Brickshow 2008

Brickshow2 068
Originally uploaded by clarity2199

Despite the controversy and personality behind the Toy and Plastic Brick Museum, I really admire the work Dan Brown has put into getting the museum off the ground. I met Dan when he first approached COLTC to create some displays for his museum. Dan's background was in corporate salvaging. Up until then, Dan had been collecting retired LEGO models used in various LEGO stores & roadshows. The LEGO group sold Dan many broken models, and with Dan's love for the hobby, he hired several individuals to help restore them.

Dan had also bought a retired school building in Bellaire, OH -- he's spent hundreds of thousands of dollars (and the last few years) bringing the museum up to code; and hundreds more making it all legit both with local authorities & with TLG.

As an observer, I've thought that several of Dan's ideas & approaches with regards to the LEGO community has been bass-ackwards. Then again, Dan was running a business, not mayor of a community. But even from a business perspective, his approach seems unpolished and a little bite-the-hand-that-feeds him. However, his perseverance is paying off... earlier this year, Dan announced Brickshow 2008 on the heals of BrickFair in DC. And without much fanfare, he's release some of the first pictures from it on Flickr. The building is looking better, the rooms/displays look good, the turn-out looks small, but for the most part, it looks like a museum.

LEGO Batman Happy Meal

LEGO Batman Happy Meal
Originally uploaded by mhuffman

So I got a Happy Meal for dinner tonight & got a LEGO Batman Happy Meal toy. I've seen pictures already on-line & the toys are a lot like the previous Bionicle McDonald's promotion -- big pieces of molded plastic in the shape of a Bionicle characters, no real LEGO. I got a BatBoat; molded plastic again. :(

Now, I know there's a lot that goes into these types of promotions. You've got some big players -- McDonald's, LEGO, Warner Brothers (DC Comics), and the video game studio. They've got to sit down and sign a contract to do the promotion. Artwork needs to be supplied for the boxes & to make toy models based upon. Approval needs to go into the models in different stages. The physical toys need to be produced, enough to go into Happy Meals world-wide. And it all has to be timed with the release of the video game. And I'm sure there's several steps that I'm missing.

In the back of mind, I know LEGO has made sets for McD's promotions in the past. And since Batman has been out for a number of years, the parts still have to be in production. So, why wasn't real LEGO used in this promotion? It has to be cheaper on some level... to model something in real LEGO parts vs. having to design molded plastic toys based on models & minifigs.

On some level, it blows me away that instead of receiving 'LEGO' as my Happy Meal toy (which is a toy in of itself), you get a molded cheaper plastic toy based a real toy -- very surreal. Or is this the new toy collector mentality seeming to invade the LEGO fan collective consciousness?

Ravensburger Puzzles?

So here's a new one on me... A co-worker sent a link to me of a Ravensburger Puzzle with LEGO sets. It's a puzzle of a picture of a LEGO set(s) and a little LEGO set included with the puzzle. He said he saw it right next to the LEGO, in the building toy isle.

Before the Dark Ages

I started into Lego around the age of 6-7 years old. I remember having something similar to #460 (Rescue Units), maybe the #455 (Learjet), and some generic universal building set from the 70's. And that was it -- Lego was expensive and my parents couldn't afford much more.

I had acquired a Mike Sells potato chip box from my uncle and kept my Lego bricks there, along with some American Plastic Bricks, Tinker Toys, green army guys, dice, jacks, pennies... and kept other hand-me-down toys in it.

The building set had this green 10x20 base brick (there were no row of tubs on the underside, so you could only connect bricks to the top of the base brick). I remember trying to build a house with it, but never seemed to have enough bricks to build it completely.

I remember being frustrated with building: I never seem to have enough bricks to build what I wanted to and I never seem to have enough bricks in the same color I wanted to build in; because the stupid American Bricks would never connect to Lego (but that wasn't Lego's fault), I was frustrated with not having enough windows or doors; and I had lost the instructions and boxes, so I could never figure out how to rebuild the helicopter, ambulance, or jet.

By Christmas a few years later, Star Wars had come out and I became hooked on Star Wars action figures... My Lego affinity was short lived...

LEGO Antique Toys & Dolls Collection To Be Offered

To quote from the article:

"As collecting has grown over the years, and dolls and toys are reaching stratospheric prices within an arena of hundreds of thousands of dollars, collectors have become just as concerned for the preservation of these precious objects as a museum might be. Any collector who pays $100,000 for a doll will most certainly work to display and cherish that object in the same way a museum does. In some ways even better, as the financial and emotional ties are stronger."

That's an interesting spin on dumping a whole collection on to the market... I wonder why they haven't found another museum to house the items or take over the collection? I see it was offered... I wonder where the proceeds from the auction will go to?

Follow-up:

I remember listening on NPR a few weeks ago about the high cost of up-keeping a museum -- the cost of staff, utilities, cost of restoration. On top of that, they have problems of having enough room to display everything and those things they can't be displayed, don't always get stored properly -- a lot of donated items become damaged over time... So I sympathize, but wonder why the change...

Garage Sales Finds

This weekend was great for garage sales finds... Erika found a Mickey Mouse toy box (that we're using for a toy box for the nieces & nephew, for now) & a few other Mickey Mouse toys. And I found two tubs of Duplo & a tub of loose LEGO. I also picked up 2 CDs: "Simply Mad About the Mouse" with Disney songs by Billy Joel, Ric Ocasek, LL Cool J, and others; and "The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking" by Roger Waters... both for $1 each.