There was a count down to sir David Attenborough's birthday/ban date for playing with legos this year lol. That's when they announced that change I believe.
A lot of the sets already said +, but lego did post an image with a lego classic set that had been updated to say 4-100+ specifically for sir David Attenborough
I'm a middle aged woman, so I'm not going to qualify as a big boy either way. Might as well take the Valium, avoid the damn panic attack, and buy my own LEGOS.
My doctors aren't nearly as cool as yours so I have to raw dog MRIs. The trick for me is to close my eyes when they start pushing me in and absolutely not open them until I've been pulled out.
You have to have fun with the colonoscopy team. I drew (back there) two eyes and a nose on one side and a caption that said "Sorry about my breath - I was up all night puking"
Ageism. I am in my 50s, have an MRI next week, and was really looking forward to getting this set for free. I will inquire regardless, but I suspect you are right.
My MRI scanning site lets me choose a scent to be placed on a cloth so I can breathe lavender or orange blossom essence (among other essential oil choices), while I’m in the tube. It’s actually really calming. Maybe she could ask if she could do something similar?
Yeah for sure. My kid has had various medical scans (although echocardiograms etc, never MRIs) and I can see how something like this would be an amazing incentive for them to be brave and know they’re not the only person having a scan like that. Nice one Lego.
Call me a wimp but my CT scans with contrast gave me a panic attack every time. I’ve never had an issue with small spaces, but something about going in there and the sensation of the contrast is so scary. Obviously the circumstances of all my scans were not great either. I would have greatly appreciated a sticker; I was already holding back tears
You're not a wimp at all and you're also not alone in that, some people feel the rush of warmth from the contrast way more intensely than others. My non scientific theory is it resembles a rush of adrenaline or anxiety and that can definitely be scary on top of being in an unpleasant medical situation. I would have given you a gold star afterwards!
Oh for sure, i didn't think like we were guaranteed to get one and someone screwed up, just pointing out that sheerly having pediatric imaging certainly doesn't result in getting one across the board. Shame though, my kid would love this thing and she's been through enough in my mind to have "earned one"
They are not meant to be given to the kids, but to be built and played with in order to understand the MRI. They only send out a small amount, not enough for everyone to have one.
Worked in a lab that was doing a children MRI study and they were only given 2.
We are also giving some that are prebuild. As voulenteers we build the sets in our spare time and return for Hospital gifts. Have build quite a few myself with my family
Yep. Our Children's hospital gave my daughter one on her last visit that included a MRI. She enjoyed building it and was surprised they let her take it home when she was discharged.
It seems like Lego should deal with this by releasing it or allowing it to be purchased at hospital gift stores. Kinda sucks to know that you are making the decision between kid having this nice and thoughtful gift vs. selling it to cover part of your co-pay.
Yeah but then you’d have scalpers buying it up so there wouldn’t be stock at the hospital gift shops. Odds are the hospital in this hypothetical scenario wouldn’t care to put a system in place for proving you were actually a patient.
There's no real perfect answer, because the gift should be special/unique. It's just that Lego collectors fuck that up for kids by needing a rare set just because it's rare.
You shouldn't not to a good thing because bad people will ruin it. That's a very defeatist attitude. Instead put more energy into finding ways to punish the bad actors
A number of my hobbies coincide with rabid collector communities (e.g. Hot Wheels, Comic Books).
When it comes to highly collectible, low-production, and/or limited release items that maintain/appreciate in value with near-certain consistency like 4000041, I never understood why companies (LEGO/Mattel) don’t simply produce a dedicated “rerelease” run.
The rerelease, while identical or nearly so to the original, would be clearly discernible from the original. For Hot Wheels, as an example, the rerelease’s cardback would differ in terms of design, nomenclature, and fine print, while the car itself will have casting characteristics and production/date codes identifying later production.
I firmly believe this would serve to satisfy the vast majority* of the collector/enthusiast community - as it preserves the value/exaltation/significance/provenance of the original, puts the highly-desired item in people’s hands at or near MSRP, and softens/stratifies —rather than punish— the resale/aftermarket component.
I say *vast majority only because every collector community has faction of folks who don’t actually collect the things, they just collect things to complain about..
To your point, and if a 400041 rerelease was available exclusively through hospital gift shops, LEGO could simply make it available for purchase on their website and still keep the philanthropic component intact.
Frankly, expanding availability through online distribution would magnify the philanthropic contribution exponentially.
If anyone wants to use my soapbox, please feel free to do so. I’ll leave it right over there by the door.
Yeah. They usually have some cards, some small stuffed toys, candy. It's more kid focused usually. It's kind of like a over priced dollar tree, tbh. When I was in a children's hospital it felt like a mini Toys R Us, but that was almost 20 years ago and the only thing I can really remember is a butterfly lolipop the size of my head and some weird toy bird in a bird cage my mom got me because she was convinced I was gonna die lol
I would be down if they offered it as a charity purchase. You pay for two and one is donated. Based on need, they can just donate the money directly, instead of the set. It is pretty funny considering how much flack they already get for not making a hospital modular. They're not comfortable with anything medical-based past the cartoon level of the City line....it would seem.
Lego sends this set to 10's of countries. When they planned this out they probably completely forgot that one of those countries still doesn't provide a fundamental human right.
My wife works at what is essentially a pediatric nursing home.
A few weeks back they had a summer 'fair' where the kids could play games for tickets which could be used for prizes.
An entire section of prizes was donated by Lego. I'm talking maybe 50 kits. Thousands of dollars worth.
They also donated about a dozen of these MRI kits for the workers to take home to their families.
This is just one small facility in the middle of nowhere. If they did it for them, I could only imagine what they do for other, larger, pediatric centers.
I could only imagine what they do for other, larger, pediatric centers
There is no upper bound when it comes to helping kids. It's one of the few things companies do pretty well. You can claim it's some capitalistic tax thing. But in the end, there is a human deciding to do this and that human has a heart.
Kids deserve to be happy. No matter the circumstance.
My daughter has to get a MRI every year since birth she's 9 now she would loose her mind if they gave her a set like this. To be clear I mean given to her from the Dr's office.
Probably true, she does get small prizes every time she sees a specialist mostly rubber ducks, used to always get sticky hands but they were banned from the house.
I mean if anyone wants to come over and clean up all the tiny pieces left behind as those things disintegrate I would consider lifting the sticky hand ban.
Very cool set. We have one in the hospital were I am working. Fun fact: You can open the ‘MRI’ and than you see an xray tube and a detector row. So despite the name MRI scanner, the inside is more like a ct scan.
I painstakingly spent thousands of dollars last year buying enough individual pieces on bricklink to create 10 of these sets to give to my son’s hospital acquaintances as that hospital has never been able to get these, but I can’t find the instructions online. If you build this or open it and would consider sending me the instruction book so I can scan and reproduce it for these sets, I would pay you (and return it).
A couple of years ago I managed to get LEGO to donate a couple of those to the childrens hospital I worked for. All but one disappeared within a few days. I used the last one to explain MRIs to our patients until it was stolen as well.
Wow, the set looks really cool! I'd love to have it to build it with my kid. I looked on Bricklink and there are prices... Also there are nearly all infos missing, maybe you can provide a part inventory, or other data?
Someone else posted that it’s $300 on the secondary market, you’d have to have really really good insurance (or already met your deductible/out of pocket maximum) to get an MRI for less that that.
Oof still in the range of an actual MRI if you haven't hit your oopm for the year. Idk where the other person I saw was getting 300 from maybe that was the last actual sale. That's always been an issue with eBay etc you've gotta look at the sold prices not the current ask.
So I'm a 51yo AFOL and 13yr stage 4 pancreatic cancer patient, and I get MRIs twice a year. Thought this would be great to have, until I see the secondary market for this! Its insane!
A foundation here offers these for free to hospitals. You can request up to three at a time but no guarantees that you'll get them (depends on stock). We've got three MRIs so I requested three, was pleasantly surprised when I received four.
I offered them to our MRI team; they were not interested. I then offered them to our paediatric department; they were not interested.
My colleague built one for the office, and now I've 900 dollars worth gathering dust under my desk... I think one of them will be my Christmas present this year, and I may sell or raffle off the last two.
In Denmark this set is probably more expensive then having an MRI scan. In the U.S. even with inflated LEGO prices this set is still cheaper than having an MRI scan
Our pediatrician gave us a little Lego kit when we were waiting on xray results. There are apparently a few different programs to get sets for little ones. It was great and offered a good distraction
I applied for one through their website for our institute as ours got lost during a remodel recently (pretty sure cardiology took it) but haven’t heard back from them :(
We talked about the production of these Lego sets in my advertising creativity class. Its one of my favorite campaigns to this day. We need more ideas like this
This brings me back to something related, my mother works at a dairy and as a kid we got to visit sometimes. And they had a Lego with a milk delivery truck. So odd to see something from my own country as a Lego set. (1029 if anyone cares to look it up)
Oh man. My kid had to get an MRI a few weeks ago and was super scared. I had to show her pics and videos before it so she understood what would be happening. Thats cool they are doing this with some offices!
I built one myself from lego sets. You could spin it and move it over the patient. Pretty easy. Im no lego expert at all and mostly own scrap legofriendssets.
As this is meant for children to help them relate and normalize the situation, I think it's a missed opportunity to not include both a young boy and young girl patient Minifigure.
Wtf I didn't get one when I sat in an MRI machine for an hour and half to get diagnosed with a life altering disease MS. Now I want to go back and ask for one.
Just comparing to other sets of similar piece count, this could go for $70-$80 CAD if it was available for purchase normally. Lego could just round it up to $100 and have the extra be advertised as going towards childrens hospitals. Heck, they could make a few more medical sets like this and do the same.
Very cool! I work at a radiotherapy centre and we hand out lego radiation machines to kids whose parents are being treated there ( we don't treat kids at our centre). One of our technicians actually 3d prints little masks if the parent has to wear one during treatment.
I worked for Roche (R&D for cancer diagnostics). LEGO made special sets for us that was one of our machines, it doubled as a pencil holder (I no longer work there, but I still have it, though it's instructions are missing).
My late father worked as a tech repairman on those since the last 80s and I don't even have one. His vanity amateur radio even has "MRI" in it, so you know he was serious.
That is cool as hell, as an epileptic who has had more MRI's than I can remember I really wish they did this when I was a kid. All those childhood MRI's would have been a lot less miserable if I had ever thought there was a chance of getting a LEGO set at the end.
This set is one of my favorite bits of LEGO lore! Fun fact, LEGO did a study on its impact in hospitals and found that 96% of healthcare professionals said it helped reduce children’s anxiety around MRI scans, and 46% reported a reduced need for sedation or general anesthesia! It’s such a cool way to make something so scary feel familiar and less intimidating.
I need this so badly , I'm forever in hospital having ct scans etc , I really wmat to build a hospital with machines and beds everything else in it 👏👏👏
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u/nomisxid 26d ago
Annoyingly they don’t offer them when you go in for an MRI in your 50’s.