Lego Master Building Academy (MBA)

[Darth Jar Jar]

The LEGO Group is considering the launch of a new offering, called the LEGO Master Builder Academy.

LEGO Master Builder Academy (LEGO MBA) will unlock the creativity in children and allow them to learn – via a series of challenge levels – about the LEGO system of building and how to apply the special techniques that LEGO designers and Master Builders use. As members of LEGO MBA, kids who love building with LEGO will become even better builders, and more creative with LEGO bricks! A one-year subscription to LEGO Master Builder Academy includes:

6 LEGO sets, a new set delivered to your home every two months

More than 1,000 LEGO bricks in total from those sets

500 pages of tips, techniques, building instructions and inspiration for more building ideas in exclusive Design books

Access to exclusive online content, building challenges and activities to inspire, entertain and connect members with real LEGO Master Builders and fellow members.

Recognition and reward for building achievements via the skill challenges on the website.

An exclusive, color-coded minifigure for each new level in skill that children reach, to show off their building success!

A new LEGO Club Magazine with each set.

Imagine children learning about design and creative concepts such as scaling, styling, sideways building, and balance as they enjoy building space craft, cars, robots, and micro-scale models! Being creative has never been more fun!

Would you pay $100 a year for this in two installments?

6 sets that sounds great and color coded minifigures

Taken from toysnbricks

Edited November 22, 2010 by Darth Jar Jar

[Aanchir]

100 dollars a year? Sounds pretty steep. The product sounds awesome, and I have no doubt in my mind that I'd love it (could just be that I'm easy-to-please), but that price tag makes me a bit hesitant...

Nevertheless, I think it's worth a shot. I'll probably sign up for a year and then evaluate after that whether it's worth paying to keep myself signed up.

[Bricks2000]

This should be Frontpaged.

[Darth Jar Jar]

100 dollars a year? Sounds pretty steep. The product sounds awesome, and I have no doubt in my mind that I'd love it (could just be that I'm easy-to-please), but that price tag makes me a bit hesitant...

Nevertheless, I think it's worth a shot. I'll probably sign up for a year and then evaluate after that whether it's worth paying to keep myself signed up.

Well the sets would be exclusive and the exclusive minifigs makes it all worth it for me

Also I'll add a poll saying Would you pay $100 a year for this in two installments?

[davee123]

This doesn't make sense to me in terms of reaching "levels of skill". After a child has completed the program for the first year, what's to encourage them to sign up again the following year? Do they get demoted back down to the lowest level? What happens if they don't actually perform the "tasks" necessary to achieve the high level of skill? Does that portion of their $100 go to waste? Or do they get "achievement minifigs" regardless of whether or not they've ever done anything at all?

Personally, I'd probably try it for a year and see what it was like. But for the company, I'm not sure I quite understand how they envision it working.

[edit]PS, I can vote both "yes" and "no" on the poll.[/edit]

DaveE

Edited November 22, 2010 by davee123

[Rick]

Well the sets would be exclusive and the exclusive minifigs makes it all worth it for me

I don't see mentioned that they're exclusive sets, it might as well be regular sets (which seems more likely if they don't explicitly mention it). Also, I was thinking the minifig could be 'virtual'.

[Darth Jar Jar]

I don't see mentioned that they're exclusive sets, it might as well be regular sets (which seems more likely if they don't explicitly mention it). Also, I was thinking the minifig could be 'virtual'.

The brick master sets were exclusive so I would think these would be

[Rick]

The brick master sets were exclusive so I would think these would be

Those Brickmaster sets were also a bit smaller, more typical promotional set size, so I still have my doubts about 150-200 piece sets being exclusives. But if they turn out to be exclusives after all, $100 isn't such a bad deal for over 1,000 pieces.

[Walter Kovacs]

This doesn't make sense to me in terms of reaching "levels of skill". After a child has completed the program for the first year, what's to encourage them to sign up again the following year? Do they get demoted back down to the lowest level? What happens if they don't actually perform the "tasks" necessary to achieve the high level of skill? Does that portion of their $100 go to waste? Or do they get "achievement minifigs" regardless of whether or not they've ever done anything at all?

I agree with DaveE here. I just don't see the incentive for signing up for multiple years.

I suppose we will have to wait until they officially announce this to get more details. But for now, I think I will be passing on it. The price is steep, and I need to see the benefit before making a final decision.

[vexorian]

100 dollars? I could buy a scopion's pyramid with that...

[Mrlegoninja]

Sounds interesting, but I am still not sure about the sets. I think AFOLs have enough building experience, so I wouldn't buy this.

[Arigomi]

The design books sound like interesting reference materials.

I have a theory about the exclusive minifigure. The exclusive minifig could just be something you get at the end of the year. What it looks like would be based upon what challenges you have completed. Just being a subscriber without completing anything would mean you get the default minifigure. It could have printing on either the torso or a stand to keep track of what year it applies to. The next year, it starts all over with different minifigure designs.

[Peppermint_M]

$100 a year is only $8 a month. What is $8 a month in real terms?

In my terms, that is £62.54 a year or £5 a month. To me, £5 a month is nothing much, skipping the coffe from Starbucks for two days, not having the large bacon roll for breakfast,skipping the chocolate bar and cola one day. It isn't a great expense when you look at it like that, is it?

(Note, the roll, chocolate and cola are not vital to my functioning. I should really cut those out as it is...)

[prateek]

1000 pieces a year?!? 500 pages?!? $100?!?

Pretty awesome. I'd do this if I had $100 laying around.

[drdavewatford]

I'd certainly sign up for this.

Dr. D.

[Masked Builder]

I might. But I did like Brickmaster better.

[vexorian]

$100 a year is only $8 a month. What is $8 a month in real terms?

Half of what I spend in LEGO :)

[Captain Green Hair]

100 dollars sounds pretty cheap to me.

1.000+ bricks / 100 = 0,10 dollar per piece + you get a lot of reference material and books showing you the best techniques out there.

I think this is a good program for beginning builders, so I vote yes!

[Brickdoctor]

As others have said, the price is pretty good, but I don't really think it's something I want. The first thing that academy will probably tell me is that I can't use my beloved illegal connections.

[Morgan19]

Evaluating the price is completely dependent on what's included. A text description is one thing, but I'm reserving judgement until there are pictures or more detailed info to back up the generalized intro.

m19

[Masked Builder]

As others have said, the price is pretty good, but I don't really think it's something I want. The first thing that academy will probably tell me is that I can't use my beloved illegal connections.

I wouldn't be surprised.

[CMP]

Depends on what the sets are.

[Aanchir]

Long time since this topic's gotten any attention. I was just browsing the LEGO Club website when I found this article with an image of one of the minifigures. I'd put money on the fact that the numbers one through five in the image represent the building levels, and that the colors for the minifigures will match the colored backgrounds for each number.

I love the logo, too. Very classy. I look forward to signing up for this new program!

[Henchmen4Hire]

This sounds like a spiffy program, but keep in mind that it's for KIDS, so don't be surprised if one of the sets is a lame puppy or something

Yeah, you can make $100 after like 2 or 3 days of work at almost any job (like 20 hours of actual labor?), it's not much really, especially if it gives your kid something better to do than torture bugs or be a cannibal or tag walls in the neighborhood.

Edited January 28, 2011 by DrNightmare

[Brickdoctor]

Yeah, I remember that pic. So Level One is... a lime green plane that looks like a Creator set's tertiary model?

Meh.