Conventions

Set Review - BrickCon 2024 - CON MODEL

I’m a little late in building this one, but I’m glad I finally put it together. Each year, BrickCon has a Con Model and each year it’s been an awesome build. This one contains 451 pieces and was designed by one of the BrickCon Foundation team members named Bre Burns. The box is very bright and colorful with the front showing a girl and her dog while the back explains the idea behind the set. The side of the box shows that the set is #83 of 250 total sets assembled.

The set contains a plastic bag of parts, a 16x16 plate, a custom tile, and an instruction booklet.

The instruction booklet shows the assembled set on the front. In order to keep costs down, the instructions are a little more complicated then what you’d receive from LEGO. There are a lot of parts in each step as it is assumed that the builders of these sets are experienced builders and they can handle the challenging steps.

The set has plates for a base, some internal Technic workings, plates on the top, and then the top has a number of small builds. There is a girl figure, a dog, and then various smaller builds to represent the some of the different themes from LEGO past and present. In the back left there’s a flower to represent the Botanicals theme. The girl is holding a land speeder from Star Wars. Below the land speeder is a pirate ship and then a mini-Technic construction vehicle. In the center are two vehicles which could be CITY or Speed Champions. Also there’s a miniature Galaxy Explorer zooming up. In-between the girl and the dog is a box of bricks. This includes a few bricks assembled to look like the BrickCon logo. The right side of the build has a microfigure to represent the Ninjago line. In front are a small castle and then a train.

Here’s the view from the front. On the front is the printed tile and a pattern of 1x1 plates.

From the side, you can see the crank which you can turn to get the movement. The parts that move include the dog’s tail, the center track with the two cars and the Galaxy Explorer, and then the girl’s right hand moves up and down to fly the Land Speeder. You can also switch out the Land Speeder for the Galaxy Explorer.

It was a great build and I’m glad I was able to get it at BrickCon this year.

Happy building!

BrickCon 2024... Another Year of Awesomeness!

This is not my first post about BrickCon and it won’t be my last. If you’re not familiar with BrickCon, it’s the longest running LEGO® Fan Exhibition in the World. It took place this year in Bellevue, Washington (near Seattle) at the Meydenbauer Center for the second year in a row. This year continued the hybrid version of the convention with virtual activities, virtual tours of the in person MOCs, virtual games, and access to the presentations. I had a great time as a a virtual attendee and virtual staff member I realize the virtual experience is not the same as in person, but $25 for all of that access is a great deal! If you didn’t attend in person or virtually this year, I highly recommend you check it out next year.

Random note, you can do a self guided tour of the convention here.

Besides some great presentations, hanging out with fellow fans of the brick, playing fun games, and having time to build, I also enjoy some of the great merchandise that is available for purchase. Here’s a quick rundown of what I grabbed this year.

First up, I grabbed a few shirts. The convention tee shirt was ~$20. The theme this year was Foundations which represented going back to the foundation of the hobby and where many adult fans started, but also highlighted how BrickCon is now a foundation. I also grabbed a polo shirt. It was a bit pricy, at ~$50, but it it seems to be a good quality shirt.

I also grabbed a swag bag which came in this bag with the BrickCon and Sasquatch Bricks logo. It also included this cool water bottle with the BrickCon logo.

The bag came with a few advertisements which would have been great if I was in person, but I’ll take anyways. It also had a few stickers, a lanyard, a copy of the program, and some minifigure capes from Cape Madness.

It also came with a Warrior Pack from Brick Warriors. My pack came with a few weapons and some armor for some knights.

BrickCon has the opportunity to trade parts with fellow attendees. As a virtual attendee, I didn’t get that chance, but I did get some great parts. Here are the ones I received. The full bag of the forest green, brick textured 1x2 bricks are awesome!. I also was super excited to see a 32x32 dark blue base plate. No complaints about the other pieces either. Definitely a great haul!

There was also a bag of printed bricks, a minifigure, and some animals. I like the seals and am not going to complain to have more butterflies. It’s a fun minifigure too! The printed white 1x8 brick states that it’s a recognized AFOL Networking Event 2024 on that side and then says BrickCon 2024 on the other side.

As an attendee, you get some printed bricks that you can customize. The blue 1x8 was standard, but I requested the yellow and red ones. I got one for the update to my business and the other one to highlight how I end my blog posts.

Last up was the convention model. I forget the price… sorry. This one was designed by Bre Burns. Bre is a member of the BrickCon staff and also did a stint writing for the Brother’s Brick web site. As you can see, I haven’t built it and will do a set review once I get to that point, but from the introduction of the set at the convention, it looks awesome. I can’t wait.

Speaking of which, why are you waiting? Mark your calendar for July 2025 to go in and sign up for BrickCon 2025 in September (9-12 I believe). If you can’t attend in person, attend virtually.

Happy building!

Get Your Tickets for Brickcon 2024!

I’m a bit late, but tickets are available for Brickcon 2024 now! The event is being held on 7 and 8 September 2024 at the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue, WA. You can learn more about attending with the public here. You can attend the AFOL convention and learn about that here.

This will be the 23rd Brickcon and like the past few years, the show will be hybrid. If you can’t make it to Washington state, you can tune in virtually for the convention. This gives you access to the presentations, allows you to buy merch, let’s you participate in the virtual only events, and opens you up for winning door prizes. Full disclosure, I’m on the virtual event team so I’m biased and want you to participate. It’s definitely worth it.

Rumor has it that this year a member of the LEGO Design team will be participating in person so that should be cool. If I get any more fun details, I’ll be sure to pass them along

Happy building!

Set Review - BrickCon 2023 - Convention Model

I’m a little late on this one as BrickCon 2023 was earlier last month (September 2023). The convention model for this set was of the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue, Washington. This is the location where the convention moved in 2023 after being elsewhere for a long time. The set contains 492 pieces and was exclusive to the convention so unless you find someone selling it on the secondary market somewhere, you won’t be able to pick it up anytime soon. You could source the majority of the pieces with the exception of the custom printed BrickCon tile.

The top of the box has a picture of the set and the set name. The bottom of the box has the BrickCon logo. I included a picture of the side of the box as I received set number 82 of only 250 produced. How about that for rare?

The set contains a Ziploc bag of parts. BrickCon sources it’s parts through the LUG Bulk program via LEGO and then volunteers sort through it all. So while it’s not the professional looking sealed bag, it works for this set. Of note, the volunteers missed putting in two of the 2x2 blue plates needed for the set. Thankfully, I had some on hand so I was able to complete the build as described in the instructions.

Here’s the final build. It looks to be a similar scale to the Architecture theme. Maybe? The front captures some of the key building details quite well. They also got the sidewalks and roads pretty accurate. The printed tile is a nice addition to replicate the electronic billboard out front. Why the odd seams you ask? Let’s move on…

If you didn’t notice from the last picture, there are some red plates and tiles sticking out the back of the building. These parts can be pushed in through a slot in the back of the building. This then pushes out a small 3D representation of the BrickCon logo via some Technic pieces. This also pushes open the front of the building which is connected with hinge pieces so it opens up. This is a pretty clever design and something that was not mentioned when the set was released so a fun surprise after building it.

It was actually a challenging build. The instructions are designed to save space and so there are a lot of steps crammed onto each page. I missed a few parts early on and have to tear it apart to get it just right so the mechanism would work.

Great job BrickCon team! I look forward to attending next year and building another convention model.

Happy building!

BrickCon 2023 - Attending Virtually Was Awesome

I attended BrickCon virtually from 7 through 10 September 2023 and had a blast as a third time attendee. This year I applied for, interviewed, and was selected to be a part of the virtual staff. In the past, I have done posts about all the activities I participated in. This year, my focus was more on making sure everything went smoothly in virtual land so I don’t have too much to post about specific presentations. I do have a bunch to share though.

Con Printed Program

This year’s theme was “Journeys” as the convention moved from it’s prior location in of many years in WA to the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue, WA. I had never been to the previous location, but we got a virtual tour of the new location and it looked like a great facility. The wifi there was better too which helped for Zoom connections.

Virtually we started with to tour of the facility, we got to see MOCs being set up, and we got an insider look at the Swag bags and convention model.

As mentioned, I didn’t participate in a ton of presentations, but I did get to participate in a number of the games. We had a 150 piece free build to a theme (pick any 150 pieces in your collection and build to the theme in 1 hour). We also had attendees go out and get set #31135-1: Vintage Motorcycle. We did a number of games with this set to include a speed build of an alternate set found on rebrickable.com, a sock build of one of the models, a sock unbuild of the main model, an alternate build with your own background using any parts in 45 minutes, and finally the free build with your own collection of parts to a theme within 1.5 hours. They were a lot of fun to host and watch and I think the participants enjoyed themselves. We had a lot of talented and creative builders.

One new thing we did this year was hold a Virtual AFOL Spotlight. This was an opportunity to either share pictures or take your web camera and show some builds you were working on or sets you had on display. A bunch of us had a great time chatting and showing off bricks. Hopefully we can continue this event into the future.

Screen shot of Robein Sather’s opening slide from his keynote presentation

This year, the keynote speaker was Robin Sather. He is a LEGO Certified Professional from Canada and a super talented builder. He brought a bunch of large scale Duplo builds to the convention (and there are some videos out there of him crashing it after the show ended). His presentation went though the history of AFOLs, his building history, and his involvement in LEGO Masters New Zealand. Below is a picture of one of his Duplo builds from his presentation. Overall, his talk was great and well received by the virtual attendees.

Picture of a build by Robin Sather from his BrickCon 2023 presentation.

One of the highlights I always enjoy is the swag and merch from BrickCon. Here’s a quick rundown of everything I ordered.

Here’s the convention t-shirt. I thought the logo was great. I like the sea monster in there.

There was another string back pack this year to carry all of the swag. The biggest item was a notebook with a pen and some sticky notes inside. It says it’s for travel plans to conventions and to put down ideas for future MOCs.

This year included two stickers. One from the Brothers Brick and the other being the BrickCon logo.

Also included was a lanyard from Bricks and Minifigs and then a retractable brick separator clip which was awesome.

We got a few items from vendors to include a pack from Brick Warriors with some custom minifigure hair pieces, some printed bricks from the Brick Chick, and some custom capes/aprons from Cape Madness.

Similar to last year, we got a buildable BrickCon logo. Then we got some parts for trading. At the convention attendees can swap parts. As a virtual attendee, you just keep them all unless you have friends to trade with.

Lastly, there was a small build of a minifigure scale moving dolly, a bunch of printed parts from various sets, a custom printed tile with the BrickCon ‘23 logo, another BrickCon custom printed part for a box to carry with the dolly, and then my printed bricks that I ordered.

I also purchased the BrickCon convention model, but I’ll do a separate review on that one another time.

Sorry, not a detailed post for this year. I highly recommend you attend next year. It was only $25 to register for the virtual session so it’s pretty affordable. Hopefully the price remains the same next year. You can follow updates for 2024 and sign up for the mailing list here. I hope to see you in virtual attendance in 2024!
Happy building!

Attend the Longest Running LEGO Fan Convention From Your Home

The AFOL portion for BrickCon 2023 is coming up fast. It will be 7 through 10 September 2023. If you’re like me, you’d love to go in person, but the airline ticket, hotel costs, and transportation costs of going in person would really eat into your budget. The good news is you can still attend virtually. You can buy your ticket here and still participate in presentations, get a live tour of the MOCs on display, play the games with other attendees, be eligible for prizes, and buy the convention merchandise (convention model, swag bag, t-shirts, etc.). Registration is $25 for all the access. There’s still time to sign up.

Hope to see you there! Happy building!

Registration is Now Open for BrickCon 2023

Registration is now open for BrickCon 2023! The dates are 7 through 10 September 2023 for the AFOL convention and public days are 9 and 10 September. You can go register here. Tickets for the in-person AFOL convention are $85 until 24 August and then they go to $100. The virtual convention will be $25 regardless of when you purchase your ricket.

The convention will be at the Meydenbaur Center in Bellevue, WA this year which is a change from previous years, but it sounds like it should be a great event despite the new location. You can learn more about BrickCon here. There will be a public convention as well, but those tickets aren’t available yet so check back for when they start.

I plan to attend virtually again this year. Will you be there?

Brickcon 2022 - Swag

If you go slightly earlier in the Blog, you can read about my BrickCon ‘22 virtual experience. Prior to the start I pre-ordered some swag. My shipment arrived shortly after Brickcon ended (like a few days later). I think I paid a little over $100, including shipping for my swag. Here’s what I received:

A custom printed minifigure is the first item. This one came with pants and a dress. The torso has the BrickCon logo on the front and then “Established in 2002” on the back. It has the original yellow minifigure head with smiling face and then a red hat. Also included is a coffee mug with the BrickCon logo printed on it. I like it!

Next up were printed bricks. You could get 2 custom bricks so I ordered one for each of my kiddos. One was yellow with black lettering and the other was blue with white lettering. They were excited to receive them. I also received a BrickCon 2022 brick, a BrickCon Volunteer brick for being a Trusted Virtual Guide (TVG), and then a Recognized AFOL Networking Event 2022 brick. My collection continues to grow.

Next was a small kit of parts to assemble the BrickCon logo in brick form. I did built and I proudly have it displayed on my desk. Perhaps I’ll have to look into making a bigger version.

This year also included a collectible metal cup with an engraved BrickCon logo on it and then a BrickCon deck of playing cards. I haven’t opened the cards yet, but hopefully they have something related to the theme versus the standard playing card design.

Also included was a back pack/bag branded by BrickNerd. Probably super useful to carry around the actual convention for storage purposes.

I purchased the shirt separately. As it was the 21st year of the convention, they felt like a party theme fit in so you get a cocktail of some sort with brick ice cubes.

Much like my last time, I got a bunch of bricks for trading. Since I wasn’t there, I didn’t get to trade, but they are some good pieces that they get through LUGBulk. I haven’t looked them all up on Brickset yet, but they all seem like bricks that aren’t super common. I got a bag of printed tiles from the Haunted House set. Not sure what I’ll do with all of them, but there they are. Anyone want to trade?

Lastly, I received convention model #184 of 250 made for the convention. The set box got a bit smashed during shipment, but it’s all good. I intend to build it versus adding it to the store. Sorry if you were looking for one. I will do a separate review of the set during another post.

Happy building!

BrickCon (Virtual) 2022 - Day 4

The last day of BrickCon!

First, I tuned into a Q&A session with Steven Walker about BrickCon and future events. Next year, the physical convention is moving to Bellevue, WA for the first time in 21+ years so there were a lot of questions about that. On the virtual side, they said they will keep it going as long as they can get at least 50 people to attend and they’d like to virtual side to go on 24 hours a day if possible during the convention as they know there are folks in different time zones. Maybe someday, I’ll make it to BrickCon in person.

Next up I attended the BrickCon Commerative Model Q&A with Chris Malloy. Chris has been designing the BrickCon models since 2017-ish. He lost count on the number he’s done in total. Chris went through the design process, challenges with parts, creating the box, designing the instructions, and getting the parts.

Here’s his slide where he introduced himself.

Here’s the final model design. Chris said designing the model was pretty easy. The challenges came in the rest of the process.

Chris mentioned challenges he had with new pieces not being in Stud.io, trying to make sure all the parts could be sourced using the LUGBulk program, and then some issues with printed pieces as seen in some of the examples below.

Here’s the copy of the box. Chris showed how he did a pencil sketch, colored it in, and then it became the box.

The custom tile is original to this set only. The left side shows some of the draft versions before the center one became the final version.

Chris mentioned that he had to add a lot of pieces during each step in the instructions to keep the instructions to a specific page count. This kept the price lower. They considered digital instructions, but decided the better option was to go with printed ones so people could build them at the convention and they wouldn’t have to worry about keeping the instructions active online for years to come.

Great presentation and great model Chris! Thanks to you and the BrickCon team for putting this together. I can’t wait for my set to arrive.

Next up was Stuart Harris from the LEGO® House again. He talked about how they go about developing the exclusive models sold at the brand store in the LEGO® House. Here are the last 3 sets.

Here are some concept models of #40501-1: Wooden Duck. Stuart built the concept models and then turned them over to another designer for the final production model. He also showed how they advertised the set within the LEGO® House.

One interesting note, Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen is the one who approves the sets and Stuart said that while he’s honored that Kjeld is the one to approve, it is pretty nerve wracking to bring a set to his office.

Here is #40502-1: The Brick Moulding Machine. It started off as an idea to make the moulds, but then turned into the machine that you can see in the LEGO® House today.

Next, Stuart talked about #40503-1: Dagny Holm - Master Builder. He talked about Dagny, getting the set built, and choosing what they would go with in a final set.

Stuart talked about the models they design for the LEGO Insider Tour as well, but the more popular discussion was this 3D printed duck below. Here’s an article from Bricket.com on the duck. This was recently released at the AFOL Fan Media Day as well as at Skærbæk Fan Weekend (I think). There were a lot of questions on this duck and a ton of interest. Stuart had one on hand to show off. He mentioned that it may return in a wider offering sometime in the future so we’ll see what happens.

The last presentation I participated in was by Becky Gorlin. She is a middle school level educator and LEGO Robotics Instructor at Granite Falls School District in Washington (about a 50 minute drive from Seattle and the convention area). I sadly didn’t catch the whole thing, but it sounded very interesting and it was cool to see how she uses LEGO in all aspects of education. I’m hoping they post this one online later.

Lastly, the closing ceremony. There were words of thanks, some admin notes, info on future conventions, lots of prizes, and then awards. I didn’t capture all of the awards, but here are the honorable mentions and winner of the Best in Show awards.

First, the 2 honorable mentions. These winners got a copy of #10497-1: Galaxy Explorer. Not sure how the group is going to share the set, but great build!

And the winner got a copy of #10305-1: Lion Knights Castle.

Nice work MOC builders!

It was a great convention, even if I did attend virtually. Thanks to those who worked hard to put it on and safe travels to everyone on their way home.

I will post more once my swag and the convention model arrive.

In the meantime, happy building!

BrickCon (Virtual) 2022 - Day 3

Back for more fun!

We started the day watching a tour of the convention floor before the public was allowed in. It was quick but great to see everything. I hope it gets posted online so I can go through it again and hit pause to look at things.

The first presentation I attended was by LEGO® House employee Stuart Harris. I have heard presentations by Stuart before and am familiar with the LEGO® House based on my 2019 visit there. I tuned in to get an update on some of the changes which was good. Beyond that, a lot of it was a repeat, but that was okay. Stuart was in person at the convention so that was a nice change versus having a lot of the LEGO® employees online.

The next event I attended was titled “Building Feedback: Peer Review in the LEGO Community” and it was presented by Kyle Keller who also writes for the Brothers Brick. Initially, I thought it was a bit ridiculous. Have we lost the ability to communicate with each other without hurting feelings or being rude? I would think this should be obvious, but I need to step out of my box and understand that the world is different. It was probably a good thing for people to realize that they can’t hide behind their online firewalls and need to give good constructive feedback. Kyle gave some lessons and then did practice with some pictures of old builds that he had. Props to Kyle for handling a challenging topic.

The last presentation I attended was by Deb Banerji titled “Lego Mosaics: Algorithms, Software, and Other Fun Stuff.” Deb built an open source program to take pictures and turn them into mosaics out of LEGO parts. He explained how he optimized the program, some challenges still involved, and a lot of other higher math that was above my brain. Very interesting though. The link to his site is below or you can find it here.

The awards ceremony was on day 3, but it was a bit late for me. I hope the best folks won!