by Sarah Herman
The Emerald Night, designed with the input of LEGO Train fans, was the first to incorporate the new Power Functions technology. © Paul Tichonczuk
DUPLO
When DUPLO first came out in the 1970s, there were far less toys marketed toward tiny hands. Rattles, stacking toys, and the contents of the kitchen had long kept baby occupied. The interconnecting relationship between DUPLO and LEGO bricks was unprecedented in the industry—finally, a toy existed that children of all ages could really play together. DUPLO suffered a little from constant rebranding throughout the 1980s and 1990s, as it attempted to compete with the growing sector of infant play. One positive move in 2001, which was clearly in the interest of the DUPLO range, was the licensing of popular BBC animated children’s program Bob the Builder. With the show’s construction theme, its characters were a perfect fit for DUPLO and the toys proved just that by winning industry awards and placing in the British Toy and Hobby Association’s Top 50 Toys for 2001. Shockingly, despite years of brand recognition, in 2002 all the infant toys produced by TLG were branded with the name “LEGO Explore,” with different color-coded packaging highlighting the different age recommendations for the products. As the LEGO Group fought to get its house in order, “Explore” didn’t make the cut and was phased out after less than two years. The year 2004 saw the re-emergence of the DUPLO and Baby brands, and the introduction of LEGO QUATRO. The dimensions of QUATRO bricks were two times larger than DUPLO bricks and two times smaller than the large Baby stacking cubes, serving as a bridge between the two. The original DUPLO rabbit was given a facelift while the elephant logo was taken over by QUATRO, and Baby products featured a new teddy bear logo instead. Since 2005 the LEGO Group has moved away from products suitable for babies. Although some of its licensed products and DUPLO toys are recommended for ages as young as eighteen months old, there have not been any new Baby or QUATRO releases since 2006. Other than Bob the Builder, which ran between 2001–2009, new licenses taken on for the infant market included Little Robots (2003), Dora the Explorer (2004), Ferrari (2004), Thomas & Friends (2005–2009), and Disney Pixar’s Toy Story (2010) and Cars (2010).
Over its eight-year life as a DUPLO licensed toy, there were twenty-eight Bob the Builder sets made, many of which included this DUPLO Bob figure. © Kent Quon
The majority of non-licensed DUPLO were marketed as part of the “LEGO Ville” range, and varied almost as much as their LEGO Town/City counterparts with construction sites, fire trucks, horse stables, zoos, and police stations, some of which were available with light and sound components. The LEGO Group also marketed some basic “Easy to Build” sets under its “Preschool” products which were composed of regular LEGO bricks.
4+
When Jack Stone failed to capture the imagination of LEGO builders, it was replaced swiftly by a new line called 4 Juniors. A kid-friendly, bright yellow logo featured on the boxes of the new sets, but in every other way they looked the same as the LEGO City sets, which targeted the 5+ age group. The new designs, such as 2003’s Police Motorcycle (4651) and Dump Truck (4653), were toned down, and more realistic in comparison with the Jack Stone sets. They included the same action-figure types, with the Jack Stone figure also appearing, despite his name not being mentioned. The LEGO Group’s set selections seemed more cohesive with the City toys, and they included two building sets in 2003—a garage called Quick Fix Station (4655) and a fire house (4657). The structures in each, while still made primarily of larger pieces, were aesthetically superior to the Jack Stone sets, but still required significantly less construction than the regular sets.
The following year, 4 Juniors was rebranded as 4+ with the release of a police car and boat, digger, and crane. More significant, however, were the new 4+ Pirates sets. LEGO Pirates, one of the most iconic themes, was treated to some Jack Stone–style swashbucklers complete with eye patches, hooks, and peg legs. The emergence of the Pirates meant parents could buy another LEGO theme for their younger children that provided new characters and imaginative play. Given that there had been no new LEGO Pirates sets since 1997, some fans were disappointed by these 2004 sets. The larger scale aside, the sets provided minimum construction value and included lots of large pieces only suitable for small children, which some felt went against the company’s core principles. That same year, the 4+ brand featured in the licensed Spider-Man 2 range with two sets targeting younger fans. These were Doc Ock’s Crime Spree (4858) and Doc Ock’s Café Attack (4860). Some fans felt the LEGO Group was underestimating young builders with the simplicity of the sets and that the minifigure scale with its distinctive, interchangeable figures had more charm and appeal than the larger 4+ style of building. While parents may have welcomed the diversity of the 4+ range, the fans did not, and by 2005, 4+ was no more.
Technic
To maximize Technic sales, and perhaps to introduce even more fans to the range, the newly acquired Star Wars license resulted in a Droid Developer Kit for the MINDSTORMS robotics line, and then Technic Star Wars toys such as 2000’s Battle Droid (8001) and Destroyer Droid (8002). By 2001, with the release of the first BIONICLE toys, the landscape for Technic had become very confused. With products ranging from expert building sets and licensed builds to story-based characters, competitive action toys, and even pump-start racing cars, it was no longer clear where LEGO toys left off and Technic toys began. The spin-off brand that had initially been an expert version of traditional LEGO bricks had lost its identity.
Decisions were made to cut BIONICLE loose from the Technic name, end the Slizer and RoboRiders themes, produce no more Technic Star Wars, and rebrand racing car toys as LEGO Racers (although they were made almost entirely from Technic parts). This dramatic action meant only three “Technic” sets appeared on shelves in 2002—a helicopter (8429), a motorbike (8430), and a crane truck (8431)—not far from the toy lineup that had started it all in 1977.
For the next eight years, Technic remained true to the fundamental vehicle-building ideals that made it such a success story for TLG in the first place. When designing a Technic toy, LEGO employees have three guiding principles they build by: “authenticity” (creating a model that replicates a full-scale version so that children can easily identify it and understand its purpose), “functionality” (defining the key functions of the model and how to achieve them), and “challenging building” (utilizing the many and varied LEGO parts to create a model to challenge older kids). Steadily, each year, the number of new Technic sets continued to rise with new designs for old ideas, providing building fans with new challenges, such as 2005’s Mobile Crane (8421) and 2006’s Tow Truck (8285). In 2007 Technic became one of the first lines to incorporate the Power Functions RC motor system, an integral part of popular recent releases such as Motorised Bulldozer (8275). While recent Technic products are fundamentally the same as the original 1977 creations, the impact Technic-style building and parts has had on TLG is far-reaching. Not only did BIONICLE go on to be one of the LEGO Group’s most successful product lines, but other non-Technic themes now incorporate the impressive array of beams and connectors that over thirty years of Technic products have helped to create.
2009’s Mini Bulldozer (8259) was a small Technic set suitable for introducing younger builders to the Technic system. © Ben Pillen
This close-up of 2008’s Cherry Picker (8292) set shows how far Technic designers go to create realistic models of real-life vehicles. © Hamid (Katanaz)
Advanced Building
A more accurate style of building is something AFOLs wanted to see LEGO toys return to when they were surveyed in 2006. It was clear fans wanted more everyday buildings such as houses, shops, and offices in minifigure scale with greater architectural details. And thus the Modular House series was born. The first was the charming Café Corner (10182); with a recommended building age of 16+ this was truly a design for the grown-ups. Using many building techniques usually associated with fan building, designers even consulted with fans after prototypes were produced, using t
heir input to improve the design.
The Market Street set (10190) released the same year was actually designed by LEGO fans using the Modular House theme on the LEGO Factory service launched by LEGO in 2005. LEGO Factory, now called LEGO Design byME, enabled fans to use LEGO program Digital Designer to invent and purchase their own LEGO designs (see below for more on Design byME). Market Street, created by Dutch AFOL Eric Brok, was aimed at children ten and older, inviting younger LEGO fans to use the online design tools to create their own modular floors, and at a lower price point than Café Corner, encouraging more people to consider buying other Modular House sets.
With the majority of these sets including more than 2,000 pieces, the announcement of any future releases is based on the success of the previous designs. And while many fans may have marveled at the modular green grocer (10185), fire house (10197), and 2010’s Grand Emporium (10211), they’re not an affordable toy for most families. The designers are restricted, too, only able to build using colors and pieces already in production at LEGO factories (so as not to result in any added costs for these fairly exclusive sets). In spite of their cost, however, the sets have been a hit with older builders who eagerly anticipate news of the next set in the series.
From left to right, the Modular houses pictured are Market Street (10190), Fire Brigade (10197), Green Grocer (10185), and Café Corner (10182). © Ben Pillen
Model Team and the Modular houses are not the only LEGO ranges to have encouraged accurate building and invite flexibility and creativity from fans. From 2001 the name “Creator” had been the theme name for the LEGO Group’s range of imaginative building sets for four- to nine-year-olds. The green and yellow branding was on both tubs of assorted bricks as well as sets such as Max Goes Flying (4174) and Tina’s House (4172)—the names refer to Jack Stone–type minifigures that were originally included with the bricks. These sets featured a wide range of bricks and parts that could be used to build the cars, houses, and animals on the boxes as well as a host of alternative ideas suggested inside the instruction manual. Creator, while mainly targeting younger children, had wide appeal because of the variety of parts available. The alternative building ideas gave parents a value-for-money option to choose from the LEGO catalog.
In 2003, the LEGO Group rebranded these creative toys, and introduced two new lines under the name Make & Create: “Designer” and “Inventor.” While the Creator name was mainly used for tubs of bricks, Designer sets covered creative building with robot sets (4097, 4099), wheels and wings (4100, 4098), and animals (4101), and the four Inventor sets released in 2003 encouraged builders to construct models capable of motion—an ideal starter set for a future MINDSTORMS fan. In 2004 X-Pods were added to the collection—miniature packets of smaller pieces sold in a circular pod. As the themed System sets were identified by their blue packaging, so were these Make & Create sets recognized by their bright yellow packaging, and their unique recommended age guidelines—while some sets were targeted at 6+ or 7+, many simply stated “6–99” emphasizing the ageless appeal of building with LEGO bricks.
The Make & Create line was re-branded back to Creator in 2006 complete with a new packaging style that better emphasized the multi-building capabilities of each set. For example, Prehistoric Power (4892) proudly displayed all eight models that could be built using the parts and instructions inside the box. Despite not being able to build and display all eight models at the same time, the new “8 in 1” or “3 in 1” box announcements increased the toys’ appeal. In 2007 the Creator sets shrunk down and super-size with small capsule sets appropriately titled Mini Animals (4916) and Mini Robots (4917) and the larger sets called Model Town House (4954) and the Power Functions–enabled Ferris Wheel (4957) that could also be rebuilt as a working drawbridge or crane.
Since 2008, there has also been the addition for advanced builders of the LEGO Architecture sets. Initially, a series of miniature models of famous tower landmarks, including the Seattle Space Needle (21003) and Hancock Tower (21001) were released. Measuring between 7.5 and 9 inches, each set was built from less than eighty pieces, creating a sleek model ideal for display. The year 2009 and 2010 saw the release of larger, more detailed models of more complex structures such as Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater (21005), New York’s Guggenheim Museum (21004), and even the White House (21006).
More recent Creator models such as the beautifully designed contemporary buildings Family Home (6754) and Apple Tree House (5891), as well as vehicle sets Highway Transport (6753) and Fire Rescue (6752), may not have the strong theme identity, accessories, or character playability of minifigure sets, but have proven themselves to be an innovative and versatile addition to the product line. With Fire Rescue, builders are not just getting an impressive fire truck, but also a fire rescue helicopter and an off-road vehicle, depending on what they feel like building. Creator sets are especially popular around Christmas, Halloween, and Valentine’s Day when limited-edition small sets are released to build decorations such as snowmen (30008), pumpkins (40012), and love hearts (40004). (The LEGO Group found another clever way to get involved with the festive season by producing Advent Calendars in various LEGO themes—each day revealed a small LEGO build or minifigure!) Creator has taken a simple tub of bricks, combined it with the visual accuracy of Model Team, and developed it into sets that offer fantasy and realism for LEGO builders of all ages.
Licensed to Build: LEGO’s Licensed Themes
Original LEGO toys gave children the literal building blocks of creative play. Even before the minifigure added a dose of personality and regimented scale to Town sets, children had been inventing stories and characters around the buildings and vehicles of their own LEGO worlds. To compete with the character-driven market of other top-selling toy ranges, however, TLG was forced to adapt throughout the years, mainly by introducing the new type of theme explored earlier, one that revolved around named characters and ongoing storylines presented to fans through comic books, storybooks, and on dedicated websites. This obvious shift, which resulted in themes such as Time Cruisers, Adventurers, and Rock Raiders, made LEGO bricks a more obvious medium with which to produce licensed toys based on existing popular characters and stories. Since 1999, when TLG signed a deal with Lucas Licensing to be the exclusive manufacturer of Star Wars construction toys, it has continued to develop themes based around popular films and television programs with varying degrees of success. Star Wars, in particular, hit the mark as a LEGO product—given the sheer size and buying power of the Star Wars fan base—bringing non-LEGO fans into toy shops to buy this new product so closely associated with the films they loved, whereas other products so closely tied in to new movies or TV, such as LEGO Spider-Man have not had the staying power, disappearing off shelves after the associated movie craze has died down.
The LEGO Group is quite particular about who it works with as licensing partners, and looks for brands that share its values, but ultimately it’s the customer who decides whether a particular brand translates well to the LEGO play experience. Here we take a look at these licensed ranges and explore the success it’s had in capturing existing characters and locales in LEGO bricks.
Star Wars (1999–2011)
“Star Wars is what I would describe as a modern-day fairy tale,” said Jørgen Vig Knudstorp to Business Management magazine in 2009. “It is so iconic in the way it portrays the conflict between good and evil.” A movie franchise that became iconic in the 1970s and early ‘80s, and was then rebooted for a new generation in 1999, was the first property to truly join forces with TLG to bring a new type of play theme to children around the world. There are currently over 200 LEGO Star Wars sets in existence.
By comparison, Lego Space is responsible for nearly 300 sets. It may come as a surprise to some, then, that the first Space sets hit toy shops in 1978, while the first Star Wars sets didn’t emerge until 1999. What began as a clever licensing decision (the first intellectual property license obtained by TLG) to sell a few more LEGO bricks has bec
ome one of the most significant and important decisions in the LEGO Group’s recent history. The Star Wars branding on LEGO boxes in itself was a concern for TLG executives who felt that having the word “Wars” appear next to the LEGO logo would associate the brand with war toys—something the company had strived to avoid despite competitive pressure from the rest of the industry. Even today, TLG executives are still keen to point out that they do not endorse this kind of play. “Today we’re definitely trying to break some barriers in how far we’re willing to go in terms of the characters being evil and having weaponry,” says Knudstorp. “We still have a view that we don’t want to glorify warfare and we don’t make any war toys.”
This Landspeeder (7110) was just one of the 1999 releases that captured a spacecraft from the original Star Wars trilogy. © Hamid (Katanaz)
Luke Skywalker’s Snowspeeder (7130), released in 1999. © Hamid (Katanaz)
In spite of this, the relationship with Lucasfilm (the production company that owns the Star Wars property), strengthened by the more recent acquisition of the Indiana Jones license, began with an exclusive nine-year license to produce construction toys for the entire Star Wars galaxy. In 2006, after seven years of phenomenal success and retail sales of more than $1 billion that license was extended until 2011. The LEGO Group referred to the co-branding as a year-on-year “blockbuster success” and it continues to be one of its biggest sellers, especially in the United States.