Ideas for our Annual Support package from TLG

Question

Some of you may be aware that as a TLG-recognized community we receive an annual support package. This is a box of LEGO sets that belong to our community to use for events, projects, promotions, and marketing. These are frequently used by LUGs and other communities for building events, prizes, or other giveaways.

Annual Support comes with a number of stipulations. The key ones are:

• Any LEGO element or LEGO product (purchased or free of charge) acquired through the LEGO Ambassador Network Support Programs is offered solely for the use of the Recognized Community and its members and cannot be sold, resold or handed over to the public.
• Support in any capacity, is offered solely for the personal use of participating RLUG/RLFM/RLOC members; discounted and/or free of charge items are under no circumstances to be resold or given to the public.

Many communities have several things that we do not that make it clearer what to do with these items:

• In person meetings making it easy to use these items for group purposes.
• In person events making it free and easy to give these items away.
• A popular public-facing web space to use for reviews that drive traffic and interest for the community.
• A budget that can be used for staffing and/or shipping to send out these items as contest prizes, giveaways, or other purposes.

Basically, I'm soliciting ideas for what to do with a box of LEGO sets that was given to us.

Update: Here are the sets we were given if it's helpful:

• Ideas: Fishing Store (21310), Women of NASA (21312)
• Architecture: Sydney (21032), Shanghai (21039)
• Brick Headz: Rey, Kylo, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Flash
• Technic: 42074, 42077
• Creator: 31072, 31075, 31080, 31074
• Classic: 10712, 10715

Update 2: We're going to run with Phil's suggestion. I've created a separate question for specific proposals here: 2018 Annual Support Proposals

Answer 1

First of all, your second point regarding what we don’t have in comparison with other groups is not valid, as the rules clearly stipulate that items are not to be handed out to the public (so we cannot use them as give-aways and neither can other groups).

My suggestions is this:

• Offer the sets up to the top contributers/most active users (one per user)

• Condition for acceptance is that the set (or its pieces) need to be prominently featured in a future question by that user on this platform. The question to be answered should be part of the request to receive a set.

• You, as the admin, determine which users and which questions qualify, and distribute sets accordingly.

• Postage is paid for by the person receiving the set

• The question needs to be posted within a month of receiving the set.

• The question can be self-answered by the poster (actually, it most likely will be and needs to be).

For example, good questions could be about the particular use of a special piece, or the differences between a current and past mold of a piece, or the compatibility of a set with another set, etc.

Answer 2

Reposted on proposal Q&A here

I have an idea for 42077 Rally Car, which I think LEGO would appreciate.

How can I motorize 42077 Rally Car with LEGO Power Functions?

The Rally Car set looks really nice, and even has a built-in steering system which can be controlled by a gear on the top. There's also a fair bit of extra room inside, is there a way to add Power Functions elements to make it remote controlled?

And then the answer would be instructions on how to rebuild the set to accommodate adding Power Functions, which I'm confident can be done fairly easily.

I have lots of Power Functions elements on hand, and would definitely be willing to write both the question and answer, and I could probably come up with some other Q&A's while at it. I also think this could potentially be beneficial to LEGO as it advertises a way to use both this set and their Power Functions elements (and a reason to buy them).

Answer 3

I've added some details to the tag wiki for annual-support - feel free to edit/update as appropriate.