LEGO Fan recreates the map from the Original NES Legend of Zelda to celebrate the franchise's 40th anniversary

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of The Legend of Zeldaa number of long-time and newer players have shared unique tributes to the beloved action-adventure series, including one fan who made a mind-blowing LEGO recreation of the original 1986 map of Hyrule that started it all. Despite Nintendo not officially announcing any major celebrations to mark the huge milestone in the series' history, fans have happily taken it upon themselves to share their own fun memories and memories, with this amazing Hyrule map from The Legend of Zelda among a host of custom projects to resonate with Zelda community.

Decades after the original 1986 release of the first ever The Legend of Zelda game, the franchise has become synonymous not only with Nintendo but with gaming as a whole. The Legend of Zelda The series is still widely recognized as one of the most prolific and popular adventure franchises of all time, having captured the attention of fans across multiple console generations, from 2D to 3D and making the leap from simple top-down dungeon crawling to sprawling open-world exploration and more. It should come as no surprise that one of the biggest anniversary milestones is being celebrated by fans in a number of ways, with custom creations showcasing what made gamers fall in love with The Legend of Zelda primarily.

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The Legend of Zelda 1986 Map of Hyrule as LEGO

Reddit user 7676Free shared a look at their incredible LEGO recreation of the entire in-game map of Hyrule from the original 1986 The Legend of Zelda game. The LEGO Hyrule map is made up of 16,000 individual bricks, complete with labeled dungeons, all three swords, hidden caves, heart locations and more fun easter eggs for other fans to see. 7676Free followed the same color scheme as the 1986 game, or at least as close as possible, rendering the pixelated graphics in 2D The Legend of Zelda to life in full 3D LEGO glory. The full build required nearly a year of design preparation with Stud.io, along with the time needed to physically construct the entire project. Collecting all the necessary LEGO proved to be one of the biggest challenges, although 7676Free notes that 11 years of collecting and a local club helped make collecting parts much cheaper.

Who is that character?

Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.

Who is that character?

Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.

Easy (7.5s) Medium (5.0s) Hard (2.5s) Permadeath (2.5s)

Colleague Zelda fans applauded the impressive Hyrule map LEGO build, with many expressing appreciation for the time and dedication needed to set up and complete such a large custom build. One comment in particular pointed to the significance of a single fan going to such great lengths to celebrate the 40th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda while Nintendo has yet to share any major announcements about the franchise's performance. It is worth noting that there is a new official The Legend of Zelda LEGO kits will be launched in 2026, although it will be included The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and not the original 1986 game. Although no major Nintendo-led celebrations have yet been announced at the time of writing, Zelda fandom as a whole seems to keep spirits high with fan-created content and community-focused festivities.

Some have worried that the rapid passing of the 40th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda sans fanfare may have been due to the 30th anniversary of the Pokémon in the center, namely because a Pokémon Present's showcase has been confirmed for February 27, and the celebration of that franchise is well underway in a variety of ways. Although there may still be some unexpected surprise announcement from Nintendo to recognize The Legend of Zelda Reaching such a crucial milestone, many fans are currently focused on supporting other community members, such as 7676Free, and enjoying existing games and media from the series' rich history.