Here’s what’s inside a box of LEGO Braille Bricks (unboxing and first impressions)

August 26, 2023 | 9

Ahead of the September launch of Braille Bricks, LEGO were kind enough to send over a review copy of 40656 Play with Braille – English Alphabet. I’m privileged to not have any vision impairment, so I didn’t feel comfortable writing a regular review, so instead, I’m going to show you what’s inside the box, and give you a closer look at the LEGO Braille bricks.

I do have another piece of content coming up some time next week where I speak to someone who works with vision-impaired kids and has actual experience with using Braille Bricks, so be sure to check that out for a more informed opinion on LEGO Braille Bricks, and why they’re so important to the vision-impaired community.

In case you missed the news, LEGO recently announced that they would make it’s LEGO Braille Bricks available to the general public, releasing an English and French version on 1 September through LEGO.com.

This is the first time these LEGO Braille sets have been made available to the public, as they were previously donated by The LEGO Foundation to vision organisations and not-for-profits.

They are available to pre-order now.

• 40656 Play with Braille English – US$89.99 / AU$149.99 / £79.49 / €89.99 / CAD$119.99
  • Available in the USA, UK, Republic of Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Canada
• 40655 Play with Braille French – €89.99 / CHF 109 / CAD$119.99
  • Available in France, Canada, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Belgium

The packaging is really well-made and, as expected for a product aimed at the vision-impaired or blind, there are very subtle Braille cells on the packaging.

The illustrations on the front of the box are also tactile, with raised patterns, allowing even more interactivity with the box.

LEGO Braille Bricks come in an uncommon flip-top box, which is sturdier than typical boxes and have the benefit of being able to be re-used for storage of the Braille Bricks after you’re done playing.

Opening it, you’re greeted by a large cardboard sheet with a guide on the Braille Bricks included.

Here’s a look at the Braille Card, which also has Braille Cells on each LEGO Braille Brick, and more information throughout. Even the LEGO Braille Bricks have tactile and raised studs so you can tell them apart, to help navigate and familiarise yourself with these bricks.

They were a little tricky to capture on my camera, but here’s a look at the Braille cells on the card. Even the QR code has Braille cells on it!

Two light bluish gray baseplates are included inside.

The Braille Bricks are packed into 4 unnumbered plastic bags. It was disappointing that these weren’t paper packaging as this would’ve been a pretty good set to include them in given these aren’t likely to be made in significant quantities.

And here’s a look at the Braille Bricks alphabets! Each Braille Brick is a modified 2 x 4 brick, so should feel very familiar in-hand, and the studs on the bricks denote different alphabets and numbers as well.

I read a few comments lamenting the price of the sets, which aren’t exactly cheap at US$89.99 / AU$149.99, but I realised that each of these Braille Bricks are unique elements, so LEGO had to create 38 different moulds for this set.

LEGO Moulds are incredibly expensive, so this likely contributed to the high price, and at the end of the day, it’s incredibly rare for large toy companies to mass-produce sets tailored towards the blind and vision-impaired like this.

LEGO are definitely not looking at these Braille Bricks to be a massive money spinner.

These are really well-made, and at first it did feel a little weird seeing these 2×4 bricks without all the studs on them, but it immediately dawned just how ingenious it is to leverage LEGO’s brick design which translates so well to braille.

I was also very pleased that the “J” brick conveniently passes as my initials. I’ll be using this one for sure.

Also included are these symbol bricks, with commas, full-stops and math symbols allowing you to perform different functions with the bricks.

LEGO has also created free educational resources (by scanning the QR code) and activities where kids can learn Braille, and play with these Bricks.

Additionally, you can access additional activities through legobraillebricks.com/activities which has activities and resources from the initial release of Braille Bricks.

These activities and modules are audio-based and are great fun activities, and they’re incredibly well-made and produced.

Even for those who aren’t blind, these I think can be great educational resources to teach kids Braille, and don’t think of these as just a set for the blind or visually-impaired.,

I must commend LEGO for mass-producing these, and allowing these Bricks to be made available to a wider swath of audiences.

For families with blind or visually-impaired kids, I think this is an incredibly moving statement by LEGO and it really just demonstrates how unique LEGO is as a brand that they would devote considerable resources to a project like this, just to ensure that blind children not miss out on LEGO play.

At its core, I am really glad that this product exists, and why I’m proud that one of the brands I love most will go to lengths like these.

While these Braille Bricks are quite expensive at the outset, I think the opportunity to offer blind children and families the gift of LEGO play, and to be recognised in this manner is a small price to pay.

I’m glad these LEGO Braille Bricks exist, and that they’ll be more accessible soon.

LEGO Braille Bricks will be available from 1 September 2023 from LEGO.com.

At launch, English and French versions will be sold, and we’ll also get Italian, German and Spanish versions in early 2024.

What do you think of LEGO Braille Bricks? Do you know someone that might be interested in these?

I’ll have an additional article coming up with more insight into how LEGO Braille Facilitators and those that work with the vision-impaired and blind utilise LEGO Braille, which I hope to share next week.

Special thanks to LEGO for sending this review copy over.

Do you know someone that might appreciate the LEGO Braille Bricks French version? I have a copy that I would like to give away to someone that might make full use of it. I will ship worldwide at my cost, so get in touch with me at jaysbrickblog@gmail.com if you would like one. I’ll select an interested party randomly.

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