Pre-order the first official LEGO book created in partnership with AFOLs
Posted by Huw,
Remember when we asked you to vote for which book about parts you liked the sound of? The result has just been announced. The title chosen is The Secret Life of LEGO Bricks and you can pre-order it now. Here's the press release:
Unbound is excited to announce a major new initiative with AMEET, the LEGO Group’s global strategic publishing partner, to launch the first official direct-to-consumer book created in partnership with Adult Fans of LEGO? (AFOLs).
Developed with input from a group of AFOL ambassadors and voted for via a public competition on LEGO? Ideas, The Secret Life of LEGO Bricks is a LEGO history like no other. Showcasing the extraordinary variety of LEGO elements, from monorail tracks and wheels to smart bricks, the Mask of Life from BIONICLE?, and many more, The Secret Life of LEGO Bricks will feature interviews with the designers, managers and technicians who brought them to life, as well as artefacts from the LEGO Archive in Billund, Denmark.
The book will be written by Daniel Konstanski, the US Editor for Blocks Magazine and a passionate, lifelong LEGO fan. He is an ardent student of the LEGO Group, its portfolio of beloved products, and the AFOL community, having researched and written hundreds of articles covering every aspect of the hobby. Daniel is considered one of the most knowledgeable and authoritative voices in the fan community on the company and its products.
This is an exclusive, once in a lifetime opportunity to own a piece of LEGO history; The Secret Life of LEGO? Bricks will only be available through Unbound, and every fan who pre-orders will get their name printed in the back of the book. A range of additional must-have rewards from the LEGO Group include a print of the famous LEGO wooden duck dating from 1958 and retired LEGO sets retrieved exclusively from the ‘LEGO basement’, with more to be revealed.
Robin James Pearson, Head of Publishing at the LEGO Group, said: ‘We are thrilled to be working closely with the AFOL community to identify, co-create, and publish unique books that satisfy the great thirst for knowledge of our adult fans. There have been a number of books published about the LEGO Group and the LEGO brick over the years, but this is the first time we have had the opportunity to work directly with the adult fan community to discover what titles they would like to see on their bookshelves.’
Unbound CEO Dan Kieran said: ‘Unbound is a global publishing platform where superfans can come together to fund books that are too niche for the conventional mainstream marketplace. Along with the book itself, Unbound and their partners also create exclusive merchandise, experiences or tickets to events that will not be available in any shops. We’re thrilled to be opening up Unbound to an iconic, global brand like the LEGO Group.’
AMEET Vice President and Publisher Eric Huang said: ‘This collaboration with Unbound allows AMEET to expand its publishing to a new audience, reaching adult fans for the first time. We hope this is the start of a long and successful publishing venture.’
The crowdfunding campaign will launch on Monday 17th August at 3pm BST and will be accepting pledges until early 2021. Books are expected to arrive with pledgers by spring 2022. This truly is a book for AFOLs, by AFOLs, with the full support and involvement of the LEGO Group.
The book itself costs £50 but there are a number of other 'rewards' available, including LEGO House exclusive and retired sets. So, get in quick!
For more details, and to pre-order, visit the project page on Unbound.
No pressure then, Daniel!
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36 comments on this article
50 quid for a book?, na that's taking the mick. Would never pay any more than £20 for a book so this is out of my reach.
Even if its as cool as it sounds the price is really a head turner for me.
Pricey, indeed. Having my name printed in the back adds zero value or appeal, as well. Pass.
@Minifig290 said:
"50 quid for a book?, na that's taking the mick. Would never pay any more than £20 for a book so this is out of my reach.
Even if its as cool as it sounds the price is really a head turner for me."
Yeah I know it’s a crowdfunded thing but some of those prices are insane. $375 + shipping for one of the Lego House exclusives? I’d love to support it but getting the Nintendo and Grand Piano cost a lot and there’s only so much one can spend!
Normally I don't like it when people complain about LEGO sets being too expensive, but there's a point at which the price is not in proportion to what you're getting and €70 for only the book is way too much in my opinion. The other options I find even less appealing.
Hopefully the price goes down once the pre-order phase is over since it sounds like it will be a nice book.
I'm not sure that they're not going about this arse-about-face; asking people to cough up now and then wait two YEARS for the book to appear.
What?
Will definitely have to pick up the book at some point, but it's a bit outta my price range at the moment - gonna definitely keep an eye on it though, sounds like it'll be rather interesting considering the folks involved.
...that being said, 30 extra quid for one of the Originals art prints that's been in the VIP rewards centre for ages? You 'avin a laugh?
£50 and two years? I assume everyone gets a handwritten copy!
@bananaworld That’s how crowdfunding works. People preorder and send the money in order to fund the project on the promise that they’ll receive the item at a future date.
After all the previous official and unofficial 'brick' books over the last 30 years difficult to know at this stage what else they can add to make you want to spend so much money before even being able to preview on Amazon. I think it's also too broad a subject and could easily fill 500+ pages? I prefer the more specialist interest books, e.g. ultimate Lego Star Wars, Harry Potter The Magical Guide to the Wizarding World or Incredible Lego Technic etc. at usual hardback prices.
Are Lego secretly desperate for cash or something? I've no problem with kickstarters but £50 for a book with no proof of concept? I had assumed the book was half written and we were just voting on the final 'angle' but apparently not if it's still 2 years out!
Edit: Seems 194 people are interested looking at current pledges. Retired sets seem to have been popular unsurprisingly all sold out!
Can someone please explain to me why the multi-billion dollar LEGO group need to CROWDFUND a book that will doubtless sell out and become a collectors item almost immediately...
@benredstar said:
"Can someone please explain to me why the multi-billion dollar LEGO group need to CROWDFUND a book that will doubtless sell out and become a collectors item almost immediately..."
It's a good way to judge demand for something.
Yes, I do remember. The one that I was least sold upon from the title / description won :(
"Can someone please explain to me why the multi-billion dollar LEGO group need to CROWDFUND a book that will doubtless sell out and become a collectors item almost immediately..."
To be honest, I wouldn't mind them doing this a bit more - particular with Lego Ideas submissions.
Obviously, they couldn't do it with anything that involves licenses unless they know that they can secure the license, but the Ideas review ought to assess the feasibility and put a ball-park price on it, and then put it out for crowdfunding.
But it also means they get to determine how many pre-sales they need to make it viable, and if they get them, it happens. And if they don't, probably not.
I suspect that putting more Ideas out to crowdfunding would see success for a few projects that are otherwise dropped.
"This AFOL market targeting is getting ridiciolus lately. Weird stadium that you cant change team for , piano that doesnt really work etc."
There is a big assumption here that is kinda wrong. Lego is not just producing sets for people who are already fans and regular buyers of Lego. They are looking to entice people who haven't - or haven't in a while - built any Lego.
I don't know whether the Old Trafford set is having that effect - I know that as a Man Utd fan I love it, and if I hadn't already been enticed back into the world of Lego with the Architecture sets, it probably would have done it for me.
The piano as well is something that can appeal to people who otherwise have dismissed Lego as a toy that isn't capable of doing something like that. OK, it isn't really playable, but the simple fact that you can press the keys, that the hammers work, and that it can be motorised to look like it is playing is pretty neat. Unfortunately, I do think they messed this one up - I don't know what the building experience is like, but I do significantly prefer the aesthetics of the submitted idea to the released product, and the piece count on the submission was so much lower, which means it would have been a lot more affordable too.
Weren't the lego house dinos available on Lego.com a while ago for £75 or so?
Where do they get £250 from? £50 plus £75?
Plus shipping, in 2 years....
Some people have more money than sense. Although they wont have for long if they take up these sort of offers!
Also it looks like Lego are having the same problem a lot of us have, too much stuff in the basement!
It will have to go!
> Unbound is excited to announce a major new initiative with AMEET, the
My reading of that is that this is pitched from author and platform, and LEGO tagging along for the ride. Rather than as something TLG wanted to do and went shopping for ideas.
It also means both three levels of revenue share before the author, and likely a limited run (400 pages in color...) making it more comparable to the Taschen coffe table books than recurring guides.
Open “sales” until early next year means we can wait a while before committing, and that actual “waiting time” will be just over a year, which does indeed seem long and like no involved party was willing to commit before some orders came in
For a moment, I thought "retired sets" would cover sets from as far back as the 1980s. But when I looked at the list on the rewards page for pledging early, most of the "retired" sets are ones I've bought in the last 10 years! And the few that I don't have aren't ones I really like or desire. If they had found one, brand new and sealed 5571 Giant Truck (for example), then forking over $450 for an unwritten book would be the deal of the decade. But as it is, my initiative to contribute to this campaign is right at nil.
There's something really off about the pricing. In what world is £50 even roughly the same as €70? If you pay in Euro's you overpay almost € 15 and in dollars almost $ 10.
That's not a rounding fix in currency conversion. That's just off. And it's not local taxes either because those prices are before entering an address.
I will check it out, thanks.
This book will not be printed in mass. It will never be sold in stores, the only way to get a copy is through crowdfunding.
If you really want it, but you think it's too expensive, then you'd be a fool to wait until the crowdfunding campaign is complete, because you'd only be able to get a copy from someone who sells their own copy they got through the campaign.
It's too expensive for me, so I'll pass. I'm sure someone will scan it and post it online anyway, it's not like they'd be hurting book sales if they did, since the book will only be available through this campaign.
@Minifig_Man said:
"There's something really off about the pricing. In what world is £50 even roughly the same as €70? If you pay in Euro's you overpay almost € 15 and in dollars almost $ 10."
I just paid in £ instead of $, problem solved :-)
The one they settled on is the one that interested me the least of the three options they offered to choose from.
So even if the price wasn't as insane as it is, I would be out. Nothing about this offering is enticing to me in any way. Enjoy, whoever is willing to fork out such stupid money for so little in return.
@curtydc said:
"This book will not be printed in mass. It will never be sold in stores, the only way to get a copy is through crowdfunding.
If you really want it, but you think it's too expensive, then you'd be a fool to wait until the crowdfunding campaign is complete, because you'd only be able to get a copy from someone who sells their own copy they got through the campaign.
It's too expensive for me, so I'll pass. I'm sure someone will scan it and post it online anyway, it's not like they'd be hurting book sales if they did, since the book will only be available through this campaign."
The best deal is to buy two of them, and then sell one in the aftermarket at whatever markup the market will bear. Just like what a lot of folks do with expensive sets.
This announcement makes me feel gross. I'd pick up a second copy of The Cult of Lego before funding and/or buying this.
Might have been enticed but all the sets sold out immediately I guess.
As well I am not sure this book seems to offer much new does it? I mean there have been so many LEGO books in the past.
I’m going to have to pass. The price alone, but outside of some interviews I’m not overly interested in the subject matter Either.
@matrox2001 said:
"Weren't the lego house dinos available on Lego.com a while ago for £75 or so?
Where do they get £250 from? £50 plus £75?
Plus shipping, in 2 years....
The designer's signatures will add to the price. But looking at the price of the prints that are available as a VIP reward for must less, I am not too optimistic on the value for money on this project.
"
30 quid to ship to NZ, yeah , nahh
I'm rather disappointed by this approach. I can see that it eliminates the risk of producing a book that doesn't sell, but I can't see why working with Dorling Kindersley (or other publisher) wouldn't have been better. We have no idea of what the quality of this book will be like, just it's price. If it came with an exclusive set for £50 - that would help.
As a longtime fan of Lego, I was hoping for a comprehensive history - something with depth. I'm not sure that looking at the design decisions of certain bricks is worthwhile because of everything that that approach leaves out. Is this really what AFOLS's wanted ? If there was enough demand for 'Lego Architecture - The Visual Guide' by Philip Wilkinson, then I'm sure there would be for other AFOL aimed titles thus avoiding the crowdfunded approach.
I sometimes wonder who comes up with these ideas in the Lego company. They seem to verge on alienating their greatest fans. As a past retailer/shop owner of Lego - I know you won't go wrong by starting with the mantra 'the customer is always right'.
I'm a fan of Daniel's work in Blocks so it'll be interesting to see how it translates into a full volume.
Highly conflicted about this one. On the one hand, I had a good experience with a crowdfunded book two years ago and if they truly limit the print run to this event then it will hold its value at least, probably will be worth more as a collector's item than anything else (that's what these campaigns are all about at the end of the day).
But on the other hand, as much as I like the subject matter, it is overpriced and does not fill a huge gap in the AFOL literature world. I'm sure there will be some original insights from the designers, but many designers are active in the community already and have been dropping stories in various forums for years. The benefit of doing this in book form is getting everything together in the same place, but that's not quite attractive enough for me to sink an investment into this project.
Nice sentiment, probably a pass for me
For anyone in the U.S. it's cheaper to buy it if you pay in British Pounds. It's about a $10 savings for just the base reward of the book. As long as you don't mind paying in another currency.
@Ayliffe:
$30 for a high-end print on heavy stock archival paper vs what your printer will spit out on command.
@Andhe:
The four LEGO House sets can all be bought currently on Bricklink for slightly over 1/3 what it costs to get them through this crowdfunding offer, but the copies they're sending out will all be signed by the set designers. Once you subtract the cost of buying the signed book ($90), that's actually a fair deal. For the Helicarrier, the cheapest sealed copy right now is $415, vs $450 for the pledge, so they could basically sell off the Helicarrier and get a cheap/free copy of the $90 signed book. The Ewok Village and Orthanc aren't quite as favorable as you're paying the same price for a set that's listing for about $100 less. Big Ben and Parisian Restaurant are even less favorable, and the Mini Modulars can currently be bought for about the same price as any of the LEGO House exclusives.
But the crowdfunding is more to cover the author's pay and setup costs, give them a way to gauge interest (so they know if there's enough demand for traditional printing vs on-demand printing), and Unbound has to make some money off of this.
I don't like to post negativity, but the price point and the crowdfunding aspect to this is way to rich. They are trying to cash in on the collector/rarity aspect. I can't justify €87 for a book no matter how good it is.