The biggest LEGO news this week finally hits Fortnite, confirming that the building toy is the world's most popular game.
While this is great for Fortnite players, the most impressive crossover might happen in the LEGO games.
Before we explain why, we need to review some LEGO names. LEGO sets are divided into themes. These themes may be licensed from third parties such as Star Wars, Minecraft, Super Mario, etc. Themes can also come from in-house LEGO franchises like the ever-popular Ninjago, girl-focused Friends, rival Funko Pop BrickHeadz, and more.
If you're not familiar with LEGO now but collected them as a kid, special LEGO themes also include Bionicle, the toy that saved LEGO from bankruptcy in the early 2000s. For older viewers, castles and pirates are additional themes from the LEGO company itself. While the company builds many third-party features on popular IP, it still makes many games under its own banner.
At the time of writing, according to your local LEGO store, there are currently 37 active threads.
Themes are used to categorize and organize the hundreds of sets that LEGO releases each year and provide other benefits, such as making shopping easier for those looking to buy gifts.
This restriction means that features rarely interact. Sometimes there are sneaky references to other themes, like little Easter eggs in the form of little hugs or stickers. The aforementioned Bionicle (long since retired) still appears in new sets. In addition to these minor links, we sometimes see third-party licenses used in more than one theme.
Take Ferrari for example. You can now buy the LEGO Technic-themed Ferrari Daytona and the LEGO Speed Champions-themed Ferrari 812 Racer.
As you can see from the pictures below, these two are very different in terms of build system, size, target market, etc. It is very common to serve as an option of what customers can expect for different aspects.
However, in 2024, LEGO will try something new. The company expands the subtopic area to include multiple topics at once.
This is unprecedented and buyers can identify them by the gray trim on the right side of the boxes and the blue space logo.
In addition to covering many aspects of LEGO, Space is unique in that it fits into all sets using a modular system.
Now, of course, all LEGO products are compatible with all LEGO products, which is what this game is all about. What makes Space unique is that all modules use a specific type of connector, so you don't have to disassemble anything to swap kits and modules.
Check out both sets below. One is the LEGO City theme, which usually features a lot of temporary things like police and firemen. The other group is among the aforementioned friends, whom you can usually find concentrated in shops and residential areas.
The city and its friends are also very different in the way the characters are presented. City uses the tried and tested LEGO minifigure. Friends, on the other hand, use completely different mini toys.
Despite these differences, the space city, the friends and many other aspects will be the same. We'll have to get our hands on these games next year to see how they perform, but for now they're very attractive.
What you can see is the modular system advertised on the back of these game boxes. However, the QR code next to this ad is not loading at the time of writing. The QR code will take you to the official page on the LEGO website (kids.lego.com). A URL entered in the "lego.com/Airlock" box will return a 404 page.
LEGO hasn't mentioned anything specific about the location yet, but you can learn more about it in the links below. We've provided links to all the space kits revealed so far, broken down by topic.
Our links go to the independent Brickset Database website, which is a great resource for all LEGO fans. These sites tend to be less reliable than the LEGO site, stop listing products when they are unavailable, and do not offer regional pricing.
Brickset provides a release date for these sets, but it's worth noting that the full Space reveal has yet to happen. The first big wave from space will arrive on January 1, 2024, and we'll likely see more throughout the year.
