Vikings return!

A historic LEGO set that is popular among fans

The LEGO Viking Village started with LEGO Ideas, the platform where fans propose ideas.

It was created by fan designer BrickHammer, who worked closely with the team during the development of this set.

Jordan Scott, a design manager at LEGO Ideas, tells us the whole story.

“The first version of Viking Village received 10,000 votes (this is what an idea needs to be considered), but during the judging round other products were chosen for production,” says Jordan.

“But the Vikings theme is very popular, so when US retailer Target wanted to release a new set, we proposed a number of sets that had reached 10,000 votes but had not been approved. This set had to compete against several others in a public vote, but ultimately emerged as the winner."

And so the Vikings set had the rare honor of receiving enough votes not once but twice.

Once won, our expert LEGO design teams went to work developing the fan's original vision and bringing it to life.

Welcome to the Viking Village

We have four buildings in the village," says Isaac Snyder, the project's model designer. “A forge with a furnace and working bellows (which was fun to design). In the center is the largest building, the chief's longhouse ; it is the largest interior space with many extravagant details, a cooking fire and a throne for the chieftain. The tallest structure is an enclosed watchtower connected to the front lookout post by a rope bridge. Beneath the two-story structure is a hidden cave for the mining."

Isaac and the team were inspired by the historical Vikings and his extensive experience as a LEGO designer and builder of imaginative and medieval settings.

“We try to add authentic details wherever possible,” says Isaac. “The style of the hall is appropriate and overall many interior details are accurate and in keeping with how the Vikings would have lived.”

In fact, it is our most realistic LEGO Vikings set yet.

And just as authentic as the architecture are the details incorporated into the clothing and characters.

The latest fashion for Vikings

“I did a lot of research into clothing styles and what kind of materials and colors they used,” says Johanna Wurm Jensen, graphic designer on the project.

Johanna was responsible for designing the extensive iconography of the shields and clothing of the minifigures.

“We imagined what Vikings wore and tried to add small details to the jewelry and necklaces that were common at the time. We also tried to use colors that created a natural theme.”

The set contains four Viking minifigures: the chieftain, a blacksmith, an archer and a shieldmaiden.

Each minifigure comes with the tools of their trade or the weapons and armor they need to defend the village, including shields printed with Odin's two ravens (Hugin and Munin) and his two wolves (Geri and Freki); these shields are Johanna's favorite designs in the set.

"I love the shields! They have a new color combination; we've never had a green and yellow shield before and the intricate printed details on them look beautiful.

Although they tried to make the set realistic, there are some nice nods to mythology with fantastical elements. For example, Vikings didn't have horns on their helmets!

They also include a number of tributes to classic Viking sets of the past, including a dragon logo from the original theme, used on the rune stone and barrels, plus a reference to the fan who created the set (try to find that).

The beginning of a new legend

It's great to welcome the Vikings back to the LEGO set collection and we think fans old and new will love building the LEGO Ideas Viking Village.

In stories, songs, films and LEGO sets, Vikings have been strong for more than eight hundred years. There's no reason to stop now