LEGO’s product catalog is saturated with promotional tie-ins and intellectual property (IP) LEGO sets. So how did we get from McDonald’s Happy Meal toys to today’s movie tie-in sets and Comic-Con exclusives? Join us on our journey as we look at LEGO’s IP partnerships of yesteryear.
I do highly suggest you take a read of the first article in this series about the earliest instances of partnerships and co-branded sets, as there were a few I missed in the early years which I will cover starting right now! (Pictures in this article come from BrickLink, BrickEconomy and Brickset.)
Have You Had Yours?
Promotions with UK cereal maker Weetabix were in full swing in the 1970s. Consumers collected tokens from Weetabix boxes and could redeem them for these exclusive sets. 00-1 Vintage Castle was one of the four that was offered. Others included the Weetabix House v1 (1976), Weetabix House v2 (1976), Weetabix Windmill (1976), and the largest set 1589 Main Street (1978).
Weetabix continued through the 1980s with three more sets, 1592 Town Square Castle Scene, a pair of row houses in 1484 Houses (1987), and 1899 Race Car 1 (1989). How many of you saved your tokens and got a few of these Weetabix sets?
They’re Grrrreat!
In 1990, Kellogg’s in the US started cross promotions with LEGO, namely with a brick-built Toucan Sam figure (which seems to be a promotional item given to employees when 15 million boxes of Froot Loops were sold from November 1990 to Feb 1991). Another included a “glued” Tony the Tiger promotional display item (some describe it as sacrilege). As it was likely for store displays, I could see why.
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There were also promotional sets that were available to the public in the form of polybags: Stunt Chopper, Track Blaster, Wave Jumper, Glory Glider, and a Duplo Clown Car. In 1998 a second wave featured a Technic Motorcycle, Car, Plane, Helicopter, and Duck. You could get these with a mail-in postcard from specific cereal boxes. Also in 1998, Adventurers Car 3055-1, was another promo item.
Check out the classic commercial:
In 2006, Tony the Tiger made a comeback in unglued form. Unfortunately, these were not available to the general public and were only given to Kellogg’s Employees as a promotional item.
Always The Real Thing
Moving on from the early days, promotional sets started getting a bit more complex and minifigure-based. With the introduction of the LEGO Studios line, there were several cross-promotions. In conjunction with Japan Coca-Cola, they released the Studios product line with 24 promotional polybag sets, including T-Rex, Pteranodon, Plesiosaur, Tree’s, Color Light (does not light up), Director (who looked a lot like Steven Spielberg), Cameraman, and many others – enough to make a movie set when all combined.
With the release of Harry Potter, Coca-Cola also released “LEGO Harry Potter Coca-Cola Gift Set” which was a combo set made from Aragog Set 4727, Dobby’s Release 4731, Classrooms 4721, Quidditch Practice 4726, Slytherin 4735 and two green baseplates.
Additionally, Coca-Cola released 24 sport-themed polybags to coincide with LEGO’s Spriots lineup of sets. The polybags included: LEGO Football (soccer to the US folks) Coca-Cola Hot Dog Cart, Drink Stands, Goal, Vending Machine, Hot Dog Girl, and Coca-Cola Bottle Case are among the most popular. The rest of the sets were mostly minifig players, including a defender, mid-fielder, forward referee, and goalkeeper, allowing you to create your own LEGO Football team.
Break Out The Bunny
Interestingly, LEGO Studios also included a Nestle cross-promotion with the NesQuik Quicky Film set, NesQuik Rabbit, and NesQuik Rabbit Racer. It turns out NesQuik was also a NASCAR sponsor. Not sure if that counts as a double promotion? (Also here’s a not so fun fact—the minifig head beneath the bunny head is terrifying…)
Chupa Chups: Forever Fun!
In 2003 with LEGO struggling and more kids enjoying Bionicle sets, LEGO finally started to pull out of the downward financial spiral. They stuck with cross-promotional polybag sets, expanding to Australia, New Zealand, and Europe with a Chupa Chups promotion included in their candy.
The polybags primarily focused on LEGO’s current themes of the time, including Alpha Team, Adventurers, World City, Gravity Games, Sports, and Xtreme Stunts sets. This included Dash the Diver, Johnny Thunder, Street Basketball, Beach Dude, and Skater Boy.
Discovery: The World Is Ours
Around this time, LEGO also partnered with the Discovery channel for a full lineup of sets. This inspired young builders with space-themed sets: The International Space Station, Saturn V Moon Mission, Mission to Mars, Space Shuttle Discovery STS-31, Mars Exploration Rover and Lunar Lander.
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Comic-Con Exclusives
2005 marked the year that LEGO REALLY got into exclusives (to the bane of collectors and completionists). LEGO produced sets for Toy Fair 2005 with Anakin Skywalker, Darth Vader, and Liminara Unduli. For San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC), a commemorative box set with Batman and The Joker figures was released with only 250 copies given away to announce the upcoming DC Comics theme.
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LEGO continued the exclusive trend in 2008 with the second wave of exclusive San Diego Comic-Con products including a Batman and Joker set. This year we also got to see a new theme appear – Indiana Jones. (Unfortunately it was to promote the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, but it also included some throwbacks to Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade.) At SDCC 2008, LEGO released the Indiana Jones “BrickMaster” scene. (LEGO Brickmaster started in 2004 as LEGO Magazine until 2011 when it changed to LEGO Master Builder Academy.)
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LEGO also released a New York Toy Fair 2008 exclusive set, limited to 100 copies only, of the Han Solo/Indiana Jones Transformation. Star Wars also showed up as a SDCC set for purchase for attendees with a limited sets combo of 7670 Hailfire Droid and Spider Droid plus the 7654 Droids Battle Pack, Along with four extra clones and Captain Rex with grey ARC gear.
Nickelodeon: We Make Fun
Around 2006, LEGO promotional sets really started to take off with IP sets coming from many different places.
We finally got some Batman-themed sets and Nickelodeon came on board with LEGO. They released several themed sets from series that were on TV at the time: Avatar the Last Air Bender and Spongebob Squarepants. LEGO also released aLEGO Store set (Boford P. Alligator) and a couple of LEGOLAND sets including Pirate Treasure Chest Coin Bank and Pirate Ship. Other IP sets from the era included a British Airways 2928 Small Airline. In addition, LEGO introduced the “Advanced Models” theme releasing the large 10177 Boeing Dreamliner.
In 2007 came a few more Nickelodeon IP sets with Spongebob Squarepants, The Chum Bucket, and Mrs. Puff’s Boating School. This is the year LEGO started including adults in their product targeting and expanded the “Advanced Models” theme with the Eiffel Tower and the first modular, Cafe Corner and Market Street (thank you, Jamie Beard!). In 2007, exclusives continued with an anniversary LEGO duck polybag and the Inside Tour Market Street, branded under “LEGO Factory.”
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Farfegnugen
In 2008, LEGO added 10187 Volkswagen Beatle, licensed by Volkswagen, continuing their partnership from the 1950s.
LEGO City also introduced the cobranded set 4999 Vestas Power Plant Wind Turbine.
SDCC Rides Again
Rounding out the decade in 2009, we end our round-up of exclusive IP partnership sets with SDCC Collectible Display Sets 1-6 for Star Wars figures. This is the same year LEGO released a Mini Republic Drop Ship and a Holo-Brick Archives promotional set (ONLY 3 PIECES!).
Pandora’s LEGO Box
As you can see, LEGO’s promotional tie-in sets really started to explode in popularity in the early 2000s. In my next article, I’ll focus on the 2010s, including the creation of the most important theme for one-off IP promotional sets, LEGO Cuusoo, which morphed into LEGO Ideas. Until then, play well!
Did you own any of these promotional sets? Did you recognize any of the slogans? Let us know in the comments below!
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