SDCC 2023 LEGO Recap

mattytreks

Apologies in advance as this was longoverdue...

One of my favorite topics each year is SDCC LEGO.  Looking back, it took four long years to get back to this point.  While SDCC made their triumphant return one year ago after skipping two painful, grueling years, LEGO's showing at SDCC 2022 was lackluster.  They then took the next 365 days to put together one of, if not, the best LEGO booth experiences we've ever seen at a Comic-Con.

This is a little photo tour around the SDCC 2023 LEGO booth, along with many of their offerings and exclusives.

The LEGO Team hard at work during booth setup/prep in the hours leading up to Preview Night.


This is a view of the right side of the LEGO booth.  The front two-thirds was a dedicated 'Brickbuster Video' store -- an obvious and nostalgic nod to Blockbuster Video, while the rear third of the booth was a dedicated custom minifigure-building area, featuring the SDCC-exclusive 'Be Kind Rewind' torso.


The front of the booth, fully constructed and ready for SDCC attendees to flock from all angles.  So aesthecically pleasing, if I do say so myself.


Close-up of the 'Brickbuster Video' shop interior, complete with faux-videos for rent, well-lit displays of new and popular LEGO sets, and a little build area on the right where people can build and display their own custom creations on the wall.


Rear view of the booth.  The stanchioned-off area is where attendees who won a slot for the exclusive torso build will line up for the time slot.


Close-up of the 'Be Kind Rewind' minifigure mural.  Lots of people took selfies here, including a few celebrities and even an NBA player.


Speaking of, here is my custom build featuring the exclusive torso.


The left side of the booth featured movie theater-style LEGO posters, and was also where attendees would line up for the various signings, which I'll cover more about below.


Inside of the booth, there were three photostations -- one featuring a Star Wars speeder bike (pictured below), one of Sonic, and one of Captain America.  on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, LEGO held a social media giveaway whereby if you showed the LEGO booth employee a selfie posted to instagram with the hashtag #LEGOSDCC and featuring that day's theme in the picture, they would give you a free pin featuring the respective character.


These are the aforementioned "daily giveaway" pins -- Star Wars speeder bike, Sonic, and Captain America.


There was a fourth 'Brickbuster' pin tha was much, much harder to obtain.  The only way to obtain it was by succsfully completing the LEGO scavenger hunt (more on that below), presenting your original Blockbuster Video membership card to a LEGO booth employee, or purely by chance encounter with a LEGO booth employee who happened to be feeling giving at that particular time.  I happened to fall into the latter, as I struck up a wonderful conversation with a few LEGO employees on the LEGO Dreamzzz IMDboat Party one evening, and as they saw my LEGO fandom shining through, one of them graciously took the 'Brickbuster' pin off of their lanyard and presented it to me.  On the final hour of SDCC on Sunday, I then presented my complete set of four "loose" pins (Speeder Bike, Sonic, Captain America, and now Brickbuster) to an employee at the booth, and they graciously accepted my loose set and exchanged it out for the even-harder-to-obtain official "pin set" on the carded back inside a cellophane wrapper.  it is the encounters and interactions lik the ones I just described with extremely kind LEGO employees that can really elevate a Comic-Con experience to truly memorable status.


Now...more about that scavenger hunt.  LEGO carried out a monumentally-impossible scavenger hunt.  Each day during SDCC, they would hide approximately 30 of these 'Brickbuster Video' VHS cases in and around the San Diego Convention Center, up to a 1-mile radius around the structure!  Not only that -- but there were zero hints given.  So, one quite literally had to be at the right place at the right time.  Once one would find the case, they would return it to the employee kiosk at the front of the LEGO booth in exchange for a gift pack.  That gift pack would include the official pin set (pictured above), a golden brick keychain (pictured just below this one), a "VIP" minifigure keychain, and in some scenarios, the gift pack would also include a 'LEGO Masters' set.  Lastly on the scavenger hunt front, each day one special VHS case contained a "golden ticket" for an ultra special prize giveaway.  To date, I nor anyone else I have spoken with knows exactly what was given away for those golden ticket-finders.  Disclaimer- this is not an "official" Brickbuster VHS case.  I have an incredibly talented graphic designer friend who was able to perfectly replicate one for me so that I can put it on display in my display case.


Here is a little section of my display case where I made a "Blockbuster/Brickbuster" shrine of sorts.  Here you can see the free Brickbuster Membership cards that were readily available at the booth each day, along with the Brickbuster VHS case, official pin set, standalone Brickbuster pin, 3 custom builds for our family featuring the exclusive torso, and the golden brick keychain mentioned above.  Along with that are a Funko Blockbuster Rewind pin and card (yes, Funko also had a Blockbuster-themed booth this year too...insanely weird coincidence), and a custom-made Blockbuster Video VHS case featuring my favorite movie, 'Bloodsport'. As for the golden brick keychain, that was given out during a signing.


On the topic of signings, there were three at the LEGO booth.  The first of which was for LEGO Dreamzzz, which featured voice actors from the show.  I really like how this print features the 'SDCC Exclusive' branding on the bottom-right.


Next up was the LEGO Masters poster/signing, featuring Amby Corbett and Stacy Roy.  In addition to the signed poster, attendees exiting the signing line were also given a golden brick keychain, which is how I obtained mine -- a very welcome and unexpected gift.  PS, this was not the last gift during a signing ;)


LEGO saveed the best signing for last, with the Ninjago signing taking place on Saturday. The signing featured director Doc Wyatt, and voice actors from the show.  See the little dragon Riyu featured on the poster?  Well, he very unexpectedly became the biggest star of the experience at SDCC.


That is because attendees exiting the Ninjago line were handed this incredible polybagged exclusive Riyu dragon minifigure.  There has been a lot of resistance over the years from people who can't attend SDCC regarding SDCC exclusives.  And quite honestly, I have precisely zero sympathy.  People around the world have absolutely no idea of the level of effort, cost, and time that people like myself painstakingly put in to attending Comic-Con to even make obtaining items like this possible.  And LEGO recognizes that effort with very neat keepsakes not unlike this Riyu.  That said, there have been signficant rumblings that this little guy in this currently-exclusive colorway will be making an appearance in mass-produced Ninjago sets in the future.  But for now he can bask in the glory of being an SDCC 2023 exclusive, and all the value that brings with it.


That is all for my SDCC 2023 phototour...I hope this provided a more comprehensive and interesting inside glimpse into the LEGO experience this year, and I'm sure LEGO is already diligently working on their plans for SDCC 2024.  Thanks for reading, everyone!

FireFox31

But why the heck did Lego partner with Blockbuster, a defunct company which offered an antiquated product (video rental) which the Lego target demographic wasn't even alive to utilize?  The pairing seems truly sad, hurting the Lego brand.

Imagine how relevant Lego would feel if the booth was BrikTok.

WesterBricks

I highly doubt the booth did anything negative to the brand. Any SDCC attendee would know what Blockbuster was and likely have a nostalgic feeling toward it.  It has only been 15 years, and the Blockbuster brand has stayed in the public consciousness for one reason or another in that time.

Russell844

Funko had also partnered with Blockbuster. I think it was a thing at the time.

andhe

WesterBricks said:

I highly doubt the booth did anything negative to the brand. Any SDCC attendee would know what Blockbuster was and likely have a nostalgic feeling toward it.  It has only been 15 years, and the Blockbuster brand has stayed in the public consciousness for one reason or another in that time.

Yeah Im guessing that most attendees are in the 20+ age bracket so will be aware of, if not have memories of blockbuster. The whole of SDCC is about brands and nostalgia is big business these days (it's kinda scary that anything pre-2000 seems to be classed as 'vintage' nowadays.

I'm sure there's some reasoning to it, but I have to wonder why LEGO bother going to these events at all. Seems a lot of faff just to been seen as 'in the cool club' with the other brands. I can't imagine it does much to boost sales, and it's not like someone's going to think 'LEGO? what's that?'

If it was some big event in an untapped market/country then I could understand. Or am I missing the point?

FireFox31

Nostalgia for Blockbuster feels like nostalgia for Comcast.  I don't have fond memories of late fees and limited selection, let alone having to drive there to get/return discs.

For me, Blockbuster became irrelevant in the early 2000's with Netflix DVD by mail and even less relevant (than irrelevant) with the rise of streaming.  I assumed the same was true for everyone.  Thus, I didn't think people under 30 would even know about Blockbuster.

Perhaps a reason for the tie-in is the Lego movies and shows.  But the movies are a few years old at this point.

Or perhaps SDCC attendees don't care, they just want their valuable exclusive merch.

drdavewatford

mattytreks said:

.....There has been a lot of resistance over the years from people who can't attend SDCC regarding SDCC exclusives.  And quite honestly, I have precisely zero sympathy.  People around the world have absolutely no idea of the level of effort, cost, and time that people like myself painstakingly put in to attending Comic-Con to even make obtaining items like this possible....

....says the guy from San Diego!

;-)

Thanks for the nice write up. I share the bemusement of others regarding the level of effort that LEGO puts into this show, but I'm glad that you enjoy it so much.

daewoo

FireFox31 said:

Nostalgia for Blockbuster feels like nostalgia for Comcast.  I don't have fond memories of late fees and limited selection, let alone having to drive there to get/return discs.

For me, Blockbuster became irrelevant in the early 2000's with Netflix DVD by mail and even less relevant (than irrelevant) with the rise of streaming.  I assumed the same was true for everyone.  Thus, I didn't think people under 30 would even know about Blockbuster.

Perhaps a reason for the tie-in is the Lego movies and shows.  But the movies are a few years old at this point.

Or perhaps SDCC attendees don't care, they just want their valuable exclusive merch.

Nostalgia and a recent Netflix show are reason enough.  I happened to have liked Blockbuster and rented many a VHS/DVD from them.