2018 LEGO Inside Tour report (1)
Posted by CapnRex101,
Brickset member Fuddruckus attended the Inside Tour which ran between the 30th of May and the 1st of June this year and has very kindly agreed to tell us about his experience...
As the Ultimate Collector Series continues to expand, and multiple NINJAGO Movie sets contained the ultimate weapon (and one the Ultimate Ultimate Weapon), there remains but one singular ultimate LEGO experience.
The LEGO Inside Tour became a dream of mine several years ago, and every November, I eagerly awoke in the early hours of the morning or stayed up way too late in order to apply as soon as the link went live. Before I had even proposed to my wife, she agreed that the Inside Tour could be part of our honeymoon--as long as we went somewhere else of her choosing for the other part of the trip.
Several years ago I submitted my application within a minute of the link going live, and having heard it was first-come first-serve, the rejection email was quite disappointing. I learned that LEGO changed its procedures that year in order to have somewhat diverse tour groups rather than have, say, 25 British individuals along with a German couple and an American family of four. I have since learned a little more about the selection process, and I'll share that with you in a bit. I continued to apply, got a couple more rejection letters, but in 2017 I realized that 2018 would be the first Inside Tour following the opening of LEGO House. I thought that perhaps missing out on the previous years would turn out to be a positive. One of my fellow participants applied for seven years before being selected this year, and he agrees with me--the wait was worth it.
After a lovely yet rainy weekend in Iceland, my wife and I arrived in Billund on a Monday in advance of the Wednesday start of the tour. Astrid is the wonderful coordinator of these events, and she informed us in advance that passes to LEGOLAND would be available from the weekend before. We were able to go ahead and get into the park to take photos of the incredible models in Miniland on Monday. My wife hates having cameras pointed at her, but friends and family will want to see pictures from our trip, so we had minifigure stand-ins for many shots. We returned to the park Tuesday to enjoy the rides, shows, and penguins.
In addition to this being the 60th year of the LEGO 2x4 brick patent, the 50th anniversary of LEGOLAND, and the 40th celebration of the minifigure, it is also the 20th anniversary of my first trip to Billund. Much has changed since I visited as 13-year-old, and unlike last time, I didn't have to ask relatives to buy me LEGO. Our welcome folders included a polybag, and as the days continued, the collection of bricks, minifigures, and sets to load into my luggage grew and grew. The tour is very expensive, but the LEGO team is generous with gifts throughout.
The Inside Tour includes a few presentations in classroom type settings, and even a veteran AFOL like myself learned a bunch of new things. Many of the couples and families in our group were comprised of a either a KFOL or AFOL with a tag-along, but the very first contest was won by a tag-along so newcomers to LEGO should not be intimidated about participating. Of the 35 people in our group, there were five children and a 19-year-old with one or both parents, five couples without children, two women from the same LUG, and 10 individual men. Most of us identified our primary LEGO interests as building and collecting, and our favorite themes as Creator Expert or Star Wars. I learned this also plays a role in selecting a group and the LEGO employees who interact with each group. I found out that many of the participants on the first Inside Tour this year are really into MOCs.
Most of the 2018 Inside Tour happened outside of the classrooms, as we received guided tours of the new LEGO Ideas House museum which includes the very vaunted vault. Two of the sets on display in the first Town/City display are the first sets I received as a child, 6380 Emergency Treatment Center and 6687 Turbo Prop I. The staff did a great job of separating us into smaller groups, which usually had the children and parents lumped together. While I spent most of my time away from the kids, all of the youngsters on our tour were well-behaved and their parents deserve praise for rearing them right.
I know many Brickset readers and certain frequent users of the Brickset Forum will want to know what was discussed during the visit to the designers' offices. The non-disclosure agreement we all signed prohibits me from sharing that, but I can say that many of you have already learned of most of the new products shared with us. Some products were announced by LEGO in the days right before our Inside Tour began, perhaps after the first session took place, and some other items have had official reveals in the days since. Even though those products are now public and have Brickset entries with legitimate images, I am still respecting the NDA so please do not ask for any specifics.
The other bit of info from the designer session I will share is that we walked in and I immediately turned to my wife and said "Holy crap, that's Justin!" We have been rooting for Mr. Ramsden ever since the release of the 2015 documentary The Secret World of LEGO, and it has been nice to follow his progress through Brickset interviews and the growth of his Bricklist. "AND MARCOS JUST WALKED IN!" Sure enough, Marcos Bessa took a seat in a windowsill and soon after handed my wife some bricks. After their presentations, we got to ask questions, and I needed to know about Justin's shirts. That day he wore a button-up collared shirt which I learned he had custom-tailored from a child's Fabuland bedsheet. He told me he likes unusual shirts and he tends to wear them in promotional photos and videos because they are typically free from corporate and copyrighted logos.
Justin, Marcos, and a few other designers walked with us to LEGO House for dinner, and then a parade of people recognizable from LEGO Designer Videos (and Brickset interviews) began walking into the restaurant. During my career as a journalist, I have met and interviewed a wide range of public figures, including politicians, a 2016 presidential candidate, Hollywood actors, Hall of Fame athletes, the U.S. Surgeon General, the U.S. Attorney General, and I've even attended the White House Correspondents' Dinner. It's just part of the job, and you learn to act accordingly and not ask for autographs.
However, I cannot convey the rush of excitement I felt when I saw Jamie Berard, Hans Burkhard Schlömer, Mark Stafford, Mel Caddick, Sam Johnson, and "some of the guys from the NINJAGO City video" as I described them to my wife. Back when 75192 Millennium Falcon came out, we got a promotional brochure from our local LEGO Store. She carefully packaged it in multiple folders with plenty of padding and cardboard to make the trip to Billund.
As soon as I saw Hans, I went over and made a comment about having brought something from the States for him to sign, and quickly made a joke about it being a Chima Speedorz. As the designers introduced themselves one by one and each held up one or two of their products, Hans joked that we might know him from his work on Legends of Chima. He later signed my brochure, and all of the designers as well as our Inside Tour hosts were happy to autograph a card which I intend to frame soon.
As we split for dinner, many people went after some of the more well-known designers, but my wife and I opted to go another route. We don't ever buy sets from Friends or the other girls' themes, so we chose to eat with and ask questions of the two designers there who work on those lines, Juliane Aufdembrinke and Lauren King. We learned a lot about their research into how to attract girls to LEGO and the process of making building blocks into a unisex toy. There was also a lot of discussion about how City seems to be a boys' theme, the development of Creator as a nice non-gender-specific toy, and ways to retain girls' interest in LEGO as they age out of Friends. It was also enlightening to talk with Lauren about stickers and printed pieces, as well as her move from the United States to Denmark.
FUN FACT: Lauren is one of FOUR graphic designers from Kutztown University in Pennsylvania. BrickHeadz "inventor" Austin Carlson and Maddy O'Neal of 75192 and 75181 Y-wing Starfighter fame are among the Kutztown alumni in Billund.
Then came the big brick-building battle. I thought about CapnRex101's "What's Missing" series, and decided a decent-sized taxi would make a nice LEGO City vehicle. I would also love for a yellow cab with black and white checkerboard pattern to be a future Creator Expert vehicle. I don't MOC or free-build at all, so I took inspiration from Marcos's designs for the Ecto-1 and the cars from The Simpsons, and included some SNOT work and jumper plates. There were several competition categories, and while I won't reveal specific details of what those entail, I was honored to be chosen as one of the winners.
I later learned that many of the designers for our tour only took part in that particular session, while other Inside Tour groups would meet different designers. We had some Creator Expert and Star Wars UCS designers to match the interests expressed in our applications. We also got to meet some designers who have worked on Ideas projects, including the Saturn V and Voltron. No, I can't tell you anything about Voltron, and no, I haven't seen it.
I will instead tell you that my wife's personal highlight was talking triangles with Mike Psiaki, who wrote us a wonderful note before we left. At the second night's dinner, my wife and I again sat with designers of products we don't purchase--Duplo and Juniors. While we don't have children yet, it was neat to find out about product development for the youngest builders. I enjoyed learning about the ongoing efforts to bring in the next generation of LEGO fans, and encourage future attendees to visit with people outside of the themes which most interest you.
The second part of this article will be published tomorrow.
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14 comments on this article
Where did you take your word after the tour, out of curiosity. So glad for these reports.
Great to read all about this without spoilers etc (not that I'm going ;) ) thanks for this.
This is a nice write-up! I too won one of the prizes from the building competition back in 2016, so it is cool to see your edition of one of those brick-built trophies. Your emphasis on conversing with the set and graphic designers makes for an interesting contrast to my experience: in spite of being a life-long fan of LEGO, I knew very little about the men and women behind the sets. I had read about the likes of legends like Niels Pedersen and Mark Stafford, but I didn't recognize the majority of people I met at first glance. Needless to say, meeting Jamie, Mike P, Carl, Tiago, and Chris (to name just a few) without the "star-struck" perspective made for some great conversations and memories that I will forever treasure.
I don't know if I will ever get to go on another Inside Tour, but this article certainly makes me want to try!
Cool review!!
Nice review. I was lucky enough to be selected last year for the Tour and thouroughly enjoyed it. I was in Billund at the same time this year on a holiday with the kids and spoke to some of your group. Having had a tour of the lego house prior to opening last year, it was great to now visit the finished product. The time with the designers was the part i loom back on with the regret that I didn’t ask more questions. They were so helpful, friendly and willing to pass on tips. I’m looking forward to part two and would recommend the tour to anyone with an interest in lego, it is definitely worth the cost.
Great article, look forward to hearing about the rest of your tour tomorrow.
For now I must badger the wife some more to let me go on one of these at some point in the future...
Hi Fuddruckus ! Nice review.
I was really sursprised to see you here.
It was great to have you and your wife with me on the LIT.
(And thanks again for The Chef :-) )
I agree, a very enjoyable article and it was really good to hear about the different selection criteria as I had never heard of that before. I hope they keep the tours going for long enough for me to get there. Maybe in fifteen years time when my kids have grown up I might be able to afford it!!
It's quite hard to see the intricacies but I'm really liking the chequerboard taxi cab so I'm not surprised you won an award for your troubles! May I ask whether you were knighted by toothbrush? There's a select group of Bricksetters on here that form The Order of The Toothbrush including myself so it'd be interesting to know :)
I find it hard to admit as well, but unless I'm playing with my cousins I barely ever MOC with loose bricks - so I was just as surprised as you when I won the trophy. I hope that to a certain extent you just pick up an extensive knowledge of building techniques and brick types when you're a really dedicated fan of Lego (plus creativity of course). I won't go into the specifics either but it looks like the design brief of the main challenge is more or less the same. How much time did you pore over it? (I worked on mine until 2am in the morning - so I wasn't particularly perky the next day!)
I'm really enjoying the report so far and it's bringing back great memories - here's to the next part!
Ah, memories. Makes me want to go to the tour again! So glad to read another’s experience, and look forward to the next part! Making friends with LEGO set designers was one of my favourite parts of the Tour.
Thanks for sharing your experience. This must be moments that one never forgets. Does your wife shares your passion for Lego somehow or not at all ? Because if I can I'll try one day to go to Billund and Lego land, Lego House and so. And it looks like even if you're not an AFOL you can have a good moment there. Inside Tour seems to be like a graal for us who love the little brick for so long. Meeting designers and talking with them for instance is something I would really like to live. Thanks again for the inside tour of your Inside Tour.
Well written and interesting report. I'd love to go there in the future.
One of the most interesting articles I've ever read on brickset, and that's saying something. Feels like you had a good time there and I'm glad that you shared that experience with us!
holy cow, i live 5 minutes from Kutztown University!