The 2015 Force Friday Commemorative Brick
Midnight, September 4, 2015
A single printed panel. A First Order Stormtrooper. Given free to anyone who showed up at Toys R Us at midnight. One of the most widely distributed LEGO Star Wars promotional items ever made — and one of the least documented.
At 12:01 AM on September 4, 2015, every Toys R Us store in the United States opened its doors for Force Friday — the global midnight launch of Star Wars: The Force Awakens merchandise. Anyone who showed up received a free limited edition LEGO Star Wars Commemorative Brick while supplies lasted. No purchase required. No raffle. Just show up.
The brick is a single light gray 1×6×5 wall panel printed with a First Order Stormtrooper design. It is one of the most widely distributed LEGO Star Wars promotional items ever produced — given away at hundreds of US Toys R Us stores simultaneously — and yet almost no detailed physical documentation of it exists anywhere publicly. This article documents it from a firsthand example.
Force Friday
Force Friday was a coordinated global retail event organized by Disney and Lucasfilm to launch The Force Awakens merchandise. Toys R Us was the primary retail partner in the United States, opening all stores at midnight on September 4 with special events, giveaways, and dedicated Star Wars feature shops at the front of every store. The event was the first time new Star Wars: The Force Awakens products were available to the public.
The LEGO Commemorative Brick was one of two free giveaways distributed at all US stores — the other being an exclusive Toys R Us Kylo Ren poster featuring the same dramatic promotional artwork used across The Force Awakens marketing campaign, distinguished from standard movie poster versions by the Toys R Us logo in the lower right corner. At the Times Square flagship store, first-in-line guests also received a Star Wars Character Flashlight from JAKKS Pacific.
The event was not without problems — Toys R Us was significantly understocked on Hasbro Star Wars action figures, and many fans who waited in line left empty-handed on the toy front. The giveaways were more reliably available than the actual merchandise.
The Brick
The commemorative brick is a light gray Panel 1×6×5 — a wall panel element rather than a standard brick — printed on one face with the following design: the LEGO and Star Wars logos at the top, and below them a white running First Order Stormtrooper minifigure torso inside a red ellipse with a dark gray border, holding a blaster out. Copyright text appears in white at the bottom of the printed face. The design is clean and graphic — the stormtrooper torso-in-ellipse format gives it a badge-like quality that works well as a display piece.
The brick is packaged in a soft clear-front polypropylene polybag — clear on the front, white on the back — heat sealed at both top and bottom. The back of the polybag carries the following printed text:
Ages 6+
Building Toy
[repeated in two additional languages]
Contains small parts. Not intended for children under 3 years.
[repeated in additional languages]
Components made in DENMARK, HUNGARY, MEXICO, and CZECH REPUBLIC
[repeated in additional languages]
Distributed in the USA by LEGO Systems, Inc., Enfield, CT 06083.
Distributed in Canada by LEGO Canada, Inc., Richmond Hill, Ontario L4B 1J4.
[Spanish text and address]
[Copyright and trademark information]
The multi-country manufacturing note — Denmark, Hungary, Mexico, and Czech Republic — is a useful authentication detail. The polybag front is entirely clear with no printed content, making the brick itself the only visual element on the front face.
Set Numbers and Catalog Codes
This item appears in collector databases under two different codes. BrickLink catalogs it as 30UNIQUE15. It is also catalogued as FFCB-1 — Force Friday Commemorative Brick, variant 1. No barcode or LEGO product number appears on the polybag itself. The set contains 1 piece and no minifigures.
Quantity and Value
No official production quantity has been published. Given that the brick was distributed at all US Toys R Us stores simultaneously — hundreds of locations — the total quantity produced was almost certainly in the tens of thousands, making it one of the most widely distributed promotional LEGO Star Wars items ever produced. Current value is approximately $15 — reflecting the large quantity distributed. This is not a rare item by production standards. Its collector significance lies in its historical context — the launch of The Force Awakens merchandise — rather than its scarcity.
In This Collection
This collection holds one sealed example. It sits on the desk as a small but satisfying piece of LEGO Star Wars retail history — a physical memento of the night The Force Awakens merchandise first hit stores worldwide.
What We Don’t Know
- Total quantity produced — no official figure has been published. The “limited edition” description in the Toys R Us press release is relative — limited compared to a retail set, but distributed at hundreds of stores simultaneously.
- The second poster — the Galactic Figures Force Friday recap noted that Toys R Us employees handed out two different posters at the event. The Kylo Ren poster is documented. The second poster has not been identified — if you received both posters at a Force Friday event please get in touch.
- The JAKKS Pacific flashlight — the Star Wars Character Flashlight given to first-in-line guests at Times Square has not been documented in any collector database. What character does it depict and what does the packaging look like?
- International variants — Toys R Us locations in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and the UK also opened at midnight for Force Friday. Did international stores receive the same LEGO brick, a different brick, or no brick at all?
FFCB-1 / 30UNIQUE15 — Force Friday Commemorative Brick
BrickLink: 30UNIQUE15-1
Distributed: September 4, 2015 | Event: Force Friday — The Force Awakens midnight launch
Distribution: Free giveaway at all US Toys R Us stores while supplies lasted
Quantity: Unknown — tens of thousands estimated
Current value: ~$15
Status: Owned (sealed)
