Be sure to watch the video if you want to hear my thoughts. I state my full and complete opinion with consideration for regional differences and the fact that transitions like this take time. My problem is not with any of that. My problem is with LEGO's completely irresponsible use of LANfluencers *in every region* for 4+ years to distribute the corporate word that the transition to paper bags is happening. It JUST started happening in limited parts of Europe in 2024. The marketing material they push through their LANfluencers in 2020, 2021, 2023, and 2024 has *not* represented the full truth.
@JANGBRiCKS What you said about plastic being a great material for packaging, (at least for the packager if not the environment,) is very true. If your business is selling microwaveable cauliflower-cheese, plastic is great. It's water- and greaseproof, it's cheap, light, and easy for machines to handle, it keeps oxygen and bacteria out of the product, and lets the customer see what they're buying. Almost none of those requirements are necessary for packaging ABS plastic bricks. I really think Lego could've switched faster.
I'm pretty sure Lego's Paper bassed bags are just paper coated plastic bags, they look like paper they use less plastic but they are still plastic and cant be recycled so whats the point in them?
I've already had several sets with paper bags. I think Harry Potter shrieking shack was the first for me. I'm in the EU, and also member of a lego community, many people complain that with the paper bags it happens more often that pieces stay behind in the creases of the bags and you risk throwing them away because you can't see them. Transparent plastic bags are still preferred.
You may laugh, but it exists in the form of aluminium oxynitride! One problem... it's a very expensive ceramic used for bulletproof windows and such, so perhaps not the first choice for a throw-away bag.
EU customer here. The only set with paper bags i've built was the red double-decker sightseeing bus. I was shocked to finally see them in real life and they were the white ones, it felt like winning the lottery. :)
Honestly, this feels like a valid calling out the overlooked lego stagnation with bag stuff. Thank you for the reminder that this IS something of consequence and deserves consumer complaint.
There's downsides for everything, paper or cloth need lots of water to be produced, but the idea behind stopping single use plastics is to reduce the amount micro plastics in the environment, it's choosing the lesser evil.
I’m in the UK, and I’ve bought 9 sets this year. I’ve got 2 sets with paper, and the other 7 with plastic. It is happening over here, just slowly. Hopefully it’ll pick up speed worldwide. I did laugh as soon as Jang took out the couple of actual paper bags out of the massive mass of plastic.
Also UK based, some sets I've received are still plastic, even new sets from this year, some however have a mic of plastic or paper. I think this is a change that will take time for them to properly replace every bag given how many sets they must produce each year.
I've never gotten a paper bag and have bought $1,000's worth in the last year. I can't wait to get the new bags as they can be reused for wrapping paper.
This is why I find myself going to your reviews more-so than others. This definitely isn't a subject that people that are sponsored by LEGO would tackle on. But a longtime guy like yourself at the craft giving straight-forward thoughts on LEGO as a whole! Much appreciate your time and dedication
Just as you've said. I live in Poland and those supposedly ecological "paper" bags go to non-recyclable bin while the plastic ones to the potentially recyclable plastics one.
I used to read the copyright labels on the plastic bags every time I got a Lego set. Over time, I started speculating that Lego may have overproduced plastic packaging in 2017 and hasn’t yet used up the leftover stock in their factories.
Not trying to be a corporate defender - someone is going to come at me with that. But I work in manufacturing and try to take a different perspective. It honestly takes YEARS to set up the new manufacturing implementation for the equipment that runs the paper bags, and switch production over ideally seamlessly. The current equipment for filling and sealing the plastic bags is completely different. However, I do agree they did not need to announce this years before it was ready either. That is virtue signaling at it's finest.... Unfortunately LEGO very commonly does this, like when they announced the bricks made from recycled PET that definitely did not work...
Full disclaimer - I'm a Bricklink seller, and so buy a LOT more sealed sets than your average consumer - by many, many multiples. So I cannot speak for what your average consumer will come across, but I can speak for what I have come across. I'm in the UK, and I'd estimate around 2/3 of all sets I buy now come with only paper bags. Some still come with only plastic bags (including late 2024 releases), and some even come with a mix - the larger bag might be paper, but the smaller bag inside that might still be plastic. There has been huge progress in the rollout of paper bags here. The white bags are exactly the same material with the plastic coating as the brown ones - literally the only difference is the colour. Quite what's happening in North America, I don't know - as we know that particular factory is already really bad for thing like print quality and mold marks, so I do wonder if there's underlying issues there that are making the rollout of paper bags less of a priority that side of the pond? Obviously none of this is intended to take away from any of your observations, Jang, particularly around LAN content creators, just wanted to add my own observations.
its good to see someone who isn't a lego glazer and actually calls out these companies instead of turning a blind eye. the amount of creators who have sold themselves out for Free sets/exclusive interviews with lego is just wild. Glad to see a genuine Lego reviewer and not a glazer :)
Here in europe i have seen a white paper bags in couple of sets and if i remember corectly they didnt have a plastic layer inside either. But that were maybe 2 or 3 sets from about 10 i bought in last couple of years. Most bags are still plastic.
Now THIS is the sort of criticism that makes Jang such a coverer of LEGO! Nuanced, informed, critical. The paper bag issue is definitely dishonesty/deception in marketing because it so clearly seeks to leverage the environmental cause to generate good will knowing full well that their supply chain can´t (or won´t) handle it. As far as companies goes, LEGO is pretty decent, as you say, but they´re still in it for the money. This is good coverage.
A lot of fans think lego is their friend and not just a company which they do a transaction with. Just because lego has a significantly stronger marketing department than other companies doesn’t make them immune to corporate greed. They need to be held to the same standard.
I have seen paper bags and to be honest I prefer the plastic one. This is because plastic is transparent and I can build my set without removing all bricks from the bag and therefore have a cleaner table to work on. LEGO has always been trying to put maximum quality over the rest, so I am glad they are keeping using plastic where they can. Because, yes, plastic is better. That said, all companies try to show the best part of themselves when doing promotions, so I am not surprised LEGO is trying to show they are not using the "evil" plastic anymore.
I'm in the Netherlands. I don't buy too many sets a year, but the few I bought recently all had the paper bags with the plastic lining. I think for me it started with the Jurassic Park 30th Anniversary sets that had just the dinosaurs in the paper bags.
It's very eye opening to see all those plastic bags from all those sets. And that's just from one person! Think how many end up in the landfill from all of us combined. Makes me ashamed of myself for contributing to it now. Now that I know that the paper bags are lined with plastic, I'm not sure how they're any better. It's basically still a plastic bag but now with the added resource burden of paper around it so now that seems even worse.
for me, the boxing and shipping of air all across the world is much worse that this. they just make the boxes larger so it would appear that you get something big. this is a big waste of shipping space and a lot of extra pollution to move air in a half empty box from one country to another.
Some things _do_ need empty space in the packaging - say, potato chips will crumble into dust without the right amount of air inside - but Lego definitely wastes way too much space in their packaging, and they don't even have the (poor) excuse of trying to "represent the size of the set using the box" because they just don't really do that.
@@TristenSarelvunMy boxes from Funwhole are jam packed with the contents--they're strikingly heavy by size compared to Lego packages--and so far nothing broken or damaged, so it's certainly possible to ship building block sets in smaller boxes without tons of extra air.
@@SO-ym3zs FunWhole also makes much more durable boxes than Lego does. They are more in line with Lego Architecture sets, as far as how they open and such, but walls of the FunWhole boxes are much thicker. They can hold a lot more in a smaller footprint.
A well needed and balanced video on the topic. In my experience in germany there are a lot of sets by now that come with the (white) paper bags, but there are still more with the plastic bags, even among 2024 releases. Also the unclarity around recycleability because of the plastic lining is very annoying, I wish they were more clear about it. Apart from that I like the new bags, they feel better, and are easier to open without spilling pieces everywhere.
They have to mark the packaging with either text that explains how to recycle or international symbols. Haven't seen a single paper bag yet, so I can't comment on what it says.
I'm in the UK, and I have literally just received my first ever Lego set with paper bags; that being the buildable Droideka. I buy/receive a decent amount of Lego sets, and this is the only set I have ever gotten with the paper bags. Fortunately, the food delivery company that we use have started doing a service where they provide you with a bag to recycle plastic bags and wrappings, that they pick up with the boxes from the previous week. Since that started, I've been playing all my plastic Lego bags in their, so at least some of that isn't going to waste. It's still bad that Lego are pretended that the paper bags are everywhere, when I can assure you that is most certainly not the case.
Glad they see you still active. I’ve been into the RC hobby for the over a decade now just from stumbling upon a random video of yours. You may well just get me back into my Lego days as well😂
im not sure, but it seems they have rolled out more paper bags in Europe than in North america so far. most of my sets in 2024 have been primarily paper. also, all the paper bags have been white. i dont follow many influencer reviewers, so im not sure if they are missleading specifically american content creators
Roughly 80% of the boxes I open now (I'm in Asia) use white paper bags, and I loath them. Environment aside, their thickness and rigidness means that small parts get easily stuck inside when you dump out the parts, and you can't can't at a glance see through them whether you've dumped them clean or not. I SWEAR I've checked, double checked, triple checked each bag when I remove their contents, but STILL I miss pieces and had to go back into them to search. I don't know if there's a solution to this (maybe I'll just have to live with it), but for me the paper bags have been a downgrade in experience.
This is just another reason I like you and your channel! It’s nice that they’re trying to do better, but just do it already and stop blustering. Appreciate you Jang!
EU Lego fan here. At a conservative guess our household probably bought/received 20 Lego sets last year but only 1 had paper bags. The fox, squirrel, owl creator 3 in 1 purchased in May. I hoped that was a turning point but no further lego sets with paper bags during the year. 🤞🏻 for 2025
Your face at 1:18 is priceless !! in 4 years, i only had 2 (small) sets with paper bags..... what a shame ! And don't forget that those "Paper bags" have plastic in it to consolidate them !
UK guy here. My last sets - jabbas sail barge and skiff/sarlacc were both all paper bags. A pleasant surprise and functioned better than plastic bags as they tear open easily.
I am so happy someone with a big name is actually calling this out. I’ve been poking fun at Lego for years now, claiming they went green with paper bags - and launching a whole campaign to tout it - but yet not offering them to North American buyers
I am from Spain and I have recently build the X Mansion and the Imperial Star Destroyer and all come with paper bags. I think that depends the factory that makes the sets. It is a gradual process. More and more sets in more parts of the world will have paper bags.
I know it's a MUCH smaller change, but it sure is interesting how the CMFs switched to boxes so quickly and yet they're dragging their feet with the paper bags.
If you look up recycling plastic you'll find that most plastic that gets """""""recycled""""""" is recycled within factories i.e. casting sprues and products that didn't cast correctly, have defects, yadda, yadda. That's because that is a clean and most importantly, a known material. Plastics are different and they go in the same recycling bin, making recycling really really hard. So the thing that has a good chance of reducing plastic waste is manufacturers enabling people to return packaging. Manufacturers know what resin was used for the plastic, eliminating guesswork. In practice you'd buy something, and the next time you came to the store, you'd return the used packaging.
Some of these videos lately 😂😂 Jang is descending into madness! Genuinely though, very funny and informative as always. Hope you're doing well this holiday season ❤❤
The only paper bags I've ever had was with #76424 Flying Ford Anglia. I have 20+ sets from 2022 and after. Personally I think the whole situation with 'paper' things actually being made partially with plastic makes them even less recyclable.
I'm in Australia. i've bought at least 20-30 sets this year. Vast majority were plastic. Only 1 set 21352 Disney Magic had 7/9 paper bags and 2 plastic, and inside the paper bags were plastic bags with small pieces. Made no sense to me
I've also saved nearly every single bag I've gotten from every single set I've gotten since the start of 2020, when I started buying sets for myself. Whenever I got new bags I'd put them into the same trash bag with the rest of them. almost 5 years later - not a single paper bag. They're all plastic. Every time I start buying sets in a new release wave I wonder if I'll finally be getting the paper bags after all this time, and every time I'm left disappointed in that regard.
Ive boight more lego than any reasonable person should in the past four years and i have never seen a single paper bag, closest to it is the little box cape pieces come in. Proud supporter jang keep up the integrity 🔥
LEGO could just introduce plastic string bags, which can be reused instead just thrown out. I tend to use such bags to store disassembled sets. They actually used one in the new Chronometer set.
Uk - customer - only seen sporadically in the last 6 months. 90% is still plastic. Disadvantage with paper, you can't see if any small pieces still left in the bag.
I buy lots of (too much if you ask my wife) Lego here in Australia and have only had 2 sets with paper bags and they were both 50/50 paper/ plastic bags, the roll out has been a lot slower than it was advertised. It’s great to hear your thoughts on the subject. Great content 😀
i don't mind that it is taking time to change over, but the PR around this to promote themselves being further along in the process than it currently stands is disingenuous.
JANG keeping the big companies accountable on what they said. Love it! Thanks for bringing this topic up for public discussion. I totally agree with you and this issue does also doesn’t sit well with me either. I think it’s because though it may not be intentional, who knows? It does make the promises to switch over feels a bit hollow... Upon further thought 💭 was wondering, might it simply be a case of the influencers receiving sets posted directly from HQ / Denmark where the switch is probably more strongly enforced due to EU standards? In which case it also still feel like someone didn’t do their job 😂 Guess it won’t really be resolved until all are paper, may be the only way we can make ourselves feel better for buying so much plastic items hey? 😅
I didn't even know Lego was switching to paper bags since the sets we have still have the plastic ones.🤔 Also, Jang is a mad lad pouring all of those plastic bags on his table.😆
Honestly, these days companies benefit more by saying they are doing things rather than actually doing them. We stand for this, we stand for that, etc. With how fast information moves on the internet, imagine comparing the amount of people who heard Lego have switched to paper (through articles, etc) to the amount of people who know that they are far from doing so. The former vastly outnumbers the latter. As long as people believe a brand is doing good, their brains will associate more positive notions with that brand, and they are more likely to consume products. So we end up with a situation where companies don't necessarily have to put their money where their mouth is. I'm from Ireland. I buy Lego sets from my local store or from Lego's Irish site. I received paper bags in one set, ever. It was the Jurassic Park Triceratops set. Although, I have a number of unopened sets, so some of those could have paper too.
You know, this issue with paper bags plastic bags yada yada, let’s just get rid of them completely! Just have a box filled with all the bricks, yeah ok if the set has 5000+ pieces all mixed together, it’s going to take a while but I see it as more of a challenge 😂
Thank you! Never see anyone address this like this! This is SO annoying to me, and this kind of green marketing and it's 'affects' or negative effects. Like when you get a piece of PAPER in a set that says "you might see paper in your legos soon! Keep looking for it!" and then a bunch of plastic. Very annoying green marketing to gloss over their grappling with and cutting corners in the US market because we love our plastic crap so much, it's easy to do here.
I’m in Australia and I buy quite a few LEGO sets, and I’ve had fully fancy white paper bags in 2 sets and a mix in 1 set. (Not saying you’re wrong or anything, just contributing my anecdote)
Jang what do you mean by danish bubble, alternate dimension ? As a Dane I am genuinely curious. 😅 I know we might have utopian-like care for our citizens compared to other parts of the world, but that took real hard work to get there. And a ton of taxes. Love your content and thanks for putting a spotlight on this. 😊
I feel like we never used to have so many bags in the first place. I like having everything organised, especially as the sets have gotten more elaborate, but there's something fun about dumping all the pieces in a big pile and digging around in it. Reminds me of my childhood.
Over here in the Netherlands most 2024 sets I got still had plastic bags. Even weirder: In February I bought 31152 Creator 3-in-1 Space Astronaut, and it was actaully my first set with paper bages (though often with smaller plastic bags inside those). In October I bought a second copy of that set so my astronaut would be accompanied by AstroDog.....and guess what? It's all plastic bags again! But I'm sure they will manage to make the complete transation withing the next 50 years or so. It just takes some time indeed.
Thank you for calling this out, I stay in Scotland and out of the most recent like 10 sets I've had I've only had paper bags in the Fortnite battle bus set. Even the 2024 city advent calendar has the plastic bags.
They somehow managed to switch extremely fast to paper/cardboard with the blind purchase (cough, cough, gambling) collectable minifigs (so we can no longer feel the plastic bags to find out whats inside).
Sets with paper bags should have only been sent to LAN in countries/regions where the conversion had begin in earnest. LAN in U.S. should not have received paper bags.
Such an eye-opener. I just opened my brand new Pas Vizsla set in the UK and fully expected to finally get my first paper bag set - no dice. I totally expected you to have more than just 4 small bags at this point too.
I buy a decent amount of Lego, not once have I ever seen a paper bag. I genuinely thought I made it up in my head or it was a classic game of telephone and things got muddled on the way. I don’t mind the bigger plastic bags, I do think that maybe they could switch some of the smaller bags to paper (the ones that hold all the studs). As they are in the bigger bags while shipping it wouldn’t be the end of the world if they got ripped.
For me, the paper bags are actually less sustainable (for the time being) - because while there are some services in Australia that can recycle soft plastics (the old bags), I haven't been able to locate any services that can recycle the hybrid plastic and paper combo of the new bags. So until there is a system that can recycle them, the new bags go in the trash while the old ones could be recycled* *Although you can't recycle them in your usual bins, I have to get them specially collected. I've just started seeing the paper bags in the last ~6 months
I am in Europe. I got the "Barad-dûr" with PAPER bags! Plastic inside, paper ourside... The only 'thing' what it does, you can throw out lego pieces accidentally, because you can't see inside it properly... They have a strange lip at the bottom of the bag unlike the plastic ones, to make it even easier to lose pieces.
Can confirm. My brand new Endurance set is all plastic bags. Except the one holding the textile sails and flag. I didn't even get a fancy pull off top box. It as just another generic taped end box. I'm disappointed in the packaging but the set is a cool build so far. (Still building.)
A 4 year transition??? Are you kidding me?? How long is it going to take for North America to get these paper bags?? Lego is very late, in my view! Plastic is the 20th century ultimate discovery, and look what happened! Our environment, our oceans are filled up with plastics that never should have ended up there! It's time, Lego!
To this day, I haven't seen a single paper bag myself.
@@villelepoaho4105 same here!
I've only ever seen a paper bag for the UCS X-Wing cockpit piece
me neither, and I've bought my fair share of lego sets since 2020.
Try Jurassic World sets, they have most of the dinosaurs in paper bags
I told a lego youtuber once lego only gives out paper bags to the content creators and he got super mad and called me names lol
The dedication to actually dump an entire trash bag worth of LEGO bags onto your studio desk is mad
Its insane how much plastic lego as a hobby wastes lol
And more effective every second it goes on
Be sure to watch the video if you want to hear my thoughts. I state my full and complete opinion with consideration for regional differences and the fact that transitions like this take time. My problem is not with any of that. My problem is with LEGO's completely irresponsible use of LANfluencers *in every region* for 4+ years to distribute the corporate word that the transition to paper bags is happening. It JUST started happening in limited parts of Europe in 2024. The marketing material they push through their LANfluencers in 2020, 2021, 2023, and 2024 has *not* represented the full truth.
@JANGBRiCKS What you said about plastic being a great material for packaging, (at least for the packager if not the environment,) is very true.
If your business is selling microwaveable cauliflower-cheese, plastic is great.
It's water- and greaseproof, it's cheap, light, and easy for machines to handle, it keeps oxygen and bacteria out of the product, and lets the customer see what they're buying.
Almost none of those requirements are necessary for packaging ABS plastic bricks. I really think Lego could've switched faster.
@@JANGBRiCKS THANK YOU for making a video about this!! Has been bothering me for quite some time, so this is really appreciated.
I'm pretty sure Lego's Paper bassed bags are just paper coated plastic bags, they look like paper they use less plastic but they are still plastic and cant be recycled so whats the point in them?
I've already had several sets with paper bags. I think Harry Potter shrieking shack was the first for me. I'm in the EU, and also member of a lego community, many people complain that with the paper bags it happens more often that pieces stay behind in the creases of the bags and you risk throwing them away because you can't see them. Transparent plastic bags are still preferred.
They sure seemed to switch to cardboard blind boxes for CMFs in all regions pretty painlessly, why do you think that is?
Really appreciate what you do and your integrity.
Wow thank you for this! Really kind of you. I'm just glad you get some value out of the content!
For some reason jang being surrounded by a million plastic bags is so funny.
Honestly blew me away just how much of it there was absolutely everywhere, just from a fraction of 1 month's releases.
They're not plastic,
Lego skipped paper and boldly embraced the future.
Those are *_transparent aluminum_* bags !
You're a miracle worker Mr. Scott
Scotty would be proud!
You may laugh, but it exists in the form of aluminium oxynitride! One problem... it's a very expensive ceramic used for bulletproof windows and such, so perhaps not the first choice for a throw-away bag.
Which would be much less sustainable ;)
That’s the ticket lad.
EU customer here. The only set with paper bags i've built was the red double-decker sightseeing bus. I was shocked to finally see them in real life and they were the white ones, it felt like winning the lottery. :)
EU customer here: I am from Czech republic and honestly, almost every set that I built this year had paper bags.
From the UK here. I bought the Jaws set and it had paper bags. Admittedly it's the only set I've bought this year.
See that's weird. I'm in the UK, I bought that bus and got plastic bags!
Keep hearing "they are rolling it out to the USA"
3 years later and still nothing.
Honestly, this feels like a valid calling out the overlooked lego stagnation with bag stuff.
Thank you for the reminder that this IS something of consequence and deserves consumer complaint.
There's downsides for everything, paper or cloth need lots of water to be produced, but the idea behind stopping single use plastics is to reduce the amount micro plastics in the environment, it's choosing the lesser evil.
They’re still packing those little paper advertisements about the bags into sets and it’s getting kind of obnoxious
The #NOTsponsored makes this even funnier to me. I’m glad you keep bringing attention to this issue.
I love the close up shots of the bags after you dumped them out. The silence and sheer amount of plastic had this funny yet dystopian vibe.
I’m in the UK, and I’ve bought 9 sets this year. I’ve got 2 sets with paper, and the other 7 with plastic. It is happening over here, just slowly. Hopefully it’ll pick up speed worldwide. I did laugh as soon as Jang took out the couple of actual paper bags out of the massive mass of plastic.
Also UK based, some sets I've received are still plastic, even new sets from this year, some however have a mic of plastic or paper.
I think this is a change that will take time for them to properly replace every bag given how many sets they must produce each year.
I've never gotten a paper bag and have bought $1,000's worth in the last year. I can't wait to get the new bags as they can be reused for wrapping paper.
This is why I find myself going to your reviews more-so than others. This definitely isn't a subject that people that are sponsored by LEGO would tackle on. But a longtime guy like yourself at the craft giving straight-forward thoughts on LEGO as a whole! Much appreciate your time and dedication
Just as you've said. I live in Poland and those supposedly ecological "paper" bags go to non-recyclable bin while the plastic ones to the potentially recyclable plastics one.
So the paper can't be recycled?
But remember many countries like huge parts of the US doesn't recycle plastic, they use landfills.
@@alderrin exactly, also they are kinda rare
Very little plastic gets recycled, regardless of what bin you put it in. The 'paper' bags should at least break down faster.
I used to read the copyright labels on the plastic bags every time I got a Lego set. Over time, I started speculating that Lego may have overproduced plastic packaging in 2017 and hasn’t yet used up the leftover stock in their factories.
Not trying to be a corporate defender - someone is going to come at me with that. But I work in manufacturing and try to take a different perspective. It honestly takes YEARS to set up the new manufacturing implementation for the equipment that runs the paper bags, and switch production over ideally seamlessly. The current equipment for filling and sealing the plastic bags is completely different. However, I do agree they did not need to announce this years before it was ready either. That is virtue signaling at it's finest.... Unfortunately LEGO very commonly does this, like when they announced the bricks made from recycled PET that definitely did not work...
Full disclaimer - I'm a Bricklink seller, and so buy a LOT more sealed sets than your average consumer - by many, many multiples. So I cannot speak for what your average consumer will come across, but I can speak for what I have come across. I'm in the UK, and I'd estimate around 2/3 of all sets I buy now come with only paper bags. Some still come with only plastic bags (including late 2024 releases), and some even come with a mix - the larger bag might be paper, but the smaller bag inside that might still be plastic. There has been huge progress in the rollout of paper bags here. The white bags are exactly the same material with the plastic coating as the brown ones - literally the only difference is the colour.
Quite what's happening in North America, I don't know - as we know that particular factory is already really bad for thing like print quality and mold marks, so I do wonder if there's underlying issues there that are making the rollout of paper bags less of a priority that side of the pond? Obviously none of this is intended to take away from any of your observations, Jang, particularly around LAN content creators, just wanted to add my own observations.
Thank you for speaking on this topic Jang. I have gotten a lot of sets recently and pondered why they still have these plastic bags.
I love the sarcasm laden in the multiple camera, angle shots of the bags as you drop them out
Jang keeping it real as always. Great work from the Lego fan with the most integrity.
its good to see someone who isn't a lego glazer and actually calls out these companies instead of turning a blind eye. the amount of creators who have sold themselves out for Free sets/exclusive interviews with lego is just wild. Glad to see a genuine Lego reviewer and not a glazer :)
I like this era of Jang
Amén
Here in europe i have seen a white paper bags in couple of sets and if i remember corectly they didnt have a plastic layer inside either. But that were maybe 2 or 3 sets from about 10 i bought in last couple of years. Most bags are still plastic.
Now THIS is the sort of criticism that makes Jang such a coverer of LEGO! Nuanced, informed, critical. The paper bag issue is definitely dishonesty/deception in marketing because it so clearly seeks to leverage the environmental cause to generate good will knowing full well that their supply chain can´t (or won´t) handle it. As far as companies goes, LEGO is pretty decent, as you say, but they´re still in it for the money. This is good coverage.
A lot of fans think lego is their friend and not just a company which they do a transaction with. Just because lego has a significantly stronger marketing department than other companies doesn’t make them immune to corporate greed. They need to be held to the same standard.
I have seen paper bags and to be honest I prefer the plastic one.
This is because plastic is transparent and I can build my set without removing all bricks from the bag and therefore have a cleaner table to work on.
LEGO has always been trying to put maximum quality over the rest, so I am glad they are keeping using plastic where they can. Because, yes, plastic is better.
That said, all companies try to show the best part of themselves when doing promotions, so I am not surprised LEGO is trying to show they are not using the "evil" plastic anymore.
Thanks!
🙏 Incredibly generous & kind of you. I hope my content provides real value back to you as well. Thank you so much.
I'm in the Netherlands. I don't buy too many sets a year, but the few I bought recently all had the paper bags with the plastic lining. I think for me it started with the Jurassic Park 30th Anniversary sets that had just the dinosaurs in the paper bags.
It's very eye opening to see all those plastic bags from all those sets. And that's just from one person! Think how many end up in the landfill from all of us combined. Makes me ashamed of myself for contributing to it now. Now that I know that the paper bags are lined with plastic, I'm not sure how they're any better. It's basically still a plastic bag but now with the added resource burden of paper around it so now that seems even worse.
for me, the boxing and shipping of air all across the world is much worse that this. they just make the boxes larger so it would appear that you get something big. this is a big waste of shipping space and a lot of extra pollution to move air in a half empty box from one country to another.
Some things _do_ need empty space in the packaging - say, potato chips will crumble into dust without the right amount of air inside - but Lego definitely wastes way too much space in their packaging, and they don't even have the (poor) excuse of trying to "represent the size of the set using the box" because they just don't really do that.
@@TristenSarelvunMy boxes from Funwhole are jam packed with the contents--they're strikingly heavy by size compared to Lego packages--and so far nothing broken or damaged, so it's certainly possible to ship building block sets in smaller boxes without tons of extra air.
@@SO-ym3zs FunWhole also makes much more durable boxes than Lego does. They are more in line with Lego Architecture sets, as far as how they open and such, but walls of the FunWhole boxes are much thicker. They can hold a lot more in a smaller footprint.
@@SO-ym3zsYou are both on the same side, in case you misunderstood Tristen.
Not mentioning that they actually reduced the boxes in size in the past few years. They used to be even bigger.
A well needed and balanced video on the topic. In my experience in germany there are a lot of sets by now that come with the (white) paper bags, but there are still more with the plastic bags, even among 2024 releases. Also the unclarity around recycleability because of the plastic lining is very annoying, I wish they were more clear about it. Apart from that I like the new bags, they feel better, and are easier to open without spilling pieces everywhere.
They have to mark the packaging with either text that explains how to recycle or international symbols. Haven't seen a single paper bag yet, so I can't comment on what it says.
2030 Lego has announced they are now using paper bags
I'm in the UK, and I have literally just received my first ever Lego set with paper bags; that being the buildable Droideka. I buy/receive a decent amount of Lego sets, and this is the only set I have ever gotten with the paper bags.
Fortunately, the food delivery company that we use have started doing a service where they provide you with a bag to recycle plastic bags and wrappings, that they pick up with the boxes from the previous week. Since that started, I've been playing all my plastic Lego bags in their, so at least some of that isn't going to waste. It's still bad that Lego are pretended that the paper bags are everywhere, when I can assure you that is most certainly not the case.
ok that "it's been" caught me off guard, I was not expecting that
Glad they see you still active. I’ve been into the RC hobby for the over a decade now just from stumbling upon a random video of yours. You may well just get me back into my Lego days as well😂
YEAH CALL EM OUT
im not sure, but it seems they have rolled out more paper bags in Europe than in North america so far. most of my sets in 2024 have been primarily paper.
also, all the paper bags have been white. i dont follow many influencer reviewers, so im not sure if they are missleading specifically american content creators
Roughly 80% of the boxes I open now (I'm in Asia) use white paper bags, and I loath them. Environment aside, their thickness and rigidness means that small parts get easily stuck inside when you dump out the parts, and you can't can't at a glance see through them whether you've dumped them clean or not. I SWEAR I've checked, double checked, triple checked each bag when I remove their contents, but STILL I miss pieces and had to go back into them to search.
I don't know if there's a solution to this (maybe I'll just have to live with it), but for me the paper bags have been a downgrade in experience.
This is just another reason I like you and your channel! It’s nice that they’re trying to do better, but just do it already and stop blustering. Appreciate you Jang!
LOL I literally laughed out load. Hilarious video, thanks for doing this
I haven't seen a paper bag Lego set yet and started thinking it was never coming.
EU Lego fan here. At a conservative guess our household probably bought/received 20 Lego sets last year but only 1 had paper bags. The fox, squirrel, owl creator 3 in 1 purchased in May. I hoped that was a turning point but no further lego sets with paper bags during the year. 🤞🏻 for 2025
Love the Barenaked Ladies reference
Your face at 1:18 is priceless !!
in 4 years, i only had 2 (small) sets with paper bags..... what a shame !
And don't forget that those "Paper bags" have plastic in it to consolidate them !
Here in the UK I have only had paper bags for the last year
Absolute W and banger of a video!
"This is why we love you, Jang"🗣🗣 as we all say in unison
UK guy here. My last sets - jabbas sail barge and skiff/sarlacc were both all paper bags. A pleasant surprise and functioned better than plastic bags as they tear open easily.
I am so happy someone with a big name is actually calling this out. I’ve been poking fun at Lego for years now, claiming they went green with paper bags - and launching a whole campaign to tout it - but yet not offering them to North American buyers
Never seen a paper bag, but I have plenty of those little sheets they include telling us 'they're coming' lol
I am from Spain and I have recently build the X Mansion and the Imperial Star Destroyer and all come with paper bags. I think that depends the factory that makes the sets. It is a gradual process. More and more sets in more parts of the world will have paper bags.
I know it's a MUCH smaller change, but it sure is interesting how the CMFs switched to boxes so quickly and yet they're dragging their feet with the paper bags.
You don't have to kill a tree to make a plastic bag, but they don't biodegrade. It seems to me like it's lose-lose.
You don't have to kill a tree. Paper bags could be made with recycle material.
If you look up recycling plastic you'll find that most plastic that gets """""""recycled""""""" is recycled within factories i.e. casting sprues and products that didn't cast correctly, have defects, yadda, yadda. That's because that is a clean and most importantly, a known material. Plastics are different and they go in the same recycling bin, making recycling really really hard. So the thing that has a good chance of reducing plastic waste is manufacturers enabling people to return packaging. Manufacturers know what resin was used for the plastic, eliminating guesswork. In practice you'd buy something, and the next time you came to the store, you'd return the used packaging.
Some of these videos lately 😂😂 Jang is descending into madness!
Genuinely though, very funny and informative as always. Hope you're doing well this holiday season ❤❤
The only paper bags I've ever had was with #76424 Flying Ford Anglia. I have 20+ sets from 2022 and after. Personally I think the whole situation with 'paper' things actually being made partially with plastic makes them even less recyclable.
Jang is now an ASMR channel I don't make the rules
Based
I'm in Australia. i've bought at least 20-30 sets this year. Vast majority were plastic. Only 1 set 21352 Disney Magic had 7/9 paper bags and 2 plastic, and inside the paper bags were plastic bags with small pieces. Made no sense to me
I've also saved nearly every single bag I've gotten from every single set I've gotten since the start of 2020, when I started buying sets for myself. Whenever I got new bags I'd put them into the same trash bag with the rest of them.
almost 5 years later - not a single paper bag. They're all plastic. Every time I start buying sets in a new release wave I wonder if I'll finally be getting the paper bags after all this time, and every time I'm left disappointed in that regard.
Ive boight more lego than any reasonable person should in the past four years and i have never seen a single paper bag, closest to it is the little box cape pieces come in. Proud supporter jang keep up the integrity 🔥
LEGO could just introduce plastic string bags, which can be reused instead just thrown out. I tend to use such bags to store disassembled sets. They actually used one in the new Chronometer set.
We love you Jang!
I think I've gotten a paper bag once or twice over the past number of years. And I was so shocked I thought they packed the wrong thing in there lol
Uk - customer - only seen sporadically in the last 6 months. 90% is still plastic. Disadvantage with paper, you can't see if any small pieces still left in the bag.
I buy lots of (too much if you ask my wife) Lego here in Australia and have only had 2 sets with paper bags and they were both 50/50 paper/ plastic bags, the roll out has been a lot slower than it was advertised. It’s great to hear your thoughts on the subject. Great content 😀
Wasn't there also a report about the Lego Owners Family flying super short distances with their private chat... But yes Lego is green!!
The world needs more honest reviewers who call out these big companies on their shenanigans. Thanks Jang!
i don't mind that it is taking time to change over, but the PR around this to promote themselves being further along in the process than it currently stands is disingenuous.
JANG keeping the big companies accountable on what they said. Love it! Thanks for bringing this topic up for public discussion. I totally agree with you and this issue does also doesn’t sit well with me either. I think it’s because though it may not be intentional, who knows? It does make the promises to switch over feels a bit hollow... Upon further thought 💭 was wondering, might it simply be a case of the influencers receiving sets posted directly from HQ / Denmark where the switch is probably more strongly enforced due to EU standards? In which case it also still feel like someone didn’t do their job 😂 Guess it won’t really be resolved until all are paper, may be the only way we can make ourselves feel better for buying so much plastic items hey? 😅
UK based customer here. I got paper bags in both the Great Wave and the X Mansion sets. I still see plastic in the majority of new sets however.
2:40 THEY ACTUALLY EXIST?!?
I didn't even know Lego was switching to paper bags since the sets we have still have the plastic ones.🤔
Also, Jang is a mad lad pouring all of those plastic bags on his table.😆
I love how Lego made the new paper bags look like the old plastic bags. They got them even to be transparent. Great job! /s
Honestly, these days companies benefit more by saying they are doing things rather than actually doing them. We stand for this, we stand for that, etc. With how fast information moves on the internet, imagine comparing the amount of people who heard Lego have switched to paper (through articles, etc) to the amount of people who know that they are far from doing so. The former vastly outnumbers the latter. As long as people believe a brand is doing good, their brains will associate more positive notions with that brand, and they are more likely to consume products. So we end up with a situation where companies don't necessarily have to put their money where their mouth is.
I'm from Ireland. I buy Lego sets from my local store or from Lego's Irish site. I received paper bags in one set, ever. It was the Jurassic Park Triceratops set. Although, I have a number of unopened sets, so some of those could have paper too.
You know, this issue with paper bags plastic bags yada yada, let’s just get rid of them completely! Just have a box filled with all the bricks, yeah ok if the set has 5000+ pieces all mixed together, it’s going to take a while but I see it as more of a challenge 😂
Thank you! Never see anyone address this like this! This is SO annoying to me, and this kind of green marketing and it's 'affects' or negative effects. Like when you get a piece of PAPER in a set that says "you might see paper in your legos soon! Keep looking for it!" and then a bunch of plastic. Very annoying green marketing to gloss over their grappling with and cutting corners in the US market because we love our plastic crap so much, it's easy to do here.
I’m in Australia and I buy quite a few LEGO sets, and I’ve had fully fancy white paper bags in 2 sets and a mix in 1 set. (Not saying you’re wrong or anything, just contributing my anecdote)
Jang what do you mean by danish bubble, alternate dimension ?
As a Dane I am genuinely curious. 😅
I know we might have utopian-like care for our citizens compared to other parts of the world, but that took real hard work to get there. And a ton of taxes.
Love your content and thanks for putting a spotlight on this. 😊
I feel like we never used to have so many bags in the first place. I like having everything organised, especially as the sets have gotten more elaborate, but there's something fun about dumping all the pieces in a big pile and digging around in it. Reminds me of my childhood.
Over here in the Netherlands most 2024 sets I got still had plastic bags. Even weirder: In February I bought 31152 Creator 3-in-1 Space Astronaut, and it was actaully my first set with paper bages (though often with smaller plastic bags inside those). In October I bought a second copy of that set so my astronaut would be accompanied by AstroDog.....and guess what? It's all plastic bags again!
But I'm sure they will manage to make the complete transation withing the next 50 years or so. It just takes some time indeed.
Thank you for calling this out, I stay in Scotland and out of the most recent like 10 sets I've had I've only had paper bags in the Fortnite battle bus set. Even the 2024 city advent calendar has the plastic bags.
as always great video! as always such thoughtful points! you’ve been a favorite channel for many years!
They somehow managed to switch extremely fast to paper/cardboard with the blind purchase (cough, cough, gambling) collectable minifigs (so we can no longer feel the plastic bags to find out whats inside).
Sets with paper bags should have only been sent to LAN in countries/regions where the conversion had begin in earnest. LAN in U.S. should not have received paper bags.
Such an eye-opener. I just opened my brand new Pas Vizsla set in the UK and fully expected to finally get my first paper bag set - no dice. I totally expected you to have more than just 4 small bags at this point too.
I have no idea who you are but this integrity deserves credit - just subbed :D
I like how the paper bags are still clear so you can see the pieces inside. Great engineering Lego!
I buy a decent amount of Lego, not once have I ever seen a paper bag. I genuinely thought I made it up in my head or it was a classic game of telephone and things got muddled on the way.
I don’t mind the bigger plastic bags, I do think that maybe they could switch some of the smaller bags to paper (the ones that hold all the studs). As they are in the bigger bags while shipping it wouldn’t be the end of the world if they got ripped.
For me, the paper bags are actually less sustainable (for the time being) - because while there are some services in Australia that can recycle soft plastics (the old bags), I haven't been able to locate any services that can recycle the hybrid plastic and paper combo of the new bags. So until there is a system that can recycle them, the new bags go in the trash while the old ones could be recycled*
*Although you can't recycle them in your usual bins, I have to get them specially collected.
I've just started seeing the paper bags in the last ~6 months
2:43 wow, those might be collectors items 😉
Excellent Video and very fair and balanced too 🙂
I am in Europe. I got the "Barad-dûr" with PAPER bags!
Plastic inside, paper ourside... The only 'thing' what it does, you can throw out lego pieces accidentally, because you can't see inside it properly... They have a strange lip at the bottom of the bag unlike the plastic ones, to make it even easier to lose pieces.
Can confirm. My brand new Endurance set is all plastic bags. Except the one holding the textile sails and flag.
I didn't even get a fancy pull off top box. It as just another generic taped end box.
I'm disappointed in the packaging but the set is a cool build so far. (Still building.)
Those actual paper bags at the bottom were comedy gold
This was great video Jang, thanks for bringing focus on this issue
A 4 year transition??? Are you kidding me?? How long is it going to take for North America to get these paper bags?? Lego is very late, in my view! Plastic is the 20th century ultimate discovery, and look what happened! Our environment, our oceans are filled up with plastics that never should have ended up there! It's time, Lego!
When I was building the endurance I joked on my snap chat story that the only paper bags I saw were for the sails lol