LEGO needs more $10 sets

Posted on December 16, 2009 by Mike Walsh

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.

Posted in Caught My Eye, LEGO, Shopping | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

LEGOPalooza 2010

Posted on December 13, 2009 by Mike Walsh

This morning I committed to coordinating the NCLTC train layout at LEGOPalooza 2010.  LEGOPalooza is an annual public display put on by NCLUG at the Morehead Planetarium in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.  It is a fun couple of days but usually very hectic.  Looks like the exhibit space problem we faced last year will not be an issue this year.

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Raleigh LEGO Store December WITC Display

Posted on December 4, 2009 by Mike Walsh

Yesterday afternoon Renee and Isabelle helped me set up the “Window Into The Community”, aka WITC, display at the Raleigh LEGO Store at Crabtree Valley Mall.

I ended up going with a street scene featuring a Christmas parade.  Lots of nice comments were made by other patrons while we were setting it up.  If you are in the Raleigh area, check it out – it is in the back left corner of the store.

The cardboard framing which attaches to the plexiglass window really needs to be redesigned.  It covers up too much, particularly along the bottom.  The frame should utilize the space at the top of the windows which is least lifely to be part of the display.  The bottom will almost always be part and it is a shame so much gets covered up.

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View Slide Show.

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WITC display goes up today

Posted on December 3, 2009 by Mike Walsh

Later this afternoon I will set up the WITC display at the Raleigh LEGO Store.  I ended up not going down the route of modifying my church to fit the display.  When I sat down and looked at it, there just isn’t a good place to break the church in half.  I have stained glass windows crossing the baseplate boundary on both levels.  The upper level wouldn’t be too hard to fix but the lower level would be tough.

So I went a different route.  I will have a Christmas themed town display featuring a Christmas parade on display.  I added some height to the display by building three train lines underneath the city – it is sort of a subway feel to it but there isn’t any access between to the two levels.  It should look pretty good though.  It will be interesting to see how dark the lower section is – if it is too dark I may have to dig out some of the LEGO Train LED headlights I got on clearance a few years ago.  I think I paid $1 each for them or some silly amount so I have about 50 of them.

I’ll post some pictures once the display is up.  My two youngest daughters helped me with the parade, each of them built a float and some other parade stuff.  They’re very excited about going with me to set it up this afternoon.

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My turn in the WITC window

Posted on November 29, 2009 by Mike Walsh

It is my turn again to set up a display in the Community Window at the Crabtree Valley Mall LEGO Store.  I had the honor of doing the first community window when the store first opened and now I am lucky to have the holiday season too.  The community window is a funny size – it is about 64 studs wide and 48 studs deep but really tall – about 30" inches as I recall.  The best displays make use of the vertical space which is harder than one would think.

Since it is the holiday season I thought I would do something with my church but my church is too long, it won’t fit in the space very well.  I have considered rebuilding it and that is probably what I will do but I am stuck on how to rebuild it.  I need to get unstuck as I am supposed to swap out the display later this week!

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