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we are now less than 6 months to the Christmas display on December 19.
I am considering creating a new structure and offering to incorporate buildings that I already have. However for years I have wanted to create a sort of advent calendar building which has 24 numbered windows / doors and I hope that could also serve the purpose of this display.
Tim, are you still basing your ideas on the original concepts from the first post in this thread?
I am considering creating a new structure and offering to incorporate buildings that I already have. However for years I have wanted to create a sort of advent calendar building which has 24 numbered windows / doors and I hope that could also serve the purpose of this display.
Tim, are you still basing your ideas on the original concepts from the first post in this thread?
An advent calendar building would be sweet. I think it would fit in great with the display. Yes, the original concept that I posted is what I am currently working with – a North Pole/Santa’s castle on an island and a bridge connecting it to another island with a winter village. Additional islands could be added with perhaps a train to ties everything together.
So which part are of the concept are you currently working on – Santa’s castle?
Yes, I am playing around with some concept builds for Santa’s castle. From there, I was planning on doing the rest of “Santa’s Island” – workshops, stable for the reindeer, elf barracks, train station, etc.
Perhaps a large scale build (8 foot Santa sculpture) might be in order?
I can’t imagine what it would take in terms of expertise, time or money to build a life-size LEGO Santa. TLC had one at Kidsfest though:
…Laura had dropped a morsel of info that the trolley museum might love to have us do a christmas display…
Doing the Christmas display at the Trolley Musuem would be great. I was bummed that we might not be able to do something for Christmas. I think only Greg and I have done anything yet on the display and most of that has been concept stuff (I certainly do not have anything display-worthy built yet).
Alright, I think I butchered this thread down to just christmas/winter village discussions. to recap:
This thread is (now) about creating a winter village. We have at least 2 options for displaying:
1 – Greenberg’s train and toy show – Nov 9-10 – monroeville (We need to give them advanced notice! paid!) http://www.greenbergshows.com/schedule.html
2 – PA trolley museum – Looking for Laura to confirm ability and then dates/duration/size/etc.
3 – ??? coming up with some other place to display, like a library or something.
Greenberg’s train and toy show – Nov 9-10 – monroeville (We need to give them advanced notice! paid!)
$50.00 less than 100 sq ft of actual layout
$100.00 101 to 499 sq ft of actual layout
$150.00 500+ sq ft of actual layoutHmm… if my calculations are correct, our best bet is to do several small layouts at $50 a pop. No minimum specified… or, shoot for just over 100 – once you get over 100 sq ft, your returns diminish for all additional effort until you quintuple the size. ( $100 / 101 sq ft = $0.99 / sq ft, but $100 / 499 sq ft = $0.20 / sq ft)
“Actual layout” could be a bit vague and subjective, though…
Evan – let’s get on that rainbow Horizon Express, eh?
$50.00 less than 100 sq ft of actual layout
Dude, think vertical, the price is for horizontal cross section, but there is no limit on height.
Anyway wouldn’t they give an organization a break that put on a display without selling anything? Of course they probably don’t want floor space taken up by people who are not paying for it, even if it does provide interest for attendees.
Dude, think vertical, the price is for horizontal cross section, but there is no limit on height.
The amounts I posted were copied from the “we’ll pay you to display at our event” section – not the “you pay us to sell your stuff at our event” section.
So, what I’m saying is, how do we earn the most money for the least work? Or, better stated since we enjoy building – how do we maximize LUG profits? No matter how tall our layout is, we get paid $50 if it’s <100 ft^2. But if we get it slightly over 100 ft^2, we get paid twice as much – $100. So, I’m saying we shoot for just over 100 ft^2. Because I doubt we could crack the 500 ft^2 mark, and even if we did, that’s 5x the layout (compared to 100 ft^2) for only 0.5x the revenue. Three separate layouts clocking in at 100 ft^2 each (300 ft^2 total) would earn the same $150 that one giant 500 ft^2 layout earns. No minimum square footage for a layout is listed, but conceivably three layouts filling one 8′ table each (approx 32 ft^2 per table, so 96 ft^2 total) could also earn $150. Basically, I’m complaining that their pricing table is wack.
In summary, let’s do it, and let’s shoot for 101 ft^2 (assuming we want to present a unified SCLUG front), or a few smaller layouts (assuming we’re greedy enough to act as separate contributors in order to squeeze more money out of them).
Hmm… if my calculations are correct, our best bet is to do several small layouts at $50 a pop. No minimum specified… or, shoot for just over 100 – once you get over 100 sq ft, your returns diminish for all additional effort until you quintuple the size. ( $100 / 101 sq ft = $0.99 / sq ft, but $100 / 499 sq ft = $0.20 / sq ft)
100+ square feet seems right but that is a decent amount of space to cover. We probably covered at least that much at Kidsfest, although not every square inch was covered in Lego. While the payoff is not great ($100 for the entire weekend? sheesh) at least compared to Kidsfest, I’m up for this. Something is better than nothing, and I’ll display for nothing (money-wise) so I am in.
Is the idea of a winter/Christmas village still viable or would we want to do a more traditional Town & Train display (since it is a Train show)? Or something else? It would be great to find a way to merge everyone’s specialty, including Paul’s awesome cars (perhaps the North Pole has a sweet luxury car dealership!).
I think restricting it to “winter” does make it harder to fill the space, but I’d be all for making winter the idea, but not rule. If you can build a building in a winter theme, great, but just a building will be fine. I think everyone should really think about what they can commit to contribute size wise, so that we can come to an agreement at our 24th meeting and reserve our spot right after.
a building in a winter theme
I have 16 buildings with white roofs which are a front and two sides, but no back and no inside details; none are from LEGO’s winter village series. One building I have is a model of the HP series “the Burrow,” now that I am thinking about it, the shrieking shack (which I do not currently have) would fit this theme:
http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?S=4756-1
The white castle and snowy tudor village mentioned earlier in this thread are also potential contributions. I guess I need to calculate how much real estate I can cover.
Perhaps a more basic question to discuss first is whether we want to try for a (i) collaborative display where everyone follows the theme and all contributions are planned in advance to work together; (ii) a semi-collaborative display where there is a “theme” but anyone who wants to bring something outside of the theme is welcome to do so; or (iii) wide open (a la KidsFest) where everyone brings whatever they want and we just put it out together.
I am leaning towards (i) or (ii). Train shows generally are looking for a more cohesive layout, not just random creations laid out on a table. If the theme is “Winter”, we could work in just about anything, not just town and train stuff (although that is what I will be focusing upon).
If the theme is “Winter”, we could work in just about anything, not just town and train stuff
Winter in Narnia? So winter on Hoth? Winter in the Shire?
I am leaning towards (i) or (ii). Train shows generally are looking for a more cohesive layout, not just random creations laid out on a table. If the theme is “Winter”, we could work in just about anything, not just town and train stuff (although that is what I will be focusing upon).
Good point about the train shows liking cohesive layouts. I think we could do (ii) a hybrid, semi-collaborative event fairly easily. Keep everything minifig scale (unless we have alpine ski slopes or something in the back for forced perspective), and at least get general dimensions so we can put all the puzzle pieces together. I’m happy to coordinate the layout, if my efforts on the Great Wall and DIG builds were acceptable to yinzall.
Winter in Narnia? So winter on Hoth? Winter in the Shire?
Amen, amen, and amen!
Greg – with a few Unexpected Gathering sets (I may have just bought three off eBay) and Architecture Studio sets (to swap out most of the green with white), we could easily build Bag End and several other hobbit holes into a sweet little layout.
…Laura had dropped a morsel of info that the trolley museum might love to have us do a Christmas display…
Sorry I’ve been distracted by other goings on. Yes, far as the Trolley Museum goes we’d love to have a big LEGO display. Every year the museum sets up a large train display (about 8’x32′) for the holiday season. The past 2 years I have set up a small LEGO train display with my LEGOs while the rest of the layout is a mainly Lionel “O” gauge. It’s been a big hit with kids and parents, so this year I was told that it would be great if we could do a larger LEGO display. I have to confirm with the display director how much room we will have and I can let you guys know. If you think it’s doable and want to roll with it then we can start planning.
It’s been a big hit with kids and parents, so this year I was told that it would be great if we could do a larger LEGO display. I have to confirm with the display director how much room we will have and I can let you guys know. If you think it’s doable and want to roll with it then we can start planning.
Yes, I think it is very doable and I am very interested in participating. Hopefully, the display director can let you know soon so we can discuss at the next meeting.
Laura, would we shoot for an installation just before / after Thanksgiving, or something? Then leave it through New Year’s or so?
If we’re doing a holiday display I’d like to do something simple like snag one of those winter village sets and customize it a bit with some Ice Planet spice.
Any input on the theme(s) for our winter village for the Greenberg show? Will it be a conventional town, next to winter in the Shire, next to a snowball fight on Hoth, next to an Ice Planet “Light up Night” or what? Matt, will you create a map for it? Will it include a Polar Express or even some other vehicle that moves on tracks? Could white table cloths by used to save a huge expense of making a snowy foundation out of LEGO parts?
Sounds good to me. If we take a few Unexpected Gathering sets and sub some of the green with white, we’ll be golden for a Shire. I can contribute minor stuff to an Ice Planet section… and yeah, I can map it. I feel like Santa needs a monorail… WAIT, let’s make his sleigh on a monorail car base!!! Anyone think you can brick build reindeer?
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