The LEGO employees do have access to bricks for free, the key difference is that what you buy from a store, in a kit has passed Quality Assurance, what the employees have access to have not,or may have, depends. They also don't have control over what they get, they get what is available.

If you want to see the "LEGO Economy" check out Bricklink

They used to, but this discontinued it in Jan ths year. Everything was packed by hand, so it wasn't cost effective for them. They still have the LEGO Digital Designer though

Man, I wish there was a 3x3 plate, I suspect you mean 3x2, but the building standards have gotten much better over the years

People often say this. To which I have to respond "have you tried?" It is factually incorrect, aside from the wheels there is nothing in that set that has to be a train, and even then I have seen people do interesting things with train wheels.

Sure if you are only using the parts from that set, it will be challenging but any child who only has one set will not be getting the most out of It anyway.

For example, in the LEGO fan community building competitions often arise where you have to use "useless parts"
like this

I disagree, clearly you were not building big enough. (^_^)
Saturn V

Different engineering challenges to be sure, but they are still valid.

The plural is indeed Lego. However the plural of Lego brick is Lego bricks... A collection of Lego, a collection of Lego bricks... Though, not all Lego is bricks anymore...

I think perception is a bigger problem. LEGO has made some good inroads with the 'Friends' line, which, to be honest, has more complex building than some of the "Boys" sets at the same age group, as to marketing... Not sure

1981 add

Ole was a carpenter, he made wooden toys, and had a very firm stance on quality. One day he attended a expo and was given a sample of the kiddicraft bricks. Upon seeing the techniques involved he invested in a molding machine and created a new method of locking the bricks together.

True, if it had happened today his arse would be sued off, but it wasn't ripped off as you suggest. Considerable effort was put in to create the LEGO we know today. Sadly LEGO picked up the company to hold a patent war chest. I'm so happy we live in a world like that, where patents clearly result in innovation...

Hello Kitty is Mega Blocks. I would LOVE it if LEGO did that though.

Firstly, I should lay the cards on the table. I hold a role with my local LUG (LEGO User Group) of "Ambassador" which means I act as a middle man between LEGO and my LUG, so I do talk with the LEGO company regularly

But I am sick to death of wankers in the media making this grand claims of LEGO losing their creativity. Yes, we have seen an increase of licensed product lines, and yes we have seen LEGO increasingly venture into other areas such as games and video games which some people may view as LEGO selling out their traditional values. but that simply is not the case

LEGO has seen a massive resurgence in the last few years and has weathered the GFC well, probably due to the fact that that the early 2000's were bad for the company and saw them streamline their products and processes. As an also organiser of a LEGO show in Australia called Brickvention (coming up in a few weeks, 19th and 20th Jan, Royal Exhibition Buildings, Melbourne) I have to say that the creativity of kids is not lacking and parents recognise this. LEGO kits have ALWAYS come with instructions save buckets/tubs of bricks.

And how many companies would have a department who's sole goal is to engage with the fans of their products? LEGO have the CEE (Community Engagement) team who appoints "Ambassadors" that are nominated by LUGs, sends representatives to LEGO shows run by the fans (Brickvention, BrickExpo, BrickFete, Steam and Brickfair to name a few) and they have a senior management who keeps a very close eye on the use of their product and reflects that in new products (look at the modular houses series originally designed by Jamie Berard to get an idea of this)

This article does have some excellent comments by figureheads of the community (Josh Wedin, also an Ambassador, not sure if is currently though) but it's one of those stories that the media rolls out every year.

Very Disappointing.

If they do "Empire on Ice" I think they will have to pay royalties to Robot Chicken, it was their idea after all...

Actually, I would see that, "Empire on Ice" could be cool.

The very first PC in our house when I was growing up was an Apple IIe, I played a LOT of Carmen Sandiego on that. then we brought a Mac Classic with System 7 (7.3 I think...). It seemed to be exactly how a mouse and windows should work. Windows, 1 & 2 were nothing, Windows 3.0 did start to take advantage of the interface, but it was System 7 for me all the way.

During my Uni years I became quite adept at Windows (95 - ME and the NT variants, 4.0 Workstation and 2000) but in the last few years I have fallen back into the MAC OS. I even have acquired a retail box of MAC OS X (10.0) for a bit of history.