Everything we expect to see from LEGO at San Diego Comic-Con 2022

San Diego Comic-Con 2022 is just weeks away, and after two years of cancelled conventions, we’re expecting to see big things from the LEGO Group.

This year’s event takes place from July 21 to 24, and while there’s no confirmation yet that the LEGO Group will even be present, it feels like a fairly safe bet. After all, the convention was a major event in the LEGO calendar for years before the pandemic, with exclusive minifigures, exclusive sets and brand new product reveals all regularly on the bill.

Given SDCC’s physical presence has been curtailed for the past two years, 2022 will be the first opportunity for the convention to take place in its full form since 2019. Thousands of people will be flooding to San Diego Convention Center later this month, providing the perfect opportunity for the LEGO Group to resume business as usual.

We’re expecting pretty big things as a result – especially as the company effectively skipped last year’s virtual convention altogether, revealing no new sets and producing no exclusive minifigures or products. (2020’s exclusives were distributed through select retailers in the US following the last-minute shift to an online event.)

Based on previous San Diego Comic-Cons, here’s a brief rundown of everything we’re expecting to see from the LEGO Group at this year’s event…

New LEGO 2023 sets

For those of us unable to attend San Diego Comic-Con in person – and therefore get our hands on any exclusives – new and upcoming products will largely be the order of the day. The LEGO Group has traditionally used SDCC to show off one or more of next year’s sets from its major licensed themes, such as Star Wars, Marvel and DC, so we could be just a few weeks away from seeing our first 2023 products.

New LEGO movies and TV shows

San Diego Comic-Con isn’t just about buying stuff: it’s also about finding out which TV shows and movies we’ll be buying stuff based on in the months and years to come. At the moment, it sounds like there are some pretty major Marvel reveals on the cards for SDCC 2022, but the convention could also be the moment the LEGO Group lets us in on the future of its own cinematic universe.

The rights to future LEGO movies were acquired by Universal Pictures in 2020, but we’ve heard very little on any follow-ups to The LEGO Movie, The LEGO Batman Movie and so on since then. The time feels right for at least some acknowledgement of future LEGO TV shows or films – even if it is just another Disney+ special.

SDCC 2022 exclusive LEGO minifigures

Love them or hate them, SDCC-exclusive LEGO minifigures probably aren’t going anywhere any time soon. They may not have featured as part of the cancelled 2020 convention (even while exclusive sets like 77906 Wonder Woman and 77905 Taskmaster’s Ambush did make their way on to shelves), but there’s nothing to say they weren’t originally planned.

And that means they could well come back in full force for this year’s event, with all that entails. We’re talking obscure characters from licences that could include Marvel, DC, Stranger Things, Avatar and more, extremely limited availability, and – of course – super-inflated aftermarket prices. It’s the circle of life for convention-exclusive minifigures.

SDCC 2022 exclusive LEGO sets

San Diego Comic-Con is no longer just about the minifigures for the LEGO Group, which has been pumping out full convention-exclusive sets for a number of years now. These typically focus on the established trio of Star Wars, Marvel and DC, though 2020’s sets also extended to a one-off Super Mario Expansion Set, in the form of 77907 Toad’s Special Hideaway.

That suggests all of the LEGO Group’s licensed themes are effectively on the table, which for 2022 could also extend to the likes of Avatar, Jurassic World and Minecraft. Whichever themes it chooses, don’t expect these sets to be as readily available as the 2020 batch: while those ended up in retailers in the US, any produced for this year’s convention will likely only be available at the show, and presumably in very limited numbers.

Nothing is confirmed for San Diego Comic-Con 2022 at the time of writing, but we’ll hopefully find out whether the LEGO Group at least has a presence at the convention soon.

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