(Written by the Brick Creator)

We all love LEGO. We played with LEGO as kids and we continue to play with them as adults. LEGO has licensed sets based on movies and a list of characters, but more surprising, LEGO has movies based on LEGO characters. There were pauses between the words at the end of that last sentence, because I could never have imagined such a thing. It’s crazy. It’s even more crazy that I enjoy these movies with my kids. LEGO has got a lot going on.

In 1958, LEGO changed their story forever. They added tubes to the LEGO brick design and they went from the ‘Automatic Binding Brick’ to what LEGO is today; the most loved toy on the planet. There were a lot of ups and downs between then and now but we all know the outcome. So, what is next for LEGO? Better question; what is next for us as LEGO fans? Yes, there is LEGO Mindstorms, but we are not all engineers and coders. Will LEGO come up with something that will give us more options to stretch our creative muscles? If so, what does that look like? I’ve got an idea.

A couple of years ago my daughter was into two things: her room, and LEGO Elves sets. She would build these sets and place them on a shelf or dresser or anywhere she could find space to put them. My daughter’s friends had the same problem of having LEGO sets in every inch of their room. My wife suggested buying some shelves to take advantage of the wall space to display her elves and dragons. I turned on my ‘we can do better than that’ cap and started thinking outside the box. Shelves are nice but that is what most people do and I wanted to do something different.

The most exceptional piece of the LEGO Elves sets are arguably, the dragons. I am no expert but dragons do not sit on shelves. Dragons are fluid and in motion, they fly. I thought about how to make that happen in our displays. I imagined dragons hanging from the ceiling via clear strings, but that was too complicated and reduced playability. And what about the castles? Now I pictured castles in the sky and on mountains, at different heights, and in different areas; really creating a scene. I searched for something, a brick that would allow me to manifest my idea. I also searched for images of others’ that might have a display that would put me on track to the product that I need, there was nothing. So I created it, and this is the result.

This is the first idea being realized. What we are looking at here is the ability to give each individual build its own personal hidden shelf that allows the creator to display in a way that they have never been able to before. Imagine dragons landing on castles that are not on your dresser or desk, but floating around your wall in a world created and designed by you. You can lie down on your bed and look up to see your dragons flying overhead. It is amazing. My daughter’s friends would come over and ask how she was able to do that with her dragons and they asked their parents to buy them the special brick. I did not sell at that time and kept the design to myself for quite a while. Recently, there was interest from a new group of friends and I thought, why not patent my idea?

I also started thinking about how else my special brick could be used? So, I started adding it to other models. I am not the most creative builder so I used official LEGO sets, incorporated my brick, and displayed them on the wall. This was cool but no different from how I had used the brick before. Then, I thought about a nameplate. My daughter is always drawing her name or making clay figures with her name, so I thought; can I make her name with LEGO? Yes, I can.

This was the first iteration but I knew it could be more complex, and I wanted to test the weight limits. My other daughter likes more elaborate things and wanted a nameplate of her own. I took the opportunity to stretch my creative muscles a bit further. Below is the result. Notice the size of the build; it is well over 500 LEGO pieces. The treehouse is set in the tree and also coming out of the wall about 26 studs. And it could go further! All of this is held up by my 8×2 special brick. The rest of the build is being held up with 3-2×2 bricks.

There is yet another level of creation that can be realized with the brick I created. I do not have the building skills to bring my imagination to creation, but I imagine something exploding out of the wall; e.g. recreating the moment when Terry Crews pulled a Kool-Aid man on LEGO Masters, or when Slimer splashes into the wall on Ghostbusters. Imagine what Nathan Sawaya could do with it!

Let me know what you think! I’m looking for feedback and support on this project, so if you’re interested feel free to share in the comment section below, or hit me up on Twitter. I’m the Brick Creator, @3DBricker on Twitter. Thanks for reading!