I’ve got a really exciting two days ahead!
As a Recognised LEGO Fan Media (RLFM), I’ll be attending the RLFM Days, a specially organised annual event by LEGO’s AFOLET (Adult Fan of LEGO Engagement Team) for LEGO Fan Media.
Under normal circumstances, these RLFM Days are usually held at LEGO’s Headquarters in Billund, Denmark – and they tend to be 2-day events where LEGO Fan Media get unprecedented access to The LEGO Group, and its designers.
Typically, there are presentations and workshops from LEGO Designers, and from different Themes on upcoming products, and also deep-dives into existing themes.
This year, because of the pandemic, it’s all virtual which is great for me as I was never able to accept the invite as I could never make travelling to Denmark work, especially with a young family.
I’ve got a few interviews lined up, with the following themes, and this is where YOU come in!
If you have any specific questions that you’d love to put forward to the teams/themes below, please leave them in the comments and I’ll try to direct them to the LEGO Designers/Marketing Managers if time allows for it!
LEGO Minifigures Team
LEGO Adult Design (18+) / Architecture
Star Wars
Mindstorms
I’ll be interviewing Designers and Creative Leads from the above themes, and will be able to share content from RLFM Days in the coming weeks (a lot will be embargoed until ready for release) on this blog, as well as on the Extra Pieces podcast, which I co-host with Richard from The Rambling Brick.
Really excited, so leave those questions as comments, and I’ll try to squeeze in as many as possible!
For the lego minifigures theme, some stuff i was thinking about:
Do all liscenced CMFs get at least 2 series? The Lego Batman movie got 2 (3 if you count the DC comics series) Disney got 2, and the Simpsons got 2.
Speaking of the DC series, will the posing stands ever come back in a set or a cmf?
Hi! If you have a chance, can you please ask them about:
1) in the Harry Potter series, are they planning to make Gringotts? I think, it can be a real adult set with all the amazing architecture and dragon in underground.
2) are they planning to update/reissue Lord of the Rings series (perhaps together with Hobbit)? It has huge amount of fans all over the world, and has really beautiful spots and scenes to recreate
Thank you!
Katya
It would be great if when they change tech they could update old building instructions – for example I just found 10254 Winter train set – but the power functions are retired , so which of the new motor elements would fit/work ?
Hi Jay,
I have a few questions.
Star Wars
>Is Lego allowed to sell Star Wars minifigures on their own without bundling them with a build?
>Why is there no battle packs this year?
>How do they decide what sets to make? There is still a very heavy bias towards Old Trilogy instead of Prequel or Sequel Trilogy.
Minifigures
>Will 12 minifigures be the new maximum or can there still be exceptions like HP cmf s1 where it went as high as 22?
My eleven year old nephew has recently gotten into building the LEGO Architecture skyline sets, which got me into collecting and building them. What’s in the future for the LEGO Architecture skyline series? Will there be any new sets later this year?
Hello I am a huge fan of the original LEGO Movie and was wondering if by any chance you guys at the LEGO group could possibly release a new LEGO Movie set sometime soon. I realize that the already released sets back in 2014 are retired but I never got the chance to pick any of them up. It has been a wish for me to have some sets from The LEGO Movie considering how much the movie means to me. Maybe perhaps an Emmet’s appartment build would be great as a 10th anniversary celebration set in 2024? I know I’m asking alot but I would be very happy if some more sets from the LEGO Movie were created.
Thanks,
Nathan Parkins
I want to know what happened to that Mindstorms Porsche they teased a while back. Is it ever going to happen?
Hi Jay,
I would love to know if popular architecture skyline set such as Las Vegas will be relaunched/released by Lego. Currently it seems the only way to get that set is to buy on ebay or StockX etc, and the price has skyrocketed to double or even triple the original retail price, it’s so sad.
THANK YOU!
If I could ask Lego, I would ask them to purchase the Star Trek license.
With regard to mini figures the looney tunes series: Why does bugs bunny have a printed on tail, and not a real tail? The tail used on the Disney series for Scrooge or Chip and Dale, could have worked and would have added more detail.
Will there ever be a Star Wars LMF? It would sell out like crazy’.
Personally, I love the Star Wars helmets. It gives a fun build, and something great to display that does look “childish” in an office. It’s also an instant conversation starter.
Will they ever release smaller versions of the UCS SW Sets. I’m not sure about anyone else, but they’re literally too large for me to display anywhere (falcon and star destroyer) which prevents me from purchasing them. The tie and y-wing that has been previously released were a great size, so is the recent R2-D2 which was a very challenging build which I very much enjoyed.
Hi Jay,
A few questions for you for the minifigures team:
– How do they decide which licences to produce as a series?
– How do they decide on the number of licensed and unlicensed series to produce each year?
– Has the reduction of minifigures in a series to 12 changed the process of developing a series much, and if so, in what ways? Have there been any unexpected challenges that have arisen from this change?
Cheers,
Ben
Hi Jay,
Ask them if they plan to rerelease The Ghost and the Phantom please.
Thank,
John.
It’s a pity you don’t have an interview with the Speed Champions team. Would love an official AC Cobra and Lancia Delta S4 in the speed champions range.
I tried, but unfortunately didn’t get the Speed Champions slot! Hopefully next year!
Hi Jay,
I have a few questions that I hope can get answered by the designers!
Creator / 18+
. Is the black packaging going to be around for every 18+ set?
. Is the ideas theme an all 18+ theme now? Considering all sets since have had the black packaging? Also, didn’t sets like Sesame Street cause debate with labelling it 18+? Still doesn’t make sense to many people.
. Why do some of these premium sets still use punch tabs? Tape seals are better quality all round including the cardboard which on punch tab boxes I find flimsy.
. I thought I noticed a trend when 18+ sets were introduced last year and all had printed pieces, however now that does not seem to be the case with stickers being apparent in these “adult” sets?
Architecture
. Why has this theme only gotten 1 set this year?!
. What are the constraints to making an architecture set such as it being a well known landmark, religion, history etc?
. Why are re releases / updates made to sets (such as the White House), when there was already an architecture set of them? (And the fact that there are many other things to chose from).
. Why are the landmark sets now 18+ with the new packaging? Does that mean future skyline sets will be too?
. Why does the LEGO Architecture theme feel like it is dying?
Also Jay, let me know if you could ask questions to the speed champions design team, I would love that!
Oh some more for the Minifigure design team:
. Why are some of the figures in CMF series packed in an inner plastic bag? Not very necessary / environmentally friendly…
. Why on earth are the leaflets now taped!? It is soo frustrating and annoying because they easily ruined!
. Are two accessories going to be permanent with figures going forward, (like series 21).
. Is it going to be one regular series a year to correspond to the year, like series 21, 2021?
. How is the colour of the series chosen?
That’s all 🙂
Excellent questions, thank you!