These LEGO timelapse builds are so satisfying to watch: Eiffel Tower to Millennium Falcon
Today marks International LEGO® Day, and we wanted to get involved with the annual celebrations by looking back at some of the most amazing LEGO-related records. On 28 January 1958, the first interlocking brick design was released, and has gone on to become one of the most recognizable toys in the world today.
The force is with him: building Star Wars LEGO at lightspeed
On 2 December 2023, record-breaking Canadian student Ivan Yu (Canada) built the LEGO Star Wars 75192 Millennium Falcon™ and gained a record on his first try!
Ivan who lives in Markham, Ontario, Canada is a huge fan of both the Star Wars franchise and LEGO.
So how fast did Ivan complete it? He went from Padawan to master builder and finished with a total of 7 hr 36 min 37 sec, making him the title holder for fastest time to build the LEGO Star Wars 75192 Millenium Falcon.
The previous record holder, Luke Chapman (USA) managed to complete it in 10 hr 21 min 43 sec in 2021. Before Luke came Joshua LaFrance (USA), who was the very first person to break this record earlier in 2021 with a time of 21 hr 36 min 29 sec.
When it came to Ivan’s record-breaking attempt, he told GWR that he did a lot of research on this particular LEGO set and “[used] a pen and sticky notes to annotate certain instructions that I thought were unclear or difficult to see” - so the key was in the preparation.
Ivan’s determination does not stop there though! He told us that he would love to attempt the same record to try and cut down his time or even attempt some more LEGO Star Wars record titles.
Find more stories like this in our Hobbies and Skills section.
Rome wasn’t built in a day – but this LEGO Colosseum was built in record time!
Have you ever visited the Colosseum in Rome, Italy? Its construction began in AD 72 and can hold between 50,000 and 65,000 spectators, so it's pretty big! Now officially a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1980, it is one of the most recognizable buildings in the world, and an incredibly difficult LEGO set to build.
With 9,036 LEGO pieces, the LEGO Colosseum is a huge challenge to build, but there have been many people who have completed it in record time.
On 15 August 2021, Artsiom Salauyou (Belarus) (pictured above) broke the Guinness World Records title for fastest time to build the LEGO Colosseum, and achieved it in 8 hr 40 min 55 sec. When Artsiom first attempted the record, he did it simply for fun, and it took him around 11 hours, but after some thinking, and of course, a colossal amount of determination, he knew that he could go even faster.
The previous record holder was Paul Ufema (USA), who took 13 hr 37 min 36 sec to complete the set. At the time, a timelapse video of Paul was recorded completing his record-breaking feat, where he explained that he has loved building LEGO all through his life.
The video shows Paul building history, one brick at a time, and truly shows that when in Rome... you must build fast!
Towering speed: Paris built quicker than you can say “bonjour”
The Eiffel Tower is one of the world’s most-visited statues, receiving over 6 million visitors each year. It started getting built in 1887 and was fully complete in 1889, but how long did the LEGO version take to build?
On 29 April 2023 the Guinness World Records title for fastest time to build the LEGO Eiffel Tower was broken by Cooper Wright (USA). He successfully built the iconic Parisian structure in 9 hr 14 min 35 sec making him the current record holder.
In his spare time, Cooper from Cumberland, Maine, USA, enjoys building LEGO sets, and was even the previous holder of another title for fastest time to build the LEGO World Map and was keen “to see if he could do it again.” The new record holder for this is Clarry Farkash (Australia), who completed the World Map in 7 hr 9 min 41 sec.
We even had a go at building it ourselves in the office once…
The icon that stands the test of time
You may be able to tell that at GWR we love LEGO, and back in 2019 the LEGO Statue of Liberty was built in our London headquarters. Check out our timelapse here…
The real-life Statue of Liberty, officially known as Liberty Enlightening the World, was a gift from the people of France to the USA. On 15 October 1924, the statue was declared as a National Monument and has stood in New York City ever since 1886.
The Statue stands 46.50 m (151 ft 1 in) tall, and weighs 252 tonnes making it the largest gift – statue and heaviest statue.
Fancy nabbing a LEGO record of your own? In celebration of National LEGO Day, go out there and build something exciting!