≡ Menu

The LEGO Build Your Own Adventure book series by DK Publishing has been very popular with young and old LEGO fans alike. They include stories, building ideas, and LEGO bricks to build some of the models from the books. For kids, they are great for learning to read and build at the same time, and also ignite the imagination with seed ideas. The books also carry well for travel. They come in a slipcase that contains a normal hardbound book and a separate compartment for LEGO parts. Adult LEGO fans and collectors also like the books because of their high quality, and because they are basically unique LEGO sets.

So far, there has been eight books in the series; the LEGO Ninjago: Build Your Own Adventure and the LEGO Friends: Build Your Own Adventure from 2015, the LEGO Star Wars: Build Your Own Adventure and the LEGO City: Build Your Own Adventure from 2016, the LEGO DC Comics Super Heroes: Build Your Own Adventure and the LEGO Nexo Knights: Build Your Own Adventure from 2017, and the LEGO Disney Princess: Build Your Own Adventure and a new LEGO Ninjago: Build Your Own Adventure from 2018. This year, we are getting two more books; the new LEGO Star Wars: Build Your Own Adventure is not yet released but can be pre-ordered, and the LEGO Harry Potter: Build Your Own Adventure is already available.

We talked about the previously released titles in the series previously (see links at the end of this post), so today we will only discuss the recently released LEGO Harry Potter: Build Your Own Adventure book. Just like the previous books, the LEGO Harry Potter: Build Your Own Adventure book comes with a slipcase that keeps together the hardbound book and a separate compartment for LEGO parts. This book also includes a poster and a couple of bookmarks, which are a nice surprise.

The book itself is 80 pages long, and features building instructions for two alternate models; a Sorting Hat spinner, and a revolving fireplace. These can be built from the included LEGO pieces. The other projects featured in the book are seed ideas that you can build and expand on from pieces of your own LEGO collection. There are also little dialogues and stories to make the book more interesting and tie the builds together. DK Publishing is known for their high quality books with sturdy paper and brilliant printing, and the books in this series are no exception.

The separate compartment for the included LEGO pieces is basically a shallow cardboard box. Again, the box is high quality with nice printing. Inside the box, you will find all the building pieces (about 100) and a Harry Potter minifigure. The minifig is not exclusive, but the Sorting Hat is a rare piece that so far only appeared in one regular set; the #75954 LEGO Harry Potter Hogwarts Great Hall. In addition, the book comes with four printed 2×2 tiles with the Hogwarts House crests. These are exclusive to the book and do not appear in any regular LEGO sets.

I have always been fond of the LEGO Build Your Own Adventure books, and this latest addition doesn’t disappoint either. The stories, the featured models, the included pieces and minifigures are all carefully selected and brought together into a high quality item that’s worthy of both the DK Publishing and LEGO brand names. Below is the official description of the book.

Conjure your own magical world with more than 50 ideas to inspire your own LEGO Harry Potter models. Plus, a Harry Potter minifigure and all the bricks you need to make an exclusive 2-in-1 LEGO Harry Potter model! The perfect gift for a LEGO Harry Potter fan, LEGO Harry Potter: Build Your Own Adventure features model ideas and expert build tips to help you recreate classic movie moments from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Send Hogwarts letters flying in the Dursley’s living room. Explore Diagon Alley with Harry and Hagrid. Cook up a Halloween feast in Hogwarts’ Great Hall. Build your own wizard chessboard and Devil’s Snare plant. Exclusive LEGO Sorting Hat spinner model can be rebuilt as a magical, revolving fireplace. LEGO Harry Potter Build Your Own Adventure also contains Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore bookmarks and a fun poster. Recommended for ages 6 – 9 years. Hardcover, 80 pages, dimensions: 8.9 x 1.7 x 10.8 inches. Regular price: $24.99 – BUY ON AMAZON

As I mentioned above, the new LEGO Star Wars: Build Your Own Adventure book won’t be available until August, but you can pre-order it on Amazon. Here is the official description: Want more ideas for LEGO Star Wars( models to build? You need this book with bricks that inspires children to build, play, and learn all about the LEGO Star Wars universe. LEGO Star Wars Build your Own Adventure: Galactic Missions combines action-packed story starters with more than 50 fun ideas for building. Once you have built new creations, play out exciting adventures of your own using your personal LEGO collection. Use your favorite Star Wars minifigures to complete five top secret missions! This book comes with a minifigure and the bricks to build an awesome exclusive vehicle that features in the story. Recommended for ages 6 – 9 years. Hardcover, 80 pages, dimensions: 8.9 x 1.7 x 10.8 inches. Regular price: $24.99 – PRE-ORDER ON AMAZON

The regular price of the book appears a little high, although in my opinion totally worth it, and you can almost always find them cheaper on Amazon. Here is a list of all nine books in the collection that were released so far, with links to their Amazon pages:

What do you think? Do you have any of the LEGO Build Your Own Adventure books? How do you like them? And which one is your favorite? Did you build any of the suggested models found in the books? Feel free to share your thoughts and own reviews in the comment section below!

And you might also like to check out the LEGO Books section for more book reviews, or select from the following related posts:

{ 7 comments }

Your Favorite LEGO Books – Publishing Survey

Despite the huge increase of the popularity of interactive digital media, many people still enjoy reading printed books, including books related to the LEGO hobby. LEGO books have been with us since pretty much the very beginning of the company. Kids have been leafing through books with inspirational models and comics for decades, and there has been a great increase of LEGO books for teen and adult LEGO fans as well, featuring custom models with building instructions, tutorials, tips and tricks, LEGO’s history, philosophical musings, LEGO investing, and more.

Currently, the LEGO Publishing Department is doing research on the type of books adult LEGO fans like to read, and they asked LEGO fan communities for some help. They would like us to fill out a questionnaire about our LEGO book reading habits and our favorite LEGO books. The deadline to fill out the survey is July 31s. Below are the details.

Dear LEGO community! The reason we are reaching out to you today is that we’re really interested to learn if there is anything LEGO Publishing can do to support our adult fans. The following questionnaire will ask you a series of questions to help us understand what AFOL (Adult-Fan-Of-LEGO) books you currently own, what role they play in the hobby, and what you think we could publish that would really help the adult community. We hope to build up a picture of the role that books play for the AFOL community, and to assess if there is anything that LEGO Publishing can do to support the hobby with official LEGO branded books. Want to participate? Then kindly complete the survey by July 31, 2019. Your answers will be treated with confidentiality and you will remain anonymous. Thanks for your time – we really appreciate your input. Best wishes, Robin Pearson, Director Specialist, Licensing – Publishing

The survey includes 17 questions. The first few questions are about the demographics you belong to; age, gender, country, how long you have been a LEGO fan, etc. The next questions ask about what kind of books related to the LEGO hobby do you currently own, how you’re using them, and if you can name some of your favorite LEGO books. The last questions are about where you usually learn about new LEGO related publications, where you get them, etc. And there is also a question about what kind of books you are most interested in buying in the future.

Please note that some of the boxes in the survey are very small, but you can just keep typing and they will accept your answer. I found it easier to type up some of my longer answers (I have lots of favorite books!) in a word processor, and just copy and paste them to the survey boxes. Here is the link to the survey: LEGO PUBLISHING SURVEY

I thought the survey is good, with relevant questions, and plenty of space to provide additional comments. So, if you like LEGO books and would like to help the LEGO Publishing Department with their research, I encourage you to take a few minutes and fill it out. It’s best to be close to your books when answering the questions, so you can provide titles of your favorite books accurately.

As I mentioned, I have a lot of favorite LEGO books myself, so I will take the opportunity to list at least some of them here. In general, I prefer interactive books that provide both inspiration and tutorials. My number one favorite book is LEGO Space: Building The Future by Peter Reid and Tim Goddard, published by No Starch Press. I can sit down with this book at any time and get totally absorbed in both the story and the builds. In second place, I would put the two volumes of The LEGO Build-It Book: Amazing Vehicles by Nathanael Kuipers and Mattia Zamboni, also published by No Starch Press. The authors take a single medium size LEGO Creator 3-in-1 vehicle (#5867 LEGO Creator Super Speedster, released in 2010) and rebuild it in 20 different ways! I wish more books were published like this. I also really like all volumes of the LEGO Ideas Books and the LEGO Adventure Books. They are great for kids and adults for getting building ideas in a wide variety of themes. Some other books I find very useful are the two volumes of The LEGO Neighborhood Book by Briand and Jason Lyles (great for building custom LEGO Modular Buildings), The LEGO Animation Book by David Pagano and David Pickett (fantastic for brickfilmers!), and the Minifigure Customization book (two volumes – some of the information is the same) by Jared Burks (published by BrickJournal).

And now it’s your turn! Which are your favorite LEGO books? Feel free to share and discuss in the comment section below! But first, please fill out the survey to help the LEGO Publishing Department so they can continue releasing awesome LEGO books!

And you might also like to check out the following related posts:

{ 8 comments }