The Vault

former-member · 2016-03-02T21:52:29.000Z

In a sleepy little town called Billund in Denmark, there is a treasure. And if you have the right connections, you can get a peek at it. The Lego House is a museum that can be visited by special arrangement. Its a very well done timeline of the company with lighted walls showing photos, history, and niches of actual products over the years. But if you have the right guide, you can step through a secret wall panel in the tour, go down a shallow set of steps, and badge through a door labeled "engineering". There you will find "the vault" and a copy of every Lego set made since the 1970's. This is actually Lego's "archival" vault, which means that authorized employees can go down there to do research. You are allowed to gently handle the sets and take pictures. And take your trip down memory lane. Lego has several other vaults in secret locations, with pristine copies of every set, but those aren't open even to employees. This is the one where you get to feel like a kid again, and kick yourself for not hanging on to that Space, Town, or Pirate set you had long ago. Interestingly this vault used to include competitor products as Lego did "market research" on its peers. You can still find a stray Mega***** item there. No room left now that they are adding 350 products a year, so that's all been cleared out. The 2016-2017 product shelf is unmarked and kept tightly closed. Not even a peek allowed there.