LEGO House Exclusive Sets: Only in Billund
There is only one LEGO House—“The Home of the Brick”. Built as the ultimate expression of the LEGO hobby, any LEGO fans wanting to experience this awesome attraction must make the pilgrimage to Billund, Denmark. For such an exclusive destination, it’s only natural that they have exclusive LEGO sets available, so this article will showcase the sets that have only been available at the LEGO House, updated for 2023.
LEGO House (4000010)
The first LEGO House model from 2014 pre-dates the actual building which opened in 2017. My understanding is that LEGO produced these sets and gave them to local businesses that were affected by the construction. The businesses could sell them as they saw fit. It was probably a good idea to make a goodwill gesture like this since construction took much longer than first anticipated!
LEGO House (4000010 - 215 pieces)
The building is all white, placed on a light bluish-gray and black base with a printed tile, similar to the LEGO Architecture series. This is one of only two exclusive models to include a minifigure (just a bit out of scale!). Steen Sig Andersen designed this set.
LEGO House (21037)
This was the first exclusive sold in the LEGO House, starting at the 2017 opening, and seems to be an evergreen Architecture-style model, which will likely continue to be offered for the foreseeable future. Just like the real building, the model is predominantly white when viewed horizontally. But from above it has a pleasing array of colors. The central five blocks can be removed as a combined assembly revealing an interior scene with a microscale Tree of Creativity and the surrounding staircase.
LEGO House (21037 - 774 pieces)
Rok Zgalin Kobe designed this version which is also placed on a light bluish gray and black base with a printed tile. I’m surprised that the instructions for this version of the model have you place the printed tile near the back of the building—I’ve always thought the front of the building has the yellow and blue stepped slopes. But it is easy enough to fix the tile placement—it’s LEGO after all.
Tree of Creativity (4000026)
Tree of Creativity (4000026 – 837 pieces)
The Tree of Creativity was offered starting in 2018 and is a downsized version of the LEGO Inside Tour set from 2017. Both versions were designed by Steen Sig Andersen based on a sketch model by Stuart Harris. (Stuart has also designed the sketch models for all of the subsequent LEGO House exclusives). The actual LEGO House tree is extremely impressive! At 6,316,611 pieces, I believe it is the largest LEGO model ever built. This was certainly an excellent subject for a LEGO House exclusive set.
The set uses a strong Technic spine for stability. There are recreations of classic LEGO themes on select branches, and icons “carved” into the tree trunk. There is a single LEGO House minifigure provided in the set (though sadly, not the Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen or Thomas Kirk Kristiansen minifigures which were exclusive to the Inside Tour version of the tree).
Dinosaurs (40366)
The Dinosaurs set designed by Nina Koopman was available starting in 2019. She has done a good job capturing the three dinosaurs which inhabit the Masterpiece Gallery. Her selection of LEGO elements conveys the Duplo, System, and Technic construction of the three real dinos. While slightly larger dinosaurs would have been nice, given the price point and the desire to include all three, the set design seems to be a pretty good compromise of factors.
Dinosaurs (40366 – 864 pieces)
Nerdy disclaimer time! My big criticism of the set is that it creates disharmony in the LEGO universe. Each of the two eggs in front of the dinos is constructed using four White Wedge 4 x 2 Triple Left. So that’s 24 left wedge pieces per set without corresponding right wedge pieces! I thought I was being a little compulsive until a fellow BrickNerd brought up the same concern unprompted during one of our Nerd Out calls! I get it, adding an additional element adds to the production cost (an additional step on the assembly line, additional instruction steps, etc.). But given the premium nature of these exclusive sets, it still would have been nice to have 12 equal left and right pieces.
Side Note: Temporarily not as exclusive!
Starting in May 2020 the LEGO House, Tree of Creativity and Dinosaur sets were temporarily offered for sale on LEGO.com. This was due to the pandemic lockdowns/closures, and the sets were only available in select European countries.
The Wooden Duck (40501)
The Wooden Duck has come to symbolize the wooden toy era of the LEGO company. While not the first wooden toy, the duck was one of the more popular toys and was produced in multiple color variations. The wooden duck also symbolizes the “Only the Best Is Good Enough” company quality motto. 2020 brought the iconic wooden duck to the LEGO House as the latest exclusive designed by Jme Wheeler.
Wooden Duck (40501- 621 pieces)
Like the real wooden duck design, the bill moves up and down as the duck is pulled along a surface. Sadly (or thankfully), there is no quacking sound. It's interesting that both wheel axles of this duck have a cam mechanism, even though only one is functional to activate the moving bill.
Starting with the Tree of Creativity, all of the exclusives have had the same price point of DKK 599. While the wooden duck design is extremely successful, this set has the smallest number of pieces for the money, and the boxed set doesn’t have the same “heft” as the other exclusives.
Brick Moulding Machine (40502)
Markus Rollbühler designed the wonderful 2021 LEGO House exclusive set. The Brick Moulding Machine is based on the actual moulding machine in the LEGO House. Guests can watch red 2 x 4 bricks get moulded, counted, and packaged. Each guest takes home a package of 6 bricks, along with their personalized card showing one of the 915,103,765 possible combinations with six identical 2 x 4 bricks.
Brick Moulding Machine (40502 – 1205 pieces)
Besides accurately capturing the machine design, the set has a play function which opens/closes the two mould halves depicting the six red bricks. BrickNerd trivia time: While the actual mould can produce six bricks at a time, when I visited the LEGO House, they blocked the plastic inlet for two of the six mould cavities. I can only guess this is done so guests get to see more machine operations without producing too many bricks for the daily demand.
Speaking of the six red bricks, I guess this polybag of six bricks counts as another LEGO House exclusive? If that is the case, we need to mention the tiny polybags with bricks used to order food at Mini Chef and the elusive Chef themself! There have been four variations of the Chef Minifigure to date (fourth image via BrickLink). Also worth noting is that pre-school-aged guests receive six red 2 x 4 Duplo bricks (moulded offsite) instead of standard LEGO System bricks. Here are photos of those polybags.
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In a small preview of a coming addition, the set includes tan printed tiles of the bags the guests receive. While the actual bags are currently still clear plastic, the tan tiles represent the forthcoming change to paper bags.
Dagny Holm Master Builder (40503)
Dagny Holm is regarded as the first LEGO master builder. She had a long career working with the bricks and was instrumental in the creation of models for the first LEGOLAND park. Markus Rollbühler has depicted her in an elaborate miniland-scale model shop setting in the 2022 exclusive set. The set is a masterful example of both miniland and microscale building techniques. The set includes eight unique printed tiles. Two are for the nameplate and six represent milestones in Dagny’s career.
Dagny Holm Master Builder (40503 – 1068 pieces)
Long before standing desks became broadly popular, adjustable height workstations were used in LEGO model production shops (LEGOLANDs, Enfield CT, Kladno, etc.). The whole point is to keep the proper ergonomic height as the model grows in height, and Markus has designed a fully functional miniland-scale version of these model shop desks! (Somewhat ironically, LEGOLAND California has recently replaced their adjustable desks with fixed height tables).
As an enthusiast of LEGO history, I was familiar with Dagny Holm and some of her contributions to the company. However, I wonder if this set will have the same broad appeal to casual LEGO House visitors like the Tree of Creativity, Dinosaurs or Moulding Machine sets have had. But anyone that buys this set will certainly be rewarded with an enjoyable building experience!
Minifigure Tribute (40504)
The 45th anniversary of the LEGO minifigure was celebrated in 2023 by the release of The Minifigure Tribute set. This 6X scale model of the iconic Captain Redbeard minifigure captures all the revolutionary features including his hook, pegleg, beard and eye patch printing, and his pirate hat with skull and crossbones.
The fully movable and poseable maxifig is shown below with the first four models in the LEGO House limited edition series. Hopefully these sets will continue to be an annual release! Read more about Captain Red Beard here.
LEGO House Tribute (40563) Models Available Worldwide
In 2022, the LEGO House celebrated its 5th birthday. Miniature versions of the first five exclusive sets were offered by LEGO as a gift-with-purchase (GWP) set. These tiny tribute models gave LEGO fans an opportunity to experience building LEGO House models, even if they couldn’t travel to Billund to purchase the full-size versions.
You can read more about these replicas and see comparisons to the original exclusives here.
Bonus Sets from Billund
While not directly related to the LEGO House, this seems like a good place to report on another few exclusive sets that you can only get in Billund.
Billund Airport is only available to passengers departing from the airport. Besides the limited availability, this set is unique in that it has dual pricing. The price is DKK 399 if you buy three or fewer sets. If you buy four or more, the price jumps to DKK 899! Undoubtedly, this dual pricing is to discourage resellers or to help travelers save space in their carry-on luggage.
There have been two versions of the set:
Billund Airport (4000016 – 281 pieces) 2014
Billund Airport (40199 – 286 pieces) 2018
The concept model was designed by Lennart Cort, an employee of the airport LEGO store. Lennart has since left the retail store and now works as a designer in the Creator 3-in-1 team! The final design of both versions was finished by Mel Caddick. The first version supposedly was limited to 10,000 sets. The updated version (shown assembled in the photo) has five additional pieces to reflect the expansion of the departure terminal (can you spot the difference in the box photos?). There’s no word whether or not production of this later version is limited.
Finally, we have to mention the new LEGO Campus set (4000038, 1,494 pieces) by designer Niels M. Frederiksen. While not available for purchase to visitors, it does indeed merit mentioning along with other sets that have only been available in Billund. It was handed out to LEGO employees who would be working in the new facility as documented by fellow BrickNerd Are during his site visit.
A visit to the LEGO House is highly recommended whether you want to purchase exclusive sets or not! They normally stock the three latest exclusives, plus the evergreen LEGO House Architecture model. While no official statement has been made, I’m personally expecting the next new exclusive to be announced next spring, so stay tuned for more. Building and collecting these excellent exclusive sets is a fun reminder of visiting Billund and experiencing The Home of the Brick.
Which LEGO House exclusive set is your favorite? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!
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