TBB readers speak! Your favorite LEGO moments of 2024 [Feature]
Weeks ago, we asked what LEGO moments meant the most to our readers, and heard from so many about their favorite times with the brick over the last year. It feels like 2024 has gone by so fast for me, but it sounds like many of you had time to stop and enjoy LEGO in the last 365 days. While I won’t be able to cover all the submissions we had, here’s a smattering of your favorite LEGO moments from 2024.
The sets we built
The year of 2024 has brought some fantastic LEGO sets. Some, like Darklink82, just mentioned their favorite: LEGO The Legend of Zelda 77092 Great Deku Tree 2-in-1. Others, like our editor Jake, talked about their fun with LEGO Ideas 21348 Dungeons & Dragons: Red Dragon’s Tale:
“My first highlight was running the D&D Red Dragon’s Tale campaign with my 10-year-old daughter. As I don’t have any D&D source books, we winged it and leaned more into the role-play. It was fun to see the pile of loot that accrued over the course of the short campaign. The designers did a phenomenal job designing the set such that it gets experienced one section at a time, with lots of surprises along the way.”
One of our readers, Bill M, enjoyed a packaging detail on LEGO Star Wars 75397 UCS Jabba’s Sail Barge:
“My favorite LEGO moment of 2024 was opening 75397 Jabba’s Sail Barge and getting surprised by Salacious Crumb. He’s hiding on the inner box flap – the perfect image to bring to mind his cackling laugh from Return of the Jedi. It’s a great set with an excellent selection of minifigures, but that thoughtful bit of packaging decoration made it a fun experience.”
But I think I relate most to reader GoujonSC and what they said about a wonderful subtheme from this past year:
“Late 2023 to early 2024, the buzz and re-ignition of so many communities when the LEGO Space waves were revealed, and the modularity, seeing so many people excited and now so many space MOCs from the sub-themes of City and Technic popping up. Its amazing how it brought a large chunk of the community back together.”
I completely agree, and have built so many of those sets, most notably the pair of Friends Space sets with their purple and reddish-orange color scheme.
The events we attended
Many in the hobby dream of visiting Billund, Denmark, the home of The LEGO Group. And for some, this trip happened in 2024. Builder Martin Hulth talked about their experience at the annual Skærbæk Fan Convention in September:
“When I brought my Classic Space Mech and Winter Village Mech all the way from America to the small town of Skærbæk in Denmark and had two of Lego’s most famous designers, Niels Milan Pedersen and Mark Stafford, stop and stare to take them both in. I brought them across the Atlantic to share the Mechs with a new audience, but I had a secondary goal in mind of showing to Lego designers that studs-out building can still be creative and fresh, as I feel the studless building in children’s sets these days stifles creativity. After talking with both of them for a good while, as Mark was leaving he said, “I gotta get back to building some Classic Space.” I felt like my job was done here.”
TBB Contributor Theo thought back fondly on the time in his local community, and the growth he’s seeing in his backyard:
“Highlight of the year for me was my local LEGO event in Jyväskylä. It had almost doubled in size from last year, which was so good to see! Some phenomenal builds on display too. But most heartwarming was seeing that a large portion of the MOCs on display had been built by kids and teenagers. The standard was surprisingly high, and the enthusiasm was second to none. The future of the hobby looks bright in Finland!”
Others, like Sid Dinsay, got back into the groove of attending an in-person LEGO event with his trip to Brickfair Virginia this year:
“It was my first LEGO convention in almost two decades and I’ll admit that I wish it had gone on a few more days longer. The hobby and the toy has evolved—more curved slope elements and SNOT bricks, and of course the overall cost of these sets — but what has remained constant is the fans, and our collective love of the brick. Seeing all those MOCs across different themes was great, but meeting AFOLs old and new, especially OG’s like Joe Meno, was my absolute favorite part.”
And for some, it was connecting major moments in 2024 with their hobby that really left a mark. For Justin S, it was using his minifigure facsimile in photos of the solar eclipse:
“[My best LEGO moment of 2024] was taking pictures of the full solar eclipse in April with my sig-fig. I am so proud of those photos, and it was a great moment to experience in my life. I am thankful the totality path was so close to me, and everything worked out so well.”
It looks like Justin’s sig-fig has sure seen a lot throughout 2024!
The connections we made
I was particularly touched by a submission from Mrs_Foutch, one of a pair of builders we’ve featured on TBB previously with a shared Flickr account. She writes of an amazing experience with a young fan:
“I’m an elementary school teacher in a small Quebec school. I’m also a big fan of LEGO and I use bricks to teach maths and for extracurricular activities. There’s a kid in my class that doesn’t talk much and rarely interacts with me or the other students. Recently, I asked my kiddos to bring objects that are important to them. He brought a Gremlins plush toy. I showed him the Gizmo set that LEGO will produce and to my surprise, he started talking to me. It was our first conversation of the year! He asked me what was the biggest set I ever built and which Ninjago minifig I prefer. Other kids joined the conversation and we talked about LEGO for 15 minutes. Since that day, my student participates more in class and interacts more with me and with the other kids. LEGO really is magic!”
Finally, and a little selfishly, I want to talk about my favorite LEGO moment of 2024. And while there have been a lot of them (far too many to fit into a single article), our BrickCon collaboration display The Brothers Botany was absolutely the highlight for me! We had so many excellent builds come together to show what plant life could be replicated in LEGO form, a bumper crop if you will. Thank you to everyone who participated with us in Seattle, or just followed along on our TBB socials as we highlighted builds from our hometown convention. I may have gotten a little carried away with my botanical enthusiasm during the show…
Wrapping up 2024
It’s definitely been a memorable 2024, full of so many moments in this great hobby of ours. Thank you again to everyone who took time to fill out our form, and be sure to leave some more of your favorite memories in the comments. And with that, bring it on, 2025!
Note: Submitted responses were lightly edited for grammar and spelling.
The post TBB readers speak! Your favorite LEGO moments of 2024 [Feature] appeared first on The Brothers Brick.
