The LEGO Group publishes LEGO Star Wars: The Force of Creativity, a new book chronicling the development and evolution of the LEGO Star Wars brand.
Authored by Graham E. Hancock — Blocks magazine editor and Toy Tales contributor — the retrospective documents the LEGO Star Wars legacy, which has grown from children’s building sets to include advanced sets, video games, animated media, and immersive in-person experiences.
For Hancock, the project was an opportunity to pay homage to properties that played important roles in his life. He reflects on how the brand propelled his fondness for the bricks: “When I saw the first batch of LEGO Star Wars sets, I couldn’t believe that my two favourite things had come together in this way. Just as I thought I was putting my LEGO bricks away for good, I started to buy LEGO Star Wars, continued to do so during my teenage years, then as an adult started to buy City sets, modular buildings and way too much else – Star Wars kept me engaged with LEGO sets when otherwise I wouldn’t have.”
Highlights of the 312-page coffee-table book include a facsimile of a rare 2010 Toy Fair booklet, art prints, development art for an unreleased Zam Wesell minifigure, new building instructions, an unproduced animation script, interviews with LEGO Group and Lucasfilm insiders, and more.
Of the interviews, Hancock shares, “I talked to the amazing, passionate team of LEGO designers who create the sets, including design director Jens Kronvold Frederiksen and design manager Michael Lee Stockwell. But I also talked to Doug Chiang, the unbelievably talented concept artist who has been responsible for the visual look of Star Wars for 30 years and counting, and Howard Roffman, who led Lucasfilm’s licensing department when the deal was struck with the LEGO Group.” He continues: “Having the Lucasfilm side of the story as well as the LEGO side was essential to giving the book the right balance and through my passion for both I knew some of the key people we should talk to.”
The book also created an opportunity to give LEGO fans a chance to build an exclusive set. “In 2023, the LEGO Group produced a special, one-off set for Lucasfilm employees to celebrate May the Fourth. The set builds the iconic Yoda Fountain that sits outside the Lucasfilm offices around the world. We have included the official LEGO instructions to build that model in the time capsule, so fans can order the bricks they need (I’ve checked, they’re all currently available at LEGO.com!) and build their own copy of it,” he discloses.
“Because LEGO Star Wars is so personal to me, being able to tell the story of how these two things came together, how the theme began, evolved and expanded, is something really special,” says Hancock. “I know how much many LEGO fans love Star Wars and I know how much many Star Wars love LEGO sets. I wanted this book to truly bring the two things together and serve both of those readerships.”
LEGO Star Wars: The Force of Creativity is available for pre-order now and will officially launch on July 20.
