Can LEGO(r) Models Be Used As Advertising?

After a dearth of LEGO fan conferences in the Southern California area, last year, Los Angeles debuted not one, but THREE fan conferences and LEGO/brick themed conventions. World War Brick, Brickfest Live and the LEGO User Group of Los Angeles (LUGOLA) backed Bricks LA.

This January, the Bricks LA fan convention was held in Pasadena, CA. Yours truly was there, and I’ve shared two posts on my experiences... Here is my third, and final post on Bricks LA 2016.

I know a builder or two who build LEGO brick models for corporations. So I do know that models that use LEGO bricks can be used for advertising. I think they often take the form of a corporate logo. Here’s a post by a friend from the San Diego area who designed a logo build experience for a popular search engine company.

I met a new LEGO fan that weekend. Erich Ploeckelmann. Erich had been furiously re-building his most awesome, extreme rock crawler in LEGO bricks. He’d made it some time before, but took the exterior off and dumped it into the box of bricks. WHY, one might ask, would anyone ever do that? Who knows... Erich was a Very Important Builder (VIB) at the event, which meant that he had the opportunity to display his build, share his love of building, and the engineering marvels of his rock crawler. I took some video of him as he spoke. There are two, one showing the interior and technology of the rock crawler, the other demonstrating it crawling over the ‘extreme’ LEGO track he’d brought.

As it turns out, Erich was not new to the design of extreme vehicles. He has a company, Japan Auto Engineering, through which he gains some valuable experiences to apply to his LEGO builds. Because, as you know, it’s all about the LEGO bricks. All that other stuff... well... that’s extra.

I’ll tell you a secret. I think he was advertising...

I could go on and on about my experiences that weekend. Let’s just say it was a rich opportunity for community around the brick.

Trish Tsoi-A-Sue is a creative facilitator in the Long Beach area. Certified in LEGO® Serious Play, she is the President of ETES Inc, and creator of Makersville, a community of makers. Trish is the Ambassador for the Long Beach LEGO® User Group, a group of AFOLs and Teen Fans of LEGO® (TFOLs). Join our facebook group! Some of her random experiences are recorded on her You Tube channel, Squigglemom! Please subscribe!