BrickLink, a site known and used by many AFOLs, celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. Well, you know anniversaries are important. That’s why I wanted to mention this important news on the blog.
I learned about BrickLink in 2014. Before that, I used to search eBay when I wanted to get single minifigures (a service which is no longer available here). Of course I didn’t think about buying other parts back then, and I didn’t buy separate parts in general, either. My minifigures came from small sets, and if I wanted to get a minifigure without the set, I looked for reasonable prices on eBay.
And then I met BrickLink. My best friend insisted on me joining Instagram, and once I did, I learned about the huge LEGO community in the world. In the first few months, I kept seeing the same word on many captions: BrickLink. I decided to learn what it was, and jumped into the vast ocean.
BrickLink has been my go-to page for the last 6 years, since I’ve started blogging and editing. I learned that the page I only saw as a marketplace was a huge database, with so much information than I could handle. Whether it was for a personal project about colors, or reading the differences between part numbers, I learned so much from it. However, it’s not fitting if you only take. Because of that, I decided to give back something for all those years I’ve used the site. I started uploading the animal images I took for my personal catalog to BrickLink. It was, after all, the reason I started this catalog in the first place, because I couldn’t find images good enough to use. It was only natural I shared my images with them once I had them. I can’t help smiling as I surf through BrickLink and come across a familiar image. I managed to throw in a few pebbles into that vast ocean who has been my right hand all these years.
This is my BrickLink story. Now let’s see BrickLink’s own story.
Daniel Jezek and a short history of BrickLink
BrickLink starts its online presence in June 19, 2000. Daniel Jezek, its founder, is a computer programming living in Honolulu at the time. During his teenage years, he bought some bulk LEGO pieces from a garage sale. He found out about eBay shortly after, and saw there was a marketplace for these parts. And his dream was formed: A marketplace like eBay, but just for LEGO parts. After working on this dream, BrickBay came to life, the first version of BrickLink. The word “Bay” didn’t come from eBay, but from where Dan lived, Kailua Bay. The colors of the site, blue and green, were based on the colors of Hawaii.
BrickBay became popular among AFOLs fast, and the amount of processes increased quickly, attracting eBay’s attention. They asked Dan to change the name. Dan sat down with his family to think of a new name. As they looked at the name list, his mom picked “BrickLink”. Both because it sounded nice, and because the site was a link to buying and selling bricks. And so BrickBay became BrickLink in 2002.
Until he passed away because of an unexpected accident in September 24, 2010, Dan was the sole administrator of BrickLink. After his death, his mother, Eliska, said they should continue his dream, and Dan’s parents continued to manage BrickLink. With the help of both AFOLs and people Dan worked with before, BrickLink lived on. They transfered the site to Jung-Ju “Jay” Kim, the founder of Nexon, the biggest game company of Korea. In 2019, the LEGO Group took BrickLink into its family.
These are a short summary of what I’ve read on the site made in the memory of Daniel Jezek. You can find more through this link.
25 Years of BrickLink
The 25th year logo is a nod to BrickLink’s first appearance. The blue and green Dan used on the first site is used in the parrot’s hat. The parrot is also part of the first logo Dan designed for BrickLink.
Here’s what Dan said about the logo and the colors he used:
“The two birds on the left and right represent the buyer and seller. They are linked together by the Brick which brings us all together. This is where the site name comes from – BrickLink. The 1 X 12 brick shows that this is a LEGO site and it is generic. It welcomes all people from all over the world, regardless where they come from.
The blue and green colors are colors of nature. The blue on top represents the skies in that BrickLink has no limits on where it can go. The different shades of green represent peace and that this is a friendly site with a lot of friendly people (which it is) and is a place to come to relax.”
These are the colors the users saw, but the admin panel had different colors. Dan used black, brown, gray and yellow, representing the mountains and the earth. Even the parrots on the admin page had different colors.
Wrapping up
I’ve heard of Daniel Jezek before, and I knew he was the founder of BrickLink. However, I had no knowledge about his backstory. As I was writing this blog post, I had the chance to get to know him better a little bit.
Dear Dan, you’ve really created a new age in the LEGO world. Your dream has grown so much, maybe even more than you foresaw. BrickLink has become an incredible database and a marketplace. The people who use your site increase daily. I hope you’re watching over your site, smiling at your creation, from a place with endless LEGO parts.
As for myself, I offer you my endless gratitude for everything you have given me.
BrickLink’s 25th year anniversary logo is from The Brick Post, images from the first years of the site and its logos are from Daniel Jezek’s page. The catalog entries and the latest appearance of the site are screenshots from BrickLink.
Some girls play with Barbie dolls, while others create small worlds with LEGO minifigures and continue to do so when they grow up. You can probably guess which group I belong to :)
