Mapped: The beaches where Lego washes up | Hacker News Reader

Mapped: The beaches where Lego washes up

bbc.co.uk

36 pointsjackgavigan9 comments

Every time I see this article come up in some form or another (this is the fourth re-run or so) I am amazed at the durability of lego. I still have a bunch of it from the 1960's (hand downs from one of my many uncles).

It still fits, is of the older formulation so faded a bit.

It also is nice to put into perspective the fact that if this stuff is indeed this durable and the lego factories output as much of it as they do every year that at some point there must be a natural equilibrium reached at which you couldn't sell lego if your life depended on it because it will be everywhere. I've never heard of someone tossing lego in a landfill, but I've seen it be passed through over 3 generations and counting.

Not every piece is the same. If you check sites like bricklink you will find that some shapes and colors are more highly valued than others. This because they only showed up in a couple of sets within a limited time span, in essence making them a limited commodity.

Btw, i found myself reminded of a two panel comic about plastic.

Panel 1: scientist in the 1960s: "yay, plastic lasts forever!"

Panel 2: scientist in the 2000: "crap, plastic lasts forever!"

The story gets so much better by the fact that most of the pieces have a maritime or nautical theme.

Could it be conformation bias that maritime or nautical theme peaces are more noticed or make for a better article?

If, say, they were transformers which could go from a boxy robot shape to a more hydrodynamic form, then it might truly be conformation bias to see a preponderance of the nautical forms on the beach.

More likely it's because the container which fell off the Tokio Express had a large number of nautical kits. According to the article, 10% of the lost pieces were diving fins, for example.

It comes from the cargo manifests that list what is lost.

Surprised they don't mention the giant minifig that washes up on different beaches across the world: http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20111025/WIRE/111029721

Wouldn't it be amazing hidden advertisement if they were to do this on purpose occasionally?

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