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acciobrick2022-07-03 06:27 pm
gingerwitch.livejournal.com) wrote in acciobrick2022-07-03 06:27 pm
Lego CON 2022
The CON gave us a surprising 10 minutes worth of Harry Potter lego coverage, which was nice, especially as they didn't really have anything new they could have shown us at the moment. Note, that's not a criticism, that's simply a function of the timing of the event and ever shortening product cycles, and it's telling for the significance of the Harry Potter theme (one of lego's top five sellers again last year) that this much time was allocated to the Wizarding World despite this. The result was they were left trying to come up with some new content, and yet a little oddly, they didn't focus on the new summer sets all that much. Those have been visible on the lego website so long now, however, that perhaps it didn't seem particularly newsworthy.
Instead Marcos Bessa, the ex-Design Lead of the HP theme, gave us a 6 1/4 minute tour of some of the Hogwarts sets at the Warner Brothers Studios in London with Evanna Lynch, the actress who played Luna Lovegood. She put in a cute appearance, but sadly doesn't seem to have Matthew Lewis' naturally snarky sense of humour, or maybe that just wasn't the direction they went with for the scene. (Note to any PTB reading, though: please give us more of him; "Neville" was absolutely delightful and we could all use a little more to laugh about.) The tour of the studio wasn't so much a tour as a set backdrop for their filming, which I admittedly found a little disappointing. They made four stops, accompanied by tips from Marcos for creating your own builds (MOCs - my own creations).
First stop:
Movie Set: the Gryffindor Common Room
Lego Set: 76399 Hogwarts Magical Trunk
Marcos expressed disappointment that there wasn't a Ravenclaw counterpart, amusing as many lego fans have had similar things to say about the lack of Slytherin and Hufflepuff dorms since the theme's 2018 reboot. Slytherin at least had a rudimentary one 20 years ago and an even more rudimentary one twelve years ago, Hufflepuff has never had anything of the kind. (Where's the 'Puff love, lego? Show the 'Puffs some love! Side note, there were no sets for the Fantastic Beasts film either this year.)
We also learned that Marcos identifies as a Ravenclaw, and she's a Gryffindor, which, watching them, quite frankly tracks.
Second stop:
Movie Set: Umbridge's office and the Ministry of Magic
Lego Set: 76403 the Ministry of Magic
They spoke briefly of colour choices and the challenge of larger builds.
Third stop:
Movie Set: Dumbledore's Office
Lego Set: 76402 Hogwarts: Dumbledore's Office
Evanna said it's her personal favourite set, because it's where she did her screentest. She felt "safe and calm" there, and credits that in part with winning her the iconic role of Luna Lovegood. I couldn't imagine anyone else in the part.
Fourth stop:
Movie Set: the Hogwarts Express
Lego Set: 76399 Hogwarts Magical Trunk
Marcos gave Evanna the Magical Trunk to play with and she made a room of her own. (Unfortunately the sequence was as unspectacular as it sounds. Lego isn't really a spectator sport.)
Worth noting: the other three stops on the tour can be seen as references to some of this year's sets, but a Hogwarts Express hasn't been (officially) announced yet. I think we can comfortably take this as a hint as to the upcoming D2C. (Bear in mind not everyone is as well informed as you are, or along related lines: has me in their lives... Cheers. 😉)
And while all that was going on, we also got Marcos' tips for designing your own MOCs:
1) Personalise your projects. There's no need to follow the directions, make the build your own
2) Break down bigger builds into more manageable projects / steps, which sure sounds like a sub rosa plug for their present modular approach. I'm less sure I'm sold on this one, but ultimately no matter the scale you're building on, this tends to be true to an extent. If you're making your own Hogsmeade, say, it generally goes a store at a time, and then you'd go back and fill in the gaps between the shops, although at least in my case I work with filler bricks for the parts I don't have and then try to order them all at once.
3) Focus on the details in your storytelling. Marcos and his team are exceedingly good at that, from the Cheeri-owls at breakfast to the Chocolate Frogs and tiles, details are what make their scenes special. I know I and a few friends definitely delight in discovering them with each new build. (What was your favourite this year, E?)
Marcos then "returned" to the CON set, where he spent another 3 1/4 minutes chatting with the hosts. Apparently he and Evanna did the set tour on his birthday, which he seems to have enjoyed, including singing happy birthday on the Hogwarts Express set. (It's safe to assume some time passed or he crossed Dumbledore's Age Line as his beard has grown quite a bit in the interim.)
They briefly showed some of the sets from the 2021/2022 series assembled into a somewhat random Hogwarts configuration and displayed in what I call dollhouse mode, with the inner sides on view. I was able to identify sets from the:
2022 Summer wave - 76402 Dumbledore's Office, 76401 Sirius's Rescue, Build Your Own Hogwarts polybag (as yet unreleased)
2022 Winter wave - 76398 Hospital Wing
and 2021 Summer wave - 76389 Chamber of Secrets, 76387 Fluffy Encounter, 76386 Polyjuice Potion Mistake
Marcos spoke a bit about how the 2021+ modular design (conceived under his direction) pursued a couple of goals (the unspoken bit being that they were less achievable with the previous design). As they see it, the advantage to the small modules is they:
1) permit younger kids and less experienced builders to have "successes" more quickly and regularly without becoming overwhelmed (which has been an ongoing complaint from the more critical AFOLs (adult fans of lego))
2) make it easy to rearrange the castle to make it "yours" (ditto)
3) allow family or friends to build together with each taking a part of their own to assemble (to this end, lego posts the instructions online, and now has an app I'll be reviewing soon)
While I'm less swayed by the first two arguments, probably thanks to that whole pesky adult thing, they definitely have a point with the third. When I was little and playing with legos with my brother and a friend or our cousins, our builds were exclusively MOCs because sets didn't lend themselves to group building. While that can be a lot of fun, I imagine this is a change many families will welcome.
And that was it for the Harry Potter content. While I remain convinced we're not the target audience (more's the pity, because I am definitely capable of squeeeeeing), the event seems like a good way to drum up enthusiasm, and I still look forward to seeing it again next year. Curiously Marcos didn't mention that this is likely to be his last time representing the theme at the CON though. (dah dah dah dunnnnnn) More on that soon...
Instead Marcos Bessa, the ex-Design Lead of the HP theme, gave us a 6 1/4 minute tour of some of the Hogwarts sets at the Warner Brothers Studios in London with Evanna Lynch, the actress who played Luna Lovegood. She put in a cute appearance, but sadly doesn't seem to have Matthew Lewis' naturally snarky sense of humour, or maybe that just wasn't the direction they went with for the scene. (Note to any PTB reading, though: please give us more of him; "Neville" was absolutely delightful and we could all use a little more to laugh about.) The tour of the studio wasn't so much a tour as a set backdrop for their filming, which I admittedly found a little disappointing. They made four stops, accompanied by tips from Marcos for creating your own builds (MOCs - my own creations).
First stop:
Movie Set: the Gryffindor Common Room
Lego Set: 76399 Hogwarts Magical Trunk
Marcos expressed disappointment that there wasn't a Ravenclaw counterpart, amusing as many lego fans have had similar things to say about the lack of Slytherin and Hufflepuff dorms since the theme's 2018 reboot. Slytherin at least had a rudimentary one 20 years ago and an even more rudimentary one twelve years ago, Hufflepuff has never had anything of the kind. (Where's the 'Puff love, lego? Show the 'Puffs some love! Side note, there were no sets for the Fantastic Beasts film either this year.)
We also learned that Marcos identifies as a Ravenclaw, and she's a Gryffindor, which, watching them, quite frankly tracks.
Second stop:
Movie Set: Umbridge's office and the Ministry of Magic
Lego Set: 76403 the Ministry of Magic
They spoke briefly of colour choices and the challenge of larger builds.
Third stop:
Movie Set: Dumbledore's Office
Lego Set: 76402 Hogwarts: Dumbledore's Office
Evanna said it's her personal favourite set, because it's where she did her screentest. She felt "safe and calm" there, and credits that in part with winning her the iconic role of Luna Lovegood. I couldn't imagine anyone else in the part.
Fourth stop:
Movie Set: the Hogwarts Express
Lego Set: 76399 Hogwarts Magical Trunk
Marcos gave Evanna the Magical Trunk to play with and she made a room of her own. (Unfortunately the sequence was as unspectacular as it sounds. Lego isn't really a spectator sport.)
Worth noting: the other three stops on the tour can be seen as references to some of this year's sets, but a Hogwarts Express hasn't been (officially) announced yet. I think we can comfortably take this as a hint as to the upcoming D2C. (Bear in mind not everyone is as well informed as you are, or along related lines: has me in their lives... Cheers. 😉)
And while all that was going on, we also got Marcos' tips for designing your own MOCs:
1) Personalise your projects. There's no need to follow the directions, make the build your own
2) Break down bigger builds into more manageable projects / steps, which sure sounds like a sub rosa plug for their present modular approach. I'm less sure I'm sold on this one, but ultimately no matter the scale you're building on, this tends to be true to an extent. If you're making your own Hogsmeade, say, it generally goes a store at a time, and then you'd go back and fill in the gaps between the shops, although at least in my case I work with filler bricks for the parts I don't have and then try to order them all at once.
3) Focus on the details in your storytelling. Marcos and his team are exceedingly good at that, from the Cheeri-owls at breakfast to the Chocolate Frogs and tiles, details are what make their scenes special. I know I and a few friends definitely delight in discovering them with each new build. (What was your favourite this year, E?)
Marcos then "returned" to the CON set, where he spent another 3 1/4 minutes chatting with the hosts. Apparently he and Evanna did the set tour on his birthday, which he seems to have enjoyed, including singing happy birthday on the Hogwarts Express set. (It's safe to assume some time passed or he crossed Dumbledore's Age Line as his beard has grown quite a bit in the interim.)
They briefly showed some of the sets from the 2021/2022 series assembled into a somewhat random Hogwarts configuration and displayed in what I call dollhouse mode, with the inner sides on view. I was able to identify sets from the:
2022 Summer wave - 76402 Dumbledore's Office, 76401 Sirius's Rescue, Build Your Own Hogwarts polybag (as yet unreleased)
2022 Winter wave - 76398 Hospital Wing
and 2021 Summer wave - 76389 Chamber of Secrets, 76387 Fluffy Encounter, 76386 Polyjuice Potion Mistake
Marcos spoke a bit about how the 2021+ modular design (conceived under his direction) pursued a couple of goals (the unspoken bit being that they were less achievable with the previous design). As they see it, the advantage to the small modules is they:
1) permit younger kids and less experienced builders to have "successes" more quickly and regularly without becoming overwhelmed (which has been an ongoing complaint from the more critical AFOLs (adult fans of lego))
2) make it easy to rearrange the castle to make it "yours" (ditto)
3) allow family or friends to build together with each taking a part of their own to assemble (to this end, lego posts the instructions online, and now has an app I'll be reviewing soon)
While I'm less swayed by the first two arguments, probably thanks to that whole pesky adult thing, they definitely have a point with the third. When I was little and playing with legos with my brother and a friend or our cousins, our builds were exclusively MOCs because sets didn't lend themselves to group building. While that can be a lot of fun, I imagine this is a change many families will welcome.
And that was it for the Harry Potter content. While I remain convinced we're not the target audience (more's the pity, because I am definitely capable of squeeeeeing), the event seems like a good way to drum up enthusiasm, and I still look forward to seeing it again next year. Curiously Marcos didn't mention that this is likely to be his last time representing the theme at the CON though. (dah dah dah dunnnnnn) More on that soon...