I can’t believe I’m already writing this post! 2018 has flown by, so like I did in 2017, I’d like to take a moment out of end of year craziness to take a look back at what’s happened this year in LEGO. I’ll go through it month by month, exploring what sets and news came from Billund, and a look at BricktasticBlog’s 2018 as well. I’ve probably missed a fair bit, but this is what came up on my radar!
As I did last year, I need to thank all of you. Without you reading, sharing, talking about these posts, and submitting content both here and on Facebook, this website wouldn’t be here. It’s been a huge year for the site, and I am truly thankful to all of you for hanging around!
January
We actually started the year off at a leisurely pace. Given that 2018 would be the Year of the Anniversary, it was probably a good thing! 10260 Downtown Diner hit the shelves and 21313 Ship In A Bottle was announced. Both of these sets were instant hits for me, and are still in my list of top sets for the year.
February
February was good. Really good. Why? Well, we found out that LEGO Harry Potter was making a comeback! This was momentous news for HP fans, and the internet went nuts for it. I missed out on the last round as I was still in my Dark Ages, but I’m so glad it is back again! We also got the official announcement of 76105 Hulkbuster Ultron Edition, which was a massive day for the site, and Series 18 of the CMFs was revealed – the Party series.
March
March brought the official announcement of 21314 TRON: Legacy, as well as a couple of official press releases from The LEGO Group – one about Plants from Plants, and one about the Annual Report from 2017. There was a little bit of a decline in revenue and operating profit, which of course led to disaster calling from the fans, but we all know they’re still making a lot of money, so we’re not in dire straights.
April
Bulk news time in April! The mother of all fairground sets – 10261 Roller Coaster was announced, as were some very exciting City and Creator sets, including 60202 Outdoor Adventures and 31084 Pirate Roller Coaster. We also got official images of LEGO Unikitty! sets and CMFs. I’ve still not picked any of these up, but maybe soon. I also ran a competition – the 60th Anniversary Party Competition, which was a lot of fun. I’ll be doing more competitions in 2019, so keep your eyes peeled!
May
We all know that May has Star Wars Day, which is a lot of fun, and means good deals for LEGO fans, but for me, May meant more LEGO Harry Potter excitement, with the official images of the sets being published. The ones we were waiting on were 75953 Whomping Willow, 75955 Hogwarts Express, and 75956 Quidditch Match, after seeing 75954 Hogwarts Great Hall back in February. I was definitely not disappointed, and neither were many of you. Here’s hoping 2019 brings more LEGO Harry Potter to the shelves!
June
June was a bit more of a quiet month for the site and for LEGO, but there was the official announcements of 42083 Bugatti Chiron and 21311 Voltron! There were a few more teasers and things floating around, but they were the big stories of the month.
July
July continued on with the LEGO Harry Potter news, with the announcement of 71043 Hogwarts Castle – the massive microscale set. I also visited Brickman Awesome Perth and had a chat with Ryan “The Brickman” McNaught!
August
August was the beginning of a stack of content. We celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Minifigure, so there was content galore from TLG, which was a lot of fun to prepare. I began a small series focusing on 40 Years of Minifigures, and August brought us the Patents and the Evolution of the Minifigure. We also had the official announcement of 75222 Betrayal at Cloud City, so it was a solid month!
September
September was busy too, with the continuation of the 40 Years of Minifigures series, with three more articles – Design and Manufacture, Assembly, and Advertising. We also had two official set announcements, for 10263 Winter Village Fire Station and 10268 Vestas Wind Turbine, a Bricktober Perth Ticket giveaway, and a very curious team-up from Bricklink and LEGO around the AFOL Designer Program. Another big month!
October
For me, October was busy for a different reason – exhibiting at Bricktober Perth. It was a great start to the month, being able to display my 5000 piece Noah’s Ark, but we also got a Twitter teaser and official announcement of 21315 Pop Up Book, one of my favourite sets of 2018.
November
Lots of exciting things happened in November – specifically set announcements. We got a trailer and new sets for The LEGO Movie 2, images for 2019’s LEGO City theme, and stunning images for the 2019 Chinese New Year sets. I also threw in a number of different reviews, so it was another busy month.
December
December was a huge month for the site, with so much going on – it was a little nuts! It all began with my regular tradition of daily reviews of the three Advent Calendars – City, Friends and Star Wars. We also talked about more 2019 set images from Creator and BrickHeadz, and the big announcement of the year – 10264 Corner Garage. I was also able to build the 2018 Employee Gift, which was something extra special!
As far as the site went, it was another huge year. While I didn’t write nearly as many posts as 2017, traffic doubled in 2018, with February and December being massive months – December in particular with over 11,000 views in that month alone.
There’s been 110 posts this year, with 23 of them being reviews. I didn’t get around to doing as many as I would have liked, but the plan is to get more out this year. I’ve also done another three Builder Spotlight interviews, with Sarah Beyer, Malin Kylinger, and a collector – Bailey Fullarton, and I’ll definitely be doing some more this year. If you want to be a part of it, get in contact.
I’d also like to thank The LEGO Group for their support this year. It’s such an honour to be an Ambassador for this company, and the level of support they give is out of this world. I wouldn’t be able to do half the work I can on this site without them. Bring on 2019!
That’s a wrap on 2018! What were your highlights of the year just gone? Any lowlights? What do you want to see more of in 2019 on BricktasticBlog? Let me know in a comment.
