Be Ready to Sign up for the LEGO® Inside Tour: 2020

If you are a huge fan of the brick, pay attention to this…. how would you like to have the opportunity to tour parts of the LEGO campus in Billund no one else gets to see? Do you want to meet designers? Do you want to spend 2.5 days at the home of LEGO seeing how the magic happens? Do you want to shop at the employee store? If you have answered yes to those questions, then the Inside Tour is for you!

Here are the details (get the full scoop at the LEGO® House site here):

-Sign ups start October 28, 10 am CET (5AM on the east coast of the US… Europe’s fall time change happens before it does in the US) and end November 1, 10 am CET (2019).

-Available tour dates are:
13-15 May 2020
10-12 June 2020
26-28 August 2020
9-11 September 2020

-Check out the site linked above for logistics details about meals and lodging. Keep in mind that your transportation to Billund is not covered.

-Cost for the tour is DKK 14,500 which at the exchange rate today is $2,155 and change (or ~2.6 #71592-1: Millennium Falcons).

-Based on signing up last year (and not getting picked), there is a short form that lets you put some basic info in and then select the dates you can attend. It didn’t provide you a spot to plead your case. The only other thing that was different was it asked if you were a member of a LUG or not.

-The tour is in English so if you’re using Google Translate to read this post, then it might not be the best option for you. The sign up form does ask where you are from and what your nationality is so maybe they try and balance where they select people from.

If you’re not sure about it or if it is worth attending, there are a number of great posts out there about folks who have done the tour. Do some searching online and you’ll hear from adults, teens, and adults who brought kids.

I will be applying again in the slight chance that I get picked. If I recall from last year there were only a limited number of slots per tour and a few thousand applied so we’ll see what happens.

Good luck and let me know if you get selected!

Set Review - #21037-1: LEGO® House - Architecture

Onto the second of the three LEGO® House exclusive sets I picked up while in Billund. This one is #21037-1: LEGO® House from the Architecture theme. It was released in 2017 and is still available today. The brief history behind this set is that #4000010-1: LEGO® House - Architecture available back in March 2014 was the first round. It was in all white and was released prior to the opening of the LEGO® House in Billund. This set was released after the LEGO® House opened.

This set has 774 pieces and retails for 449 DKK. I was at the LEGO® House for two days and I bought sets on each of the days (2 and then 1). I paid $67.19 and $67.27 when translated. I don’t think the US Dollar to Danish Kroner exchange rate fluctuates a great deal so my guess is you can expect to pay about the same amount. The sign at the store says you are limited to three sets per family. I bought three and didn’t try to scam the Brand Store there over by having my NLS buy some or buying without my VIP account.

Onto the review…

The box looks like a standard architecture set. The biggest difference is that this one is very colorful while most of the sets are usually full of grays, tans, and whites. It’s a nice change to have some color.

The contents are 6 parts bags, an instruction booklet, and four 6x12 dark gray plates. Like most architecture sets, the bags are not numbered. The instructions have a section about the LEGO® House, its development, information on the architecture firm, and some facts throughout the instructions.

Like most architecture sets, the bags aren’t numbered so there aren’t good break points for a review. I just picked a few points I thought to be useful to discuss the build.

The base of the building is completed at step 15. It’s just the dark gray plates with black plates underneath to hold them together. The edge is completed with black tiles to include one that is printed with the “LEGO® House” name on it.

Step 33 of the instructions completes the first layer of plates on the base. It is made up of light gray for the sidewalks and tan for the floor inside the LEGO® House. There are a few spots where there are no plates and then a few colored tiles for where the stepped portions of the house begin.

My next stopping point is the completion of the first floor or layer. The first floor includes some windows along with the yellow and blue steps on the two opposite ends of the building. The inside of the house includes a plant to represent one of the plants in the house and then the steps leading up into the house along with the tree of creativity. They don’t include all of the detail, but given the limited space, I can understand why.

Onto the second level… each of the sections fit in just so to create the various upper sections of the house. So far I’m impressed with the build and how it is arranged.

The top level with the masterpiece gallery is easily removable and does not attach with clutch to the other layers of the house. This feature is nice as you can view the “inside” of the house. The very top includes the 8 clear windows that look like the studs of a 2x4 brick.

Here’s the final build. I think they did a great job representing the LEGO® House given the scale of the architecture theme. I’m a big fan of this set and recommend picking it up if you are able to visit the LEGO® House. To be fair, I might be biased since I was actually there. I wonder if I would have the same opinions if I hadn’t actually been there.

Does anyone else have this one? What are your thoughts?

In the meantime, happy building!

LEGO® House: LEGO® Star Wars™ exhibition

Throughout 2019, the LEGO® House will be celebrating 20 Years of the Star Wars™ line. The special display is located in the History Collection in the basement. If you look at my post on the History Collection, I mention that there is a walk way that you take in a square (or maybe rectangle) to see the history. In the center of that shape is a space with a lot of the old and current sets on display. Well on either side of the room is the Star Wars™ display. I had seen some pictures online and you could see the display clearly. The owners of that site obviously took their camera right up to the glass because you can’t see it clearly in person. Here’s what you see on either side of the room (below). Really? So you have to peer through the slots to see everything.

This is the only picture I have of the sets on display. I didn’t take any close up pictures as it’s just some of the sets as selected by various LEGO® Designers. Each set has a card by it explaining why the designer thought the particular set was their favorite.

On the opposing wall is this sign with a similar glass pattern. LEGO® borrowed a collection and put them on display. I wonder if he got anything in return? Anyways, I did take a few pictures of the minifigures.

The display is set up by year. At the top of each column is the year the minifigures came out. The initial years have only a few and as the years go on, more minifigures appear until you get closer to today and it’s jam packed with various minifigures. I didn’t count them and the sign just says more than 1,000. Where does he put them all?

Anyways, if you get to the LEGO® House in 2019, it’s worth a few minutes of your time to go check out the Star Wars™ display for the minifigures alone. There are quite a few there and it’s pretty cool to see… if you can find the right slot in the glass to peek through.

Happy building!

Any only 1 minifigure in 2001?

LEGO® House: History Collection

The LEGO® House has some fun stairs that you can take up or down. I like how the walls look like they could be made of large size plastic bricks. If you go down, you go to the History Collection. In this post I hope to take you through my experience there. I took a lot of pictures, but still did not capture the whole thing. With 2 kiddos, I wasn’t able to stay and read everything, but I still had a good amount of time to see it all. So let’s go!

(Note: you can take an elevator too. This is especially good if you have a stroller or a little person who is slow on stairs.)

The History Collection is not as bright and colorful as the rest of the House. The walls are black as if you are underground. When you get downstairs, there is a glass covered area in the floor. The area is full of gray 2x4 bricks and some old brick molds. A sign explains how they used to put the old molds underneath new buildings so they couldn’t be used by a competitor. You can read the sign that explains it in the picture. We also thought it was fun that there was a brick built mole digging around in the basement.

From the room with the molds in the floor, you can see a brightly lit LEGO® logo. I took a few pictures so you can see it as you get up close. It’s pretty awesome.

And another mole hanging out…

The tour goes through a hallway in a square. You turn left and you start to learn about the very initial states of the LEGO® Company. It talks about the founding family and you can see some of the early non-plastic toys. It’s impressive that they still have some of the very old toys and first brick sets around.

As you continue to make your way around the History Collection, there are more modern bricks to include some sets or sets mixed in with MOCs.

#10184-1: Town Plan - This was the 50th anniversary set from LEGO®

The factories don’t look like this anymore.

Is this an official set?

The origins of the train line

I’m not sure if the train is an official set or a MOC.

As you continue on, you see more of the modern sets that we’re used to seeing. It was definitely a walk down memory lane to see some of the older items that I still have. And some of the things I always wanted as a kid… like the whole Classic Space line.

The Classic Space monorail

The origins of the minifigure

The castle theme and 9V town sets (I have the police car and fire engine and they still work)

Throughout the LEGO® House are benches. Many of the benches have parts to build with, minifigure parts, or in this picture, DUPLO®. My youngest kiddo enjoyed the History Collection because there were tons of cars, trains, and planes, but it was good to know we had another distraction if needed to occupy him in the “boring” museum portion.

After you finish walking around the square, you can enter into the space inside the square. This area has a collection of many of the old sets by time period. I failed to get a picture or write it down, but I think it is by decade (please correct me if I’m wrong). Definitely a walk down memory lane for me. “I have that one!” “I always wanted that one!” “Wow! I’ve never actually seen that one.”

Sorry for the reflections on the glass covering the windows in my pictures.

Some of the very first sets.

More castle and Classic Space in there.

Duplo®, Pirates, Blacktron, and more!

Here’s a shot of what the wall looks like with the various sets.

Classic space, early CITY/Town, Castle

Technic, Space Police, Pirates, and more!

Can they bring back Classic Space and Castle please?

Some Technic sets in the center of the room.

The center of the room had the Technic display that I showed and then these trains. Please re-release the Super Chief and the BNSF diesel!

Also in the center of the room was a computer screen where you could go through each of the sets from every year and add them to your digital collection. When you are finished, the collection is loaded into your file that is attached to the wrist band. We did not build our digital collection. I’m not sure I could even remember it all. A cool idea though.

If you are an AFOL, definitely make some time to check out the History Collection. I regret that I didn’t get to read everything about the company, but I was glad that I got to see what I did. It’s not the best place for kids. My 5-year old got bored pretty quick and wanted to go back upstairs to do all of the fun stuff.

It will be curious to see how the History Collection changes over the years. How will they add another decade of sets in?

My next post will be about the Star Wars™ 20th anniversary display which was located with the History Collection.

Store Review - LEGO® Brand Store - The LEGO® House - Billund, Denmark

If you park at the parking garage and walk to the LEGO® House, the entrance you will take is by the yellow steps outside. Underneath those steps is the LEGO® Brand Store inside. It’s like every other brand store in that there are a lot of sets and pick-a-brick. There are a few differences, but before we get into them the top of the store has a brick built background with minifigures and other characters built out of brick. They are depicting various scenes and some minifigures that have appeared in the past. The Shakespeare minifigure appeared in the first LEGO® Movie. The female minifigure next to the deer looks very similar to the girl found in series 10 of the collectible minifigures (without the shades).

Another picture of the creation above and then underneath the entrance to the store you can see a history of all of the logos. I did a poor job fitting them all in so you can’t see the first or last one, but you get the idea.

This store has a Mosaic Maker. I failed to spend a lot of time reading everything or to see the price. Online, it is advertised as being $129.99 for a 15”x15”, 5 color mosaic with 4,500 pieces. I didn’t see anyone use this while I was there and if you go to LEGO’s website, Billund doesn’t show up when you go to book online.

The store was pretty well stocked. I didn’t go around and get pictures of everything, but the recent Ideas sets were there and the Creator Expert line was well stocked too. There wasn’t too much out of the ordinary although I did catch a few LEGO® Education sets which I don’t normally see in the brand stores.

The store had a this build in it. The label says that it is a fan build not available for sale at the store, but it doesn’t say who made it or if it depicts anything specific. You’ll notice some pick-a-brick containers by the fan build. Unlike most stores that have a wall, this one has them spread out. I think it is because the back wall is actually the yellow steps on the front of the building. I did not get a pick-a-brick bucket, but a skim through showed some decent parts available. They had the newer plant piece available in stock which I would have added to my bucket.

Also they had a large scale Garmadon figure in the store. They weren’t highlighting anything specific about Ninjago and this minifigure is not in front of the Ninjago sets, but it’s always fun to see what sorts of things they build. In the background you can see a large 2x4 red brick. Other than those, that was it for decorations outside of the ordinary. To be fair, if you wanted to see more awesome builds, just go another 100 feet or so into the LEGO® House.

The store sells a bunch of LEGO® House swag to include mugs, t-shirts, minifigure key chains, and a book about the LEGO® House. My NLS got a minifigure and I got some of the exclusive sets (which I’ll cover at another time). The only other set I saw that you can’t get everywhere was #40305-1: LEGO Brand Store. It was out of stock and the employee said they would be getting a shipment in the day after I left. I was disappointed, but given the exchange rate today, 230 DKKs comes out to be $34.40. If you look on Brickset.com, it says the price in the US is $24.99. So I’m glad they were out of stock because I would have paid an extra $10 over buying it from a Brand Store in the US.

Overall it was a good store. They had a good selection of sets in stock and the store employees were helpful. I did not go around comparing prices too much so I can’t tell you if it’s worth it to buy sets there or not. Definitely check the exchange rate if you are there and see if you should just wait to buy in the US.

One note about buying LEGO sets in Europe… the VAT or Value Added Tax is added into the price already. This is unlike the US where sales tax is added on at the register. Some areas in Europe have places where you can get a form at the store and turn your receipt and form in at a location at an airport before you leave to get reimbursement for paying VAT. The store there has signs mentioning that VAT savings so it might be something to look into if you fly to Billund.

Obviously the big draw for LEGO® fans is the LEGO® House exclusive sets. I will capture #21037-1: LEGO House, #40366-1: LEGO House Dinosaurs, and #4000026-1: LEGO House Tree of Creativity in individual reviews.

Nearby the LEGO® House - A Short Tour

I did not get hooked up with any kind of special tour of the area or even ask for one, so here’s a quick tour of the LEGO® campus near the LEGO® House.

This sign is pretty close to the exit/entrance to the parking garage.

While not open to the public, you can see the LEGO Idea House from the outside. This building is connected in the front by Ole Kirk Christiansen’s original house. I didn’t take a picture of the house in the front as they were doing renovations at the time and it was covered with scaffolding. The LEGO Idea House is in the back and while I didn’t go in, you can watch Beyond the Brick’s tour here. You can see through the windows in the front some of the museum to include the original green molding machine.

I’m not sure where I saw it… some documentary video on LEGO® or something, but this building was described as where all of the design magic happens. I did not go inside and I don’t have the official word from The LEGO® Group so I could be wrong. They have the ability to close the various shutters that you see that are open so prevent people from taking video or pictures of what is inside. They didn’t shut the shutters after I took my picture. I didn’t get too close, but you can’t see too much anyways. You could see some LEGO® items in the window to include a poster from The LEGO® Movie in one of the windows, but that’s about it.

After you pass the Idea House and some shops, you come up to the LEGO® House. The entrance visible from here leads directly into the Square area. Underneath the yellow steps is the Brand Store. The windows furthest to the left are some of the staff offices for the administration of the facility. If you were to go to the right in this photo, you would see the restaurants inside the LEGO® House.

Sorry for such a short tour, but my goal was to go to the LEGO® House and not tour around the campus. Maybe someday I will get into the Inside Tour…

The Journey to Billund, Denmark

I went to Billund and the LEGO® House and it was awesome! Over the next few posts, I plan to give some reviews and share my experience to help others who may be planning a trip there. If you missed my post about planning your trip in the early stages, you can see it here.

For most Americans, the experience starts with landing in Billund at the airport. Since I live in Germany, the experience was a drive to Billund through Germany. The total drive for my family was around 10 hours, but we broke it up into a few days. We drove to northern Germany and spent a bit of time there before heading north.

Most countries in Europe greet you with a sign like the one to the left. The border had a checkpoint on the inbound side. We did not have to stop so that was good for us.

And while us crazy AFOLs would love to think that the border has brick built cars and minifigures waving to you as you drive in, I can assure you that it is not the case.

We drove to Vejle, Denmark (highlighted on the right) and established our base camp there for our visits to the LEGO® House (we planned for 2 days) and touring around elsewhere in Denmark.

If you’ve never been to Denmark, it’s pretty expensive. We found that out quickly as lodging in the Billund area is not cheap. People come for LEGO® and then there’s another theme park there, which I had never heard of, called Lalandia. The place we found in Vejle was a townhouse which works for my family as we can cook our own food versus going out to eat a lot.

Picture from Google Maps

The drive from Vejle to Billund was around 30 minutes so not bad at all. Vejle is not a big city and we were on the outskirts. After driving out of Vejle, the drive to Billund was mostly through countryside, farm areas, and small sections of housing.

This was our greeting to Billund… again no LEGO® references yet. Sorry.

Our first greeting to LEGO® comes along the roadside. There were actually a few sets of large 2x4 bricks along the side of the road. Some had cows grazing nearby. There were some buildings nearby so I wasn’t sure if those were owned by The LEGO® Group or not.

And then there it was… the LEGO® House.

There is a lot of new development going on around it (as you can see in the picture) and the roads around it have a bunch of newer looking shops and restaurants. In my excitement to be there, I of course focused all of my pictures on the LEGO items so I apologize for not getting anything on the surrounding areas. We did stop at a bakery there (yum) and my wife found a cool print that said Billund in a shop nearby. Other than that, our visit focused on the brick.

We parked in the parking garage nearby. It’s about 500 meters or so from the garage to the LEGO® House. For each of the two days we spent there, the cost to park was 60 DKK. We paid $8.98 on one day and $8.99 on the second day with the change in exchange rate. This isn’t bad considering we’ve parked in Europe for much worse. In some of the bigger cities such Brussels and Munich, we paid around $25 for the day. My work sent me to Frankfurt and parking there was around $40 for the day (which they thankfully reimbursed me for).

Back to the brick… we were excited to see more and more LEGO® references and we liked how the signs in the garage looked like they could be bricks stacked on each other. Each floor of the garage had a different theme on the wall. We didn’t get pictures of those, but definitely better than some of the plain, boring parking garages I have been in.

We made it! After seeing all of the videos and blog posts of others, it was very exciting to be there in person. Over the next few posts, I will go through the inside and give some related reviews to the LEGO® House experience.

Planning a Trip to the LEGO® House

I am super pumped to be planning a trip to the LEGO® House in Billund, Denmark. One of the advantages to living in Europe is that we can skip the expensive plane tickets from the US. It’s about a 10 hour drive from where I live to Billund so definitely not a short hop to get there, but we’re in the same time zone and we’re going to make a vacation of it. The plan is to take our time by driving, then doing some touring in northern Germany, and then driving to Denmark. We’ll spend a few days in Denmark before we drive back with another stop in northern Germany to see some sights and not spend all day in the car.

My blog is written towards Americans so talking about driving to Billund probably doesn’t help too many in my audience. Sorry. I’ve heard numerous times in write ups about visiting Billund how you didn’t have enough space in your suit case to bring home goodies. I thankfully will have a vehicle so I am hoping to be able to cram my brick loot into the car.

So what do you need to know about the LEGO® House?

First off, I recommend checking out some of the fan media videos out there. Beyond the Brick has useful LEGO® House tour video out there. There are some others too so feel free the check them out and be inspired.

Picture from Lego.com

Onto the planning… The LEGO® House web site is very user friendly and informative.

To start off, tickets are listed as 229 DKK. In US dollars that’s a bit over $34 each (at the exchange rate when I wrote this post). Kids aged 2 and under are free. All of that is if you pay at the LEGO® House. You can buy online ahead of time for 199 DKK or just under $30. The site says you have to reserve a time to enter, but our tickets we bought online just have the date. So I assume our date isn’t busy. If you get a season pass, you are not guaranteed entry on every day, but it’s an option if you can go a lot (you are lucky if you can go a lot). The season pass is 399 DKK (just under $60). There are other options as well that you can see on the site like group passes and cheaper prices for arriving much later.

Check the calendar online before going as some days it is closed or sold out. Also the hours vary based on the day that you go. Keep in mind the the experience zones open later than the Square. The square includes the LEGO® brand store in the LEGO® House, a play area, and a few other things.

Parking at the garage is 10 DKK (about $1.50) an hour which for Europe is actually a really good price. The site says there is free parking further away. I’ll be going with my family so being closer would be better for my kiddos.

Why go now? One reason is that my time off from my non-brick job got approved, but in terms of the LEGO® House itself, what’s is there to see now besides the Experience Zones?

-The Fullsize LEGO® Technic™ Bugatti Chiron (YouTube videos from LEGO here and here) will be there from 16 May 2019 until 10 June 2019
-The LEGO® Star Wars™ exhibition (The BrothersBrick Blog did a good article on this here) is scheduled to be there through 2019. It celebrates 20 years of LEGO® Star Wars™ sets.

My goal is to have a number of posts about the visit. There is a lot out on the web already about what is inside the LEGO® House itself and I will provide some of that too, but I hope to cover a bit about where to stay, some things to do in the Billund area, and whatever else I stumble across. So stay tuned…

In the meantime, happy building!

LEGO® Appearance - CBS Sunday Morning

Normally all of the major fan sites are great at posting LEGO related items that appear in the media. If you’re a regular reader of The Brothers Brick site, you’ll note that on Mondays they do a role up for the week to include LEGO items that appeared on various blogs, websites, and news media outlets.

Well I found one video that I haven’t seen anyone post yet. CBS Sunday Morning pushed a roughly 5 minute long clip about LEGO on 16 December 2018 that you can see here:

The video’s main focus is on the quest to find alternative, sustainable materials to make bricks out of. There are some clips of testing materials and some interviews with the company personnel involved in finding new materials. There is also a short discussion on the material used to make some of the plant parts. Definitely check it out.

Happy building!