Go Miniman Go! Celebrating a Brand and Continuing the Story

When I first read about Go Miniman Go!, the celebration of the 30th Birthday of the LEGO Miniman in Ad Age, it really took me on a trip back to my younger days.

One LEGO moment I vividly remember was watching my older cousin use an insane amount of LEGOs to replicate a scene from the American Revolution for his eighth grade history class. With LEGOs and a little imagination, anything was possible.

Somewhere along the way I lost touch with the LEGO Miniman, but I reconnected with him when I stumbled across “Classics in Lego” on Balakov’s Flickr page. This guy has some great replicas of famous historical pictures. Here are some of my favorite from his photostream.

lunch atop a skyscraper

vj day times square

 He also has a nice Star Wars collection.

Star Wars, Darth Vader

Balakov grew up with LEGOs, is still a fan, and is not alone. There was a time, though, when LEGO wasn’t so sure.

In May 2008, Jake Mckee, Chief Ant Wrangler at Ants Eye View and Former Global Community Relations Specialist at LEGO did a guest post about building community on Rohit Bhargava’s Personality Project blog. According to McKee, LEGO was ignoring the fans, so he began to reach out to them, and in 2003, he created a series of comic strips “to showcase the mindset, issues, and interests of the adult fans for people inside the company.” He described the strips as “a fun and comical look at some fairly complex issues, distilled into four-panel strips and complete with punchlines.”  

The comic strips were eventually distributed online among fans and turned out to be a huge hit, giving McKee serious credibility in their community and (I think) fostering relationships sure to keep LEGO around for a little while.

Like the running man, Legos have always been there, and if they continue to acknowledge their fans they’ll continue to be. Now, if you haven’t seen it, check out the Go Miniman Go! video. Happy 30th LEGO!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-saSYvj6Qqc]