LEGO Inside Tour 2015 report
Posted by Huw,
This year's Inside Tours are in full-swing with two of the four having taken place in May. A number of Brickset users have been on them and by all accounts a great time has been had by all, as usual.
Svein from Norway has published a set of articles about his experiences on his blog Brikkebloggen.no which includes a very handy list of tips for new participants, and MeganL, who was on the first tour of the year at the beginning of May, has written this excellent report for us:
Back in January, I learned that my husband and I were among the lucky registrants for the Lego Inside Tour in Billund! It was so very exciting. When I first received the e-mail from Lego, I stopped the conference call I was leading to announce my news to the group (though some of them didn't seem anywhere near as excited about it as I was). Then, of course, I let my husband know that we were going to be taking some vacation time in May to go to Denmark.
Day 1 - arriving in Billund
Because we had to travel from halfway around the world; we'd actually traveled to Copenhagen a few days prior to the Tour in the hopes of getting acclimated to the time change. We arrived in Billund in the early afternoon. Lego wasn't kidding when it said that the hotel was five minutes from the airport; I would say that we were in our hotel room within an half hour of landing in Billund.
We were given one of the nicer rooms in the hotel; I believe all participants were given rooms that directly overlooked the Legoland Park. On checking in, we received our paperwork including non disclosure agreements we needed to sign. Upon arriving in our room, we found some lovely welcome gifts (including some homework due on our last day) from Lego as well as a handwritten note from the Lego Inside Tour team.
Our paperwork included a season's pass to Legoland; so we wasted no time in spending the rest of the afternoon exploring the park. I had previously only been to the Legoland in San Diego and had heard that the park in Billund was far superior. I can definitely confirm this is the case. Quite frankly much of the displays in the San Diego park look quite run down and worn; while you could notice some wear and tear in some of the displays in Billund, it was nowhere as severe as what I'd seen in San Diego. The rides also seemed much more diverse and fun.
One area where we spent a lot of time was the special display of the life size X wing fighter. It was in a rather fancy display hall with appropriate lighting and special effects happening every several minutes. While the lighting was appropriate for the display, it wasn't all that appropriate for taking pictures, making everything foggy. There were several informational displays about Lego Star Wars in the area.
Our welcome packages had also included bright yellow lanyards saying "Lego Inside Tour" from which we could hang our badges and season passes; so it was rather fun over the course of the day spotting other people with the yellow lanyards and learning a bit more about them before the program officially started the following day.
Day 2 - Lego House, Meeting the Designers and the Building Challenge
In the morning, we took the opportunity to wander about the park a bit more (since it wasn't raining as it had been the day before) until after lunch when we met the Inside Tour team and the rest of our colleagues. In talking to the Tour team, they've increased the number of Tours (there used to be three, now there are four) as well as the number of people in each Tour (used to be 25, now there are 35). They say that they think they will keep the size of each Tour to 35, since otherwise the number of people will get too unwieldy. I would say that this is a wise decision. I think the number of people was about right. It was small enough to develop some friendships, but not too big that you felt that you didn't know everybody. This year, there was a record set for how quickly all the registrations were filled - just three and a half minutes after the site was opened.
After introductions and a welcome exercise, we were off to the Lego Ideas House - a private museum not open to the general public. It's there to provide Lego employees inspiration and give perspective on the history of the company. One of the highlights of this part of the Tour was the visit to the infamous vault. The Tour staff told us that while they don't have a copy of every set every manufactured, they have most of them. We all had a great nostalgic time as we wandered through the years, finding the first set we ever owned. Plus, for many of us AFOLs, there were also the first sets we started to buy after our own personal "dark ages". I have found that many AFOLs have this time period where your Lego activity is diminished or non-existent due to miscellaneous reason. For me, I enjoyed seeing some of the Lego sets that re-sparked my interest in Lego as an adult, namely several of the original Indiana Jones sets (which I still have).
Then we were back to our main meeting room for one of the (many) highlights of the Tour - hearing presentations from the set designers. I must admit that when I'd heard about this part of the Tour in the past, I figured that we would get to meet two or three designers. I was very pleasantly surprised when a dozen or more designers came to talk to us, and every one of them was very approachable. There was a "Vegas rules" policy, where what was said in the room stayed in the room, and I really liked being able to hear from the designers about what they were working on and having them show us some upcoming sets.
I'm a fan of the Friends sets, having gotten there by a circuitous route. I thought in the beginning that there wasn't a need for Lego theme geared for girls. However, as a female engineer who actively works to engage girls in math and science, I came to the conclusion that anything that gets girls involved and interested in building and putting things together has to be a good thing. However, I'd still like to see more of the Friends sets showing the girls doing "non-girly" things, e.g. things other than going out to eat, shopping and getting their hair done. I think over the course of the Tour I got to be known as "the person who talks about women in engineering", so I had several conversations with Lego employees who sought me out about that subject.
So, when the Friends (and Elves) designers gave their presentation, I asked them precisely that question - were there more plans for those kinds of adventure sets, like the Jungle theme? Of course they couldn't answer my question directly, but they did say that they look at a complete play experience for girls when they make the design decisions. I can hope that means that we will see the girls on more adventures than just going shopping in the coming sets. I also asked if there was going to be a new wave of Elves sets, and they smiled and politely told me they couldn't answer that question. They did answer another of my questions, though - why do they use stickers? There are definitely camps that are pro and con, but there are times when having a sticker seems gratuitous (I'm thinking of many of the flowers on Friends sets). The answer, in essence, is that creating parts with specific designs can cost a lot of money, and once you take the leap for having stickers for a set, you may as well fill the whole sheet.
In the middle of the designer presentations, we received a surprise. Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, the CEO of The Lego Group, stopped by for a visit. He thanked us for coming and talked about how important it was for TLG to get feedback from us through this Tour. He took a couple questions - of course I had to put my hand up! I said that many AFOLs went through their own "dark ages" - did he have something similar, or had he always been a fan of Lego? He said that he had experienced some time away from Lego like most of us, but that his interest got rekindled when he had kids and they started playing with the sets. Then, when he got a call to join TLG, he was already familiar with the products.
After the presentations, it was dinner and one of the other highlights - the building challenge. I won't spoil it and tell you what the parameters were, but suffice to say that this experience is like being a kid in a candy store. You can create your own set, and you're given all the bricks and tools needed in order to accomplish it. It was a late night for many of us; I finished my set around midnight though I could easily have taken longer, and I understand there were some who stayed until around 4 a.m. Many of the set designers (and a couple Lego executives) spent time with us over dinner and in the earlier part of the evening, offering suggestions and answering questions.
I cannot overstate how terrific it was to have that kind of one on one time with the designers. I was worried prior to coming to the Tour that I was woefully unprepared for the challenge. I am an AFOL who enjoys building but really doesn't do much in the way of MOCs (that may change after this trip). However, many of my Tour colleagues were in the same boat, and I didn't feel at all out of place during the challenge.
Day 3 - Tours, tours and more tours
The next morning, we met (some of us much more tired than others) to head to our first destination - Lego headquarters. Unfortunately I can't talk about much of what we saw there, suffice to say that there are some plans in the works for Lego that sound very exciting and I am very much looking forward to them. Next we were off to the molding factory, where we got to wander the floors to see bricks of different colours, shapes and sizes being made, packaged and stored. Additionally, I would have liked to have seen a facility where the mini-figs were produced, or perhaps a facility where the sets are packaged for distribution, but that wasn't in the cards. In any event, it was fascinating seeing the bricks being made and how efficient Lego has made their system.
Next stop was the warehouse, where we met the folks who fill all the special orders - when you have a part missing (that would be a novel experience for me. I've never had a part missing in a Lego set) or you have an order for specific parts - these orders are filled by hand by a small group of people. We also had a lengthy session with one of the building instruction developers. We had many questions for her, and it was a fascinating glimpse into one of the many different jobs you can have at Lego of being close to the product without being a designer.
After lunch, we heard from the head of the Lego Foundation, and then it was on to yet another highlight: the visit to the Lego Employee Store. Unlike what I'd heard from previous years, they gave us almost an hour and a half in the shop, which was plenty of time. I'll echo what others have said - make sure you have lots of room on your credit card! Lego also gives you one good sized shipping box to fill that they will ship home for you. For me, it was very lucky that I'd brought my husband along for the trip - because that way I got to fill *two* boxes, and fill them I did. I found out later that the Lego Shop employees thoughtfully lay out the store to feature all of the large sets, because they know that's what many of the Inside Tour folks are looking for. The storage area of the bus we were using was filled to capacity with all the sets that folks were taking home - that didn't include the sets that were being shipped!
Next was a visit to the Lego House construction site, which was probably one of the less interesting parts of the Tour. I did like looking at the model of what it will look like, but until it is constructed I'm not sure that there's much of interest there. Most of us were still buzzing about our visit to the Employee Store.
After some time on our own, it was time for the awards ceremony! All of our creations from the night before had been judged by a team of set designers. It was a very nice ceremony, and in the end everyone got a prize (some smaller than others). I didn't place in the top 8, which actually I was perfectly okay with, mostly because I don't think I could have fit the prizes for the top 8 in my luggage! But again, the highlight for me was the fact that the designers were there. They joined us for dinner and the ceremony, and stayed to chat for quite a while afterwards. I learned that being able to come to the Inside Tour is also a bit of an honour for the designers - there is a waiting list among them as to who gets to come visit with the Tour attendees.
By a stroke of luck, I had a Friends designer join us for dinner, and I was able to bend their ear quite a bit about what I'd like to see for future Friends sets and what I liked about the sets that I had. I also had the same experience with one of the Creator set designers and a couple of the Bionicle designers (the latter was particularly interesting because I didn't have any Bionicle sets at that point, and they still wanted to hear what I would like to see). It was an almost surreal experience being sought out by the set designers for my opinions. Again, I can't overstate how fabulous this part of the Tour was - having that face time with the designers. I think for me, it is the highlights of all the highlights.
Day 4 - All good things come to an end
The last day started with a backstage tour of Legoland. Compared to all the "backstage" things that we'd seen the previous couple of days, it wasn't quite as impressive, however it was fascinating to go into the model shop. We spent quite a bit of time talking to the model builders and the challenges they have to face. However, they won't give up the specifications for any particular models. I know, because I asked. There's a model of a dog that I saw at several venues over the course of the Tour that I would love to have. Alas, I think I will have to make do with the many pictures I took of it and try to reproduce it myself.
We had some free time in the park, then we met for lunch and a presentation by one of the Lego Recruiters on the process to become a Lego set designer. One of our number is hoping to become a Lego set designer; we all wish him well in that endeavour.
The final thing, of course, was the wrap up and the presentation of the gift - the special limited edition Lego set that is given exclusively to Lego Inside Tour attendees. I won't spoil and say what it is, but it is a very nice model and certainly is quite reflective of Lego's history. I'll even describe it as being very charming. I'm quite delighted with it. Unfortunately one in our group put theirs up for sale within hours of receiving it, thereby splashing images of it all over the internet, which was disappointing to many of the rest of us in the group.
Then it was time for goodbyes, both to the excellent Inside Tour staff and my fellow attendees, and off to the airport, where of course I had to pick up a couple sets of the exclusive Billund Airport set (only sold there). I ended up with a small roller bag carryon full of Lego, between the gift sets, the Lego House sets I'd purchased at the hotel, the Billund Airport sets and all of the other Lego gifts.
Overall thoughts
All in all, I thought the Lego Inside Tour was a fantastic experience. I wish I could go every year, but I suppose I have to let others have the experience as well. I've heard a lot of grumbling of what the Inside Tour could/should be, but I don't think Lego could possibly please everyone with a Tour such as this. I would say that if you are a AFOL who has enjoyed Lego, this would be a very enjoyable experience for you. Actually, even if you're not an AFOL, this is an enjoyable experience. My husband, whose recent experience with Lego has consisted mainly of carrying all the bags out of the Lego store for me and then watching me build the sets, really enjoyed the experience. There were some parts I would venture to say that he enjoyed just as much as I did.
Lego clearly takes great pains to make this a special experience for the Inside Tour attendees. At every stop on the Tour there is a little surprise, or a little gift that every attendee receives (I haven't mentioned them so as not to spoil the surprises). The Inside Tour staff do a terrific job of taking care of the group. It is clear from everyone that gives a presentation that being asked to speak to the Tour is a top priority. At all times we had access to the leads in all the departments we visited, and they spent as much time with us as the schedule warranted. The fact that the CEO took time from his schedule to visit with us showed me the importance that Lego places on the Tour.
One thing I didn't expect to get from the Tour was the practical work tools that I received. I lead a large-ish team in my regular day job. Many of the presentations we heard dealt with how Lego deals with various challenges, both within as a company and how it conducts outreach. See how the company runs its day to day business was very illuminating for me, and I am able to take back some of my learnings back to my real job. In fact, I discussed them with my own boss on returning to work. In some respects, I could have written Lego Inside Tour as a business expense because of that value. I don't mean to make that sound that the Tour was dreary like some business trips can be. I'm just saying that I can apply some of what I saw to my own job.
Others have made the point that the Tour is not quite geared to children. That's a valid point. We had older children on our Tour, so it was less of an issue for us; but I can easily see that if there was a Tour with several children they would get quite restless during some of the presentations. Fortunately, I think there's enough building involved in the agenda to offset some of that.
You get to meet a terrific cross section of Lego fans. In our Tour, 14 different countries were represented, as well as all ages. I made some great new friends, including some of the set designers.
Is the Inside Tour worth it? To me, it unquestionably was. I would do it again in a heartbeat. I think most of the rest of the people who came on the Tour with me would agree.
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35 comments on this article
Wow, thanks for the great report! Sounds super interesting!
Thanks very much for the report. I am quite envious... :-)
Thank you for the report, hopefully one day I may get to go. My only comment is that a few times you leave us wanting more.... and you say you don't want to spoil the surprises etc. However if only 35 people go on a tour and there are only 3 more tours this year, then at most you will spoil the surprise for 105 people. The other 111,000 brickset members reading this may really want to know what they were :)
Excellent insight! I'm still itching to attend one of these events. One day, one day :-)
^^ It's become a tradition when reporting on the Inside Tour not to reveal everything that happens, partly out of respect for those yet to go and also because, as mentioned, you're required to sign an NDA.
More reports and pictures from this years LEGO Inside Tour you will find at http://www.promobricks.de/lego-inside-tour-2015-das-berichten-die-teilnehmer-das-exklusive-event/5715
What I know is that LIT NDA refers only on upcoming sets, designs and so on.
@KnightofNi - I erred on the side of caution of things to mention (or not, as the case may be). I purposely tried not to read too much on the Tour before going. In hindisght, I'm glad I didn't.
I'm sure Huw will post pictures of the Inside Tour set for this year once the Tours are finished. :-)
Now I really, really want to do that... someday, I will. Now, does the special LEGO store on the tour have reduced prices or something? Because I read a book by this journalist getting back into LEGO and in one part, he goes on the Inside Tour and the LEGO store has really good prices.
@Megan: I appreciate your reservations with respect to revealing details about the LIT: personally I think you revealed precisely enough to, on the one hand, give the "stay-at-homes" an impression of what the tour is while, on the other hand, keeping intact some of the mystery. Thank you!
PS: You're description of the limited edition gift which you are "quite delighted" with, made me feel like you were actually a bit disappointed. But maybe I'm wrong. Having seen the leaked pictures, I can't say it's a set I'd want if it was for sale. But obviously the limited numbers make it highly desirable for collectors (and thus valuable for you!).
I would like to go; maybe in 2017 :)
That sounds awesome. It also sounds kind of similar to a private tour of LEGO's Enfield location I went on a few years ago.
How was the Company Store? Was it still 50% price for big sets, and 25% or less from medium and small sets? They were also trying to give away Znaps for free when I was there, but I doubt they're still doing that :P
It sounds like a fun experience, but it seems like it is very expensive. About 2k EUR per person, right? That buys a lot of Lego...
^ Factor in the company store and it should pay for itself. Provided you ship a lot back home :P
SprinkleOtter: You think so? Even at 50% discount (which I doubt, I guess it is more like 30% of the DKK prices, which are higher than the EUR prices in Germany due to VAT), you'd have to spend 2000k on Lego just to break even. And as much as I love LEGO, that is too much for me to buy on a single day. My wife would kill me...
Of course, you can also factor in the overnight stays (200 EUR each - also very expensive for a night in a hotel), the various gifts and tidbits and the tour itself and it becomes more interesting. All in all though, a 3-4 days tour for 2k plus travel is too much.
@ Drakuhl.
Look at it this way- if the prices on sets are still the same as when I went to a company store, you;ll be paying $50 for a $100 set, or $3.75 for a $15 set (maybe not the licensed sets, but I'm not sure). You'd only have to buy around 40-50 large sets to break even for the cost of the whole trip, and that's not factoring the price jump some of those sets would probably get when they are retired. If you live within driving distance of it, even better, so you don't have to pay for shipping.
@Thunderburt: then I did a good job of not overstating my enthusiasm :-) I quite liked this set as soon as we got it, for many reasons I won't say now, but would after all the Tours are finished. Suffice to say if Lego was to do another set like this in the future, I would buy it immediately. Plus, I've done the sacrilegious thing and opened one of the sets and built it (a plus for bringing my husband along). It was one of the most enjoyable builds I've had in a long time.
@SprinkleOtter: I don't know that Lego wants to talk about exact percentages of the discount in the employee store, but I bought enough Lego to fill my boxes that the amount I saved "paid" for a plane ticket there. My husband doesn't quite agree with my kind of math, though :-)
@ MeganL
Understandable. Am I at least in the area?
Nobody agrees with my calculations when I value stuff like that, either. Must be a different math system out there for LEGO fans :P
@ SprinkleOtter
Same here :D
This was very interesting. I'm keeping an eye on when registration begins for next year.
as usual Brickset is so sooo fan of the lego company..:)
Let's read other points of view at www.hothbricks.com
Will never go to this inside tour even for 100$ .
I've read Will's report at Hoth Bricks and I can't believe how negative it is. It's a fantastic experience that any fan should love.
I do concede, though, that if you have trouble justifying the expense and prefer to spend your money on material things rather than experiences, as people typically do when young, you may have other views.
I know that contents of the tour are subject to change and availability, but I find it strange that these those two reports say that many of the manufacturing areas were not seen.
Last year we got to see the molding machines, mold storage, minifig printing, automatic warehouse and packaging areas. I thought this is seen on every tour.
Although with different contents its more desirable to go again :D
^ We saw much the same in 2013. I believe the packaging may have been moved out of Billund now and possibly the minifig printing also, although I have no inside knowledge of that.
Wow, the report here and the one on Hothbricks sound like two completely different tours
They have opened a new section in Kladno factory last month, but shutting down packaging and printing in Billund so early - that would be some effectiveness ...
Excellent report! Thank you for sharing your experience with us MeganL. That was quite enjoyable to read and envision, what an experience!
I'm a mad Lego fan and if the opportunity ever happened that I got one of the golden tickets for the Lego tour there is no way I wouldn't be going, sorry but for me it's a once in a life time experience that I wouldn't miss out on.
Megan, your story was fantastic and I can truly tell you've enjoyed the experience,
thank you.
@Megan: Glad to know you have a wonderful time at the LEGO inside tour 2015! :) I am really honored to be mention as "a couple of the Bionicle designers" :) We as designer are also super happy to meet with you guys.
How does one get to be part of the inside tour? It is free to dream. LOL!
@picnicbasketsam
As a tour attendee from USA, I found the battle packs (non Star Wars), polybags, and key chains to be great deals. The clearance section was also great. The large sets were a decent deal, but not that great, in my opinion. Those loading up on the large sets were generally not from USA.
Are the prices from the store covered by the NDA? If not, please share some of the deals you got...
@Drakuhl and others - I don't think the store prices are covered by the NDA, but for me, going to the employee store was not a motivation for going on the Tour, so I'm not going to share specific prices. However, I will tell you that the discounts are significant enough that I found it very worthwhile to buy several large sets (Death Star and Tower Bridge among them) and a passel of Friends sets that I didn't already have. They were all good deals compared to U.S. prices.
@IcedPlusCoffee - I didn't mention specific designer names in an effort to maintain your privacy. :-) The Tour was such a wonderful time. If you want to keep in touch, message me and we'll connect on Facebook.
@megan:I am not sure about my teammate, but I am pretty openmind about this lol. I will send you a message later on :)
@Huw, packaging and printing are moved to the Czech Republic.
@Megan, Thanks for the great report. I enjoyed reading it and it is still much the same. I went in 2009 and also did a report on the Dutch forum Lolwlug. I got a lot of people excitied just like you did.
The big differences is that I visited the factory and saw how the Minifig torso's were essembled and parts being painted http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=57520pb01 . The packaging line was already small, but nice to see how the parts get counted.
Walking through the factory was my highlight, seeing the production up-close and the huges storage was very impressive.
Also very cool that I got to hold my first Lego set (605) when I was in the vault and had a small chat with KKK that day.
The building contest with the designers was great and because I took the rules very serious I won first price. The trophy is still standing in my bedroom.
For the ones interested, I made a lot of photo's. They can be found on brickshelf (if it is still working :( ) http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=388644 . The man holding the OKK house is my father. He wanted to come with me. It was a nice father-son event :)
I'm from Italy and I was on the first 2015 tour like Megan: it was a WONDERFUL experience, maybe the best in my life after my daughter's birth... A true AFOL can't miss it once in the lifetime, or maybe twice...
It's not for kids, I suggest at least 10/12 years old AND a good understanding of the English language, otherwise it will be boring (for adults too...)
I CANNOT figure out how such a tour can be a bad experience, as it (apparently) was for the French guy at hothbricks.com
As for the special gift set, I can add a hint... it's value is not only "inside the box", but "on the box" too... it was really an astonishing surprise for all of us!!!
The Lego Inside Tour is not cheap (about 2kEUR), but if you want to (fully?) recover the paid money you can sell the special gift set, I think you can earn 2kEUR or so... but no AFOL will give it away!!!!
The prices in the employees' shop ir really addictive... as said, maybe 50% on large sets and 30 to 40% on smaller ones.
Finally, the LEGO staff (both the tour-dedicated staff AND the speakers AND the designers) is totally devoted to your comfort and they REALLY wish that you enjoy your tour.
So I did!
Best wishes for all of you for the 2016 enrollment (maybe in November?).