Lego changes rules to calm row over Ai Weiwei brick order

Lego has dropped restrictions on bulk orders of its toy bricks after facing a storm of criticism for refusing to sell thousands of them to dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei.

Ai, known for his criticism of China’s rights record, had accused the Danish toymaker of censorship in October for declining an order that he wanted for a new work.

The free speech campaigner published a photo of himself with Lego bricks hanging off his hair, moustache and beard on his Instagram and Facebook accounts on Wednesday after the rule change.

It was not immediately clear if he would now repeat his order and press on with his Lego project, though he has used the multicoloured building blocks before to build portraits of other dissidents, including Nelson Mandela.

Lego had said in October it had a long-running policy of not fulfilling bulk orders or donating bricks if they knew they would be used as part of a “political agenda”.

But the decision was condemned by rights groups and triggered an online campaign collecting donations of bricks for the artist.

Lego said in a statement on Tuesday it would stop asking people why they wanted its bricks.

It did not refer directly to Ai’s order, but acknowledged that the rules “could result in misunderstandings or be perceived as inconsistent”.

Customers wanting to build public displays out of Lego bricks would now only have to make it clear that the company did not endorse the project, it added.

Chinese authorities confiscated Ai’s passport in 2011 and detained him for 81 days, only returning the document in July last year.

Owned by the founding family Lego is the world’s largest toymaker by sales having recently overtaken US Barbie-maker Mattel and Monopoly-board maker Hasbro.