A brick above the rest: LEGO-loving friends set world record

Two friends from San Francisco recently carried out their plan to leave no brick unturned

Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

A pair of friends is being recognized by Guinness World Records for the record they set five months ago: assembling the world map LEGO set—all 11,695 pieces—in four hours, 59 minutes, and 51 seconds, as reported by United Press International (UPI). Brick by Brick Toys, a company which buys and sells used LEGO sets, posted a photo of the duo and their LEGO world map on Instagram on Apr. 12 of this year. UPI documented that the world map LEGO set is “the largest commercially available 2D lego set.” 

The Pioneer, the student-run newspaper of California State University, East Bay, published an article about the LEGO-championed friends, Sevy Swift and Athena Leong. The pair “both work for technology startups in San Francisco” and bond over their love of LEGOs, as per The Pioneer. Leong, as quoted by The Pioneer, first described the idea of attempting to set this record as “a fun side quest… and within 10 minutes” the duo had already applied to attempt the record-breaking build. According to the official Guinness World Records website, “Athena and Sevy… chose to attempt this record as a way to celebrate their friendship.”

Guinness World Record also documented how the friends went about attempting this and the plan that finally clicked—more seamlessly than LEGO bricks. By “strategically separating the countries[’ bricks] by colour,” they were able to “[complete] the map in a record-breaking time.” The previous fastest record documented to complete this world map LEGO set was seven hours, nine minutes, and 41 seconds.
The over 11,000 piece set currently retails for 1,200 dollars at Walmart. Jessica Andrews-Hanna, associate professor of psychology and published researcher at the University of Arizona, commented on the phenomenon of adult LEGO-buyers, stating, “[t]hings like adults LEGO sets could be a manifestation of our fundamental need to take care of ourselves.” Getting to play as adults stimulates hormones such as dopamine and endorphin, which are also thought to encourage creativity, Andrews-Hanna further concluded. 

“The [LEGO] brick in its present form was launched in 1958,” as per the official LEGO website. Since then, creative builders have been putting the pieces together to make masterpieces. The Guinness World Records website documents other world records that have been built with LEGOs: the tallest LEGO tower, which included approximately 550,000 bricks; the largest LEGO ship, which was made from over two million pieces; and the fastest time to build the LEGO Star Wars ship, the Millenium Falcon micro fighter, which was set by an American 12-year-old who completed the build in just under two minutes. 

While not everyone sets world records with LEGO bricks, everyone can benefit from simply playing with them. While they can encourage adults to be more relaxed and creative, “90% of our brain growth occurs before the age of five… [and] LEGO play is a great way to introduce kids to concepts like counting, sorting, and pattern recognition,” the Children’s Museum of Sonoma County documented on their website. Furthermore, LEGO set-building can help children build fine motor skills, such as “develop[ing] greater dexterity, control, and coordination.”

“36 billion LEGO bricks are produced each year,” according to the LEGO Discovery Land website. There are millions of bricks to be stacked, and benefits for everyone with every click.