A Million Little Bricks

by Sarah Herman

  Although the robots were constructed largely from Technic parts only “LEGO MINDSTORMS” appeared on the box. Usefully, however, that meant other Technic parts were compatible with the kits. LEGO also produced its own Mindstorms SDK (software development kit) to embrace the creativity of programmers rather than compete against them. LEGO followed up the 1998 RIS with two upgrade versions (1.5 in 1999 and 2.0 in 2001) as well as a number of expansion kits that included more sensors, motors, and programming capabilities before introducing the next generation of robots—MINDSTORMS NXT in 2006.

  Initially the models were fairly realistic, too, with the launch of the Crocodile Locomotive (4551) and the Metro Liner (4558) alongside the accompanying bright yellow Metro Station (4554) with its delightful platform lampposts, station clock, and vendor windows. But by the mid-1990s, the designs had taken on a life of their own, resulting in futuristic-looking creations such as 1996’s Cargo Railway (4559) sold in some territories as “Shuttle Express 2011.” Although the 9 volt trains were now compatible with the other 9 volt LEGO System sets, and the tracks were cheaper, signaling capabilities were nonexistent and many of the favored remote-control components from the 12 volt sets were not incorporated, reducing the complexity of track layouts and the level of interaction.

  The Load ’N Haul Railroad (4563) was one of the first 9-volt engines, released in 1991. © StreetFly JZ

  Sets such as this 1991 Metro Station (4554) helped to further integrate Train with the Town theme. © StreetFly JZ

  Elsewhere, technical developments were being made of a different kind. The year 1992 saw the introduction of DUPLO Toolo—a screw-driver construction set for three-to six-year-olds, and in 1994 a group of pink-packaged sets appeared with a “family at home” theme. Throughout the 1990s, efforts were made to remarket DUPLO, perhaps to highlight the different age ranges available under the theme’s umbrella name. In 1995 DUPLO PRIMO (later LEGO PRIMO) appeared covering products suitable for children aged six to twenty-four months. Although the majority of PRIMO products were non-construction toys, the line had its own brick with a spherical knob in place of the usual studs available in 1 × 1 and 1 × 2 sizes. PRIMO also had its own elephant logo, similar to DUPLO’s rabbit. The age range varied for some products between zero years and thirty-six months and in 2000 the name changed to LEGO Baby.

  Despite the addition of DUPLO PRIMO and licensed infant products, TLG continued to sell more traditional DUPLO toys, such as this 1994 Ambulance set (2682). © Otto-vintagetoys

  Toward the end of the 1990s, LEGO produced a huge range of products for the infant market, many of which didn’t conform to its own original guidelines. The extremes of the range at this time included larger plastic dolls wearing cloth clothes (2001), which came with their own miniature DUPLO version and accessories, and licensed products for Little Forest Friends (1999), Winnie the Pooh (1999), and Disney’s Baby Mickey and Minnie, creating a rather chaotic picture of the company’s attempt to produce everything and anything, rather than sticking to what they knew best.

  It seemed no area of the LEGO catalog was safe from the pitfalls of expansion, even the pages for themes that no longer existed. FABULAND may have provided three-to seven-year-olds with a viable alternative to DUPLO and LEGO sets, but despite its success, 1989 was the last year new FABULAND toys were released. Over the next decade, nothing effectively filled the gap. The Basic sets were given a facelift in 1990, color-categorized into different age brackets (3+, 5+ and 7+), and then again in 1996 with the release of the Freestyle sets. These focused more on individual creativity rather than the construction of traditional ideas presented on the box. Models built for the packaging included a plane shaped like a duck, a house with a man growing out of it, and a tortoise creature carrying a pink house on his back. FABULAND ideas were also incorporated into the Belville sets for girls, which combined regular LEGO bricks with larger pieces. In 2001 the LEGO Group found a new way to add that extra page back into its catalog and incorporate its bricks into play-oriented sets for children not as capable or interested in building. This new range was called Jack Stone.

  A LEGO minifigure gets a piggy back from Jack Stone himself. As well as their different sizes, Jack Stone figures also had sculpted noses and ears. © Miwaza

  Although not released in the 1990s, Jack Stone is worth mentioning here, given that it was clearly a theme dreamed up in this era. In the LEGO fan community, Jack Stone is somewhat of a running joke, because of its unpopularity. With the 1990s focusing on the development of the LEGO System sets, it was with heavy hearts that adult fans saw the arrival of the new “juniorized” theme in 2001. On LEGO forum Eurobricks.com, one user described Jack Stone, named after its daredevil life-saving lead character, as FABULAND crossed with James Bond. Certainly there are some similarities with the ‘80s animal kingdom—Jack Stone, targeted at children aged four and upward, mixed LEGO bricks with specially made parts and larger minifigures; incidentally the same figures were used in Creator sets also released in 2001— but this new theme was more action-oriented and less infantile in its appearance.

  The majority of sets released between 2001 and 2002 (when the theme was discontinued) were based around vehicles and emergency rescue operations. While FABULAND had appealed to many post-DUPLO children with its colorful characters and engaging designs, Jack Stone was more marginal and masculine in its approach. All but one of the minifigures included were male (the exception is a female helicopter pilot in set 4618) perhaps putting off young girls and their parents. With the blue and yellow box design, these were clearly designed as “boys’ toys,” leaning heavily toward transportation sets such as fire trucks (4605, 4609), aeroplanes (4614, 4615, 4617, 4619), or police vehicles (4604, 4611). Unlike FABULAND, which had centered on town- and community-based locations, buildings were scarce and the action centered around one character and his escapades. The failure of Jack Stone could be largely to do with its focus on a character children were not familiar with. With TV shows and films licensing out characters to toy companies more and more, children had become used to playing with toys they knew through some other medium. Jack Stone was not a Teletubby, Spider-Man, or Mickey Mouse, and with so many other toy ranges providing children with non-constructive action-figure play, the competition was too strong. Despite being discontinued, however, the legend of Jack Stone lives on, largely due to its unpopularity. Parts and minifigures are occasionally used by adult builders in their humorous creations and stop-motion films.

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  In 1999, Fortune magazine named the LEGO Brick one of its “Products of the Century.” While there is no denying that humble brick’s place in the 1900s history books, the company itself was about to face its darkest time. After suffering a personal loss in 1995 when Godtfred Kirk Christiansen passed away, more bad news came in 1998 with the report of the company’s first deficit. To someone on the outside, the LEGO Group was still a company at the top of its game—LEGO.com (launched in 1996) had just opened for business selling sets through its online shop, LEGOLAND parks in Billund, Windsor (opened in 1996), and California (1999) were some of the world’s most popular family attractions, and LEGO was developing new technologies and releasing new sets like there was no tomorrow. But as the world waited for the Millennium Bug to hit, TLG was preparing for some huge corporate changes to ensure that there would be a tomorrow, changes that would help to pull the company out of debt, steer a global recession, and get back to the brilliant basics that the LEGO Group does best—building with that humble brick.

  CHAPTER 5

  2000–2011

  Foundations

  for the Future

  L EGO CEO Jørgen Vig Knudstorp once said in a televised interview that most businesses fail not from starvation, but from indigestion. When the thirty-six year-old Dane took over from Ole Kirk Christiansen’s grandson in 2004, the LEGO Group had a bad case of indigestion, and he was just what the doctor ordered. The 1990s and the first few years of the new millennium saw the company take giant
leaps and hard falls while the old adage of “quality not quantity” was one they seemed keen to ignore. Not to say all the products were failures, far from it—this period saw the launch of MINDSTORMS brilliant robot building system, and the Technic-inspired BIONICLE—but the System building sets loyalist LEGO fans had grown to love had become character-driven play sets filled with larger bricks and pieces that minimized building. The themes themselves were wackier (Time Cruisers, anyone?) and did not attract the dedicated following associated with LEGO themes of old. Some themes were on toyshop shelves for such a short time (or not at all, if retailers did not have the room to display the company’s entire catalog) that children did not have time to collect sets, even if they’d wanted to.

  Ultimately, the quality of a product means nothing if the business model behind it is not profitable, and the LEGO Group had reached a stage, after years of success, where the purse was empty. The company itself was not entirely to blame— the market had changed dramatically since the 1970s when minifigures and bricks were the coolest thing out there. Now Toys ‘R’ Us superstores were selling everything from musical instruments and sports equipment to karaoke machines and laptops. As personal electronics became more affordable, children’s wish lists began to read like a technophobe’s worst nightmare—gone were the Christmas Days of helping to construct a plastic spaceship, as parents found themselves installing computer software and downloading MP3s to make their children’s holiday gifts run smoothly.

  But, as Knudstorp believes, any CEO worth his salary can’t blame bad business entirely on external factors, and LEGO couldn’t either. Somewhere along the way, the LEGO Group had lost sight of what they were really good at. Management was spread thin across the company’s various off-shoots (clothing, theme parks, computer games, brand stores), leaving the toys themselves as an afterthought. Non-core product lines like the Adventurers, a new secret agent theme, BIONICLE, and even a Steven Spielberg–endorsed movie theme were just some of the results of this busy period in TLG’s history.

  Adventurers

  Dino Island (2000)

  The 1990s LEGO Adventurer Johnny Thunder reappeared just a year after his Amazonian trek in his most unbelievable adventure yet—the Jurassic Park–esque Dino Island. Pilot Harry Cane was replaced by dino-enthusiast Mike and the evil Baron Von Barron made his return, aided this time by the beer-bellied Mr. Cunningham and Alexis Sinister (sister of Sam from the Desert sets), who spent their time trying to capture the dinosaurs from the research facility (5987) with the use of nets as in All Terrain Trapper (5955) and the sea-faring T-Rex Transport (5975). A whole range of molded dinosaurs were produced for the sets including a large green Tyrannosaurus Rex and baby, a gray Triceratops, a brown Stegosaurus, and a red Pterodactyl— these dinosaurs are similar but not the same as those that featured in the Dinosaurs sets of 2001.

  Orient Expedition (2003)

  After a few years away from the adventuring life, Johnny Thunder returned in the Orient Expedition line, no longer referred to as Adventurers. Set on a journey across Asia, the team (Johnny, Dr. Kilroy, and Miss Pippin Reed) with the help of some new friends traveled to India, Tibet, and China in search of Marco Polo’s treasure, the Golden Dragon. Never far from trouble, Lord Sam Sinister tracked them across the continent. The three largest sets were available with a board game that revolved around the Adventurers’ story. Those sets were the Scorpion Palace (7418), the Temple of Mount Everest (7417), and the Dragon Fortress (7419). The range, targeting 7+ incorporated various building styles seen in other themes, such as the fortresses from 1998’s Ninja Knights. Orient Expedition marked the end of Johnny Thunder, although it’s not hard to see how these sets influenced the 2008–2009 Indiana Jones licensed range.

  Dinosaurs (2001) Dino Attack/Dino 2010 (2005)

  Perhaps because they had lots of Dinosaur ideas left over from working on the Adventurers’ Dino Island sets, or perhaps because it was a popular children’s play theme they had not covered yet, 2001 saw the release of a few individually packaged Dinosaur sets. Of the eight different designs, four were packaged in plastic canister-style boxes (popularized as a packaging form by some of the Technic toys) and were capable of building four different dinosaurs each. For example, the Brachiosaurus (6719) also had instructions to build a Diplodocus, Plateosaurus, or a Plesiosaurus. The four other sets were baby versions of these, intended to build just one dinosaur. All the sets included between twenty and forty pieces.

  Not quite done with the ancient beasts, they reappeared in 2005 in a short-lived theme split into two sub-themes. Sold to different territories, Dino 2010 and Dino Attack had different takes on futuristic worlds where dinosaurs roamed freely. Dino 2010 sets such as Dino Buggy Chaser (7262) and Dino 4WD Trapper (7296) showed dino-hunting minifigures trying to trap the escaped dinosaurs and return them to safety, while Dino Attack took a more aggressive approach with each set seeing an attack team vehicle pitted against a dinosaur, surrounded by the fires of an apocalyptic earth. While the contents of corresponding sets were fairly similar (2010’s Urban Avenger vs. Raptor set was almost identical to the Buggy Chaser, with the addition of a large mounted gun), the tone was significantly different.

  Alpha Team (2001–2005)

  It may not have been as popular as City or Star Wars but Alpha Team was one of the LEGO Group’s longest-running themes from the 2000s. Sticking around long enough to make a name for itself and influence the later Agents theme, Alpha Team were a group of secret agents whose mission was to stop the evil Ogel (“LEGO” spelled backward) from turning regular people into skeleton drones using mind control orbs. The majority of the futuristic theme’s stories were told through the LEGO Alpha Team PC game and various online games and comics. The original sets were based around an attack on Ogel’s base (6776)—a floating island control center far out at sea. The Alpha Team made up of leader Dash Justice, lasers girl Radia, explosives expert Crunch, mining master Diamond Tooth, and a few others descended on the base in a fleet of vehicles including their helicopter (6773), the Alpha Team ATV (6774), and the Cruiser (6772). The Alpha Team bomb squad set included a little robot gadget made of minifigure legs, a TV for a torso, and gear sticks where his head should be. The sets, while fairly simple and less original than other new ranges, were strong on playability and construction, and included lots of black and transparent blue and yellow parts.

  The Alpha Team’s logo, a globe with a red ring around it (similar to the Classic Space logo), was printed on all their vehicles, while Ogel had a skull face on his ship and control center. A skull face was also used to mark the entrance to the center, similar to Pirates sets such as Skull Island (6279) and Volcano Island (6248). Unfortunately none of these sets came with both Ogel and Alpha Team members.

  Ogel himself was recognized by his one red eye, gold visor, and dramatic black shoulder armor, contrasting nicely with his half-black/half-red-dressed skeleton drones with skull faces and smart black caps. The Alpha Team, distinguishable by their faces and hairstyles, all wore different coordinated uniforms (usually black with silver and an element of color and the team logo) and often had one colored arm.

  Mission Deep Sea (2002)

  Alpha Team action was relocated to beneath the ocean’s surface in 2002 and centered around Ogel’s new underwater base (4795), a set that, this time, came with an Alpha Team submarine as well. Ogel’s mind-controlling powers now extended to sea creatures, as could be seen in sets Mutant Ray (4788), Mutant Squid (4796), and Mutant Killer Whale (4797), organic sea life vessels driven by Ogel and his skeleton drones. This time, the bad guy’s left hand had been replaced with a red hook and his signature color scheme of black and red could be seen on the base, the mutant fish, and the Ogel Shark Sub (4793).

  The Alpha Team sets were a collection of yellow and black sub-surface vehicles to hunt down and attack Ogel and his drones. They included a navigational vehicle with mini-sub (4792), a one-man robot diving device with articulated arms (4790), and the team’s command center submari
ne (4794). In the Alpha Team mythology, the heroes managed to revert the sea animals back to normal, but Ogel escaped, enabling him to return in 2004 for the most recent revamp of the theme.

  Mission Deep Freeze (2004–2005)

  The new range released in 2004 featured a similar Alpha Team lineup (although two of the original team had been replaced), but a new logo and packaging style, to fit in with the Antarctic setting of the new mission. Alpha Team sets were technically upgraded with more computer parts and gadgets. These even included a droid minifigure only available in Mobile Command Center (4746)—a step up from the early TV android—and a number of hi-tech-looking control panels and ice scanner arm. Alpha Team had a rubber-ball-firing mechanism built into both their command center and the small car that came with Ogel’s base. They were also equipped with the flying Blue Eagle (4745)—a scout plane ready to stop the skeleton drones from carrying out their work—and ground vehicles to cut through the ice, even when team members themselves got frozen in it. The team’s job was to find Ogel who was planning on freezing the whole world and then time itself using ice orbs. His new hideaway was a mountain fortress (4748) shaped like a human skull with a dramatic icy baseplate and ice blocks marking the entranceway. To help fend off the Alpha Team, he had an insect-shaped helicopter, available only with the base set, and the snow crawler (4745) with its pincer arm for collecting ice orbs.