@LindsayJoy's MBP is into S+M: Oh, yea I thought the same thing. Until.
They don't pay people for crap then the gov't there take 60% of crap. Then cars are taxed something fierce. They told be if you drive a nice car(say a cheap BMW(they have those there)) you run the risk of having it vandaled because people think you are a tax dodger!
There was a designer there from the UK with a Audi TT paid off and they wanted to tax him $22k US to register it in Denmark! He was fighting to get some visa thing to get out of it.
Everyone bikes around instead which is fine until winter. :)
They also put my friend up in a dinky apartment with 3 other people because rent there is expensive too. :(
My friend said they would take the company (lego) minivan to Germany once a month to by food because it made sense even with $8 a gallon gas.
Sorry to ruin the dream for some people.
America the beautiful....

fastm3driver

@Juneau.what: Yea, Billund is a one horse town and a small one at that. I stayed at a place about 20 minutes east of the town in the country and it was very nice. Very Scandinavian mod. Forgot the name but it was in between Billund and Vejle on the south side of 28.

fastm3driver

@Kaiser-Machead's got LindsayJoy's cookies on the SuperDrive: holy crap that is so awesome....... woot!

superbryant

I wanna be there more then any of you.

More then anything.

I should be there, no one has LEGO problems like I do.

I'm crying now.

I wanna run through LEGOLAND embraced by the brick-scented air.

I want to come out of the store with so many boxes that guys dressed in mini-figure suits have to help me carry them out.

I wanna meet the Star Wars LEGO designer and take him hostage and make him only make mini-figs for me.

I wanna wake up tied to the floor by hundreds of minifigs like Guliver was by the Lilliputians.

I wanna go and look through ever LEGO set in history and cry, cry endlessly, as I walk though why I don't have all of these.

Why am I not there now? Why? WHY? WHYYYYYYY????

LindsayJoy's MBP is into S+M

You have found heaven. I am jealous and cannot wait for every detail!!!!

Minifig

Luckiest Man in the World --> Jesus Diaz

CasualGeek

I've been there and it was just OK to me and I'm a lego nut. The coolest thing though is the place where the designers work. My friend used to design the Star Wars sets and then the Mind Storms. They have giant lego ships they made just for fun. Like a super Star Destroyer 10 feet long and a 4' dia Federation trade ship from the beginning of the first movie. They also have a basement with every piece you could want to design.
Jesus, see if you can get into the employee store you can find some deals there. Not everything is cheaper than the US. The real neat thing in there is the OEM type sets that look like the retail versions but are black-and-white. I've never seen them anyplace but there. I was there is 04 and they had the Lego web cams(actually very good) for $5! I got 10 of them for gifts. fun.
If you go to Lego land it is mostly for little kids(weird, I know) but the store there is good and there is a robotic ride where you program how it will flip you around. Do this like 10 times as it it the best thing there.

fastm3driver

@Bueller: Dude, the legoland hotel is a total POS. It may have been nice a couple of decades ago, or whenever it opened, but it was seriously run down last time I was there.

Juneau.what

@jesusdiaz: *slowly waves hand*

You will take plenty of pictures, high definition pictures.

You will swim in Lego pieces like Scrooge McDuck.

You will not disappoint us.

Kaiser-Machead's got LindsayJoy's cookies on the SuperDrive

@Mobius: LEGO is both the singular and plural form. L2P KTHXBAI

ytsohptwhere

I can't wait to hear how this turns out.

techwiz140

@Mobius:

"Today LEGO bricks are primarily produced in a factory at the company's headquarters in Denmark."

[www.businessweek.com]

jesusdiaz

@Mobius: So I'm going to get a tour of... AN EMPTY FACTORY?

@Bueller: No, there weren't rooms at the legoland, unfortunately.

jesusdiaz

Legoland in Billund is freakin awesome. I was there a couple years ago, it was just at the end of winter and the park was just reopening, and it was colder than a witches tit in an iron bra, but it was freakin awesome.

Jesus, you're not staying at the Legoland hotel??

Bueller

Lego moved their US factories to Mexico in 2007 where 2/3 of Lego blocks are produced. The rest are made in the Czech Republic. No Legos are produced in Denmark, apparently.

Mobius

I guess the Millenium Falcon construction video will remain "under construction". *sigh*

ninjagin

Blocks of yellow, red and gold
Who knows what this wondrous building holds
A place to store our beloved toys
OH SHIT I'M BRINGING LINDSAYJOY

Kaiser-Machead's got LindsayJoy's cookies on the SuperDrive

@Kaiser-Machead's got LindsayJoy's cookies on the SuperDrive:

Haha, that is a scary notion, now I can see my overzealous reaction to a single moment for like an hour! Then you can capture my tears forming running down my face as they escort me by force out of LEGOLAND at closing time. The opportunities are endless!

You know, I have this awful awful recurring nightmare. I'm in ToysRus, and I go to the LEGO section. But instead of finding 1 or 2 or even 3 new sets, there are like *thousands* of new sets that I don't have, and then I am looking at them, and they all look so good! But then they keep getting better and better and ever set is like $1,000 and then I can't choose and get so upset I start crying and run out of the store hysterical. And then I wake up. Oh God . Awful.

And given the nature of this article I probably will be having that very nightmare tonight.

@fastm3driver:

Huh? LEGOLAND ≠ Denmark real word. I want to live in LEGOLAND LEGOLAND LEGOLAND. I want to drive a car made of LEGO. I will even play LEGO taxes with LEGO gold coins and gold bricks and gold and silver crystals from my new dwarves mine set. Then I will worship LEGO God/Owner/Dictator Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen.

LindsayJoy's MBP is into S+M

@LindsayJoy's MBP is into S+M: I'll bring the Casio Exilim EX-F1 to capture all of that.

Kaiser-Machead's got LindsayJoy's cookies on the SuperDrive

@jesusdiaz:

I'll meet you halfway. When I read the initial news in 2006, I thought they were moving it all, so I was mistaken:

"At Lego's headquarters in Denmark, up to 900 production employees will lose their jobs over the next three years as nearly a third of the domestic production will be moved to the Czech Republic, the company said.

Some Lego products, including the popular Lego Technic and Bionicle, will still be made at Lego's headquarters in Billund, 160 miles west of Copenhagen, which presently has a staff of 3,000 employees."

[www.msnbc.msn.com]

Mobius

@dOk:

He didn't think he was actually going to an empty factory. He was being sarcastic for my benefit.

Mobius

@jesusdiaz

No you aren't visiting an empty factory...

You are seeing the main R&D facility where they not only create the set designs but where they develop all of the unique bricks.

There is a long process that they go through to create any and all new shaped bricks and it takes about a year for the final approval on a new brick shape and numerous molds to make it perfect.

You would never get that with a normal large company... only a family owned company with a brand name to properly protect would even care about quality is this day and age.

dOk

Legos are also made/sold at the Legoland(s) amusement parks...You can see them do the injection moulding just like watching Krispy Kreme make donuts.

sshrum

@LindsayJoy's MBP is into S+M: ha, ha, usually you have to go through the real world to get there. :(
They do have lego cars at legoland but they only let kids drive them ;(
You can get on this sky train and watch all the kids having fun though. For the adults they have a lego prostitute you can take your picture with. If I remember I'll try to post a picture later tonight.
Jesus,
There is a easily missed museum in the park grounds that has old toys(not just lego)that I found very neat. It has bricks you can actually play with too.

fastm3driver

@Juneau.what: Couple of years ago it wasn't so bad I didn't think. Yes Billund is in the middle of nowhere, but for what it was the lego stuff was cool. I was only there one night though, before I flew back to the states.

Bueller

@Juneau.what: And my frame of reference before that was the smallest hotel room in the history of mankind in north Denmark, so POS it may have been but it looked like the Ritz after that :) When were you there last?

Bueller

@fastm3driver:

"For the adults they have a lego prostitute you can take your picture with."

For real?????????

Im impressed. Pics please!

LindsayJoy's MBP is into S+M

You are like kids with this lego thing.

I way prefer Playmobil.

MACPollo

@LindsayJoy's MBP is into S+M: crap I forgot. I'll try again tonight.

fastm3driver

@Mobius:
Some are. A few years ago the tooling was all done in Germany and Switzerland, while the bulk of production came out of Denmark and Switzerland, with some (primarily packaging) out of the US. Since then, production has been split up between China, Hungary, Mexico, Sweden and the Czech Republic, though some production continues to happen in Denmark. Primary, they're retaining the complex parts (TECHNIC) and parts with fast turnover (BIONICLE), while more general-purpose parts (the 2x4 brick) have been farmed out to Singapore-based Flextronics.

@Mobius:
Where exactly did you get this "2/3" number? It doesn't make sense at all, given that Europe is still a much larger consumer market than the Americas combined, and US production was primarily focused on packaging (like the plastic pods used for BIONICLE, the Racers Tiny Turbos, and the replacement for the regrettably short-lived X-Pods).

@jesusdiaz:
That was written in 2006, and I don't think it was even true at that time. Things have changed significantly in the last couple years. In 2005 it was announced that there would be heavy restructuring, and in mid-2006 they put numbers to that by saying that they'd lay off 300 in Enfield and 900 in Billund over the next three years, as all US production would go to Mexico and roughly 1/3 of Billund production would go to the Czech Republic, where the existing plant that was opened by The LEGO Company would be turned over to Flextronics for operation. So no, you won't get a tour of an empty factory, but it also won't be nearly as full as it was two years ago.

@ytsohptwhere:
"LEGO" is supposed to be treated as an adjective, not a noun.

@dOk:
That's not true! Megabloks...wait, nevermind...

Purple Dave

@fastm3driver:
What? I've never thought that one with an brand new Audi, Mercedez og BMW was a tax dodger, and I don't think any one does. But yes, cars are very expensive. You can't get a new one for less than $20K :\

And the one about driving to Germany for food...It's not regular food they buy, it's candy, sodas and beer that is cheaper, but only if you buy A LOT like a trailer full of it :D

Hope you comment was with a bit of sarcasm, but as a dane I couldn't recognize what you wrote as being 100% correct :-)

AE_

@fastm3driver:
I live in Denmark and a normal sized family car can easily cost around 60k $. And the smallest cars cost around 20k $. And we pay around 50% tax of our income, but then we get free schools, free hospital, and much more for free.

Frizzoo

@Purple Dave:

The bulk of the brick production is in Denmark.

They only package stuff in Mexico.

Your 1/3 number is not correct.

The factory is in full capacity, with 24 hour production.

I'll talk about these in some of my features.

jesusdiaz