If any location in the Middle East could be considered the center of the LEGO experience in that region, it would have to be the city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). There’s a LEGOLAND Resort there for starters, and it’s the market that recorded the highest sales for the now-retired LEGO Architecture Burj Khalifa (21031) set, as the actual building’s located in the city itself after all.
Even recently, Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority used LEGO bricks to both send a public message and earn a Guinness World Record. Now, to top all of Dubai’s LEGO-centrism, the company itself just opened a new Middle East office there.
UAE newspaper The National reports that The LEGO Group celebrated the launch of their new Middle East office, located at the Dubai Design District, on Thursday, February 14. LEGO GM – Middle East and Africa Jeroen Beijer remarked on the establishment of a Dubai-based LEGO office by describing the city as being very international, and thus a natural place to establish a presence for local partners.
The opening of the LEGO Dubai office certainly drew the presence of the local LEGO-building community, from child fans to AFOLs. The obvious attractions are the usual trappings of any LEGO Group-related workplace: the hundreds upon hundreds of brick constructions decorating halls, desktops and walls.
Fully-assembled official numbered sets and impressive MOCs were everywhere, and the occasion was also graced by the appearance of minifigure mascots of the “LEGO Movie” lead stars Emmet and Wyldstyle.
Dubai AFOLs were undoubtedly pleased at The LEGO Group setting up shop in the city as it could only mean bigger things for the brand’s future direction in the Middle East. In the words of local AFOL Manohar Raju, aged 47, LEGO in Dubai is potentially a better investment than gold, as collecting costs for the brand in the UAE is said to be bigger than other LEGO world markets.
