In a sleepy little town called Billund in Denmark, there is a treasure.  And if you have the right connections, you can get a peek at it.  The Lego House is a museum that can be visited by special arrangement.  Its a very well done timeline of the company with lighted walls showing photos, history, and niches of actual products over the years.  But if you have the right guide, you can step through a secret wall panel in the tour, go down a shallow set of steps, and badge through a door labeled "engineering".

There you will find "the vault" and a copy of every Lego set made since the 1970's.  This is actually Lego's "archival" vault, which means that authorized employees can go down there to do research.  You are allowed to gently handle the sets and take pictures.  And take your trip down memory lane.  Lego has several other vaults in secret locations, with pristine copies of every set, but those aren't open even to employees.  This is the one where you get to feel like a kid again, and kick yourself for not hanging on to that Space, Town, or Pirate set you had long ago.

Interestingly this vault used to include competitor products as Lego did "market research" on its peers.  You can still find a stray Mega***** item there.  No room left now that they are adding 350 products a year, so that's all been cleared out.  The 2016-2017 product shelf is unmarked and kept tightly closed.  Not even a peek allowed there.

Wow! 1000x like. And you got to visit???

What surprises me the most, I guess, is that they store their boxes lying flat, box on top of box. Whereas all the stockroom pictures on this site seem to scream that doing so is bad for the boxes, and you should store them standing on their long side

Wow, wow.........I mean wow!!!!

Awesome experience. Feel free to ask questions.

@Phil B yeah some of the boxes have wear, but they aren't going for pristine here, just accessible. Some of the older items they acquired from the aftermarket (probably ~15 years ago, not recently)

3 minutes ago, DadsAFOL said:

Awesome experience. Feel free to ask questions.

@Phil B yeah some of the boxes have wear, but they aren't going for pristine here, just accessible. Some of the older items they acquired from the aftermarket (probably ~15 years ago, not recently)

I read in Gary Isztok's "bible" that they indeed realized 15-20 years ago that they didn't have proper records of what they produced in the long distant past (that's why Gary's work is so important, and why he seems to get consulted even by LEGO). Actually quite funny when you think of it - as if their creations weren't that important to them. I guess that they just thought more of the bricks as being their product than the actual sets you make with them .... so likely they were more careful with those ..... or at least I can hope they were .....

@DadsAFOL Do they also collect polybags and keychains ?

Boxes look beat up.  You would think they would have more.  LOL

@DadsAFOL Do they also collect polybags and keychains ?

Not here, and also not really any promo stuff either. Although they do have the Inside Tour sets.

2 minutes ago, Ed Mack said:

Boxes look beat up.  You would think they would have more.  LOL

It is open to the public so it is to be expected.  I am sure they take care better care of the boxes at the other locations

Boxes look beat up.  You would think they would have more.  LOL

Actually I noticed the size as well. Amazing to think that every product for ~50 years fits in only a ~60' x -15' room. Someone asked the CEO after the press conference if 350 products (in 2015) was too many to sustain. He answered by saying that when you consider the scope of their sales, it's not. They don't quote units sold, but they did make a point of saying that "100 million children's lives touched" was a new record in 2015. I think that's a euphemism/proxy for sales units.

Cool you got to visit! Although not every boxed set is in there....some have got legs and walked off...at least, that's what I was told on the inside tour.

Pretty awesome.  I had that catapult set, 6030. I just retrieved that King's Castle set with the box, 6080, from my parents house a year or so ago..  My brother and I got it when we returned to the States in 1984.   

really wish people wouldn't post pics of my stockroom w/o permission...

Great pictures. Completely forgot I had that cargo center when I was little. Now I'm going to have to hunt one down.

Wow, really cool. First thing that caught my eye was the box stacking... "NO DON'T STACK THEM LIKE THAT!" 

Wow, really cool. First thing that caught my eye was the box stacking... "NO DON'T STACK THEM LIKE THAT!" 

Same