Giant Lego Castle Chicago late 80's

[elvis8atari]

Hi everybody. I'm new to this forum. I had been wondering something, and I figured this was a good place to ask. Back in the late 80's / early 90's I visited Chicago with my family. We either went to the Chicago Lego store (if it was around then). Or it was fao schwartz. I can't remember which. Anyway, I remember going in there, and they had a GIANT Lego castle built for people to see. From memory, I'm guessing it had to be 5 or 6 ft tall. (At least it seemed like it to and 8 year old.) It was a black castle, and looked kinda like a gigantic version of "the Black Knights Castle". I'm wondering if anyone remembers this, or if photos exist of Lego displays from this era. Well, here's hoping!

[Count Blacktron]

LEGO shops did not come to the USA shores until the 1990s, but there were many shops that featured them, and Playmobil quite prominently. Was it inside a shopping mall?

[Bruce N H]

Hey,

Do you have any idea if it was a specific store display, or one of those traveling shows that they used to bring to major shopping malls? I remember going to a display at our local mall in the late 70's or early 80's that had lots of huge sculptures, and there was this Classic-Space layout that covered at least a 10 foot by 20 foot table. I was really into space at the time, so that's the thing I really remember. No clue if there was a big castle or not.

Bruce

[elvis8atari]

LEGO shops did not come to the USA shores until the 1990s, but there were many shops that featured them, and Playmobil quite prominently. Was it inside a shopping mall?

Yeah, it must have been a shopping mall then. I've been looking around on flickr, and seen that there are groups of people that hold lego conventions and build large castles. This way a store display though. So my guess is it was probably an official lego display at some store. That's about all I know. Since I've done a little research, and found out that building lego castles is such a big deal, this doesn't matter to me as much now. I didn't realize that people did this sort of thing all the time. I thought it was a one of a kind type of thing. Had no idea there were all these conventions and such.

[foxdobbs]

Unfortunately, the few I photos I found were from the late 90's. I think I may have a few from earlier. I'll keep digging.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/foxseidel/sets/72157623234660399

I can't recall which store the display was in... Walmart/Target/Kmart, maybe?

[Gumby]

What about this one (click on picture for folder):



According to the folder description, this was part of the "LEGO World Show" back in 1984.

[davee123]

I remember seeing the display that LEGO did at FAO Schwartz in New York, sometime in the mid-1980's (probably 1984-1986, since I recall that it was after the gray castle era (1984) and before I was interested in castle sets (around 1987)). The display they had included a life-size setup with astronauts at a computer panel, a town display at minifig scale with a skyscraper on fire (being extinguished by firemen), and a castle setup with minifigures on rotating bases fighting each other or jousting.

I do think I've seen a picture of what might have been that display or a similar one, but I can't seem to find it for the life of me. I think the picture I saw featured a very tall and skinny square castle tower that went up several feet. Maybe it was in one of the LEGO books at home, although I don't think that's true. Hmm...

DaveE