LEGO Inside Tour 2019: John the Baptist's Report

The day on Wednesday started with the welcome ceremony at the LEGO House, with a short welcome video from Niels B. Christiansen (CEO), retained elsewhere, followed by some presentations on the company by: Julia Goldin (Chief Marketing Officer), Mike Ganderton (Experience Director @Lego House), Stuart Harris (Senior Experience designer), Astrid Mueller (Senior tour & event manager), Line Frese G. Andersen (Team Manager, in charge of motivation management at Lego ).

Next step: the LEGO Idea House, with its museum on the history of the LEGO group from the cabinetmaking activity, to the small bricks, and the famous Vault [Editor's note: the part which includes almost all the sets produced by LEGO]. After the meal, presentation on the molds found during the demolition of the historic factory.

Then head to the designers building (LEGO Innovation House), a kind of gigantic bunker, where we met among others:

- Justin Ramsden (71043 Hogwart's Castle) who beyond explaining the different stages of creation, and in particular the birth of pieces 38583 and 38585 (ref BL), also told us that the set included 6020 pieces because his first set was set 6020, or that when you find a red 2 * 4 brick in the structure of a set, it's a nod to the historic red brick.

- Niek van Slagmaat (21311 Voltron) who detailed the constraints related to this particular construction.

- Jordan Scott (70839 Le Rexcelsior), who showed us the different stages of the creation of the set, with prototypes that never saw the light of day (too big, too fragile, too small, etc.)

- or even Star Wars designers (Christian Minick Vonsild and Michael Lee Stockwell) who returned to several recently released products, and the constraints related to the relationship with Lucasfilm.

Justin also presented us "exclusively" the set 75810 Stranger Things whose official announcement was to be made the following week, but back from the LEGO Inside Tour, I was able to discover that the surprise was already quite stale 🙂

Finally, I was very impressed with Niels Milan Pedersen. At LEGO for 39 years, an "old-fashioned" sculptor, he is very sympathetic and has lots of anecdotes. For example, he told us the story of the version of the old horse, the wrong version of which went into production, the story of the first skeleton minifig that almost cost him his job, or of the old dragon that went into production. a hole in the abdomen because he was considering adding a system to make him cough up water.

All these stories are surely known, but as far as I'm concerned, it was not.

Then it was free time from 16:30 p.m. to 18:00 p.m., I took the opportunity to take a tour of LEGOLAND. Well, it's an amusement park decorated with LEGO ... The Miniland part is a little aging, but still interesting to observe.

18:00 p.m., it's time to meet some twenty designers at the restaurant of the LEGO House. The principle is simple: the designers sit at the different tables, and then the participants sit in groups of 3 or 4 at the table of the designer who "interests" them. For my part, I had noted during the presentation that there was a French (Alice Geiger), so I went to her table. She worked on the (late) Dimensions range, and most recently participated in the 76125 Iron Man Hall of Armor set. Lots of discussions on the creation process, his way of working, but also the company as such, life in Billund, etc.

The evening ended with a construction challenge. The designers were involved as well, and beyond the stress of putting out something just about right, taking a look at how they design and create is instructive.

But clearly, I was not playing in the same court.

As I said earlier, the LEGO Inside Tour has been thinking about it for years, and even if some things are freely accessible on the web, watch a video and experience it, it's still not the same thing.

But beyond the exclusive visits and other presentations, what made for me the richness of the LEGO Inside Tour, it is first of all from a point of view a little disconnected simply from the brick, the discovery of the values ​​of the company, how they guide creation, how they are implemented on a daily basis by and for the group's employees, and for customers.

Of course, I could be objected to that for this kind of event, everything is organized, orchestrated and controlled, but I don't think that was actually the case, at least not all the time.

From a more specific point of view to brick, I really enjoyed the meetings with the designers: simple, informative exchanges with passionate and fascinating people, and nothing but seeing them articulate three pieces taken from a pile of bulk is awesome.

Finally, the ritual question: is it worth 2000 €?

There are too many parameters to take into account to be able to say dogmatically whether it is worth them or not, in absolute terms. I will therefore limit myself to my own experience to answer.

I didn't have any particular expectations when I went there, except to be amazed. I did not absolutely want to see this or that in such and such a presentation or visit, and therefore did not leave with disappointments or regrets.

I didn't lock the web of LEGO reporting, so I didn't feel like I was seeing anything hot.

The presentations were overwhelmingly interesting and the interactions with the designers extremely rewarding.

The program is set almost to the minute, and this can lead to a little frustration when there is no time for a particular question or to linger in such and such a place, but this is the price to pay to have a program. also substantial in 2 1/2 days.

We were 34 participants, and for some tours or presentations we were divided into two or three groups, formed almost at random by taking a colored brick from a pot. This is surely not the primary goal of the process, but I have found that it greatly helps to break the ice in smaller groups, and to get to know, even to sympathize with the other participants.

I found my child's gaze for 3 days, with oooooh aaaaaah and wowuuh.

And finally, I found the hotel to be brilliant, and the food to be on top.

So in my case, yes, I think the price is worth the service I received, whether logistics (hotel / meals / transport), material (gift sets, access to the employee store, various goodies ) or human (supervisors of the LEGO Inside Tour / Designers / Participants).