Houston we have a problemThere are various reasons but think about this, if they did the base with a big magnet and there were a ton of these boxed up and on a boat or a plane being shipped somewhere, that magnetic strength could be potentially dangerous. Also, the bigger the magnet the more expensive it is to produce them. Also countries, such as Australia, have various laws about magnets inside products such aa these. Large magnets are only really used in industrial equipment.