While “The Lego Movie” did not bring home any Academy Awards for Warner Bros. on Sunday, it still managed to generate some Oscar gold in the form of a clever toy statuette made of 500 yellow plastic bricks. During the performance of “Everything is Awesome” (nominated for Best Original Song), Lego versions of the Oscar statuette were distributed to audience members Oprah Winfrey, Steve Carell, Emma Stone and others. Before long, #LegoOscar became a top trending topic on Twitter and a new star was born.

A video on YouTube featuring artist Nathan Sawaya assembling the trophies was also getting hits. Sawaya constructed 20 of the statuettes and says he has received hundreds of e-mails requesting more. He suggested that Lego should offer an Oscar trophy kit.

“The stunt amounted to millions of dollars of free publicity for the Danish toymaker’s signature product — this year’s version of the Oscar selfie that host Ellen DeGeneres took with a Samsung phone in 2014,” reports Bloomberg.

“Lego supplied props for the musical number, including a toy saxophone made of the bricks, said Michael McNally, a brand relations director for the company. He said he was still tallying the social-media hits.”

“There’s one word to describe it and it’s priceless,” said McNally.

When “The Lego Movie” failed to receive a nomination for Best Animated Feature, the film’s creators, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, posted a photo on Twitter of a Lego Oscar that Sawaya created more than ten years ago.

Lord and Miller later contacted Sawaya, an artist who works independently of the Lego company (and still buys his own bricks for his art pieces), about possibly creating more statuettes for the Oscar telecast.

“There was a lot going on during the show,” Sawaya told Bloomberg, pointing to a Facebook photo featuring Meryl Streep, Bradley Cooper and Clint Eastwood holding Lego Oscars at an after party. “This was a light moment that people really picked up on. Everyone can connect with Legos.”

Editor’s note: Thanks to community member Lee Lanselle for forwarding this interesting news item.