Happy 20th birthday, LEGO.com
Posted by Huw,
LEGO.com is 20 years old this month and to mark the event, LEGO has published a celebratory page showing how the site has looked over time and a mildly amusing game with which you can win some wallpapers featuring classic sets.
The Internet Archive wayback machine can be used to explore LEGO.com over time. The earliest capture is from November 1996 and because of the technology used, it all still works. One of the more informative pages is this LEGO company timeline. I don't think there's anything as detailed as that on the current site, is there?
The original press release issued by LEGO on 29th March 1996 announcing the site's launch makes for interesting reading too.
I have taken a few screenshots from the wayback machine showing how the design has changed over the years. You will find them after the break. Which ones do you remember?
1996
2000
2002
2004
2006
2011
2016
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I remember the 2006 version on... I didn't use LEGO.com until 2008, when I was 5. Ah, memories...
Oh man I remember that early version of the Lego web site. I remember exploring it the summer of 1996. I gotten a modem for my birthday and recently been allowed to sign up for an ISP by my folks. Lego wasn't the first thing I searched for, but was an early one. The official site was awful. I quickly found some better LUG sites (all of which are now gone or merged). After the first several visits I don't think I went back until late 1999 or early 2000. And don't think I went with any frequency until 2002.
I remember the last four, since I first started using the site in 2005.
2004 looks familiar, but I really remember everything afterwards. Cool article.
Went to 2008.. Wish i could buy the Café Corner and the Green Grocer lol
'LEGO.com is 20 year old this month. To mark the event LEGO has...'
Made the website functional?!?!
No? Darn.
^so very true... even apart from Shop at Home, there are bugs everywhere.
How about instructions for that old IBM PC MOC at the top?
On the 2011 page under the featured products menu, it shows the wrong text for the photo (Toy Story and Ninjago, LEGO Games and Lego Universe, Atlantis and Star Wars).
After 20 yrs the US Shop at home website is still crap. More than half the time you have to clear all your cookies to check out. The days of new product releases the site never works, either glitches or complete crashes. They randomly mark stuff as Sold Out, Out of Stock, Retired, or some other terminology you have to guess at what it exactly means in terms of future buying opportunities. I mean, this really is counter to "only the best is good enough". LEGO...please fix it.
I started using it around 2001...
Have to like the mid to late 90s when the web was still in its infancy; before the advent of real Graphic Designers and Page layouts. Man what were we thinking back then; those sites are just atrocious.
Heck I remember in college web sites before you were allowed to use images; I guess when images were finally allowed everyone went haywire with them (and animated gifs).
Holy smokes...the 1996 page looks like someone's old Geocities site! I can't remember the first time I accessed LEGO.com, but I sure as heck don't remember it ever looking like that. The Internet sure has come a long way design-wise in the past 20 years.
The original website looks like a 90s custom website. It even has low quality gifs.
I distinctly remember every single one. I remember the first time I logged onto the site in 96 and thinking it was clever that they had the the "this is home" box with a Lego house in the top left. Man now I feel old...
Ah the memories of the 1990s - boy do I miss those days! :(
Wow, how time flies. :)
2011 and 2006 were the best, IMO. Not really a fan of the current version (it looks to much like a sub-page rather than the front page- navigation bar buttons are too small and the image at the top takes up way too much room).
Ah memories. the most website I remembered was back in 1997( its between 1996 to 2000 but mostly the website I remembered was 2000) where my dad help me started as a LEGO club member as my birthday gift. Its funny to know that my birthdate was 2 days ahead LEGO's website launched
Whoa. Nostalgia attack! I remember the site back in the olden days. Heck, first website I ever went to. Was too young to understand the consequences of the internet then but still, enjoyed every moment.
@Huw - yes there is a pretty nice history timeline at http://www.lego.com/en-us/aboutus/lego-group/the_lego_history (click on the timeline decades for detailed info on that decade); and you also find a nice history timeline in this PDF (this year's version came out earlier this month) http://cache.lego.com/r/www/r/aboutus/-/media/about%20us/media%20assets%20library/company%20profiles/the%20lego%20group_a%20short%20presentation_2016_eng.pdf?l.r2=882070953
Ah, the 2006 version. I've never been able to compare the two, but the 2011 version was definitely better, although I didn't think so at the time. I've never seen the 2016 version before, actually, since to me there's not really anything worth while on the site other than the online store (and even that's only because my nearest physical lego store is a 15 hour plane flight away. Not including getting to an international airport), but I cant say I like the 2016 version, its following that awful trend of making everything low detail and cartoony (a trend which has forced me into using old operating systems, because I hate all recent operating systems look. Eh, win7 is perfectly fine anyway)
I think the LEGO Club (at least in the United States) is set to celebrate its 30th anniversary this next year, in 2017. The first US LEGO Club magazine ("Brick Kicks" No. 1) debuted in Winter 1987.
I first went on to Lego.com around 2007, so, for me, the 2006 version will always be my favorite (even though the 2011 version also grew on me).
The first thing I thought when reading the title of this was...... wow surely there will be a really good lego.com exclusive freebie to celebrate..........probably not.......
I don't remember any of them... In 1996 I didn't even have a computer yet, and in 1999 I entered DA. I came back only about a year ago, but thanks to Brickset, not Lego.com.
I was initially amazed at how bad the site works . The largest toy manufacturer and you can't even preview "what's new" without clearing the cookies all the time? It all suddenly stopped a few weeks ago and works perfectly fine, even in Chrome. Finally. So far.
I used LEGO.com a lot around 2006 - 2013. My favourite is probably the 2011 website, as the previous ones look old, and the new version looks far too kiddish for my liking.
I don't remember the 2016 one... I guess I don't go on there enough! I thought it still looked like the 2011 one - they must only have changed it within the last 6 months or so.
^ It's been like that for almost two years now.
I started visiting back in 2006. I used the site the most when I had a My Lego Network account in 2008 (when that was a thing) :D
@NBJMarks - Not true, at least here in the States. It's only started looking like the 2016 screenshot fairly recently.
I remember the agonising waiting, hearing about SHOP-AT-HOME in the US and checking to see if on-line shopping was going to be available in the UK.
@NBJMarks - I apologize and take back what I said! The Wayback Machine appears to disagree with me, that LEGO's current web design goes further than I thought. I guess I was thinking of how the shop.lego.com site has looked largely the same for many years now.