Lego Secret Vault Contains All Sets In History

An anonymous reader writes "Gizmodo has an exclusive video and feature of one of the most heavily guarded secrets in Lego: the security vault where they store all the Lego sets ever created, new in their boxes. 4,720 sets from 1953 to 2008. Really amazing stuff and a trip down memory lane to every person who has played with the magic bricks. All combined, the collection must be worth millions, not only because of the collector value, but also because Lego uses it as a safeguard in copyright and patent cases."

cool tour, but no real surprise

[zappepcs]

FTFS

but also because Lego uses it as a safeguard in copyright and patent cases

This is why this is no surprise to me. I believe that pretty much every manufacturer does this.

Re:cool tour, but no real surprise

[WaltBusterkeys]

Still, it's pretty cool. Even if it is useful for trademark cases, you have to figure that sets from 50 years ago are there mostly just for the awesome historic value and as inspiration to the engineers.

easier for objects than data?

[peter303]

I've been in several organizations from universities to oil companies where large amounts of data have been lost due to system conversions, downsizings and geographic moves. I find it remarkable if a company can save several decades of history.

Re:Storage

[Anonymous Coward]

It's called compact shelving. Libraries have been using it for decades.

Re:Legos

[peragrin]

I would build the intended item in question and then start to modify it, mixing, adding and rearranging pieces until I was happy for a week or two.

Lego the ultimate toy for those with ADD. It is never done.

This journalist is so emo

[superskippy]

Here he is in this vault of cool stuff, and all he can talk about his his "feelings" and how life is all so hard.

Remember journalists! The first rule of journalism is "Nobody cares about you and your life. If you are really lucky, they might just be interested in your subject, but they certainly aren't interested in you!"

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:cool tour, but no real surprise

[Bombula]

I believe that pretty much every manufacturer does this.. Exactly. So what gives with this line in the article summary: one of the most heavily guarded secrets in Lego? Why would either the existence or the location of such a vault be a secret? That's like saying the vault at a major bank is a heavily guarded secret - it makes no sense, since you expect major banks to have vaults. Heavily guarded, yes. Secret? No.

You would think that but this is not the rule...

[gmezero]

What Lego has here is more the exception to the rule.

And on a separate note, am I the only one here horrified to see these people handling these boxes with their bare hands. For crying out loud, I hope they at least made that guy wash his hands first before letting him finger everything up.

Sheesh.

Tearing Up.

[thesolo]

For Christmas in 1990, my dad bought me the Legoland pirate ship (#6285), as shown in the video, and a few other pirate sets. I put them together immediately and played with them for hours on end.

My dad died suddenly in early 1991. Those lego sets were the last thing he ever gave me.

Seeing that original box on the video made me feel 10 years old all over again. Thanks Gizmodo & Slashdot.

Re:This journalist is so emo

[jamrock]

Here he is in this vault of cool stuff, and all he can talk about his his "feelings" and how life is all so hard. Remember journalists! The first rule of journalism is "Nobody cares about you and your life. If you are really lucky, they might just be interested in your subject, but they certainly aren't interested in you!"

Are you disappointed that he didn't just present an illustrated list of all 4,720 sets? This wasn't scientific reporting, or a dry treatise on new mathematical discoveries, and even then the very best journalists do include a subjective element in order for other humans to connect to the story. The journalist was attempting to express how the tour took him back to his childhood, and judging from many of the comments here, he succeeded in evoking the same feeling in others. The best journalism has a human reference, and strikes a fine balance between being too removed and being too involved. Maybe he strayed too far over the line, but it's not true that the journalist's feelings about a subject don't matter or are unimportant to the story.

Re:cool tour, but no real surprise

[foobsr]

I believe that pretty much every manufacturer does this.

Indeed?! [genua.de]

CC.

Re:cool tour, but no real surprise

[morgan_greywolf]

Free copy of Vista??

No, thanks.

Re:cool tour, but no real surprise

[Amouth]

well damn then.. i have been waisting alot of mod points..

Re:You would think that but this is not the rule..

[Opportunist]

You're one of those people that never played with his toys but kept them in the original box for collector's value, right?

I never got that idea. It's a toy. Play with it! That's what it was made for. Yes, that means they ain't in "mint" condition after a while, but they gave me a lot of fun and very fond memories. No money in the world could compensate that.

Re:cool tour, but no real surprise

[fm6]

It may take an archivist's mindset to preserve a complete history of Lego or other manufactured product. But software? All you need are regular backups. The problem is that when geeks start a new enterprise, they try to do their own IT, and the boring stuff, like backups, doesn't get done.

Also, before the Internet came along and made everybody need to be online and IP-compatible, most computers weren't networked, and those that were used a lot of different technologies. So basically there was no way a machine was going to get backed up unless the department it belonged thought to take care of it.

Small wonder that so much old software has just disappeared.

Re:The space sets were the best

[Endo13]

Yeah, gotta agree with you there. To the best of my recollection it was the pirate sets which started them off down the modern trend of specialized (and therefore nearly useless) pieces. Most of my sets as a kid were from the town collection, so while they had a few specialized pieces, they were mostly somewhat basic pieces that could be used to build a whole host of things.

Re:You would think that but this is not the rule..

[One Childish N00b]

To a collector, the collection is the fun, and the fond memories are inside those mint-condition original boxes. That row of original Star Wars figurines in their pristine presentation boxes are a point of pride and a symbol of an achievement.

I'm with you on this one, and I smashed the shit out of a lot of what would probably have been very valuable collector's items in my youth, all in the name of fun, but I do understand the collectors' mindset.

Re:You would think that but this is not the rule..

[thelexx]

These are archival copies of things that may not exist in such a pristine state anywhere anymore. How the poster uses their own toys, particularly NOW as opposed to when they were a child, is irrelevant. I'd be willing to bet that you have, to others, a weird fetish or two yourself. All the interesting people do anyway.

Re:You would think that but this is not the rule..

[keytoe]

More to the point, the collector's fun is only possible because of everyone like you that played with the toys. It's a symbiotic relationship: If everyone collected, there'd be no scarcity!

Re:You would think that but this is not the rule..

[Belial6]

That's what a lot of people miss. Collectibles like Franklin Mint plates are never going to yield the increase in value that an item everybody owned, but most destroyed will yield. It's the fact that everybody had one, and now they don't that creates the huge demand and small supply that makes most collectibles valuable.

Re:These are different

[Opportunist]

Why should I? What do you think I am, the government?