Which you would prefer as a Lego Grand Opening Giveaway?

[atmail35]

I just took the little survey that prints on the bottom of the receipt and it asks:

Which would you prefer as a free gift with purchase at a Grand Opening celebration for a new LEGO Store?

o A set of 3 LEGO minifigures that are unique to the location of the new store
o A small buildable LEGO set that is unique to the location of the new store
o Other (please specify)

Then they give you a space to write WHY you prefer one over the other.

Which would you prefer?

I said minifigures, IF they are unique to the location. But based on what I've seen as giveaways for for CA and also OH and IN stores, it seems to be the same set. Which IMO, is not unique, unless they were in the same area/climate or maybe even state.

I think the small sets are nice but I sort of feel those are things we could do as MOCs if we had the parts.
Here is a link to some of the grand opening sets from 2010:
http://www.brickset.com/search/?theme=L ... &year=2010

[CrazyRus]

if the sets are cool, as a Germany ones are, then a set. Otherwise - minifigures

Wiesbaden-1: {Biebrich Palace}

Nuremberg-1: {Nuremberg Castle}

[hatcher]

Interesting question.

The Toronto Ontario, Canada location is opening in about a month according to rumour. I wonder what 3 minfigures they'd make for Toronto? One of them would probably be a Mountie. And while a Mountie might make a cool minifig, I've lived near Toronto most of my life, and the only time I see Mountie's is on TV when American's go to Canada. Regardless, what else would we get, a Toronto Maple Leaf hockey player? A Toronto Blue Jay? A guy drinking beer?

As for a small set, it would probably be the CN Tower. That might be nice.

No, I'd select other and suggest that they give away a Death Star or Medieval Marketplace. :)

[vynsane]

It really depends. Some of the grand opening sets have been very cool and appropriate - take the "Spirit of St. Louis" model that was given away at the Roosevelt Field, Garden City LEGO Store grand opening:


Roosevelt Field grand opening exclusive set, Front 3/4 by vynsane, on Flickr

It's very appropriate, because the Roosevelt Field Mall presently stands on (and is named after) the original airfield that Charles Lindbergh departed from on his famous solo trans-Atlantic flight. Having grown up in Garden City I was very happy to have the opportunity to get this set.

I wish I had the opportunity to get the subway car set that was given out at the Queens Center Mall in Elmhurst, because it's also a very classic NY-centric set. The "brick apple" set that was given away at the Rockefeller Center, NYC, however, was rather lame IMO. It's also now available everywhere I go for $10, so not so exclusive.

That said, there's actually really nothing all that exclusive about any of these 'grand opening' sets aside from the printed instructions. There are no rare or exclusive pieces, and (other than the 'brick apple') the pieces aren't sealed in an impulse bag or box, just stuffed in a ziploc baggie. Anyone who finds the instructions online can make one of their own, which has caused the instructions to become kind of a tightly-guarded secret.

If the pieces included one printed piece with the store name and opening date or something, it would add a bit of exclusivity to the set. The 'Spirit of St. Louis' could have had a 2x4 tile in the middle of the wings, or perhaps a stand, that said

Roosevelt Field, Garden City
Grand Opening Commemorative Set
April 9-11, 2010

that would make it that much more exclusive. I can see the benefit of not having it sealed in an 'impulse' style bag, because it would transcend from "exclusive" to "collector's item" and some people would go to extremes to get more than one and sell them - AND the cost of producing the packaging would be prohibitive.

Similarly, I would want to see some sort of store-specific printing on the minifigures if that's the way they're going to do it from now on.

[atmail35]

Good points/comments all. When I sae the Big Apple, I too thought it was lame.

Can this be posted as a poll within this thread?

[vynsane]

Can this be posted as a poll within this thread?

Good idea! I voted 'other' since I don't have that much of an opinion one way or the other in terms of a set or minifigures, just that they up the 'exclusive' factor a bit more.

[ncbarrett]

I'd say minifigures since the sets can be built by anyone, rather they went to grand opening or not.

[jsnweitzel]

The minifigs may be more practical but based on what I've seen, they certainly aren't unique to one store opening. It appears that all 3 store openings will have the same 3 figs. Of course, the average customer wouldn't know this unless they did their research.

I like the idea that Lego would go to the trouble to design a set for my specific region. I think it's more personal when a set represents a certain city. I don't know if a child would prefer to build Tower City, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, a Cleveland Indians baseball player, etc.. or have the 3 mini figs.

The patterns on the fig torsos could be worn by an individual anywhere in the world. If the figs had local sports or attraction emblems on them, then they would be unique to a region. But that's obviously prohibited by costs.