Wanted Building Instructions? Buy a piece of LEGOLAND® Instead

A LEGO® ship that spent nearly three decades moored in Miniland is looking for a new harbour. LEGOLAND® Billund has sent the original 1998 model of the Royal Yacht Dannebrog to auction at Bruun Rasmussen, and any builder with 196 cm of spare shelf space can raise a hand and bid. Nothing like this has happened before. A genuine Miniland model, built in the park's own model shop and placed brick by patient brick, will sail off to somebody's living room.

On 1 July, LEGOLAND® Billund opened a new Miniland district modelled on Copenhagen Harbour, complete with a fresh Royal Yacht Dannebrog made from 225,000 LEGO® bricks. Fans took one look and asked the obvious question. Where are the building instructions? The model shop had a better idea. Instead of a PDF, they offered the real thing.

"Perhaps one of the many people who asked could fancy taking the original model home instead" says model shop manager Jan Mouritzen.

The two ships are cousins rather than twins. The 2026 vessel swallows 225,000 bricks. The 1998 Royal Yacht Dannebrog uses around 25,000, tips the scales at 17.5 kg and stretches 196 cm from bow to stern, with a 28 cm beam. That is a build you carry with two hands and a plan, and it started life for the opening of the very first Copenhagen section of Miniland back in 1998.

Nearly 30 years under Danish weather leaves a mark, and Jan Mouritzen does not pretend otherwise. He calls the ageing obvious, then adds that he finds the durability of the bricks impressive after all that time. Every AFOL who has ever pulled a childhood set out of the attic knows that feeling. Clutch power outlasts almost everything.

Bidding at Bruun Rasmussen runs from Wednesday 2 September to Wednesday 16 September, and you can follow the lot here: https://bruun-rasmussen.dk/m/lots/8B18BA1409EA

The ship is already moving. The top bid stands at kr 17,500 DKK, which converts to roughly €2,340, £2,010, $2,700, A$3,830 or C$3,780 at current rates. For a 25,000-brick original with almost 30 years of service behind it, that works out at around €0.09 per brick, and the bricks come with a genuine harbour view attached. LEGOLAND® Billund will donate the entire sale price to a charity, revealed once the hammer falls.

So, one question for you. Would you keep her exactly as she sailed out of Miniland, patina and all, or would you crack open the parts drawers and rebuild her masts one stud at a time?