Good things come to those who wait: the long-promised LEGO paper bags have now apparently reached market maturity and are already included in at least one of the upcoming January novelties. We were also able to get a first impression of it.
In the autumn of 2020, the LEGO Group announced that it would replace the plastic bags containing the loose parts in the box with paper bags, taking another step towards sustainability. Originally, the switchover was even planned to start in 2021. However, this has never happened with regular sets until now. It wasn't until late 2021 that some paper bags were included in the 4002021 The Temple of Celebrations set, which was given as a Christmas gift to LEGO employees.
Probably the first "real" kit with a paper bag is probably the LEGO Avatar Set 75579 Payakan the Tulkun and Crab Suit . The large parts used to assemble the alien whale's head are, as is often the case, in a separate bag. This time, however, it is made of paper. In our case, all other bags were still plastic.
LEGO paper bags in a new design
Unlike the LEGO paper bags included in the employee set, a few things have changed. For example, the print with various LEGO bricks in the background is missing. But that could also be because the new bag is an extra bag. These always looked a little different, even in plastic format. Also, the perforation line is completely missing, meaning the bag can be torn open at any point, but this is easily done by hand.
The most striking thing is of course the color change. Instead of being white like before, the new LEGO paper bag now has a brown shade that resembles an envelope. This is especially surprising since one of the reasons for switching to the new, simpler build manual design was so that the build manuals had to match the upcoming white paper bags.