I am not sure how I missed then when it was posted, but I just saw the link today on Eurobricks (which admittedly I don’t visit very often).
There is some pretty cool footage in the video and some insight into the LEGO Vault. There is also an brief view of the LEGO Hobby Train which I worked on. The model shown was designed by Holger Mathes.
I was asked if I could put something together on short notice for the Window into the Community (aka WITC) for the Raleigh LEGO Store. I have a lot of the things I use for NCLTC layouts in boxes in my basement but several of them that I’d like to use (e.g. my church or amusement park) aren’t well suited to the WITC window because they are too deep or too wide.
So I thought about it and decided I could do a small Pirate display on short notice and it would be fun. I have a small island I had a built a while back which is an adaptation of the Blacksmith’s Shop which I turned into an island tavern with a dock and lots of pirates having a good time.
I reused the elevated platform I had under last months display to clear the cardboard frame that goes on the outside of the window. Having trains under a Pirate water scene doesn’t make any sense so instead of trains, I put the NCLUG sign I built years ago to match the NCLUG logo. It is set back so that it is completely visible. I had planned to put it right up front against the window but when I did, the “G” was covered. Setting it back into the display actually looks pretty cool, gives people a reason to peek under the sea! If I was really clever I’d have a ship wreck down there. Maybe next time!
View Slide Show.
Periodically I get asked or see a comment about how to participate in LEGOPalooza. The best way to participate is to join the NCLUG mailing list (which is actually a Yahoo Group) because that is where all of the information is first shared and where just about all of the discussion takes place. Participation is largely to open to anyone who is interested. Each of the coordinators takes on a different tack, as coordinator for the Train layout it I run it like an NCLTC layout which has worked well.
I saw a link to this image on the WamaLUG mailing list.
You can read a bit more about 2010 LEGO Trains in this article on BrickSet. A couple of initial thoughts:
They are interesting but I don’t see myself buying any of them unless they are really good deal. I recently sold four trains that I still has NISB to help me buy a camera lens I wanted. So for me this is both good news and bad news. Good news that Trains continue on, bad news that they still don’t believe that there is a market for individual cars. One of these days I need to dig up the White Paper on marketing LEGO Trains that I wrote when I worked on the Hobby Train project and post it. When I originally wrote it (about five years ago) I was asked not to post it on the web but that was so long ago, it probably doesn’t matter any more. I went back and read it about six months ago and I think it is as accurate today as when I first wrote it on a flight back from Munich.
Yesterday I was out doing some Christmas shopping and Wal-Mart was one of my stops. On my way out of the store I checked out the LEGO aisle. There were lots of sets in the $30+ prices range on the shelves but nothing in the sub-$30 range.
I don’t understand why LEGO continues to ignore a market segment which there is obviously demand for. Particularly in this weak economy. I stopped by Toys-R-Us later in the day and while the situation wasn’t as dire as the Wal-Mart I visited, there was much less selection of the lower priced sets and lots and lots of stock of the expensive sets. One pleasant surprise to see was a 9v Train (the RC Cargo Train) on the shelf in a retail store. Been a while since I have seen that.
