Lego Sports was a

Lego theme A Lego theme is a product line of Lego construction toys produced by The Lego Group 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 se ...

that was launched in 2000 and discontinued in 2007. The theme focused on a variety of sports-themed toy sets, including football, basketball and hockey.

Overview

In the late 1990s and early 2000s,

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 ...

made the decision to diversify its product range with sports-themed toy sets. The company initially focused on football, due to the popularity of table football sets and the football game Subbuteo during this period. Lego Sports was launched in 2000 and discontinued in 2007. As a result of several licensing contracts with major sports organisations, the product range displayed the official logos of these organisations.

Soccer/football (2000–2007)

The football product range differed from other Lego toy sets by focusing on football action instead of construction, so they contained fewer pieces. The branding of the sets was also different to other Lego product ranges. In 2000, the toy sets were illustrated with an image of French footballer

Zinedine Zidane Zinedine Yazid Zidane (; born 23 June 1972), popularly known as Zizou, is a French professional football manager and former player who played as an attacking midfielder. He most recently coached Spanish club Real Madrid and is one of the most ...

, who was represented in

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

form in set 3401. Some toy sets, such as Championship Challenge incorporated a kicking device that enabled minifigures to kick a ball. In 2001, the theme released the Women's Team set, which included six female minifigure players. This was the largest number of female minifigures included in a set at that time. A range of promotional sets was also released to coincide with the

2002 World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

. From 2003 to 2005, the Lego Sports theme focused on NBA basketball and

NHL hockey ''NHL Hockey'' (titled ''EA Hockey'' outside North America) is an ice hockey video game by EA Sports. Released in 1991 for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, it is the first game in the ''NHL'' series. Cover Glenn Healy who was then a goaltender for ...

, but Lego football toys reappeared in 2006 with the release of three sets that launched around the time of the

2006 World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...

in Germany. The toy sets for the Soccer sub-theme included: * 3401 Shoot N' Score * 3402 Small Grandstand with Lights * 3403 Fans Grandstand with Scoreboard * 3404 Black Bus * 3405 Blue Bus * 3406 Americas Bus * 3407 Red Bus * 3408 Super Sport Coverage * 3409 Championship Challenge * 3410 Field Expandera * 3411 Blue Team Bus With Ball * 3412 Point Shooting * 3413 Goal Keeper * 3414 Precision Shooting * 3416 Women's Soccer Team * 3420 Championship Challenge II * 3421 3 v 3 Shootout * 3422 Shoot 'N Save * 3423 Freekick Frenzy * 3424 Target Practice * 3425 Grand Championship Cup * 3426 Team Transport * 3427 to 3567 Coca-Cola Minifigs and Items * 3568 Football Shoot Out * 3569 Football Tabletop * 3570 Football Mini Field * 3573 Superstar Figure

Gravity Games (2003–2004)

The Gravity Games sub-theme introduced the extreme sports of snowboarding and skateboarding to Lego sets. The theme was released in 2003 and discontinued in 2004. The theme focused on the

Gravity Games The Gravity Games was a multi-sport competition originating in Providence, Rhode Island that was broken down into Winter and Summer adaptations. The competition featured a variety of extreme sports such as aggressive inline skating, skateboardi ...

, a multi-sport competition that included summer and winter activities. The set boxes were sometimes illustrated with photographs of sports professionals next to their signatures. The toy sets for the Gravity Games sub-theme included: * 3535 Skateboard Street Park ** Miniature figures: 1 * 3536 Snowboard Big Air Comp ** Miniature figures: 1 * 3537 Skateboard Vert Park Challenge ** Miniature figures: 2 * 3538 Snowboard Boarder Cross Race ** Miniature figures: 2 * 3585 Snowboard Super Pipe ** Miniature figures: 2

Basketball (2003–2004)

The Basketball sub-theme was launched in 2003. In the first year it was licensed by the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...

. The minifigures featured spring-loaded legs and hand designs that enabled players to use the minifigure to perform actions, such as shooting and passing. Like the earlier football sub-theme, the set boxes featured images of real NBA players and the toys were decorated with logos of Spalding and NBA. The largest set was Ultimate NBA Arena. Various players were recreated in minifigure form, including

Shaquille O'Neal Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal ( ; born March 6, 1972), known commonly as "Shaq" ( ), is an American former professional basketball player who is a sports analyst on the television program ''Inside the NBA''. O'Neal is regarded as one of the greates ...

, Jason Kidd,

Kobe Bryant Kobe Bean Bryant ( ; August 23, 1978 – January 26, 2020) was an American professional basketball player. A shooting guard, he spent his entire 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Widely r ...

and

Steve Nash Stephen John Nash (born 7 February 1974) is a Canadian professional basketball coach and former player who most recently served as head coach of the Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played 18 seasons in the NBA, ...

. The minifigures were designed to look like the real players and was the first time that non-yellow minifigures appeared in Lego sets. These realistic skin tones appeared in later themes, such as

Lego Harry Potter Lego ''Harry Potter'' is a Lego theme based on the films of the ''Harry Potter'' series. It is licensed from Warner Bros. Lego models of important scenes, vehicles and characters were made for the first six films and all of the published books. ...

and

Lego Indiana Jones Lego ''Indiana Jones'' (stylized as LEGO ''Indiana Jones'') was a Lego theme based on the ''Indiana Jones'' film franchise, licensed from Lucasfilm. The exclusive franchise (for the 'Construction Category Rights') was first announced in June 20 ...

. The toy sets for the Basketball sub-theme included: * 3427 NBA Slam Dunk ** Miniature figures: 1 * 3428 One vs One Action ** Miniature figures: 2 * 3429 Ultimate Defense ** Miniature figures: 2 * 3430 NBA Spin and Shoot ** Miniature figures: 2 * 3431 Street Ball 2 vs 2 ** Miniature figures: 4 * 3432 NBA Challenge ** Miniature figures: 10 * 3433 Ultimate NBA Arena ** Miniature figures: 10 * 3440 NBA Jam Session ** Miniature figures: 2 * 3548 Slam Dunk Trainer ** Miniature figures: 1 * 3549 Practice Shooting ** Miniature figures: 1 * 3550 Jump and Shoot ** Miniature figures: 1 * 3560 NBA Collectors #1 ** Miniature figures: Ray Allen, Tim Duncan,

Pau Gasol Pau Gasol Sáez (, ; born July 6, 1980) is a Spanish former professional basketball player. He was a six-time NBA All-Star and a four-time All-NBA team selection, twice on the second team and twice on the third team. Gasol won two NBA champion ...

* 3561 NBA Collectors #2 ** Miniature figures: Antoine Walker,

, Tony Parker * 3562 NBA Collectors #3 ** Miniature figures:

Gary Payton Gary Dwayne Payton Sr. (born July 23, 1968) is an American former professional basketball player who played the point guard position. Widely considered one of the greatest point guards of all time, he is best known for his 13-year tenure with t ...

, Dirk Nowitzki,

Vince Carter Vincent Lamar Carter Jr. (born January 26, 1977) is an American former professional basketball player who serves as a basketball analyst for ESPN. He primarily played the shooting guard and small forward positions, but occasionally played Powe ...

* 3563 NBA Collectors #4 ** Miniature figures:

, Jason Kidd,

Toni Kukoč Toni Kukoč, nicknamed ''“The Waiter”'' (; born September 18, 1968) is a Croatian-American former professional basketball player who serves as Special Advisor to Jerry Reinsdorf, the owner of the Chicago Bulls. After a highly successful perio ...

* 3564 NBA Collectors #5 ** Miniature figures:

Allen Iverson Allen Ezail Iverson (; born June 7, 1975) is an American former professional basketball player. Nicknamed "the Answer", he played 14 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) at both the shooting guard and point guard positions. Iver ...

Steve Francis Steven D'Shawn Francis (born February 21, 1977) is an American former professional basketball player. He was selected with the second overall pick of the 1999 NBA draft and was named co-NBA Rookie of the Year (along with Elton Brand) in his fi ...

, Karl Malone * 3565 NBA Collectors #6 ** Miniature figures:

Jerry Stackhouse Jerry Darnell Stackhouse (born November 5, 1974) is an American basketball coach and former professional player who is the head coach of the Vanderbilt Commodores men's team. He played 18 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and ...

, Paul Pierce * 3566 NBA Collectors #7 ** Miniature figures:

Jalen Rose Jalen Anthony Rose (born January 30, 1973) is an American sports analyst and former professional basketball player. In college, he was a member of the University of Michigan Wolverines' " Fab Five" (along with Chris Webber, Juwan Howard, Jimmy K ...

, Peja Stojakovic, Kevin Garnett * 3567 NBA Collectors #8 ** Miniature figures:

Tracy McGrady Tracy Lamar McGrady Jr. (born May 24, 1979) is an American former professional basketball player, best known for his career in the National Basketball Association (NBA). McGrady is a seven-time NBA All-Star, seven-time All-NBA selection, two- ...

Allan Houston Allan Wade Houston (born April 20, 1971) is an American former professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1993 to 2005. A shooting guard, Houston played nine seasons for the New York Knicks; he w ...

, Chris Webber * 3584 Rapid Return ** Miniature figures: 1 * 5013 Free Throw ** Miniature figures: 1 * 10121 NBA Basketball Teams ** Miniature figures: 5

Hockey (2003–2004)

The Hockey sub-theme was released from 2003 to 2004. It differed from other Lego Sports product ranges because the first hockey sets included special figures constructed from

Technic Technic or Technics may refer to: * Technics (brand), a brand name of the Panasonic Corporation * Technics (law), a legal concept * Engineering * Lego Technic, toy * An anglicization (with subtle variation) of the Ancient Greek term techne, used ...

and

Bionicle Bionicle was a line of Lego construction toys, marketed primarily towards 8-to-16-year-olds. The line originally launched in 2001 as a subsidiary of Lego's Technic series. Over the following decade, it became one of Lego's biggest-selling prop ...

pieces rather than minifigures. The theme was endorsed by the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

and

NHL Players' Association NHLPA (french: AJLNH) is the trade union, labour union for the group of professional List of NHL players, hockey players who are under Standard Player Contracts to the 32 member clubs in the National Hockey League (NHL) located in the United Stat ...

. In 2004, the sets named NHL Championship Challenge and NHL Street Hockey included minifigures that were placed on discs with poles that allowed the puck to move around. The toy sets for the Hockey sub-theme included: * 3540 Puck Passer * 3541 Slap Shot * 3542 Flip Shot * 3543 Slammer Goalie * 3544 Game Set * 3545 Puck Feeder * 3557 Blue Player and Goal * 3558 Red Player and Goal * 3559 Red and Blue Player * 3578 NHL Championship Challenge * 3579 NHL Street Hockey * 7919 White Hockey Player * 7920 Blue Hockey Player * 10127 NHL Action Set with Stickers * 65182 Slammer Stadium

References

External links

Official Site
{{Lego

Sports Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, th ...

Products introduced in 2000 Products and services discontinued in 2006