| Monday, April 7, 1891 |
Ole Kirk Christiansen is born | Ole Kirk Christiansen is born in Filskov, Denmark. |
| Tuesday, July 6, 1920 |
Godtfred Kirk Christiansen is born | Godtfred Kirk Christiansen is born in Billund, Denmark. |
| Saturday, September 10, 1932 |
LEGO starts producing toys | The LEGO company is founded by Ole Kirk Christiensen as a toy company, with the "LEGO" name coming two years later. |
| Saturday, December 1, 1934 |
LEGO becomes "LEGO" | Searching for a name for his company that started making toys in 1932, Ole Kirk Christiensen decides on "LEGO". |
| Sunday, March 22, 1942 |
Fire destroys the LEGO factory | When a factory fire destroyed the LEGO factory and its contents in 1942, Ole rebuilt all the production models himself to get the company back up and running. This was the 3rd fire to affect the LEGO company. |
| Saturday, December 27, 1947 |
Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen is born | Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen is born in Billund, Denmark. His last name is incorrectly transcribed onto his birth certificate with a "K" rather than a "C". |
| Monday, December 12, 1949 |
Hilary Page is granted a patent for the studded brick | Hilary Fisher Page is granted a UK patent for his "Self-Locking Bricks", which was applied for in 1945 (and already being sold in 1947). LEGO would later slightly alter and market this design in Demark as "Automatic Binding Bricks". |
| Saturday, May 1, 1954 |
LEGO officially registered as a trademark | The word LEGO was officially registered as a trademark in Denmark. |
| Tuesday, January 28, 1958 |
The LEGO Brick patent is filed | The original LEGO brick with its stud-and-tube coupling system is born |
| Tuesday, March 11, 1958 |
Ole Kirk Christiansen dies | Ole Kirk Christiansen dies, leaving his son Godtfred in charge of the LEGO company. |
| Thursday, February 4, 1960 |
Fire destroys LEGO's wooden toy division | The LEGO company's warehouse for the wooden toy division (Bilofix) is destroyed by a fire. This ended the LEGO company's wooden toy division completely, and was the 4th fire to affect the Christiansens. |
| Friday, June 7, 1968 |
Legoland Park in Billund is opened | Legoland Park in Billund is opened. 3,000 people visit on the opening day. |
| Saturday, March 16, 1991 |
LegoWars rulebook written | Todd Ogrin writes the manual for a LEGO-based miniatures game developed in cooperation with Eric O'Dell, which they called "LegoWars". |
| Wednesday, April 7, 1993 |
First LEGO FAQ Posted | Tom Pfeifer posts the first LEGO FAQ (also later referred to as the RTL FAQ). |
| Wednesday, April 21, 1993 |
LegoWars Rules Posted | Robert Ogrin posts the rules for a LEGO miniatures game called LegoWars, developed with Eric O'Dell. The game would later evolve into BrikWars. |
| Friday, May 7, 1993 |
First Set List Posted | Dik T. Winter posts the first attempt at a comprehensive LEGO set list, initially containing only sets from 1984-1993. |
| Thursday, November 11, 1993 |
List of Part Numbers posted | Peter Miller compiles a list of LEGO "Design IDs", which would later be used in systems like LDraw. |
| Tuesday, December 21, 1993 |
The USENET newsgroup rec.toys.lego is voted in | In October 1993, about 9 months after alt.toys.lego, a proposal was drafted to create a more widely propagated group for LEGO, rec.toys.lego. Voting concluded on December 21st, and results were announced on January 3rd, 1994. |
| Monday, January 10, 1994 |
rec.toys.lego newsgroup is created | The rec.toys.lego (RTL) newsgroup is created in the rec.* hierarchy of USENET. Charter: "To provide a forum for the discussion of all things and experiences relating to the LEGO(tm), Duplo(tm) and compatible construction toys. Including interesting models that one has built, experiences one has had using legos, or questions about how to build particular components." |
| Wednesday, April 6, 1994 |
Paul Gyugyi announces LegoNet | Paul Gyugyi starts collecting memberships for LegoNet, envisioned as a hobby-oriented newsletter. Within a week, he receives nearly 100 signups. |
| Wednesday, April 6, 1994 |
Construction begins at LEGOLAND Windsor | LEGO begins working on its second theme park, located in Windsor, England. |
| Monday, November 14, 1994 |
Brick Kicks replaced by Mania Magazine | The quarterly Brick Kicks publication is replaced with Mania Magazine, which is longer and has 6 issues per year rather than the quarterly schedule of Brick Kicks. |
| Friday, January 6, 1995 |
RTL Roll Call Begins | Lou Zucaro begins the tradition of the RTL Roll Call, where fans introduced themselves with personal information as well as information about their LEGO habits. |
| Sunday, February 26, 1995 |
First AucZILLA LEGO Auction | Todd Lehman announces his monstrous LEGO auction, called "AucZILLA", with more than 30,000 pieces from 500 new LEGO sets. Unlike all other LEGO auctions at the time, AucZILLA introduces automated bidding, and becomes known for its high quality pieces. |
| Wednesday, June 14, 1995 |
Acronym "AFOL" is first used | Matthew Verdier first coins the acronym AFOL (Adult Fan of LEGO) based on a post by Jeff Thompson, noting that it sounds like "A FOOL". |
| Thursday, July 13, 1995 |
Godtfred Kirk Christiansen dies | At age 75, Godtfred Kirk Christiansen dies, having retired from the LEGO company in 1992. |
| Saturday, August 19, 1995 |
LEGOFest Prime is held in Chicago | Minx Kelly hosts one of the first LEGO events (possibly THE first) for adult enthusiasts. |
| Monday, September 11, 1995 |
LEGO publishes its increasing concern about "The Internet" | In an article of American Computerworld, LEGO expresses its concern regarding fan websites' use of the LEGO logo and appearing official, especially in the absence of an official site. Within the next month, AFOLs start discussing various preventative measures, and LEGO's legal team begins cracking down on various fan sites, mostly demanding the removal of their logo. |
| Monday, September 18, 1995 |
LEGO Geek Code v1.0 | Derek Schin posts version 1.0 of the LEGO Geek Code, a sort of shorthand for describing your LEGO self. |
| Friday, October 13, 1995 |
LEGO demands removal of "Lego" from LegoWars | LEGO's legal team pressures the LegoWars site to remove the word "Lego", because the company does not want to be closely associated with the violent terminology of "war". Steve Jackson (of Steve Jackson Games) contemplates boycotting the company. |
| Tuesday, February 13, 1996 |
LDraw becomes available | James Jessiman uploads his LDraw program for all to download. |
| Friday, March 22, 1996 |
LEGO hosts official website | Long awaited by hobbyists, LEGO creates an official website, www.lego.com. Fans are largely disappointed in the light content, but the site does provide a "Fair Play" document for fans to refer to when designing their own webpages, and even mentions RTL. |
| Friday, March 29, 1996 |
LEGOLAND Windsor opens | LEGO opens its second theme park in Windsor, England. |
| Saturday, April 13, 1996 |
First meeting of British AFOLs | Soon after the opening of LegoLand Windsor, a small group of British AFOLs get together for the very first time at the new park. |
| Sunday, April 14, 1996 |
Fibblesnork LEGO Survey | Todd Lehman posts a 147-question LEGO survey for hobbyists. |
| Wednesday, May 1, 1996 |
Pause Magazine LEGO guide begins | Lou Zucaro's LEGO Set Reference Guide moves to www.pause.com, the site of Pause Magazine. |
| Sunday, June 2, 1996 |
First Cool LEGO Site of the Week | Ed Boxer's LEGO Castle is awarded the first Cool LEGO Site of the Week. |
| Wednesday, June 19, 1996 |
Earthsea FTP site closes | Paul Gyugyi announces the closing of his FTP site, earthsea.stanford.edu, which had been the central repository for the community since as early as April 1993. |
| Saturday, July 20, 1996 |
First Bay Area LEGO Get Together | LEGO fans in the San Francisco Bay area hold a gathering at a pizza place with more than 20 attendees. |
| Friday, December 13, 1996 |
First Bring Your Favorite Minifig To Work Day | Before becoming an annual event, people are encouraged to bring their favorite minifigs to work (or school) all on the same day. |
| Saturday, February 1, 1997 |
BrikWars Rulebook Posted | Mike Rayhawk posts his revised rules to Eric O'Dell and Robert Ogrin's LegoWars game, calling it "BrikWars". |
| Friday, March 14, 1997 |
LEGO Maniacs Web Ring | Tim Courtney announces the LEGO Maniac's Web Ring to connect people's personal web sites. |
| Friday, July 25, 1997 |
RTL Toronto Meeting Proposed | Calum Tsang proposes a meeting in Toronto that would ultimately lead to the rtlToronto group. |
| Friday, July 25, 1997 |
James Jessiman passes away | The worldwide community of LEGO fans lost a bright light in the passing of James Jessiman, creator of the LDraw file format and original LDraw program |
| Monday, February 16, 1998 |
Evil Stevie's Pirate Game | Steve Jackson of Steve Jackson Games first starts discussing his Pirate Game. |
| Sunday, April 19, 1998 |
kl.net (BrickShelf) begins hosting instruction and catalog scans | Kevin Loch opens his personal website up to hosting scans of LEGO instructions and catalogs from the past. Eventually, this would become known as the BrickShelf Library for instructions and catalogs. Many people contribute by submitting scans of their instructions and catalogs. |
| Friday, September 18, 1998 |
LUGNET goes live | LUGNET, a LEGO community site is launched, featuring a hierarchy of newsgroups, and soon after allowing email subscriptions and a web interface. |
| Saturday, November 21, 1998 |
NGLTC's first train show | The North Georgia LEGO Train Club (NGLTC) holds its first show in Atlanta, GA. |
| Friday, February 5, 1999 |
German AFOL forum goes online | German LEGO Fan Forum goes online, founded by Michael Schian (became part of 1000steine.de in 2000) |
| Thursday, March 4, 1999 |
BayLUG is named! | AFOLs in the San Francisco Bay area agree on a new name for their club, and establish a website! |
| Saturday, March 20, 1999 |
Legoland California opens | The first Legoland outside of Europe opens in Carlsbad, California. |
| Saturday, April 10, 1999 |
NALUG has its first meeting | NALUG (Northern Alberta LEGO Users Group) was born in a Boston Pizza in Edmonton, Alberta. |
| Monday, July 5, 1999 |
Idea for Jambalaya first proposed | Todd Lehman pitches the idea of a traveling box of LEGO where people can trade their less desirable pieces, resulting ultimately in the Jambalaya boxes. |
| Wednesday, July 7, 1999 |
LDraw.org goes online | LDraw website goes online |
| Wednesday, July 14, 1999 |
MLCAD Released | Michael Lachmann releases a new LEGO CAD program, MLCAD, for creating and editing LEGO DAT models. |
| Tuesday, August 10, 1999 |
First NELUG Meeting | NELUG has its first meeting in Melrose, MA with 5 members attending. |
| Sunday, August 15, 1999 |
NOVALTC has its first meeting | NOVALTC (Northern Virginia LEGO Train Club) is held at Union Station. Later, the club would come to be known as WAMALUG. |
| Wednesday, September 1, 1999 |
Datsville is born! | Following the desire for a community DAT project, John VanZwieten launches the Datsville project, first known as LCadville. |
| Thursday, September 2, 1999 |
KL.net becomes BrickShelf | KL.net, the site of Kevin Loch's instruction and catalog library, is renamed as BrickShelf. |
| Friday, September 24, 1999 |
Tom McDonald discovers spamcake | Tom McDonald discovers spamcake. Its importance was unrealized... until later. |
| Sunday, October 10, 1999 |
First meeting of ILM | The Italian LEGO Maniacs (ILM) holds its first meeting. Later, the club would become the Italian LEGO Users Group, "ITLUG". |
| Tuesday, October 19, 1999 |
GFLTC's first meeting | The Greater Florida LEGO Train Club (GFLTC) holds their first meeting in St. Petersburg, planning for an upcoming GATS show in December. |
| Friday, October 22, 1999 |
MIT MindFest | One of the first national gatherings for AFOLs in the USA, the MIT MindFest was the inspiration for the first BrickFest event in 2000. The event was held at the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, MA. MindFest's primary goal was to serve educators working with LEGO, but a high degree of AFOL participation gave the event an additional LEGO hobbyist focus. |
| Wednesday, October 27, 1999 |
From Bricks to Bothans (FBTB) goes online | Tim Saupe launches his LEGO Star Wars fansite, From Bricks to Bothans. Initially the site was a blog for LEGO Star Wars information hosted on AOL. |
| Sunday, November 14, 1999 |
LUGNET offers paid memberships | LUGNET begins offering formal lifetime memberships for $10 USD. |
| Sunday, November 28, 1999 |
1000steine.de goes online | The German LEGO fansite 1000steine.de goes online, although the domain name was registered some time later on January, 6th 2000. |
| Saturday, December 4, 1999 |
Brickset is born | Huw & Grahame's set database, which had been growing for about a year, is officially dubbed BrickSet, a new independently compiled LEGO set database in addition to the already existing LUGNET/Pause guide. |
| Thursday, December 9, 1999 |
FGLTC is founded | While planning for their 4th train show, Torsten Wernecke, Jan Weychardt, and Ben Beneke officially form the First German LEGO Train Club (FGLTC). |
| Thursday, December 9, 1999 |
Brad Justus announces LEGO Direct on LUGNET | Brad Justus introduces himself and the newest venture from LEGO, LEGO Direct, to reach out to the LEGO community and open dialog between the company and its fans. |
| Friday, January 14, 2000 |
LEGO begins offering bulk ordering | LEGO Direct announces that bulk sales are available from LEGO. At this stage, these were accessory sets of many of an individual part, such as 50 2x4 bricks. |
| Wednesday, January 19, 2000 |
The idea for Castle World is proposed | Pawel Nazarewicz posits the idea of having a large LEGO-castle themed site, which received its name some 3 days later on Jan 22nd by co-creator Craig Hamilton. |
| Saturday, January 22, 2000 |
DixieLUG is founded | DixieLUG is founded, first meeting in Macon, GA |
| Thursday, February 10, 2000 |
Brickshelf announces public galleries | Kevin Loch announces that BrickShelf will host people's images for free. Prior to this, it was difficult to host LEGO images without various restrictions. |
| Tuesday, February 22, 2000 |
VLC is founded | The Vancouver LEGO Club (VLC) is announced on LUGNET. |
| Sunday, March 12, 2000 |
BayLTC Established | BayLTC is founded-- a club for LEGO train enthusiasts in the San Francisco Bay area. |
| Saturday, March 25, 2000 |
First LUGOLA Meeting | Members of the LEGO Users Group Of Los Angeles hold their first meeting in Redondo Beach, CA. |
| Friday, March 31, 2000 |
The Guild of Bricksmiths is announced | The Guild of Bricksmiths is announced-- a select group of hobbyists designing custom LEGO model kits. |
| Friday, March 31, 2000 |
Train April Fools Prank | One of the most successful April Fools hoaxes, Ben Beneke releases a fake 2001 train catalog with many enticing models that got fans drooling. |
| Saturday, May 13, 2000 |
LUGNET Logo appears in Mania Magazine | The May/June 2000 issue of Mania Magazine displays the LUGNET logo in some artwork on a computer screen, unfortunately without consulting with LUGNET beforehand. |
| Wednesday, May 17, 2000 |
BrickBay Announced | Dan Jezek announces his upcoming site BrickBay (later BrickLink), getting feedback from the community, and soon after gathering beta testers. |
| Friday, June 9, 2000 |
Mark Sandlin unveils the SpiffCraft | Mark Sandlin gives us one more little update that becomes one of the most recognizable crafts in the history of .space, based on the classic Calvin and Hobbes' Spaceman Spiff's spaceship. |
| Friday, June 9, 2000 |
Brickfest 2000 | The first "BrickFest" event is held on June 9 to June 11 on the campus of George Mason University in Arlington, Virginia. It was the first major attempt at a purely LEGO hobbyist gathering, organized by WAMALUG. Approximately 60 people attended. |
| Monday, June 19, 2000 |
BrickBay Officially Launches | After completing the beta test phase, Dan Jezek unveils BrickBay, an online marketplace dealing exclusively in LEGO. Eventually, it would become BrickLink, the best known hobbyist source for buying LEGO. |
| Monday, July 10, 2000 |
BrickSet.com Domain Launched | The BrickSet database moves from Huw Millington's personal webspace to its own domain, brickset.com. |
| Saturday, July 22, 2000 |
GardenSLUG's first meeting | The newly formed "GardenSLUG" hobbyist group meets in New Jersey. |
| Saturday, August 5, 2000 |
The Galactic Shipyard goes online | Jon Palmer launches the Galactic Shipyard for profiling extremely large ships. |
| Saturday, August 19, 2000 |
PNLTC sets world record | The Pacific Northwest LEGO Train Club (PNLTC) sets the Guiness World Record for longest LEGO train track, at 3232 feet. |
| Monday, August 21, 2000 |
Todd & Suzanne Announce Their Wedding | Todd publicly confirms the wedding plans for he and Suzanne, set to take place at LEGOLAND, California. |
| Monday, September 4, 2000 |
Brickwise Shopping Report goes online @ LUGNET | Brickwise Shopping Report goes online @ LUGNET, intended to feature various sales and deals from around the internet. |
| Friday, September 22, 2000 |
Peeron hosts inventories | Dan and Jennifer Boger start hosting cross-referenced inventories on their personal site, Peeron.com. |
| Wednesday, October 11, 2000 |
Jake McKee begins at LEGO | Jake McKee, AFOL, announces his recent hiring by LEGO, eventually becoming the primary communicator for LEGO and the English-speaking online hobbyist community. |
| Tuesday, October 17, 2000 |
LEGO Shop@Home goes online | LEGO begins offering online purchasing through their website. |
| Wednesday, December 6, 2000 |
LEGO announces its plans for bulk ordering | LEGO announces its nondescript plans for what would eventually become bulk ordering and LEGO Factory. Fans rejoice at the prospect. |
| Wednesday, December 20, 2000 |
BrickFilms Launched | Jason Rowoldt announces a new site, BrickFilms, dedicated to keeping track of LEGO movies across the internet. |
| Wednesday, January 10, 2001 |
Fleebnorks introduced | Mark Sandlin introduces the world to Fleebnorks, which would later become a staple of the LEGO space community. |
| Saturday, January 13, 2001 |
MichLUG's first train show | The Michigan LEGO Users Group (MichLUG) displays at their first train show (GATS) in Novi, MI. |
| Thursday, January 18, 2001 |
IndyLUG's first train show | Indiana LEGO Users Group (IndyLUG) has their first train show at the GATS show at the Indiana State Fair Grounds. |
| Saturday, February 3, 2001 |
LEGO Train Summit held in NYC with LEGO Direct | A small group of Train AFOLs from around the United States were invited to meet with LEGO Direct (Brad Justus, Peter Andersen, Jorn Kristian Thomsen, Jake McKee and Steven Hawco) in New York city and talk about the future of LEGO trains. The AFOL attendees included John Neal (GMLTC), Steve Barile (PNLTC), Conan Collopy (GMLTC), John Gerlach (GMLTC), James Mathis (PNLTC), Dan Parker (PNLTC), Larry Pieniazek (poly-LTC), Mike Poindexter (BAYLTC), James Trobaugh (NGLTC)
|
| Friday, March 23, 2001 |
ParLUGment's First Meeting | Hobbyists in Ottowa hold their first meeting, calling the club "ParLUGment". |
| Saturday, April 7, 2001 |
Todd & Suzanne's Wedding Canceled | Todd and Suzanne announce that their wedding (set for April 28th) is canceled. |
| Friday, June 8, 2001 |
Legends Line Announced | Brad Justus announces the Legends line, a series of re-released classic sets. He also unveils the first LEGO Legend, set 10000 Guarded Inn. |
| Monday, June 18, 2001 |
LUGNET Requires Email Authentication | Following fraudulent postings by Matthew Moulton (previously banned from LUGNET months before), LUGNET implements e-mail post authentication to prevent further abuse. |
| Saturday, July 21, 2001 |
BZ Community Launches | A new forum for Bionicle fans is launched. |
| Friday, August 10, 2001 |
Kanohi-Power Starts | Michael Edwards and Christian Gemunden announce a new Bionicle fan site, Kanohi-Power.com. |
| Wednesday, August 15, 2001 |
Brickfest 2001 | Brickfest 2001 was held in August on the campus of George Mason University in Arlington, Virginia, organized by WAMALUG. Approximately 150 people attended. |
| Wednesday, August 22, 2001 |
LEGO showcases Monty Python "Camelot" video | As part of LEGO's Studios campaign, Brad Justus announces the professionally done animation of Monty Python's "Camelot" song. |
| Sunday, August 26, 2001 |
Fibblesnork domain goes rogue | The Fibblesnork domain, home to Todd Lehman's Fibblesnork guide and Cool LEGO Site of the Week, expires and is purchased by web squatters who link the URL to adult content. |
| Wednesday, September 12, 2001 |
TCLTC is founded | Branching off from the Greater Midwest LEGO Train Club (GMLTC), John Neal and his son Ross found TCLTC (Twin Cities LEGO Train Club), and begin transforming their home LEGO train layout into one for public exposition. |
| Wednesday, October 3, 2001 |
The Brick Testament appears online | Brendan Powell Smith announces the start of his Brick Testament project. The BT has received extensive media attention beyond the AFOL community and has resulted in three published books. |
| Saturday, October 20, 2001 |
LEGO World 2001 | The first LEGO World event is held in Zwolle, NL, with more than 27,500 visitors in 4 days. The event is a collaborative effort between the LEGO Company and 'De Bouwsteen', the hobbyist group in the area. |
| Friday, December 14, 2001 |
LEGO Announces the My Own Creation Series | LEGO formally announces a new line of sets designed by fans, starting with Daniel Siskind's Blacksmith Shop, #3739. |
| Monday, January 28, 2002 |
BrickBay becomes BrickLink | BrickBay changes its name to BrickLink after receiving pressure from the online auction site eBay. |
| Friday, February 8, 2002 |
Jon Palmer's Alphabet Project | Jon Palmer decides to create a starfighter model for every unused letter of the alphabet in the spirit of the Star Wars universe. Jon Palmer's Alphabet Project displays that small can also mean elegant, fighters can take the same design and planning as large capital ships. |
| Friday, May 3, 2002 |
LEGO Display at Star Wars Celebration II | Tim Saupe's site, FBTB is asked by Lucasfilm to display LEGO creations at the Star Wars Celebration II. The display included many LEGO MOCs including Shaun Sullivan's LEGO AT-AT and Joel Kuester's Sandcrawler. |
| Friday, May 17, 2002 |
LEGOLAND Deutschland opens | LEGO opens the doors to its 4th LEGOLAND theme park in Gunzburg, Germany. |
| Tuesday, June 25, 2002 |
BrickShelf Imposes Moderation | Thanks to some inappropriate content being posted, BrickShelf starts requiring content to be moderated before becoming public. |
| Saturday, June 29, 2002 |
NBLTC's first train show | The North British LEGO Train Club (NBLTC) has its first public show. |
| Thursday, July 18, 2002 |
Little Armory's First Offering | Jeff Byrd begins offering custom Star Wars guns through FBTB.net, beginning the Little Armory. |
| Friday, July 19, 2002 |
Brickfest 2002 | Brickfest 2002 was held in August 2002 on the campus of George Mason University in Arlington, Virginia. The lead organizer was Christina Hitchcock. Approximately 180 people attended. |
| Saturday, July 20, 2002 |
BZPower Launches | The Bionicle fan sites Kanohi-Power and BZ Community join forces to become BZPower.com. |
| Friday, July 26, 2002 |
The Moonbase Project is Born | Jon Palmer introduces the moonbase project: an easy to follow standard that would allow builders from around the world to build separate "modules" that could be connected seamlessly in a large Moonbase layout. The idea was an instant hit. Moonbase modules were being created within days and after only 2 months the first massive Moonbase layout was put together across the country at a LEGO fan convention in Seattle. |
| Thursday, August 8, 2002 |
Yoda Eyes Prank | Troy Cefaratti posted a fake LEGO set by Ken Koleda entitled Yoda Eyes and fooled quite a few people with this silly prank |
| Thursday, October 17, 2002 |
Brickish Association is founded | The Brickish Association is founded in order to provide a 'meeting place' for British AFOLs. It has since flourished, with increasing members and a wide range of public events. |
| Friday, October 18, 2002 |
LEGO World 2002 | LEGO World 2002 is held at The IJsselhallen in Zwolle, NL. The 5 day event had over 35,000 visitors. |
| Tuesday, November 12, 2002 |
LEGO.com Message Boards | LEGO.com launches its kid-friendly message boards. Due to various moderation issues, the hobbyist community doesn't make much use of them, but the boards provide a discussion ground for younger children that were previously unable to legally participate in hobbyist groups. |
| Saturday, January 4, 2003 |
Bricks Magazine Announced | "Bricks" was to be the first LEGO fan magazine ever published, created by the LEGO fan community for the LEGO fan community. The announcement was made by Matt Gerber on behalf of BrickMedia, LLC. |
| Saturday, January 11, 2003 |
LUCNY's first public train show | LEGO Users of Central New York (LUCNY) hold their first public display at a GATS show in Syracuse, NY. |
| Thursday, January 30, 2003 |
AuctionBrick Launches | Matt Chiles creates a new site dedicated to LEGO auctions. |
| Sunday, February 9, 2003 |
COLTC Founded | The Central Ohio LEGO Train Club was founded by Paul Janssen, John Bucy and others. |
| Friday, February 14, 2003 |
BricksWest 2003 | BricksWest 2003 is held in Carlsbad California, organized by Matthew Gerber. |
| Friday, February 14, 2003 |
First ISD Team Build | A team of 13 AFOLs at BricksWest built the 10030 ISD in 103 minutes, starting a trend at LEGO events trying to break the existing record for fastest team build. |
| Monday, February 17, 2003 |
International LEGO Train Club Organization (ILTCO) goes public | A briefing is presented at BricksWest which outlines the charter of ILTCO. ILTCO is intended to be a central organizing and collaborative body for LEGO train enthusiasts. Additionally, LEGO is able to leverage ILTCO as a central point of communication for the myriad of disparate LEGO clubs. |
| Monday, March 17, 2003 |
Bricks Magazine Charter Subscription Offered | Bricks Magazine offers a charter subscription - $12 USD for 6 issues, announced by Matt Gerber as Editor-in-Chief. Many fans signed up, although it ultimately fell through. |
| Tuesday, April 1, 2003 |
MOCpages goes online | Sean Kenney launches MOCpages, a site for LEGO Hobbyists to showcase their creations. Initially, this did not include image hosting, which was recommended through BrickShelf. |
| Saturday, May 3, 2003 |
Eastern Block is Born | The Eastern Block sub theme is born when Chris Giddens creates the ZOG-31 |
| Tuesday, May 20, 2003 |
Bricks Magazine Delayed | Tim Courtney, posting on behalf of BrickMedia, LLC announced that there were delays in the production of the preview issue of Bricks Magazine, and that the first full issue was to have been available mid-summer 2003. Sadly, due to various difficulties, the magazine never made it to production. |
| Friday, June 20, 2003 |
LEGO Road Show | The 2003 LEGO Road Show kicked off with a practice run in Enfield, CT, before touring North America. AFOL representatives from NELUG were present (rather last minute) to help demonstrate to the company what might be expected from participating enthusiasts. |
| Tuesday, July 1, 2003 |
LDraw Standards Committee Charter | The LDraw community proposes a charter for a Standards Committee to review standards and submissions to LDraw. The first Standards Committee take office officially about 6 weeks later on August 15th, 2003. |
| Tuesday, July 8, 2003 |
SPLTC is formed | The Southern Pacific LEGO Train Club (SPLTC) is officially announced, based in southern California. |
| Friday, August 8, 2003 |
Brickfest 2003 | Brickfest 2003 was held in August 2003 on the campus of George Mason University in Arlington, Virginia. The lead organizer was Christina Hitchcock. Approximately 220 people attended. The first public expo drew about 1000 people. |
| Saturday, August 30, 2003 |
LEGO Releases Color Chart | LEGO releases its official color palette to Peeron.com, with RGB, CMYK, and Pantone colors, and internal naming and numbering schemes. |
| Monday, September 15, 2003 |
Classic-Castle goes online | Classic-Castle, a LEGO Castle resource and fan site, goes online. |
| Sunday, September 21, 2003 |
3vil Emerges from Deep Space | 3vil, a LEGO space building theme, is introduced by Mark Sandlin. The theme centers around evil-looking ships, almost always featuring prominent skulls. |
| Friday, October 17, 2003 |
LEGO World 2003 | LEGO World 2003 begins |
| Tuesday, November 18, 2003 |
LEGO Acknowledges A Changed Color Palette | Jake McKee confirms the change in colors that LEGO enthusiasts had just begun reporting days earlier. He states that products from 2004 onward will use the new color palette, including new grays, as well as some other colors (the other major one not announced at this point being brown). LEGO hobbyists nearly unanimously argue against the decision, causing probably the largest outcry in the history of the community. |
| Wednesday, November 19, 2003 |
First Colossal Castle Contest | Classic-Castle announces the first Colossal Castle Contest, encouraging castle MOCs both small and large. |
| Tuesday, December 23, 2003 |
Travis Kunce passes away | The hobbyist community is stunned with the loss of Travis Kunce, one of the best and brightest space-theme builders. |
| Wednesday, January 28, 2004 |
Brad Justus leaves LEGO | Brad Justus, VP of LEGO Direct announces that he is leaving the company. |
| Wednesday, January 28, 2004 |
EuroBricks Launches | EuroBricks, a popular hobbyist forum starts. |
| Friday, February 20, 2004 |
LUGNET begins transition away from Todd | Todd Lehman begins laying the groundwork to transition LUGNET ownership and administration to a group within the LEGO community, later named the LUGNET Transition Team. |
| Friday, February 20, 2004 |
Brickfest 2004 PDX | BrickfestPDX was held in February 2004 at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, Oregon. It was the first Brickfest to be held outside Virginia. Approximately 200 people attended. The public expo drew about 1200 people. |
| Wednesday, March 3, 2004 |
MALUG Forum goes online | The website for Hungarian AFOLs goes on line. |
| Friday, March 5, 2004 |
Jake McKee's book arrives | Jake McKee's book, Getting Started with LEGO Trains is available on Amazon.com. The book had been in the works with LEGO as early as March 2002! |
| Wednesday, May 5, 2004 |
LEGO Locks Colors and Finalizes Color Change | After much debate and many AFOL objections, the changing of LEGO's colors is announced as final by Jake McKee. The three main colors changed are light gray, dark gray and brown. Additional less mainstream colors such as purple are also confirmed changed, but are largely disregarded by AFOLs as unimportant. The term 'Bley' (from "blue" and "grey") becomes almost universally recognized among fans to indicate this changing of the greys. |
| Saturday, May 8, 2004 |
First MALUG meeting | First MALUG meeting with 4 attendees. |
| Monday, June 28, 2004 |
The L PRIZE is announced | Tim Courtney, Contest Director of the L Prize, announced the "L PRIZE ": a new and exciting open competition that was to be officially launched at SIGGRAPH 2004, and concluded in February 2005.
The L PRIZE was to foster advances in LEGO CAD technologies by stimulating competition and bringing the contestants and the user communities together. |
| Friday, August 13, 2004 |
Brickfest 2004 | Brickfest 2004 was held on the campus of George Mason University in Arlington, Virginia from 08/12/04 to 08/14/004. The lead organizer was Christina Hitchcock. Approximately 250 people attended. The public expo drew about 2000 people. |
| Thursday, October 21, 2004 |
Kjeld Steps Down | LEGO announces that Kjeld Kristiansen is stepping down from his role in the management of the company, and Jorgen Vig Knudstorp is taking over as the new CEO. |
| Thursday, October 21, 2004 |
LEGO World 2004 | LEGO World 2004 is held with more than 18,000 square feet of space, more than 40,000 visitors overall, and more than 200 adult hobbyists attending. |
| Sunday, November 7, 2004 |
Russian community DoubleBrick goes online | The first Russian AFOL community, DoubleBrick.ru, is launched. |
| Sunday, December 19, 2004 |
Classic-Space Forum goes live | The Classic-Space Forum is launched, a site for discussing all things space. |
| Thursday, January 6, 2005 |
LEGO Ambassador program announced | Jake Mckee heralds the creation of the LEGO Ambassadors, a group to help foster communication between the fan community and the LEGO company. |
| Tuesday, February 1, 2005 |
Cycle 1 Ambassadors | The first cycle of 15 LEGO Ambassadors is announced by Jake McKee. |
| Friday, February 4, 2005 |
FBTB revives | After having the website hacked, FBTB re-deploys its forums in "FBTB 2.0". |
| Saturday, April 23, 2005 |
Star Destroyer Speed Build Tournament - Celebration III | At Star Wars Celebration III in Indianapolis, Indiana, a team of 8 AFOL's and 2 kids win first place in a single elimination tournament. The objective is to build the 10030 Imperial Star Destroyer faster than the competing team. Eight teams start on April 22. The "Indy AFOL Knights" finish their 3rd ISD the next day to take first place. |
| Wednesday, May 11, 2005 |
LEGO Affiliate Program Starts | LEGO announces the LEGO Affiliate Program for professionals outside the LEGO company that work professionally with the LEGO medium. The initial Affiliates are Robin Sather, Sean Kenney, Dan Parker, and Nathan Sawaya. |
| Monday, May 16, 2005 |
Steve Witt hired by LEGO | Steve Witt starts working for LEGO and begins communicating with hobbyists, initially through FBTB.net |
| Thursday, May 26, 2005 |
First LEGO Inside Tour | LEGO hosts the first LEGO Inside Tour, allowing serious hobbyists a 3-day behind-the-scenes tour of LEGO in Billund. |
| Friday, June 17, 2005 |
LUGNET Transition Team resigns | Following some difficulties with the community and the transition process, the LUGNET transition team resigns. |
| Wednesday, June 22, 2005 |
First issue of BrickJournal | Joe Meno releases the first ever BrickJournal issue in a free, downloadable format. |
| Tuesday, June 28, 2005 |
Peeron takes over the BrickShelf Scan Library | Hoping to ease bandwidth issues for BrickShelf, Peeron begins hosting of instruction and catalog scans. |
| Thursday, July 7, 2005 |
ILTCO displays at NMRA Show | ILTCO organizes a large LEGO display at the NMRA convention in Cincinnati. Previously, the NMRA preferred not to acknowledge LEGO trains as a legitimate hobby train scale, but instead just as a toy. At the 2005 show, 13 LEGO clubs contributed to the largest display at the entire event! |
| Wednesday, July 13, 2005 |
LEGO sells ownership of Legoland parks | LEGO announces its sale of majority ownership of the Legoland theme parks to the Blackstone group. |
| Monday, July 25, 2005 |
The Brothers Brick Begins | The Brothers Brick, a new LEGO blog starts commenting on all things LEGO. |
| Friday, August 12, 2005 |
Brickfest 2005 | Brickfest 2005 was held on the campus of George Mason University in Arlington, Virginia from 08/12/04 to 08/14/004. The lead organizer was Christina Hitchcock. Approximately 330 people attended. The public expo drew about 3000 people. Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen owner of the LEGO Group and grandson of the founder, attended. Jake McKee and Mark Hansen announced the release of LEGO Digital Designer. With LEGO Digital Designer, customers can design custom sets online, and LEGO will pack it up and send it them. |
| Thursday, September 1, 2005 |
Cycle 2 Ambassadors | The second cycle of Ambassadors is announced by Jake McKee with 20 AFOLs chosen. |
| Thursday, September 15, 2005 |
PennLUG is founded | PennLUG is formed, first meeting in York, Pennsylvania |
| Thursday, October 20, 2005 |
LEGO World 2005 | LEGO World 2005 is held with over 48,000 visitors in Zwolle, NL. The show floor was more than 20,000 square meters. |
| Tuesday, November 1, 2005 |
ILENN alpha version announced | Kelly McKiernan launches the International LEGO Enthusiast News Network (ILENN), to consolidate news stories from websites across the LEGO hobby. |
| Thursday, November 17, 2005 |
Bill Swanberg arrested | Bill Swanberg was arrested after stealing more than $200,000 worth of LEGO from Target stores by replacing bar codes. |
| Monday, February 6, 2006 |
Jake McKee leaves LEGO | After more than 5 years with LEGO working with the community, Jake McKee decides to move on. |
| Thursday, March 2, 2006 |
Cycle 3 Ambassadors | The third cycle of 22 LEGO Ambassadors is announced by Steve Witt, who takes over the program for Jake McKee. |
| Thursday, March 30, 2006 |
Ambassadors reveal the end of 9V Trains | LEGO Ambassador Eric Kingsley reveals to the community some of LEGO's plans for replacing 9v trains with battery-operated trains. Eric went on to start what would later be named the "Save 9V Trains" movement among fans, in an effort to convince LEGO to retain the 9v train system. |
| Monday, June 5, 2006 |
BrickArms Opens For Business | Will Chapman starts BrickArms featuring his own custom molded accessories, making a lineup of military-themed elements. |
| Saturday, June 10, 2006 |
Brickvention 2006 | The first officially Australia-wide fan event was held on 10th-11th June 2006 in Melbourne. About 35 fully registered attendees participated. There were several presentations, various competitions, and a public expo on 11th, with about 150 guests. |
| Wednesday, June 14, 2006 |
MechaHub goes live | Bryce McGlone announces a new site dedicated to LEGO Mecha |
| Saturday, June 17, 2006 |
LUGNET hosting changes | Administration of LUGNET formally passes from Todd Lehman to Rene Hoffmeister. |
| Friday, August 25, 2006 |
Brickfest 2006 | Brickfest 2006 was held at the Sharaton Premiere at Tyson's Corner, Virginia. The lead organizer was Joe Meno. There were approximately 420 people in attendance. The public expo drew about 3500 people. This was the first Brickfest since the launching of LEGO Mindstorms NXT, and many of the MUP and MDP members were there to talk about it. Allan Bedford, author of The Unofficial LEGO Builder's Guide, was also there, signing copies of his book. |
| Friday, September 1, 2006 |
Cycle 4 Ambassadors | The fourth cycle of Ambassadors is announced by Steve Witt, with 21 Ambassadors. |
| Thursday, October 19, 2006 |
LEGO World 2006 | LEGO World 2006 begins in Zwolle, NL |
| Friday, October 20, 2006 |
LEGO Recalls Truck | One of the few recalls in LEGO history, LEGO decides to recall the 3509 LEGO Explore Super Truck. The truck's wheels were found to detach more easily than expected, revealing a dangerous metal axle. |
| Wednesday, November 29, 2006 |
LEGO Millyard Unveiled | The LEGO Millyard Project, a collaboration between AFOLs and LEGO, is officially completed and unveiled with sponsors Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen and Dean Kamen. |
| Thursday, March 1, 2007 |
Cycle 5 Ambassadors | The fifth cycle of 30 LEGO Ambassadors is announced by Steve Witt. |
| Friday, March 30, 2007 |
Brickfest 2007 | Brickfest 2007 was held at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, Oregon from 03/30 to 04/01. This was originally slated as Brickfest PDX 2007, but re-labeled as simply Brickfest 2007 when the August convention was cancelled. |
| Monday, June 11, 2007 |
Eric Brok passes away | Eric Brok, a Dutch AFOL active in De Bouwsteen, succumbed to the effects of cancer. Eric was an early pioneer in the on-line community with his site LEGO on my Mind, one of the first LEGO Ambassadors, and designer of the set 10190, Market Street. |
| Tuesday, June 19, 2007 |
JLUG goes down | JLUG.com, the adult oriented LEGO site, went down due to a database failure. |
| Wednesday, June 20, 2007 |
Stajinaria.net goes online | Stajinaria, an adult-oriented LEGO forum, goes online. It was created as a response to JLUG.net going down.
|
| Thursday, June 21, 2007 |
Brickworld 2007 | The first Brickworld event took place at the Westin North Shore hotel in Wheeling, Illinois June 21-24, with 230 registered attendees. The head event coordinators were Bryan Bonahoom and Adam Tucker. Richard Stollery was the keynote speaker. |
| Saturday, July 14, 2007 |
Brickshelf dies | The AFOL community was thrown into confusion when Brickshelf, the most prominent community site for displaying images of MOCs, seemed to die. Upon accessing the site, the following message appeared: "Brickshelf has discontinued operation. We apologize for any inconvenience." |
| Friday, July 20, 2007 |
Brickshelf revives | After a week of furious activity in the community, Brickshelf is officially resurrected. |
| Wednesday, August 22, 2007 |
Next-Gen goes up | A TFOL building site goes up. |
| Saturday, September 22, 2007 |
"Castle Team" AFOLs announce their involvement | Ben Ellermann announces that he and 8 other hobbyists were selected to help develop the upcoming 2007 castle lineup, revealing details on the experience. |
| Monday, October 1, 2007 |
RailBricks Issue #1 | The first issue of Railbricks is released online, with senior editor Jeramy Spurgeon. |
| Monday, October 1, 2007 |
LEGO officially announces end of 9V train system | LEGO announced final decision to end manufacture of the 9 volt train system with electrified rails. |
| Thursday, October 18, 2007 |
LEGO World 2007 | LEGO World 2007 sells out admission with more than 50,000 attendees. |
| Saturday, November 24, 2007 |
LAML Radio #1 | LAML Radio publishes its first interview. |
| Saturday, December 8, 2007 |
HispaBrick 2007 | The 1st AFOL event in Spain, it was held in December 8 and 9. |
| Monday, January 21, 2008 |
Tormod Askildsen new head of Community Development | LEGO announces that Tormod Askildsen is the new lead for the LEGO Community Development, taking over for Richard Stollery, and working with Steve Witt and Jan Beyer. |
| Saturday, January 26, 2008 |
Brickvention 2008 | Brickvention is held in Melbourne, Australia, with 30 registered attendees and 330 visitors to the public day. Brickvention was moved to January because of clashes with other events. Brickvention 2008 was held on 26th-27th January at a new bigger location. |
| Monday, January 28, 2008 |
Google honors the LEGO brick's 50th anniversary | A LEGO brick-inspired 'Doodle' appears today on the Google homepage to the mark the 50th anniversary of the world-famous creative building brick. |
| Tuesday, June 3, 2008 |
Cycle 6 Ambassadors | The 6th cycle of LEGO Ambassadors is announced by Steve Witt, upping its ranks to 40 AFOLs. |
| Thursday, June 19, 2008 |
Brickworld 2008 | Brickworld 2008 kicks off in Wheeling, IL with 380 registered attendees. |
| Thursday, July 31, 2008 |
Palikkatakomo (Finnish LUG) Begins | After gathering fans from different forums, Finnish AFOLs organize themselves for the first time under the Palikkatakomo name. The first exhibition was held at Tampere's Ideapark in July, 2008. |
| Friday, August 29, 2008 |
BrickFair 2008 | BrickFair 2008 begins, hosted at the Sharaton Premiere in Tysons Corner, VA. |
| Thursday, October 2, 2008 |
BrickCon 2008 | BrickCon is held at the Seattle Center in Seattle, WA. |
| Friday, October 10, 2008 |
Neiman Marcus Features Custom LEGO Statues | Neiman Marcus's 2008 Christmas catalog features custom LEGO statues by Nathan Sawaya for $60,000. |
| Thursday, October 16, 2008 |
LEGO World 2008 | LEGO World 2008 starts |
| Thursday, December 4, 2008 |
BrickArms Gets Negative Press | The UK-based SUN newspaper publishes a negative review of BrickArms' custom building elements, accusing them of being violent and discriminatory. The story spreads over the next week, and BrickArms becomes surrounded in publicity, but is forced to close down temporarily thanks to a huge inflow of new orders. |
| Friday, January 23, 2009 |
Brickvention 2009 | Brickvention is held in Melbourne, Australia, with nearly 50 AFOLs and more than 1000 visitors on the public display day. Brickvention 2009 was extended to 3 days, with Friday 23rd for setup, 24th for convention, and 25th for the public expo. |
| Tuesday, February 10, 2009 |
FBTB 3.0! | FBTB launches the new version of its website on a different domain, retaining its old domain (and discussion threads) for reference's sake. |
| Friday, March 27, 2009 |
BrickFest 2009 | BrickFest 2009 was again held in Portland, Oregon with about 240 registrants and approximately 4000 visitors on the public expo. |
| Friday, June 19, 2009 |
Brickworld 2009 | Brickworld 2009 is held in Wheeling, IL, with 570 registered attendees. Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen and Jorgen Vig Knudstorp attended on behalf of LEGO. |
| Wednesday, July 8, 2009 |
Cycle 7 Ambassadors | The 7th cycle of LEGO Ambassadors is announced, with 45 members. |
| Friday, August 21, 2009 |
BrickFair 2009 | BrickFair 2009 starts, held at the Sharaton Premiere in Tyson's Corner, VA |
| Friday, September 18, 2009 |
James May Completes LEGO House | BBC's Top Gear presenter James May completes a house made out of 3 million LEGO pieces for a TV show "Toy Stories". |
| Friday, October 2, 2009 |
BrickCon 2009 | BrickCon 2009 is held in Seattle, WA. |
| Thursday, October 22, 2009 |
LEGO World 2009 | LEGO World 2009 begins in the Netherlands |
| Friday, November 20, 2009 |
First LEGO KidsFest | The first LEGO KidsFest showcases in Hartford, CT, with the intent of being a traveling expo focused on LEGO and kids. |
| Tuesday, November 24, 2009 |
Bionicle Discontinued | LEGO announces the end of the Bionicle line for 2010, and its replacement with a similar constructable action figure product coming in the future. |
| Tuesday, January 5, 2010 |
LEGO Extends LUGBULK to the USA | LEGO's LUGBULK buying program for LEGO hobbyist groups extends to include clubs in the USA. |
| Friday, January 22, 2010 |
Brickvention 2010 | Brickvention is held in Melbourne, Australia, with over 70 hobbyists attending and more than 2700 public visitors. With the large increase in numbers, a decision was made to once again move to a larger venue for Brickvention 2011. |
| Thursday, January 28, 2010 |
LEGO Releases its 2010 color palette. | LEGO provides the fan community with a list of colors used in its 2010 lineup, as well as the corresponding internal names and numbers. |
| Wednesday, February 3, 2010 |
Mark Benz's MOCs stolen | Mark Benz, president of BayLUG has many of his models stolen from his truck. Most were recovered more than two weeks later on the 16th. |
| Friday, April 9, 2010 |
Bricks by the Bay 2010 | The Bricks by the Bay convention is held April 9-11, 2010 in Fremont, California. |
| Tuesday, April 13, 2010 |
Nate Nielson passes away | AFOL Nate "nnenn" Nielson passes away as a result of an automobile accident. |
| Thursday, June 17, 2010 |
Brickworld 2010 | Brickworld 2010 is held in Wheeling, IL, with 800 participants and attracting about 10,000 visitors (est). |
| Thursday, July 15, 2010 |
Classic-Space recovers | Classic-Space discussions are brought back online after suffering an attack that temporarily took the site down. |
| Monday, July 19, 2010 |
LDraw Forums Start | Following difficulties with LUGNET, the LDraw Steering Committee sets up a new discussion forum on LDraw.org. |
| Thursday, August 5, 2010 |
BrickFair 2010 | BrickFair 2010 is held at the Dulles Expo Center. |
| Friday, September 24, 2010 |
Dan Jezek passes on | Dan Jezek, author and administrator of BrickLink dies at age 33. |
| Thursday, September 30, 2010 |
BrickCon 2010 | BrickCon 2010 starts, hosted in the Exhibition Hall at the Seattle Center. |
| Wednesday, October 27, 2010 |
Steve Witt leaves LEGO | Community liaison Steve Witt announces that he is leaving the LEGO company after more than 5 years. |
| Wednesday, November 3, 2010 |
Eric Sophie Arrested | Eric "LegoMaster" Sophie is arrested for alleged child molestation. |
| Saturday, December 11, 2010 |
Cycle 8 Ambassadors | LEGO releases the list of Cycle 8 (year 2011) LEGO Ambassadors, with 68 members. |
| Saturday, April 2, 2011 |
BrickSet forums start | The BrickSet website opens its prototype forums up to the community. |
| Saturday, April 23, 2011 |
LEGO CUUSOO Goes International | LEGO CUUSOO announces that the program will be going international, allowing builders from around the world to submit their designs in the hopes of having their ideas made into LEGO sets. |
| Monday, May 16, 2011 |
Space Shuttle Endeavour launches with LEGO | The final launch of the space shuttle Endeavour contains various small LEGO sets as part of an educational program, showing how simple LEGO machines behave in space. |
| Wednesday, June 15, 2011 |
Brickworld Chicago 2011 | Brickworld Chicago is held at the Westin North Shore Hotel in Wheeling, IL with 920 registrants. |
| Friday, June 24, 2011 |
Kevin Hinkle appointed North American Community Coordinator | Kevin Hinkle, manager of the Austin LEGO Brand Retail store, is selected as the new Community Coordinator for North America. |
| Saturday, July 23, 2011 |
Kyle Ugone Sets Guiness World Record | Guiness World Records verifies a new record for Kyle Ugone for having the most individual (non-duplicate) constructed LEGO sets with 1091. |
| Thursday, August 4, 2011 |
BrickFair 2011 | BrickFair 2011 begins in Chantilly, VA. Over 20,000 attendees showed up for the public display. |
| Friday, November 4, 2011 |
LEGO Universe Cancelled | LEGO decides to cancel LEGO Universe, citing financial difficulties with the game, despite having nearly 2 million players. |
| Monday, December 5, 2011 |
LEGO Minecraft Announced | LEGO's international CUUSOO program announces its first set, LEGO Minecraft. |
| Wednesday, January 4, 2012 |
FBTB Introduces Studs Comic | FBTB begins a new comic called "Studs", leading off with a quick commentary on LEGO's recently introduced Friends line. |
| Wednesday, January 18, 2012 |
2012 LEGO Ambassadors announced | LEGO's 2012 Ambassador program is announced (cycle 9), extending to 86 members. |
| Thursday, February 9, 2012 |
LEGO Under Fire for Friends | After a barrage of negative press regarding LEGO's Friends line, and a petition to change LEGO's advertising and marketing behavior for girls due to sexism issues, LEGO attempts to calm the situation by meeting with members of SPARK. |
| Saturday, February 11, 2012 |
World Record Monorail | NELUG displays the first attempt to set the world record for the longest LEGO monorail track, in Wenham, MA. The loop of track reached 736' 8.74" (224.55m). |
| Friday, February 24, 2012 |
Astronaut Builds LEGO In Space | Astronaut Satoshi Furukawa builds a model of the International Space Station while orbiting the Earth in the International Space Station! |
| Wednesday, March 21, 2012 |
Lenoard Hoffman Arrested | Leonard Hoffman is arrested for an alleged inappropriate relationship with a former student. |
| Tuesday, March 27, 2012 |
Heather Braaten Reported Missing | AFOL Heather Braaten is reported missing, seen last a week earlier on March 20. Her body was found several days later on April 1st, 2012. |
| Friday, June 1, 2012 |
BrickLink Attacked | BrickLink goes down after what appears to be a hack attempt on the site. Administrators work to get the sit up quickly from backups about a day later. |
| Saturday, July 7, 2012 |
ItLUG Sets LEGO Monorail Record | ItLUG breaks the world record for the longest LEGO monorail track with a length of 362.5m. |
| Saturday, July 21, 2012 |
Byggepladen Sets New Train Record | The Danish LUG Byggepladen sets a new world record for the longest track at 1,500.64 meters. |
| Tuesday, January 8, 2013 |
Mike Crowley Passes On | Mike Crowley (Count Blockula) passes on after a prolonged battle with cancer. |
| Thursday, January 24, 2013 |
LEGO Responds to Criticism of Jabba's Palace | Following online outrage from mainly Turkish websites, LEGO responds to critiques that it intentionally modeled its Jabba's Palace set 9516 on the Hagia Sophia. |
| Wednesday, March 13, 2013 |
Bloomberg Calls LEGO "Most Valuable Toy Company" | Bloomberg reports that LEGO went from being on the verge of bankrupcy to surpassing its other long-time rival toy company giants Mattel and Hasbro. |
| Friday, May 10, 2013 |
World Record Monorail Layout | In Manchester, NH, at the BrickFair New England convention, hobbyists assemble a LEGO monorail that reaches 1917 feet long. |
| Friday, May 10, 2013 |
World Record Train Layout | Fans in Denmark, led by Henrik Ludvigsen, put together 93,307 elements to make the longest LEGO train track of 4000.25 meters long. |
| Saturday, June 1, 2013 |
BrickNerd's First Post | Tommy Williamson's BrickNerd blog kicks off with its first post. |
| Monday, June 3, 2013 |
Likely BrickLink Hacker Exposed | The hacker responsible for attacking BrickLink is seemingly exposed publicly while attempting to launch his own site. |
| Thursday, June 6, 2013 |
BrickLink is sold to Nexon | The Jezek family announces that it has sold BrickLink.com to Jung-Ju Kim of Nexon. |
| Friday, June 28, 2013 |
Brick Owl Launches | A new LEGO selling forum opens, called Brick Owl, following much discussion about a BrickLink replacement, and its recent sale to Nexon. |
| Tuesday, September 10, 2013 |
BrickLink Modifies TOS | Nexon-owned BrickLink published changes to their TOS to prevent the use of their data by third parties. |