LEGO Friends mini build (ice cream stand) - March 12/13

[atmail35]

I was looking online for a copy of the March 2012 LEGO Store Calendar and only found the UK version. The UK is having a Friends event March 12/13 to build an ice cream stand, which is very similar to the Lemonade Stand that TRU had.

I have not seen the US/CAN calendar. Can anyone confirm this will take place in North America as well? It is very simple, but free.

http://cache.lego.com/upload/contentTem ... 6DFC59.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Legobrandon]

"legodad" from brickset has scanned the US/CAN LEGO Store calendar for March 2012. Yes, it will take place in North America on March 12-13. Here are the links to the images:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/51289111@N ... otostream/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.flickr.com/photos/51289111@N ... otostream/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.flickr.com/photos/51289111@N ... otostream/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[atmail35]

Thanks for the confirmation that this will take place in NA. I'll have to mark our calendar. It's nice that LEGO is really promoting Friends in this way. Hopefully the line won't be as long as the normal monthly model build (helps that it is spread over two days, I suppose). I'm not sure I can handle the long wait with a 6 year old twice in a month!

Although the ice cream stand seems pretty bare bones.

[slacker]

Only 200 per store per day. Should be enough. I wonder how many sets my store goes through during the monthly mini builds.

[ktmo]

We are going to try to go. Hopefully, it isn't too busy. The TRU build wasn't bad at all.

[Cara]

TRU was great, but under publicised. I wish there were more of them. If there was one a month at TRU it would be great! I dread any event at the lego store. Here they let about 8 people maximum build at once, the rest have to line around the mall. Its horrific you need to get there an hour early. I wish these events were all day or that there was a better organised and larger building area. I stopped taking my kids to the monthly build. The ice cream stand doesn't appear to have any stickers. It is remarkably similar to the TRU build. The colored ice cream is very nice though.

[fleury]

My local Chapters actually had this today.

There were three builds. A Duplo one (I didn't see what it was), the Friends Ice Cream Stand, and a City model jet airplane.


--
Marc.

[Legobrandon]

Darn. I had no idea Chapters held this LEGO event. Were there age limits and what did the city jet plane look like?

[fleury]

Can't seem to find my camera tonight, but I'll upload a pic tomorrow. The build was 61 pieces including a 6x10 plate that the jet attaches to.

The Ice Cream Stand build included a printed cat which wasn't listed in the build instructions.

The age limit was 5-12 (and 3-5 for the Duplo one which happened before I got there.)

My store is in Kingston, but it looks like it wasn't the only one doing this:
http://www.ancaster.com/2012/03/05/lego ... -chapters/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

We also got some "I love Lego Games" sticker sheets, a big Ninjago sticker - http://www.bricklink.com/catalogPG.asp?G=131TO" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; - and a Lego City Police Department badge/3D sticker.


--
Marc.

[melsig]

Well, as a marketing endeavor, this has already been highly successful in my house. My son, who previously had absolutely no interest in Friends, decided he'd like to attend the ice cream build, announced that he wants to collect all of the Friends figures and has now identified three Friends sets to add to his (already lengthy) LEGO wish list. I'm beginning to regret telling him about the event...

[melsig]

Just got back from the mini build - there weren't many kids there. I asked one of the store employees about it, and they said they weren't expecting a huge number of kids as many parents wouldn't know about the event. No printed cat in our version, but it's still cute with the 3 different colors of ice cream.

[atmail35]

We didn't have any crowds at all. We arrived 10 minutes early (you know so we could get in line ) and walked in and might have been one of the first ones to do it. No cat either. The associates agreed it wasn't well advertised. Anyway, my daughter was happy...my daughter said it was chocolate, vanilla and mango ice cream (for the orange one).

I just hope they continue to do these kinds of events, even if the turnout was low...

[Luciant]

Anyone attend the event and want to trade/sell their minibuilds? :) I need to produce offspring soley for the purpose of doing these things....

[melsig]

my daughter said it was chocolate, vanilla and mango ice cream (for the orange one).

I love that. Whenever my son sees green play ice cream he always calls it "green tea", since that's his favorite.

[scatmanjack]

NorthPark Mall in Dallas, TX was pretty lite as well. Showed up at 4.30pm to queue up like normal monthly builds and there was no line at all. Asked a store employee what procedure was going to be and she said they weren't expecting too big a crowd so just come back at 5pm. At 5pm they had a small table set with an employee helping little ones build. The 14 piece set was in the small yellow store bags- they probably filled them themselves... They were very lax and let my daughter build several- a couple for her cousins were appreciated. I snagged a build sheet but don't know if those were for the taking or not... No cat or stickers with this set...