Citations › Citation ID: 108

C108. BOOK: David C. Robertson, Brick by Brick: How LEGO Rewrote the Rules of Innovation and Conquered the Global Toy Industry (Crown, 2013), p. 57-58.

After several months of brainstorming ideas, the team came up with a building system where kids could snap together exotic plastic parts to create weird fantasy creatures, such as a caterpillar with webbed feet and an alien’s head. The system allowed for a very LEGO-like, free-form style of play. Kits came without instructions, harking back to the days of classic LEGO. Parts from one kit could seamlessly connect with parts from another kit, just like bricks. Except for one thing: there was no LEGO brick. The kit was made up of wholly original, snap-together pieces that eschewed the LEGO stud-and-tube coupling system. The team called the concept LEGO Beings. The idea was too outlandish to be commercialized, but it did give design leads tangible evidence that they could break out of the LEGO System of Play. What’s more, LEGO Beings became the genesis of one of the LEGO Group’s biggest bets of the new century.

LEGO Beings would eventually inspire both Galidor and Bionicle.