In this article, it says:
[The Gold Brick is] literally made from 14-karat gold
As anyone who has held gold before knows, it is heavy. Therefore, what is the weight of this brick?
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6More importantly, does it physically connect with other bricks ?– CriggieJun 11 at 23:59
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2@Criggie yup, I believe it does as it contains the same indents and extrusions of a 'normal' LEGO brick!– taylor.2317Jun 12 at 17:36
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2 Answers
25.65g (0.8246 troy oz)
14k Solid Gold LEGO Employee Brick 2x4 Brick in Display Box
This brick is 25.65g of 14K gold (0.8246 troy oz). The brick is the same size and shape as the original 2x4 LEGO brick.
This incedibly rare piece was given to LEGO employees that had 25 years of employment at the Hohenwestedt, Germany factory and was also given to couple of very special business partners of LEGO of the time. It was only given out from about 1979-1981, only one or 2 per year from my understanding.
This amazing brick comes in its original display box which features the LEGO logo of the time that it was given out. The box itself is plastic and has a minor amount of storage wear on it.
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1Good find! Looks like some of the "median density" assumptions in my mathy answer were quite a bit off. Jun 11 at 12:05
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1... Follow up question: Does this fit with standard bricks? I know that regular bricks have to flex just a bit in order to fit and hold on properly. A brick made of gold (or any other metal) would be more rigid, and possibly not have enough flex to fit? I guess since one brick is still plastic it might work. The real test is if 2 gold bricks would fit with each other as well as standard plastic... Jun 12 at 13:39
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3@DarrelHoffman - Lego have made a bunch of metal bricks over the years. They all fit the plastic blocks– ValorumJun 12 at 14:00
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1@Valorum Yeah, I kind of reasoned myself into that conclusion, but it's whether the metal ones fit with other metal ones that'd be the harder challenge... Jun 12 at 14:03
According to this Quora post, the volume of ABS in a standard 2x4 brick is 2.4824 cubic centimeters, which is 34.13g of 14k gold (assuming this brick is the same as standard mold).
Copied math from Quora in case link dies:
According to BrickLink, a 2x4 LEGO brick is about 2.32g. And the median density of ABS plastic (which is what most LEGO is made out of) is around 1.07 g/cm^3. That would put the volume of plastic in a LEGO element around roughly 2.4824 cubic centimeters.
2.4824 * 13.75 g/cm^3 (avg density of 14k gold) = 34.13g.
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5It wouldn't surprise me if the walls of the gold brick are thicker, like the older bricks. Jun 11 at 2:36
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@Valorum, I wouldn't say it is incorrect. Upon closer inspection it is clear that LEGO didn't use exactly the same mould to produce this gold brick they use for platic bricks. One obvious thing - absence of LEGO logo on studs. This means alternative production means were utilised here. And if I'm reading correct gold shrinks when cooled down - which means final brick will be smaller than the mould. Taking these both statements into account could explain the discrepancy.– AlexJun 11 at 12:49
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13@Alex - It's a great answer to a slightly different question (e.g. "How much would a standard lego brick weigh if it was cast in 14k gold")– ValorumJun 11 at 13:04
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7Note also that the "standard" lego brick has changed over the decades. This one would be standard for today, but not necessarily for the 1970s– ValorumJun 11 at 13:06