LEGO 2001 / Exclusive / FIRST LEGO League Sets

FIRST LEGO League is a program that engages children in playful and meaningful learning while helping them discover the fun in science and technology through the FIRST experience. FIRST was a collaboration between Dean Kamen and The LEGO Group’s Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen and the LEGO Group first produced sets within the FIRST LEGO League in 2001. Each year FIRST LEGO League introduces a scientific and real-world challenge for teams to focus and research on. participants work out a solution to a problem related to the theme and then meet for regional, national and international tournaments to compete, share their knowledge, compare ideas, and display their robots.

2001 LEGO Sets

2001 was another interesting year for LEGO collecting. LEGO introduced a few very iconic and highly collectable sets which help drive LEGO investments to date, these include the Bionicle theme, Harry Potter, LEGO Racers and Alpha Team. Also introduced in 2001 as well as retired was the Life on Mars theme. We also saw the release of Islanders and Imperial Armada as subthemes of LEGO Pirates. LEGO also expanded its retail footprint in 2001 with brand stores opening in England, Germany, and Russia as well as expansions in the United States. The 2001 notable sets include the Star Wars Darth Maul bust (10018-1), Star Wars Ultimate Collector Series Rebel Blockade Runner (10019-1) and of course the LEGO Dragon sculpture (3724-1).