Subject:
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Re: Behind the curtains - LEGO Factory AFOL Project Team
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.lego
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Date:
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Wed, 17 Nov 2004 05:04:54 GMT
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Viewed:
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6177 times
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In lugnet.lego, Jake McKee wrote:
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As some of you may have heard by now, the LEGO Company worked together with a
small group of AFOLs on the micro/LEGO Factory concept. As I’m sure many of
you are curious, about the details, I wanted to pass along a bit of history.
In early January 2004, I met with some great folks from the LEGO Concept Lab,
while I was on my “internal roadshow” introducing the AFOLs to the company.
Concept Lab is responsible for brainstorming and creating product ideas for
the near future. They are a different group from the product design team, as
they are responsible for things slightly further out. Think of it this way:
Concept Lab = Design R&D
Product Designers = Design Production, so to speak
Anyway, I found out that they were working on a concept they had code named
Micro City. After some discussion, Soren and I agreed that we should involve
a small group of AFOLs in the project.
For several months, Soren (with some help from me) worked internally to get
all the approvals we needed. I started working to find the small group of
folks to pull into the team. In March 2004, we kicked off the project. We had
three weeks to “create the biggest little LEGO city in the world”.
As my colleague from Concept Lab said:
“Our intention was to make it as much of a community project as possible, so
we found an AFOL team leader and set up a secure forum website for the small
group of fans to ‘play’ in. We only gave them a broad brief: build houses for
a micro city! And they ran with it”
Initially, Soren was hoping to push the micro city idea as a new retail
product line. The models that the small AFOL teams created (tons of them over
three weeks) were taken to the product design cycle meetings. These meetings
are held once a year to determine the upcoming products. The micro city
designs got rave reviews from our colleagues.
Soren told me: “I never expected that many models and professional
enthusiasm; I was overwhelmed by the quality and especially the amount of
MOCs that were designed by the fans. I found myself trying to keep up with
processing all the material coming in!”
But during this time, LEGO Factory was making its introduction to the company
as well. (LEGO Factory has been in discussion even before I started. We’ve
literally been working on it that long!) After some discussion with the LEGO
Factory folks, it was agreed that the micro city would be an amazing “theme”
to use in LEGO Factory’s launch, and the marriage of micro city and LEGO
Factory was performed.
From May until the last couple weeks, this small AFOL group has been giving
feedback on the concept, as well as tips and tricks, and inspiration models
for the site.
I must make a point to thank that for their hard work and incredible effort
in helping push the concept of this “micro city” thing.
Ashley Glennon (Who agreed to take on the lead role)
Brian Muzas
Joe Meno
Ross Crawford
Sean Kenney
Spencer Rezkalla
Todd Kubo
Ross Neal
John Neal
Soren Roberts
(I think that’s everyone. Did I miss anyone?)
I have been saying for months that good things are happening, but I couldn’t
talk about them. Hopefully this helps to clear things up.
This isn’t the last of this type of project. Since projects like this can’t
be discussed before it’s time, it’s hard to show exactly how much is going
on. All I can do is try to fill you in after the fact and pass along the
internal reaction.
Soren: “This project team sent shockwaves though our development
organization. And managers as well as LEGO designers were impressed with the
quality and amount of MOCs. So suddenly other development groups than LEGO
Factory started to shape their own groups of AFOLs to assist in their
development (of cause I can’t mention what they are doing)”
“Now the LEGO Factory site is running and people from all over the world can
get a feel of what these 10 guys were involved in.. Creating their own REAL
LEGO sets and co working, voting etc. There is no doubt! The work we did with
these guys, helped significantly in shaping the LEGO Factory idea that
launched last week!”
You may be wondering how to get on future projects like this. As Brad used to
say “Just keep doing what you’re doing, we’ll notice”. Keep on building and
growing as builders. But also be sure to let people know what you’re doing
via sites like LUGNET, 1000steine, FreeLUG, etc. Meet other fans in person or
online. Put on events. Show off your mad skillz and you never know what might
happen.
Hope this helps pull back the curtain a bit. I also hope this helps show that
we’re actually moving in the right direction.
I know this year started off rough between the AFOLs and TLC with the color
change debacle. But hopefully this helps round out the year in a good way.
Jake
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Jake McKee
Community Liaison
LEGO Community Team
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Hi,
I thought long before posting about this. Mainly because I don’t think I have
anything positive to add and it may seem negative at first glance, but what I am
hoping is for an explanation so I can understand.
See, I read your first post a few days ago about this factory website. You
sounded all excited and I thought : Nice, something positive from TLG for a
change! But then, I visited the website and it didn’t make me happy about
anything. Sure, it’s a nice website and all, but it doesn’t do much for me, the
average AFOL. I mean, I’m not a micro-scale town addict, although I enjoy the
great projects other show on various websites. So what is The LEGO Factory good
for if I’m not into that kind of building? Will it expand to something else
than town? Have I missed something? Maybe, I’ll admit I abandonned my research
quite hastily when I found out it didn’t appeal to me.
Then, you post this. Great, TLG has included 10 AFOLs in the project, in
secrety. It’s nice for them, it’s nice for the community to see that TLG has
accepted us as a part of their universe, but at the risk of sounding grim, I
like many others have not yet swallowed the color-change pill. I mean, TLG can
make cool websites with 10 AFOLs all they want, it won’t make the bricks any
better for us average AFOLs not included in these projects.
And before anyone starts ranting, this isn’t about the color-change at all.
It’s about respect for the AFOLs. This website is intended primarily for
children who like micro-scale towns, not for the majority of AFOL. I am sure
most people here do not really care about it. Although it’s a great tool for
those who are concerned, it’s not any good to most of us.
IMHO, TLG can’t expect us AFOLs to forgive and forget the way we were treated
with the color-change by asking 10 AFOLs to help them make a cool project even
better. But I am re-reading myself and I sound harsh. It is not my intention
to say that it’s pointless or anything, but rather that it is not something that
will help restore the way we feel about TLG.
I guess some may reply that they feel TLG has redeemed itself, that they didn’t
need to in the first place or things like that. I accept the fact that everyone
has his opinion. However, there is an important part of this community that
feels TLG has mistreated us and that we deserve a better treatment in the
future. I understand that AFOLs are not a big part of the market, so maybe we
don’t really matter in the end. But it saddens me to hear people rant (like me)
about how they love the LEGO bricks, but not the company anymore.
Is your excitement about the fact that for a change, TLG has included some AFOLs
in a nice project? Do I completely miss the point here? I hope I am and you
can explain to me why I should feel happy about this, so I can start saying “I
love and respect the LEGO company once again”... not just their older bricks.
Terry
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Message has 4 Replies:
 | | Re: Behind the curtains - LEGO Factory AFOL Project Team
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| (...) snip (...) I completely sympathize with you on the color change issue, but that didn't stop me from being excited about the LEGO Factory contest/micro town theme. Granted, I would have been a lot MORE excited about the whole thing if the sets (...) (20 years ago, 17-Nov-04, to lugnet.lego, FTX)
| | | Re: Behind the curtains - LEGO Factory AFOL Project Team
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| I emphathize with your sentiments on the color change, Terry. I'm very happy to see that TLG is truly making an effort to involve us AFOL's much more deeply in the real nuts and bolts of the company, but I'm always going to feel like it should've (...) (20 years ago, 17-Nov-04, to lugnet.lego)
| | | Re: Behind the curtains - LEGO Factory AFOL Project Team
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| (...) Note: I'm speaking for myself here, not Lego. I think there are a couple of big things to be excited about: 1. From Jake's original post: "If the idea catches on, we will open up the virtual LEGO Factory for all LEGO fans to have their own (...) (20 years ago, 17-Nov-04, to lugnet.lego, FTX)
| | | Re: Behind the curtains - LEGO Factory AFOL Project Team
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| (...) Like you, I debated for a while on whether to respond. Text is such a bad medium for communication, especially if you have a dry sense of humor like I do. Please read the message is the most positive way you can, as I'm not at all upset as I (...) (20 years ago, 17-Nov-04, to lugnet.lego, FTX)
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