been updated (in fact, they had stopped doing it before we had even seen it to begin with).
My son was very sad of course, but Lego sent him a $20 gift card and a bunch of stickers and some stuff so that he could buy some other hero factory stuff, which made his day and allowed him to get much more than he could of with what he saved up.
[+] [-] Avshalom|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] b3b0p|13 years ago|reply
Currently I am into the Mindstorms sets. I buy them all. Right now I have 2 of them and I want very badly some of the 3rd party accessories to make some unique fun robotic machines or robots. The possibilities seem endless. There are so many neat ones I can't decide what I should build to use them now. I find my self thinking of robots that could do something only to make an excuse to buy the part and build it.
This situation that the boy was in reminds me of Nintendo games.
1. A new fun game I wanted would come out.
2. I would save up the funds to buy it or I was currently playing something else I would need to finish first.
3. By the time I got the money or finished the previously mentioned game, the game I wanted would be out of print and the prices would be in the stratosphere.
4. Sometimes, Christmas or birthday would come around and mom would be the savior. I would drop my jaw she was willing to and paid so much money for some of my games. I keep the ones she bought me not only to play again, but for sentimental reasons.
[+] [-] snake_plissken|13 years ago|reply
SPACE POLICE http://paperspaceships.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/lego.j...
and
Early-Mid 90s City jump offs http://www.onetwobrick.net/2008/08/set-database-6541-interco...
[+] [-] douglasfshearer|13 years ago|reply
http://www.bricklink.com/search.asp?pg=1&q=10194&sz=...
[+] [-] bwag|13 years ago|reply
That said, I think we're missing the crux of the story here. These parents let their child save every penny for two years. There's something to be said for teaching your children to save money for something they want, but to let it go on for two years seems overly cruel. As a parent, you need to make sure they get enough money in birthday cards, allowance, etc. to cover the total in a reasonable amount of time.
[+] [-] bobochan|13 years ago|reply
The Lego robots are easy to build and fun to play with. The default visual programming language is pretty limited, but it is very easy to get started with.
[+] [-] nlavezzo|13 years ago|reply
If you want to read two great and inspiring books about this, read The Thank You Economy by Gary Vaynerchuk and Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh. We're working to build a culture of over the top customer service and these books are our bibles.
[+] [-] richardlblair|13 years ago|reply
Lego did a really great thing here. It could impact this young man's life forever.
Also, shout out to his parents. They seem like they have done a great job in a tough situation.