A Lego theme is a product line of Lego construction toys produced by

The Lego Group Lego A/S (trade name: The Lego Group) is a Danish toy production company based in Billund, Denmark. It manufactures Lego-brand toys, consisting mostly of interlocking plastic bricks. The Lego Group has also built several amusement parks aroun ...

based on a central concept. Before 1978, Lego produced several construction sets with common themes, but they were not necessarily branded as part of a single series or theme. Following the introduction of

minifigures A Lego minifigure, commonly referred to as a minifig, is a small plastic articulated figurine produced by Denmark, Danish toy manufacturer The Lego Group. They were first produced in 1978 and have been a success, with over 4 billion produced wor ...

in 1978, owner

Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen (; born 27 December 1947) is the former President and CEO of The Lego Group (1979–2004). According to ''Bloomberg Billionaires Index'', Kristiansen is the third richest Dane, with a net worth of $6.75 billion as of April ...

pushed a new strategy of creating and marketing a series of sets he termed a "system within the system" and the three original environments (based on the present, past and future, respectively) were launched:

Town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

Castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

, and

Space Space is the boundless three-dimensional extent in which objects and events have relative position and direction. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions, although modern physicists usually consider ...

. In 1987, Lego created themes within these environments, as well as introducing branding that identified a set as part of a theme. The company also produced product lines that used pieces outside of the standard Lego System such as Technic and Fabuland. Since then, many new themes have been introduced and discontinued, including the inclusion of

licensed A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...

themes in 1999 such as ''Star Wars''. Not all sets produced are necessarily part of any official theme including store exclusive sets, one-off licensed sets, and most advanced construction sets released prior to the introduction of Creator Expert.

Current themes

Discontinued themes and environments

Town, Space, Castle, Pirates, Aquazone, and Time Cruisers are more accurately called Systems or Environments than themes. The relationship between themes and factions is complicated.

References

External links

*
Theme Inventory
on Peeron
Theme Inventory
on LUGNET {{Lego * Lists of toys