LEGO celebrates its 60th birthday of the brick
January 28, 2018
|
7
7
Today, LEGO commemorates 60 years of the brick with festivities around the world to celebrate the iconic plastic brick that we all know and love.
The LEGO Group began producing a plastic brick in 1949, but it was not until nine years later, in 1958, that the LEGO brick we know today was born. It took several years of iterations to find the iconic design, which has not been changed significantly since.
The unique design and the uncompromised focus on quality and safety during the past six decades ensures that two LEGO bricks produced 60 years apart can still fit together.
Here’s a brief rundown of all the worldwide events to commemorate the event.
60th Anniversary Promo Gift With Purchase Set
The most accessible event is the long-awaited release of the special 60th Anniversary Promo set, which contains 4 mini builds of some of the most iconic classic LEGO sets on LEGO.com.
The offer is now live till 14 February (or while stocks last) with purchases of US$125, AU$200 or £100 on LEGO.com. This is quite possibly one of the coolest Gift With Purchase sets and a worthy exclusive to commemorate 60 years of the LEGO Brick.
The set contains 4 mini builds of 375 Castle, 6285 Black Seas Barracuda, 928 Space Cruiser and Moonbase and 6339 Airport Shuttle, some of the most coveted LEGO sets by fans due to their influence and importance in LEGO’s history.
Of course, other than the special packaging, there’s nothing really special about the set – you can get the printed 60th anniversary tile in any of the 60th anniversary LEGO Classic sets.
If you have enough spare LEGO bricks, it should be quite easy to recreate the set. Not sure what happened to the instructions for the 60th Anniversary Promo Set on LEGO’s servers, but thankfully, I saved the instructions when it was available a few weeks back and have reuploaded it here.
You don’t have to purchase LEGO at this point, I suggest waiting till 1 February when the LEGO Ideas Ship in a Bottle is officially released.
Giant 2 x 4 brick in New York City
If you’re lucky to be in New York City, you can head over to the Flatiron District to check out a massive 2 x 4 brick, made out of 133,000 LEGO bricks, weighing 1,200 pounds (544 kg). It’s only going to be there for a day, but you can check out the photos on Instagram, as well as watch this time lapse of the giant brick being built
Walmart-exclusive 60th Anniversary Sets
Americans seem to always get all the good stuff. In the US, Forbes revealed a selection of Walmart-only promo sets which hearken back to the styling of the earliest LEGO sets. Featuring a windmill, house and truck, these sets are delightfully vintage and oh-so-collectible.
Bad luck if you live anywhere else in the world as you’re most likely going to have to import them from a reseller from the USA.
Unfortunately, LEGO Australia confirmed that these won’t be heading Down Under.
Herald Sun feature
In Australia, today’s Herald Sun featured a large spread on LEGO’s history. I don’t read newspapers so I didn’t get my hands on a physical one, but you can always read the online article here on the Herald Sun website. It was a pretty decent read and walk down memory lane.
UK Toy Store Makeover
Lastly, out of the UK, the very first toy store to sell LEGO bricks was given a total makeover to celebrate the 60th Anniversary. Osborne’s Sports & Toys in Rushden, Northamptonshire. The store received a temporary Lego façade measuring nearly 14ft tall and 50ft wide, the new Lego shopfront contains 277,500 Lego bricks and took more than 600 hours to build.
Read the full story here.
So yeah, that’s it for LEGO’s 60th Anniversary! Happy birthday, beloved LEGO brick. Here’s to the next 60 of creativity, fun, and endless possibilities!
