LEGO® Art: the new mosaic theme

A key new product line arising from the LEGO Group’s newly-enhanced focus on adult builders has just been announced: LEGO® Art. In short: mosaics packaged with a soundtrack, but if that concept or the selected subjects hold zero interest for you, keep reading anyway because there are a few new moulds of great interest to all builders, and fantastically useful recolours. Here is our rundown, gleaned from the press release as well as an online exclusive reveal event with creative lead Samuel Johnson that happened in May as part of Fan Media Days.

Coming 1 August 2020 (1 September in the US) the range comprises of four products each priced US$119.99/ CA $149.99/ £114.99/ DK 1099DKK/ €119.99 (Euro pricing varies by country). Sound pricey? Well, each contains on average 3,200 parts; about 3.75 US cents per piece. “A bargain, I tell ya!”, says Sam. Obviously the vast majority of the pieces are round 1x1s, including new and rare colours, but there’s also a new kind of 16x16 baseplate, a Technic element used for hanging the art and a new, wider brick separator!

What is LEGO Art?

First though, let’s run through the concept. The LEGO press release describes these as a “new canvas for creative expression… designed for adults who pride themselves on their love of pop culture”. Fancy words for what is essentially a paint-by-numbers mosaic, though of course more creative customers might be inspired to design their own.

Notably the pieces are round, not square, a design decision which seemed counter-productive to me at first but it does give them a stronger “Pop-Art” feel and a different style compared to (most of) the AFOL-designed mosaics you see. There’s another, very practical reason too: lining up hundreds of square 1x1 pieces is a nightmare (as anyone who has built 21010 Robie House will attest).

The subjects of the four sets are extremely varied but all carefully-chosen to target superfans who like collectables: Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe, The Beatles, Marvel Studios Iron Man and Star Wars™ The Sith™. Sam explained the source material each is derived from: “The Warhol is based on the prints of the 'Marilyn' diptych, Iron Man is developed from screenshots from movies or artwork from Marvel, the Beatles are based on the photographs from the White Album and for Star Wars the artwork has actually been developed by Lucasfilm exclusively for this product line.” He also revealed the pixellation was designed “pretty much by hand” by the LEGO design team. “We will actually be continuing to produce this assortment for years and years to come, hopefully. So this is a brand new platform for LEGO, ongoing.”

 “Each product is slightly different, it doesn't follow the exact same formula for every product.” One difference is that the Warhol and Beatles sets use 1x1 tiles while the others use 1x1 plates. And these are either ‘3-in-1’ or ‘4-in-1’ sets, so each provides multiple designs that you can build one at a time. With the Iron Man set the three options are the MARK III, the HULKBUSTER MARK I or the MARK LXXXV and with the Sith set they are Darth Vader™, Darth Maul™ or Kylo Ren™.

As for the 4-in-1s, The Beatles set permits you to build one of the Fab Four at a time while the Warhol offers four different colour schemes. These multiple instructions are “to make it easy and simple for pop culture lovers to refresh the LEGO Art piece on display in their house”, according to the press release. Notably, the Beatles set features all four possible models on the front of the box which is understandable despite being a possible source of confusion and disappointment for the purchaser.

Then, for those of you with US$479.96/ £459.96/ €479.96 to spare, you can buy four Marilyns or Beatles to display all at once. Sci-fi lovers will need to fork out US$359.97/ £344.97/ €359.97 for either of the Marvel or Star Wars triptychs. Hopefully you don’t love all four of these icons equally! Personal preferences aside, I would say The Beatles design provides the greatest impetus to purchase multiples, although there is a clear reason for the Warhol set also. Iron Man and the Sith less so; a fact that I suspect TLG must have realised, as they added an extra goodie into the Marvel and Star Wars sets, as Sam explains: “If you buy three of them and think you really don't want to have these three on display anymore, you can actually take them apart and build one huge combined image. So this takes three boxes to build, but we do include the instructions online. And again, it is still super strong… even though it's the size of an ironing board!” Darth Vader is a vertical image while Iron Man is horizontal – another little product differentiation.

What are the new parts introduced for LEGO Art?

Hopefully we will get to review one of these sets for you, so we can analyse the new moulds properly, but here is an overview of what we know now.

I’m going to jump straight to the new wider brick separator because oddly enough this is the most thrilling to me! It is barely shown in the press kit pictures we received but you’ll all get the idea easily enough. Sam is excited too; “So we have a brand new LEGO brick separator, which is designed only for [LEGO Art sets] and it can remove up to four studs at a time, or six tiles at a time, or in winter is very good at scraping the ice off of your windscreen.”

Yes, it’s black! Very cool (and much easier for those who like to incorporate brick separators into their own models). The design is largely like the current brick separator but four modules wide at the tip instead of two. However the other end, used for removing tiles, widens out to six modules which makes the design feel like a hybrid of the previous and current brick separators. Essentially it’s the current orange/teal one on steroids.

The press kit does show the new baseplate, however not in as much detail as we may like so I will let Sam explain: “We also have a very exciting 16 by 16 brick, which has Technic holes in the sides, and is kind of hollow on the back. It is four plates high, kind of strange for LEGO. The reason is because we wanted to be able to attach the [hanging element] Technic connector on the back. So, we've allowed for the space of a brick. Also to give you enough space behind it for the screws sticking out the wall. Each product contains nine of these plates and they connect together in a tiled system so it's three by three for the squares. They're all joined together with Technic pins, and then we build the frame around the image which holds it together and they're really rigid, so they can hang on the wall.” The finished art is 40cm square.

This new baseplate – or base brick? – is definitely a POOP (Parts outta other parts), indeed I threw this together (in grey parts instead of black) to show you the general design of its underside:

Image © New Elementary

Which, if you then hung it on a wall sideways, would surely come apartimmediately. So for the stability this product requires, this new POOP version has been moulded. “For now, these elements are exclusive to LEGO Art,” Sam said, going on to indicate they probably wouldn’t be available on Bricks and Pieces or similar to begin with, perhaps due to production limitations (i.e. they’re big and as lot are already needed simply to go into the products).

The final new mould is the hanging element, which frustratingly is not pictured in the press kit at all. We did see it, however, during the Fan Media Days event and from memory it looks similar to a Technic panel of perhaps around 3x8 modules in size but with large holes that you can hook over a nail or a screw in the wall. Two Technic pins go in the top of the hanging element to attach it to the 16x16 bricks. Sam explains; “Each set includes two hangers but you don't necessarily need to use both to hang the product, it can hang with one. But, you know, you would hang a canvas with two, so we want to replicate that kind of feeling that you would get from hanging a canvas on the wall. We did rigorous testing on them, you know, pulling them off the wall and back on the wall, off the wall, on the wall… so, a lot of stuff done multiple times.”

There is no kickstand option at present.

There’s also an exclusive printed 2x4 tile in each set, featuring the appropriate logo or, in Marilyn’s case, a Warhol signature. “And we actually included enough studs to be able to not include it on,” Sam points out, “so you can actually just have it nice and clean, as an artwork, if you wish.”

Which 1x1 parts come in new colours in LEGO Art sets?

There are an amazing number of new 1x1 pieces introduced in new colours in these sets, I think even more than for LEGO DOTS. Some of the other provided colours are ‘rare’ in that they haven’t appeared in many sets, or in a very long time, resulting in shocking prices for them on the secondary LEGO parts markets which should soon collapse.

1x1 round plates

At the Fan Media Days event they recalled that there are seven new colours introduced of the 1x1 round plate, mostly required for the Sith. I suspect that number may include two colours that have been available in the past but had to be brought back into production.

Based on the images my guesses for the new ones are:

• Dark Brown
• Sand Yellow/ Dark Tan
• The yellowish colour in Sith looks like Cool Yellow/ Bright Light Yellow to me
• There is a light blue which looks like Sand Blue to me but I guess could be Medium Blue
• There are a few orangey browns present and I always find these hard to distinguish but I think it is Dark Orange we are getting newly here. We already have this part in Medium Nougat.

Returning after a very long absence are:

• Earth Blue/ Dark Blue, used only in two sets in 2003 & 2004
• Dark Red, used in seven sets between 2004 and 2005

1x1 round tiles

Here, they recall there being nine new colours.

Marilyn has a suitably limited palette and so only brings us three new recolours of this part:

• Bright Reddish Violet/ Magenta
• Medium Reddish Violet/ Dark Pink
• Medium Azure

The Beatles however are much more interesting:

• Dark Brown
• Sand Yellow/ Dark Tan
• The yellowish colour looks like Flame Yellowish Orange/Bright Light Orange to me
• There is a light blue again but this time it looks like Medium Blue to me rather than Sand Blue
• Again there are a couple of orangey browns and Dark Orange is my guess

…okay I’ve run out at eight - can any of you spot another new colour?

What is the soundtrack that comes with LEGO Art?

“So, similar to what Technic have been doing in the past,” explains Sam, “we have a audio soundtrack that, as you're building, you can learn and hear a cool story.” This was also a response to the new research into adult consumers that the LEGO Group have been doing by interviewing an astonishing 18,435 adults from around the world. The press release explains that they found “73% of adults often research new ways to help them relax”. “Featuring fascinating anecdotes from the creators of Iron Man and Star Wars, or those closest to the stories of Andy Warhol and the Beatles, the soundtracks dive deep into the inspiration behind each design to help adults fully immerse themselves in the building experience and unwind while they explore their love of music, art or film in a new way.” Frankly, I think it is a pretty neat idea that also taps into the popularity of podcasts and, although TLG could not have predicted this, the global lockdown certainly has given many adults a stronger appreciation for ‘escaping’ while in the home environment!

The soundtracks are as follows:

• 31197 Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe includes interviews with Jessica Beck, Curator at The Andy Warhol Museum and stories from Blake Gopnik, Art Critic and the author of "Warhol", a comprehensive biography.
• 31198 The Beatles includes interviews with Broadcaster and Beatles Expert, Geoff Lloyd, British journalist and Beatles fan Samira Ahmed and stories from Nish Kumar, Comedian, TV Presenter and Beatles fan.
• 31199 Marvel Studios Iron Man includes interviews with Roy Thomas, former Marvel Editor in Chief and stories from Alex Grand, Marvel expert and host of “Comic Book Historians podcast”.
• 31200 Star Wars The Sith includes interviews with Doug Chiang, VP & Executive Creative Director, Lucasfilm and stories from Glyn Dillon, creator of the design for Kylo Ren™, as seen in the Star Wars film saga.

Art pack or Parts pack?

“It's also important to note it's a brand new product line, so we have exciting brand new packaging; kind of pizza box-like packaging,” Sam says. “Inside, everything is mounted beautifully. You have the building instruction mounted in the top left of the box, all of the tiles – each colour is packaged in a separate bag so you can kind of use it like as if it was paint – and there's also a box which contains our brand new elements.”

A new approach has also been taken with the instructions, which again we don’t have images of, but Sam explains: “It's kind of like a paint-by-numbers type of building instruction so it's really easy to follow. So for those that might have issues telling the colours apart on some products, we've really tried to make it as easy as possible. And in each booklet you'll also get some cool information, similar to what we've been doing on products like LEGO Ideas. Because it's a collectible that you want to keep.”

“We're expecting this kind of product to also attract a lot of non-LEGO fans, so new consumers to the portfolio, who may be haven't found that a LEGO model was something they wanted to have on display in the home; maybe this kind of offering is something for them? So that's why we've tried to go a little bit outside of the box, away from some of the usual LEGO themes with the first two products.”

So it is clear this is largely aimed at non-AFOL adults who love one of the subjects represented; much like the Old Trafford set it seems TLG are happy to try out multiple niche markets of collectors. Is this theme for you? Will you be attracted to its parts or the subjects? And will you purchase multiples if so?

Coming 1 August 2020 (1 September in the US) the range comprises of four products each priced US$119.99/ CA $149.99/ £114.99/ DK 1099DKK/ €119.99 (Euro pricing varies by country). The Iron Man set will be a LEGO exclusive in most countries and the other three will be available from retailers. The release date is 1 August 2020, except the US where it is 1 September.

READ MORE: We turned the new gift-with-purchase 12-in-1 set into a 50-in-1

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