If you have not played with LEGO as a kid, you probably had a pretty dull childhood. Those bricks, gears, and mini-figures were the highlight of not only my childhood but also my adolescence and early adulthood.
The whole idea of assembling small bricks and pieces to create something was so fascinating that one could play for hours with LEGO toys. Cars, houses, planes, spaceships, castles, and even robots- these are just a fraction of the things you can make with LEGO bricks.
Fanatics like me can’t help but share our knowledge with fellow LEGO fans. That is how Brickipedia was born. Let us find out more about this website that is home to one of the largest toy communities in the world.
What Is Brickipedia?
The internet’s largest LEGO wiki, Brickipedia, is where you will find the biggest LEGO fanatics in the world. It was founded on 29th January 2006 to provide an A to Z encyclopedia for everything LEGO.
The platform was created and maintained by a community of users who were Lego fanatics, just like myself. It became quite successful over time as LEGO fans found a place to discover everything they needed to know about their favorite toys. It also provided a space to interact with other die-hard fans of Lego.
Brickipedia was originally hosted at Wikia, which is now called Fandom. It moved to an independent server for a few years in between before coming to ShoutWiki in 2017. As an encyclopedia for everything LEGO, Brickipedia’s principal focus is on the complete documentation of all LEGO products. That’s right, A to Z.
All the sets, games, mini-figures, toys, and also the themes, history, and background of such toys are compiled in the Brickipedia encyclopedia. After more than 15 years of its creation, Brickipedia has a whopping total of 30,005 articles, 188,970 pages, a total of 1,411,892 edits by the editors, and 4 active users right now.
The Rise From Brickipedia To Brickimedia
It didn’t take long for the LEGO encyclopedia to become the chief source of news about LEGO products for fans. Apart from being an information site, it soon became a news and reference place as well.
The readers, known as Brickipedians, are also the information providers and contributors on the site. Whether it is information about a new, upcoming LEGO set or an old one, Brickipedians add everything to the LEGO encyclopedia.
Ever since its birth in 2006, Brickipedia has been remarkably useful for everyone, particularly Brickipedians, who are mostly both the writers and audience of the page. The site is a Wiki, meaning that any person in the world, regardless of whether they have any knowledge of LEGO or not, can edit it.
What’s The Fuss Around LEGO?
That is an obvious question from anyone who doesn’t know a lot about LEGO. Why spend so much time creating an encyclopedia for a toy? LEGO is not just any other toy. It is a feeling that lasts forever.
The origins of the legendary toys date back to when Ole Kirk Christiansen, a carpenter from Billund, Denmark, started his workshop in 1916 by taking over a wood-working shop. He earned his livelihood by building houses and furniture for farmers in the region.
The pleasant times were not to last long as his shop caught fire in 1924, and any hope of a larger workshop was shattered, thanks to the Great Depression. Ole Kirk had to minimize his cost of production, which is why he started creating miniature versions of his original products. This is how LEGO started taking shape.
By 1932, he was creating wooden cars, trucks, piggy banks, etc. When the yo-yo came and went out of the market, Ole Kirk used the toy as wheels for his pieces. Lego was officially born in 1934. The word LEGO is a contraction of two Danish words leg and godt meaning play well.
It was not until 1947 that plastic became LEGO’s main material. Eventually, in 1958, the modern-day brick design was developed. This was the same year that witnessed the death of Ole Kirk Christiansen, and Godtfred Kirk Christiansen, his son, inherited the leadership of the company.
By 1970, the LEGO Group had a staff of more than 900 people and became the leader of toy-making in the market.
LEGO Today
Since it began using plastic bricks as its trademark style, the LEGO Group has created and sold thousands of sets with various themes including Pirate, Vikings, Knight’s Kingdom, Dinosaurs, cities, suburbia, holiday locations, Wild West, the Arctic, Ferrari, Trains, Spider-Man, Star Wars, Harry Potter, and so many more.
LEGO also procured the worldwide rights to create the sets for the iconic show SpongeBob SquarePants on Nickelodeon. By the end of 2005, LEGO had around 25 Brand Retail Stores in the USA, multiple stores in the UK, and a franchised LEGO store in Abu Dhabi. At this rate of expansion, a website like Brickipedia became the need of the hour for LEGO fans.
Conclusion
Today, Brickipedia, or as we now know it, Brickimedia is a LEGO fan’s best friend and guide to discovering his favorite sets. If you are looking for a gift for kids then lego can be a great choice. This site covers a wide range of different themes along with all the amazing LEGO sets. Brickipedia has all the LEGO-related information that one might need.
One can look at the reviews and descriptions of various sets released by LEGO using the A to Z encyclopedia. What’s more, you can have endless discussions and get to know fascinating facts from the forums on the site.
Brickipedians have worked extremely hard to compile this treasure of LEGO knowledge for all the fans; and with LEGO’S reputation, there will be no shortage of content to add to the site in the future.
Founder and a 36-year old mother of one who has gone through the usual problems of parenting herself and shares her own experiences through this blog. Ruby is a great writer who researches well before putting forth facts in the articles.