BrickCon Special Report: Keynote

BrickCon 2008 kicked off yesterday in Seattle, Washington with over 200 attendees. The keynote speaker for this year was Steve Witt from the LEGO Group, who made his presentation a group show about how sets are designed.

Helping him out were Matthew Ashton, Creative Director of Playthemes and Nick Groves,  one of the set designers in his group. Both of them gave a little peek as to how a set is designed, from concept to prototyping to review. And a surprise was unveiled...

A new set, coming from LEGO Direct, named the Medieval Market Village!

From the product description: 

Ages 12+.  1,601 pieces.

US $99.99; ¤99.99, CA $149.99, AU $149.99, UK £84.99

Expand your LEGO^® Castle kingdom!

This classic medieval village with marketplace is a perfect match for any LEGO Castle.  Full of authentic features, fun accessories and all-new animals to expand and enhance your kingdom; it includes two complete buildings with detailed interiors like a blacksmith’s shop with waterwheel-driven hammer, a food stand, tree, table, cart, cows, horse, chicken, rooster, duck, peasants, knights, rare elements and colors, and more! 

• Includes 8 minifigures: blacksmith, 2 soldiers, 2 male peasants, 2 female peasants and a boy minifigure!
• Play inside! The 2 two-story buildings feature a hinge system that allows you to open and close them as you wish!
• The yellow building contains the stables, blacksmiths shop and his home upstairs!  Help the blacksmith forge the swords with the working water powered trip hammer! Don’t forget to close the stable gates and feed the horse some carrots!
• Blacksmith’s home features pictures on the walls, opening windows, table and fireplace!
• The classically European styled blue building features a cozy tavern on the first floor and welcoming bedroom on the top floor!
• Lots of authentic touches: fireplaces in the bedrooms, pictures on the walls, dressing tables, working doors and windows and other interior details!
• The soldiers and peasants alike shop and eat in the marketplace filled with baskets of fish, apples and flowers. Sit at the table for a meal of ale, cheese and whole turkey but stay out of the way of the soldiers carrying the king’s treasure!

·  Buildings measure over 7.5” tall and over 9” long when open wide!

Available January 2009!

Here are links to more photos - click on the thumbnails to get a closer look!

Exterior view of blacksmith's shop	Exterior view of tavern	Interior view of both buildings	Closeup of blacksmith's shop	Closeup of minifigures	Minifigure lineup for set
Closeup of outdoor shop

Many thanks to Steve Witt and the LEGO Group for providing these images!