Today some new sets arrived to my desk – a very nice City set, a Creator house now including a Minifig and a little very cute Friends set in a bag containing a little turtle!
Also as something new a lot og sets use 5 digit set numbers now.
Archives
All posts for the month November, 2012
We all look a lot like construction workers on this picture with those lovely vests but we were preparing the visit to the LEGO Factory in Kladno, Czech Republic with a group of AFOLs from the local LUG Kostky.org.
It was really fun even though the tour was in Czech language which is not understandable for me.
Back in the office this week after a much needed and enjoyed week of vacation. Lots to do on my end this week, on top of the usual game of catch-up after any time away from the office. The emails and phone calls from the North American fan community continue to pour in regarding the restructuring and alignment of our global support efforts in 2013 and what impacts this will have on the fan conventions in the region (such as Brickworld, BrickFair, BrickCon, etc.). Most of which are simply concerns that The LEGO Group is pulling all forms of support. As my schedule of this week will show, this is not the case.
This week I’ll be working on processing element orders for Brickworld (http://www.brickworld.us/) and BricksCascade (http://www.brickscascade.com/). These orders are comprised of the LEGO elements needed for brick badges, event kits, building activities, etc. I personally facilitate these orders with the event coordinators/organizers up to 6 months in advance of the physical event. The support packages for BrickFair: Alabama (http://www.brickfair.com/) will also make their way out of the Enfield warehouse this week. The packages contain a wide selection of LEGO products aligning with the estimated number of registered attendees. The products are donated to the event to be utilized in raffles, lotteries, charity auctions, door prizes, etc.
This also happens to be the time of the year in which we partner with other departments around the company to establish the rotating travel schedule of LEGO model designers and new exclusive product unveilings at fan events. So we’ve had a few meetings/discussions to work towards finalizing these plans for 2013. Around the Enfield office I also have other meetings with LEGO Brand Retail and a few of the Brand Marketing teams to explore additional opportunites for fan community support in 2013.
LUG UPDATE: This week we welcomed a brand new LUG (LEGO User Group) to North America! Garage LUG has formed around the north metro Detroit (also known as Motor City) area in Michigan. They currently have 18 members and are working on developing their website and online forum. North America currently has 85 active LUGs.
Check out this very special version of Mt. Rushmore – I have taken this picture at the LEGO Kidsfest in Munich, Bavaria earlier this year. Really love it!
I got my share of the LEGO Christmas cards today. Will write and send them within the next weeks.
Even though I had a day off from work after being on the LEGO Fanwelt the whole weekend I did some LEGO building today.
This Creator set is very nice – had fun building for approx. 20 min.
With all the fuzz and new versions of Rubik’s cube solving Mindstorms robots, I have a simple challenge.
Solve this with a Mindstorms robot!
Today is the last day at the LEGO Fanwelt. The event was great – lot of fun with great AFOLs and very cool MOCs!
Now I am on the way to the airport.
Some cool MOC pictures from today.
So it is Sunday now and the final day of BeLUG’s Brick Mania event in Antwerp.
Yesterday was a real blast! There were 982 visitors in total and that meant the Zaal Apollo was nicely crowded from opening at 1300 until closing time at 1800.
A rough guess would be around 60 AFOLs present and they really did a splendid job at interacting with the visitors and showing off their MOCs.
One of the LCP’s was there as well. Dirk Denoyelle was there to support the event and display some of his works. Not that he was there to promote himself, it was more him being there as a member of BeLUG and to show all the amazing things you can do with LEGO bricks. Building is not just about building MOC’s – it can go all the way into being pure art. Thanks for being there Dirk. It was good seeing you again.
They also have setup a workshop where kids (and parents) can build MINI scaled sets with the help of dedicated AFOLs from instructions made by those AFOLs.
It seems the workshop is a huge success and everyone there enjoyed themselves.
There’s also a small cafeteria zone where you can sit and talk while having a Belgian beer, coffee, tea or a soft drink.
Right next to the cafeteria zone there’s a small play area for the kids to do some building while mom and dad have a rest. They’ve even set up a small cinema which streams LEGO ads and the new LEGO History Movie. Really nice.
Yesterday when all the visitors had left around 1800, the AFOL evening started with a small “factory” sale of elements that BeLUG had accumulated during the year and everyone had filled out orders during the day and now they got their small (or for some large) packages with new and shiny bricks – that always bring smiles and happy faces.
Then it was time for me to do a short presentation of myself, who I am and what my job is. They had some good questions for me and I had to divert their attention with a small building experince/challenge 
So the challenge I brought was for them to build a RABBIT from a Creator Robot set. They build like mad and it ended up being quite difficult for me to decide who won. So I made sure to tell them it was all about participating and not winning – yeah right!
Then we had a nice dinner and next up was the dirtiest game of them all “The Dirty Brickster” – a game which is so complicated that I’d rather not go into the rules. In short everyone got a present (everyone brings a LEGO set worth around 15 EUR) and then people can “steal” from each other a certain amount of times. I had my hands on two different Exo Force sets, but ended up with the Friends desk picture frame – which I’m sure my daughter will love.
Great fun!
Now it’s time to head back and see what Sunday brings. I just need to get me a BeLUG polo and the 1×8 brick – not quite sure how. Perhaps they could just accidentily drop into my bag? xD
For more pictures, visit my Flickr gallery on Brick Mania 2012 Antwerp.
Funny MOC Building Competition on the AFOLs evening in Cologne.
and this is my entry – just for fun! 
