The LEGO Group has released their report for the first half of 2018. If you remember back in March, the profits for LEGO declined last year and it looks like there has been mixed results so far for the first half of this year. Consumer sales went up on l% while the revenues stayed flat however the operating profits went up 4%. One of the main reasons for the numbers is because of the closure of Toys R Us in the US, UK, and Australia. The company has to find evolve how they distribute their products in the retail setting.

The top performing themes so far from January 1 through June 30 where LEGO Technic, LEGO Ninjago, LEGO Classic, and LEGO Creator. Also listed on the press release was LEGO City and LEGO Star Wars which continue to be one of their more popular themes.

Developments in first half 2018:
• Global consumer sales grew 1% in the six months to June 2018
• Revenue has stabilised and growth is flat while operating profit is up 4 percent in constant exchange rates compared with the same period in 2017.
• In DKK terms, revenue was 14.3 billion, a decline of 5 percent compared with 14.9 billion in the first half of 2017. Operating profit declined 4 percent to DKK 4.2 billion. Net profit was DKK 3.0 billion, down 10 percent. Cash flow from operating activities was DKK 4.1 billion, compared with DKK 4.6 billion in 2017. These declines were driven mainly by the weakening of

Continuing on with my coverage of the 40th anniversary of the LEGO minifigure, we now turn our attention to the evolution of the minifigure. LEGO has sent over a number of images of various minifigures which show them as a prototype from the mid-to-late 1970s as well as the final products that were released in 1978. Some of these minifigures include the doctors, firefighters, spacemen, and police. We even get to see the old minifigures compared to some of the more recently released ones.

Doctor

Spacemen

Policemen

Firemen

Allen "Tormentalous" Tran

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For the past few days, I’ve been covering the 40th anniversary of the LEGO minifigure and I’ve already talked about the patents and the designer sketches. Now that there’s an idea of what kind of minifigure LEGO has greenlighted, we turn our attention to the molds that are used to create the minifigures. LEGO has sent over some images of the different molds that are used to create the various pieces that go into a minifigure such as the head, torso, arms, hands, hips, and legs.

Stay tuned as we have a few more posts to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the LEGO minifigure.

Allen "Tormentalous" Tran

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The Brick Fan is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

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Continuing with my coverage of the LEGO minifigure’s 40th birthday, we’ve already taken a look at some of the patents that have been granted and after that, we go to the design process of some minifigures that have been produced already. Below are some hand sketches from various LEGO designers to show some of the details and thought processes of how they came up with the particular characters. Again, we as fans don’t usually see this kind of stuff so we definitely appreciate that LEGO sent over some assets for us to share to the community.

Alexandre Boudon

Austin Carlson

Chris Bonven

Matthew James Ashton

Tara Wike

Allen "Tormentalous" Tran

When you make a purchase or, sometimes, carry out some other action as direct result of clicking on a link at The Brick Fan, we will receive a small commission.

The Brick Fan is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

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On this day in Denmark back in 1977, the first patent for the LEGO Minifigure was handed in but there are also other patents for many other countries as well granted on different dates. As you can see below, some of these countries include the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, and China. LEGO chose August 29 to celebrate the birthday of the LEGO minifigure and the date seems random but there’s an explanation.

August 29th has been chosen as this was the original date that the first patent was filed in Denmark, in 1977. The first minifigures were not launched until 1978, hence we are celebrating the 40th anniversary of the first launched minifigures and not when the first patent was filed.

Allen "Tormentalous" Tran

When you make a purchase or, sometimes, carry out some other action as direct result of clicking on a link at The Brick Fan, we will receive a small commission.

The Brick Fan is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

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In Denmark, it is August 29 and this was the original date that the first patent of the LEGO minifigure was handed in back in 1977. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the LEGO minifigure, LEGO has sent over a ton of assets for us to use and to show you some of the behind the scene stuff of how the minifigure went from an idea to what we have now. Note that the first minifigures were not launched until 1978, and hence LEGO is celebrating the 40th anniversary of the first launched minifigures and not when the first patent was handed in, which is opposite to the 60th celebration of the LEGO brick.

Some of the images that were sent to us include design sketches of the Collectible Minifigures line and some of the design process of some of the characters from the past few years.

In addition, we also have an infographic showing some of the key milestones of the minifigure development from 1974 to today.

Since there’s so much content that LEGO has provided us with, I’ll be spreading the posts out for the next few days so stay tuned as you’ll get a look at things that you normally don’t see from LEGO. Before I leave, there’s a short story about the LEGO Minifigure.

Little Figure, Big Story
Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the LEGO® minifigure

In 1978, Disco was dominating the charts, mobile phones were non-existent and the Internet was still more than a decade away. It was also the year