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into Frank Lloyd Wright’s thoughts. And these were placedat very specific points to align with the points in the buildinginstructions that are indicative of the quote.Geoff: I think all of this leads to the last point of differencebetween this kit and others, and that is the distribution point.This part is also quite a departure from the typical way of sellingsets. Tell me a little about this.Christian: It’s really again Adam who has taken the first wayof a different distribution model because it is clear that theLEGO group does not have a distribution setup automaticallygeared toward adult catered sets at this price point. We wouldnot see this set do well at our classic sellers such as Toys’RUs or WalMart. So in that respect we decided to have a veryunorthodox way of sales. We have setup a fairly effective wayof marketing this type of model to the consumer who wouldmost enjoy it and purchase it.Adam: And to add to that point quickly, three years agowhen I had this idea, I actually went to Barnes and Noble,which coincidentally is one of our distributors for this set, andwas looking for some material to help me impress the LEGOGroup. I am an architect and an artist and do not know thebusiness side so I was thinking “Are they going to listen to mejust because of some cool looking MOC? Probably not.” Therehas to be some business case for it. It has to make sense, to berelevant. So part of what I was thinking was “How can I bringa new audience into the LEGO Group that they’re not generatingrevenues from.” I was thinking of all of these places oftourism, of airports, museums, things of that nature. It gets usaway from the typical toy retailer and I think it’s very fittingbecause here we’re using the brick as a medium and we’re notexploring the brick as a toy.A photograph of the interior showing some of the furniture Frank LloydWright commissioned for the house.Paal: From a LEGO point of view, our mandate with the NewBusiness Group is to explore new business opportunities thatare outside of the toy industry. So with Architecture, to reallygo and focus on the niche area of architecture, we were ableA view of one of the terraces of the real house compared to the same terracefrom the model.20Several different iterations of the model are shown here.to uncover a great potential avenue. And since we’re not currentlyselling in souvenir locations, it’s a perfect match.At this point, we had to pay the bill and head off to get back to the convention.I thoroughly enjoyed chatting with everyone and am glad thatI got to learn so much about a set, and a direction, that is so radicallydifferent than normal. I look forward to seeing what is next.

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