How I Got an Orange Classic Space Minifigure

I attended BrickCon 2020 virtually back in early October 2020 and finally got to building the convention model (I was building something else). You can see my other posts here and here. If you look at the post about SWAG you can see all of the stuff I got (for a fee). The set came in this small box with a printed sticker on it. The sticker has the Convention logo and some views of the set.

One of the big highlights is the minifigure in the set. It’s an orange classic space minifigure. If you’re reading this after 2020, this was the year the orange spaceman joined the crew which could be found in the LEGO Minifigure: A Visual History. Instead of buying the book to get the minifigure, I got this set. The difference is the minifigure cranium. The one from the book is the classic yellow with two dots for eyes and the single line smile. The one in the BrickCon set is a female with some eyebrows and lipstick. Anyways, this adds to the other recent additions to include the ones found in #70841-1: Benny’s Space Squad (2019) and then the LEGO Ideas #21109-1: Exo Suit from 2014.

Since it’s not an official set, it comes with some instructions and a standard plastic bag filled to the brim with parts. No piece separator here and the instructions don’t have anything about the designer. By the way, the designer was Chris Malloy. He’s the managing editor of The Brother’s Brick and designed a great set. His page is here.

Here’s the completed set. There are four 8x8 stud plates. Each one is connected to the others with Technic pins. It is designed so that you can add additional plates to the set as well. From left to right, you start with the the ladder from the space ship that the spacewoman climbed down. Then the next one is part of a castle wall with a deceased guard next to his spear and flag. There are a few pumpkin like plants with some leaves growing out of them. The final plate has part of a façade that has fallen over. There are some plants growing on them and the paint is wearing off (from white to gray).

Unlike official LEGO sets, there are some connections that wouldn’t fly. They are a bit flimsy and you have to be pretty delicate when assembling everything.

Also, the parts selection is pretty impressive. Besides the orange spacewoman, there are some less common parts. The pumpkins, the plants, the yellow and black branches, a silver curved tile, and a few others. Even if you don’t like the model, there are plenty of parts for other sets.

Did you attend Virtual BrickCon 2020 and did you get the set? Did you like it?

Happy building!

BrickCon 2020 - My Experience

I posted about some of the swag I received and a bit on BrickCon 2020 here. This post will focus on the content. I attended a Brickworld Virtual back in May 2020 and that was a number of online rooms that yoiu could go into and out of at will. There were a few presentations throughout the day as well. BrickCon was a lot more than that. They had multiple sessions scheduled every hour, a Discord server running full time, Zoom rooms to hang out in, and lots of prizes throughout. All of the MOCs on display were on a private Flickr group page for viewing. While I would have preferred the opportunity to go in person, meet people, ask questions of MOC builders, and not be stuck behind my computer, the experience was definitely worth it in a COVID-19 context. Here’s a run through of some of the events I attended.

Tiago Catarino is a former LEGO Designer turned YouTuber from Portugal. You can visit his YouTube channel here. Now he posts small builds that you can do yourself with minimal pieces. He also has a few videos on what it was like to work at LEGO and why he quit (spoiler alert… it was not because he hated LEGO). Tiago had two sessions. The first was a Q&A for registered AFOLs only where he gave a short presentation and then people could ask him questions. The second was a build with Tiago session open to the public. I attended the registered AFOL session. Tiago shared some great info about working at LEGO, being a YouTuber, and some of his other experiences. Here’s a screen shot of him below.

The next one I attended was a public session where Stuart Harris presented to the public. If you don’t know him, he’s the lead designer for the LEGO House®. Stuart gave a presentation about how the LEGO House® was developed and built. Then he gave a description of each of the zones and what you can do there. Below are a few pictures from the presentation that I grabbed. The first is one of Stuart’s creations/Stuart working at the LEGO House®. The second is a brick built model of the Minifig Cafe.

Another one I attended was with registered AFOLs only and was a presentation by Gaute Munch (Lego Product Technology Director) and Flemming Jepsen (from the Powered Up team) on Powered UP. I am not an expert in this area by any means so a lot of the conversation was a bit over my cranium, but it was interesting to here. My experience has been motorizing the Crocodile Locomotive, but there is a lot that LEGO has in the works. Just after BrickCon, LEGO released a new version of the app which allows customization. They are working on a rechargeable battery box, new software, and a bunch more. Gaute and Flemming took some tough questions from the audience and handled them very well. I’m glad I participated in this one. The screen shot below is one of the slides with Gaute presenting.

Another event was a keynote where Andrew Becraft (The Brothers Brick Founder and Editor-in-Chief) interviewed Skip Kodak (Executive Vice President, Americas Market Group - LEGO). This was an interesting conversation covering a range of topics from sustainability to COVID-19 impacts for the company, to the adult focused products and lines. I’m glad I attended this one and thought it was great that LEGO offered up someone from upper management to participate.

Throughout the event, a number of AFOLs got on to share their MOCs. One of them was with Ben Smith who lives in the UK. He builds in the space theme and has some pretty impressive MOCs. You can see what he builds on his Flickr page. The screen shot below shows a classic space set, but he had a modern take on it and some other larger space crafts to show off. The benefits of having a virtual event is to get folks to participate in other countries to include people like Ben (and me!).

LEGO Designer Chris McVeigh gave a presentation and Q&A. If you aren’t familiar with Chris and his work, he designed the Brick Sketches™ and the latest Winter Village set the #10275-1: Elf Clubhouse. Chris shared his AFOL experience, how he was hired by LEGO, and then some details on designing the Winter Village set.

I sadly did not get to see this full presentation, but Graham Hancock gave a presentation on LEGO’s foray into catering to adult fans. If you’re not familiar with Graham, he run Brick Fanatics and is the deputy editor for Blocks Magazine. The part of the presentation I saw had details on the history of sets focused for adults. Some I remember and some I hadn’t heard of. And of course some that I wish I had.

I also attended a presentation and Q&A with Henrik Andersen. Henrik is a LEGO Designer who might be best known for his recent work on #75252-1: Imperial Star Destroyer. He’s been with the company for a while and showed some of the other sets he worked on an parts he developed. He went through the details of how they develop parts and showed what works and what doesn’t work. Most notably (for me anyway) I learned he was the developer of the cheese slope.

One last presentation I attended was with George Patelis. George lives in Greece and goes by PatGeo313 on his YouTube channel and Flickr gallery. He made a short video on some of his latest MOCs on YouTube here. Definitely check his work out as he has some impressive stuff.

That was a quick glimpse into my BrickCon 2020 experience. I had a lot of fun even if it wasn’t in person. I hope I can attend again next year and maybe some day get there in person.

Until then, happy building!