Despite the hit song in its movie last year, everything is not awesome for toy-making giant, Lego, which faces a backlash for refusing to share its trademark plastic bricks. Contemporary artist and activist, Ai Weiwei, received a flurry of social media support after criticizing the Lego Group for declining to sell or supply him with a large quantity of bricks, needed for his upcoming exhibition on freedom of expression and political dissidents.

Ai Weiwei Alex B. Huckle | Getty Images News | Getty Images

The "Andy Warhol / Ai Weiwei" exhibition is set to take place in Melbourne, Australia in December.

Ai took to Instagram to vent his annoyance with Lego.

"Lego is an influential cultural and political actor in the globalized economy with questionable values. Lego's refusal to sell its product to the artist is an act of censorship and discrimination," he said over the weekend on the photograph-sharing social media platform.

Lego have since released a statement denying that it "censors, prohibits or bans the creative use" of its bricks, but states that it does "refrain—on a global level—from actively engaging in or endorsing the use of LEGO bricks in projects or contexts of a political agenda."

Lego-owning fans of Ai's work have vied to offer their toy bricks to the artist, which Ai says he will accept. He linked Lego's so-called censorship to the announcement of a new Legoland to be built in Shanghai. This month, Merlin Entertainments formally announced it would open a new Legoland in the Chinese city. Tweet Tweet Tweet Ai is posting images of the crowd-sourced Lego supplies and says that collection points will be announced soon. Due to the "overwhelming public response", Ai says he will create a new work to "defend freedom of speech and 'political art,'" with details of the project to be announced soon.

Tweet This isn't the first time Ai or other artists have used Lego bricks to spark conversation. In 2014, Ai used the bricks to make several mosaic portraits of political protesters to put on display at the former site of Alcatraz Prison off the coast of San Francisco.



Visitors look at Ai Weiwei's 'Trace' installation at the @Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz on September 24, 2014 in San Francisco, California. Justin Sullivan | Getty Images News | Getty Images