National Geographic's "Megafactories" Lego Episode

[Vindicare]

All I can say is...500 pieces a second! Hot damn, those are some fast machines. That's pretty crazy, cool video. For those gripers about getting the police station every few years probably didn't like hearing that it's the best selling set(police stations in general, not current one specifically).

[XimenaPaulina]

I finally got the time to watch this episode in its entirety and it's really very informative and insightful on how our beloved plastic bricks are made from scratch all the way how the sets make it their way to the stores. It's also great to know about the humble beginnings of TLG, and how the starting wooden toys became the most popular toy of the modern times. As one who works in a manufacturing facility (though in a much much smaller one and less complicated product), I really appreciated the efficiency and complexity of the production flow and process and all the massive effort they put into making each single piece and element of LEGO sets. Now I completely understand why LEGO costs that much.

Thanks for sharing this great find DLuders!

[DarthR2-D2]

I'm in high school. I know what I want to do with my life. That was awesome.

[Hewman]

The LEGO Universe segment was funny; if only they had a crystal ball. I felt like I definitely contributed to LEGO's dark years because my dark age was in full affect at the time...Nice program overall...

Yes, I bet lego wish that section didn't make the cut. For those that haven't seen it, Lego talk about how Universe was their biggest single investment ever.

I need to get one of those crowbars!

Exactly what I thought, it'd be interesting to see how good it really is at removing tiles or if they just had a loosely placed one for the demonstration. It's available in the police minifig pack that also comes with the new dog featured so heavily, so I think I'll have to grab one of those.

[Masked Builder]

Now that was cool. This definitely explains some of the more overpriced sets but not all of them. Now I will treasure my sets even more. And now I know why Lego makes so many police stations.

[mobricki]

This is really cool. I'm glad Lego is getting this kind of exposure.

[Blackknight112]

Thanks for sharing!

I wish I had so many bricks

[Graymice]

Thanks for posting this - will watch this with my son later!

[Miss Kyle]

I WANT THAT LEGO CITY SHIRT!!!

:D

[bricklayer]

The programme has taken any romantic notions about Lego that I had and killed them. It's quite depressing in a way to see what a monster the factory is, the company is. Although impressive and awesome to see the bricks being made, the sheer scale of the process is sobering.

I thought the story was very NICE actually.

It wasnt founded by some greedy corporate entity.....Just a single dad trying to support his family.

Just knowing the story and seeing the ethics of TLC grows my love and respect for it even more!!

[Lego Otaku]

Doesn't look like I'll get this show on USA TV. Youtubes are very nice but there's no available subtitle or closed captioning for the deaf. I searched but couldn't find any listing for USA show and I didn't find anything on if there would be DVD for this.

Thanks for the Youtube link though. Better than nothing :)

[Toadtorrent]

I just watched this...very interesting. I like the 0.25M Euros for the board game die mold. Wow!

The amount of manual work is shocking...as is the amount of robotic automation.

[HighFlyer]

Thanks for sharing with us, I find this type of programme very interesting

EDIT: I had seen this before, but the video has been removed by the user

Edited September 4, 2011 by HighFlyer

[The Blue Brick]

I saw this on TV. The funny thing is that I live about 40 minutes from the Lego factory in Enfield, CT, but they don' let people inside.

[22kane]

Great watch, thanks for posting. I never knew the factory was so complicated with all of the robotics and so on. I always get a kick out of production facilities and seeing how they work. Legos entire system is just so impressive and the amount of bricks they produce daily is absolutely mind blowing. The care involved with just the molds is crazy, a mold washing machine? They certainly have an impressive factory.

[SearchFunction]

Great watch, thanks for posting. I never knew the factory was so complicated with all of the robotics and so on. I always get a kick out of production facilities and seeing how they work. Legos entire system is just so impressive and the amount of bricks they produce daily is absolutely mind blowing. The care involved with just the molds is crazy, a mold washing machine? They certainly have an impressive factory.

An thats why I am surprised that they havn´t incorporated the rest of the production line into this. The factory is super high tech, but then they load the bricks onto trucks, drive them 300 miles to another country, unload them and THEN paint them? That just seems unnessesary wastefull. Also, why not use those robots in the distribution center as well?

The large sets are packed..by hand? Guess they need bigger machines yes?

Still improvements to be made I suppose. A special factory for pick-a-brick and LDD orders would be on my wishlist : ).

[1980-Something-Space-Guy]

I enjoyed this documentary a lot. It helped to fill in the gaps of some things I didn't understand about Lego. Also, as an enthusiast of recreational mathematics, I found the fact that 915,103,765 different combinations are possible with 6 2x4 Lego bricks very interesting. In addition, I liked seeing the machines that assemble minifigure parts and set bags. However, I couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed about what we all expected from Lego Universe...

[Zeon]

An thats why I am surprised that they havn´t incorporated the rest of the production line into this. The factory is super high tech, but then they load the bricks onto trucks, drive them 300 miles to another country, unload them and THEN paint them? That just seems unnessesary wastefull. Also, why not use those robots in the distribution center as well?

The large sets are packed..by hand? Guess they need bigger machines yes?

Still improvements to be made I suppose. A special factory for pick-a-brick and LDD orders would be on my wishlist : ).

It's all about cost effiencity. If it's cheaper to pay humans packing it 24/7 than a bigger packing machine, they will pay for the human resources. If it's cheaper to have it painted in a different country where the wages are lower, they will drive itt all the way there. (Yes, this leads to a longer heated discussion about globalization, but let's just skip that.)