LEGO Pirates fans have a new treasure to seek out now that LEGO House has revealed this year’s new exclusive set – 40504 A Minifigure Tribute.
40504 A Minifigure Tribute is launching on March 1 at LEGO House and will only available at the venue in Billund, Denmark. LEGO House is just a few steps away from where the LEGO Group was founded and the company’s global headquarters.
Each year a new exclusive set is released by LEGO House with a nod to the LEGO Group’s heritage. 40504 A Minifigure Tribute builds an upscaled version of the classic LEGO Pirates Captain Redbeard minifigure. If you can make it to LEGO House on March 1, a special event will launch the model with a talk from the sets designers.
Visitors to LEGO House can buy the set for 599 DKK. It uses 1,041 pieces and is 30cm tall when built.
The model is a tribute to the LEGO minifigure, an essential part of the LEGO System, which launched in 1978. Captain Redbeard came along in 1989 as part of the LEGO Pirates theme. It marked the first time that the LEGO minifigure faces had more than eyes and a smiley mouth, with the hook and pegleg also significant changes to the standard character.
Niels Milan Pedersen is the genius LEGO design legend behind Captain Redbeard (also known as Roger) and LEGO Pirates. He speaks exclusively to Blocks, the monthly magazine, about joining the LEGO design team and working on LEGO Pirates, and in Issue 100 you can see never-before-seen concept sketches for Captain Redbeard and the original 6285 Black Seas Barracuda with white sails.
‘Can you imagine LEGO play and the LEGO House without the minifigure? I can’t!’ says LEGO House CEO Kathrine Kirk Muff. ‘The tiny, charming figure, just four LEGO bricks tall, is a standing invitation to LEGO fans of all ages as an empowering tool to tell unlimited stories. To highlight a significant part of the LEGO Group history – namely the invention of the minifigure – this year’s exclusive LEGO House product simply had to be a tribute to the minifigure. The minifigure can be found everywhere in LEGO House, not least in the Character Creator and World Explorer play experiences. We also started the 2023 season with a photo exhibition where the minifigure was at the centre.’
If you visit LEGO House and pick up this special treasure, be sure to let them know that Blocks magazine sent you!