The LEGO Club Magazine has been a wonderful inspiration for young LEGO fans. It is full of interesting comics, games, contests, posters, building tips, featured creations, and more. The magazine is released every two months, so there are six issues per year. Subscription to the print version of the magazine is free for young LEGO fans ages five to nine years old. Once the child is older, they no longer receive the print version of the magazine, but they are encouraged to use the LEGO Club website instead, where the magazines are available digitally. If a child still wants to receive the print magazine, they have to request it every year to continue their subscription.
There are two versions of the LEGO Club Magazine. If the child is younger than six years old at the time of subscribing, they will receive the LEGO Club Junior Magazine. This version contains less pages, the paper is thicker, and the artwork, stories, games and other content simpler. Once the child is older, they will receive the regular LEGO Club Magazine.
Boys and girls receive the same magazine, however they usually have different inserts. For boys the inserts revolve around Star Wars, Ninjago, Nexo Knights, Super Heroes, and other boyish themes. For girls the inserts are about LEGO Friends, LEGO Elves, or LEGO Disney Princess. The inserts are smaller magazines with additional stories and games that come inside the large magazine. I guess this allows LEGO to target boys and girls with content that is specifically created for them. The LEGO Club Junior Magazine has no inserts.
To make matters a bit more complicated, LEGO started referring to the various versions and inserts of the magazine on the LEGO Club website differently. The LEGO Club Junior Magazine is referred to as the Green Brick edition, the regular LEGO Club Magazine is referred to as the Red Brick edition, and the regular LEGO Club Magazine insert for girls is referred to as the Yellow Brick edition. Strangely, the regular LEGO Club Magazine insert for boys is still simply referred to as an insert with no brick color attached to it. Even though the names may be a bit confusing, be rest assured; they are the same magazines and inserts as the print versions.
Having the print version of the LEGO Club Magazine is nice, because kids can browse through them without needing any electronics. It is a great little magazine to carry around to read the stories, play games, get inspiration for building various projects, participate in contests, and more. And there are also awesome posters included in the print version which would be difficult to get otherwise. It is also nice to once in a while look through old magazines during a quiet evening without having to rely on electronics. I know kids who have the magazines saved up from several years and treasure them greatly.
If you prefer the digital version of the LEGO Club Magazine, the benefit is that you can access all the different versions. So for example if you are a girl, and receive the insert targeting girls, you can find the insert for boys online and get benefit from both. The digital versions of the magazine are available for about two years on the LEGO Club website (right now the oldest is from July-August of 2014). If you would like to keep them longer, you can download a PDF of each issue.
Even if you prefer the print version of the magazine, it is worth checking out the LEGO Club website once in a while, because there is a lot more additional content; more articles, more videos, more comics, and more building instructions.
The process for subscribing to the LEGO Club Magazine also changed some. Previously you could just call in and request them. Now you have to create a LEGO ID for the child, wait for the confirmation email, and once your child signs in with his/her ID, the parent will get a second email with instructions for subscribing to the magazine. I guess this makes the process more streamlined for LEGO, but also a bit more complicated for the customer. However if you run into any difficulties you can still call their awesome customer service for some help.
What do you think? Are you subscribed to the LEGO Club Magazine? Which version are you getting? Do you prefer to read the print magazines or the digital versions? Feel free to share your thoughts and discuss in the comment section below! 😉
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Thanks for this. I was wondering what the names meant. Perhaps they have some longer term implications, like they are planning to change something in the future? Otherwise, why give brick colors to the magazines and make them more confusing?
That’s a possibility, although I really don’t know. It is quite confusing, but once you realize what the different brick colors mean it is pretty easy to differentiate them. I personally ignore the names completely (except for the month), and just look at the cover picture to differentiate.
We live close to Legoland Windsor (UK) so tend to see green brick and pink brick (costume characters) there most weekends 😀
Orange brick only comes out for Halloween 🙂
There is something wonderful about receiving the lego magazine as there is receiving the lego catalogue. 🙂
I agree… 🙂
I didn’t realize that age 10 was when the kids aged out. That would explain why we haven’t gotten one in so long. Our daughter turned 10 earlier this year.
Rebecca, you can call LEGO’s customer service to extend the subscription, if your daughter would still like to receive the magazine. But you will have to call in every year to confirm that she still wants to get them.
Helpful post. The last issue of my sons’ Lego Club Junior said that it was ending. It stated that everybody would go to the Lego Club version but it hinted at some other possible changes.
Danny, are you sure it said that the Juniors Magazine was ending? It could just have meant that your son was migrated over to the regular magazine because of his age. I remember getting a notification like that when my niece was old enough to get the regular magazine.
My son’s Junior club magazine said the same and I certainly got the impression that they would be making changes the magazines. He just turned 5 so I don’t think he aged out.
Deb, thanks for sharing that. Interesting! I guess we should be finding out soon enough. I will keep an eye on the LEGO Club website to see if they are announcing any changes.
Deb & BB – my sons are about to turn 7 and 5. Both versions had this messaging on it, so I too do not think it is age-related but we will see.
I like to but two The Lego Club Magazine i love to a
We are residents of Texas and my son recently stopped receiving his subscription (due to his 12th birthday). I attempted to contact Lego to renew but discovered that the Lego Club is now known as Lego Life and the magazine is strictly for children ages 5-10. My son is now encouraged to download and use the “Lego Life App” which is so disappointing to him.
Kelley, yeah, they have discontinued the paper magazine, and I agree that LEGO Life App is not nearly as good as the magazine was. You might consider registering a younger child so you can still get the magazine. 😉