LEGO® unveils the LEGO® Ideas Orient Express Set

The LEGO Group today unveils the LEGO® Ideas Orient Express – a beautiful brick recreation of the one of the world’s most luxurious and legendary forms of travel. Known as a ‘rolling palace’ the Orient Express was the world’s first international luxury train that carried thousands of passengers across Europe to Istanbul from 1883 to 1977.

Released to celebrate the train’s 140th anniversary, the new 2,540-piece LEGO set transports builders back to the Golden Age of travel, with some stunning key features, including the main locomotive, tender, dining and sleeping cars.

The LEGO Ideas Orient Express set also features removable roofs to allow access to detailed interiors, 8 LEGO minifigures including the conductor, a chef, staff, and a variety of passengers that depict different passengers. Decorations of the destinations that the train visited on its original route are also visible across the magnificent set.

The set was designed by 27-year old Paris-based, LEGO fan Thomas Lajon, as part of the LEGO Ideas programme. Once designed, 10,000 people voted for it to be made into a real set. Talking about his design, Thomas Lajon said, “I have always been a great fan of locomotives, sailing ships and ocean liners. As a child, I collected everything related to them. Years later, my girlfriend encouraged me to get back in touch with LEGO bricks and knowing my love for trains, she encouraged me to make one. Obviously, I chose to make the Orient Express. A sumptuous French train, at the heart of many stories.”