Yes. And no. Depending. Most are commodities, merchandise crossovers for other popular movie/television franchises. They sell because of association, not because they are iconic. Generally toys do not influence culture; they are influenced by culture and the prevailing social norms. Some toys become iconic – Barbie, GI Joe, Rubrik’s Cube – but none more so than LEGO®.

Credit: The LEGO Story – How it all started by LEGO. YouTube video.
LEGO is a trademark of the LEGO Group. ©2012 The LEGO Group.

The LEGO Group came from humble beginnings, originally producing wooden toys, before diversifying into the famous plastic bricks. The family business philosophy was to only deliver the highest quality products, something that still remains today. Current quality measures mean roughly only 18 pieces in every million are discarded because of defects, making damaged pieces extremely rare. And because the production molds are accurate to within 0.002mm, LEGO bricks manufactured in 1958 still fit perfectly with those made last week!

From those humble beginnings to mass popular culture presence

The LEGO Group have always striven to diversify, and despite growing popularity with tie-in products in the 80s and 90s (Wolf, 2015), they focused on generic socially reflective in-house themes (e.g. Town, Space). In 1999, however, after a period of financial uncertainty, The LEGO Group partnered with Star Wars™ to create the first licensed sets. Now sets had the capability of facilitating adaptations through play, extending imaginative play (free play vs set-restrictive structured play is an argument for another day), and allowing the development of transmedia narratives between the original licensed texts and children’s play worlds.

LEGO®, meanwhile, harnessed multi-modality to deliver transmedia narratives across multiple channels to create unique storytelling-play experiences about their own fictional worlds. Television series based on LEGO® Friends and LEGO® NINJAGO® help flesh out the play universe and character development. The LEGO Movie (2014) and The LEGO® NINJAGO® Movie (2017) served as new pathways into the LEGO® and NINJAGO® worlds, for children and adults, and inspired entire new movie-based playsets. Meanwhile, the international hit reality television series LEGO Masters added an element of reality to the LEGO universe.

Crossman (2019) suggests that popular culture is dependent on cultural products like “music, art, literature, fashion, dance, film, cyberculture, television and radio”. LEGO® has influenced them all.

• Literature: Booktopia shows 700+ titles available for purchase; fiction extending the play universes, non-fiction extending building skills.
• Fashion: LEGO® partnered with adidas to create the ZX 8000 trainer, and Levi’s to create an exclusive clothing range.
• 2021: Children do LEGO building; adults do IKEA building. Put them together and what do you get? The BYGGLEK, a unique play-and-store system featuring LEGO bricks.
• Art: LEGO is an art movement, further blurring the lines of commercialism and user authenticity with ‘high culture’ artwork exhibitions. The Art of the Brick uses LEGO bricks as medium, whilst fans are creating mosaic pictures. The LEGO Group recently announced its own brick-art range, LEGO® Art.
• Architecture: Yup! Martin Heuwold (with permission from The LEGO Group and town council) painted the Lego-Brücke (Lego-Bridge) in Wuppertal, Germany to resemble giant LEGO bricks!

What makes LEGO so popular and transcending?

Its simplicity and possibility.

Six 2×4 bricks can be joined in 915,103,765 different ways – creation is limitless. Quality and precision engineering ensure versatility. They are almost indestructible – just ask anyone who’s stepped on it, barefoot, at 3am. And, it delivers what it promises – an easy-to-use building system. It fosters creative thinking, spatial awareness, and engineering experiences, all whilst acting as a form of relaxation for all ages (although challenging builds are known to increase frustration).

It is a medium that can be utilised anywhere, for any purpose, by anyone.

It embraces a post-modern view of popular culture by blurring the lines between the ‘authentic’ (built by the people) and ‘commercial’ (manufactured for the people). LEGO, as popular culture, affords us the opportunity to embrace the content through play, alter it through adaptation or alternative methodologies, or reject or reimagine it through MOCs (my own creations) and imaginative play (Storey, 2018).

Whether you determine popular culture as dependent on the popularity of the masses, or post-modern blurriness, either way, this kids toy, this little plastic brick, is popular culture.