So it is the start of a new year and Lego fever has been gripping me. I've been really eager to learn what the new summer wave of 2014 Lego sets will look like. Right now I have been trying to keep pace with my collecting but without work it makes things awfully difficult. Normally I collect Star Wars, City, CMFs, Creator, Modular buildings and anything else I fancy (the Lego Movie!). Right now though I have had to cut out most of the Star Wars sets. This is difficult as I will miss out on the SW sets I didn't get the first time back in 2007. For now I have been trying to focus on City. I really do love the Great Vehicles line. My ambition is to acquire the Parisian Restaurant soon and to definitely see the Lego Movie.
Over the Christmas holidays I finally got my copy of Brick by Brick: How LEGO Rewrote the Rules of Innovation and Conquered the Global Toy Industry by David Robertson. Honestly once I started reading it I couldn't put it down. I learned a great deal about the Lego Group from 1990-2012. The book takes one through the successes and failures of the Lego Group and the brush with bankruptcy in 2003 to new heights after 2012 where Lego is now second largest toy company behind Hasbro. After reading the book I now understand how and why certain decisions were made and how these decisions are reflected in the Lego Groups current portfolios. For example Lego tried to digitize bricks with a project called Darwin. The project was a colossal failure but from it birthed Lego Digital Designer. Similarly the failure with Lego Universe MMO resulted in a renewed commitment of breaking into the video game market with a variety of Lego titles. I'm over simplifying but I would recommend reading the book as their are lots of details in the inner workings of the Lego Group and how they addressed their failures (Galidor and Sliders) and successes (Bionicle, Lego 'board' Games, Star Wars, Ninjago and the revamped lines such as City). Question is: will the Lego Group keeps its momentum? I surely hope so. They have been quadrupling their earnings for the past 8 years.
My Cafe Corner and Green Grocer project is almost finished. I have one more order to do for 1x1 tiles and 1x1 plates to complete the two of them. Once that is done I can finally build them! This has been a long wait as I started this project last August.
To pass the time when not looking for work I busy myself with design projects. For the past month I have been creating a modular police station. It is taking shape and so far so good. I would prefer actual building instead of digital building to make my projects but as I am not rich ce la vie.
This past week I also created an interior for the Cafe Corner. However I think that I will have to wait until other things are purchased first before I can start buying the parts. I look for inspiration and tend to mod things a lot from other designs I see. It is part of my learning process to de-construct what others have done and then improve upon it with my own modifications. It is a Ancient Roman trait. :)
