Metal Lego Parts?

[SM96UK]

I know unofficial groups make their own custom metal parts but wouldn't it be awesome if lego did their own? sure you guys will say it is an expense, but i wouldn't mind paying some extra pennies for some aluminium u-joints which can withstand a good amount of torque or some aluminium 8-tooth gears... what do you think??

[SNIPE]

meccano is what im thinking

but yeah it would be better if lego made them out of metal in some aspects, i really want more bricks from lego however because you run into problems that cant be solved (well i do)

i had the idea of making my owl lego type set out of metal but

[brickmack]

It doesn't really seem like LEGO would do that probably. I doubt they have the equipment to mold metal, which is expensive. Then the metal itself is more expensive than the plastic they use. And they would probably have to either retrain or hire new employees to operate the metal-parts-making machines. Also it's easier for kids to get hurt by a metal gear or other part than a plastic one, so LEGO probably wouldn't do it out of safety concerns (Even though TECHNIC is supposed to be 14+ (?) there are a lot of kids that do stuff with it). Not to mention that LEGO historically made plastic toys, though I suppose they have recently done robotics and video games and such so this last point isn't quite as strong as the others. So most likely people will just have to buy the custom ones.

[Erik Leppen]

The audience for metal parts is way too small to justify the additional production costs.

Also, wouldn't it take a way some of the challenge? ;)

[Pauger]

I doubt they have the equipment to mold metal, which is expensive. Then the metal itself is more expensive than the plastic they use. And they would probably have to either retrain or hire new employees to operate the metal-parts-making machines.

Minor challenges for one of the five biggest toy producers in the world surely. I don't really think there is market for it though. Let unofficial groups do that for specially interested, and let TLC focus on making the plastic pieces as solid and reliable as they possibly can.

Edited July 31, 2011 by Pauger

[SM96UK]

Minor challenges for one of the five biggest toy producers in the world surely. I don't really think there is market for it though. Let unofficial groups do that for specially interested, and let TLC focus on making the plastic pieces as solid and reliable as they possibly can.

I think companies who make custom parts should position themselves on more known sights like ebay and amazon, there's always that doubt of ordering of those unfamiliar websites :P but honetly, i dont think it would take the challend away either, the challenge would technically be the same