LEGO confirms cancellation of 60278 Crook's Hideout Raid

I'm gonna guess because it's covered in explosives and is actually a very ugly build if you remove them.

Surprised as well considering the very high focus on "silly" criminals throughout all the City Sets. There's one stealing pizza in 60292, which this was connected to, and keeping up with the blue vs red theme of police vs criminals. Too bad, there needs to be more "silly" explosives and other things for villains to do!

What a nice police truck!

I suspect it was just a bit too violent for a City themed set. There are plenty of police sets with criminals but they are mostly chases or heists. This one would lend itself to a siege and explosions. Dead minifigures everywhere. I know Lego makes sets for older kids based on violent Star Wars and Marvel films but I think they drew a line for the City theme and this crossed it.

@AddictedToStyrene said:
"I suspect it was just a bit too violent for a City themed set. There are plenty of police sets with criminals but they are mostly chases or heists. This one would lend itself to a siege and explosions. Dead minifigures everywhere. I know Lego makes sets for older kids based on violent Star Wars and Marvel films but I think they drew a line for the City theme and this crossed it. "

But it was just a dynamite factory? Every building could be used by the numerous criminals and their rather extensive toolkit of explosives from other sets to create that scenario... This building was more of a joke/justification of where they get all that stuff... Even their small minifig packs have them! 40372

I don’t think it’s a great set, but I also think it’s an entirely harmless one. Weird decision.

I pointed this out on just2good's coverage but I was just enamored with the decal that looks suspiciously similar to the Serious Bomb icon of Serious Sam (whose 20th anniversary is this week). Shame that this set has been cancelled. I'm not interested to speculate.

Maybe they have decided that bad guys shouldn't be hiding out in an explosives factory warehouse (or is it a firecracker on top of the building). That it is too real. Too bad, I liked the red building & the little red car. A fireworks factory would be so useful in my city. My Chinese sets minifigs need a place to get their fireworks.

I want this purely because it was cancelled.

Really disappointed by this. Looked like one of the more interesting and complete City buildings. How often do we get warehouses nowadays? A few tweaks here and there, like removing the giant explosive from the roof, could’ve seen this still be released, and be more similar to Crooks Hideouts we’ve had previously.

@AddictedToStyrene said:
"I suspect it was just a bit too violent for a City themed set. There are plenty of police sets with criminals but they are mostly chases or heists. This one would lend itself to a siege and explosions. Dead minifigures everywhere. I know Lego makes sets for older kids based on violent Star Wars and Marvel films but I think they drew a line for the City theme and this crossed it. "

"Dead minifigures everywhere" would seem to cross into problematic territory.

Seriously though, I wonder if it's isn't terrorism-like explosives not being a good look for a toy, though that's hard to discern from this grainy image and I haven't seen others that'd make that implication clearer. Also wonder about shifting cultural ideas about crime and policing just making them fear these kinds of sets may be becoming more controversial. Trying to avoid a social media scandal/ boycott with LEGO being Canceled and accused of perpetuating the inculturation of the assumptions underpinning the prison industrial complex...? No more cops and robbers, let alone mass-casualty attack toys?

I don't know, I feel like the fact that the set was specifically a police "raid" might have more to do with it than the actual build. A "raid" to me is a SWAT team kicking down the doors and shooting people, but then, I watch too much "Hawaii 5-0" (aka, "Police Brutality with Pineapples, the series"). I guess the concept is an evolving thing, it has a lot more added weight, than it used to. Plus there's the whole, home-made bombs and urban terrorism thing, and I would imagine that Lego didn't want to risk the bad optics.

The building is a little boring, but I don't mind the set design, at all, I quite like the style of the building, but maybe that's just me.

Flaunting explosives in a crowded city + police raid with paddy wagon = cancelled set

The set looks kinda cool but I get that LEGO wants to avoid possible controversy in this case.

The sensational YouTube videos about this certainly aren’t helping. I think we should chill and move on (IMO future LEGO sets look far more promising anyway)

Edit: shoutout to @Zordboy and @BrickBoriqueno for the similar thoughts

Instead of canceling the set outright why didn’t they try a redesign, reshaping the dynamite on the rooftop to resemble fireworks or even a candle factory hiding the dubious criminals inside. I think that Lego is trying to please the minority that complain unfortunately.

I think the excessive amount of bombs were probably deemed a little insensitive. You never know if the product launch is going to come near a horrific terrorist attack, after all..

I don’t see any problem whatsoever. There’s enough crime in the Super Hero sets, and a warehouse isn’t exactly a difficult build to replicate.

I guess they've decided that this rather blurs the line between crooks as antagonist & protagonist. Lego are trying to promote storylines where kids identify with the good guys & the bad guys always lose, there's the risk with a set like this of reversing that narrative.

Well, 'I' heard that this statement is actually a cover-story for the cancellation's real reason: a small, badly-placed Technic cog which can't handle the torque put upon it.

I second the opinion that it's just a very ugly set. Wouldn't be surprised if they just canceled it because it didn't meet their standards, and thought they could score some brownie points by pretending it was a moral decision.

This makes no sense. Will they CANCEL Star Wars now?

You cut the Helicopter which is part of this set...

Maybe Lego is gonna make less sets in year, so they can make better sets (like they once did).......Nah, probably not, but one can dream.

There has been bad press about police violence in raids recently, so the cancellation of this set makes sense. For reference, google John Oliver / police raids.

And yet they’re releasing a Looney Tunes line...who regularly uses dynamite on fellow Tunes.

Another bizarre & stupid move by TLG.

“We are cancelling this set because Lego is just a kid game but we are perfectly fine with sets like the “chinese line” or monkey kid if the market big enough“.

This set is literally a weapons factory. Seeing all the weapon related things that are happening in the USA, I think it is a good call.

As ever, the strawman is strong with the comment section under this type of article.
Real armed crime and SWAT raids are really not like Looney Toons Dynamite at all. Seems pretty obvious to me. Sure there is Star Wars and Marvell which are in fact often pretty high on the violence scale, but they lack the political aspect of real SWAT raiding a building, potentially the wrong one, and potentially shooting the "wrong" people in the wrong building (or even the correct one, at the end it's still police raiding buildings with guns). It's understandable, that Lego doesn't really want their hands on this. It's maybe morally a bit of a "yikes", but also a PR disaster waiting to happen and Lego obviously doesn't want anything to do with that.
Was probably a good call. Weapons/ explosives factory and a SWAT raid. Those things are bound to get really ugly, really quickly.

@kwickbrick said:
"A fireworks factory would be so useful in my city. My Chinese sets minifigs need a place to get their fireworks. "

A fireworks factory doesn’t belong in cities. Way too dangerous.

When i saw the set for the first time it felt out of place right away. They better make an abandoned warehouse, with some shattered glasses. A few printed tiles with a villainous plan to steel a safe, some money tiles and a few dynamites, a getaway car with three license plates and a police squad with a drone to observe and a van to raid the place.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who buys lego and to use it in ways not in “keeping with the values of the LEGO City brand.”

So... pirates ok, dragons ok, ork armies ok, super villains ok, galactic empires with massive weapons of mass destruction ok, realistic military vehicles in rescue version or regular criminals NOT ok. Got it.

I don't think my kids would be shocked by this set, at all. It's just realism. There's terrorism and swat-teams all over the place. Indeed, look what happened in America again... Why not prepare our kids to the world's horrible reality, but in a funny LEGO-way? I don't have any issue with this set, i even like it for what it is. And a crook's hideout is always fun, i think. We do own the swamp's hideout, and the boys love it, and they actually 'know' crook's are stealing and robbing and maybe killing people, and using explosives - we simply call them bombs - is part of the story.

I still really want that Osprey set, damn you Lego! At least this one hasn’t been sold ‘accidentally’ and wasn’t shown off, teased to us and then snatched away at the last second.....

Ah yes, all the "values" these days, almost forgot, thank you for a reminder, TLG :)

This is accurate, I was looking forward a place where the crooks and Power Miners got their explosives from.

This is the V-22 Osprey all over again. It probably was cancelled due to a design flaw and they don't want to admit it.

So criminals using dynamite (60136, 60276, 60246) is fine, but criminals making dynamite (in what looks like a fireworks factory with a funny logo) isn't? And neither they nor the police who find them seem to have guns, so it doesn't exactly look like a SWAT raid.

Look at the depth of the building. It's almost a full playable house compared to the small walls the other sets of recent years have. So I guess Mgmt decided that it's too expensive to produce and the margin is not high enough.

Lego ranges are littered with good guys vs bad guys. Cannot understand why this is worse than Thanos who annihilated 50% of the world’s population.....

@IgelCampus said:
"Look at the depth of the building. It's almost a full playable house compared to the small walls the other sets of recent years have. So I guess Mgmt decided that it's too expensive to produce and the margin is not high enough."

This was the only new CITY set I was looking forward to, other than the rumored Safari line there isn't anything that pulls me in to it.

I wish someone would cancel, cancel culture, before it’s too late.

@Brickodillo said:
" @kwickbrick said:
"A fireworks factory would be so useful in my city. My Chinese sets minifigs need a place to get their fireworks. "

A fireworks factory doesn’t belong in cities. Way too dangerous.

When i saw the set for the first time it felt out of place right away. They better make an abandoned warehouse, with some shattered glasses. A few printed tiles with a villainous plan to steel a safe, some money tiles and a few dynamites, a getaway car with three license plates and a police squad with a drone to observe and a van to raid the place.

"
About 20 years ago a fireworks factory explosion in Enschede NL killed a lot of people. Maybe TLG thought this set was too close to reality?

Maybe it was cancelled because the police van was too wide to drive down the new roads!

So, false equivalences ok, oversimplifying ok, thinly veiled bigotry ok, but understanding what a connotation is NOT ok? Wow. What a world.

Assuming this is because the phrase "police raid" has some... less than fortunate connotations in recent days, and with much more increased awareness pf police brutality... I see why the dropped it and I don't really blame them. Plenty of other stuff to do in a city without the cops anyway, more fire department and especially medical first response/search and rescue stuff would be good.

@biffuz said:
"So... pirates ok, dragons ok, ork armies ok, super villains ok, galactic empires with massive weapons of mass destruction ok, realistic military vehicles in rescue version or regular criminals NOT ok. Got it."

All the themes and sets you list are fantasy or existing intellectual properties that are fantasy. I’m pleased that TLG does not make military sets and hope they make fewer police sets. Not because I want them “cancelled”, but because there are already a gazillion of them and I’d love more variety in my city. My 8 y.o. whose favorite theme is City commented just the other day that he’d like a hospital or things more like his sister has in her Friends sets.

I don't think there's a singular reason to have cancelled this.

There's a rather vocal group from America who are currently extremely anti police.
There's a lot of explosives.
It depicts a raid.
It's in the middle of a city.

Honestly if you add all those things up it isn't quite as cops and robbers as the usual city sets are.

Leaving politics aside, there;s also a possible reason in price point/quality.
There looks to be a big police raid vehicle, which needs minifigs.
There's a "full" building with crooks who also needs minifigs.
At the same time the building looks a little cramped. So maybe they just decided that the price/quantity/quality distribution was a little off.
Or maybe it's all of the above.

Something of a shame though, because it looks pretty funny at least.

As pointed out by other, seems rather silly to cancel this set for 'no longer being in the values', when they've multiple sets already with other themes aimed at kids that cross the line massively. I mean... most of Batmans villain. Thanos who wiped out half the universe. The Aztec Warrior in the CMF series when they used to practice human sacrifice, Harry Potter and its 'wizards of dubious morality', who want to be rid of anyone not pure blooded...

I like the 10197 water tank reference.

Oh well- Their product, their rules. Do they care what you think about a city set that you won’t remember in a couple of weeks? No.

Should you build more 10197 water tanks on your city roof tops? Yes.

This is a problematic set because of the theme, the explosions and raids, these are things that parents want to keep away from children. But the biggest problem imo is this dynamite stick- its life sized and this is a no no in the USA. Imagine a black kid in Chicago playing with it on the street and a police patrol drives by- thats a real disaster waiting to happen.

Strange decision, particularly because it obviously progressed far enough to get through to the marketing stage.

At some point the whole ‘cancel culture’ approach that is currently working it’s way through society will hit the brick wall that is normality and we can get on with what is basically enjoying life. These are plastic bricks, not a political statement or anything designed to offend anyone (anything can offend anyone if you really take it to the nth degree).

@GrizBe said:
"As pointed out by other, seems rather silly to cancel this set for 'no longer being in the values', when they've multiple sets already with other themes aimed at kids that cross the line massively. I mean... most of Batmans villain. Thanos who wiped out half the universe. The Aztec Warrior in the CMF series when they used to practice human sacrifice, Harry Potter and its 'wizards of dubious morality', who want to be rid of anyone not pure blooded... "

Don’t forget the pirates, conquistadors, and Vikings for their immeasurable atrocities :)

.... looks like Lego has landed with a bump on planet ‘cancel culture’

Well I suspected something like that when all sets got their official images at the end of 2020 except this one :D I agree with @PjtorXmos that the comments have a strong strawman vibe here: LEGO City depicts a realistic (compared to the other themes of course) world mainly for 5-12-year-olds, while the more action-packed themes like Star Wars are targeted at a higher age range (except the 4+ sets which are therefore quite strange for me), and weapons there are more like a device to keep the adventures going on. I don't think we can compare these two at all, and moreover this particular set is literally an explosives factory next to the town center, so weapons here are not storytelling devices but the story itself. So I guess this decision fits into TLG's values, even if one may think that those values are a bit controversial sometimes (I think they crossed similar lines with the First Order execution troopers, and I'm sure other examples can be named). Personally I won't shed any tear for missing another oversimplified police copter and truck, we have lots of those already, that warehouse wouldn't look bad without the explosives logos, but it feels kind of strange that the crook's hideout is nearly as big as the police station, 60009 was a way better set from all aspects in my opinion. And for those who miss this set from their city: you can build something similar anytime, because it's Lego :)

How about this: no company ever produces anything again! That way you can avoid getting canceled by a few weird people on Twitter.

They should just rename it "Dynamite factory with police protection" and release it that way. The pictures would kind of work as well.

The actual cancellation of the set I'm ambivalent about- it's LEGO's decision, they don't owe me or anyone else an explanation as to why.

What I AM interested in- I wonder if it'd be at all possible for them to repurpose any of the set? Surely it wouldn't be too hard for them to make a few small changes to recontextualise the set to make it more palatable? Feels like a waste to throw out all the work that went into designing and assumedly manufacturing of the set only to scuttle it now. I actually quite like the look of the building- why not turn it into something else? Turn it into an arcade, or a gym! The little crook's car is great- makes me nostalgic for the days of LEGO Town 4-wide cars. The police vehicles could just be transplanted into a different police set without too much fuss I'd wager.

@Mechalex said:
"I mean, Lego is literally made of a petro-chemical byproduct of the fossil fuel industry - an industry that has consistently fought to downlplay its role in anthropogenic climate change. Now give me my Lego Guantanamo bay, strip joint and drug factory!"

It will be sourced from renewable sugarcane in the future!

I always remember this Star Wars quote whenever LEGO tries to justify a decision they make:

‘I find that answer vague and unconvincing’ K-2SO.

I mean, release all the ‘realistic’ starfighters and pirate taverns you want, but cartoony, abandoned dynamite factories are punishable by death for some reason.

So if instead of City it were renamed/redesigned an Avengers' or Batman set there wouldn't have been any issues right?
Also was this the only set to include the new search light?

@biffuz said:
"So... pirates ok, dragons ok, ork armies ok, super villains ok, galactic empires with massive weapons of mass destruction ok, realistic military vehicles in rescue version or regular criminals NOT ok. Got it."

The key word there is “realistic”. It’s also not a rescue mission. It’s a raid. And given that resistance is required to created conflict, and the logical conclusion there is death, it makes sense that LEGO wants to avoid something that could be very easily construed as offensive after over a year of renewed interest in and anger over the role of the police in society. It’s pretty reasonable to cancel it, and it likely won’t impact their core demographic of young children

It's 2020s. No other explanation needed.

Sad times. All the virtue signalling and stupid agendas...

I think the reason for cancellation is that the police attack here, not defend. I can understand that choise.

I assume what happened is when the image was included in the manuals for 41444, the crooks realised they'd been located, and so moved out. That would have made this set Ex-Crook's Hideout and children would have had to renovate it into student flats, and that's the real issue. Not enough affordable housing in LEGO as it is!

@Inflex said:
"Sad times. All the virtue signalling and stupid agendas..."

I’m pretty sure that LEGO upholding their longtime company policy against encouraging realistic violence is the exact opposite of virtue signaling.

When they announce a Colosseum that’s rendered as an architectural model, that counteracts their anti violence policy, but when they cancel a set based on a police raid, then that’s “cancel culture”...

LEGO's standards are weird. They'll cancel a set with some weird, vague reason, but they've got enough themes that are licensed with questionable content, and then there's the whole China thing, but I'm not getting into that. I am struggling more and more to understand LEGO's marketing decisions these days.

What's funny, is that like the Osprey, the design and appearance of the set is better than usual for LEGO. The truck/SUV looks good, as does the building. It actually looks finished, unlike most other City buildings these days.

A bit of a shame, in that we need more buildings in City, especially other than Pizza places, an occasional car wash or gas station. A warehouse/industrial building would be a welcome addition, like a modern 6391 Cargo Center please! Although, next time TLG don't make such a dull build that it's only highlight is a bomb sticker and giant stick of dynamite on the roof. Maybe make a polybag set for a large life-like stick of dynamite, that kids might then have fun throwing at each other :)

PS. Total snark intended!

And lol, I’ve just realised the original artwork showed a cop hanging from a helicopter to light the huge dynamite stick. I can see how that might be a little on the nose regarding police brutality.

@Bensim said:
"Instead of canceling the set outright why didn’t they try a redesign, reshaping the dynamite on the rooftop to resemble fireworks or even a candle factory hiding the dubious criminals inside. I think that Lego is trying to please the minority that complain unfortunately."

A candle factory would work, the police can crack the case because the bad guys smell like vanilla, mango/coconut and other sickly sweet candle scents.

@Iwanex said:
"This is the V-22 Osprey all over again. It probably was cancelled due to a design flaw and they don't want to admit it."

My eyes rolled so hard that I got a migraine. When has Lego ever not admitted and fixed a design flaw? They made a fix kit for Ant-Man which was free to get, same for Wall-E, they even recently offered a 'fix' kit for the '89 Batmobile that was *purely aesthetic*. Didn't affect or improve any function. It was *solely* to replace a matte tile with regular tiles. Why, on Ole Kirk's green earth, would they try and cover up a default instead of releasing a fix? Or delaying the release to fix it? The working theory is that they had a default (that numerous people were able to fix with 1-5 extra parts), so they decided to get the license of two of the world's biggest military manufacturers as a cover up? Really?

I sincerely hope we can put this tired nonsense to rest. It's so ludicrous, every time.

less "cops & robbers" and more "rescue" and "exploration" in City, i say

I see a lot of comments that say it is about the "Raid" part, and that the Police are attacking instead of defending. But isn't that the point of any crook hideout set that has been released previously? That instead of a Police quarters or a bank, you have the place where the crooks stay and the Police to apprehend them before they commit (another) crime(s)?

Maybe they should've just renamed the "Raid" part or something.

I was honestly looking at picking this up with the intention of putting it into an industrial area. This is one of the first industrial like buildings I can recall LEGO making in recent years. If you find the building ugly, well it kind of is supposed to be.

I can see why LEGO made this call though. Quite the number of sensitive things going on for a City based set.

My main question is, how does it get this far along the production process before being cancelled... why is it not scrapped off at the drawing board?!

They could swap the dynamite on the roof with a stick of broccoli :p

Criminals hiding in a veg warehouse with a secret gold stash, replace the police truck with a delivery van and you've removed the raid part of the set too. Replace the weapons with carrots. Sorted

@BrickBoriqueno said:
" @AddictedToStyrene said:
"I suspect it was just a bit too violent for a City themed set. There are plenty of police sets with criminals but they are mostly chases or heists. This one would lend itself to a siege and explosions. Dead minifigures everywhere. I know Lego makes sets for older kids based on violent Star Wars and Marvel films but I think they drew a line for the City theme and this crossed it. "

"Dead minifigures everywhere" would seem to cross into problematic territory.

Seriously though, I wonder if it's isn't terrorism-like explosives not being a good look for a toy, though that's hard to discern from this grainy image and I haven't seen others that'd make that implication clearer. Also wonder about shifting cultural ideas about crime and policing just making them fear these kinds of sets may be becoming more controversial. Trying to avoid a social media scandal/ boycott with LEGO being Canceled and accused of perpetuating the inculturation of the assumptions underpinning the prison industrial complex...? No more cops and robbers, let alone mass-casualty attack toys? "

After the recent domestic terrorist attacks in Boulder and Atlanta, I agree that Lego wants to avoid the idea of a mass-casualty attack in brick form. Unlike the Osprey, I can kind of understand why this one is getting nixed. At least it's not an amazing set that's getting canceled.

@Mr__Thrawn said:
" @biffuz said:
"So... pirates ok, dragons ok, ork armies ok, super villains ok, galactic empires with massive weapons of mass destruction ok, realistic military vehicles in rescue version or regular criminals NOT ok. Got it."

The key word there is “realistic”. It’s also not a rescue mission. It’s a raid. And given that resistance is required to created conflict, and the logical conclusion there is death, it makes sense that LEGO wants to avoid something that could be very easily construed as offensive after over a year of renewed interest in and anger over the role of the police in society. It’s pretty reasonable to cancel it, and it likely won’t impact their core demographic of young children"

Especially after the shootings last week.

@Mr__Thrawn said:
" @Inflex said:
"Sad times. All the virtue signalling and stupid agendas..."

I’m pretty sure that LEGO upholding their longtime company policy against encouraging realistic violence is the exact opposite of virtue signaling.

When they announce a Colosseum that’s rendered as an architectural model, that counteracts their anti violence policy, but when they cancel a set based on a police raid, then that’s “cancel culture”...
"

Good point, but personally, I've always thought their violence policy was stupid. Prevents potentially interesting models or themes, given characters in themes like JW or Super Heroes unneeded sci-fi style weapons or vehicles.

LEGO is very inconsistent with their policy on what content is and isn’t acceptable.

If they just wanted to say they didn’t want a scene recreating a police raid on a building, then they should just say so. Those raids could be considered a serious, more dangerous situation that’s grounded in reality, That doesn’t seem to be what the set was going for (to me at least, but I could see that being a bit much compared to say a robber stealing a pizza or a comically oversized drill. It was probably cancelled because the police going in and arresting had people is apparently problematic now. I know that may be a stretch, but I think it highlights a problem with not being transparent on these things.

I’ve defended some of LEGO’s choices in the past, and in hindsight that was a mistake. Pirates of the Caribbean and Lord of the Rings are properties with some pretty violent deaths. The Big Bang Theory and Simpsons are full of sexual references and the like that most certainly aren’t suitable for children. While the latter was a set targeted towards adults, Simpson’s was right in center stage in LEGO Dimensions.

Back to the topic of the police, didn’t LEGO just release a Space Police minfigure that was in full on riot gear? He had the shield, helmet, baton, everything usually associated with them. I jokingly compared his armor to that of a typical space marine, but in hindsight that may have been intentional.

I’m not asking for lego to be squeaky clean and 100% unproblematic. What I’m asking for is consistency in what is and isn’t okay to make, which is something big companies tend to lack. Also, I want LEGO to go into detail on why this set got cancelled. The “core values” card is worthless when no one is sure what the values are. If it was against your core values so much, then how the heck did it get this far into production?

No big loss here.

It has a giant, cartoon stick of dynamite on top of it. You bet I’m disappointed.

Not sure what LEGO is trying to say here.

They need to he more specific in their language.

I have no opinions on this set in particular, but it is annoying to see it cancelled after already being revealed. I’m inclined to say this set being cancelled is a good thing as I usually think LEGO City needs to movie away from emergency services in general, especially the police subtheme. Another crook hideout is a bit redundant at this point.

We get countless police and fire stations with the occasional hospital, hardly any office or apartment buildings like you’d see in a real city. I’m not sure why anybody would want to live in LEGO city, there’s barely any infrastructure and an evidentially large crime problem.

Man, these corporations make me sick. They're so fake and too-faced, pretending to be all 'woke' and progressive. In the end it all comes down to $$$ and image. Its fine to cancel this set because its just one set in a huge City theme but themes that are centered around violence but sell really well are fine (SW, Super Heroes, Ninjago, Monkey Kid, etc). Most of these also take place in a real world settings with cities and civilians as well.

In the end, all they care about is how it will affect the bottom line. Don't fool yourself and think they care about social issues, jus their image.

@Brikkyy13 said:
"I have no opinions on this set in particular, but it is annoying to see it cancelled after already being revealed."

Was it even fully revealed? The only images came from the back of an instruction booklet, it's not like it hit the catalogs. It might not have even reached production

@MattJek82 said:
"Man, these corporations make me sick. They're so fake and too-faced, pretending to be all 'woke' and progressive. In the end it all comes down to $$$ and image. Its fine to cancel this set because its just one set in a huge City theme but themes that are centered around violence but sell really well are fine (SW, Super Heroes, Ninjago, Monkey Kid, etc). Most of these also take place in a real world settings with cities and civilians as well.

In the end, all they care about is how it will affect the bottom line. Don't fool yourself and think they care about social issues, jus their image."

None of the themes you mentioned take place in real-world settings. Most of them aren't even close.

While I think this one kinda makes sense with what other people are saying about the explosives and mass attacks, I really wished lego would just end the whole police line up. If Lego was actually concerned with their representation of real world violence they should take a look outside their window and acknowledge the rampant police brutality in every city around the world. Especially after we had a whole some of uprisings against it North America and some European countries.

Ugh. What a toxic cesspool 60% of this comment section is. Anyone who finds this set cancellation as validation of their bizarre political extremism needs to to take a cold shower.

Those of you complaining SW is violent aren’t complaining LEGO makes those sets. You’re trying to simply say let’s move the bar forward on real world violence in the city line too.

LEGO doesn’t owe any of you an explanation on why they do or don’t make any set. They didn’t feel this was a good fit for them.

Beyond that, if LEGO deciding not to make an explosives factory offends you - you should be on a watch list.

@DarthWalle said:
" On the other hand, it doesn't make sense to have a set for a children's toy that's focused on "the bad guys." Overall, I think this was a good decision by TLG. "

Euhm: Blacktron, Spyrius, Star Wars, etc ...enough sets that focus on "the bad guys" lol

The designer is prolly like, "Seriously, guys?"

@DavidBrick said:
"LEGO has no values or standards and every time they lie to us and pretend that they do makes me want to find a different hobby."

Comments like yours and depressingly many others here make *me* want to find a different hobby, or at least a different online community. I’m amazed and disappointed at how insensitive the LEGO community seems to be, and how little tolerance there is for the nuances of things that are extremely complicated.

Personally, I commend LEGO for trying to have a distinctly positive impact on the kids of today and the world of tomorrow - they are, for me, the archetype of a company with values and standards. We don’t always succeed at meeting our standards for ourselves, and neither does LEGO, but the point is to try.

I do wish they’d come out with more industrial-looking buildings in the City line, though. Take away all of the stickers, vehicles, and minifigures from this set and make it a manufacturing plant of something innocuous, and I would love to add it to my (tiny) industrial zone!

Edit: you’d also need to drop the police dog. That kind of implies the police are searching for illicit explosives... a bomb sniffing dog doesn’t exactly belong in a toy play set.

@Darth_TNT said:
"I don't think there's a singular reason to have cancelled this.

There's a rather vocal group from America who are currently extremely anti police.
There's a lot of explosives.
It depicts a raid.
It's in the middle of a city.

Honestly if you add all those things up it isn't quite as cops and robbers as the usual city sets are.

Leaving politics aside, there;s also a possible reason in price point/quality.
There looks to be a big police raid vehicle, which needs minifigs.
There's a "full" building with crooks who also needs minifigs.
At the same time the building looks a little cramped. So maybe they just decided that the price/quantity/quality distribution was a little off.
Or maybe it's all of the above.

Something of a shame though, because it looks pretty funny at least. "

The groups you refer to are not anti-police. They are anti police brutality. They are against the impunity with which people of color are killed by police in what are often well documented cases of excessive force and racial bias. They are against a militarization of police departments that patrol some parts of the country as if they were a war zone, rather than as members of the community dedicated to serve and protect. They are against no-knock warrant raids that cause untold death and property damage without reasonable justification. They are against spending into police budgets where police are not the best service to address problems - such as lack of housing, mental health issues, and other social service based problems that we currently just don’t address appropriately.

Perhaps you meant most of that and you were simply overly brief in your wording. I’m open to any clarification in your point there.

Adding to my earlier remark, I feel Lego is marketing City as their intermediate step between 4+ and the more conflict oriented IPs such as Ninjago and Star Wars and they felt this particular one was too far off message.

Lots of anti-police sentiment in here. Sad.

@mdonahue7 said:
"Lots of anti-police sentiment in here. Sad."

Not anti-police: anti-police brutality, as @MrKoshka put quite well and calmly above.

What I find “sad” is the lack of a sense of nuance here. :(

If you want anti-police, check out the comments whenever a new wave of City sets is announced... normally everyone here is complaining about too much police presence in LEGO City already XD

@SaggyCloud said:
"While I think this one kinda makes sense with what other people are saying about the explosives and mass attacks, I really wished lego would just end the whole police line up. If Lego was actually concerned with their representation of real world violence they should take a look outside their window and acknowledge the rampant police brutality in every city around the world. Especially after we had a whole some of uprisings against it North America and some European countries. All cops are bad, even the brick ones. "

I don't agree. Not all police officers are bad and there many situations were cops saved many lives and protected people. And I think that assuming that all cops are bad is a wrong generalization. We can't say that every cop is bad based on just one situation. And we must not forget that violence towards cops also exists.

It's a pity, it's a shame and it's a nonsense!

This seems like a mistake on the part of one of the interns that was supposed to put together the image in that instruction manual. They were probably told "don't include the image of the factory, it's not tested yet" but they misheard it as "don't forget to include the image of the factory, it's the bestest yet".
That intern is now in charge of sweeping the floor.

@MrKoshka said:
" @Darth_TNT said:
"I don't think there's a singular reason to have cancelled this.

There's a rather vocal group from America who are currently extremely anti police.
There's a lot of explosives.
It depicts a raid.
It's in the middle of a city.

Honestly if you add all those things up it isn't quite as cops and robbers as the usual city sets are.

Leaving politics aside, there;s also a possible reason in price point/quality.
There looks to be a big police raid vehicle, which needs minifigs.
There's a "full" building with crooks who also needs minifigs.
At the same time the building looks a little cramped. So maybe they just decided that the price/quantity/quality distribution was a little off.
Or maybe it's all of the above.

Something of a shame though, because it looks pretty funny at least. "

The groups you refer to are not anti-police. They are anti police brutality. They are against the impunity with which people of color are killed by police in what are often well documented cases of excessive force and racial bias. They are against a militarization of police departments that patrol some parts of the country as if they were a war zone, rather than as members of the community dedicated to serve and protect. They are against no-knock warrant raids that cause untold death and property damage without reasonable justification. They are against spending into police budgets where police are not the best service to address problems - such as lack of housing, mental health issues, and other social service based problems that we currently just don’t address appropriately.

Perhaps you meant most of that and you were simply overly brief in your wording. I’m open to any clarification in your point there."

No, the good ones are anti-police. Because they recognize, correctly, that all the issues you listed with police are inherent to the structure of policing. Police are designed to fight crime with violence. And what is a crime? In most of the world being poor or houseless is a crime. In much of the west being a person of colour is a crime. As you mentioned these are issues that need to be solved at their socioeconomic root, and the police are a wholly unfit institution to do so as all they were designed to do and all they will ever do is meet those issues with violence and punishment.