Lego Group acquires Bricklink

The Lego fan community was stunned this week by the surprise announcement that The Lego Group is purchasing Bricklink Ltd (www.bricklink.com) from NXMH LLC. Bricklink is the world’s largest online community of adult LEGO fans. As noted in the press release, “The BrickLink platform has more than one million members and comprises an online marketplace of more than 10,000 stores from 70 countries; a digital building software where builders can design and showcase their creations; and a vibrant online community where fans share ideas and builds.”

You can read the full press release, as well as interviews with Julia Goldin, Global Chief Marketing Officer at The LEGO Group, at both Brickset and The Brothers Brick.

Here at the BrickGeekz Blog, we were just about to launch a series of articles examining two of the most popular design tools available: Lego Digital Designer (LDD), produced by the Lego Group, and Stud.io, produced by Bricklink. But now that Lego has acquired Bricklink, both of these tools are owned by the same company. What does this mean for the future LDD and Stud.io?

The Brickset and TBB interviews do not reveal many details. In the press release, LEGO Group CEO, Niels B Christiansen says, “We plan to continue to support the active marketplace and evolve BrickLink’s digital studio which allows our talented fans to take their creativity to the next level.” Beyond this, we can only speculate about what changes may be in store.

In light of these developments, we have decided to proceed with our articles and reviews of both Lego Digital Designer and Stud.io as if nothing has changed. Because the truth is that nothing has changed. At least not as of today, and likely not for some time to come.

Lego Digital Designer and Stud.io are both powerful programs and each comes with their own strengths and weaknesses. We believe there is a need in the marketplace for both tools, and that is what we will examine in the BrickGeekz Blog. Our articles will be posted under the Tools menu above, but make sure you subscribe to our blog to be the first to know when new articles are available.