Since the LEGO system was introduced in the mid-1950s, the sets of interlocking blocks, figures, and other pieces have been popular with people of all ages (except, maybe, the people who accidentally step on the blocks while barefoot).
In addition to providing the opportunity for creative play—allowing children to design and build their own structures—LEGO has released thousands of sets with the pieces and instructions for a specific building, design, vehicle, and countless other objects. Now, building instruction booklets for more than 6,800 different sets are available to download for free at the Internet Archive. Here’s what to know.
How to download LEGO building instructions
Created on May 29, 2023, the Internet Archive’s LEGO Building Instructions collection contains “a dump of all available building instruction booklet PDFs from the LEGO website” as of March 2023, according to the description on the site.
You can search for sets by their number or name, or simply browse the collection. At this point, it’s not possible to sort the instructions based on the date they were initially released, but you can sort them by the number of views that particular week, or since the collection launched.
Currently, the most popular instructions are the ones for the Colosseum, the Galaxy Explorer, and the cover photo of Meet the Beatles.
Additional online LEGO resources
Of course, the Internet Archive collection isn’t the only site with information about LEGO, including build instructions. A few others include:
- Peeron: An archive of instructions for all LEGO sets, downloadable as separated image files for every page (instead of a single PDF)
- Brickset: A database containing more than 18,000 sets and other items released over the past 72 years; also a database of more than 50,000 parts, obtained directly from LEGO
- Bricklink: In addition to being an online LEGO marketplace, the site also has a searchable catalog of products and pieces, and other resources
- Rebrickable: A site that will show you which LEGO sets you can build from the sets and parts you already own, including both official LEGO build instructions, as well as original user-submitted designs