A Tale of Two LEGO Beijing Postcards
As most of you have known that the new LEGO Cities Postcards theme was supposed to launch last month but was unceremoniously removed from the shop@home product listings faster than you can say “lawsuit”.
Both the New York and Beijing postcards disappeared overnight and it was only earlier this month did they re-reveal the same two sets except that the LEGO Beijing postcard was sporting a brand new set number and a couple of missing elements.
The LEGO Beijing Postcard (40654) was reintroduced with four elements less than the initial (40520) which actually constitutes to the Beijing flag a top the Great Wall of China.
Which begs the question, why do all the other country’s postcards have their flags flying high while the one from China is oddly absent?
So we did a bit of digging and now can confirm that the reason for the omission is because the use of the China flag violates article 20 of the national flag law of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
Article 20: The national flag and its patterns shall not be used as trademarks, patented designs, or commercial advertisements, and must not be used in inappropriate circumstances such as private funeral activities.
So, the use of the flag of the PRC is a big no-no and that’s why the set was recalled and relaunched with the corrected mistake. It is an odd law but I guess if LEGO wants to rake in the PRC monies for this set, they have to acquiesce to that rule.
2 responses to “A Tale of Two LEGO Beijing Postcards”
Leave a Reply
Follow our brick-filled adventures
ironically American flag laws also prohibit any reproduction of the American flag in any capacity that isn’t the flag itself. But this is broken by capitalistic greed every July 4th as plates, shirts, skirts, and cars all add the bars and stars in a kind of grotesque lobby to one-up each other by sheer spending power in things that aren’t even aesthetically pleasing.
it’s just flag code, not an actual law. the rest i agree with though.