Lego's 0.002mm specification and its implications for manufacturing (2025)

Post by bpev » Wed, Mar 11, 2026, 2:27 PM UTC

utopiah wrote: post #16

scatbot wrote: post #12

Lego is one of those companies that is simultaneously amazing and kind of sucks. On one hand the core product is incredible. The tolerances on the bricks are micrometer-level precision and the fact that pieces from the 70s snap perfectly into ones made today is mind blowing. On the other hand, a lot what the company does today just sucks. Set prices are outrageous. Printed bricks get replaced with stickers and many s…

Nostalgia... Lego was amazing decades ago so we want it to remain so. It's not anymore though. The whole raison d'etre, namely infinitely recomposable bricks to be creative, was lost the moment they realized they were a LOT more money in custom sets. Sets become collectible, perishable, trends can form, secondary markets exists, etc. It's simply about the baseline, not the principle. Sorry.

Post by jonhohle » Wed, Mar 11, 2026, 2:28 PM UTC

afandian wrote: post #26

SteveNuts wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not OP but from my experience, the LEGO I had in a bin since I was a kid still fit perfectly with LEGO I'm buying for my kids 30 years later. That's unbelievably impressive to me.

More anecdata. Lego from my youth, which was a hand-me down at the time, doesn't fit well with new lego. So it might be 40 years old, (which seems like a long time until you actually reach that age!) I think it's more likely do to plastic aging than the original tolerances though.

Post by bigstrat2003 » Wed, Mar 11, 2026, 2:28 PM UTC

utopiah wrote: post #16

scatbot wrote: post #12

Lego is one of those companies that is simultaneously amazing and kind of sucks. On one hand the core product is incredible. The tolerances on the bricks are micrometer-level precision and the fact that pieces from the 70s snap perfectly into ones made today is mind blowing. On the other hand, a lot what the company does today just sucks. Set prices are outrageous. Printed bricks get replaced with stickers and many s…

Nostalgia... Lego was amazing decades ago so we want it to remain so. It's not anymore though. The whole raison d'etre, namely infinitely recomposable bricks to be creative, was lost the moment they realized they were a LOT more money in custom sets. Sets become collectible, perishable, trends can form, secondary markets exists, etc. It's simply about the baseline, not the principle. Sorry.

Post by bena » Wed, Mar 11, 2026, 2:29 PM UTC

ralferoo wrote: post #21

doubled112 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always remember the small, weird pieces being hard to get apart. What I don't remember was every kit being made up of so many small, weird pieces.

When I was a kid, the first "special" Lego kit I remember was the Star Wars sets in 1983 (and especially that everybody wanted a Millenium Falcon but I didn't know anybody who had parents that could afford one!) Apart from those Star Wars kits, everything I had were generic blocks and strips (not sure what they're called, the ones that are 1/3 the height of a block) and some different designs of people. The closest I…

Post by afandian » Wed, Mar 11, 2026, 2:30 PM UTC

jonhohle wrote: post #33

afandian wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More anecdata. Lego from my youth, which was a hand-me down at the time, doesn't fit well with new lego. So it might be 40 years old, (which seems like a long time until you actually reach that age!) I think it's more likely do to plastic aging than the original tolerances though.

To add even more - I was handed down Lego that belonged to my mom in the 60s, played with them through the 80s and 90s, and now my kids have them today. I wouldn’t be able to tell you which were hers and which were mine.