Lego City — BrandWiki

Lego City

Overview

Lego City

othernames	Legoland Legoland Town Lego World City Lego City Center (U.S.) Lego City Centre (UK)
subthemes	Fire Police Elite Police Forest Police Sky Police Mountain Police Prison Island EMS Swamp Police Train Great Vehicles Diving Demolition Arctic Volcano Space Jungle Mining Racing Stuntz
subject	City life
licensedfrom	The Lego Group
from	1978 (as "Legoland Town")
to	present
sets	1476‡R1R‡
website	https://www.lego.com/en-my/themes/city

Lego City is a theme under which Lego building sets are released based on city life, with the models depicting city and emergency services (such as police and fire), airport, train, construction, and civilian services. It evolved from Legoland Town as one of the three original themes that Lego produced upon its launch of the Lego minifigure in 1978 along with Castle and Space, with each of the three themes representing the 'Past' (Castle), 'Present' (Town) and 'Future' (Space). The Town brand was briefly replaced with Lego World City in 2003 and 2004 before it was rebranded as Lego City in 2005.

Overview

The Lego City theme traces its origins to Lego Town, a theme introduced with the first minifigures in 1978, when a completely new range of buildings and vehicles were introduced for the European markets, although Lego sets with city buildings and vehicles had been commonplace since the late 1960s.[2]

Prior to 1978, Legoland-branded sets were focused mainly around buildings and vehicles which were intended to function more as static models.

Sub-themes

According to BrickLink, The Lego Group has released 1,476 playsets and promotional packs of the Lego City theme.[1]

Outside of Lego City's generic city and town life based sets that are released regularly (with Fire and Police being the two most prolific – both of which have been the flagship sets throughout the history of the theme), City has had various subthemes, many of which are recurring. Under the Lego Town theme, the subthemes released during the 1990s and early 2000s also had individualized branding and labeling. In 2003 and 2004,[8] the only town-based sets were released under the "World City" label. Since the launch of City in 2005, they are just labeled as City sets but often have multiple sets based around a single concept released at the same time during Lego's release schedule.

Many of these subthemes would diverge notably from the urban city life depicted in general sets, including such themes as leisure resorts, rural farming and space port rocket launching.

In September 2021, Matthew Ashton, The Lego Group's Vice President of Design announced the City alongside Friends, Creator, Classic, Technic, Speed Champions, Monkie Kid, Ninjago, Collectible Minifigures and DOTS themes would continue until at least 2023.[9]

From 1991 to 2002, sub-themes included Arctic, Boats, City Center, Classic, Coastguard, Construction, Drivers, Extreme Team, Fire, Flight, Football, Launch Command, Leisure, Maintenance, Medical, Outback, Paradisa, Police, Race, Racing, Res-Q, Shell, and Vehicles.

From 2005 to the present, sub-themes have included Airport,[10] Arctic, Cargo, Coast Guard,[11] Construction, Deep Sea Explorers, Farm,[12][13][14][15] Fire, General, Harbour, Jungle, Medical, Mining,[16] Police,[16][17]

Stuntz is a sub-theme and was launched on 1 October 2021. Total of 10 sets being released and featured fly-wheel powered bike functionality. Also included launch ramps, flywheel stunt bikes, obstacles, building Lego flames and dare-devil type challenges.[23][24][14][25][15]

Theme park attractions

In 2002, a Lego City themed land was introduced to Legoland Deutschland Resort, featuring Airport, Harbour Cruise, Hyundai Legoland Driving School, Hyundai Legoland Junior Driving School, Lego Factory, Legoland Express, Power Builder and Shipyard Playground.[45][46][47][48][49]

In 2011, a Lego City themed land was introduced to Legoland Florida, featuring Ford Driving School, Ford Jr. Driving School, Flying School, Boating School and Rescue Academy.[50]

In 2012, a Lego City themed land was introduced to Legoland Malaysia Resort. The City area is designed as a miniature town with attractions and rides controlled by children.[51] The area featuring Boating School, Driving School, Junior Driving School, Lego City Airport, Legoland Express, Rescue Academy and The Shipyard.[52]

In 2017, a Lego City themed land was introduced to Legoland Japan Resort. Lego City is on the park's north side, with fun activities for the children and family to do together, like the Junior Driving School where children learn to drive an electric car and receive a driver's license at the end of the ride. Coast Guard HQ allows the driver to take the wheel in a gentle and relaxing boat ride. Besides showing children how to drive, the Rescue Academy offers a fun experience where teamwork is needed to put out fires. The resort also has a Lego cinema where everyone is welcome to watch Lego movies. Lego City has various places to visit such as the Studio Store, Heartlake Shop, and City Shop, each shop with a different theme. There are also three places to buy snacks or lunch, Pit Stop Juice ‘n’ Drive, Brick House Burgers and Marina Snack Shack.[53]

In 2021, a Lego City themed land was introduced to Legoland New York a land that is made to look like a city and based on the Lego City toy theme.[54] The area featuring Coast Guard Academy,[55][56][57] Driving School,[58][59] Fire Academy[60][61] and Junior Driving School.[62]

Lego City 4D - Officer in Pursuit was released in Legoland California Resort on 12 April 2019 and then rolled out to other Legoland Parks and Legoland Discovery Centres in 2019.[63][64][65][66] It is currently located in all Legoland parks and Legoland Discovery Centres and is available at scheduled times alongside other short films, including The Lego Movie: 4D – A New Adventure and Lego Ninjago: Master of the 4th Dimension.

In November 2021, Lego City themed land was announced for the upcoming launch of Legoland Shanghai Resort in 2024.[67][68]