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Subject: 
Build for a living?
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.general, lugnet.market.theory
Followup-To: 
lugnet.market.theory
Date: 
Wed, 14 Jul 2004 20:10:45 GMT
Viewed: 
3731 times
  
Hi all,

I was wondering how many individuals out there make all or a large part of their
income from free-lance building with the brick (as opposed to actual LEGO
employees)? Okay, Eric Harshberger has been doing this for a long time:
http://www.ericharshbarger.org/lego/
Bill Vollbrecht recently left LEGO to strike out on his own:
http://www.brickcreations.com/
Jonathan Hunter is doing something similar here:
http://www.legogh.com/
I just found this site by Jason Burik (which prompted this question to me):
http://www.burikmodeldesign.com/
How many other custom sculpture builders are out there?  These people seem to
market mainly to those outside of the AFOL community.  Is there a true living in
this area?  Is the market saturated so that no-one else could join in and make a
living?

Then there those are people who market mainly to the AFOL community.  Some are
like Dan Siskind, Mechanized Brick, Carolina Train Builders, etc. who design
sets.  Others design and build custom elements like Mindstorms sensors, train
wheels, minifig accessories, custom minifigs, etc.  And of course you'll see the
occasional single model sold on e-bay (e.g. when Ben Fleskes either sold or
tried to sell his Millenium Falcon).  Finally there are Bricklink sellers and
other re-sellers of LEGO elements.

There are also those who write books, like Jake's book on trains (though did he
write this as a LEGO employee or as a private individual?), Brendan's book
version of the Brick Testament, Todd's proposed (how's that going, anyway) book
on AFOLs, books on LDRAW, Mindstorms, etc.

Anyway, I was just wondering about the commercial aspects of the hobby (not for
the tax returns of those individuals mentioned above).  Do any more than just a
couple make all or a large part of their living on this?  Do most people see it
as a source of a little extra spending money, perhaps to offset their personal
brick buying needs?  Is this a growth market or is it ultimately limited?

Bruce



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: Build for a living?
 
Oh, another area I forgot are the animators like Spite Your Face. Bruce (20 years ago, 14-Jul-04, to lugnet.market.theory)

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