Another year has gone by, and it marks the end of a decade. Like I have done in both 2018 and 2017, I want to take a second to check out what’s happened this year in the world of LEGO. As is now an annual tradition, I’ll go through month by month, exploring the sets and news that came out of Billund, and look at BricktasticBlog’s 2019 too. This won’t cover everything, just the info that hit my desk.
First and foremost, I want to thank each and every one of you. Your reading, sharing, comments and talking about these posts, as well as getting in touch with new content both here and on Facebook is incredible. Without you, this website wouldn’t exist. Thanks to all of you for indulging me. I really appreciate it.
January
January! The start of another LEGO filled year. The Corner Garage modular building hit the shelves, we saw a sneak peek of The LEGO Movie 2 CMFs, the announcement of 70840 Welcome to Apocalypseburg!, and DUPLO’s 50th anniversary. 70840 was so much fun to build, and is one of the favourites to come out of this year.
February
A fair bit happened during February. It was announced that Bondi Junction would get a new LEGO Certified Store, we saw LEGO’s newest theme, Hidden Side for the first time, 21316 The Flintstones was announced, and my all time favourite set 10268 Ford Mustang as well. So far nothing has topped the Mustang for me. It’s been equalled, but not topped.
March
March was a lot of fun. I got back into livestreams for a while (before my internet said no), with Richard from the Rambling Brick and I going head to head in a Blog Speed Build Battle. Disney was the theme of choice that month as well, with 21317 Steamboat Willie being announced, and Series 2 of the Disney CMFs being announced. I also gave away a full set of them to celebrate, which was extremely popular.
April
We celebrated the 20th anniversary of LEGO Star Wars – a huge occasion. Also Star Wars related was the announcement of 75244 Tantive IV. Right at the very end of April was a massive talking point for LEGO fans – the airing of LEGO Masters Australia! This got some serious attention and was a blast to watch. LEGO announced that they were changing their policy on region exclusive products, which was very well received, more Harry Potter sets were revealed, we got images from the LEGO City Summer releases, and 80103 Dragon Boat Race, the third stunning Chinese New Year set.
May
May was a busy one. I covered LEGO Masters Australia pretty extensively, LEGO Star Wars BOOST Droid Commander was announced, and 75810 The Upside Down was announced, which shocked a lot of people. This set was another one of the highlights of the year for me, as I got an early copy of it to review. We also had the announcement of another extremely popular set – 10266 NASA Apollo 11 Lunar Lander. I’m a bit behind with this one, but I built it the other night, so a review is coming!
June
In June I was able to chat to a few of the LEGO Masters contestants, I reviewed the glorious Mustang, and 75936 Jurassic Park: T. rex Rampage was announced. The T. rex is another one of my favourite sets of the year. I had a ball building it, and it’s now on display at Fremantle Library for people to check out, as well as a few other dinosaur builds from members of the Perth LEGO User Group. Check them out over January!
July
More exciting releases – 10269 Harley-Davidson Fat Boy (review coming soon), and 21318 Tree House, an immensely popular release, as well as the biggest news to hit Australia – a massive rollout of new LEGO Stores across the country. Man I’m excited for next year!
August
In August we saw official images of LEGO CMFs Series 19, the official announcement of 21319 Central Perk, 71044 Disney Train and Station, and the announcement of two more Queensland LEGO Stores opening – in both Robina and Chermside.
September
We had some more big announcements in September, with 75252 Imperial Star Destroyer, 42110 Technic Land Rover Defender, and this year’s seasonal set 10267 Gingerbread House. The Christmas Gift With Purchase set was also announced, which was very popular.
October
October in Perth means one thing – Bricktober Perth. It was another huge year, and the display for me this year was the LEGO Alphabet. We also displayed the Perth LUG Apartment Complex competition, which was a huge hit. In other news, we got the announcement for 21320 Dinosaur Fossils (another review incoming), and had news of a white baseplate coming back in 2020. A bit of a slower month, but with Bricktober Perth on, that was a good thing.
November
November was big. Really big. The LEGO Originals Wooden Minifigure was announced, the 2020 Chinese New Year sets, 76139 1989 Batmobile, 42109 App-Controlled Top Gear Rally Car, a huge amount of new 2020 releases, and the biggest bombshell of all – the LEGO Group acquiring BrickLink. That debate is still raging. Oh, and I also gave away some more LEGO.
December
December is always a busy month for the blog, and this year was no different. With daily reviews of the four Advent Calendars, plus the announcement (and early access review) of 10270 Bookshop, 2020’s Modular, as well as reviews of the new Tokyo and Dubai Skylines, it was full on. I rounded out the year with building the 2019 LEGO Employee Gift, the Yuletide Squadron Xmas-Wing.
Don’t forget, I’m giving away more LEGO in the new year – vote for your top five LEGO sets from 2019 and you’ll go into the draw!
Looking at the site itself, it’s been another good year of growth. Traffic has increased again, there’s been a few more posts this year, with 144 posts, and 20 of those as reviews of sets. There’s always room for more, of course, but there’s only so much time in the day!
The top three posts this year have been the announcement of the rollout of new LEGO stores in Australia, the announcement of 21319 Central Perk, and that the 2019 Chinese New Year sets were available in Australia. It’s also incredible to see how many of you come from across the world. The biggest readers outside of Australia hail from the US, the UK, Canada, Germany and the Netherlands, with many more in other countries.
Lastly, I’d like to thank The LEGO Group for their continued support this year. I’m so honoured to be a part of the Ambassador network, and the level of support they offer is mind blowing. I’m looking forward to seeing what 2020 brings!
That brings us to the end of 2019, and the end of another decade! What were your highlights? Anything you’d rather forget? Is there something you’d love to see me tackle in 2020? Let me know in a comment.
Cheers John, thanks for recapping the year and what a year it has been!
Happy New Year!
You too Jay! Thanks for all your work on your site too. 🙂