Pirate Building Event at Orlando LEGO Store

[Toa_Of_Justice]

LEGO seems to have a really cool ad campaign for their 2009 Pirates lineup!

From this announcement at LEGO.com:

LEGO Pirate Master Builder Event!

November 7 - 9:

Join in an incredible LEGO event and help LEGO Master Builder Dan Steininger construct an 8-foot LEGO Pirate Minifigure for the first time ever! This event is free and fun for the whole family! Everyone who helps build will get a free Certificate of Achievement* and great special offers at the USA’s biggest LEGO Store! Don’t miss this special event, and don’t forget your camera!

What they didn't mention on the site is that you can get a free LEGO Pirate mask with any purchase!*

*While supplies last. One free mask per person.

I initially found out about this event from a postcard with the 2009 LEGO Pirates logo I got in the mail:

Postcard Front

Postcard Back

-Toa Of Justice

[Mister Phes]

This is awesome!

We shall get this on the frontpage of Classic-Pirates.com in the next vacant slot.

[SirNadroj]

My goodness, Dan gets around!

Thanks for the info!

[Norrington]

I'm real;y getting sick of Disney focusing only on PotC. There are other things at WDW, dontcha know. The contest looks fun, but seriously. How 'bout some sort of Haunted Mansion bulding contest?

[Mister Phes]

Uhhh... What\'s this topic got to do with Disney Mr Norrington?

UPDATE

The URL in the first post doesn\'t seem to be working for me - it leads to a page that says \"Not found\" in plain text. Is anyone else experiencing that problem?

[Legoking]

I wished TLC had something like that in New York!

[Norrington]

Uhhh... What\'s this topic got to do with Disney Mr Norrington?

UPDATE

The URL in the first post doesn\'t seem to be working for me - it leads to a page that says \"Not found\" in plain text. Is anyone else experiencing that problem?

Well, let's do some reasoning, shall we?

The Orlando Lego store is located in Downtown Disney. Downtown Disney is owned by the Disney Company (and is former home of Pleasure Island, which closed Sep. 28th to make room for... shopping). Disney uses brand name stores to push stuff. The Lego store there has window displays of Disney characters and the Disney Castles from around the world in Lego form. There is a large Loch Ness Monster-esque monster out in the lagoon... made of Lego.

The Magic Kingdom has a fairly-recently renovated (but still horribly botched) PotC ride, which, considering how expensive and lackluster the Jack Sparrow updates were, has probably been under-performing, with the even more recently renovated(and very nice looking, from my last trip) Hanted Mansion. Disney has to pay money to keep Jack and Davy in PotC (owned not by Disney, but the PotC writers. That's why there's no Black Pearl attacking the town. It's still the Wicked Wench.), wheras the HM has no lisccenced characters, thus is cheaper. They want to make PotC to sell better, and guess what... LEGO is releasing a new pirate line!

Now we can push PotC and the Pirate Line to kids visting WDW.

This is pure speculation, but since Disney has a history of finding what the kiddies like, then over doing it and runnign it into the ground, this seems pretty likely.

(PotC and High-School Musical are good examples.)

Considering I'm EB's resident Disney-phile, I'm sure none ogf you have any idea as to most of the stuff I'm talking about.

Edited November 1, 2008 by Norrington

[Captain Zuloo]

That's why there's no Black Pearl attacking the town. It's still the Wicked Wench.)

I was reading something that said the writers of POTC originally wanted to call the Black Pearl the Wicked Wench but couldn't get the rights from Disney. So it doesn't seem right that they can't get the rights from the writers of POTC. Wouldn't Disney ensure they had all of the rights they could possibly aquire anyway?

[Mister Phes]

The Orlando Lego store is located in Downtown Disney. Downtown Disney is owned by the Disney Company (and is former home of Pleasure Island, which closed Sep. 28th to make room for... shopping). Disney uses brand name stores to push stuff. The Lego store there has window displays of Disney characters and the Disney Castles from around the world in Lego form. There is a large Loch Ness Monster-esque monster out in the lagoon... made of Lego. .

You've put a lot of thought into this haven't you?

I'm really getting sick of Disney focusing only on PotC. There are other things at WDW, dontcha know. The contest looks fun, but seriously. How 'bout some sort of Haunted Mansion bulding contest?

The point of this event is to promote the upcoming Pirate LEGO theme, so other than providing display space the Disney Company may not be playing a part in this event. It's a LEGO thing with and the only connection here is the "pirate" thematic". But perhaps you're right, maybe the LEGO Group has finally realised that Pirates have been hot since 2003 because of the first Pirates of the Caribbean film and they're finally jumping on the popularity bandwagon and what better way then to hold an event in a region already known as a PotC Stronghold amongst hardcores like yourself.

Now a Haunted Mansion building contest on the otherhand would definitely not help promote the 2009 Pirate theme. And even if this building event wasn't because of the upcoming LEGO theme, the Haunted Mansion film wasn't that successful anyway so why would they bother? No point flogging a deadhorse.

[Lego12]

Oh, I heard about this about 5 days ago, but I was to busy to post. Anyways, I will be going! :D Can't wait to see Dan again!

[Toa_Of_Justice]

Uhhh... What\'s this topic got to do with Disney Mr Norrington?

UPDATE

The URL in the first post doesn\'t seem to be working for me - it leads to a page that says \"Not found\" in plain text. Is anyone else experiencing that problem?

When I clicked that link today, I got a message telling me to update my Flash plug-in. After completing the update, I clicked the "Continue" link on that message and I was taken to http://www.lego.com/legostores/events.asp which gave me the same "Not Found:" error. However, this URL always worked for me: http://www.lego.com/legostores/events.asp?...USA&cCode=2 (Note: You may need to move your mouse over the good link to see the full URL.)

Did that solve the problem?

-Toa Of Justice

P.S. For those of you who wish this event was in your state, I have a feeling it will eventually come there, like previous events of this type (does anyone remember the Yoda and R2-D2 traveling building events?).

[Norrington]

I was reading something that said the writers of POTC originally wanted to call the Black Pearl the Wicked Wench but couldn't get the rights from Disney. So it doesn't seem right that they can't get the rights from the writers of POTC. Wouldn't Disney ensure they had all of the rights they could possibly aquire anyway? -Zuloo

I beleive the offical back story for the Black Pearl is that the Black Pearl was the Wicked Wench, and Jack Sparrow was a merchant captain for the EITC. They burned the WW after he set a load of slaves free, and he got Davy Jones to bring it back for him. That's why it's black, or something like that. Here's the WW as she appears in the ride (at Disneyland):

The design is Spanish Galleon-esque, and of course, it quite similar to the design of the Black Pearl, save the paint job.

in a region already known as a PotC Stronghold amongst hardcores like yourself.

Now a Haunted Mansion building contest on the otherhand would definitely not help promote the 2009 Pirate theme. And even if this building event wasn't because of the upcoming LEGO theme, the Haunted Mansion film wasn't that successful anyway so why would they bother? No point flogging a deadhorse.

1] Actually, the PotC ride at WDW isn't very good. It's shorter (due to Florida's Watertable) and it's not a well up-kept. As someelse said, "it was horribly botched in the after-birth." The Haunted Mansion is both bigger and better at WDW. Besides, based on http://disneyshauntedmansion.yuku.com/topi...ost.html?page=1 (reply #6) , Disney is trying to distance themselves from that movie as much as possible.

2]I know that the Eddie Murphy move didn't do well, it's just an example. Maybe if Disney & LEGO got together for a 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea line and bulding contest...

^

Evocative, isn't it?

Edited November 2, 2008 by Norrington

[Thee Pirate]

2]I know that the Eddie Murphy move didn't do well, it's just an example. Maybe if Disney & LEGO got together for a 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea line and bulding contest...

^

Evocative, isn't it?

That's one of my favorite old Disney movies.. 20,000 Leagues is one my favorite science fiction books ever written, and that movie did a pretty damn good job at filming it.

[TalonCard]

So I went. And it was awesome. Not only were they giving away those Pirate masks, they had most of the line on the back with writeups and set names. They also had a "Build Your Own" minifig table...with new Pirate pieces. :) And, of course, best of all (as has been posted elsewhere) the actual Pirate sets. Words cannot discribe how incredibly awesome it was to walk into a store and see brand-new Pirate sets after ten years. I mean, wow.

TC

[Toa_Of_Justice]

Arr, I went to the event too! When I handed in my piece for inspection, the inspector said it was "too good!" Anyways, I came to show off my Certificate of Achievement! (Note: I edited out my real name and put my username in the blank to protect my identity.) Also, I asked an important question on behalf of all people who would like to become a Master Builder like Dan Steininger:

Q: What are the educational requirements to become a Master Builder (if any)?

A: Art, sculpture, 3-D computer design, and/or engineering. (Note about sculpture: Carving/sculpting subtracts, LEGO bricks add.)

-Toa Of Justice

EDIT: I just had a chance to photograph my free mask: 1 2 3 WARNING: These are HUGE (but pretty clear) pictures.

EDIT 2: I forgot to mention that the mask doubles as a cool hand-held fan.

Edited November 10, 2008 by Toa_Of_Justice