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I came across this image of the "LEGO Stack Overflow Hat" which is a hat made out of LEGO.

Picture of the "LEGO Stack Overflow Hat"

The individual who made the hat asserted, "it's 100% LEGO," but if you look closely at the hat, you'll see there are plates on it which do not have the word LEGO on them.

Detail of the left edge of the hat above the brim

Since it is ostensibly 100% LEGO, what LEGO plates have studs without the LEGO logo on them?

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    Also, I can't tell from your tone: Are you asking more towards if the build was truly 100% LEGO, or are you really just curious if there are any LEGO parts that have smooth studs? Dec 30, 2017 at 7:43
  • I see the word LEGO on the one on the left...
    – MCMastery
    Dec 30, 2017 at 18:57
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    One way to tell it's the image's fault: The 2x2 plate in the bottom left-hand corner appears to say "LEGO" on 3 out of 4 studs. Jan 1, 2018 at 1:43

3 Answers 3

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There are no LEGO parts with studs that have no logo on them. The hollow versions of studs which are on technic bricks and many other bricks have the Lego logo printed on the insides.

As someone that goes through a lot of used LEGO, I have found that there are some parts that have been worn and the logo is not nearly as visible as it would be brand new. That said, I have never seen any part be worn to wear the logo has been smoothed out. The ABS plastic that TLG uses for normal system parts is quite hard and would really have to take abuse, not just playwear, to get to a point of smoothness on the studs.

In this individual case, if you look closely at any point in the picture, several parts appear to have smooth studs. This appears to be consistent on many of the parts which would certainly not lead the conclusion of wear. Furthermore, even from the relatively grainy photo, the coloration/shine of the smooth studs parts just seems off...

In any case, it's nearly indefinitely false that the hat pictured is 100% made of LEGO parts.

EDIT:

Upon the added pictures from the creator, it would appear I am wrong. While most of what I said still stands true, I underestimated the power of bad lighting! I've seen some photos that distort the look of LEGO, but never to this extent! I stand corrected.

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    I think a lot of it isn't even the bad lighting, but also the compression. JPG smoothes things out, if you zoom in enough and look at the image you kinda see some darker shades where the logo should be. JPG compression just washes it completely out in the places where its already bad to see.
    – Polygnome
    Dec 31, 2017 at 0:54
  • @SlicksterTheBrickster "There are no LEGO parts with studs that have no logo on them" - is there a confirmation of this fact somewhere on the official LEGO page e.g. on a site with lego.com in the domain? I will probably need this for the court. I'm afraid that an answer of a fan on some LEGO fans' page will not be enough. Currently I'm fighting a person who sold me counterfeits claiming that these were original bricks.
    – rychu
    Sep 30, 2019 at 6:12
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What you are seeing is actually the result of poor lighting, somewhat worn bricks, probably camera app noise reduction, and perhaps image compression, although if you look really closely you can kinda see it's a little darker where the lettering is.

As the creator, I promise that every piece in the hat is 100% genuine LEGO pieces (no knockoff brands). Unfortunately, when I took the picture the sun had set, and all I had was some weaker household lighting.

Here's another shot of the front with the face turned towards the lighting, so the lettering will catch some contrast.

Hat Front

The 2x2 plate in the bottom left does have more-pronounced lettering than the older 2x10 plate next to it, which is why you are able to see it better in the other picture.


To answer the question of are there plates that don't have "LEGO" stamped on the stud, no there are not to my knowledge. Even the very first LEGO plates have the stamp. Some special plates do have hollow studs though.

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    Wow, I really didn't think the question's image could be so assuringly wrong! I will edit my answer so it does not quite call you out, per se, but most of what I said still upholds. Dec 30, 2017 at 7:40
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    Looking at the original picture, I'd guess that the real cause is noise reduction software within your camera. In low light most digital cameras make a lot of noise and in-camera processing tries to hide this noise by blending pixels near each other (basically the camera software guesses that if noise filled image contains pixels that are close to each other they should be identical in reality). Most cameras do not have this heavy noise reduction by default but if the owner of the camera has opted for full noise reduction you may get results like this. Dec 30, 2017 at 13:58
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    Here you can see that the LEGO logo is 'missing' from the studon the bottom-right of the 2x2 tile as well. I think this supports the explanation given by Mikko Rantalainen
    – Ambo100
    Dec 30, 2017 at 14:09
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    Jumper holding it from behind between the 1st and 2nd stud from the left? Dec 30, 2017 at 18:22
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    @Angew Yep! The second one up is also held by a jumper on the far right. Dec 30, 2017 at 19:30
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There are a (very) few official LEGO elements that don't have the logo stamped on the studs. the new 1x1 dots for example, have a hole through the center, and as a result don't have the logo. In a similar vein, there are a few window frames that had similar indented studs that have no logo.

An overwhelming majority of LEGO parts have the LEGO logo stamped somewhere on the piece though, often in some unobtrusive spot. While there are elements that have no official branding on them at all, they are rare.

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