A father has called on Lego to “do better” after the manager of one of its biggest stores refused to print a custom figure with a yellow hostage ribbon.
Shai David, a professor at Columbia University, was allegedly told when he visited the Manhattan store with his eight-year-old son that the tape was a “political” issue.
While designing a minifigure to match his appearance, including a black t-shirt with a yellow hostage ribbon and the slogan “Bring Them Home” on the back, the store manager intervened.
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“Hostages is a political issue,” the manager said, adding that company policy prohibits political content. Davyday objected that hostages are a humanitarian problem. “I was shocked,” he said, adding that the exchange happened in front of his young son.
David said: “You create your minifigures and while you’re waiting for them to be printed, you choose things like what legs you want them to have and all the cool stuff about Lego.
“While we were doing that, the manager came up to me—he must have recognized me because I looked like the figurine I had made—and said I couldn’t get what I had chosen.”
The manager gave Davidai two options: change the design of the figurine or accept a refund. David reluctantly chose the latter, feeling “surprised, hurt and depressed” by the experience.
At the checkout, he challenged the manager, saying: “This is unacceptable – there are children hostages who would be free to play Lego.” According to David, the manager replied, “I think you know it’s (a political issue).”
Daviday later shared the encounter at the Fifth Avenue store on social media, where it sparked responses from others who have successfully created similar figures at Lego stores in Germany and Israel. In the Israeli store, in particular, yellow hostage tapes and Lego figures are prominently displayed.
“This may mean that the manager in New York made an independent decision and that it does not conflict with company policy,” Davidi said. “But anyway, I don’t want people to protest Lego, I just want Lego to do better.”
Repeat requests from Jewish news attempts to get a comment from Lego and to explain their policy both in the US and here in the UK have gone unanswered.
