How much to charge a local museum for Giant LEGO Display?

[Ben Pitchford]

Hello,

Does anybody know what is a fare price for having a giant lego display at a public museum? The display is over 250 lbs., 55 inches tall, and needs a uhaul to transfer which is an hour away. They have a lego event every week which they promote by using these displays. I personally would do it for free but wouldn't mind breaking even or making a gain.

A local public museum (Oshkosh, WI) is showing Nathan Sawaya's The Art of The Brick exhibit which started last weekend. They have offered some interest in displaying my most recent creation, The Hobbit-Rivendell in future events.

They wanted to know what the fees were for my display?

Anybody have some insight/ suggestions?

LEGO IDEAS here https://ideas.lego.com/projects/91654

High Res Pics here https://www.flickr.com/photos/127491317@N08/

Thanks,

Ben

[AFOLguy1970]

The potential snag with charging a fee is that the Lego Ideas site prohibits you from selling anything related to your project. That could include charging a fee to display.

The decision whether or not to allow the museum to display your MOC remains yours. If I were in your shoes, I would be honored to have a museum display the model. The worry would be more based on security measures. In other words, how easy would it be for someone to tamper with or take part or all of your model while it is under the museum's supervision? Hopefully, either they or you have a glass case of some kind to use. Anyway, it is a very nice mode of Rivendell. The extra attention the museum could bring might also be beneficial to you.

[fred67]

I wouldn't think they'd disqualify you for transportation or setup fees. You could double-check the ideas rules, but let's face it... while we'd love to see a set like, do you really think TLG will choose it anyway?

But I could go either way... I might be happy to just do it for free, but I also have a lot of stuff going on, and taking all that time to ship and set it up, I probably wouldn't mind getting a little reimbursement.

[Vorkosigan]

I hope you do it because I live close enough to go see! I would start with the uhaul cost both ways (make sure you take into account all their extra fees and tax), gas, any packing material, and at least minimum wage for how much time you think it will take to pack it and set up and do the reverse afterwards. Maybe round up from there. If you want to charge a rental fee per day you could try that but I don't know where to start with an estimate for that.

In terms of security, they do have "Yellow" in a case but all of the rest of Nathan's work is out in the open. I understand he glues the bricks though so its not really comparable. Definitely a good idea for this sort of MOC to have it roped off or in a case.

[Sid Sidious]

I'd say charge for the U-Haul rental, gas, and a reasonable price for your time (maybe $10/hr). I agree with you that something this big would never get approved on Ideas, so I doubt charging to transport this would be a significant worry in that regard.

[bemuser]

If it's a regular occurrence, see if you can take advantage of it, and get a contract, retainer, some sort of long term relationship out of it. even if not a direct, you could maybe help in the future with other people's' projects, advise on things etc etc and slowly establish yourself as a local go-to expert? Even if not a financial arrangement, a "scratch-my-back and i'll scratch yours" arrangement with reduced fees for something like advertising space could benefit you maybe?