Lego has said it is reversing its policy on bulk purchases and will no longer ask customers what they want to use the bricks for.The U-turn follows a recent controversy involving Chinese artist Ai Weiwei.In October last year, Ai accused Lego of censorship when it refused to sell its bricks directly to him.The company said its policy was to reject requests if it believed the bricks would be used to make a political statement.Ai is known for his criticism of the Chinese government as well as for being one of the world's leading contemporary artists. He wanted the bricks for an artwork on political dissidents. The artist ended up using "fake" bricks donated to him by the public for an exhibition in Melbourne, Australia.Ai appeared to react to Lego's decision on Wednesday by posting a picture on Instagram of a young boy sticking bricks onto his face, accompanied by a grinning emoji caption. When Lego first refused to sell a bulk order of plastic bricks to Ai Weiwei in September, he's thought to have kept the news to himself.
But a few weeks later, the announcement that a new Legoland theme park would open in Shanghai led the artist to reveal Lego's decision to stay away from projects that had a "political agenda". It was a surprising decision by Lego. After all, Ai Weiwei had used Lego before. He created a series of portraits of political dissidents that appeared at an exhibition in Alcatraz prison in 2014. Back in October, the artist tied Lego's financial interests in China with its decision to refuse his order. His accusation has some merit: KIRKBI, the private Danish company that owns the Lego brand also owns a significant amount of shares in Merlin Entertainment, the British company that operates Legolands around the world.China is Lego's fastest growing market and the company wouldn't want to irritate Beijing. However, as Lego might attest, few would want to battle the feisty Ai Weiwei. In a statement posted on its website on Tuesday, Lego said it used to ask customers ordering bulk purchases for the "thematic purpose" of their project, as it did not want to "actively support or endorse specific agendas"."
However, those guidelines could result in misunderstandings or be perceived as inconsistent, and the Lego Group has therefore adjusted the guidelines for sales of Lego bricks in very large quantities," it said.As of 1 January the company will instead ask that customers make clear the group does not support or endorse their projects, if exhibited in public.Lego's earlier decision to refuse Ai's request angered the artist, who accused the company of censorship and discrimination, and of attempting to define political art.The artist told the BBC he welcomed Lego's change of heart."I think Lego made a good move, I think this would be a small victory for freedom of speech." The artist also linked Lego's stance with business interests in China.The controversy sparked a public backlash resulting in supporters around the world offering to donate toy bricks.Ai set up "Lego collection points" in different cities, and ended up making a new series of artworks based on the incident as a commentary on freedom of speech and political art.
Correction: This article was changed to make it clear that Ai Weiwei's Melbourne exhibition used non-Lego bricks.Come Play With Us! Bricks & Minifigs® is your one-stop LEGO® shop! We are the largest toy store of our kind, specializing in only new and used LEGO® items. We buy and trade all things LEGO®, from tubs of bulk to storage unit sized collections. If it’s LEGO®, we’ll take it!!Enjoy our selection of individual minifigs, bulk bricks, components and accessories. With the largest assortment of new, used and retired sets we keep your collection growing! Bricks & Minifigs is built on the principle of the 3 R'sREBUILD with thousands of pieces to choose from ensuring you'll have those childhood sets rebuilt in no time.REUSE is our way or saying that we buy, sell and trade anything Lego brand and pay top dollar for it.REIMAGINE those sets you get from us by creating your own masterpiece straight from your imagination.Lego, the Danish maker of brick toys beloved by millions, has refused a bulk order of their product placed by artist Ai Weiwei for an exhibition he was planning on political dissidents and free speech in Australia.In September, Weiwei said in an Instagram post, Lego refused his order for their bricks because they “cannot approve the use of Legos for political works.”
Later, Weiwei posted this as his reaction to the decision:Roar Rude Trangbæk, a Lego spokesman, told the Guardian that the bulk order had indeed been rejected on political grounds, and the policy was “not new.”“Any individual person can naturally purchase or get access to Lego bricks in other ways to create their Lego projects if they desire to do so, but as a company, we choose to refrain from engaging in these activities — through for example bulk purchase,” he said.“In cases where we receive requests for donations or support for projects — such as the possibility of purchasing Lego bricks in large quantities — where we are made aware that there is a political context, we therefore kindly decline support.”Social media reaction was predictably “awesome.” Many Lego owners offered to donate their bricks to Weiwei so he could complete his project.Weiwei said he would accept the donations.Lego’s decision was particularly disappointing to some because of the key, somewhat subversive message contained in last year’s hit, The Lego Movie: anarchic creativity is a treasure and homogenization in private or public life is harmful.
Weiwei nodded to this when he tweeted “Lego will tell us what to do, or not to do — that is awesome!” And no one can deny that Legos have been used in political artworks before:Weiwei has been a longstanding critic of the Chinese Communist Party, and was imprisoned for three months in China after charges of tax evasion. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned it as an “arbitrary arrest and detention.”Many saw Weiwei’s campaign of art exhibits and political dissidence as a key reason why the government became more transparent about official data related to the 2008 Sichuan earthquake that killed thousands, including many schoolchildren. Weiwei became upset about accusations from parents that substandard school construction caused the deaths of so many. This was one key focus of a documentary, Never Sorry, that profiled Weiwei in 2012.His work has been shown around the world, including at the Hirshhorn Gallery, the Smithsonian Institution’s museum focused on modern art.