In an effort to expand the products offered by the Campus Store, the Student Government Association has announced a partnership with Lego, the Campus Store and its president. The first product released will be a 1000-1 model of Wessel Hall with an exclusive SGA President Josh Springer figurine.
“I’m ecstatic to be featured in the set,” Springer said. “I used to be a resident assistant in Wessel, so being able to put myself back there will be super cool.”
A LEGO minifigure of Josh Springer, SGA president and senior financial management major from Helotes, stands next to a LEGO version of Wessel Hall. (Photo from leaked Signal chats with LEGO designers)
The set will be sold for $125.99, with 30% of the proceeds going to Springer’s new name, image and likeness deal with Lego.
“Being able to sign with Lego has been a super cool experience,” Springer said. “You always see athletes with deals and sponsors so being able to have one as a student body president has been unique.”
With roughly $37 of each sale going to Springer, he expects to be able to work less and spend more time building his own Lego set.
“As cool as the title is, being the SGA president is really taxing,” Springer said. “I’m always sitting in our meetings thinking about building my Legos.”
In addition to the Springer minifigure, the dormitory set will also include seven freshman residents, a bike with rolling wheels and a flag representing Springer’s fraternity, Gamma Sigma Phi.
“We’re super excited to have our flag included in the set,” said club president Mason Hejl. “However, we haven’t finalized what it will look like yet. There’s some disagreement amongst the two parties.”
The alleged disagreement is over the compensation the fraternity would be receiving. GSP wants a piece of the sales from Springer but Springer does not think that is a necessary accommodation.
“It’s just a flag,” Springer said. “The club doesn’t have a deal with Lego, I do.”
Due to the disagreement, the flag will not be displayed on the box and may not be included in the set once production begins. The two parties will have until April 4 to agree on fair compensation or the flag will not be included in the set.
“Not having the flag after all of this controversy would be a shame,” Hejl said. “We want to be able to represent our club through this set and it would be really cool to have a Lego version of our flag.”
Despite the controversy, the campus bookstore is confident other sets will be released in the future.
“We don’t want one argument to halt the progress we’ve made with Lego,” said Campus Store manager Ty Rogler. “We’ve already got sets for Wildcat Stadium, Bullock Brothers Ballpark and the Bean in the works. If we had to cancel those sets, we would lose a lot of money, and it would just be really disappointing.”
The Wessel Hall set will hit the shelves on April 11, exactly one week after the deadline for the final say on the GSP flag.
This comes out at the perfect time for an Easter gift for children of any age, but it is a permanent item on the shelves and not a limited time item.
Students will also have the opportunity to have Springer sign the box at his “Press with Prez” event on April 14 at 2 p.m. in the SGA office.
