LEGO DOTS press release
Posted by CapnRex101,
Following months of rumours and speculation, LEGO DOTS is being officially announced today!
We are currently attending the unveiling in London and some information about these products and their announcement follows:
Artist Camille Walala today unveiled her most interactive work to date at Coal Drops Yard in London’s Kings Cross to introduce the entirely new 2D tile play concept from the LEGO Group - LEGO DOTS.
To tease the new product, Walala was invited to bring LEGO DOTS to life in a free public art installation that celebrates their shared values of creativity, self-expression and accessibility, expressed through the vibrant colours and bold geometric patterns of both the new product and her own signature work.
The result is HOUSE OF DOTS: a fantastical house comprising five rooms spread over eight shipping containers, in which everything from the walls and floors to the rugs, frames and furniture has been customised in a mashup of LEGO DOTS and Walala’s distinctive patterns and colours.
Playful and immersive, HOUSE OF DOTS invites people to journey through a living room, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom and finally a unique DOTS DISCO room designed to celebrate self-expression and let the body flow freely with DOTS disco moves to a custom playlist from Ele Beattie. While they explore the space, guests are encouraged to get involved by designing their own patterns and bracelets – and even take elements away with them ahead of the release of LEGO DOTS in March 2020.
If that weren’t enough, guests can exit via an 8ft slide down the side of the installation.
Camille Walala, artist, says: “It’s a joy to create a fun space where kids and adults can spontaneously express their creativity, make something beautiful and show off who they are. HOUSE OF DOTS captures all the exuberance and playfulness that people know me for, with something extra special: the chance to let your imagination go wild and create your own work of art. Oh, and a slide.”
LEGO DOTS taps into the arts and crafts space by using a 2D tile-based play concept that offers children a creative canvas for self-expression. Based on multiple shapes and colourful tiles, it is supported by an exciting portfolio that ranges from wearables to room décor with surfaces designed for individual customisation and self-expression. To excite young creatives even more, over thirty mood tiles are also being introduced, incl. facial expressions, music note, cosmic planet, star night, paw prints and a rainbow pooh – and many more.
Being based on the LEGO System in Play, there are limitless ways children can DOT their world, taking all elements apart and redesigning again to help build their creative flair and confidence.
Lena Dixen, Senior Vice President and Head of Product and Marketing Development at the LEGO Group, says about the collaboration with Camille Walala: “We’re extremely excited to introduce LEGO DOTS as a new arts and crafts building concept giving children a creative canvas for social, self-expressive play with endless, ever-changing patterns, colours and designs. As someone who epitomises how confidence in your creativity can have a tremendous impact, Camille was perfect to collaborate with to announce it to the world. She has created something extraordinary and immensely fun that we can’t wait for our fans to explore and be inspired by”.
When creating LEGO DOTS, LEGO designers were inspired by internal research showing that kids are increasingly looking to shape their creative confidence through more personalised forms of play where they can explore freely and express themselves through their own designs. This particular insight draws on a quantitative study conducted with 10,800 parents and 7,200 children across the US, China and Germany, and among the participants a total of 21,600 play observations were mapped out and used to identify the relevance and concept direction of DOTS.
The specific DOTS product development phase has since been further informed by monthly hands-on play sessions, biannual focus groups and quantitative tests across US, UK, Germany and Denmark with more than 500 parents and kids over two years, ensuring the design development aligns to consumer input.
Fans excited about this new play concept will be pleased to hear that more 2D tile-based LEGO products are in the pipeline.
HOUSE OF DOTS will remain at Coal Drops Yard January 28 – February 2 and can be visited by the public through sign-up here: https://houseofdots.
HOUSE OF DOTS Fun Facts:
- +2 million LEGO tiles used to dot the installation
- +800 man-hours required to dot the installation
- +150 square meters of DOTS structure inside the installation
- 180 creative children from Kings Cross Academy helped create bespoke wall installation for Camille Walala’s DOTS kitchen design
- Eight passionate AFOLs helped dot the +150 square meters of Camille Walala’s detailed interior design including everything from rugs, artwork on the walls to plant pots and kitchen elements.
The new LEGO DOTS range available from March 1st 2020 will include:
Wearables:
- Rainbow Bracelet (RRP from: £4.99)
- Funky Animals Bracelet (RRP from: £4.99)
- Dark Unicorn Bracelet (RRP from: £4.99)
- Cosmic Bracelet (RRP from: £4.99)
- Tropical Birds Bracelet (RRP from: £4.99)
Room Décor:
- Photo Cubes - 3 animal cubes for picture displays (RRP: £12.99)
- Jewellery holder for e.g. rings, necklaces, bracelets (RRP: £12.99)
- Pineapple pencil holder (RRP: £17.99)
Supplementary Packs:
- Booster bags - bags with raw coloured and decorated tiles (RRP: £3.99)
More information about LEGO DOTS, along with images of these sets from the HOUSE OF DOTS event, will be published very shortly. You may also have noticed a comment about additional two-dimensional tile-based products which are in development and could prove interesting.
Are you interested in DOTS and do you think this will prove more successful than LEGO's previous forays into jewellery? Let us know in the comments.
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73 comments on this article
So many new tiles !!! Wow!!! This looks so cool, people, STOP saying Clikits 2.0!
Not gonna lie I think we all thought this was going to be something we wouldn't like, but we can't say no to the accessibility of so many colorful and awesome tiles now, can we?
I like this better than I thought I would. What I also like is that even if people aren't into LEGO Dots, they might want the pieces since it's not restricted to the LEGO Dots range. It's all 1x1 tiles of different shapes and colors.
Dark unicorn bracelet?
Yeah, I think I know a buyer for one of those
The new tiles are cool, but nothing else
Will this stuff fit in that Frozen 2 jewelry box?
Huwbot just had a kitten.
The polybags of printed tiles sound good. I guess it depends what the designs are. But I’m optimistic.
Its like Clikits but ten times better.
The little polybag tile packs look good! Very handy for lots of builders I imagine, even if they aren’t into the Dots theme.
Just saw the pictures of the sets and I love them, take my money now. Love printed tiles so the booster bag at a very reasonable price is going to be great. Even though this are aimed at the younger market as an AFOL I think it'll be the adults are going to main the purchasers especially the booster bag. I'll even get the bracelet just for the tiles alone.
Plenty of AFOLs was so afraid about new clickits and yet here we have quite good parts packs without stickers. It's so wrong to judge a product before one can even see it.
Art installation - great, lovely
Printed parts - cool
Clutch on wearables - we shall see
Arts / crafts materials can be purchased for a fraction in Poundland etc - risky
They look like good parts packs....
@tim1724 said:
"The polybags of printed tiles sound good. I guess it depends what the designs are. But I’m optimistic."
The Birthers Brick has pictures, and they look good. Not all the tiles are printed, but they include some interesting colors (teal., magenta, spring green, etc.)
As someone who hasn't been following the press releases and knows nothing about Dots, can someone sum it up in sentence?
Is it just more Lego?
Cheers!
Interesting, I want to see pictures but I suspect there will be a lot of people making MOC's will find it useful.
So if I understand correctly, it's a serie to commemorate the Lego Scala I 41st anniversary? Will these be GwP like the updated 7810?...
At least, it will be easier to find 1x1 tiles to make some floor tiling in the future, when trend will be finished!
Certainly one for my two little children,
I look forward to buying some of the wrist bands and parts polybag...
These are super pretty. I definitely would have loved these as a kid. How much fun will it be adding all these gorgeous tiles and cute pictures to our moc’s?
I will get one of the pencil boxes for sure. Can aways use another pencil box. I don’t really need a jewellery stand but I do like the look of it.
I am all for the emoji tiles. This is good, and we also need more creative surfaces.
You guys are sleeping on this, Brothers Brick have pictures, prices, etc.
Having seen the sets ... wow. WOW. Some of the printed tiles are absolutely gorgeous. I love the rainbow pieces. And the little birds are cute too.
My little girl (6) might be interested in this, I hesitate to attribute greater excitement to it than that.
I'm sure a set or two will make it into the house.
I don't want to be overly negative, but from a product design/analysis point of view this looks to be (from pics on brothers brick) little more than a wristwrapper of "mayka tape" and a variety of fairly uninspiring 1x1 tiles. I can't see anything particularly new or revolutionary here... certainly not enough to justify the shrouded secrecy.
Just an initial gut feel here, don't shoot me, I could change my mind if I found myself playing with a set with my little girl.
It sounds more like the Scala jewellery, rather than Clikits. And I still have tiles from those from my sister.
A press release that tells you nothing about the product! Genius!
Images are already out. Looks like fun! Bracelets, cup for pens, jewellery stand, photo stand and nice sorting boxes for all the spare parts in the bigger sets.
Clikits round 2!
Printed tiles look good, and it is overall surprisingly non-disastrous. Might pick up the picture/random knick-knacks holder aside from bricklinking specific elements.
Love the pencil pot. Anyone know how long the instillation will be there for?
@drewtstew - The disadvantage of attending launch events is that you cannot easily update articles while the event is in session!
Tile separator is needed!
And we still can't get printed info placards in UCS sets
If they don't release DOTS soft case sets for the most popular phones ASAP I will be extraordinarily disappointed. Has to be the top market opportunity here by a long shot.
@theJANG I 100% agree. Phone cases would sell like hot cakes. This has tons of potential to be hugely successful
has anyone noticed the ship steering wheel in green on the pineapple?
Tiles look great. Product names seem to be different/incorrect compared to the product packaging. Eg Sparkly Unicorn and Love Birds.
I have a feeling Huwbot will be very pleased...
IMHO it looks great for girls and some great small parts for AFOL
41908 looks a lot to me like a packet of sweets. 1x1 round tiles with pictures of food on them seems a little unwise.
Hey, so that’s where the 1x1 unicorn tile from Trafalgar Square was meant to go!
I know many kids around me who will enjoy, without any doubt, those emoji style printed tiles! After all, we are in 2020, and lego has to stay in the good train to this new decade.
Won't be long before this line is discontinued. This will be about as popular as LEGO wristwatches, keychains & pencil holders. Yikes.
PS -Booster pack is a winner.
All I see are a bunch of cool tiles in amazing colors. Count me in!
As much as I love new tile prints (glad to see the Unicorn head printed 1x1 tile back from 80105), I'm still somewhat disappointed. When I heard LEGO Dots I immediately thought of LEGO branded Dippin' Dots... and my recurring dream of eating LEGO becoming closer to reality... in delicious ice cream form nonetheless. So that's not to be, but sure, I'll take lots of printed tiles anyway.
Ps. No colorful LEGO bathroom will be complete w/o Rainbow Pooh trim tile work! Still rather they be edibles, but my brain is warming up to the concept now...
The bands may have some interesting MOCing potential. One could simply wrap a few around a creation and be able to build in some interesting angles.
I don't think I qualify as a "young creative" but I still want that pineapple pencil holder. Oh and a couple of those picture holders and a bag of rainbow poo tiles please
@nymnyr8694 said:
"Won't be long before this line is discontinued. This will be about as popular as LEGO wristwatches, keychains & pencil holders. Yikes."
So we will get dozen and dozen of new sets every year for the next 30, like we get with keychains?
You don't like the theme, we get it. But how about we use some facts. Keychains sell, clearly they sell otherwise LEGO would stop making them. Same with pencil holders and picture frames. We have get new ones all the time the last several years so clearly they are selling.
The only thing I see that would be useful from this is the parts.
the 1x1 round tiles crack so easily though.
I hope they've fixed this issue
I might get a booster bag for the heck of it
What I see are amazing, colorful, fiddly bit parts packs. I'm all in!
As a parent my first reaction was this:
“WHOA...those look delicious and small. How many are going to be accidentally eaten?!?”
But that’s the worrisome parent part of me. The AFOL in me had a reaction more like:
“Ooooooo...nifty new floor tile potential here.”
@stephengroy said:
"the 1x1 round tiles crack so easily though.
I hope they've fixed this issue"
I have a notebook where I try to keep all the pieces that break. You then just contact LEGO and they will send out replacements.
These sound amazing!
I have yet to see a picture with someone wearing one of those bracelets to see how the tiles spread out when bent. As butteredwaffles pointed out, the bracelets could be used for curved surfaced (using a few side by side). One end of the bracelet should be easy to fix using Technic axles - the other end should be a bit trickier but not impossible. The bracelet width seems to be about 2 studs and a quarter which will create a small gap if you attach them side by side. The only tile colours missing are red and normal green (bright green I suppose). The part pack polybag says "series 1" which means that we might get new designs if this is successful.
Definitely buying at least some of the supply bag set and maybe even treat myself to a bracelet, na just for the piece not going to have these next to my Galaxy Active 2.
I think that a mini/micro model of the House of Dots would be super fun to make.
I'm liking the look of that Jewelry Holder, and a Pineapple Pencil Holder sounds ridiculously fun.
New tile prints are always welcome. The watermelon and rainbow heart seem especially useful. The fact that some of the parts are straight up emojis might be a tad cringey but I'm sure mocists that do things like phones would adore them.
A big problem people had with Scala and Clikits was that they lacked any actual bricks. These directly use the System of Play so I imagine they'll be much better received!
Decorative tiles are super cool! Can't say no to more printed tiles.
@Toc13 said:
"Dark unicorn bracelet?
Yeah, I think I know a buyer for one of those"
Me too ... every little girl I know age 4-8.
This is awesome. I don't get why they think only girls will like this kinda stuff. Like, I could see boys really liking this too if the marketing and packaging wasn't so "girly". :)
Love everything about it: the idea, the functionality, the colours, etc. Count me and my daughters in! Even my husband, I think. :-)
This is NOT clickits but SCALA 3.0.
Actual LEGO tile bracelets like the old days (1979-1980 Scala) before it became LEGO "Barbie"/Belville
I still have those 2x2 tiles from a bracelet set from 1979.
It can be Clickits 2.0 -and- great!
I'm ALL IN for the Booster bags, bags with raw coloured and decorated tiles. That's sweet!
@nymnyr8694 said:
"Won't be long before this line is discontinued. This will be about as popular as LEGO wristwatches, keychains & pencil holders. Yikes."
I would be the last person to defend TLG, but even I see great potential for this line. Judging not only by the many positive comments here but also by seeing how my daughters reacted to the images and how even I was immediately positively surprised.
Leave the hate for stuff that actually deserves it. Still enough of that as well in the current LEGO product lineup.
I had the possibility to be one of the 'eight passionate afols' but couldn't because I had to take care of my kid.
Absolutely gutted I couldn't do it. Really gutted. If the opportunity comes up again I can just abandon her in left luggage at the railway station can't I?
@nymnyr8694 said:
"Won't be long before this line is discontinued. This will be about as popular as LEGO wristwatches, keychains & pencil holders. Yikes."
What you seem to be saying is that these will be massively successful, since Lego has been pretty much continuously producing things like keychains and pencil holders for decades without a hint of stopping (wristwatches less so but there were still quite a few years of those before Lego scaled back on them). There's a proven market for Lego that is more functional or decorative than just playsets or display pieces.
@MrJackson said:
"And we still can't get printed info placards in UCS sets"
UCS aren't produced in large numbers. These sets have new prints in multiples of 4 in ONE SET. And these are small sets so easily a couple thousand will be produced. It makes much more sense to have these be prints and have UCS plaques be stickers
Unexpectedly I love it!
@stephengroy:
I could see that being a problem with the 1x1 quarter-round tile, just because of the placement of the stud notch, but the 1x1 round tile? I've never had one break. Cheese slopes, on the other hand...
i will buy a black bracelet and extra tiles, very cool even for a male (with tiny wrists, I admit)
I'm not gonna lie, I might get the extra tiles sets...