Sneaky Secrets: Easter Eggs in LEGO Sets
Posted by Huw,
This article has been contributed by BenBuildsLego:
You can call me the Easter Bunny because I love Easter eggs! Mind you I'm not talking about the Easter eggs filled with hidden candy (though they have their own charm) - I'm talking about the concept of "Easter eggs" as hidden or subtle elements placed within a work of art, such as books, movies, TV shows, or video games.
In this article I examine examples of those found in LEGO sets and my own models.
In fact, the term in this context is said to have originated from a secret room placed in the 1980 Atari game "Adventure", though it's worth noting that the first documented video game Easter egg predating the term's usage, belongs to "Moonlander" in 1973. If the moonlander ventured far enough, it would stumble upon a McDonald's restaurant. But I digress...
Photo credit @katewillaert on Twitter
For those who follow me on Instagram, it's no secret that I take great pleasure in populating my own LEGO city with Easter eggs inspired by pop culture. And yes, as a certified nerd I maintain a meticulous Excel spreadsheet to track them all. I've even shared free instructions for some of these Easter eggs on Rebrickable, including WALL-E, Monsters Inc., Little Shop of Horrors, and Rick & Morty.
When it came time for me to submit a new LEGO Ideas project inspired by Dr. Seuss's "The Grinch," it felt only natural to infuse the build with Easter egg references to Dr. Seuss's other beloved books. Among these references include a nod to "Green Eggs & Ham" in the fridge as well as an unmistakable red and white hat (be sure to check out my project to see how many you can spot!)
Designing this LEGO Ideas submission led me to ponder the various ways official LEGO sets incorporate Easter eggs. The overall intention of Easter eggs is often to add an extra layer of enjoyment for the dedicated fans who can spot them, but there are different approaches to their inclusions in LEGO sets. After some consideration, I find that Easter eggs in LEGO sets tend to fall into four categories: Pop Culture, Hidden Surprises, LEGO Self-References, and Inside Jokes.
Pop Culture
Among the most conspicuous Easter eggs in LEGO sets are the references scattered throughout licensed sets. These references are the lifeblood of sets inspired by popular sitcoms and typically manifest as stickers (and, if you're lucky, occasionally as printed pieces).
Fans of "Friends," "Seinfeld," and "The Office" have delighted in rediscovering iconic moments from their favourite shows when encountering these references. I would argue that these types of Easter eggs play a fundamental role in the overall enjoyment of licensed sets - some more than others (let's be honest, without the litany of Easter eggs in 21336 The Office, you're just constructing a mundane corporate office space).
Deep cut references can be found in LEGO's evergreen licensed themes such as Star Wars. For instance, the latest midi-scale 75356 Executor Super Star Destroyer contains a hidden gem for the discerning Star Wars aficionado: stacked 1x1 round plates representing the bounty hunters from "The Empire Strikes Back." However, this delightful detail is ultimately concealed, which leads me to the next category of Easter eggs...
Hidden Surprises
Another approach employed in official sets to delight builders with Easter eggs involves entirely hiding them within the final build. These Easter eggs are usually only visible while actually building the set. The aforementioned Executor is a prime example. While admiring the set, if you had not built the set yourself, you'd never know it was there.
Another clever implementation of this approach can be found in 75936 Jurassic Park: T. rex Rampage. I'm sure there was no shortage of confused builders who encountered the frog piece hidden inside the T. rex. Yet, super fans of Jurassic Park could appreciate the cheeky allusion to the usage of frog DNA in the process of resurrecting the dinosaurs.
But you don't need to be a super fan to appreciate all hidden surprises - such as the lovely snowflake hidden within the base of 40498 Christmas Penguin.
LEGO Self-References
Transitioning from concealed Easter eggs, a seemingly growing trend in LEGO sets is the inclusion of self-referential surprises. With over 90 years of LEGO lore, designers have no shortage of callbacks they can make to previous sets.
One of the oldest LEGO references is not even constructed from LEGO bricks but rather crafted from wood: the LEGO Duck. Back in 1935, this duck was among the first toys produced by the LEGO company, and its distinctive colour palette makes it an attractive option as an Easter egg. You can spot the iconic duck in the recently revealed Monkie Kid 80054 Megapolis City.
Another popular reference as of late - well-known to many Brickset readers - is the legendary yellow 375 Castle. In a meta twist, the castle delightfully appears as a toy within the popular and impressive Lion Knights' Castle set. The yellow castle, along with references to the Pirates and Forestmen themes, appears again in the newly unveiled modular 10326 Natural History Museum. Moreover, this set also features a suspiciously familiar curator who strongly resembles Dr. Kilroy, who appeared in the LEGO Adventurers series of sets.
Inside Jokes
While the nods to previous LEGO sets evoke a sense of nostalgia, inside jokes among the LEGO designers can take a different, more whimsical path. Case in point: frogs. Within the last decade, it seems as though the designers have playfully challenged themselves to incorporate the frog piece into as many sets as possible - with the magnum opus being 10281 Bonsai Tree.
Can this abundance of frogs in a single set ever be topped? LEGO fans have certainly taken note of this frog trend, but it makes me wonder what other inside jokes have gone unnoticed?
Another intriguing inside joke involves the creation of the "TC" tombstone piece (6304930), which made its debut in 10273 Haunted House. The average LEGO consumer would be wholly unaware that these initials reference former LEGO designer Tiago Catarino. By leaving the company to become my favourite LEGO YouTuber I suppose Tiago became "dead" to his remaining designer friends. Tiago was in for an additional surprise (and LEGO builders faced a perplexing building step) when this tombstone piece was curiously included within the bowels of the Titanic set.
Back in 2019, while still with the company, Tiago had proposed and created a concept model for the ill-fated ocean liner. The inclusion of this piece serves as an honourable nod to his prior contribution to the Titanic set concept.
Easter eggs are like little hidden gems in LEGO sets. From deep references to nerdy lore to perplexing inside jokes, LEGO sets can be packed with amusing surprises waiting to be discovered. So, next time you're building, keep an eye out for these sneaky secrets. Think of them like a playful wink from the designers, making the building experience all the more enjoyable.
What are your favourite obscure LEGO set Easter eggs? I'd love to read them in the comments!
If you enjoyed this article, your support for my Ideas submission for The Grinch would make my heart grow three sizes!
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67 comments on this article
doesn't the Speed Champions Koenigsegg 76900 have the Swedish Flag inside of it
Great article, thanks Ben! There's also nods to fan designers in Ideas sets, such as the Polish flags in the back of 21340.
It's my ambition to put together a parts order to build every Yellow Castle Easter egg - they keep on coming...
Most recently, I enjoyed the Lego House Pirate Captain bigfig having a nice little Easter Egg inside his head!
I thought the TC tile simply meant TitaniC. :P
Neat article!
Anyone have an idea what the first frog-as-an-easter egg set is?
OMG!! I didn't even remember that Moonlander was a part of my personal history until seeing those pictures. I feel like I'm having some kind of nostalgic reawakening.
Fun article.
There is also a growing trend of easter eggs and self-references in the modular building series, to mention but a few:
- 10182 Cafe Corner box in 10255 Assembly-Square
- Creator Expert logo in 10297 Boutique Hotel
- Art Piece (10243 Parisian Restaurant) in 10297 Boutique Hotel
- Soap and Studs (10251 Brick Bank) advertisement in 10278 Police-Station
- The entire museum in 71741 NINJAGO-City-Gardens
Not to mention the Easter eggs in76178 Daily-Bugle and 76218 Sanctum-Sanctorum
Personally I love these as it also helps to tie the theme(s) together.
I used to love easter eggs in sets, but lately it's been getting a bit much.
Repetition.
How many times are we going to see a yellow castle, 928 or CS color scheme or wooden duck? The upcoming Monkie Kid set seems to be 1/3rd references, most of which have been done a plethora of times!
Parts use.
The latest creator house is a great build but there are a lot of 'toys' strewn around solely to reference past sets (to be fair, Atlantis and Rock Raiders at least aren't referenced very often).
Thing is... it's a creator set. The 3-in-1 nature and building experience are bogged down with all the very specific colored tiny parts for those. Creator works best when it's simple and focussed, as that provides a good parts pile for alternate builds and makes rebuilding more fun. This is just one example where parts budget is stretched just for the easter egg.
Reference pool.
The last few years some references seem to have become 'stock". When Bionicle is referenced it's almost always been a Hau mask or Tahu from 2001 for example. The new Galaxy Explorer at least shows a canister... referencing a render of that Tahu set.
I like callbacks, but it would be great if the horizon is expanded more. Aside from logos in the Ninjago city sets and maybe the Ice Planet color scheme the 90s Space themes rarely have been alluded to, for example.
Classic Space in particular was more than just the 1979/1780 wave, for another example.
That said, I'm saying this while we're being spoiled. The designers are fans and probably just want to pay homage. But especially the repetition of the same references over and over again is just something I felt needed to be said.
One of my favorite is the CODEC from Metal Gear Solid in 70164
@raven_za said:
"There is also a growing trend of easter eggs and self-references in the modular building series, to mention but a few:
- 10182 Cafe Corner box in 10182 Cafe Corner
- Creator Expert logo in 10297 Boutique Hotel
- Art Piece (10243 Parisian Restaurant) in 10297 Boutique Hotel
- Soap and Studs (10251 Brick Bank) advertisement in 10278 Police-Station
- The entire museum in 71741 NINJAGO-City-Gardens
Not to mention the Easter eggs in 76178 Daily-Bugle and 76218 Sanctum-Sanctorum
Personally I love these as it also helps to tie the theme(s) together."
None of them top the sheer amount of easter eggs/references in 10255 Assembly Square, though. Three "modular" microbuilds(Parisian Restaurant, Market Street and Cafe Corner), two cars(VW Campervan and Mini), the Horizon Express and that same Cafe Corner box.
If you can’t tell, I just finished building it and am
still over the moon. Wish I’d gotten into modulars earlier, that’s for sure!!
And what exactly am I supposed to do with 50 pink frogs in one of my own builds??
Is it some weird Paul McCartney reference?
Or just some way to boost our piece count without them being useful?
Apart from that it's always nice to find the easter eggs, even if they a couple of croissants.
I don't think the ones in The Office are Easter Eggs. They are things that happened in scenes in the TV show appearing in the set of the show. They are expected to be there.
@ThunderCracker81 said:
" @raven_za said:
"There is also a growing trend of easter eggs and self-references in the modular building series, to mention but a few:
- 10182 Cafe Corner box in 10182 Cafe Corner
- Creator Expert logo in 10297 Boutique Hotel
- Art Piece (10243 Parisian Restaurant) in 10297 Boutique Hotel
- Soap and Studs (10251 Brick Bank) advertisement in 10278 Police-Station
- The entire museum in 71741 NINJAGO-City-Gardens
Not to mention the Easter eggs in 76178 Daily-Bugle and 76218 Sanctum-Sanctorum
Personally I love these as it also helps to tie the theme(s) together."
None of them top the sheer amount of easter eggs/references in 10255 Assembly Square, though. Three "modular" microbuilds(Parisian Restaurant, Market Street and Cafe Corner), two cars(VW Campervan and Mini), the Horizon Express and that same Cafe Corner box.
If you can’t tell, I just finished building it and am
still over the moon. Wish I’d gotten into modulars earlier, that’s for sure!!"
The first line was supposed to read "in 10255 Assembly-Square" :-) Fixed now
If your wife doesn’t already think that you’re a dork just from your Lego collection itself, try explaining the cleverness of easter eggs or NPU (the orchids are actually from demagorgon parts!). That’ll do it.
I think I read somewhere , possible an interview on Brickset, that one of the Lego designers always incorporates a frog piece in all the sets they have worked on.
I'm not sure it qualifies as an "easter egg" but the hidden reference that I have always remembered is in 7066, Earth Defence HQ. The spaceship that is included in the set has the symbol of a snake (presumably a viper) with the caption "NNENN", a reference to a Lego fan, Nate Nielson who was known for designing spaceships in that style, and who had recently died in an accident. A really nice inclusion by the designers and an utterly brilliant set too.
I like the ‘brain’ in the Brickheadz.
You mention Adventure's Easter egg, but you don't mention that 10306 homaged it with a https://brickset.com/parts/6194512/globe-w-3-2-stick behind the castle build (which build also homages 375-2, although I don't think that counts as an Easter egg, as it's right there in plain sight). Also, 75356 isn't the only recent Star Wars set to have hidden stacks of 1x1 round plates representing characters in an iconic scene. 40591 had that with a representation of the Emperor's throne room, and made it more accessible, as the plates concealing it were hinged, to allow easy reveals. It also had a https://brickset.com/parts/6224999/angled-gear-wheel-z20-w-4-85-hole representing the reactor core, although that is hidden in the completed model.
@Binnekamp said:
" When Bionicle is referenced it's almost always been a Hau mask or Tahu from 2001 for example."
Although 77013 did have an image of a Kaukau, to mix things up.
@chrisaw said: "I like the ‘brain’ in the Brickheadz."
I love that the Homer Simpson one had a smaller piece than the usual 2x2 brick, and that the Minecraft Creeper one replaced it with a TNT block.
I like how some of the Harry Potter Hogwarts Moments books appear in the House Banner sets.
IDK if you’d call it an “easter egg” or just part of a set’s design, but the colors of the interior of the Majestic Tiger more-or-less reflects interior anatomy, including bones and organs.
Of course there’s the… AHEM… magenta flower “egress” piece on the tigress…
Less graphically, the interior superstructure of the Empire State Building Architecture set is predominantly red-white-and-blue.
That set also features escalators on the ground floor that are totally concealed when the set is fully assembled.
@benbacardi said:
"Great article, thanks Ben! There's also nods to fan designers in Ideas sets, such as the Polish flags in the back of 21340."
Thanks, and absolutely - even Tiago snuck an allusion to the flag of Portugal into his Gingerbread House 10267 as a pair of hand towels in the bathroom!
One of my favorite, I discovered it later. On the outside pavement of the first modular building, the café corner 10182, you can see CAFE written with tiles under the two yellow table... That's really great.
Recently, the A-cabin has a lot too... Marco Bessas often added the red and green Portugese map colors in it's model...etc etc...
To mind come the now-recurring but probably own-category Lego self-reference Easter Eggs. For example, 70620-1 Ninjago City had numerous Lego-theme references spread across. I mean, they even referenced Galidor! Those Ninjago City sets also had a lot of elements that were buried deep within, like the sewage parts and hidden stashes. Similarly, 21324-1 Sesame Street includes a lot of references to Sesame Street universe but also a hidden spider layer inside the basement (which I'm not aware is a Sesame Street reference).
@benbuildslego said:
" @benbacardi said:
"Great article, thanks Ben! There's also nods to fan designers in Ideas sets, such as the Polish flags in the back of 21340 ."
Thanks, and absolutely - even Tiago snuck an allusion to the flag of Portugal into his Gingerbread House 10267 as a pair of hand towels in the bathroom! "
And the Italian flag in the A-frame Cabin.
@jumalichi said:
"One of my favorite, I discovered it later. On the outside pavement of the first modular building, the café corner 10182, you can see CAFE written with tiles under the two yellow table... That's really great.
Recently, the A-cabin has a lot too... Marco Bessas often added the red and green Portugese map colors in it's model...etc etc... "
Now that you mention it, 10243 Parisian Restaurant has the word 'CHEZ' written under the outside tables (similar to the printed tile 'Chez Albert' above the door).
For Inside Jokes I do like the 'Prevent Yellowing' written on the window for the Dentist in Assembly Square..
@chrisaw said:
"I like the ‘brain’ in the Brickheadz."
And their variation, like for 41632 Homer Simpson.
71722 has a poop and gold piece in its base. These are very suspiciously placed together at page 32 entirely out of context. I keep wondering what they could mean. My initial thought was that it could be hinting to "making gold out of s***". But that may have been due to my anger about the instructions for the advertised game that did not work at all, starting with the dice having the wrong number of sides in the instructions.
I even took over this easter egg into my alternative build for this set. A much better use of the pieces, if you ask me :)
Do you have any ideas what else it could mean?
My favorite Easter egg of late are the Octan canisters inside of the enormous AT-AT.
So Tiago who did the ship in a bottle has a Portuguese flag on the small ship inside the bottle. And the Initials TC for Tiago Caterino are on the 2x2 round tile at the top of the bottle cork.
That tile from the Titanic actually first appeared in the Haunted House Fairground set 10273.
And that set has a nod to a bunch of historic sets to Johnny Thunder and Adventurers sets from 2003.
And of course who can forget the NES system 71374 which shows World 1-2 warp to worlds 2,3 or 4.
:)
@punisher3564 said:
"doesn't the Speed Champions Koenigsegg 76900 have the Swedish Flag inside of it"
That gets into a fifth class that this article missed, which is personal signatures. Other than the fact that frogs appear in _every_ set from the last wave of Jurassic Park, one designer in particular (who did design the Bonsai) is fond of finding ways to include frogs in every set he designs. I try to work at least one part in some shade of purple into anything I build. And, straight from the mouth of one of the Friends designers, many of the foreign nationals who moved to Billund to design sets like to include the colors of their national flags, even if they can’t incorporate the actual flag pattern. Red/white/blue would work for at least half a dozen countries, including the US, UK, and France. It’s not really any sort of joke, per se, nor does it fit within the other three categories listed here.
Excellent article! Like @kkoster79 mentioned, I love the hidden World 1-2 in 71374 Nintendo Entertainment System.
Friends models are full of inside jokes and Easter eggs. Those kids are funny!
The recent theatre is a great example.
Ok so this article is an ad disguised as a piece of journalism, got it
I don’t think brickset writers or editors should use this platform for self promotion.
The hidden eye of Sauron under the council chambers in Rivendell!
The weirdest easter egg I found was these three sets. 60134 60182 and 60283 When the baby on the People's Pack - Fun in the Park set grew to a boy on the Pickup & Caravan set and grew to an adult on the Holiday Camper Van set.
The inclusion of the TC tile in the Titanic set is ridiculous.
Catarino wasn't the first LEGO designer to propose a Titanic set. Throughout the years, many LEGO designers proposed it. Fans proposed it. And unlike the Haunted House, he had no involvement with the UCS Titanic. So adding that tile there was a joke between former colleges that LEGO should have not allowed. In the Haunted House it could be forgiven: he did help colleagues with the set, he was still at the company and he had just left. And the tombstone fit the model.
But adding the tombstone piece inside the Titanic, not only was unwarranted even as an undeserved homage, it was absolutely tasteless considering History.
But I guess LEGO let it slide as he became a mouthpiece for LEGO's marketing team (aka a LAN-member).
I'm fine with the self-references and the pop culture references. I'm even OK with the small flags of the country of the designer inside the builds. But that's where the inside references should stop.
@Sandinista said:
"Ok so this article is an ad disguised as a piece of journalism, got it
I don’t think brickset writers or editors should use this platform for self promotion. "
I skipped over them in first reading it. Those builds are no more Easter Eggs than putting any licensed minifigure or build into a LEGO city.
@BaconKing said:
"The weirdest easter egg I found was these three sets. 60134 60182 and 60283 When the baby on the People's Pack - Fun in the Park set grew to a boy on the Pickup & Caravan set and grew to an adult on the Holiday Camper Van set."
LEGO designers playing the long game!
@benbuildslego Great article, I also love certain type of Easter Eggs that TLG use in the print of Minifig Torsos, like the BLACKTRON logo in these minifigures:
https://brickset.com/sets/71025-11/Galactic-Bounty-Hunter
https://brickset.com/sets/71029-2/Violin-Kid
Another, different, kind of easter egg can sometimes be found not so much in bricks, but in ancillary details. E.g., the Saturn V set 21309 having 1969 parts.
@Binnekamp:
There was a Bohrok emblem in Ninjago, a Bionicle double-B logo in Stuntz, the Kaukau in Indiana Jones, multiple instances of both Blacktron logos across multiple themes, one shirt that has three different Space logos (Classic Space, Blacktron I, and M-Tron), a Fabuland torso, several references to Adventurers, the Creator Viking longboat references at least three of the original Viking theme sets…. I mean, this stuff is out there, but if you don’t read about it in a set review, you might miss enough of it that it really seems you only see a few specific things referenced.
@TheOtherMike:
I think it was Captain Salazar who had a trans-green brain. The giant Minions from their lair set are significantly larger than Brickheadz, but they all have a pink 1x2 _plate_ lodged in their noggin.
@WemWem:
Took me a while to get that one sorted out myself, but if it’s in the interior, it’s infrastructure. On the exterior, it’s superstructure.
@BaconKing:
Rumor is, the father is supposed to be Kevin Hinkle, former community liaison to North America. Around the time the first of those sets appeared, his wife had just given birth to their first child.
@iamkevinwill said:
"For Inside Jokes I do like the 'Prevent Yellowing' written on the window for the Dentist in Assembly Square.."
That's a great Easter Egg. But a Dwight minifig holding a "stapler in Jello" is not an Easter Egg, it's just a reference to one of the episodes.
I know a lot of the Speed Champions sets come with wrenches, but in the case of Dom's Charger 76912, I know I considered that a sort of easter egg. There have been lots of Galaxy Explorer references lately--it's on the targeting screen of 40580 and I loved its appearance on the Asteroids box art in 10306. There's classic blue/grey CS ship in 10245 and a seeming Blacktron counterpart in 10254.
And you could do an entire article on minifig references. COL341 video game champ has the M:Tron logo on his jacket; 918 has shown up on several minifig torsos including the child in 40533 (which in turn references a hand-drawn 493 on the flag); The lady from 10199 also has the CS emblem on her jacket.
One of my favorites of all time, though, was the recursive reference of 3221 carrying boxes of itself.
31109 : Pirate Ship has red and green coloring inside it's hull which matches the Port and Starboard coloring.
The parts are later used in alternate builds as red and green build details but still a nice touch to the main ship build to have those colors used for the hull structure, even if not visible from the outside (unless looking from the bottom)
I mean, LEGO could've used different colors there if the only goal was to be reuse the parts for the alternate builds.
I liked that within the build of the 76042 Helicarrier was the flag of the country of the designer.
Felt like he signed the model. Loved that.
You forgot to mention 71741 Ninjago City Gardens and the other Ninjago Cities. They reference the almost every Lego theme especially from the signs on the railings. The Gardens even references the MOC that sparked the idea for the first City.
21343 Viking Village also references the fan designer Brickhammer by printing his initials “BH” on a Thor’s hammer element.
The frogs are also Nick Vas’s signature to all his sets. There’s one in the Destiny’s Shadow and 71741 as well.
My favorite easter egg is a trans green tile in ninjago city gardens referencing a moc that inspired the ninjago city range
@punisher3564 said:
"doesn't the Speed Champions Koenigsegg 76900 have the Swedish Flag inside of it"
First thing I thought of when I saw the article.
@Huw How do you submit an article? I would like to write one perhaps.
@beige2 said:
" @Huw How do you submit an article? I would like to write one perhaps."
Great -- get in touch via the contact form with your proposal.
@Huw said:
" @beige2 said:
" @Huw How do you submit an article? I would like to write one perhaps."
Great -- get in touch via the contact form with your proposal."
I've not done one yet, but I'll get writing
@ra226 said:
"One of my favorites of all time, though, was the recursive reference of 3221 carrying boxes of itself."
Home Alone also comes with a minifig-scale copy of the set that's sitting on the living room floor.
@TeriXeri:
The irony is that red/green is a modern contrivance (as is Red Green), and wouldn't have meant anything to the pirates on that ship. The other irony is that, as I just learned, the colors are flipped depending on where you're at. Red Right Returning is the mnemonic I learned from the boatbuilder I worked for in high school, meaning that as you return to port, the red navigation aids will be on your right (and by default, the green ones are to port). This only works in the Americas (excluding Greenland), and in Japan, Korea, and the Philippines. In the rest of the world, the colors are reversed. Navigation lights, at least, are consistent worldwide, and even historic tall ships would probably be required to install modern navigation lights if operating in the dark.
I'm with @Binnekamp. I generally like Easter eggs, especially in TV shows and movies (not so much in LEGO sets), but I too prefer quality over quantity. Lately it's been getting a bit much for my liking.
licence plates with the name of the designer on it, are also easter eggs in my opinion
they were used in several models - for example:
42043 - Mercedes Arocs, Designer Markus Kossmann
10262 - Aston Martin DB 5 ("JB" stands vor Jamie Berard, Mike Psiaki mentions in the comment for this set)
10265 - Ford Mustang, Designer Mike Psiaki
10295 - Porsche 911, Designer Mike Psiaki
+ + +
lego designers as minifigures in sets:
10278 - Police Station, Chris McVeigh (the cookie thief)
10326 - Natural History Museum, Chris McVeigh (the window cleaner)
@M_A_L_L_E said:
"lego designers as minifigures in sets:
10278 - Police Station, Chris McVeigh (the cookie thief)
10326 - Natural History Museum, Chris McVeigh (the window cleaner) "
Is he growing his beard out?
@M_A_L_L_E:
8683-8 CMF S1 Crash Test Dummy has a license plate tile with “PA7 70”, which references someone whose last name is “Patton”. I don’t remember what set it is, but something else around the same time had another Patton reference, I think on a sticker.
Not an Easter Egg as such, but I love how 1990's 6399 recycled, for use as airline schedules, a modified version of the sticker from 1983's 7824. (Itself a variant of that found in the earlier 7822, but subsequently 1985's 7745 used city names in place of the set numbers)
@jhs8swd said:
"Most recently, I enjoyed the Lego House Pirate Captain bigfig having a nice little Easter Egg inside his head!"
I sooooo wish that 76393 had included Harry and Hermione's favorite things (e.g. a Snitch, a piece of parchment) as Easter eggs in their heads or torsos.
Has anyone said about Brikheadz brains Easter eggs? For example, Homer from 41632 having way smaller brain than the others or creeper from 41612 having a TNT on top of his brain.
Not such an Easter egg, but a funny detail: there's a family of minifigures in Lego City, and we can watch the child's story. In 60134 we can see a family with the baby, in 60182 the boy has grown up, an in 60283 he is a grown-up and this time, HE has a baby!
Oh, i didn't see this one.
Looks like I ran out of original ideas.
10275 Elf Club House has a piano and a pirate ship as toys/gifts. Ideas sets that year were 21322-1 and 21323-1
On the window of the vet clinic in 10264 there's a sigh that reads as: "Dr. Jones Animal Care. No snakes!". which is a reference to Indiana Jones and his famous snake haterd.
The UCS Imperial Shuttle has stickers on the five control panels in the cockpit, that have text written in the Aurabesh font. When translated, they read: "Front", "Left" (or right, I forget), "Matt made this model", "Kurt was here and wrote", and my favourite, "Come to the Dark Side, we got cookies".
I was the first person in Canada to build the set, as I was working at a Lego store at the time and built the store display model prior to the set's actual release. There's been text in said font in a number of Star Wars sets, but that will always be my favourite example.
@benbuildslego, this was a great article! Maybe you could even do a series on easter eggs in different themes? I'm sure there are more I'm not familiar with, that I'd love to see.