Has anyone here worked on LEGO sets as corporate gifts?

[Max1FSV]

Hi,

I’ve been toying with an idea and wanted to see if anyone here has some experience with it.

I run an IT company, and as a big LEGO fan myself, I thought it could be really fun to use custom LEGO sets as gifts for clients or employees.

I’ve noticed there are a few suppliers offering things like this, but I’m not sure how well it actually works in practice.
Has anyone here ever made or received a LEGO set as a company gift? How did it turn out, was it worth it, did people like it, and how’s the quality?

Would love to hear your thoughts or any stories if you’ve seen this done before.

Thanks!
Max

[Peppermint_M]

A long time ago (I just realised) a fellow staff member (now sadly long moved on from the forum) shared the gift set they had designed. According to them, it was very well received but also a bit of a pain to source parts for, they had chosen to use some that were retired so it was more of a task to get the parts in the needed quantaties.

If you want to create sets as a gift, try to choose parts that are not rare/discontinued. 

What sort of thing were you thinking of? Something mostly made of standard parts would be easier than a build that needs something more specialised. Bricks and Pieces on the LEGO Shop, Bricklink or the Pick a Brick wall can supply a lot of basic parts and that will reduce costs. 

[ShaydDeGrai]

The closest I've ever come to a "corporate gift" of LEGO was actually just a bag of basic DUPLO clone bricks that had been custom printed with buzz words and the company logo - limited quantity and definitely lacking in quality.  It was really more of a market gimmick than any sort of customer or employee appreciation effort.

HOWEVER, many years ago I did get involved with a wedding party that wanted, not a kit, per se, but LEGO centerpieces for their reception.  I designed the model, actively avoiding hard to find parts and rare colors, designed and printed up perfect-bound color instructions books (complete with event appropriate dedication pages and injected trivia about the couple) and got all the parts.  I also printed up a custom sticker sheet, though if I were to do this all over again today (and had the lead time) I'd go with Eclipse GrafX (or similar company) and get custom parts printed for the occasion. 

Because it was a wedding and most of the bridal party was relatively local, the bride decided that she wanted a building party so rather than the traditional rehearsal dinner, the weekend before the actual wedding we sent out for pizza and I coordinated an event where all the ushers, bridesmaids, close friends and immediate family built the centerpieces.  We started with a parts draw where I'd set up a "buffet" of all the parts needed to build the model.  Everyone got a cafeteria tray and a parts list then went through the line picking up all the parts they'd need to build two centerpieces (one for the reception, one to take home).  Then people retreated to various tables where their instructions books awaited.  Because some people were far more familiar with Lego than others ( the wedding party was largely made up of engineers, teachers and lawyers - the lawyers tended to need the most help) I floated around the room helping as needed.

People had a blast at the building party (even the lawyers).  The centerpieces went over great at the reception (each table had a randomized "winner" to see who could take the model home and people were clamoring to get them (felt like a mini Comic Con (but friendlier)).  If I'd had the time, I probably could have turned this experience into a regular side-hustle; I got a lot of positive feedback from the builders and a number of the regular guests asked about my hosting similar events for them including one who wanted me to work a 300 person Bar Mitzvah party (  which was the request that made me realize I didn't want to be in the business of doing this professionally - I think I'd need an entire staff to deal with that size of an event.)