BrickCon 2023

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?