If you want to add an official LEGO Store to your collection, there are more options than ever before. Let’s explore how you could add this key part of the LEGO shopping experience to your layout.
What separates an ‘official’ LEGO Store from a regular toy store? Is there LEGO branding visible at the front of the store? Is there strictly LEGO merchandise inside, including boxed sets, minifigure packets or statuettes, or even LEGO-themed plush toys?
LEGO Brand Stores are retail locations that are owned and operated directly by The LEGO Group and feature official branding and products. Some of our readers are lucky enough to live close to a LEGO Brand Store, where helpful staff and ample exclusive sets are available day in, day out. As a result, shopping at a LEGO Store is almost always a pleasant experience.
While LEGO Store official sets are often undersized promotional items, it’s not the end of the line for adding an official LEGO Store to your collection or creating one of your own. Here are three tips for adding an official LEGO store to your display.
Customize an existing set
The 910009 Modular LEGO Store from the BrickLink Designer Program is a fantastic model with some amazing build techniques, and best of all, it’s a complete, all-in-one set. Unfortunately, it goes for astronomical prices on the aftermarket as it was a limited release of 10,000 copies. That puts it out of reach for most families and even many hardcore enthusiasts.
LEGO Creator 3-In-1 sets like 31105 Townhouse Toy Store and other sets intended for adults (like 10249 Winter Toy Shop) are simple to adjust into an official LEGO store. However, as you’ll see in the next section, you don’t necessarily need to use a pre-existing toy store – any store will do with a little creativity, a few choice LEGO pieces and maybe some LEGO logo stickers.
To that point, you don’t even need to use a store at all. Do a little brainstorming, get creative with your bricks, and create something new that even the LEGO Group hasn’t considered. For example, you can customise a themed location, like 31120 Medieval Castle, to become a Black Falcons-style LEGO Store. You can even add entertainment in front of the store with sets like 40335 Space Rocket Ride.
Create your own store out of your own LEGO bricks
For the daring LEGO fans, building your own LEGO store is a fun way to add some creativity to your display. For some, it’s as easy as picking up that box of LEGO bricks and getting started – but for others, MOCs can be very challenging. Thankfully, there are no rules, limits, or guidelines as to what you can build with LEGO bricks, though all LEGO stores have the following elements in common.
- LEGO models on display, behind glass and out in the open.
- A Pick a Brick wall for fans to choose their favourite LEGO elements.
- A front desk where fans can pay – preferably with at least two cash registers.
- A wide selection of boxed LEGO sets and minifigures.
- Building basics – accessibility, a front door, windows, lights, and more.
Some LEGO Brand Stores have enormous brick-built models inside, such as the 108,291-piece feature wall at the Battersea Power Station. You could even find statues made from LEGO bricks, like the statue of the Lester minifigure at Leicester Square in London, England.
Of course, you’ll want to decide early between creating something massive and modular or making a small boutique store. That will help you determine which parts to order ahead of time, or which sets to sacrifice for the parts you need.
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Fill it with employees and guests
What good is a LEGO Store without its heart and soul – the staff who will keep the lights on and sell the latest LEGO sets? These hardworking minifigures need the right mindset, and the right outfits, to work in an official LEGO Store. When you decide to build your staff, it’s important to make sure their uniforms are similar or matching. A basic polo is a great match, but it doesn’t have to be so plain and simple.
Much like the idea of customizing the Creator 3-in-1 Medieval Castle to make a LEGO Store, your staff could be dressed up and posed in-character as Black Falcon knights. If you have a Classic Space-themed LEGO Store, the red and white classic Spacemen uniforms make the perfect themed mascots and are easily available new or used thanks to the release of 10497 Galaxy Explorer.
You’ll need guests to populate the store, too – that could mean families, AFOLs, grandparents, or any other fans of LEGO of all ages. There are so many cool scenes and scenarios you can create between your minifigures. You could have staff reaching for a child’s first LEGO set on a ladder, with the recipient below showing an elated facial expression. That’s a core memory for many LEGO fans, and a great way to personalise your own LEGO Store.