Leave it to LEGO to do something so charming and enchanting! While researching items to include in Cotsen’s latest exhibition, “Once Upon New Times: Reimagining Children’s Classics,” Katie came across four incredible miniature fairy tale LEGO sets we had never seen before. After some super sleuthing, she not only tracked a full set down, she uncovered their very interesting origin story, which she’s sharing today. Take it away, Katie!
In 2009, LEGO started collaborating with Toys R Us and kicked off a month-long promotion called Bricktober. Every week during the month of October, customers who purchased a LEGO set valued at a certain dollar amount would earn a free Bricktober collectible. The sets changed yearly and ranged from one-of-a-kind LEGO minifigures to little cityscapes to DUPLO bricks with unique images on them which, if you collected all four, would create a special Halloween picture. Following the 2018 bankruptcy and eventual closure of most Toys R Us storefronts, the availability of the Bricktober LEGO sets became very scarce. The promotion continued, but only in the Asia-Pacific region where Toys R Us was still in operation.
In 2021, the LEGO Bricktober sets were a collection of four different fairy tales: Jack and the Beanstalk, Hansel and Gretel, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and Little Red Riding Hood.
Not only is each LEGO design mounted on a book, they each have moving pieces incorporated into the depiction of the fairy tale. The sets also included fold-out story books that tell the fairy tale using charming illustrations of LEGO minifigures.
eBay proved to be the best source for these elusive LEGOs. We purchased our complete collection from a seller located in Malaysia, and waited (im)patiently for the box to arrive. Once they were delivered, it didn’t take long for two of our colleagues to volunteer to help us build the adorable sets (no one wants to grow up, we are all Toys R Us and LEGOs kids!). And these adorable LEGO books did not disappoint! Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland features a rotating tea table loaded with sweets:
Little Red Riding Hood is a cottage that spins around to reveal an interior with a disguised wolf:
Hansel and Gretel is Dr. Dana’s favorite, and the roof opens to reveal a little witch and oven in the interior:
And the Jack and the Beanstalk is simply epic. A rotating mini farm scene, cloud mounted on a clear brick, gold-embellished castle, and twisty beanstalk:
The 2023 Bricktober sets are a Mini Hobby Series, highlighting bowling, music, car racing, camping, baking and gaming (and we’re eagerly awaiting the announcement of the 2024 sets!). For our Asia-Pacific blog readers who are lucky enough to get their hands on these rare LEGOs, we’d love to see pictures of your builds!
Many thanks to Princeton University Library staff Minjie Chen and Charles Doran for their expert LEGO building skills!
Recently, we coordinated a very special program celebrating the opening of our 
All four houses included plenty of markers for decorating, a task many artists took very seriously, spending at least an hour concentrating mightily…
Inside the houses were cute paper gingerbread plates and cups (set of 24 pieces for $15 on Amazon), as well as a couple plastic cookie sets (65 piece set $15 on Amazon):
Elsewhere in the gallery was a mini exhibit on “Gingerbread Geography.” We pinpointed different locations on a world map that highlighted the origin of various ingredients, some fun facts (example: Shakespeare mentioned gingerbread in Love’s Labour’s Lost!), and a take-home copy of Mary Ball Washington’s 
Since the sets arrived with a tiny photo label and no instructions, we built one of each to display. Kids picked the one they wanted, and we handed them the set to build from scratch! For those who wanted a more basic build, we offered three options, also purchased from Amazon (left house was 15 for $12; middle house was 50 for $12; right house was 50 for $25):
Once the house was assembled, families headed to our craft section to load up on decorations! We offered white self-adhesive foam sheets, tons of candy stickers, mini pom-poms, cotton balls in various colors, heart erasers, sparkle stems, striped straws, plastic peppermints, ric rac ribbon, foam beads, and mini plastic candy canes.
The workshop area was stocked with scissors, markers, tape, and glue, but we also had a hot glue station running for trickier pieces. The results were full of variety and creativity, as you can see from the gallery below!
What’s really cool is that the shirts are a literary nod to “The Gingerbread Man,” which was originally printed as “The Gin-Ger-Bread Boy” in St. Nicholas Magazine in 1875. And yes, we did have a copy in our 
The event was a collaboration with our colleagues at the Princeton University Library’s 
Makerspace Specialist Ariel Ackerly made our gallery the first stop on her innovative “Mobile Makerspace” initiative, bringing a 3D scanner, custom stickers, button makers, and a Cricut machine to the Cotsen Library. She’s planning to visit other destinations on campus too!
There were two sets of images available for stickers and buttons. The first were Pokemon-esque folk tale creatures from a 2016 Cotsen event. Drawn by student 
The second set of illustrations were from the 
Many thanks to Ariel Ackerly for making this event happen! A big shout out to April C. Armstrong at Mudd Library for the historic Princeton University tigers, and to Brianna Garden for digitizing them. Additional thanks to Brandon Johnson, Office of Library Communications, for the event images!