At the Star Wars Celebration Chicago, LEGO celebrated its 20th anniversary with an entire army of miniature stormtroopers. 36,440 of them, to be exact. Which broke the Guinness World Records title for the largest display of LEGO Star Wars miniatures. The entire setup took 12 LEGO employees 16 hours. Michael McNally, the senior director of brand relations at LEGO, stated:
“We really wanted to something that would be memorable. A lot of times we build really large things with our master builders, so we thought that we might change it up this time and go small scale, and really focus on the minifigure. The minifigures have really become one of the most iconic parts of LEGO Star Wars over the years. There have been over a thousand different versions of Star Wars minifigures, so we thought it was great way to mark the milestone.”
In order to ensure the inventory for such a momentous task was ready, McNally explains:
“We put in the emergency red phone call over to our colleagues in the Czech Republic, and they checked our central inventory of minifigure parts. It turns out we had enough of the stormtrooper minifigure parts to break the record.”
Coincidentally, the version of stormtrooper used is part of a set launching this year to celebrate LEGO’s 20th anniversary. The employees who set up the display still had to put each mini-figure together, just as those who purchase sets would have to do. Fans at the convention have admired the display and taken hundreds of photos of it. It is located inside the LEGO booth, #1616, and is one of many fun displays inside the booth. McNally has stated:
“Really, it’s about surprise and delight when it comes to any kind of Star Wars activation that we do. It was really about creating a visual that would stop fans in their tracks and remind them, Wow. Twenty years of LEGO Star Wars.”
