Here’s what the new LEGO and IKEA collaboration looks like
What is the new LEGO and IKEA collaboration about?
IKEA and LEGO have finally collaborated, and now that they have, we feel like it was overdue because it just makes so much sense! The two brands’ new storage boxes are called BYGGLEK and will be officially launched around the world on 1 October.
What is the BYGGLEK?
Fredrika Inger, the business area manager for children’s IKEA explained to Brick Fanatics where the new collaboration came from: “It started with an invitation from the LEGO Group ‘Do you want to play?’. Of course we said yes to this and together we now want to enable more play by triggering play in the functionality of the everyday life. At IKEA we first and foremost want to resolve this built in or maybe just perceived conflict that play is messy in a creative, humanistic and playful way.”
The new storage box range, which has taken the companies two years to make, has already turned up at an IKEA branch in Germany to be tested out. Each box is made up of a base and four plastic walls that slot together, and the lid features the studded canvas of a lego board, which you can then customise by adding your own lego designs, but also—you can stack the boxes on top of each other so they won’t fall.
A designer at IKEA, Andreas Fredriksson, says that “At IKEA, we always believe in the power of play. Play lets us explore, experiment, dream and discover. Where adults often see mess, children see a stimulating creative environment, and BYGGLEK will help bridge the gap between these two views to ensure more creative play in homes around the world.”
What are the BYGGLEK boxes for?
Essentially, these boxes are just that: boxes that function as such. But they double up as an encouragement to play with the LEGO pieces that used to be in every child’s room back in the 90s. Nowadays, with tablets and phones, kids are playing without screens less and less.
The range of boxes come in four different sizes, as well as with a set of LEGO and a starting price of $9.99. “BYGGLEK is more than boxes. It is storage and play intertwined,” said LEGO designer Rasmus Buch Løgstrup. Will these boxes just be bought for storing LEGO pieces and not for anything else? Maybe. Does it matter? Not really. This might be the end of painfully stepping on unpacked LEGO pieces.
