Well folks, this is our final article from here in midtown Manhattan at Toy Fair New York 2018. Today we’ve brought you hands-on coverage of LEGO’s latest, including new Harry Potter, Jurassic World, and Star Wars sets, among others. Our day started this morning at 7AM when LEGO gave us an early-access tour of their booth before the Toy Fair officially opened.
Out in the lobby of the Javits Convention Center, LEGO has struck a bold image of the brick with this massive 8-foot tall 2×4 brick to celebrate the brick’s 60th anniversary. This is the same brick that was placed in front of the Flatiron building in New York.
Behind the brick is a large wall with a timeline of key dates in LEGO history. You can get a closer view of the timeline here when we posted a high resolution version.
A special booth in the vestibule features winners of the Toy of the Year awards in a variety of categories. Impressively, LEGO picked up three awards.
75192 UCS Millennium Falcon – Winner of the Specialty Toy of the Year Award17101 Boost Creative Toolbox – Winner of the Tech Toy of the Year Award75187 BB-8 – Winner of the Construction Toy of the Year Award.
Inside the convention hall itself, LEGO’s booth spans an entire booth block and is surrounded by high walls. Normally, entrance is permitted by appointment only. Although LEGO is the largest toy manufacturer in the world, but other than the size of its booth footprint, its presence at the toy fair is quite subdued, especially in comparison to brands like Ty and Mattel, who hang building-sized banners at every entrance.
At the entrance to LEGO’s booth, they take the opportunity to celebrate the brick’s birthday a little more, with a much smaller (but still huge) 2×4 brick wearing a brick-built birthday hat.
Inside the booth, the special press event is quite crowded, especially if you’re wielding a large camera and trying to avoid too many strangers’ hands and shadows in your photos.
LEGO also revealed the Incredibles 2 sets, which consist of three small sets. Buying all three with get you the full Incredibles family. Unfortunately, we were asked not to photograph these, as the licensing deal with Disney won’t let them announce them yet. However, we shouldn’t have long to wait, as all three are slated for release in April.
If you’re wondering if this looks like fewer new sets than we covered last year, that’s because it is. LEGO chose not to display most sets being released during the second half of 2018. In addition, they also oddly chose to exclude many sets which are already announced, such as the new wave of Speed Champions. However, look for our own, hands-on review of them soon, and we’ll be keeping a close eye on things to bring you news on all the rest of the 2018 sets as soon as they’re available.
Check out the rest of our Toy Fair New York 2018 coverage:
- LEGO Star Wars Kessell Run Millennium Falcon
- LEGO Star Wars Spring 2018 sets
- LEGO BrickHeadz Go Brick Me
- LEGO Collectible Minifigures Series 18 Party Figures
- LEGO Marvel Super Heroes UCS Hulkbuster
- LEGO Ninjago Boost Expansion set
- LEGO Jurassic World sets
- LEGO Harry Potter Hogwarts Castle
- LEGO Merchandise
I thought Ty was a typo for Tyco, but apparently Ty was the maker of Beanie Babies and various other plush toys.
It makes me so sad to see that not only have they cancelled Bionicle, but didn’t even put the theme which saved the company from bankruptcy that one time on the timeline….
Well, the last Bionicle sets failed to leave up to expectations, and current Constraction sets need to ride on the Star Wars wave to sell.
Speaking of which, Star Wars is another notable exclusion on the time line, and the theme – in all its various incarnations – is still a major seller.