I'm back from LEGO World with a rant...

 

  • I'm back from LEGO World with a rant...

    Posted by Huw, 16 Feb 2013 12:00. Filed under Miscellaneous.

    I'm back from my travels, and will be catching up on emails and news over the next day or so.

    LEGOWorld was excellent and I'll be posting various reports over the next few days. All I'll say for now is that, once again, the LEGO City team added some 'Easter eggs' to their display and as a result I will be revealing a forthcoming City set that will be appearing later this year. It was so unexpected and different to most other City sets that I didn't spot it among the myriad of custom builds made just for the display: one of the City designer team had to point it out :)

    Big thanks to atkinsar for posting the X-Wing annoucement at the right time yesterday in my absence. I was there at the unveiling and I'll be posting a few pictures and observations when I get time (but first I had better spend time with my wife, having been away for 3 days, right? :-) )

    It was unfortunate that a Taiwanse site leaked the pictures ahead of time, and that they then appeared in the Eurobricks forum earlier in the day. It's even more unfortunate that another site republished them and, despite being asked by LEGO to remove them, refused to do so and has allowed personally offensive comments about the LEGO CEE team to be posted in response to the article.

    It was perhaps also unfortunate that the CEE team broke the embargo as well: Jan published pictures on their blog some 45 minutes or so before 9pm GMT, which muddied the waters somewhat!

    Reputable LEGO fan sites, like Brickset, are happy to work closely with LEGO and do as asked to maintain a positive relationship, to both sides mutual benefit [1]. But, there are some sites out there that seem more interested in first bragging rights in an attempt to boost their traffic and, presumably, affiliate revenue.  I'll certainly not be republishing anything they post and sending traffic their way in future. Luckily the site in question is of little interest to the majority here, so it won't be a major loss. Personally, I'd advise you to steer clear of them.

    I see Rich at BrickFanatics has had a similar rant about this very same thing :-)

     

    [1] I got my knuckles rapped last night for posting the blurry photo of the confidential image that Sears.ca posted, which I was slightly take aback by, but I understand the issues now and won't be doing it again. It's OK to link to sites such as Sears that publish them (but not fan sites hosting scans from retailers' catalogues), it seems, but even blurring them out and posting as I did is not...


    23 comments, latest one posted 3 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)
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Comments

Posted by bodybomb3 in United Kingdom, 16 Feb 2013 12:29

What was the easter egg, i completely missed this one?

Posted by bricksan in United Kingdom, 16 Feb 2013 12:39

Well said about the embargo Huw :-) Can't wait to see this city set

Posted by The Green Brick Giant in United States, 16 Feb 2013 12:40

It's most likely 60026, City Square. It's not really a square but there are pictures around, it includes a red bus, a small yellow crane, a lime green pizza place with blue windows, and maybe a bike shop.

Posted by CapnRex101 in United Kingdom, 16 Feb 2013 12:41

I am pleased to hear that Lego World was as fantastic as expected, and am intrigued by this City set you mention...

Over at FBTB they created a timeline of the altogether bizarre announcement of the UCS X-Wing Starfighter, it is a shame that so many sites were dragged into posting the photos early.

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 16 Feb 2013 12:48

^^ Um, yes, looks I've been beaten to it :-(

Posted by DaveBey in United States, 16 Feb 2013 12:52

Pardon my ignorance but what is the LEGO CEE team?

If it makes you feel better, Huw, I'm sure you'll have many more details than just a few pictures!

Posted by The Green Brick Giant in United States, 16 Feb 2013 12:55

Huw,
There have been picture from LEGO World, and you are completely right, you can't even tell it's a set, besides ONE little thing LEGO does now, they have the set number as the license plate. So looking at the pictures you can tell.

I completely forgot about that vote to, but it seems LEGO kind of is ignoring it anyways. haha

Posted by Matthew in United Kingdom, 16 Feb 2013 12:56

^^ LEGO's Community Engagement team, who liaise with fan sites, LUGS and event organizers.

Posted by wiredforsound in United States, 16 Feb 2013 13:09

You can see pictures of both the 10240 Red Five X-Wing Starfighter and the alleged unreleased LEGO City sets in my LEGOWorld 2013 photo album here : http://www.flickr.com/photos/wiredforsound23/sets/72157632750541563

I will say the LEGO staff present seemed to be willing to share all sorts of private information with both industry insides and AFOL's like myself, but usually asked certain items remain unpublicized until being revealed, such as the 10240 release. Meanwhile, the LEGO CITY sets were being openly bragged about to anyone within earshot, so as was mentioned around the bar one evening, LEGO could really use some Data Loss Prevention expertise. I think I will submit my CV.

I do also want to take a moment to thank Huw for his gracious hospitality and time spent with me at LEGOWorld. As a result, I got to meet some real entertaining LEGO fans and employees and be the temporarily inside the communication loop for the various announcements before they happened to the public. I was a fun novelty for me.

Posted by Graysmith in Sweden, 16 Feb 2013 13:15

Here's hoping Huw's "exclusive reveal" means official set photos! I've already seen photos of the set from LEGO World, but I'm still dying to see some proper photos.

Posted by EdmondDantes in United States, 16 Feb 2013 13:21

The last statement in your post is ironic, since I had MY knuckles rapped by Matthew for simply linking to the Sears.ca page.

My username in the forum is different - I signed up as a complete newbie and didn't realize there were two different usernames/logins.

Posted by copperwonder96 in United States, 16 Feb 2013 13:41

Oh, I see it (60026, City square). Looks like a lot of pieces.
I also see a new Octan Petrol (gas) station. I like that one alot!

Posted by atkinsar in United Kingdom, 16 Feb 2013 14:31

What does a knuckle rap from TLG feel like Huw ;-) Welcome back and no problem at all about posting the press release. To be perfectly honest, I was looking for any excuse to take a break from watching 'Here Comes the Boom'!

Posted by Fayries in France, 16 Feb 2013 14:38

If LEGO does not want blogs and fan sites publishing things before they reveal them themselves, maybe they just should not send press release emails ahead of time. Or maybe they should have a list of these so-called "reputable sites" to email, rather than broadcast to everybody and their mother.

You just don't see Apple sending photos of upcoming products to every blog on Earth before they have a chance to reveal them at the moment they want to.

Posted by eiker86 in Norway, 16 Feb 2013 15:10

Thoose easter egg's was the first thing I looked for when I got there, and I found them http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiker86/sets/72157632760943873/with/8472336513/

Posted by CamberbrickGreen in United Kingdom, 16 Feb 2013 15:24

I'm so glad you are back. I've been traipsing around the web wasting time... in between nappy changing.
Double irony: you wrote about respectful image posting, knuckle raps and your exclusive on a city set yet members just link to said city set immediately? Sorry bud. At least Brickset has the edge on quality, info and being thorough: If a job's worth doing its worth doing properly.

Roll on UCS Sandcrawler...

Posted by just2good in United States, 16 Feb 2013 15:43

I uploaded a news video on YouTube when I first saw the pictures on Eurobricks with the pictures in the video, thinking that it had just been revealed at LEGOWorld (hence no press release) and I left for the day. When I came back, I saw a very polite comment from Groovebricks who told me that the pictures were not supposed to be out, so I made the video private until it was officially revealed.
I apologize for spoiling the fun and posting the video all due to my ignorance, and it will not happen again.

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 16 Feb 2013 16:30

^^^ I'm glad you photographed the other pizza shop on the layout, http://www.flickr.com/photos/eiker86/8472333601/in/set-72157632760943873, I suspect that is more likely to be what the model in the set is like.

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 16 Feb 2013 16:35

^^ part of the problem is that people like you, who mean no malice, are not in the loop about when it's supposed to be revealed and thus publish when you find it, and you can't really be blamed for that. But those that are in the loop should know better.

Posted by bricksan in United Kingdom, 16 Feb 2013 17:15

I said as much to lego it is those who knew full well the embargo time but still broke it regardless

Posted by CamberbrickGreen in United Kingdom, 16 Feb 2013 18:12

Thats completely fair, perhaps TLG have some security issues they could address?

Posted by Town in United States, 16 Feb 2013 19:25

Don't get stressed by it.

Posted by Breeze_Block in United Kingdom, 17 Feb 2013 13:47

Any superheros news???

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