BrickJournal Journal

Friday, October 9, 2009

Star Wars: A New Beginnng...

With BrickJournal helping out with the LEGO Star Wars Visual Dictionary launch, it's appropriate to write something about the sets and the phenomenon behind it. Another blog came up with a top ten list of LEGO Star Wars sets. There have been reviews of the book too (I will post one pretty soon), but I decided to give a more personal reflection of what the sets are to me.

When the sets first came out in 1999, I was working at Disney World (Downtown Disney at DisneyQuest). I needed to get a second job to get things financially stable, so I decided to apply for a job at the LEGO Imagination Center. Working at DIsney, it wasn't had to get in at the LIC, and after training, I was placed on play area duty..outside.

One of the benefits, though, was the discount, and the first set I bought there was the first version of the Star Wars X-Wing. The set was grey and had the fighter and a support vehicle. And I opened it and built it outside the store. It was a nice day, and I just found a space in the shade and started building.

After six weeks, I left the LEGO job - it was too hot working outside. But I kept on buying sets, which led me to finding LUGNET and Ebay online, and after that I became an AFOL.

So for me, the Star Wars sets were a new beginning for me. I know that more than a few AFOLs came back to the hobby because of the Star Wars sets which one got you back into building?

Thursday, October 8, 2009

The Skinny on the LEGO Star Wars Visual Dictionary Launch...

On Saturday, there will be a launch event at 65 locations in the US for the LEGO Star Wars Visual Dictionary. BrickJournal was one of a group of websites and bloggers selected to document and celebrate this event. Thanks to DK Publishing, I have some prizes and contests for you, but they will only happen Saturday, so be online Saturday at noon!

The prizes:

Well, here are the things I get to give away:

1 Mega pack - which is 1 LEGO Star Wars Visual Dictionary, 1 10/10/09 T-shirt (commemorating the event), 1 postcard pack from San Diego Comic-Con, and 1 Darth Vader minifigure.

3 Minipacks - which each have 1 LEGO Star Wars Visual Dictionary and 1 10/10/09 T-Shirt.

How do you win these? Hmmm......