LEGO 2004 / Explore Sets

In 2004 LEGO released 13 Explore sets across 4 subthemes. The largest Explore set from 2004 was 5350 Large Explore Bucket with a piece count of 90 and a retail price of $19.99.

The LEGO Explore theme was designed by the LEGO Group with collaboration with experts in child development creating sets designed for discovery using LEGO DUPLO elements to help parents understand the various development steps toddlers go through and what type of play would benefit this development. Explore was released in 2002 and introduced four universes each supporting a certain step in children’s development: Explore Being Me – Discovering who I am and what I can do, Explore Together – Learning to share and interact with others, Explore Imagination – Expressing my personality and creativity and Explore Logic – Understanding how things work.

2004 LEGO Sets

2004 was a shakeup year at LEGO, coming off of 2003 with record losses. Some significant events include the release of the QUATRO System for very young children, and most notably the replacement of many long-standing LEGO colors including gray, dark gray, brown and violet and the introduction of some new colors like light nougat which ultimately became the skin tone for many minifigures. In 2004, The LEGO Group created a partnership with Ferrari and a number of LEGO Ferrari sets were released that year based on Ferrari’s Formula 1 racing cars. New themes released in 2004 included Maersk, Knight's Kingdom II and Ferrari under the Racers theme. LEGO discontinued the Adventurers Orient Expedition, the original Spider-Man theme, LEGO World City and Gravity Games.