After yesterday’s news that the Technic Osprey was postponed there was still a little bit of hope that the set may be released at a later date. Unfortunately that isn’t going to happen. LEGO have now confirmed that the set will not be released.
Here’s the official updated statement from LEGO:
The LEGO Technic Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey was designed to highlight the important role the aircraft plays in search and rescue efforts. While the set clearly depicts how a rescue version of the plane might look, the aircraft is only used by the military.?We have a long-standing policy not to create sets which feature real military vehicles, so it has been decided not to proceed with the launch of this product.
We appreciate that some fans who were looking forward to this set may be disappointed, but we believe it’s important to ensure that we uphold our brand values.
With the cancellation happening so close to release, it seems highly likely that these sets are going to show up in random places over the coming months. It’s going to be a real collectors item.
This feels like a bad decision to me. LEGO have been pretty loose with the rules about what is or is not acceptable for a long time. I get not having military vehicles but I don’t understand why that rules out private sector versions of vehicles with military use.
Let me know what you think of this move.
Disappointing, and yet another opportunity for scalpers to get their hands on the sets which have presumably already been manufactured and distributed. It looked like a great set, perhaps Lego should have done what they did with the “Air Race Jet” – make it generic enough that it doesn’t have any direct military connotations, despite being clearly built for military purposes. That was a good set too.
Am hoping this design can be incorporated into a future, less contentious, model.
It’s certainly super disappointing, but I believe it’s the correct decision and a fairly clear-cut application of their no military vehicles rule, albeit a very late call. It would be a less clear-cut decision were there an actual private sector variant of the Osprey in operation, but it seems there isn’t. I’m also pleased Lego is willing to make big, expensive calls like this to uphold their values – I don’t think we can understate the importance of the no military vehicles rule for the broad accessibility and longevity of the brand.
Sitting on the fence about this. There are a few websites commenting on a particular organisation who have brought pressure to bear on Lego. Their main argument is that licensing fees will be paid to a company that manufactures military weapons. Lego has made guns, lasers and Sopwith Camels, but I’m pretty sure they’re not licensed. And just to stir the pot, plenty of Land Rovers have been used by the military, and Porsche and VW surely have never benefited from military conflicts?? And isn’t that beastly Johnny Depp in that Pirates of the Caribbean thingy?
Would have been good if Lego and the licensee could have reached an agreement to have the fees donated to charity or somesuch. Oh well, yet another exciting new Lego set that’s unobtainable.
The sets already in the wild will now be worth a fortune. For all the sets sitting in lego owned warehouse, factories and sets yet to be bagged up, I wonder if Lego will be able to reuse all the pieces in later sets or if they will sit there collecting dust/go to waste? I assume lego would have ideas/policies in place to limit waste. it’d be interesting (to me at least) to find out what eventually happens to all the pieces.
IIRC from a documentary on Lego, all substandard/excess bricks are molten down and re-molded. In a case like this though it would require people to break down the boxes and bags already prepared, so perhaps not economically feasible. But yeah it’s inevitable that this will turn up in very limited supply at stupid prices in the reseller market.
Good choice.
We don’t see LEGO make tanks, no need for them to make another military vehicle.
If the thing was used for other purposes then they would gladly go ahead with the project.
But as it is this is the right move for them to make.
They put principles before profit as it was looking like this was going to be a popular set.
LEGO should be applauded for sticking to their values.
The reselling issue for sets that might be out there to me is rather irrelevant.
The more interesting story is the principle behind the move.
As LEGO correctly identified (if rather late in the cycle), the machine is only used for Military use. The token rescue sticker that they had on the model isn’t sufficient. You wouldn’t want LEGO to make a model of a gas chamber and then put a sticker on it calling it a spa and sauna.
If people understood the reasoning behind the move it’s hard to conceive why would anyone want this set?
I have heard the minority of views with reasoning behind this and, while I don’t have a real issue with Lego choosing not to make military items, I have not seen anything that would come close to convincing me of that.
That being said if Lego were to make tanks, soldiers and other military toys I would likely be doubling my Lego spend for me and my kids. For that reason I am grateful they don’t make them. Saving money is the only real reason I can conceive of for not wanting this set to be made.
Hell if Lego decided to make pornographic Lego I would not care – I wouldn’t buy it and would prefer it not to be in the kids section, but I would not want to stop them from selling whatever products they chose. But then I am more of a person who allows adults to make choices for themselves and their children rather than trying to force my views onto others.
As expected, a few are popping up on ebay. Looks like someone in New Zealand got a hold of some.
LOoks like Target, Kmart and BIGW got some, of course they were gone in seconds and are now on ebay for $500+. This for me is a huge disaster for lego and they should now just release the set properly as it is out there anyway. I really wanted one of these to build but that wont happen now as it is in the collectors only market now, shame lego pander to a vocal minortiy.