ALTON - Aaron Hall loved playing with LEGOs as a kid. Now, his own LEGO set will hit stores next month.
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Hall, an Alton native, designed the River Steamboat LEGO set in 2018, based on the steamboats he watched chugging down the Mississippi River. He submitted the design to LEGO in 2021, and now it will be available for purchase on April 7 for LEGO insiders and April 10, 2025, for the general public.
“I wanted to do something that had never been done before,” Hall said. “LEGO does boats all the time, but there’s never been a steamboat. I thought steamboats are extremely visually interesting, and you could have a good thumbnail image that gets somebody to at least initially look at it and then hopefully support it from there. It worked out.”
Hall designed the River Steamboat set using computer-aided design software. He has designed several LEGO sets over the years as “a fun pastime,” but there was something special about this one.
He submitted the design to the LEGO Ideas program, which encourages LEGO enthusiasts to design their own sets. Using social media, he collected 10,000 signatures in support of the design.
This support triggered LEGO employees to hold a review. Of the 50 designs they reviewed, the company chose two to produce — including Hall’s.
“It’s a cool program,” Hall said. “Whenever I was a kid, I always thought it would be really cool, me and my brothers, if we had our own LEGO set. And then they made a way to make it possible.”
Over the past year and a half, Hall has met with the LEGO design team countless times to finalize the design and come up with “Easter eggs,” or little details within the set with special meaning. Hall is especially excited about the Alton Redbird image that’s hidden in the LEGO set. Other Easter eggs include his children’s names and his wedding anniversary, all included somewhere in the design.
This process has fascinated Hall, who has a background in design and engineering. Growing up in Alton, he was always intrigued by river transportation, and the idea for the River Steamboat design came naturally to him. He currently works as an Illinois Gaming Board Special Agent at the Argosy Casino, so he often sees steamboats.
But actually designing the set has been “so cool” as Hall engaged with the design process, packaging, marketing and more. He has enjoyed the behind-the-scenes look at LEGO’s operations.
"For most people, or at least LEGO enthusiasts, it’s like a dream come true, and it is pretty cool to see it all made,” he explained. “But for me, the engineering side of it, the design side, the interesting part was just seeing their operations and just being involved with all that. The design process, packaging, marketing, coming up with all of that…It’s just a long, interesting process that I would never have guessed it even existed.”
As part of the contract, Hall’s biography is included in the 600-page instruction manual for the River Steamboat set. He also received several advanced copies of the set, and his family spent eight hours building it together.
“My kids think it’s cool,” he laughed.
As the River Steamboat LEGO set prepares to hit stores on April 10, 2025, he hopes the design resonates with more people on the Mississippi River and beyond.
Hall’s design is the largest fan-designed set that LEGO has ever produced, and it retails for $329.99. You can purchase it online and receive a free gift, the Amelia Ticket Booth LEGO set, while supplies last.
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