Although LEGO has not yet confirmed — despite general consensus among fans — that products like the Collectible Minifigures and magnet sets are manufactured in China, LEGO has recently come clean about its packaging.

Environmental advocacy group Greenpeace reports that LEGO has agreed to stop sourcing paper and pulp products from Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), a company based in Singapore notorious for harvesting Indonesian rainforests in an unsustainable manner. LEGO packaging I’ve reviewed does not list either Singapore or Indonesia — though APP does operate plants in China. LEGO’s original response to Greenpeace identifies the offending item as a licensed product actually manufactured by Dorling Kindersley (most likely a book) and therefore not part of LEGO’s core product lines. Nevertheless, Greenpeace has complimented LEGO on its responsiveness to the issue and leadership among toy companies. (Packaging news via Environmental Leader.)

Meanwhile, LEGO is further improving its environmental record by making its boxes smaller. Astute readers will already have noticed that the latest line of LEGO Star Wars battle packs are in smaller boxes, reducing the amount of paper needed to produce the packaging. This is apparently a general trend across all product lines.

Our sources tell us that the move toward smaller packaging was entirely business-driven — that the smaller boxes allow more product to be placed on shelves, while simultaneously giving consumers the impression that they’re getting more LEGO by increasing the “perceived density” of the product (a counter-intuitive result from consumer research). Whatever the reasons, LEGO will be using less paper in its packaging going forward, and that’s a good thing.

Next time you call LEGO, let them know that you’re thankful that they’ve taken these steps to improve sustainability and environmental stewardship.

In this post, I will try to describe the process of building the giant pirate.
The pirate was divided into several parts :
- The pirate hat
- The pirate head
- The pirate body
- The pirate legs
- The parrot

In this LEGO Pirate Events, we invited kids from Kingston School, Medan to help the process of building this giant pirate. Due to its complexity (for kids), the pirate body was built by the employee of LEGO sub distributor in Medan, while the head and parrot were already glued.

Take a look at the picture below for the process of building by the Kingston School students guided by our team member.
- Building the pirate hat.

- Building the pirate legs

Attaching the complete parts :
- First the leg

- Than the pirate body

- The pirate head

- The pirate hat

- And of course the parrot

Below is the picture of the Kingston School students with the pirate

The next part was moving the giant lego pirate built to the big showcase in the mall atrium.

LEGO Pirates is one of the best LEGO event ever held in Medan.

For 3 weeks, Sun Plaza guests experienced the “LEGO” environment.

Entering the mall main door, you will be greeted by “friendly” pirates from the mall customer service.

The main attraction of course will be the LEGO Pirate Showcase : a huge 6×8m2 display of LEGO City and the Pirates World

In the center of the showcase was the brand new 2.15m high pirates built up with 20,800 pieces of LEGO! The first pirate was built and exhibited in the US, and Medan has the honor to receive a brand new one from LEGO and be the first in Asia (2nd in the world) to show it off to LEGO fans in Asia.

I will be posting the rest of the activities on next post :
* Play Area
* LEGO Pirates Minifig Hunt
* LEGO Photo Building Contest
* LEGO Single Building Competition
* LEGO Parent & Child Building Competition
* Story Telling
* Meet & Greet with LEGO Pirates
* LEGO Pirates Building Happening