An Interview with LEGO Leadership - Jørgen Vig Knudstorp

I usually write about set reviews or LEGO happenings so this one is a bit different. I found a podcast listed last week on NPR. The title is “Wisdom From the Top” and the host is Guy Raz. He interviewed Jørgen Vig Knudstorp who was the CEO from 2004 until 2017 and is known for taking LEGO out of a bad place and then growing it to the strong performing company that it now is. He is currently a member of LEGO’s Board of Directors and the Executive Chairman. You can read his bio on LEGO’s site here.

Image from LEGO.com

The podcast is about an hour long, but I found it quite interesting. It’s cool to hear about LEGO from the top versus hearing about it from designers or other members of the fan community. Give it a listen and let me know what you think. The interview was from 2019, but they re-released it this year.

Happy listening! Could be a good opportunity to build at listen at the same time.

Bricking at the Library

I’m in the process of moving (again) so it has been a while since I have posted anything. Sorry for the delay. Just a quick one here…

I was at a local library recently and they had some LEGO sets on display. The library had a building club/group for kids to show up and free build. The area set up for this group had a large number of base plates attached to a wall. I counted 7 base plates high by 14 base plates long. That’s an impressive space. You can build long/tall builds that hang off the base plates, but you can make some cool 2-D pictures. Or maybe the challenge is to see how far off the base plates you can build until your build falls off the wall.

Nearby to the building area were some glass display cases with built sets inside. There were two with mainly Architecture themed sets. Most were skyline sets as you can see, but there were a few others as well. I think it was a simple, yet great display. The sets are smaller so you can put the numbers in that you see which I think helps. It also gives people the opportunity to try and identify the buildings and which cities they are from. I know my kiddo tried to pick out which ones she knew.

Next to the two smaller display cases with Architecture sets was a larger case with a bunch of different sets. The top had #10257-1: Carousel. Below it were a mix of Super Hero sets, a Harry Potter set, some BrickHeadz, and at the very bottom it looks like part of #21311-1: Voltron. It’s an eclectic collection, but it works. Hopefully it inspires some of the builders at the club the library holds.

The Library manager’s office had a copy of #31199: Iron Man from the Lego Art line on the wall. I wonder if that person is an AFOL? The manager wasn’t there so I didn’t get to ask.

Does your library have a Lego group? Do they have any sets on display? How did they do it?

Happy building!

A Scottish LEGO Designer and a German's Take on LEGO Fan Media Days

A few things to point out that I have not seen displayed across the LEGO Fan Media…

Scottish toy designer Amy Corbett built dream career from Lego - BBC.com

Here’s an article from the BBC. It you’re a big follower of LEGO, you’ll notice that many of the Designer Videos they produce and post on YouTube have mostly male designers. Occasionally, there is a female designer thrown in, but most of the time I don’t see them. The same thing goes for interviews with fan media. I’m not sure if it is just there are fewer female designers at LEGO or what, but I hope to see more female designers explaining sets in the future.

This article highlights Amy Corbett who I think became more widely recognized when she was a part of LEGO Masters Season 1 in the US last year. She is back for Season 2 this year and the BBC gives us some insight to her background beyond just her experience with LEGO Masters. It’s worth the read!

Assembled/Zusammengebaut on YouTube

I have highlighted the team at Zusammengebaut.com before. Led by Andres Lehmann, this blog gives some insight into being a LEGO fan in Germany. While my German is not so good, the power of Google Translate allows me to keep up with them.

Recently, the team participated in the Recognized LEGO Fan Media (RLFM) Days. Normally, I would see this information across multiple channels, but for some reason I only have seen information on their site. There are two videos they have posted so far with interviews with LEGO designers. The first is an interview with Marcos Bessa and Iken (didn’t catch his last name) about the new Harry Potter themed LEGO sets for summer 2021. You can view it here or below. The second is an interview with the LEGO Super Heroes Design team. You can view that one here or below. Enjoy!

BrickLink Designer Program - Round 1

If you haven’t been keeping track, BrickLink is running another AFOL Designer program. This time they are going to take some of the projects from Ideas that reached 10,000 votes, but were not selected for production and try to crowd fund them. There have been a few updates to the program since it kicked off. First off, 5 of the 31 total projects have dropped out bringing us to 26 total. Secondly, BrickLink released some info on 12 May with a change to the program. Instead of one round of crowd funding, there will now be three rounds. Round one will kick off in July, round two in September, and round three in November. The info page lists how they broke the projects up. For each round, the first five projects to reach the goal will get built. So we’ll get 15 sets total versus 13 which is good. The downside is that program will take much longer to see sets.

So with that being said, let’s go through the projects in round 1. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments or vote with your wallet starting 1 July 2021 on BrickLink.

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The Castle in the Forest
Designer: povoq (Daniel VAN ZONNEVELD, 37 years old, France)

If I had to predict the first set to gain crowd funding support, I’d have to say it would be this one. This one is just over 1,900 pieces and is inspired by the Forestmen theme from castle. It also includes a few Black Falcon Knight minifigures too along with a few animal figures. With the following behind castle and after seeing the demand for #21325-1: Medieval Blacksmith, I say this one will get made. I’m thinking it’ll be around $200.

You can see the designer video here.

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Sheriff’s Safe with Combination Lock
Designer: Il_Buono (Denmark)

Here is an original idea… a safe with combination lock. The safe can actually be built with a combination to open it. It will also come with printed/stickered tiles which you can put in the brick built book to remind you of the combo. Of course, it is brick built so you can just take take the safe apart too. It also comes with a few other accessories both inside and outside. I think it’s a fun set, but it will only appeal to certain people. I’m not sure it will have the draw of some other sets. It’s at around 550 pieces so I’m guessing maybe $60? We’ll see how this one does.

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LEGO Observatory Mountain View
Designer: ThomasW_BL

Here’s another original idea that fits in with the CITY theme, the projects related to space exploration, and maybe the modulars. This one has some great play features and some fun details inside. Not sure how many pieces this one is so I can’t give a cost estimate. I like this one and hope it gets picked up for crowd funding. We’ll see if everyone else likes it.

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Particle Accelerator
Designer: JKBrickworks

I’ll be honest… I saw this one and was not impressed. And then I watched the video… I didn’t realize that this one had movement. You put the ball in and it keeps it going around the round track. I could see this set appealing to the GBC crowd. It’s pretty fun, but I wonder how the price will be if the motor and battery pack are included. At ~1,500 pieces right now and then throwing in a motor and battery pack. Are we talking a $200 set? Either way, JKBrickworks did an awesome job on this one.

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The Legend of Bionicle
Designer: Sokoda

So I’m not the biggest fan of Bionicle… I will say that there seems to be a large fan base for Bionicle pushing for its return. While this isn’t at the top of my list, there probably is a group out there that would like to see this. While it is not in the original form of Bionicle, a System brick tribute may work. I’ll be curious to see where this one ends up during crowd funding. I’m sure LEGO will as well as it will be a good test run for them as to whether they should do something with Bionicle again.

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Pursuit of Flight
Designer: JKBrickworks

Here’s another entry from JKBrickworks. This one has some mechanical movement, but is turned by hand versus a motor. You can see the video here. The set is expected to be around 500 pieces and will have three different aircraft that you can set on it. I’m hoping this comes in at $40. I think this one will appeal to a wide audience and lends itself to customization either with different aircraft, different genres (Star Wars maybe), or something completely different. I’m looking forward to seeing this one get produced.

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The Great Fishing Boat
Designer: EdouardClo

The history of LEGO doesn’t have a lot of ships if you pull out the CITY versions. There are the Maersk ships, but beyond that this would be another one. This is definitely a display piece with just under 1,500 pieces, but might look great on a dock with #21310-1: Old Fishing Store. I like the ship and think there are some great details, but I’m not sure there will be a fan base for this ship. We’ll have to see what the pricing is and what the final design will be.

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Kakapo
Designer: themfledge

We had a LEGO Ideas birds set a few years back and this is a come back with another detailed bird with a baby bird and a few accessories for fun. I think it’s a cool design, but I’m not really sure what I would do with a bird other than take it apart to use the pieces. That’s just me though. There might be a fan base from the New Zealand area or just bird and wildlife lovers in general. I think this one is a wild card. It could do really well… or not so much…

LEGO House® - Online Fan Event - AFOL to LEGO® Designer

I attended and reported on the last LEGO House® Virtual Fan Day back in September 2020. There may have been one or two that I missed, but there is another virtual fan event happening this Friday, 26 March 2021. It is titled “My way from AFOL to LEGO® designer.” It will be held from 6 PM to 8 PM CET so a good time for me here in Germany, but not so great if you are working back in the US. Sadly the event is not free and it was limited to 100 people. I was lucky enough to get in at a cost of ~$32 (it was priced in DKK). It will be hosted by a Norwegian journalist and AFOL named Are Heiseldal.

The event will feature three designers: Marcos Bessa, Milan Reindl, and Justin Ramsden. Marcos has done a lot of Super Heroes sets, but more recently I built #75978-1: Diagon Alley that he designed. Milan has mainly designed for Technic. I have not built or reviewed any of his sets on this site. Justin Ramsden has designed for Super Heroes (#76057-1), Harry Potter (#71043-1), Ideas (#21306-1), Monkey King, and recently the Chinese Traditional Festivals (#80107-1).

Picture from legohouse.com

Left to Right - Marcos, Milan, Justin

I will do my best to take some good notes and maybe grab a screen shot or two for a future blog post. Maybe I’ll “see” you there?

Happy building!

Amazon Runs Steam Rollers Over Packages with LEGO® Sets Inside

Back in November 2020, I caught a sale on Amazon.com for set #75946-1: Hungarian Horntail Triwizard Challenge. I placed the order in late November and it showed up in mid-January 2021. Yay shipping delays! When I got the package, I didn’t know it had a LEGO set in it. It was in a padded envelope. Really? And then I opened it up and it looked like this…

And if you can’t tell how it looks like someone stepped on it after putting it in a printing press…

So frustrating! I ordered a new set, not a smashed set. That last time I received a smashed set in a padded envelope, I returned the last it. Of course the one I received in return was also beat up in a padded envelope. Go figure…

I can’t put something like this in my Bricklink store without heavily discounting it. Do I break it apart for pieces? What if I was giving this as a gift? I’m sure the response is “Well, you’re just going to open it up and build it anyways. Who cares about the packaging?”

I CARE!!! Amazon, please stop putting LEGO sets in padded envelopes!

So what can you do about it? I’m pretty sure Amazon isn’t going to listen and it is cheaper for them to ship in envelopes instead of boxes. I think your options are to order more than one of a specific set, hope it comes from the same fulfillment warehouse, and hope it forces them to put a larger box versus bag. Or just stop ordering from Amazon.com. None of those are ideal situations. What if I don’t want more than one of a set? Amazon.com is a great place for sales on LEGO sets and I want to keep finding sets on sale.

I’m sure lots of people have received damaged sets. Does anyone have any good tips on how to get around it? Please post them in the comments or send me an email at store@bricksforbricks.com.

In the meantime, happy building!

Return of the Bricklink AFOL Designer Program

In 2018, LEGO and Bricklink teamed up for the AFOL Designer Program. They crowd funded 13 sets that were designed by fans and released them for purchase in 2019. I ended up buying two of them. One was #BL19003: Skyline Express and the other was #BL19012: Bikes!. I was a big fan of both of them and probably would have purchased all 13 of them if I had unlimited funds.

LEGO announced their purchase of Bricklink at the end of 2019 and there was much consternation in the fan community as to what would happen. A number of fans, including me, hoped the AFOL Designer Program would return. We heard nothing for a while, but we finally got something a few weeks ago.

Bricklink announced on 17 December 2020 that they were going to re-open the program, but it would be slightly different in 2021. Instead of soliciting new projects and crowd sourcing them, they are going to use designs from the Ideas platform and produce some of them. While not exactly what we wanted, I can’t complain about this effort. The rules are the project must not have an IP tied to it and it must have achieved the 10,000 votes. My search revealed 44 sets in this category. If my link doesn’t work, go to the Ideas site and when you search, select Product Phase - Not Approved and IP - Original Ideas. There are a lot of great designs and then some that it looks like LEGO has produced in a different form already.

If LEGO/Bricklink reads this post, here are the three designs I would like to see made in the 2021 AFOL Designer Program.

1. The Train Station: Studgate

I’m a big train fan and a modular building fan and this set would look fantastic mixed with the two themes. Designed by Bricky_Brick, the same designer as #21322-1 - Pirates of Barracuda Bay, I think this set would add some elegance to some of the more boring train stations that exist in the current LEGO set realm. Plus you get a small passenger train so win, win all around here.

2. Food Stand Diners

How awesome would this set look in a City scene or a park scene or mixed in with your Fairground sets? Designed by builder FrostBricks, this set would be a great add and could be produced at a lower price point considering some of the other larger sets listed.

3. Chemical Plant

If you like Trains, City, or the Octan theme, this one would be great to see. Designed by fan Ymari, this set has a lot of playability (although not meant for kiddos), lots of great details, and connections to train with the tank car and roads with the Octan themed tank truck.

We’ll see if any of these even make it, but those are my votes. What are yours?

For those of you disappointed that we don’t have an AFOL Designer Program where you can submit your project, don’t worry. It appears LEGO and Bricklink are planning on launching this effort in 2022.

Happy Building!

LEGO® Shop @ Home Shows Sold Out. Where Else Can I Look?

For the US buyers scrambling to get new sets, going onto LEGO Shop @ Home has been depressing. Sets are sold out to the max and any inventory that pops up of anything remotely good gets sold out immediately (or so it seems). Although I did see you can now sign up for email updates to be alerted when a product is back in stock. I have not ventured to my local LEGO Store so I don’t know if they have the same inventory issues or not.

I don’t know about Amazon’s inventory, but their deals seem to have dried up fairly quickly. It’s a bit over a week before Christmas and most of their sales on sets are over.

I haven’t done a good scrub of the Walmart or Target websites. Since I live in Germany, I can’t stop by a local store to see what the shelves look like.

It got me to thinking… where else can you look to find your bricks while sticking to name brand type stores. You can obviously go to EBay, Bricklink, and some of the small business toy and LEGO brick stores, but not everyone has a physical presence nearby and we’ve maxed out our shipping capacity in the US so good luck ordering something and hoping it’ll be in your hands by Christmas..

And no… I’m not getting paid by any of these businesses to talk about them…

Barnes and Noble:
Everyone thought Amazon.com would kill it, but it’s still around. The last time I was in a store, there was a small LEGO section. Looking online, they have a fairly sizeable selection with a lot in stock that is not in stock on LEGO Shop @ Home. You can get #21322-1: Pirates of Barracuda Bay, #21323-1: Grand Piano, and many of the other harder to find sets.

If you have a store nearby, you can order to pick up in store at no additional charge. Otherwise, they charge for shipping unless you pay to be a part of their membership program. While I don’t shop there, I have seen elsewhere that you can use the paid membership program to get some decent deals. Does anyone have any experience getting sets there?

Kohl’s:
Don’t they sell clothes? Apparently they sell LEGO sets too. In looking online, they have a smaller selection of sets available (a little over 100 as of today). Most of the sets are geared towards kids and they don’t have many of the 18+ type sets. A quick scan only showed #31197-1: Andy Warhol’s Marylin Monroe. Like Barnes and Noble, they have free in store pickup. There also ways to get deals too, but I won’t go into them there. It might be worth keeping them on your list as you go out to find your favorite plastic bricks.

Michael’s:
Okay so I didn’t know they sold LEGO sets. They don’t have a large selection, but they sell them and you can get in-store pick up. Definitely pay attention to pricing if you plan to shop there. A quick scan of the website shows many of their sets are priced above LEGO’s retail price. So definitely look for the opportunity to get a sale or some other deal if you plan to shop there.

Christian Bookstore:
Didn’t see this one coming. Not a huge selection and I can’t say I’ve ever shopped there before, but they have sets in stock. I found #10277-1: Crocodile Locomotive and #42115-1: Lamborghini Sian FKP 37. I’m not sure if they have good deals or ways to save. Anyone?

Best Buy:
I admit I haven’t been to Best Buy in a while, but I didn’t know they sold LEGO sets. I have never seen them in the store. Maybe this is a newer thing? I looked online and they have a decent selection. Some sets are sold out, but there are a lot still in stock from across the lines. This includes smaller sets and spans to larger sets. There are a few sale items as well. Looks like they have free shipping on some of the bigger sets and you can pick up in stores as well.

Costco:
I’m not a Costco member so I don’t know if it’s new or not, but Costco sells LEGO sets. Online they have a few sets listed, but nothing . I’m not sure if they have more in the store or not. If you are a member, it might be worth it to check it out.

Disney Store:
LEGO has licenses for a number of Disney lines such as Star Wars, Disney Princesses, and a few others. You can buy the Disney themed sets from the Disney store at the actual stores or get them shipped. Right now they have free shipping on orders over $75. I don’t know if that is all the time or just now.

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There are a few places you can look. Are there anymore I missed? Have you bought sets at any of these places? What had your experience been?

Happy building!

How do I Find Cheaper Loose Parts?

Are you looking for parts to build your own creations? Or maybe you’re a parent like me and have kiddos who like to build and want some additional parts.

I have a parts collection back in the US in storage, but we have a big plastic bin of random parts here to free build with (as you can see below).

So where can you find cheaper parts?

Bricks and Minifigs is an after market store in the US and Canada. It is franchise owned and more seem to pop up every year. It’s been a few years since I have been to one, but I used to live by the Albuquerque, NM store. The store had 2 large tables of loose bricks. They buy used pieces and then re-sell them at a higher price. You can pick the size container/bag you want and then sort through the parts to find what you want. I was usually able to find some great parts in great condition. Usually I could get it down to somewhere between 3 and 5 cents per piece. Definitely check them out if you live nearby.

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The LEGO Classic line is a great place to look. While you don’t get the exact parts you want, you can find them at a lower price and brand new. I recently got the set pictured here for 28% off. It worked out to around $0.03 per piece which is a great deal. You might not get minifigures, but they usually have a great color scheme and some cool parts. It’s definitely worth it to look for sales on the Classic line. Especially before Christmas time.

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Now we tread into the unknown… there are numerous ways you can buy used bulk LEGO parts and sets from garage sales and Craigslist, to EBay and Amazon. There’s a lot out there and it can be hard to know what you’re going to get. You may be getting a bin from an expert who has picked out the “good” parts and left you with items you may not want. Or you may end up with a gold mine of old disassembled sets that you can re-assemble. Prices may vary, but usually you can get a decent deal here. Just the quality may not be where you want it. So let the buyer beware…

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Is it worth it to go straight to the source? You can get the quality of part and the type of part that you’ll want, but you’ll pay. Online orders can get pricy so it might not be worth it unless you are trying to get that one hard to find piece. In store may offer you some savings. Purchasing a cup full of parts can be good if you know how to pick and stack smartly. I am not an expert there by any means, but I recommend you look online for videos from people with tips on how to stack and fill your cups at the LEGO store. My last trip to the LEGO store was a while ago, but it was around $18 for the large cup. Is that still right? In the past I’ve been able to get parts for around $0.04 per piece or so, but usually the pieces are smaller so it’s hard to make a judgement there.

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The secondary market… It’s actually pretty large. You can get specific parts on numerous sites from EBay to Amazon to BrickOwl, but I will focus on Bricklink.com for now since I am most familiar with it. Bricklink is now owned by The LEGO Group so it’s the secondary market owned by the primary market. The downside is that most sellers are AFOLs or people knowledgeable with bricks so finding great deals on parts is probably tough. The plus side is if you can’t find it on Bricklink, it probably doesn’t exist. You can also work with (some) buyers to get discounts if you are buying large lots or if you become a regular customer. You can get a lot of opinions about Bricklink so I’ll stop there. Bottom line is, lots of available parts, but not always the lowest price.

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There are probably a few other niche areas like if you are in a LUG and can participate in the LUGBULK program. What else am I missing? What has worked the best for you?

Please post in the comments or send me at note at store@bricksforbricks.com and I will add to the post.

Happy building!

LEGO House® Virtual Fan Day 2020

This weekend marks the time when the Skaerbaek Fan Weekend is normally held in Denmark. The event was cancelled due to COVID-19, but the LEGO House® still decided to participate. In previous years they have closed the House to the public and opened it to Skaerbaek Fan Weekend attendees only. This year they held a virtual event with a few presentations from various employees. To mix things up, most of the employees presenting were not designers so it was interesting to hear about different parts of the company. Here’s a quick run through of the event with a few screen shots I took.

Quick admin… there were about 400 people logged in from across the world. I saw people check in from North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. It occurred between 1PM and 5PM in my local time zone (Central European Time) so great for me and a good excuse to take a day off from work. Sorry for those of you who had to get up early or stay up late. Participants were in receive only mode. You could type questions into chat and Jan Beyer moderated and picked the questions for the presenters to answer.

DISCLAIMER: These are from the notes I took during the session. I may have made mistakes or heard things wrong. So don’t go quoting me on anything without confirmation from the LEGO Group.

To start off, there was a welcome by the Managing Director of LEGO House, Jesper Vilstrup.

Jesper gave a quick welcome and updated us on the LEGO House® and impacts due to COVID-19. It was closed for about 100 days until it re-opened at reduced capacity. They have re-opened with a bunch of new rules and increased hand washing. Also, they swap out all of the bricks every day and put them in a 72 hour quarantine. I can’t imagine how long that takes.

Next up was Julia Goldin (calling in from London). She is the Chief Marketing Officer and Executive Vice President of the LEGO Group. She is pictured on the right in the screen shot below.

She gave an overview of what she does and talked about a few items before Q&A. The intro items were:

-LEGO is expanding offerings to adult fans and plans to continue the expansion
-70 or so projects in the portfolio geared towards adults (IDEAS and others)
-LEGO wants feedback from the fan community
-A quick overview of her personal use of LEGO
-A quick discussion on sustainability of LEGO to include removal of the plastic parts bags in 2021
-A focus on digital child safety
-A discussion on Diversity and Inclusion within the LEGO Company

Fan Q&A

-Will Bionicle return?
—It was phased out as it was not seen as part of the kid building experience, but it could return someday
-Any updates on the BrickLink acquisition?
—BrickLInk is getting new customers during COVID, adult fans are important to LEGO and she sees BrickLink as a way to support adults, using BrickLink to learn more (data mining?), LEGO does not want to change Bricklink
-Talk about the partnerships with Ikea, Levis, and Adidas
—Wanted an opportunity to show LEGO in a different way when two brands combine in new channels, looking for ways to expand brand awareness, don’t expect a lot of new partnerships beyond what has been seen, Ikea partnership was done as LEGO saw a need for buildable storage (not everyone has a giant room to store their massive collections)
-LEGO is open to releasing older themes
-LEGO is looking into releasing smaller sets geared towards adults at lower price points
-A quick discussion on the COVID-19 impacts

Next up was  Poul Schou. Poul is the Senior Vice President for product development in the LEGO Group and has been with the company for over 30 years.

Poul provided a quick history of his employment at LEGO to include traveling the world bringing LEGO to places that had never seen LEGO (to include a great story about bringing bricks to Papua New Guinea). He was involved in bringing LEGO to China in early 2000. He then worked in Denmark on marketing for a short period before switching to product development. He now has a team producing ~200- new products per year and he called them Product Group 1. They make products for younger kids (4+/Juniors), girls lines (Friends, Disney Princesses), Ninjago, City, Minifigures, and then IPs.

Then straight to fan Q&A:
-What’s the Asia strategy?
—China is LEGO’s fastest growing market and a discussion on the Monkey King line
-More on plant based pieces and the desire to expand their production
-What is the future of modular buildings with the new 18+ line?
—No plans now, but would like to have more modular type builds for families to build together
-Will LEGO continue to produce large numbers of new models?
—They are growing, but don’t want to go too fast/far
-What was his best LEGO moment?
—He mentioned the bringing bricks to children who had never seen them before and didn’t know what to do to them stories.
-What are some of the latest models?
—The Child, The Child Brickheadz, and a Ninjago model (I didn’t catch the name)
-Will shelf life decrease with more sets coming out?
—They would actually like to expand the shelf life
-Why re-release the two IDEAS sets (Ship in a Bottle and Saturn V)?
—It’s hard to predict product popularity and there was still demand even after the sets went to end of life
-What is the long term plan for LEGO apps?
—Need to determine how they will support them into the future
-A discussion on IPs
--Need to consider if kids like the IP, determine what LEGO can do with it, and if it fits within the brand
-A question about becoming a designer (been asked a lot so I won’t expand on the answer)
-A question on virtual designing (he wasn’t an expert there)
-How long does it take to design a set?
—Anywhere from 9 to 15 months to design a set
-How many people to design a set?
—It depends on the set, but there are around 400 designers and then 1,800 people who do marketing, packaging, and instruction development
-Why is LEGO successful?
—They’ve been able to make it a system and connect well with partners
-Any challenges with working form home?
—Designers have a hard time getting the pieces they need
-What are his favorite lines?
—Ninjago, Bionicle, and the new Nintendo line
-What are the long term plans for the Art line
—The Star Wars Sith set has done well. Expect more sets.
-Why are some sets phased out faster than others?
—They stick with what works. For example, Ninjago did better than Chima or Nexo Knights
-Could old sticker sheets be re-released?
—”That’s a good idea.”
-What is the design process?
—Talk to kids worldwide, get ideas, draw the ideas, show kids, build models, test with kids, do internal reviews
-How do you decide to do printed pieces versus stickers?
—Try to print more for younger kids and can get more authenticity with more stickers. They have more flexibility with fewer stickers.
-A discussion on LEGO animals
—Molded ones are meant for younger kids (Duplo) and brick built ones are for older kids and to expand creativity
-How many sets does each designer work on?
—Depends on the team and the product line. Ninjago team works on all sets, but they are the lead for one or two each year.
-Do they test sets with adults?
—Starting to test them with adults now. Small scale test. (how do I sign up for this?)

Next up was Stuart Harris who is the lead designer for the LEGO House®. He displayed some of the new fan designs they have on display in the Yellow Zone. I was too busy paying attention to the designs to take any screen shots. Sorry!

Okay… Next presentation was with Kim Yde Larsen, Nanna Mazanti Drejer Friborg and Thomas Folit. They are part of the BIX team or Building Instructions Experience team. Here are their minifig recreations from the slide show.

Their presentation was focused on the building instruction process starting with the history to where they are today. This isn’t an area we hear a lot about so it was interesting to hear their perspective. There is a lot to think about besides making sure you can make the set. Who will be making the set? Are they young/old, familiar with LEGO or not, is the set large or small? They discussed how they go through this all as a set is designed. Then we moved to the Q&A:

-When are they involved in the process?
—During the early stages of development all the way through pre-launch and then post launch if needed
-Please tell customer service if you find issues so they can fix them.
-What happens when errors are found in models?
—The goal is to find errors before the model is released which is why they get involved very early in the process.
-Would it be possible to add a number code for color blind people?
—This is definitely a possibility.
-They are aware of the concerns with the instruction issues with #10277-1 Crocodile Locomotive (dark pieces and a black background).
-Why is glossy papers used for instructions?
—It is readily available.
-What was the hardest set to make instructions for?
—It is not always complexity or a large adult set. Some of the sets designed for little kids can be harder because you have to make sure they can put it together
-The team has made changes post release of a set.
-How many people are on the instructions team?
—60

Here are the presenters for that section:

Kim

Nanna

Thomis

Next up Stephan Sander and Thomas Wesselski talked about Skaerbaek Fan Weekend and why it was cancelled.

Last presentation was Bjarke Schønwandt who is a quality director and works with Consumer-Perceived Quality at LEGO. I wasn’t sure what to expect on this one, but it was actually pretty interesting and I didn’t know LEGO did a lot of this stuff. I took a bunch of screen shots during this presentation so I’ll put a few up here. First, some info on Bjarke…

If I had to sum up what Bjarke does, the goal of him and his team is to make sure LEGO’s customers are happy. The product may meet LEGO’s standards, but if it doesn’t meet consumer standards, then it doesn’t work. Bjarke discussed how they measure consumer perceived quality. For example, they expect complaints to go up when sales increase and they expect more mistakes to happen with bigger sets.

He showed a chart with where LEGO sees its complaints. 86% come from missing pieces and 13% are faulty pieces. There rest in in a few smaller categories.

Missing pieces come from having the wrong element in the set, a customer losing the part, or missing minifigures. Bjarke noted that they see more Star Wars Storm Troopers and Ninjago figures going missing than City fire fighters. He made a quick quip that there is probably a reason for this.

Bjarke talked about systematic building mistakes. This is where people screw up the build and then have pieces “missing” later only to find out they followed the instructions wrong. I fully admit I have done this and so have you so just admit it.

Okay, I think we’re onto Q&A here…

-How often does LEGO make checks to parts during production?
—About once every 8 hours. It would be too hard to check every piece coming out of the factory.
-How often do they make changes to elements?
—Changes happen often. Some are for sustainability purposes.
-What can you say about the LEGO Technic Lamborghini issues (#42115-1)?
—I will do my best to summarize the discussion. It was pretty detailed and technical, but it made sense when he was done. There were a few issues.
—-One element was out of spec as the color pigments burned in the mold as it was in the mold too long. They haven’t fixed the issue, but they cheated by using a different machine to get the elements in spec.
—-The other issue is related to material suppliers. They have a specific tolerance that they need the colors to be in. Then the material team has a tolerance. The tolerances can be in different directions (for a green piece, more red, more blue, more yellow, etc.) and so the supplier and the materials team can both go in different directions while still meeting spec. However, LEGO found out this didn’t work on the Lamborghini with color differences between parts next to each other as Bjarke showed us.

Bjarke conveniently brought the Technic Lamborghini with him to the presentation

Bjarke explaining color tolerances

-What about the brown elements breaking?
—LEGO was aware of them too. They are working on fixing issues with suppliers and getting colors into the same quadrant of the color scale.
-A few examples of systematic building mistakes:

#1 - LEGO found a lot of people selecting the wrong piece at step #455 on the Technic Lamborghini (#42115-1). Then when they needed that piece at set #520, they didn’t have the correct piece. No one wants to disassemble at that point.

#2 - #75551-1: Minion has an error that many people make (including Bjarke) at step 21 and then find out they messed it up at step 79.

-What is perceived quality?
—If fans think it isn’t good, then it isn’t good.
-What other errors have you seen?
—The Ford Mustang (#10265-1) has a racing stripe that isn’t as straight as some fans want it to be.
-Why did you change the materials in the transparent bricks?
—To have more sustainable parts
-How do you get your white elements to stay white?
—Keep them out of the sun (he wasn’t sure what else to do).
-Why do some stickers crack after a while and some done?
—They don’t know.
-What are the hardest parts to make?
—The dark earth colors
-Why not just use one supplier so the colors are the same?
—Don’t want to use one supplier and then run supply chain risks if that supplier is disrupted
-How long did the Wall-E (#21303-1) fix take?
—1-2 weeks to rebuild, 1-2 weeks for instructions, production time, and then time to get it into the supply chain. It didn’t make sense to shut off a production run to do this fix and then re-start what was turned off.
-Please report issues to customer service. (I’m seeing a trend)
-Why don’t the instruction colors match the bricks you are using?
—They need to adjust the colors to make sure they can get the 3-D effect on the instructions.
-What are your biggest issues right now?
—#42115-1: Lamborghini Sian and parts sustainability

Whew! That was a lot. Some great information and very interesting. Definitely different from having designers talk which is what I’m used to seeing. I hope LEGO continues events like these and I hope my summary of the event was worthwhile for you to read if you couldn’t make the event.

Bye from Billund!