With the official launch this previous October, the LEGO Group has launched its first-ever serially produced 3D printed piece in a industrial product, marking a major step within the firm’s exploration of additive manufacturing. The miniature blue practice included within the LEGO Icons Vacation Specific Prepare (10361), launched in October 2025, options transferring wheels and an in depth chimney—parts that will have been tough or unimaginable to provide utilizing conventional injection molding.
The factor is the results of a nine-year effort by LEGO’s Additive Design and Manufacturing group in Billund, Denmark, to develop a scalable, high-quality 3D printing system appropriate for retail-grade LEGO components. Whereas the corporate has lengthy used 3D printing for prototyping, producing single components may take hours and remained restricted to in-house use.
“This appears like a transfer related in magnitude to when our founders bought their first injection molding machine again within the late Nineteen Forties,” stated Ronen Hadar, Head of Additive Design and Manufacturing on the LEGO Group. “We are able to make every kind of geometries that aren’t doable with injection molding—bricks with inner mechanisms, for instance.”
From prototype to manufacturing
Creating a system able to industrial-scale 3D printing necessitated the group to create new workflows from scratch. In contrast to injection molding, which is optimized for high-volume consistency, additive manufacturing allows the creation of latest shapes and mechanical features, providing designers a broader artistic palette.
The Vacation Specific set, an evolution of the 2016 LEGO Creator Knowledgeable Winter Vacation Prepare, was seen as the best alternative to debut the brand new functionality. The miniature practice serves as a scaled duplicate of the set’s bigger locomotive. It consists of practical options equivalent to rotating wheels—attributes that made it perfect for demonstrating the know-how’s potential.
“It may have been many issues,” stated Bo Park Kristensen, designer of the miniature practice. “However ultimately, we determined that this practice can be the primary mass-produced 3D print in a LEGO field.”
Designer Jae Received Lee, who led growth of the principle practice, collaborated carefully with the additive manufacturing group to refine the miniature’s type whereas making certain its playability and design cohesion. “They’re designers and so they have that artistic energy to actually apply the know-how exterior of what we thought was doable,” stated Ronen.
Towards standardization
Beginning with an EOS P 500 system, the additive group has already doubled output from its preliminary machines and is constant to refine each pace and high quality. Whereas the present deployment is restricted to a single half in a seasonal set, Ronen stated the long-term goal is to combine 3D printing extra deeply into LEGO’s design and manufacturing workflows.
“We nonetheless must be taught extra about apply the know-how, and the place to use it,” he stated. “My activity is to make 3D printed LEGO parts boring—so individuals don’t take into consideration the way it was manufactured, they simply assume it’s a cool factor that provides them one thing enjoyable to play with.”
The LEGO Group has not disclosed the variety of items produced, however the deployment units the stage for the broader use of additive manufacturing in future LEGO units.