LEGO 2004 / 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.

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.