LEGO Heroes: LEGO Builders Changing Our World – One Brick at a Time is an officially licensed LEGO book that tells the stories of 12 different people who are making the world a better place with the help of LEGO bricks. Some are using the bricks literally, some are using the concept behind the bricks, some are adapting the brick for their needs. They are all innovating and doing new things with the bricks though, going beyond the idea of building something cool, to show just how far creativity can go.
These stories include the veterinary team at Maryland Zoo creating a LEGO wheelchair for a turtle, Jan Vormann making cities more vibrant by adding splashes of blocky colour and Tolgahan Çoğulu creating an adjustable microtonal guitar.
LEGO Heroes: LEGO Builders Changing Our World – One Brick at a Time was published on May 16, 2023 by Chronicle Books.
In 2021 I discussed writing an officially licensed LEGO book with the team at Chronicle Books. There have been hundreds of LEGO books over the years, most of them for children. Some have been fiction and some have been reference books.
Chronicle Books holds the licence for LEGO books for adults – but not necessarily AFOLs. This is an important distinction. AFOLs are LEGO fans who have self-identified as being deeply embedded in the fan community. Adults who aren’t AFOLs might buy the odd LEGO set to build in an evening, they might recall fond childhood memories building with LEGO bricks, but they don’t live and breath the LEGO hobby.
On that basis, a book made up of inspiring stories that show how the LEGO System can be used in the real world was the perfect fit. This is a book that you don’t need to be a LEGO fan to enjoy – LEGO bricks make everyone smile, even more so when they see them being used in these really fresh and unexcepted ways.
As for AFOLs, the book is still appealing to that audience because it’s entirely new in LEGO publishing – there has never been a book of real-world uses of LEGO bricks like this. The books have always been pictures of beautiful LEGO builds, reference books about actual LEGO sets or clever minifigure photography.
I was delighted that Vice President of Environmental Responsibility at the LEGO Group Tim Brooks, who I had first met a few years prior when the LEGO Group launched ‘Plants from Plants’ elements at the Natural History Museum, provided the introduction for LEGO Heroes: LEGO Builders Changing Our World – One Brick at a Time.
RADIO 1138: Episode 109 – Interviews with Funko Games, The High Republic Authors, Graham Hancock and LEGO Dreamzzz
Graham E. Hancock 