Lego in Oman Lego made a great  scale model of the Airport Roundabout in Muscat

over 20 years ago

In the days when I was able to stroll across the Sultan Qaboos highway carrying a mini fort;  Lego kindly made a Lego-brick version of the first feature that a visitor arriving in Muscat in the mid 1980’s saw,  for our Lego in Oman show. The feature was the fort-like clock tower on the roundabout at Seeb International Airport.

Lego at Airport Muscat 1987
Lego at Airport Muscat 1987

I had obtained the Lego agency for the company I managed and needed to do a lot of things to differentiate the company. Lego was to be a key part of that differentiation as, although there are similar building block products, Lego was an effective brand marketing company. It also produced a far superior product and range.

We were going to hold a Lego exhibition of Arabian Towns – and what better than to have buildings from Muscat depicted. Lego in Denmark agreed and their team built our piece and shipped it in the container with our Arabian Town all the way from Denmark to Muscat.

Lego 'World Show' Muscat
Lego ‘Arabian Towns’ Muscat

One of Oman’s iconic roundabouts – the airport roundabout was to feature in our Lego in Oman World Show ‘Arabian Towns’. Most of these roundabouts have disappeared into a world of flyovers and traffic lights needed by the colossal numbers of cars on Muscat’s roads.

There were purposes of course and for me they were essential and interlinked.

One was to show what was possible to do with imagination and standard Lego bricks. Our special tower joined a townscape which was fictional; Sinbad’s hometown from 1001 nights.

Another purpose was to catapult our company name into our potential customer’s attention and start a branding boost through hands-on experiences, competitions and media coverage.

Oman

Author: Tony Walsh

Book author including the current Bradt guide to Oman