Newsletter - March 2021
It has been a busy month here at Warren Elsmore Ltd. As we see the lockdown lifting we are busy planning for the year and this month bring you news on what we have been up to. This is going to be a regular newsletter from us, feel free to sign up to receive it by email or tell your friends to opt in. Our aim is to keep you posted on our work, new projects, tours, models and our investments to develop our tour work. We are also lucky to be able to share some of the great things we get to work on and some of the cool projects too!
New Walling Panels
We have invested in two things in March one for the safety of our tours and the other for the continuity of our tours to overseas partners. We are very grateful to the Arts Council, whose funding allowed us to invest in this panel system. Their support means that we can offer the use of these panels to venues in the UK at no additional hire cost.
In times where social distancing is the new normal it is important for us to support our customers with a solution. We are delighted to announce the arrival of our new walling system, this will help venues create one way systems and facilitate social distancing for visitors to our exhibitions. Light-weight and easy to put up, it is a great addition. Whatever the venue size or shape we can adapt the panels to help. Panels have a mixture of information , LEGO facts and images which add to the tour. As we all continue to adapt to the new normal we are making sure we enhance the tours and support our customers.
The hardware for the walling panels, protected and boxed for transport.
Our new walling panels - boxed up and ready for use!
Brick City tour off to the USA!
One of Warren’s most famous builds will be leaving the UK for the USA later this month, St Pancras Station part of our Brick City tour will be showcased at the Reading Public Museum, Pennsylvania, USA from 29 May to 6 September, 2021.
Leaving the UK in just a few days we are busy preparing for its long journey. The build has not left Europe, it has in normal times been escorted and built by Warren and the team but on this leg of its journey we are working to ensure it arrives safely.
The team are busy securing the build, originally this was not a glued piece, hard to believe with all of the amazing details. Warren has been busy gluing the build and cleaning too, ready to pack it in its new cases to ship.
Sections of the St Pancras clock tower being glued ready for its first international showing.
Interior view of the clock tower showing the mechanisms for the 4 clocks.
Sections of the hotel and train shed of the St Pancras model, in their flight-case getting ready for transport.
Brick City tour model updates
The tour has also undergone some new builds too, including the introduction of a New Orleans Mardi Gras Parade. Teresa and Kirsten have worked on the details to include floats, costumes and the ornate buildings in the French Quarter - a fantastic addition!
Moroccan Town House - a new model in the Brick City Tour.
Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple) of Amritsar - a new model in the Brick City Tour.
Customs Declarations Training
Our team, like many in the UK, are working to ensure that with Brexit in place we are getting up-to-date all of the new import and export legislation that now affects our trade with members of the EU. Teresa has undertaken HMRC Customs Compliant Agent Training - Export and Import, Levels 1-3 course, run by ChamberCustoms. This covers multiple aspects including: Customs Declarations & trade statistics, the UK Tariff Volumes 1-3, Export & Import Custom Procedure Codes, the HMRC CHIEF & CDS systems, and Export & Import declarations requirements.
There is a huge world of requirements that we have to comply with and we’re very grateful to be able to access such high-quality and engaging training.
For our customers across the world it is important we can deliver on time and understand the legislation for all of our tours. We’ll be putting this to the test soon, with tours already planned in both the EU and the US this year.
Tortoise Media, The Joy of LEGO, with Emma Kennedy
Although it’s been a busy month - it’s not all work. We were really chuffed to be asked to take part in a Tortoise Media ThinkIn session with Emma Kennedy; great fun and really interesting. Thanks to the team and great to meet Emma and her AFOL WACS.
The Joy of LEGO with Emma Kennedy - a Tortoise Media ThinkIn.
SketchUp UK case Study
We have also been featured in a Case Study from SketchUp UK. A lovely piece on their site and across their socials in support of our use of SketchUp to plan features and exhibition layouts.
Brick Dinos Exhibition SketchUp layout.
And finally…
We created a Nightmare-Before-Christmas-themed Christmas tree for a friend, including a brick-built version of Zero the Ghost-Dog as the tree topper. We loved him so much we couldn’t resist making a copy for ourselves!
Our version of Zero the Ghost Dog.
