Brickshelf
 | |
 Screenshot of the Brickshelf home page on February 16, 2025 | |
Type of site | Image hosting service |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Headquarters | , |
| Owner | James Browning (2025–present) |
| Created by | Kevin M. Loch |
| Parent | Brickshelf II, LLC |
| URL | brickshelf |
| Registration | Required to upload files |
| Launched |
|
| Current status | Active |
Brickshelf is a LEGO image hosting service created by Kevin Loch. The site was initially launched in April 1998 to host scans of LEGO instructions before becoming its own website in August 1999. In February 2000 Brickshelf began allowing user uploads. As of January 2026[update], Brickshelf contains over 4.9 million files in 430 thousand folders.
History
Kevin Loch, a software engineer from Reston, Virginia,[1][2] started what would become Brickshelf in April 1998 after seeing numerous requests for scans of LEGO building instructions on rec.toys.lego. Loch posted to the newsgroup on April 19 asking readers for scans of instructions from discontinued sets, stating that he had "essentially unlimited" disk storage and bandwidth to host the files.[3] Upon receiving his first submission, Loch publicly launched his instruction scan site on April 20.[4] The first version of the site was a basic directory index on Loch's main website, KL.Net.[3][2] To avoid potential legal issues with the LEGO Group, Loch only accepted scans from LEGO sets and idea books that were no longer being sold through retail outlets, initially restricting submissions to sets released before 1996; scans could not be modified for similar reasons.[5][6] Readers were originally asked to contribute scans by emailing Loch a URL to an HTTP, FTP, or Gopher server containing their own scans.[3] A few days later on April 22, Loch set up an FTP server that contributors could alternatively upload scans to; starting July 2, uploaded scans could also be viewed on the FTP server.[7][8]
By April 23, the website had over 60 megabytes of images for around 40 different sets, and had been viewed by over 200 people.[9] By May 2, it had delivered over 30,000 image files.[6]
On July 9, 1998, Loch announced he had started scanning and uploading his own collection; he also began allowing scans of LEGO catalogs.[10][11]
References
- ↑ Bender, Jonathan (2010). LEGO: A Love Story. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. pp. 107–108. ISBN 978-0-470-40702-8.
- ↑ a b "Kevin Loch's Net Server". Archived from the original on November 11, 1998.
- ↑ a b c Loch, Kevin (April 19, 1998). "instruction scans". Newsgroup: rec.toys.lego. Usenet: [email protected]. Archived from the original on February 16, 2025. Retrieved January 15, 2026 – via Google Groups.
- ↑ Loch, Kevin (April 20, 1998). "scan site". Newsgroup: rec.toys.lego. Usenet: [email protected]. Archived from the original on February 19, 2025. Retrieved January 15, 2026 – via Google Groups.
- ↑ Loch, Kevin (April 29, 1998). "Re: Everyone Give a Big Thank You to Kevin Loch". Newsgroup: rec.toys.lego. Usenet: [email protected]. Archived from the original on February 19, 2025. Retrieved January 15, 2026 – via Google Groups.
- ↑ a b Loch, Kevin (May 2, 1998). "Re: That cool posting site..." Newsgroup: rec.toys.lego. Usenet: [email protected]. Archived from the original on February 20, 2025. Retrieved January 15, 2026 – via Google Groups.
- ↑ Loch, Kevin (April 22, 1998). "instruction scans site". Newsgroup: rec.toys.lego. Usenet: [email protected]. Archived from the original on February 19, 2025. Retrieved January 15, 2026 – via Google Groups.
- ↑ Loch, Kevin (July 2, 1998). "Scans site now ftp'able". Newsgroup: rec.toys.lego. Usenet: [email protected]. Archived from the original on January 16, 2026. Retrieved January 15, 2026 – via Google Groups.
- ↑ Loch, Kevin (April 23, 1998). "Re: instruction scan site". Newsgroup: rec.toys.lego. Usenet: [email protected]. Archived from the original on February 19, 2025. Retrieved January 15, 2026 – via Google Groups.
- ↑ Loch, Kevin (July 9, 1998). "I've borrowed a scanner (finally)". Newsgroup: rec.toys.lego. Usenet: [email protected]. Archived from the original on January 16, 2026. Retrieved January 16, 2026 – via Google Groups.
- ↑ Loch, Kevin (July 9, 1998). "Re: I've borrowed a scanner (finally)". Newsgroup: rec.toys.lego. Usenet: [email protected]. Archived from the original on January 16, 2026. Retrieved January 16, 2026 – via Google Groups.
