2024 has been another tumultuous year for the LEGO Group, in which not everything has necessarily been rosy. Here are seven times the company disappointed us over the past 12 months…
We’ve already looked at the best LEGO sets and minifigures of 2024, the year’s most underrated sets and five times the company surprised us (both good and bad). Today we’re taking a deep dive into those moments when the LEGO Group went so far as to disappoint us, whether through actions taken as a brand or through particular strategic decisions around sets.
Buckle up and reminisce with us over another packed 12 months of twists and turns in the world of LEGO…
7 – Using AI art for NINJAGO
Two major developments happened in the world of AI in 2024: some companies started using AI image generators in lieu of hiring traditional, human artists, and the internet suddenly became home to experts in AI image detection. Brands all over the world have since been getting called out left, right and centre for trying to cheap out with AI images. Nobody’s standing for it.
And nor were they when the LEGO Group used AI art in a LEGO NINJAGO quiz in March this year. Criticism came from all corners – the community, the LEGO Ambassador Network and even a co-creator of NINJAGO – and the company quickly took down the quiz, before issuing a statement claiming the images were ‘used in a test’ that ‘won’t happen again’. It said it’s still looking into ways of using generative AI, though.
6 – The strategic approach to Jabba’s Sail Barge
Look, we’re not saying
First up there was the price, an exorbitant £429.99 / $499.99 / €499.99 for the barge (and just the barge) – or the same entry fee as you’ll pay for 10316 The Lord of the Rings: Rivendell, which includes many more pieces and minifigures. And baked into that was the decision to split the core components of this scene into two separate sets, the other being
While that does make at least one half of Return of the Jedi’s opening sequence accessible to more people, it also means you’re suddenly looking at paying £500 / $580 / €580 for a complete scene (and character line-up). Cutting the price of one or both sets would have gone some way to fixing the problem, but the other half of the equation is the barge’s minifigure assortment, which is a mixed bag to say the least.
It’s disappointing to see corners cut on things like C-3PO’s leg and Bib Fortuna’s headpiece when we could otherwise have been looking at one of the greatest LEGO Star Wars sets in recent memory. It’s still a very good model – it made our top 10 sets of the year for a reason – but you might find yourself with a slightly sour taste in your mouth long after you’ve placed those sails atop
5 – Copying a fan design for a gift to Hideo Kojima
If the LEGO Group’s AI gaffe in March wasn’t enough, the company also made headlines in July for another equally egregious blunder: copying a fan’s custom Death Stranding build for a gift to the game’s creator Hideo Kojima. The legendary game developer shared images of the brick-built gift online, but prominent community builder Jonas Kramm swiftly pointed out similarities to his own design from 2020.
The LEGO Group ended up apologising directly to Jonas, explaining that a team member ‘got excited about the prospect of sharing something cool with someone they greatly admire’, while acknowledging that the company should have asked for Jonas’s permission and credited his design. A happy ending here, then – but also an easily avoidable mistake in the first place…
4 – Cancelling UCS AT-AT orders
Perhaps the headline retiring set of 2024 was 75313 AT-AT, a UCS walker that’s now sold out for good at LEGO.com. The LEGO Group attempted to shift what little stock it had left during the LEGO Insiders Weekend sale last month, slashing the price by 20% worldwide – but it turns out it overpromised on just how many walkers were still marching around Billund’s warehouses, because dozens of shoppers subsequently reported having their orders cancelled.
That was especially bad news for those holding out for a last-minute deal post-retirement, because the price of 75313 AT-AT is likely only going in one direction in 2025 and beyond. And the bit that hurts isn’t necessarily that there weren’t enough copies left to go around in the sale: it’s that the LEGO Group happily took orders while completely misjudging its inventory levels. Mistakes happen, but the disappointment was real.
3 – A modular building mix-up
This one’s a little more subjective, but for those of us who feel so inclined it’s difficult not to include it in a list like this – especially given the two sets in question launched the same day. 21353 The Botanical Garden and 76294 X-Men: The X-Mansion both arrived on November 1, one instantly compatible with modular buildings and the other only tangentially compatible by way of its baseplates.
If anything, the LEGO Group got that one the wrong way round. Valentina Bima’s Botanical Garden was originally pitched with the trappings of modular buildings – a pavement, lamppost and so on – but the LEGO Ideas team removed those elements to have the garden sit away from the rest of the street. Meanwhile, the X-Mansion forced that modular connection with 76178 Daily Bugle and 76269 Avengers Tower arguably to its detriment.
The X-Mansion sits alone on its own grounds in the comics and movies, so turning it into an inner city mansion means we’re not only left with a rather sorry representation of its surroundings – hey gang, let’s go hang out in the dirty alleyway behind Charles Xavier’s school – but also a comically small building, especially when sitting next to its contemporaries. Which, you know, is the entire point of making it modular.
2 – An own goooal?
LEGO 2K Drive may not have been the platinum-rated success story the LEGO Group and 2K Games were hoping for, but it was still an enjoyable racing experience – and anticipation for the rumoured football-focused follow-up LEGO 2K Goooal! was subsequently starting to build at the beginning of 2024. But when the golden release window that was this summer’s Euros came and went, that anticipation fell apart quicker than Manchester City without Rodri.
HMV’s cancellation of LEGO 2K Goooal! pre-orders in October then put the final nail in the coffin for what could have been a fresh and fun take on the football video game formula. Looks like it’s back to EA FC for now – or perhaps Sifu developer Sloclap’s newly-announced Rematch…
1 – So many set-specific GWPs
If you’re the type of person who buys a LEGO set on day one, the sheer volume of set-specific gifts-with-purchase was probably music to your ears in 2024. But even then, you’d have to be the type of person to get every LEGO set on day one to really appreciate it. There were just so many of them. (That's not even an exhaustive gallery up there.)
For the rest of us, set-specific gifts-with-purchase are mostly the bane of our LEGO collections: anyone waiting for a discount or unable to buy day one will miss out, and these sets rarely come cheap on the aftermarket. That’s all the worse for those GWPs that lock particularly tempting content behind their paywalls, including (but not limited to) another buildable LEGO lightsaber available only with
We’ve said ‘day one’ a few times there rather than ‘week one’ because these set-specific gifts-with-purchase also have a tendency to sell out almost immediately after their parent product goes live at LEGO.com. The supply is rarely enough to meet demand, which only drives aftermarket prices higher. But it doesn’t look like this is going to stop any time soon: we’re kicking off 2025 with another set-specific freebie in 10350 Tudor Corner’s 40757 Corner Kiosk.
Head here to check out all of our features looking back over 2024, from the year’s best sets and minifigures to those occasions when the LEGO Group surprised us (for better or worse).
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