 | |
| Formerly | BrickBay |
|---|---|
| Company type | Private |
| Industry | E-commerce,internet forum |
| Founded | 19 June 2000 |
| Founder | Dan Jezek |
| Fate | Acquired byThe Lego Group |
| Headquarters | , United States |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Products | Lego parts |
Number of employees | < 30 |
| Parent | The Lego Group |
| Website | www |
BrickLink is the largestonline marketplace for resellingLego products. Its website also offers resources for Lego fans, including an extensive catalog of products and parts and community forums.[1]
BrickLink was founded by Dan Jezek, who had made it after other online sellers were impressed by the website he made for his own Lego store. Originally named BrickBay, the site started operation on June 19, 2000. After online retailereBay challenged the use of "Bay" in the name, it was renamed BrickLink in 2002.[2]
In 2010, Jezek died suddenly,[3] and his mother Eliska Jezkova succeeded him as CEO. In 2013, the site was acquired byNexon founder and CEOKim Jung-ju, who transferred its assets into BrickLink Limited, a Hong Kong-based company.[4] Kim, a Lego fan himself, created some of the most important features of the current BrickLink website, including the BrickLinkAFOL Designer Program (now the BrickLink Designer Program) which sold top-rated fan designs as packaged, unofficial sets, and the BrickLink Studio digital design software.
On November 26, 2019,The Lego Group acquired BrickLink Ltd. for an undisclosed amount.[5][6][7]
BrickLink Studio (initiallyStud.io) is a freeware computer program for creating virtual 3D models with Lego bricks. It was released on BrickLink as an open beta on December 13, 2016.[8] The next major update to the program, version 2.0, was released in open beta on July 18, 2018. Multiple features were added to the program, including a photorealistic rendering option, BrickLink integration for ordering parts to recreate the model physically and an instruction manual generator.
In January 2022, The Lego Group announced that BrickLink Studio would replace theLego Digital Designer (LDD) software as the official virtual Lego building software going forward.[9]
PartDesigner is a freeware computer program for creating virtual 3D models of the Lego bricks and custom bricks as parts to be used in the Studio software. It is supporting various file formats, includingLDraw File Format, STL and other.
In 2018, to celebrate 60 years since the modern Lego interlocking brick design was created and patented, BrickLink teamed up with The Lego Group to create the AFOL Designer Program. It allowed users to upload their own Lego set designs into a competition. The winning designs had the opportunity to be crowdfunded and, if successful, sold on the BrickLink marketplace.[10] The program was similar toLego Ideas, where the designs that get more than 10,000 likes get accepted to finals and the winning one becomes an official Lego set.
