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Any big announcements this year?
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In lugnet.events.brickfest, Mike Case wrote:
> Any big announcements this year?
OOooooohhh Yeeeahhhh. (^_^)
But I'm not a great reporter, so I'll allow others to relay the exciting news.
-Suz
(how's that for suspense?)
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In lugnet.events.brickfest, Mike Case wrote:
> Any big announcements this year?
As TLC has been doing increasingly, it secretly recruited 10 train AFOLs in
March to help design LEGO train factory. The group ultimately came up with a
unified red, white, and gray palette and 30 MOCs. Near final production
packaging art was shown and the product should be ready "soon".
Oddly, before they were even asked at the main session, LEGO officials announced
that they had nothing to announce regarding the the future of 9V trains.
Some overall notes:
The site is fabulous. Almost all the MOCs and the train layout fit in one very
nice room and has been open around the clock. Immediately adjacent is a room
with 400 chairs for the joint sessions. Joe surprised most of us by including
dinner after the Friday session. Most of the attendees I have spoken with who
are staying at the hotel (a great idea and a relative bargain) are housed within
a 100 or less steps of the main hall, which is very convenient. The hotel and
its staff seem very pleased to have us. The onsite LEGO store is practically a
"real store" with a very large stock on labelled shelves. The shirts are
terrific.
-Ted
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Ted Michon wrote:
> As TLC has been doing increasingly, it secretly recruited 10 train
> AFOLs in March to help design LEGO train factory. The group
> ultimately came up with a unified red, white, and gray palette and 30
> MOCs. Near final production packaging art was shown and the product
> should be ready "soon".
> Oddly, before they were even asked at the main session, LEGO officials
> announced
> that they had nothing to announce regarding the the future of 9V trains.
I was invited to a meeting Sunday morning about hobby train. The LEGO
factory people and the community people (I don't remember all the names so I
won't name specific people) totally understand that somehow 9v trains need
to stay alive. We also convinced them that changing guage (to O-guage) was
not a viable solution.
They also know that they need to make it possible for hobby stores and train
show vendors to have hobby train product on their shelves/tables. Their
intent is to utilize LEGO Factory for this (and noted that the 30 models
above for the train box will be loaded into LEGO Factory and individually
orderable), with high quality boxes (probably with designer's names on the
box - something I noted that stores would then be able to point to "Look,
here's something designed by someone local.").
Based on everything I've heard over the past few years, I would assume that
eventually the current 9v track and motor will go away. However, LEGO
sincerely intends there to be a viable solution. It might be track produced
by a regular model railroad vendor under license, the track might or might
not have studs.
Oh, the box will also include a poster with all 30 models, plus some info on
other current train products. They will make this poster available to train
clubs (since the cost of shooting a few thousand more posters is trivial).
An interesting side comment: It was noted that losing the electric rails
would be a killer of hobby train. Interestingly, in my other model
railroading hobby, garden railroading, the trend is towards battery and
remote control, because getting power through the rails is a pain due to
what nature does to the track. Of course they're radio control (though it
still dies inside tunnels). They like long battery endurance, but are
currently living with 4-6 hour battery endurance (with some older
installations having more like 2-3 hour battery endurance).
> The site is fabulous. Almost all the MOCs and the train layout fit in
> one very nice room and has been open around the clock. Immediately
> adjacent is a room with 400 chairs for the joint sessions. Joe
> surprised most of us by including dinner after the Friday session.
> Most of the attendees I have spoken with who are staying at the hotel
> (a great idea and a relative bargain) are housed within a 100 or less
> steps of the main hall, which is very convenient. The hotel and its
> staff seem very pleased to have us. The onsite LEGO store is
> practically a "real store" with a very large stock on labelled
> shelves. The shirts are terrific.
I definitely have to agree with all of this venue stuff. A couple real
indications of how good the hotel staff was:
- The water service was regularly refilled. Sure, sometimes the pitchers
were empyty, but at other events, I've seen the pitchers placed out in the
morning, and NEVER refilled.
- Thursday evening, I wander into the exhbit hall, and there are several
AFOLs using a hydraulic lift to assemble some skyscrapers. There's not a
sign of a hotel employee around. I ask around a bit, the hotel supplied the
lift. How many exhibit halls have you ever been in where the lift wouldn't
be operated by staff, at the charge of an arm and a leg.
I also noticed the staff regularly browsing through the exhibit hall. They
were definitely liking what they saw.
I just hope something I head about early Sunday morning doesn't cause a big
problem.
The sad part - we almost certainly will not be able to use this hotel next
year. They simply don't have the space, from what I have heard, BrickFest
could easily have been a 450-500 member event. Such an event would need a
larger exhibit hall and a larger meeting room.
Frank
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In lugnet.events.brickfest, Frank Filz wrote:
>
> I also noticed the staff regularly browsing through the exhibit hall. They
> were definitely liking what they saw.
I was the "LEGO Art Monkey" set up in the LEGO Store area, and when I was
setting up my display in the room Thursday night, hotel staff kept coming in to
see the giant Batman statue! It seemed word was going round that this sculpture
was there, but nobody (I guess) believed it was as big and good as it was until
they saw it. They'd be amazed and approach it and cautiously touch it like the
apes approaching the monolith in 2001! It was great, and right away I though the
hotel staff appreciated us and was going to be happy we were there.
I also really liked the fact the exhibit room was open for us to minkgle in
seemingly 24 hours a day.
A fantastic event.
-Greg Hyland
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