No LEGO model of a computer chip manufacturing machine for you this Christmas! You get coal, in non-LEGO form!

Dutch-headquartered computer chip manufacturer ASML plainly underestimated how interested the world would be in a LEGO version of its TWINSCAN EXE:5000 machine, which is used to manufacture computer chips and was unveiled earlier this year. It prints super-fine details on chips down to an 8mm size. In non-computer lingo, that's seriously small and seriously impressive. No wonder so many people bought the $228 LEGO kit when it went on sale on December 1.

Problem was, ASML only meant it to be available to its own employees, and it sold out like a golden Taylor Swift ticket. So yesterday, ASML canceled the orders, according to reporting by Tom's Hardware, which itself was sparked by a tweet from user John Masters. For that crossover slice of LEGO fans and computer fans, it's gonna be a sour Christmas.

The kit itself has 851 pieces and measures 13.86 by 3.9 by 2.52 inches when built. ASML took down the product page, but you can check it out on this screenshotted page from December 1 archived by the blessed Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, which screenshots and archives pages from across the web. Only the disclaimer, "Maximum of one set per customer, multiple order from one customer will be canceled," was originally present on the ordering page.

Ostensibly, at some point before the product page's deletion but after the order cancellations for non-employees, ASML added a disclaimer at the bottom of the ordering page, per Tom's Hardware's reporting: "The company even added a note at the bottom of the product description that a valid ASML email is required to purchase the Lego set."

Making sure there are enough LEGO models for employees first and foremost makes sense. We get that. Make sure the folks who toil away creating the chips in real life get the first crack at them. But how about a second run for the non-ASML-employed public? There's clearly plenty of pent-up interest in it.

Everything is advertising. Customer service is advertising, liberal return policies are advertising, and of course, merchandising is advertising. Computer chip manufacturing doesn't exactly hold the same level of product visibility in modeling as race cars and fighter planes, so why not encourage that interest and rare bit of public recognition?

At least the $167, 600-piece TWINSCAN Lego Set is still up for sale on ASML's store website." It started life as a training tool but has now been developed and is available to you as a special edition ASML Lego model," says the product description. "Build, dismantle, and reassemble (even redesign, if you must)." But then, of course, there's also the dreaded disclaimer, "A valid ASML email is required to purchase from this site." Bah, humbug!