Daniel Konstanski's 'The Secret Life of LEGO® Bricks' builds into a fascinating portrait of everyone's favourite building blocks. Highly recommended!

My teenage boys really enjoyed this one! It was very interesting and easy to read. I will definitely be buying a hard copy!

I'm not sure why I requested this book - but I thank NetGalley and the publishers for an e-arc in exchange for this review. I played with Lego as a child, but it's not something I continued. I remember having a box of Lego pieces at my grandparents. My brother and I stayed there every second Friday night, and it lived in the cupboard of the bedroom we shared. Having now read this book, I don't think I'm the target audience. It's a fascinating, but very deep dive into Lego for adult fans. This book is beautifully put together, with illustrative photos It's quite technical, while still being interesting. The author is clearly (and transparently) a fan of the product. One interesting thing is this book is completely non-political. While there is some discussion on ethical supply chains, there is no interrogation of (for example) the gendered expectations of play, or the move from wooden crafted toys to plastic injected ones. that's not the purpose of this book. The point of this book is to examine, in great detail, the development and success of Lego including individual pieces and styles, from a technical point of view. If that sounds like your sort of thing, this book is for you.

This was a little disappointing for me as I was expecting more about the history of the company and anecdotes of business transactions, especially when liaising with famous film studios to negotiate use of their original designs in Lego.

It felt more like a cross between a marketing manual for Lego's branding and an engineering manual with minute details of bricks and kits over the years. I was more interested in the 1960s era of Lego which was the time I was most into it. This would be a great book if you have stuck with Lego over the years and enjoyed all of their evolving technology and kits. I guess I was more interesting in the basic original bricks which was a tiny fraction of the book's contents.

I had to read this on my laptop as there wasn't a Kindle version available. I don't think it would ever work on a Kindle due to the many images. However, even on my laptop it was challenging to see as many of the images were over two screens and I couldn't see the full image often.

With thanks to NetGalley and Unbound for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

LEGO is one of the world’s most iconic brands. Production started in 1949 and LEGO now produces some 36 million bricks a year, the biggest toy manufacturer in the world (according to the FT and WSJ). And it’s not just for kids – the AFOL community (Adult Friends of LEGO) are now a significant part of the brands userbase, with their own gathering (BrickCon).

As a childhood user I spent a lot of time making spaceships, airplanes and a simply wonderful twin neck guitar (admittedly a little fragile if played too hard) but I’m clearly some way off AFOL status as while I’m accumulating sets with one eye on retirement, this book has a level of detail and assumes a degree of familiarity that’s way ahead of my prospective novice status.

The book has some fantastic pictures, plans and diagrams that explain the way LEGO develop ideas and how the new sets and themes make it from concept to production; Konstanski has spoken to a wide variety of LEGO employees past and present and is there’s a lot of first hand testimony in each section.

Konstanski takes us through the standards that sit behind any LEGO development, before telling the story of how LEGO developed from sets focused on towns, buildings and cars to a world where fans could build trains, monorails, rollercoasters with a variety of LEGO Figures. Unlike many of the toy manufacturers that went out of business as video games became ubiquitous, LEGO adapted and launched Star Wars sets which ensured they would appeal to children at the time, and for years and years to come after that.

From Star Wars it was but a short hop to put themselves in the middle of sword and sorcery themed sets and as if by magic, Harry Potter world. Once Hollywood saw how successful LEGO had been with these franchises, movie studios were forming a line to get LEGO sets to market to support Batman, SpongBob, Indiana Jones and The Simpsons. I found myself more than a twinge envious and nostalgic that the LEGO of my childhood hadn’t been able to tap straight into Thunderbirds, UFO, the Daleks and Captain Scarlett.
LEGO eventually launched its Creator Expert line with AFOLs in mind, which includes a variety of buildings, including iconic ones such as the Taj Mahal, White House and Sydney Opera House. The latter of which is waiting for me………

Wish me luck!

As an AFOL (Adult Fan of Lego) myself I really enjoyed this book which details the history of the lego brick up to the present day. The information about how the design of the brick was determined and how the various themes were decided on were really interesting to find out. I have sometimes wondered why certain things seem to become sets and other ideas don't so seeing a little more behind the curtain to how the decision makers choose what direction certain themes will move was nice. Sometimes I found that the purely technical things went over my head, but on the whole learning about the history of the brick and all the work that has gone into making the sets that I enjoy building today was really enjoyable. I would recommend this book to any AFOL out there.

I received an advanced copy of this book from Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

The Secret Life of LEGO Bricks offers a unique guide, covering the historic timeline of the LEGO company. Many of the photographics and some of the concept art shown were images that I have not come across before in any other LEGO book.

While the book is primarily geared toward AFOLs (adult fans of LEGO), it is written in such a way that even young brick builders will enjoy it.

My teen owns a wide collection of LEGO books (non-fiction & fiction) and I know The Secret Life of LEGO Bricks is going to be an excellent addition to his shelf.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

My entire household, young and old, loved reading this wonderful history of the LEGO. Highly detailed and lots of great images of the evolution of the LEGO. A must-read for any LEGO lover!

Calling all LEGO fans! This book provides such an extraordinary insight into the history of LEGO. I’ve always been a fan but had never considered the science behind the development of the LEGO brick system and the detail it goes in to throughout this book is mind blowing!
The book contains lots of images including original design ideas and sets from the past. I absolutely loved the nostalgia and have next level appreciation for all things LEGO!
Thank you Netgalley and Unbound for this ARC to review.

I loved learning about the history of the lego! This book is one for your "coffee table". The pictures were fun and I don't think I will ever build with these again without thinking of this book.

A deep dive into the history of LEGO, how they came to be how they are, and basically the "engineering" of the pieces themselves. Some history of the company and fantastic people behind LEGO as well.

This fell a little flat for me. It was much drier than I expected a book on LEGO to be, and felt more like reading a textbook and less of a story. I will not be reviewing on GoodReads and I feel I may just not be the right audience for this one, and although I am a huge LEGO fan, this book just didn't feel "fun" to me.

It was really cool to see all the historical photos and to me, this could be a neat coffee table book, but to read as a cohesive story felt not exciting. Maybe that's what they were going for - it's hard to say as an ARC.

Thank you Net Galley and publishers for letting me read an arc of this book in return for an honest review.

Do you love Lego? Like do you really love Lego? Then this book is for you. It's a super detailed book about the history of the Lego brick. If you want to know the specific dimensions of the Lego brick and how the minifigure came to be then look no further! This is a great coffee table book for Lego lovers. I learned how many teams of people are needed for a single theme, and what the original patents look like. I loved all the pictures throughout the book to see how the first Legos looked like.

The Secret Life of LEGO Bricks is an IN-DEPTH history of lego and how it became the brick empire that it is today. I was fascinated by this book. It was really detailed & included so much history about lego! This is definitely geared towards adults with a strong interest in lego, and less for the casual reader, but it was really well done!

Thanks to NetGalley, Daniel Konstanski, and Unbound for the chance to read and review. My opinions are my own

A very insightful book, full of information, blueprint/concept art. I loved seeing the early designs and how they evolved to what we know today!

So much planning goes into such a piece and it's not til you read something like this of behind the scenes, do you realise how much!

I can't wait to see what the lego team bring to the table in the future! So many options, it blows my mind!

Great book if you are interested in the history of Lego. Some very good details of the type of bricks and how they are developed.

Lovers of LEGOs and the history of toys will appreciate this thorough dive into the development of the LEGO brick.

I learned so much about the toy industry, patents for LEGOs, and how LEGOs have revolutionized our toys and play.

I love LEGOs and this would be such a fun coffee table book for a LEGO lover.

Thank you NetGalley and Unbound for providing this ARC for a review.

Who doesn’t love lego? This book is a must have for anyone who calls themself a lego lover. Has all the important history points and how Lego came together. Plus getting to look at all the old classic Lego sets is always fun!

I received a free advanced copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book is epic, I absolutely adore Lego and this book made my week! I don’t normally request anything other than audio, but when I saw this I couldn’t help myself and I wasn’t disappointed!! I’ve recommended to all my super nerdy Lego pals!

A special thanks to NetGalley and Unbound publishing for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I had a fun time going through this book as a lifelong LEGO fan. It was a special moment to see the first LEGO set I bought with my own money as a "historic" set (looking at you Fort Legoredo!).

It's definitely a good book to pick up or give to any lifelong LEGO fan if you want to learn more about those special bricks.

This book is an excellent resource for LEGO enthusiasty with a deep history and evolution of LEGO bricks and beyond. Making it a must-read for fans of all ages.