Category: Miscellaneous

Rare $70 Commemorative LEGO Istana Set from 150th Anniversary Open-House, Reselling Online for Over $100

Just as April was ending, we reported on a most uncommon limited edition LEGO set in Singapore. A LEGO build of the Istana presidential palace was commissioned by the country’s president to celebrate the complex’s 150th anniversary. The set was launched at Istana’s open-house this May 1, with its limited numbers snapped up by collectors.

Visitors to the Singapore Istana this Wednesday could avail of the LEGO-brick version by donating $70 to the President’s Challenge community outreach. But there were only 500 sets prepared, in small plastic bags with inserted building instructions. They were gone in two hours. That’s that.

Or at least, that’s how it should’ve been as a one-day special tie-in. But some of those who bought the LEGO Istana mini-set were simply interested in reselling them online.  Several listings of the special-edition set on eBay and Carousell have mind-boggling prizes of $100-300.

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There have been attempts by other LEGO fans to simply replicate the official Istana build on their own. Builders on Facebook such as Artisan Bricks and the SG AFOL Brick Marketplace have put forth their interpretations of Singapore’s presidential residence. In case of the latter, they’ve sold complete sets of their version for S$42, lesser than the official set price. Their sets used bricks sourced from Bricklink and Brickfinder; they sold out quite fast too.

As expected, the design for the limited-edition LEGO Istana commissioned by the Office of Singapore President Halimah Yacob was developed by a LEGO Certified Professional. In her speech during the set’s unveiling this May 1 she said, “The Istana is an iconic landmark in Singapore, having been an important part of our history and national identity. I hope Singaporeans will appreciate this special and unique keepsake, and through it, look back to our journey together as a nation with pride.”

New LEGO Office Campus in Billund, Opening 2020, to Feature Giant LEGO Brick

As everyone who reads LEGO news knows, Billund in Denmark is LEGO-topia. The corporate town is the heart of the global toy brand, with related tourist attractions (LEGOLAND and LEGO House) alongside the headquarters and offices of The LEGO Group. It’s also, like other communities, a work in constant progress.

By that we mean that LEGO is currently overseeing the construction of a new office campus for their Billund workforce. They also seem to be following the convention of major companies with their new campuses, like Apple, in making sure the structure and facilities have a theme tying things together.

Senior LEGO Model Designer Mark Stafford cheekily shared details on the décor for the new LEGO Billund campus. On his Twitter page he posted the image of a truck hauling what appears to be a massive yellow 1×4 LEGO brick. However it might be installed on the buildings, set to open 2020, it’ll catch many eyes.

It’s just like The LEGO Group to design their workplaces to be fun tourist attractions themselves. The most recent place where they’ve done this is with their new Middle East offices in Dubai. Opened just this February, the place looks like a museum-playground, a place to work and have fun.

Toys R Us Returning to US in Smaller Sizes According to Licensing Company TRU Kids

The rise and fall of Toys R Us as a US toy retailer was big news a year ago. Following some hiccups and hurdles, the reorganized TRU Kids licensing company is ready to re-launch TRU stateside again. But those who remember the massive Toys R US of the past might be surprised at the changes.

In a move of supreme confidence, TRU Kids announced their intentions to open several Toys R Us stores in the US before the Holidays. But citing the evolution of toy retail from their heyday, the company’s looking to dial down in terms of store size.

Where former TRU stores ranged in floor area between 20,000 to 50,000 square feet, the new ones that TRU Kids plan to open will only be around 10,000 by comparison. This decision was in response to the perceived decline in warehouse-style retail stores these days.

TRU Kids CEO Richard Barry noted the scaled-down nature of the company that was once a toy retail giant. He compares their present organization to a “startup firm.” That explains their earlier move in making the Geoffrey’s Toy Box store-within-a-store announced in October 2018. These Toy Boxes opened in 600 Kroger stores across the country.

Further details about the US return of Toys R Us will have to wait until June to be announced, according to TRU Kids. Analysts believe the very first new stores might be opened in New Jersey and Long Island, not far from the company’s headquarters.

Shanghai Police Raid Factories and Warehouses of Notorious Chinese LEGO Knockoff Lepin

Ask any knowledgeable LEGO collector what the global brand’s most notorious copycat might be, and one of the top answers would be Lepin of China. This brand in particular was a priority target of The LEGO Group in establishing their presence in a major Asian market. Already a major lawsuit has ended in victory for LEGO, cancelling Lepin trademarks in China and also the UK.

But the climax of this LEGO-Lepin struggle in China took place just last week. Police in Shanghai launched a raid on Lepin factories and warehouses in the city. Several people, including Lepin’s boss, were arrested.

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The Shanghai Police related the events on their official page on Chinese social network Weibo. They posted a lot of photos too. Images consist of dingy warehouses with dusty Lepin boxes, crates of unattached minifigure heads and more. As stated, the head of Lepin, known only by his surname Li, was arrested with three others.

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With assistance from police departments in Shantou and Shenzhen, Shanghai law enforcement uncovered 10 Lepin production lines, 90 brick molds, 630,000 finished Lepin sets, and 200,000 instruction sheets. The local authorities calculate the boxed Lepin sets to be worth 200 million Yuan/$30 million if they ever got successfully shipped out.

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Lepin had not only been aping official LEGO sets these past years, they also are notorious for taking online-posted fan MOCs and turning them into their own “official” products. But with the Shanghai production raid, the nails are now getting hammered into Lepin’s figurative coffin. This great LEGO copycat could eventually become a sad memory.

LEGO Targets Visually-Impaired Children With In-Development “Braille Bricks” Set

As many of our past articles can attest, LEGO’s an old hand at designing toys and play experiences that are not only fun and educational, but also accessible. One of their current projects has been developing a product that can be used by visually impaired people. The results are inspiring.

LEGO released a press statement on Wednesday, April 24, where they announced LEGO Braille Bricks to the public. The first physical units of the new product was then unveiled in Paris at the Sustainable Brands Conference. Braille Bricks was a collaborative effort by The LEGO Group, LEGO Foundation and various associations for the blind worldwide.

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As seen in the images LEGO shared, the Braille Bricks are LEGO bricks that have only a set number of pegs on top, arranged in the dot format of the braille alphabet for the blind. As braille letters and numerals occupy only two columns and three rows max, a regular 4×2 LEGO brick turned into a Braille Brick can have the braille symbol and the letter equivalent in one piece.

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LEGO’s push for Braille Bricks is in response to the perceived increasing dependence of blind people and instructors on audio media. By injecting LEGO-style fun into the braille learning experience, visually impaired children and grown-ups can once again help popularize this long-running blind communication medium.

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The LEGO Braille Bricks sets, comprising multicolored braille bricks and placemats, are currently being tested in several institutes for the blind in Europe. The actual production version of this product isn’t expected to hit theaters until 2020. Even then, only select blind educational institutions who partner with LEGO might get Braille Bricks for their students.

Check Out These LEGO Storage Brick-Boxes Available on Amazon

The interlocking-brick system that defines the LEGO toy brand and its products have also proven itself a popular design aesthetic. Independent designers have made furniture that is “compatible” with LEGO bricks, or brick-shaped Halloween costumes. There has also been licensed decorative merchandise such as large stud-shaped wall hangers on Amazon. Speaking of Amazon, some more LEGO-themed products have been found listed on their platform. The LEGO storage brick-boxes are good for keeping little things organized. They come in either a box form, with an enclosing top lid shaped like a brick’s pegs, or drawer form with drawers coming out of one side.

Amazon’s LEGO Storage Brick-Boxes listings also include variations in color and shape. They’ve got primary colors as well as different shades. Box shapes consist of slim 1×2 bricks right up to the big 2×4. The boxes are also stackable like the LEGO image they invoke.

We have here a sampling of the LEGO Storage Brick-Boxes found on Amazon. Listed below are some notable items:

As it seems, some of these items are now on discount at Amazon, so you might want to consider getting them fast.

LEGO Fans Petition Company to Make a Set (Possibly Architecture Line) for Recently-Burned Notre Dame de Paris

It has been a calamitous Holy Week in Paris after the world-famous cathedral called the Notre Dame suddenly caught fire. It had been in the middle of a renovation. Now instead, the wooden roof and spire have been destroyed. The interior, while mostly saved, still took some significant fire damage.

Even as the French President, along with the country’s biggest business moguls and other world leaders have pledged support to finance a restoration of Notre Dame de Paris, the LEGO building community has decided to make their voices heard too. And they’re sounding their idea right to the company itself.

On the LEGO Reddit, redditor syneptico has proposed that The LEGO Group design and release a LEGO set of the Notre Dame cathedral. It could be of the Architecture line, and part of the proceeds from selling this hypothetical set could then be donated to the Notre Dame rebuilding efforts.

This post, only one day old, has gotten a 91% upvote on Reddit, plus over 300 comments. Some of these even offer their own ideas on how LEGO might conceptualize a Notre Dame set. How about, asks one, a set the size of the LEGO Creator Expert Taj Mahal (10256)?

On the other hand there are certain hurdles to overcome before a LEGO Notre Dame set is realized. First, The LEGO Group tends to shy from creating models of real-life religious buildings. Second, they surely already have a full design and production log. By the time the set is finalized and mass-produced, the restoration of the actual Notre Dame de Paris could be halfway done.

While there’s no official LEGO Notre Dame set (it was even excluded from the skyline of the new Architecture Paris [21044]), the Paris LEGO Store does have an exhibit of a fairly large Notre Dame build. Parisian LEGO fans are likely to visit it more often following what happened to the real one days ago.

LEGO Welcomes Master MOC-Making AFOL Carter Baldwin as New Product Designer

It seems the LEGO Group is just getting warmed up when it comes to recruiting new talent from its fandom. Last February they extended a company job invite to “Powerpig” aka Chris McVeigh. He’s now in Denmark as part of the LEGO Creator Expert and LEGO Architecture product design teams.

Recently another master MO-Creator with a prominent online presence has been given the opportunity to be an “ascended fan.” The AFOL in question is Carter Baldwin, who showcases his sweet MOCs on Flickr. His creations range in theme from military tech, to fantasy figures, to a scary rendition of the Xenomorph Alien Queen from “Aliens.”

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As reported by our fellow LEGO news source The Brick Fan, Baldwin has been hired by The LEGO Group in appreciation for his building skill. He’s now a product designer for an unspecified LEGO line in Denmark, very much like Chris McVeigh months before him.

Seeing as he’s working for LEGO in an official capacity now, he’s going to be silent about his upcoming projects. Nevertheless his Flickr account looks like it’ll be staying up. That way we can keep on admiring his past MOC work and have a reference for the kind of output he’ll eventually provide for LEGO.

Large-Sized Decorative LEGO Stud Wall Hangers Available on Amazon

LEGO has taken many of its familiar building elements and turned them into cool accessories. We’ve seen minifigure key-chains before. This one’s merely taking another kind of LEGO element and giving it a practical function. But first, it needs to get bigger; as in big enough to carry a weight.

Take a LEGO stud, the sort used as either a jewelry decoration for brick builds, or as ammo for stud-shooters. Now enlarge them and add a universal mount on the back, and you’ve got a LEGO-themed wall hanger. Yes, these are official LEGO accessory products, aged 3+ and numbered 4016.

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Interestingly, these LEGO Stud Wall Hangers (4016) aren’t listed on LEGO Shop@Home. Rather, they can be found on Amazon. The hangers come in three variant packages, each with three stud hangers in varying sizes (S, M & L). Variant 1 comes in Red, Blue and Yellow. Variant 2 has White, Black and Grey. Lastly, variant 3 contains wall hangers in White, Pink and Light Blue colors.

Each box of LEGO Stud Wall Hangers (4016), regardless of colors, is priced at $9.99 on Amazon. This would be just the right aesthetics for a LEGO fan’s room. Hopefully the universal mount hooks used to attach these hangers to the wall are sturdy enough.

UK Superbrands Index Again Names LEGO as British Consumers’ Favorite Brand

Just over a year ago, The LEGO Group proved its brand image to be stronger that their then-ongoing revenue difficulties. An annual survey of UK consumers attested to the industry research institute Superbrands that LEGO is their most favorite brand. This 2019, LEGO made that top ranking into a streak.

Likely because of their remarkable 2018 recovery from their dismal 2017 financial standing, LEGO managed to remain Number 1 in the British Superbrands index. That means many of the 2,000 UK consumer-respondents named the Danish toy giant their favored brand from a pool of 1,500. Criteria for their selections depended on quality, reliability and distinction.

British Airways, the UK airline that LEGO displaced a year before, has since fallen to fifth place. Its own performance somehow couldn’t hold a candle to the 4% global revenue and profit growths that The LEGO Group enjoyed last year.

Part of LEGO’s success has been its ability to draw in licensed IPs from various and often competing franchises. Under LEGO’s umbrella they get turned into fun construction sets and minifigures that are sought after by kids and AFOLs alike.

If you’re curious, here are the Top 10 Superbrands Index entries. Compare from 2018.

  1. Lego
  2. Apple
  3. Gillette
  4. Rolex
  5. British Airways
  6. Coca-Cola
  7. Andrex
  8. Mastercard
  9. Visa
  10. Dyson