Meeting with some German AFOLs to chat and build LEGO sets. We have a lot of fun!
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The members of the CEE (Community Engagement & Events) team are always on the lookout for unique and interesting opportunities to support the fan community. Working closely with the North American LEGO Castle marketing team we are happy to continue our yearlong competition celebrating the anniversary and return of LEGO Castle in 2013! We have partnered with the 9 large fan conventions taking place in North America in 2013 (BrickFair: Alabama, Bricks Cascade, BrickFair: New England, Brickworld: Chicago, Brick Fiesta, Brickfête, BrickFair: Virginia, Bricks by the Bay and BrickCon) as well as with our colleagues on ReBrick to offer up an opportunity to win an entire collection of the new 2013 Castle product line.
As each convention already offers up a castle themed section for MOCs, as well as some form of “best of” category at the event, we have agreed that the winner chosen at each event will become a semi-finalist in our competition. This individual will be rewarded with an entire collection of the 2013 Castle product line once available, as well as enter into a final round amongst the winners chosen at each of the other conventions to compete for a secret grand prize. We understand that not everyone is able to attend these events; as such, we have opened up the competition online as well with our colleagues at ReBrick. The competition details have already been posted and can be seen here so anyone, anywhere, has a chance to enter!
We have found our second semi-finalist! Alice Finch, from Mercer Island, Washington came out and showcased her absolutely incredible Hogwarts castle at Bricks Cascade. Her MOC was selected as the “Best of Castle” at the event and as such she will be receiving an entire collection of the 2013 LEGO Castle product line! Her MOC will now move forward and compete against the 8 other North American fan conventions as well as the online winner selected on ReBrick! Congrats Alice!
Had a very good whole day meeting today in Cologne with some MBFR members (local LUG), some colleages from LEGO Central Europe and their event agency and the manager of a fair place to finish off the LEGO Fan Welt 2012 and discuss the Fan Welt 2014.
It was a long day but very good meetings and all looks very promising. We aim at an event with up to 80.000 public visitors!
Great stuff.
Next trip is already planned for next week Tuesday and Wednesday to Serbia.
We have packed all our office things today because we are moving office tomorrow – closer to mid town where the Design and Marketing people are 
but further away from our warehouse 
.
We will as always make the best out of it.
See you in our new office surroundings.
It’s Friday and time to share some more of the office fun we have. Last year we started a lunch and build program in Enfield to encourage a more collective attitude within the group based in Enfield. The first one went really well so I was looking forward to the January get together.
Kevin Hinkle, Sara Moore, and Allyson Brown joined me for a delightful lunch at Red Robin – an American burger standard. We each built our respective sets and brought them to discuss.
Allyson built #70704 – Vermin Vaporizer
Kevin built #7292 – Propeller Adventures
Sara built #6230 Stormer XL
I built #70003 – Eris’ Eagle Interceptor
I won’t quote anything that we said, but we are honest about what we like and don’t like about the sets. We offer insights into what we hear from the community regarding products as well as consumer services. We’ve found this to be a good method to stay connected to the products that the company sells/promotes.
Cheers,
-Jim
Tis the season for Toy Fairs! The first of the big three starts tomorrow in London, England. Next week is the Nuremburg Toyfair in Germany. I’ve got a lucky ticket so I’ll be attending – expect pics to be posted here! This is my first time attending Nuremburg so I’m rather excited. Following that is the New York Toyfair at which the US PR team hosts a collector party which brings a lot of the fan sites. This gives them an opportunity to get first hand pictures of the new products. If you plan on coming, send me a ping if you want to chat.
Exploring the net, I found this interesting article regarding the price of LEGO products - http://therealityprose.wordpress.com/2013/01/17/what_happened_with_lego/
It has an interesting analysis of price of LEGO bricks and sets over the years.
-Jim
Well from the crew in the Enfield, this is our last day in the office. We want to wish everyone a safe and wonderful holiday. We’ll return brighter and well rested in the new year to begin once again working towards a better tomorrow in the community!
To continue to improve our team spirit and harmony of working together, we’ve started having a monthly a team luncheon where we are given a set before hand to build and share our experience over lunch. Four members of the community team in Enfield participated this month: Samantha Burns, Sara Moore, Kevin Hinkle, and myself (Jim Foulds). The challenge was to build in a theme that you don’t normally build in. Sara had a Technic set, Kevin had an architecture set, Sam had a star wars set, and I had a creator set. I won’t share the details of what was said as there was much moshing about amongst us.
Ok, so not everything that we do is all excell spreadsheets, word documents, emails. We try to have some fun around the office. I’m not sure if anyone else remembers when Brand Retail was changing out it’s fixtures and we arranged for the fans to get the old ones. Well it so happened that a set was in the Enfield office as well that they were going to through out, so the instead the community team took them to display things in the office. Kevin and I each took one to use for our own displays. In the left picture, Kevin has chosen to display the Cuusoo Hayabusa set. In the right picture, I’ve chosen to display some of my own creations.
We’re often asked what we do with the things we acquire at events or through community vendors. In Enfield, we were given a display case to use for these items. The case sits in the main walk way in the BrickHouse building so plenty of people walk past it everyday. Kevin and I change things around regulary to keep things fresh. We ensure to have the business cards of the respective vendors so if anyone is interested in anything they know exactly who to contact.
-Jim
