While the connection appears a bit vague, a the Bradford Rant Institute appears to have some sort of connection to LEGO — or so it seems. A least, that’s what the disclaimer at the bottom says.
The “pod” is also a pretty dead giveaway.
While the connection appears a bit vague, a the Bradford Rant Institute appears to have some sort of connection to LEGO — or so it seems. A least, that’s what the disclaimer at the bottom says.
The “pod” is also a pretty dead giveaway.
The B.R.I.C.K., clever.
Stuff like this is immensely comforting to me. I geek out deeply for Lego but I have very stern boundries. I don’t create geo-cache styled web puzzles. I can allways point at stuff like this and say “See, I’m a normal Lego fan..”
That website is so bad, I really had a hard time believing that LEGO would be responsible for such a thing.
Yeah, yeah, I know it’s targeted at kids, but it’s lame. Very lame. Are the LEGO marketing people really expecting kids to go geo-caching? If so, that isn’t going to happen and the vast majority of adult fans are going to blow it off. If its all fake (which the disclaimer seems to imply), its just stupid. In fact, all the fans that I’ve talked to, think its one of the dumbest things they’ve ever seen. Has Lego Marketing no dignity left?
Lame. That’s all I have to say. Lame. I’ll shut up now.
Indeed, Josh. And it’s always fun to see big corporate entities violating the terms of service of another big corporate entity, as “John Deutschendorf” (John Denver’s real name) is doing with his fake profile, two clicks away from the big Facebook logo on the Bradford Rant Institute site…
I can’t believe that LEGO has set up this website either, it looks poorly put together, and worst of all, I can’t even understand exactly how it’s supposed to work!
I’ve decoded the coded messages annotating the Voyager-style drawing under the Reveal The Mystery tab.
Under the brick it says: The Source
The planets are labeled (from left to right): Gnarled Forest , Forbidden Valley, Pet Rock, Avant Gardens, Zorillo Station.
It’s all designed to generate buzz for LEGO Universe. Both HALO and HALO2 had puzzle websites like this before their releases. The TV show LOST also has a web of websites full of cryptic information. The design is poor on purpose. Of that I can assure you.
Regarding the comment of kids not being able to access this website – there is a link to it in the Lego Universe Newsletter email. As such I tend to agree with ranwanimator.
It’s called a viral campaign. It’s not a decent viral campaign if it doesn’t contain an amateuristic website.
ranwanimator & Herman: I think we’re all aware of what a viral campaign is, and how good ones are actually kind of cool. This one isn’t.
@sqiddster – Which comment said that kids can’t access the website? I’m a bit lost. I said that kids aren’t going to go geo-caching, but that’s the closest I can find. Please clarify.
@Herman – As Andrew said, I’m fully aware of viral campaigns. I wasn’t saying that I thought this was a serious website. I was saying that this attempt was lame. In my comment I put down both scenarios (real and fake), but I was being sarcastic. Its pretty obvious that this is meant as a viral campaign (did I really have to say that?).
@ Bros Brick: You’re aware this is for kids, not website-savvy blogonauts? Congrats, you know it’s viral. Do kids know that? Prooobably not. Let them have their fun thinking alien pods have landed. Geez.
^ Fair enough. I think what I’m actually objecting to is TLG’s full-court-press, behind-the-scenes attempts to make this go viral among adults. Just like LU itself, I’m not seeing the value — or interest — for adult fans.
@Josh – Sorry, I thought that you were implying that kids were not going to know that the site was there at all.
Well, obviously the AFOL community isn’t biting, but it never hurts to try, right? I mean, who would have thought that there’d be a strong adult market for a children’s building toy? The campaign was aimed at kids but they threw it out to adults as well. Meh.
Ry, you’re so the man.
I’m definitely going to use the word prooobably in a sentence this week. It sounds so awesome out loud.
Checking the Whois for the domain name, this is definitely a LEGO corporate site: Registrant Name:LEGO Juris A/S, Registrant Email:domain.admin@lego.com
I’m going through the various responses to this post reminded of why I stopped frequenting AFOL forums. What a bunch of cynical jerks you all are.
You all have a right to be cynical. An adult AFOL was the first one to find the pod, but it was given to a child and announced ‘because you were the first kid’. The winner wasn’t even in the store, while other AFOL’s were at the landing site and found the pod. Check out the video for real:
LEGO UNIVERSE EARLY TESTING! All who are intending to turn up to the Pod landing sites on the day of the landing will be eligible for
early testing of LEGO Universe! as well as having the chance to get the 1 of a kind POD! LEGO Universe is a great NEW upcoming massive multiplayer online game. Be sure to GO find pods 3 through 7!!
And that, my fellow LEGO fans, is why I’m cynical about this.
(Quite possibly the spammiest comment I’ve approved in a very long time.)
Sorry, I didn’t intend for it to be spam. That is *real* and thought the readers would be interested in knowing that the PODs are related to LEGO Universe. There is also a nice T-shirt too.
I work at the Lego store in Houston and I got to see POD 3 up close.. it’s really neat. The guy from Lego Universe is really cool, he explained what he could about B.R.I.C.K., and told me some really interesting facts. I even got a T-shirt! But yeah, cool stuff.