Six things we want to see from LEGO in 2022

It’s been a pretty good year for the LEGO Group, but from new products to a change in marketing, here are six ways 2022 could be even better.

Looking back at the past 12 months, there are a handful of stories that have really defined the LEGO Group’s 2021: doubling down on its new push into the adult market; embracing and championing diversity through its actions and products; and, unfortunately, the doomed launch of LEGO VIDIYO.

There are plenty of lessons to take away from the year just gone, in terms of both what worked and what didn’t – and with that in mind, here are six things we’d love to see from the LEGO Group in 2022.

6 – A bigger push towards sustainability

In summer 2021, the LEGO Group debuted its first prototype brick made entirely from recycled plastic bottles. It’s only a proof-of-concept for now, though: it’ll be a long while before we start to see it mass-produced in sets. Regardless, we’re expecting to see the LEGO Group continue to push towards its sustainability goals in 2022, including making all its packaging sustainable by 2025.

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The first major step in that process will begin with the wide roll-out of paper bags, replacing the plastic bags currently included inside LEGO boxes. You can take a look at the first finished paper bags in 2021’s employee gift. What’s next? Well, reducing box sizes (where applicable) would be a good start, alongside coming up with alternative packaging for the Collectible Minifigures and accessory packs.

5 – Better availability

It’s no secret that the LEGO Group has suffered from supply chain issues for much of 2021. Head over to LEGO.com in the US right now, and you’re going to have trouble finding much left to buy. The UK and European sites fare a little better, but there’s still plenty out of stock or otherwise on back order, with shipping dates as late as March 2022.

While plenty of the company’s production woes likely rest on external factors beyond its control, we’d still like to see it do more to better meet demand for its products. Case in point: 10294 Titanic has been out of stock basically since day one. It’s no good designing some of the best sets in a generation if nobody can get their hands on them…

4 – The return of BIONICLE

2022 marks the LEGO Group’s 90th anniversary, and it’s an occasion the company has already announced it’s planning to celebrate with at least one nostalgia-driven product. The theme for that set was selected through a LEGO Ideas poll in 2021, with the voting public narrowing it down to either Castle, Classic Space, Pirates or BIONICLE.

An overall winner was chosen through a second fan vote, but we won’t know which theme took the crown until later in 2022. Whichever one it is might not have any bearing on the identity of the 90th anniversary set, though: the original announcement for the poll simply stated that one of the themes would be the basis for the product, and the vote was only to find the most popular among fans.

Given Castle, Pirates and Classic Space have all had their moment in the spotlight over the past few years, we’re keeping everything crossed for the return of BIONICLE.

3 – Even more diversity

Between the launch of 40516 Everyone is Awesome, a pledge to cease gender bias in marketing, and a welcome mix of gender and race across its minifigure and mini-doll line-up, the LEGO Group had a pretty good year for championing inclusivity and diversity. But as Women’s Brick Initiative has already pointed out, there’s still plenty of room to go even further in 2022.

Collectible Minifigures 71032 Series 22 returning to 71027 Series 20’s 50/50 split between male and female characters is a good start, and we’ll echo WBI in stating we’d like to see it expand to encompass other themes, including CITY and Friends. But going beyond its core product lines, we’d love to see the LEGO Group doing even more as a company to celebrate diversity in 2022.

2 – The return of colourful boxes

The LEGO Group believes its 18+ packaging – which unifies its sets for adults across bland black boxes – is doing the business, but we’d like to see it break the mould at least once or twice in 2022. There are so many sets that arrived on shelves in 2021 that would have looked tonnes better with a splash of colour on their packaging, from 21325 Medieval Blacksmith to 75313 AT-AT.

The standard black box admittedly works pretty nicely for some sets (10294 Titanic and 10295 Porsche 911 spring to mind), but it would be nice to see the LEGO Group exercise some freedom in how it approaches its packaging, making exceptions – as promised – for those sets that would really benefit from it. Unique packaging worked wonders for 10282 Adidas Originals Superstar

1 – A brand new in-house theme

LEGO VIDIYO may have flopped straight out of the gate, but that doesn’t mean the LEGO Group should stop trying new things. If anything, it’s simply a sign that it should instead return to its roots, sideline any attempts to bridge physical and digital play, and focus on the building experience first and foremost.

We’re not necessarily talking about the next NINJAGO – not everything needs to become an evergreen theme – but something that can capture an audience across at least a couple of waves, with imaginative sets, fresh characters and exciting functions would be great to see. Don’t overcomplicate things with an app or digital experience: just keep it focused on the sets and minifigures. Something like Atlantis or Vikings would absolutely fit the bill.

From everything we know about 2022 so far, we’re only looking at new products in existing themes for the foreseeable future – but here’s hoping the LEGO Group has something genuinely new and exciting up its sleeve for later in the year…

For a comprehensive look back at all that 2021 had to offer, check out our Year in Review series.

Support the work that Brick Fanatics does by purchasing your LEGO through one of our affiliate links.

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.

15 thoughts on “Six things we want to see from LEGO in 2022

  • 31/05/2022 at 19:01
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    We don’t want ANY diversity in Lego sets! Its divisive. Kids should not be taught to see the human race as divided up into colours. Lego was always fully inclusive… everyone was an unrealistic, primary coloured yellow. And they were all smiling. Then the left came for Lego, and like every other company ever, Lego caved instead of telling them to go away like they would’ve in the old days. I actually remember an old article in the 90s where someone had gone to Lego and said ‘why aren’t there any black people in Lego sets’ and Lego’s actual response at the time was ‘there aren’t any white people either. There are only Lego people.’

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  • 03/01/2022 at 02:01
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    Will the recycled LEGO Elements be as powerful as the traditional ABS LEGO Elements? Also, everyone that champions for so-called “diversity” is ironically an intolerant bigot, and the LGBT/woke crowd are ironically just as, if not even more, toxic, than the people that they condemn in the first place. Moreover, LEGO is supposed to be a toy that is supposed to be about people using THEIR OWN ideas and imaginations and NOT the agenda peddling of other people, including the people that run the company, which reminds me, anyone that promotes the LGBT/woke agendas needs to be removed immediately from LEGO, period, full stop.

    Now as for what LEGO needs, well, I will tell you what it actually needs.

    1. LEGO needs to reintroduce the Classic/Old Gray and Classic/Old Blue colors to its products.
    2. LEGO needs to reintroduce Retired Elements to its line up and products.
    3. LEGO needs to make more diversity with its available Elements in regards to not only what a person can get in person in LEGO Store and LEGOLAND locations, but also online, and to also do so through Bricklink and other similar Classic and Modern LEGO parts places as well.
    4. LEGO honestly needs to reintroduce other more deserving themes for a modern era than Bionicle. Please do not misunderstand me, I absolutely love Bionicle and its lore, but where is the love for the Pirates, Space, Castle, Wild West, Ninja, or Adventurers themes? I honestly would rather see those six themes return as their own things than to see a revival of Bionicle.
    5. If you want a new LEGO theme, then you might want to go to something that LEGO has never done before outright, namely, LEGO needs to have an all new theme that is an homage to beat-em-up/brawler video games, and also have a new LEGO video game tie in to this franchise. Let me tell you why this is a good idea.
    a. LEGO currently has essentially base element beat-em-up/brawler mechanics in most of its video games, and they also work pretty good most of the time.
    b. LEGO video games already possess a wide variety of characters in the vast majority of its LEGO video game titles that attack their enemies in a variety of styles, and beat-em-up/brawler video games also just so happen to rely upon diverse characters with unique fighting styles as well, thus it is fitting for making a LEGO beat-em-up/brawler video game.
    c. LEGO, in both video game, and real world, forms, already have a wide variety of weapons, and it also just so happens to be the sort of thing that happens to be in beat-em-up/brawler video games as well.
    I could name more reasons of why having a beat-em-up/brawler LEGO video game is a good idea for LEGO, but those three reasons should be sufficient enough of an argument.
    6. I would like to see LEGO expand its factories across the world, and the USA could use some LEGO factories.

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  • 02/01/2022 at 17:59
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    When will Titanic be available refuse to pay £800 + for one

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  • 01/01/2022 at 19:18
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    So you want Lego to use paper bags instead of plastic but more ink in the outer packaging? How does that help the environment. Dear Lego…bring back goats. Only one set (non Duplo) had goats and you cannot find a replaceme t anywhere for less than $60. I even wrote to Lego and they have none in stock. Thank you. Sincerely, a dad with goats and a 6 year old daughter obsessed with goats.

    Reply
  • 01/01/2022 at 14:41
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    I’m so sick and tired of everyone telling us how good lego has been. Well I’m here with a dissenting opinion because I’m not a sheep and I don’t work for lego. First off, Legos prices are to the point now that it’s sickening. A toy that costs you 5 cents to make in a factory in China you now charge 9 hundred and fifty dollars for. You’ve been out of stock on everything for months and now to top it all off you’ve got a sale going on product that doesn’t even exist anymore or is not in stock. Lego, your product is for children you greedy pigs. Step your game up.

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  • 01/01/2022 at 10:39
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    The thing I want to see from is a Halloween themed Lego set of famous horror movie Michael Myers for any Lego sets of any of the movies

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  • 01/01/2022 at 07:29
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    My eyes rolled right out of their sockets at “the return of bionicle”. LEGO isn’t touching that again because only the three remaining fans actually care, it will never come back, cope and seethe. Don’t even get me started on “diversity”.

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  • 01/01/2022 at 07:14
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    This whole article is absolute nonsense. “Sustainable” “Diverse” “More Colorful”. What moron who hasn’t put together a Lego set in years wrote this? Go woke, go broke.

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  • 01/01/2022 at 00:58
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    I would like to see more winter homes

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  • 01/01/2022 at 00:53
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    Some good points in here. The push for more colourful packaging does fly in the face of the push for more eco friendly business practices though. It’s either more colour or more eco really. Plain brown cardboard is the more sustainable option I thought. Maybe that would work to usher in a new wave of Lego sets made entirely out of recycled plastics? I’d buy the hell out of that!

    Reply
  • 31/12/2021 at 16:07
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    #6, #4, #3 and to a lesser extent #2 are things that very few fans care about. Sustainability, gender, race? Most fans want to see creative beautiful creations.

    Reply
  • 31/12/2021 at 15:46
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    Lego Castle was the most voted.
    The problem is that it was divided in sub-themes.
    I bet it’s the winning one in the second round 🙂

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  • 31/12/2021 at 15:35
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    The worst thing you could have done is show the snowtroopers in the diversity section I don’t care about politics in Lego and I surely prefer lore accuracy in the star Wars sets

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  • 31/12/2021 at 14:29
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    Very impressive – I disagree with all points.

    I just want a new train, like the 10277.

    Reply

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