Modulex: LEGO’s Most Successful Failure

[@SpitBrix]

If you enjoy this video, consider subscribing to catch my next deep-dive into another unique LEGO topic! Thank you!

[@STICKOMEDIA]

Definitely do more videos like this in the future

[@owenhans3633]

That’s an emoji of me

[@orien2v2]

I was decades into my career as a modeller when the Modulex line came out and it was handy for us to create conceptual designs at that time. We secured hundreds of projects simply because these bricks can be refit to easily visualize the projects rather than spending months creating miniature models that would usually be torn down upon review by clients or regulators, it's what you would call rapid prototyping nowadays. And the colours were never an issue as many bricks were painted over so it would match the actual design upon final confirmation. Good to see it's still received positively today. I miss those days but CAD is really a better option now.

[@GrimlandCS]

Are you 100?

[@MrMasterGamer0]

@@GrimlandCS they are probably in their 60s. Remember, 99 is the age limit for LEGO

[@GrimlandCS]

@@MrMasterGamer0 they said they were decades into their career when module came out, and modulex is already 60 years old 🤣

[@Blurns]

When watching the part about color, I was surprised they didn't have primer grey, because I figured most of them would be painted-over anyway.

[@SpitBrix]

That's awesome. Thanks for sharing.

[@jonbondMPG]

OMG, my school had 10,000's of these "tiny lego" in a massive bucket, we never worked out why they had "shrunk"

[@brianher67]

Go back and ask them? They might have it in the school basement collecting dust. Would be sad if they threw it out :)

[@Axolotroll]

1:20 "The artist loft in a Parisian restaurant is such a small space no one could actually work there" well, that seems like a truer than life rendition of Paris then !

[@WmAHughes]

I like to think that somewhere in Europe there is an antiquated factory with wood panelled offices, terrazzo floors and an indoor fountain in the reception that still proudly displays its Modulex shop floor layout in the atrium.

[@Steve-ln3kl]

Honestly enjoying the sheer physicality of those 1970s wall plans, they feel a lot more impactful than yet another window on a computer display, with how they'd always be on display for the entire team.

[@------country-boy-------]

My dad worked at Lego when they made wood toys. He grew up in a small town near Billund called Randbøldal. He said the factory was just starting to make plastic bricks while he worked there as a teenager. The Danish government sent him train tickets to go to jail because he did not want to join the military. So he went to Sweden and worked at a carpentry shop for a year and then got on a ship to Canada. He sadly passed in 2021 at the age of 84. Needless to say I grew up playing with Lego!!! Great video !!! I never heard about modulex bricks !!!

[@Cethinn]

I've never heard of this before, but honestly this design is perfect for the adult Lego market right now. There's so much more focus on recreating scenes, and Lego works for this but Modulex seems ideal for it. Sure, it's not compatible with Lego, but most of these sets are being purchased by adults to be constructed and never changed. I think they should bring it back for these "adult" Lego sets.

[@SWBrickfilms]

Never knew this existed before I am intrigued

[@BrandonScott-mi5pz]

GREAT SPITBRIX LEGO MODULEX VIDEO.

[@rasmusneckelmann7835]

This is so interesting. At some point in the 90s my dad came home from work with a big box of "tiny LEGO" and one of those enormous base plates seen in the video. They had used it while planning an expansion of the factory he worked at (I vaguely remember the base plate still having something looking like the interiors of a factory on it). I ended up playing with these as much as my actual LEGO. There were like a thousand of the gray 4-by-2s so they were perfect for building castles. I also had like a ton of other types of bricks in weird shapes, but they were never really that interesting to me. I always assumed that they had nothing to do with LEGO because they had that little M on the studs.

[@FPzero]

Seeing those industrial design planning layouts built with these tiny bricks makes something in my brain go brrrr from satisfaction.

[@BotanicalBob124]

As a lego fan i've seen 1000s of videos about Modulex, But this one goes to to depth and details I never knew and was genuinely fascinating! Good work! :)

[@SpitBrix]

Thank you!

[@CatacombsBC]

this video is probably the most comprehensive one I've seen about modulex. kudos

[@SpitBrix]

Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed!

[@ullbill]

Familly "drama" involves having usually a sole inheritor that gets 90-95% while the others get the rest.

[@saeklin]

I'm surprised none of the alternative brands have tried the 1x1x1 ratio. It seems so intuitive to have what we call a "plate" be simply half a cube. And the SNOT bricks would be so much more versatile in a cube system. Perhaps as 3D printers improve, people will experiment with a cube-based system that is compatible with Lego.

[@helper_bot]

because alternative brands goal isnt to make a miniature design set. they're just copying lego's homework, and so they need to be on Lego's (not Modulex) standards

[@rescuerex7031]

It's mostly to be compatible with Lego, so you can get cheaper Lego Bricks, but they're not Lego Branded

[@WayneKitching]

I remember seeing Modulex used in a mall map when I was little in the early 80s. I was fascinated by the "tiny Lego bricks."

[@Jackpkmn]

You say we'll never know but it's a painfully obvious case of Lego reaching into the cradle to strangle its potential competition.

[@CommanderRedEXE]

This. It's also clearly a case of the now sole heir to Lego basically being a bully for sake of owning a brand name, which makes it 10x worse.

[@crimsong8068]

I'd heard of these but had no idea what they were. I think I've seen a few MOC's that use Modulex as in-universe Lego bricks. Also, I can't lie, Modulex is a fantastic name.

[@axelk4921]

That explains why as a child I had a single 2x5 LEGO brick that didn't fit on anything! What I'm asking myself now is "Where did I get this brick from?" But I also "inherited" some really old Lego bricks from my older brother when they were still completely hollow inside!

[@AkiUwUx3]

I remember the hollow ones... lukewarm times...

[@Carewolf]

Any minifigs with immobile fused legs and arms? Old LEGO is fun

[@axelk4921]

@@Carewolf yeah, you mean the old "originals" yes I had a few, but when I grew up I donated everything to my old kindergarten.... The only thing I kept was the "LEGO Technic figure"....! I think it came with the forklift back then?! but unfortunately it disappeared at some point after all those decades.... you know? all the stuff you do (wrong) as an adult getting married, starting a family, getting divorced.... the usual crap

[@kanadetone]

When I was in architecture school 5 yrs ago, one of my classmates modelled most of his designs with Lego. Mind you, these were not for officially graded presentations and reviews, and he used them exclusively to work through designs and discuss with our professors. He was arguably one of the best of our class.

[@willywodka]

I loved the factory layouting. In offshore opperations (Building wind parks, dredging, installation of drilling rigs) they still use models of the ship and the equipment on deck to do planning physically. The project managers and operations managers drive around little 3D printed cranes and containers to see if any operation hinders another operation. Seems perfect for this modulex.

[@DMLand]

I honestly believed that this was a briliant "mockumentary" and that Modulex never existed (this is possibly the result of my having watched too many high-quality Adult Swim mockumentaries). I marvelled at effort made to create mockups of Modulex bricks and the detailed aging of the 60s and 70s printed materials. Imagine my shock when I learned that it is a sincere documentary about an actual product. Thanks for introducing me to this fascinating side-light in the history of Lego.

[@helper_bot]

watching mockumentaries as an entertainment sounds unhinged, i love my share of parody news (bless The Onion) but i wouldnt commit an hour for a bit

[@mb2000]

Never heard of Modulex before. I’ve learnt something today.

[@BrandonScott-mi5pz]

EXCELLENT SPITBRIX WORK.

[@lunondisposable5382]

I've used Legos (mostly Legon'ts) for a number of more industrial purposes where precision is important, and since they're still made of ABS you can glue them together with regular model cement. I can see why the creators believed in Modulex so much, they seem like a really great way of filling that specific niche. Having to measure bricks and studs with calipers to get the weird dimensions right is such a pain, I wish they'd gone with 1x1x1 from the start.

[@safebox36]

It always bothered me that LEGO dimensions aren't 1-1-1, but Modulex bothers me even more despite being exactly 1-1-1 and I don't know why.

[@hufnaaratnaaf]

because you are used to see the lego dimensions way more, if you were first introduced to Modulex, you would find Lego to be weird

[@smittzero8463]

I often wish Modulex (or at least the core concept behind it) became the standard for Lego. It would make SNOT building a lot easier if I didn't have to constantly work out how many plates I need to compensate for the dimension ratios.

[@TBustah]

Thanks to an old Lego pistol that used Modulex bricks for ammunition (there’s another thing they’ll never make again), I knew about this stuff, but I had no idea they got into bulletin boards or signs.

[@SeorkMaxx]

The pistol didn’t used Modulex for ammunition, but small wooden pegs. It is just that the Modulex bricks are the same size.

[@RFC3514]

0:40 - _Light-lipped?_ Er... did you mean *tight-lipped?*

[@NickCombs]

Ironic that there are now several companies developing and using plastic interlocking bricks for actual building construction.

[@helper_bot]

i heard its half plastic, half bricks. doesnt really matter the material since cement are the ones holding it in place while obviously being way better than drywall

[@MinnaMe01]

Thank you for this video! My dad has a couple Modulex bricks from the planning system that my grandfather sneaked home from work. He put them in my dad's and his brother's lego pile and when they were found told the boys that "oh no, the lego has the shrinking sickness, you have to isolate them or it'll spread!!" He definitely terrified them😆 Been trying to figure out what they were for ages, googling "lego notice board" hasn't givenme a lot so thanks for solving that for me😁

[@sam4gaming135]

8:30 you should have said "highly sophisticated interlocking brick system" instead

[@Soundwave-115]

“But the boxes say ages 12 and up”

[@helper_bot]

@@Soundwave-115 that only says about the ages where its safe for consumption

[@GoatzombieBubba]

Lego 21042 Statue of Liberty set is 17 inches tall torch tip to ground and it is 1/200 scale the same scale as the Lego 10294 RMS Titanic set.

[@01eksii]

As a Warhammer guy, it would be amazing for this thing to come back

[@geologyjoerocks]

I found a bunch of the modulex bricks on eBay years ago, they’re so cool

[@cpt_nordbart]

My old school had a giant modulex baseplate on the wall and tiles of different colors to plan out the lessons for all different classes and the rooms needed. It was in the office of the principal. Actually quite clever. At least i think it was modulex and not just LEGO

[@IndieLambda]

The Parisian appartment is actually very realistic, something like this will easily cost you 2000€ per month. Paris is horendous.

[@Maplaplaplapla]

At school years ago, we got to build with Lego for some reason. I was confused, when the bricks were small, oddly shaped and strangely coloured. Only took just under 20 years to learn what those were.

[@gramajomd]

Is this a serious and fully loaded documentary? Damn, keep doing it, I loved it

[@pretzel1313]

This is actually fascinating. Thank you for enlightening us about these!

[@davidholmes9699]

I brought a couple of boxes of these years ago and thought they were Lego copies. Now I know . I would have bought loads more if I’d known.

[@Exar_Kun]

1:28 As small as that “loft” is, it’s a goddamn penthouse compared to an “affordable” apartment in NYC lol!🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@rainbow_lorelei]

I would love to buy this. So many people love to build buildings with Lego, it’s a great option for those of us without a Lego basement to have a smaller scale option and of course those gorgeous colours!

[@TBustah]

I think I know exactly what that guy was trying to do. Not only is Modulex a product that has a Lego pedigree, but its smaller size makes it kind of similar to another product: Nanoblock! They’d already been around for a few years at that point. He probably wanted to compete with those, using his and Modulex’s origins as a hook. If he beat Lego to the punch and they were successful enough, he could force a big buyout. Instead, Lego nipped it in the bud, but I’ll bet he still made a lot of money. 🤣

[@WackoMcGoose]

I actually did see the Nanoblock resemblance, it's an interesting hypothesis!

[@helper_bot]

nanobloks doesnt look great on scalability though, which the 1:1:1 design was trying to target

[@CommanderRedEXE]

If that were it then LEGO themselves would have gone full steam ahead on re-releasing Modulex themselves to out-do Nanobloks. The fact they didn't means it was purely and solely to keep the brand name within LEGO's ownership and nothing else.

[@metachirality]

​​@@CommanderRedEXE if lego were to try to compete with nanoblocks, it would likely be with tinier but still compatible pieces (so not modulex pieces) without the modulex brandname.

[@therealpepeu]

I have a bunch of Modulex pieces in my closet! All in lovely pastell colors! Oh, and some letters as well!

[@skythealmighty2826]

Wait, this was posted two days ago?? This feels like a video from a while ago in the best way possible- it's detailed, well researched, and incredibly interesting. Thanks for teaching me something new today!

[@verdatum]

WOW. I'm GLAD I didn't know about this, or I could've gotten sucked into this collectable HARD.

[@RiceMaster1717]

cant wait for the Modulex Movie (in cinemas now!)

[@tankadar]

I never knew I wanted modulex bricks until today

[@tankadar]

sure it’s meant to be serious but imagine how much fun it would be to build with smaller bricks, you could do so much detailed stuff

[@LegoNinjagoboy1]

You should begin whit opening mystery ninjago packs again. I really loved them

[@DJDroz-gh5nt]

LEGO people popularized the smallest functional house trend long before Minecraft it seems? Of course those real life tiny apartments still have them beat, to which Minecraft is surprisingly accurate considering you can actually fit in a space half your size and still reach everything you need.😂 Of course it helps that it's a videogame in which you can reach over twice your body length.

[@Absaalookemensch]

ICFs (Insulated Concrete Form) are similar to Lego blocks used to build real homes.

[@NoNameForNone]

There are also large concrete "lego" bricks used as road obstructions and temporary walls. And the best thing: they come in 5x2!

[@mick0matic]

modulex seems absolutely perfect for lego architecture, weird how thats not a thing

[@Benjamin0119]

Great video. You really want into detail here. I knew about Modulex before, but so much of this was new. This was a very in-depth history!

[@Shatterwings060]

ngl, this is the second time I'm hearing this story; but man is it still cool AF.

[@Zombrine21]

Yooo they made Minecraft irl before it existed

[@cromulence]

Bloody kids

[@gdutfulkbhh7537]

I'm interested in architecture. Gonna 3D print myself some Modulex-scale pieces tonight!

[@Ohne_Silikone]

Legos owner family seems to be behaving like royalty over a product they once copied, improved somewhat and then claimed in its totality in pattents, which they have protected fiercely throughout the years, even now most of them have reached their end. They are the Microsoft and Walt Disney of the brickworld. It seems to me they are stuck in self centred thinking, which this family feud seems to be indicative of.

[@chrisvisser-fee2631]

From a business ethics position, I can also see how having two competing companies controlled by different people in what could be considered a family feud, probably breaches the sort of "conflict of interest" rules companies are supposed to stick to.

[@MikaelTh]

Very interresting and well researched!

[@SpitBrix]

Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed!

[@Eugensson]

Now i really want it. Sounds like a cool idea

[@spudmaphot]

Frankly, it would have been awesome if they kept that scale in favor of the current lego. Imagine having having large detailed sets taking half the space and using half the material to produce.

[@TheWebbNasty]

For regular bricks maybe but for newer sets with more specialized pieces I'm not sure how well it would work. Especially something like technic, imagine how small the axles would be. I would rather have the same size bricks but 1:1:1 instead of the 5:5:6, but the limitations are what makes it fun.

[@Trevor_bow]

Good video i didn't know any of this !

[@beavis6363]

Learning something new every day is one of my life's joys. Interesting content. It's kind of funny, just yesterday, my now grown son with my grandson picked up his old box of Lego pieces from my attic.

[@freeman_713_forever]

the type design is so dope

[@crushermach3263]

Regardless of the Modulex branding or scale I would be more than happy if LEGO started making fully square bricks. It's always been a small peeve of mine that they just don't quite line up the right way in certain situations.

[@Songal18]

Very cool history lesson.

[@moth.monster]

They might as well bring it back because Lego is too expensive for any kid to be able to have these days

[@helper_bot]

did you miss 14:26 these bricks still cost a ton (mostly for the quality of the material itself, and plastic lasts for, 10 to 20 years even in outside condition -- see: Disney Legos)

[@xGOKOPx]

@@helper_bot Yes, that's their point. Only adults can afford LEGO toy bricks so they might as well bring back the "adult" bricks instead

[@helper_bot]

@@xGOKOPx i thought he meant it was cheaper, but your point is true.

[@Derpy1969]

0:40 Did you say “LIGHT LIPPED”?

[@theredstormer8078]

Their lips were light!

[@MrScaryPasta]

Glad that now a days adults can have fun with LEGO. Had no idea these even existed. 😮

[@thomaslardinois6383]

Holy crap! That's what those bricks are for?! I had maybe 7 of these mixed in with my hand me down lego collection. That's wild!

[@dinky9216]

Having used Lego as a visualisation tool / prototype for serious but simple projects I love this story.

[@alexmontanus]

6:52 MY EYES, MY EYES!!

[@vincent06]

Thank you! I thought I was the only one...

[@alonk1060]

Damn, it's really a shame that lego can't have 1x1x1 proportions

[@hipotenuza5663]

1:43 Lando Norris McLaren F1 driver

[@krisCrashTV]

That hospital sign is extremely familiar.. yep! Skejby hospital, guess I'll give the signs a closer look next time I'm going by.

[@SlavTiger]

tbh id have preferred modulex stay in production, those seem handy for modeling as someone that prefers physical models over cad

[@berndeckenfels]

Oh my that would make neat agile, kanban and brainstorming office walls

[@Mike-mw4hh]

NGL, a 1:1:1 scale would make MOCs so much easier

[@djadj_]

Modulex should absolutely be brought back

[@andrewdobosz3682]

Im almost certain I've seen a 1×5 brick before not 2×5 tho

[@Drag0nFighta]

COBI has alot of them

[@MineJulRBX]

Since 2016 a Chinese brand Loz has been creating Mini bricks at 3/4 or 75% scale of Lego and there now exist more than 10 "brands" and over a thousand sets of "Mini bricks". But that's not all, TG Blocks at 65% or 2/3 scale gets even closer to Modulex, practically being Mega Bloks Nano revived, however 2 plates make the height of 1 brick.

[@fieldie]

Thing is, Mini bricks are definitely a thing now, and you can buy models like Big Ben etc all made from tiny tiny bricks, they are 1/8th the size of a normal Lego brick, the benefit of that is you can build these HUGE piece count kits, but at a fraction of the price! I have some! I bet the idea came from Modulex

[@rogerramjet7729]

They look a bit like Loz blocks. I have noticed that the Loz can make more intracite designs due to the size and proportions Lego size is more easy to work with though

[@Damien.D]

Never heard of this product and I'm pretty disappointed it was phased out to keep regular LEGO bricks. Because it's a metric-brick, it's the SI version of the brick, rationally proportioned in relation to real world uses. I think they've bought it back to kill it so it can't threaten their historic, proportionally inaccurate products.

[@NuklearesPlasma]

i am positively suprised by the german picture :D

[@Komiksulo]

This is the first time I’ve heard of this!

[@Aeduo]

I wouldn't mind seeing knock offs of these at some point, assuming they're an alright quality. They really nailed the utilitarian color scheme. It's like if the soviets made legos.

[@CREEPERHEAD800]

Can't wait for 1 million!

[@mr.number9279]

There is literally no possible way on earth that anyone in LEGO thought in the 1960s or 2010s or whenever that these WEREN'T toys. They were literally just LEGOs being used by professionals...

[@madsli]

Damn, those modules boxes look so good.

[@s4098429]

The market for professional architecture modeling tools would be much smaller than kids toys, I’m not surprised it wasn’t successful; there just aren’t enough customers.

[@MarkDSnutts]

Wrong.

[@pepebowser]

THE KRAGLE

[@PossumMedic]

I don't know that artist's loft size seemed pretty accurate 😅 and at only $2000 a month what a steal! 😝

[@9TalesGames]

now we wait for someone to come along and bring an conversion plate to system lego so we may use the bricks in system builds.

[@MrDsturman]

You can buy mini bricks from zhegao mini blocks. idk if they are the same scale as modulex but they are SO tiny and fun. Their mini figures are super mini figures

[@bleachdotwav]

I think it’s sad that Lego prefers a slow death and to be quickly forgotten over petty family drama. Instead, they could be remembered as the company that gracefully made their products open source (3-D printing, etc.) at the end of their very long and profitable run, so why not give back? It seems like they worked so hard to make Modulex successful; why not let it live on?

[@victordrouinviallard1700]

6:00 : 2x5 seems like the size of a concrete block (20x20x50)

[@THOMASS_P]

extremely insightful. Ok now ill be me, WTF I had no idea!

[@feuermurmel]

Being embarrassed using LEGO in a professional setting you say? One of our local power plants, the Holzheizkraftwerk Aubrugg, uses LEGO bricks on a vertical, ~2m wide base plate for shift planning. Different colors are for different types of shits, there's a row for each employee and the days/shifts of the next 2 weeks are arranged as columns.

[@LKLM138]

So that's what those foil cutters are! I have multiple laying in my bin somewhere...