LEGO has slowly built up a LEGO-fied version of London

Although LEGO Ideas 21347 Red London Telephone Box isn’t on the same scale as other London-based sets, there’s still a brick-built history that unifies them all.

Some LEGO sets are based on licensed fictional universes, some on real-life places, and some on fictional worlds that the LEGO Group itself has created. Even for sets like 21347 Red London Telephone Box that are grounded in reality, however, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re set in the London that locals and tourists will know.

In fact, judging from some of the locations referenced in the set, the LEGO Group has been gradually expanding on a LEGO-specific version of the capital city, with its own landmarks, road names, and so on. This starts years before, in sets like the now-retired 10258 London Bus.

“There are some quite nice connections between 21347 Red London Telephone Box and 10258 London Bus,” explained fan designer John Cramp. “There’s a poster inside [the phone box] with a bus tour ad on it and the sign outside has ‘City of Brickston’ on it. Brickston is also mentioned on the front of the bus, so that ties them both together, almost as if they’re in the same part of London.”

Indeed, this gradual creation of a LEGO-fied London has been built up over years. Part of this is simply as a fun nod for LEGO fans and partly to avoid licensing issues. The printed crown on the side of 21347 Red London Telephone Box is a brick-style remake of the actual royal crown that you’ll see on actual K2 telephone boxes, as there are specific licenses around who can use the real royal image.

“We have a history of doing our LEGO-fied version of London on 10258 London Bus and sets like that,” agreed LEGO Ideas Design Manager Jordan Scott. “It just made sense to continue that.

“It was a lot of fun coming up with another street that we could utilise for this one and that’s why we have Buildmore as a road sign. Marina [Stampoli, LEGO designer], the rest of the team and I had endless ideas of how could we use different LEGO words to make up street signs.”

While not every one of those names made it into the final set of course, perhaps they will make an appearance in future London-based models to further flesh out the LEGO-fied city that we’ve been getting snapshots of over the years.

21347 Red London Telephone Box will be available to buy both online and in stores from February 1 for LEGO Insiders, with a wider launch on February 4, retailing at £99.99 / $114.99 / €114.99. You can find out more about the upcoming LEGO Ideas set by checking out our visual tour here, as well as hear more from the designers about potential customisation options, hidden references you might not have spotted, and which other LEGO Ideas set pairs perfectly with the upcoming release.

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