The designers responsible for the creation of this year’s LEGO House exclusive have been peeling back the many layers of 40507 I Love Billund’s development.
The LEGO House 2026 exclusive has been officially unveiled in the shape of 40507 I Love Billund, giving the world a first look at the upcoming 1,404-piece model. The set’s journey from initial idea to completed build was recently revealed to LEGO Fan Media by the design team behind the historical creation, discussing just what went into the development of this year’s offering.
“What I did was just build up all the buildings and experiences that I wanted to include and then started playing with them,” said LEGO House Master Builder Stuart Harris, “This was the final sketch model that I did and, in the background, you can see that very first crude model.”
That initial basic build was then passed onto LEGO designer Maria, who took Stuart’s rough sketch model and refined its look, working out a number of kinks and further shaping the set into what would ultimately become 40507 I Love Billund.
“Maria takes the sketch model and then it’s about maturing it and making it a great build and play experience,” explained Stuart. “She’ll fix all of my illegal building techniques and anything else I’ve thrown in there to give her a few curveballs.”
“I think I only counted two illegal builds,” Maria added, “So, I think that’s a new record! One of the things that we wanted to incorporate was having a shared experience, because you come to build with friends, with family, and we thought that's an amazing opportunity to also have that modularity in it.”
40507 I Love Billund consists of three brick-built landscape modules that slot into a separate base section, with the completed model including a pathway to lead builders through the set, one detail-packed location at a time.
“There are four building instructions included,” said Maria, “so you can build it together with your friends, your family. The sketch that I received had various scales for each building. It was a little bit different. So, this was something that we thought about while developing the model further – how can we make the right scale in everything?
“There were a couple of iterations to kind of find the right scale that wouldn't feel too massive, but still include some extra Easter eggs inside. We had a couple of versions that were more postcards with backgrounds, and I think that there was a wider version as well.”
The evolution of 40507 I Love Billund led to the LEGO team assembling a number of different versions of the model, playing around with the set’s appearance and tweaking its look in order to achieve the build’s final design.
“You sometimes find a really fun element that fits really right,” Maria noted, “and then you kind of build on top, or you find the right scale that fits, and you'll find the bricks that fit the best. So, there's no right and wrong. That's the beauty of LEGO bricks, that there's so much possibility.”
40507 I Love Billund will launch on March 1 for a limited time priced at 749 DKK to visitors at the LEGO House Retail Store in Billund, as well as from LEGOLAND Billund from March 28.
Support the work that Brick Fanatics does by purchasing your LEGO using our affiliate links. Thanks!
Comments
Be the first to comment!