It’s New Year’s Eve and as 2018 comes to a close and the clock ticks down to another year. We take a look back over that past 12 months and pick some of our favourite LEGO-related things to occur in the year gone by. It’s certainly been another eventful year, with the first sustainable LEGO® bricks released, the LEGO brick reaching its 60th anniversary and LEGO Minifigures celebrating their 40th birthday. It fact it has been a year of LEGO milestone with LEGO Ideas reaching its 10th year and Mindstorms racking up 20 years. But for our look back over the past 12 months we’ll be focusing on the many LEGO sets and additional products released since January this past year. So let’s jump into our brick-built time machine and see what has delighted us the most in 2018.
Theme of the Year – Wizarding World
I’m not the biggest Harry Potter fan, but I’m aware of the universe and the fandom attached to it. When it was revealed that Harry Potter would be returning to the world of LEGO and bringing with it, Fantastic Beasts, it was expected to be popular. Never has a LEGO theme which encompasses playsets, D2C, Minifigures and even GWP sets, captured the attention of both LEGO fans and those who enjoy the franchise. The Wizarding World sets and minifigures were almost impossible to get hold of when the were first released. Minifigures were selling by the box full, even the free gift with purchase set sold out long before the promotion was due to end.
Runner-up: LEGO Technic
It’s been a bit of a strange year for LEGO themes, after the mass of products released last year connected to both The LEGO NINJAGO and Batman Movies, this year has seen some good releases across themes, including LEGO Technic. I had the pleasure of reviewing a number of Technic sets this year, which has allowed me to really appreciate a different style of building. I love the functional elements of Technic and how much design and engineering must go into such small elements of the each set.
Minifigure of the Year – Classic Police Officer (Series 18 Party)
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the LEGO Minifigure and to celebrate series 18 featured a collection of minifigures ready to party. Along with the standard 16 characters each full box of Series 18 LEGO Minifigures included a single Police Officer minifigure. Although I don’t agree with limiting characters in this way and making them ‘chase’ minifigures, the simplistic nature of the minifigure was a nice nod back to where it all began.
Runner-up: Arkade (NINJAGO)
The NINJAGO theme seems to have picked up on the inventiveness that was poured into the various ‘ In/Out’ themes such as Ultra Agents and Monster Fighters. Beyond the main cast of hero characters, the NINJAGO villains have become a various collection of cool minifigures, my favourite is Arkade from the Season 9 themed Dragon Hunters sets. Although not a major character in the show, I love the print detail on the chest of the character, the mismatched arms and welding mask.
Game of the Year – LEGO The Incredibles
It’s been a bit of a quiet year for LEGO Games, with Dimensions ended and LEGO Worlds slowing up. There have only been two big LEGO Games released this year. Although not everyone will agree, I quite enjoyed The Incredibles game. TT Fusion have a knack of creating fun variants of the well-known LEGO gaming formula. The first LEGO game based on a Pixar license, managed to expand upon the Incredibles universe as well as retell the events of both Incredibles films. Hopefully this will lead to other Disney licenses being given the LEGO treatment.
Runner-up: LEGO Harry Potter Collection
Although the game has been available on PS4 for a number of years, this year saw the HD remastered edition of both previous LEGO Harry Potter games come to additional platforms. Although not a flash as more recently released games, the remastered edition brought the game to a new audience and at a time when Harry Potter was taking the world of LEGO by storm.
Book of the Year – The LEGO Book: New Edition
DK’s The LEGO Book has been released previously and updated every few years. But this latest edition came at a perfect time to coincide with the 60th Anniversary of the LEGO brick. As well featuring all the most recent additions to the world of LEGO the book also includes an exclusive 2×4 brick making the 60 year milestone. Plus the book is a genuinely interesting insight into all things LEGO. See more in my review.
Runner-up: The LEGO Christmas Ornaments Book Vol 2
Christmas is over for another year but No Starch Press’ seasonal book filled with instructions to build festive ornaments, is a great way to showcase some of Chris McVeigh’s incredible ideas. It’s particularly useful to help create builds for the LEGO Build to Give campaign, but beyond that, is just a delightful book to flick through. Check out my review here.
Promotional Activity of the Year – LEGO Brick 60th Anniversary Osborne’s LEGO Storefront
There are a number of ways LEGO chooses to promote its brand, from Big Builds to public events. But the 60th anniversary celebrations were something truly unique. The first toy shop in the UK to stock LEGO® products, was given a very special makeover earlier in the year. LEGO UK took the opportunity to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the brick in a very unique way, which saw 41 LEGO builders recreate the entire shop front of Osborne’s Toy Shop in Rushden, Northamptonshire with over 277,550 bricks.
Runner-up: Life-sized Driveable Technic Bugatti Chiron
LEGO have built life-size version of various sets and characters before, but never has anything been built as impressive or downright crazy as the life-size Technic Bugatti Chiron. Not only is it 1:1 scale of the supercar it has been inspired by, the thing actually drives. Over a million Technic elements and over 2300 Power Function elements resulted in a truly spectacular LEGO creation.
Collectable Theme of the Year – LEGO Minifigures Series 18
There have been various collectibles this year, from LEGO Pods to Mighty Micros. However the original LEGO collectibles, Minifigures, have proven a popular draw this year. The Harry Potter series was extremely well received, but Series 18 really captured the fun of the minifigure. It introduced some great new elements and a collection of characters that perfectly displayed the party vibe. Even if the chase Minifigure was a little bit annoying for some.
Runner-up: LEGO BrickHeadz
BrickHeadz are loathed by some but loved by many. During 2018 over 40 BrickHeadz were released, including a collection of seasonal themed builds. In recent months the output of BrickHeadz have been almost nonstop, with characters from some of the biggest movies and TV shows transformed into BrickHeadz. These all add up to a great collection of sets, and they will continue into 2019 with even more seasonal themed sets.
Surprise of the Year – LEGO Technic Podcast
I love a good podcast, so I was delighted to see a Technic Podcast one, inspired by the Bugatti Chiron set. Each episode was tied to a part of the build and followed the creation of the set, by talking to the LEGO Designers who worked on the it and those at Bugatti who helped to refine it. It made the building experienced incredibly unique and offered an equally unique insight into how LEGO sets are created. Even if you don’t have the set I highly recommend giving the podcast a listen.
Runner-up: LEGO Harry Potter Minifigure Series
There are plenty of Potter fans about and the Wizarding World themed series of LEGO Minifigure really inspired them in their masses to trackdown a full series of them. I knew they would be popular but didn’t expect just how popular. The retail store I work in had 18 boxes and they all sold out about a month after the series was first released.
Set of the Year – Hogwarts Castle
As mentioned above I’m not the biggest Harry Potter fan, but when this set was announced I was impressed. Even more so when I got to see it up close during a LEGO Christmas in July event. The level of detail the set contains is incredible as is the scale of the thing. Despite its large size and price tag, it connected with both LEGO and Potter fans. As you’d expect with a set this size, the build is very involved but enjoyable and it makes a great display piece.
Runner-up: Technic Bugatti Chiron
This year I’ve built a fair few Technic sets, but the Chiron was by far the most impressive. There are an amazing range of functional elements included in the build and the accompanying podcast helped to enhance the experience even further.
