Here’s why LEGO went so big in 2021

The LEGO Group’s Gen Cruz explains why the company went big in 2021, pumping out multiple record-breaking sets at sizes and price points we’ve never seen before.

If there’s one thing we can all agree on from the past 12 months in LEGO, it’s that you’ll have needed incredibly deep pockets to keep up with everything. The LEGO Group has smashed records left, right and centre this year: three of the biggest LEGO sets of all time arrived on shelves (31203 World Map, 10294 Titanic and 75313 AT-AT), alongside the biggest Ideas set ever in 21330 Home Alone and the biggest Marvel set ever in 76178 Daily Bugle.

75313 AT-AT also took the crown for the most expensive set of all time in the UK at £699.99 (already a reduction from its original price of £749.99), while tying with 75192 Millennium Falcon in the US and Europe at $799.99 and €799.99 respectively. But according to LEGO for Adults Head of Product Gen Cruz, the company’s policy for 2021 wasn’t intentionally ‘go big or go home’.

“It’s really happened organically,” Gen tells Brick Fanatics. “When we gather with the designers, we think about what kind of experience we want to create. So we don’t think immediately in terms of, this needs to be a big set or a small set – we think about what are the passion areas that adults would be interested in? And then what is the best expression of that?

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“And then it so happens that for some of them, they are really, really big expressions like 10276 Colosseum or 10294 Titanic. I would still say that the primary consideration is, what is it that we think the consumers would want? And then finding the best articulation of that in LEGO form.”

For the Titanic, it just so happens to be that the best articulation is a staggering 9,090-piece replica, which measures an overwhelming 1.35m from one end to the other. We’d say good luck finding somewhere to display that, but the LEGO Group clearly thinks it’s what consumers want – and if the set’s unavailability since launch is anything to go by, it’s not wrong.

In fact, the company has been struggling to keep up with demand for some of those record-breaking sets for weeks, including 21330 Home Alone. Coming in at 3,955 pieces – some 293 more than 21323 Grand Piano – it’s undoubtedly the biggest LEGO Ideas set of all time, but that hasn’t stopped fans from snapping it up.

Will that success push the company to go even bigger and bolder in 2022? The jury’s out, although rumours of a $530 LEGO Star Wars set and a $470 LEGO Harry Potter set – the most expensive LEGO Wizarding World product of all time – are already starting to circulate online, so we could yet be in for another bumper year.

Click here for a full rundown of the biggest LEGO sets released in 2021, and head here for more content looking back over another incredible year for the brick.

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Author Profile

Chris Wharfe
I like to think of myself as a journalist first, LEGO fan second, but we all know that’s not really the case. Journalism does run through my veins, though, like some kind of weird literary blood – the sort that will no doubt one day lead to a stress-induced heart malfunction. It’s like smoking, only worse. Thankfully, I get to write about LEGO until then.

Chris Wharfe

I like to think of myself as a journalist first, LEGO fan second, but we all know that’s not really the case. Journalism does run through my veins, though, like some kind of weird literary blood – the sort that will no doubt one day lead to a stress-induced heart malfunction. It’s like smoking, only worse. Thankfully, I get to write about LEGO until then.

One thought on “Here’s why LEGO went so big in 2021

  • 22/12/2021 at 19:25
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    Good luck in trying to get titanic that’s all my son wanted for Christmas he’s gunner be disappointed can’t get one anywhere ?

    Reply

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