BrickCon (Virtual) 2022 - Day 2

Day 2 was another great day. I started off by attending a few presentations. The first one was “The Lego News Room: Working at the Speed of Social Media.” This was about how LEGO in the US handles social media, carries on conversations across multiple channels, and keeps up with real time popular items. I’m not great at social media by any means so this was eye opening to me and it was interesting to hear what they had to say.

The next presentation I joined in on was “New Element Design from a Mechanical Engineering Perspective.” Two engineers from LEGO in Billund, Denmark talked about some of the parts they’ve designed, some of the challenges they’ve encountered, and what their experiences are working on the team.

Here are a few copies of slides they presented with examples of some parts the presenters worked on. They did specific parts, not the full minifigues.

They also showed us some of the software they use to make changes to parts. The picture below is an example of a part that they walked us through to talk about how they adjusted a part to improve its quality.

The next session I joined was an Ask Me Anything session with Jordan Paxton of the AFOL Engagement Team. Jordan helps run the LEGO® Ambassador Network (LAN) and while I have been a part of conversations with the LAN and AFOL Engagement Team in the past, this one was very heated and emotional. I was actually quite shocked how passionate people were. I’m not 100% certain on what is going on, but I guess a few LEGO User Groups (LUGs) were removed from the LAN and with that, they lost access to support from the LEGO Group and discount parts.

Two notes I did take were that we shouldn’t expect to see new set reveals at conventions and the brittle brown bricks issue has been solved, but LEGO has done a poor job advertising it. I guess the brown parts were stored at the top of the warehouse (warmest) and there was a color change issue that took place. Since then, they have added fans to warehouse and the issue has been fixed. What are you all seeing with your newer brown pieces?

The last thing I participated in was the Keynote presentation which was given by Angus MacLane. He is probably best known as a Director with Pixar, but is also an AFOL. I didn’t know it, but he was the fan designer behind set #21303-1: WALL-E. He stated that he was in the perfect position for the build as he was a part of the movie team so he knew about WALL-E well in advance and could start working on a LEGO version. Also, he was the one to approve the IP for Pixar so the LEGO designers had to work with him on any changes they made.

His introduction was given by someone in a Buzz Lightyear costume which was awesome!

He bragged that in making the Lightyear movie, he made sure the ship had a yellow windscreen to make sure that LEGO produced another yellow windscreen part. I don’t know how true that is, but I’m not sure I care. Glad the piece is out there now.

His talk was awesome, well put together, and very relatable for LEGO fans. As someone mentioned, this session was well worth the $25 registration fee to sign up. I actually think it may end up on YouTube in the near future. If it does, I’ll add a link.

The main purpose of the talk was to present how he goes about building MOCs. He uses the SUCCS method (defined below) and he went through various examples of builds he’s done and how he used this method. I don’t think I could do the talk justice here so just stay tuned for the video.

Onto day 3! Happy building!

BrickCon (Virtual) 2022 - Day 1

I took some time off from work to attend BrickCon 2022 virtually. It was also a good opportunity to do some building, sorting of parts, and organizing my store so I’ll take it.

Day one was pretty slow. This is due to the physical show just setting up so most of the attendees are assembling MOCs in the main hall.

For those of you not familiar, BrickCon is held in Washington state and this is the 21st year it has been held. 2020 kicked off the virtual side with COVID and BrickCon kept up a hybrid version in 2021. 2022 has a hybrid version as well. You can attend sessions via Zoom, there are games for virtual sessions only, and you have access to a Discord server just for attendees.

The first session I attended was titled BrickCon 101 which was an introduction to attending a virtual Con and was a good overview of the events going forward. I got to hear about some of the events like an auction happening over the weekend and some of the speakers. Also, Stuart Harris from the Lego House popped in to say hi.

Next up, I observed a speed build. I missed the sock build (build a set wearing socks on your hands). The speed build took set #31100-1 and an alternate build to the set was presented to the builders to assemble. The first one to finish won. The alternate build was a windmill and there were 5 participants. I was the only observer and then the BrickCon virtual host. As an observer, you’re supposed to heckle, but I kept my mouth shut mostly and watched. They finished pretty quickly and then a few of us chatted for a bit.

I re-joined my family for dinner and kiddo bedtime prep after this ended.

Next up was the opening ceremony. The virtual crew got to watch the opening ceremony going on live in Seattle. The presentation had a lot of administrative notes and then some information on moving the location in future years.

There were also prizes. In person attendees won a bunch, but the virtual crew also won a few to include…

This guy!!!! WOOHOO!!!

I won #71773-1: Kai’s Golden Dragon Raider from the Ninjago line.

This wasn’t new to those present in person, but for the virtual crew, we got to see the Convention Model for the first time. It’s titled “The Wooden Duck” and it contains 346 pieces. I don’t remember how much it cost, but I should get it sometime in mid to late October. I’m looking forward to it!

Lastly, I checked in with the virtual late night social for a bit before getting to bed. They were playing a LEGO based bingo game online. I played two rounds. You go to a web site, enter your info, and get a card. Then the host did random generated picks of various LEGO elements, minifigures, and other related items. I didn’t win, but it was fun and it was impressive to hear how many people knew which sets some of the obscure pieces were from.

I’m looking forward to day 2. It should be a few presentations and the key note speaker in the evening.

Happy building!

Brickcon 2022 - Registration Open

Brickcon 2022 is happening again this year in Seattle, WA on 1-2 October 2022. If you are an AFOL, you can register to attend the AFOL Fan Convention which starts on 29 September. They have limited in-person attendance for 500 people so sign up sooner rather than later if you plan to be in person. Registration is online here. For those of you who can’t make it to Seattle, you can still participate virtually. For a $25 registration fee, you can access presentation live streams, online games, tours, the private BrickCon Discord server, online social meet-ups, virtual door prizes, as well as a virtual exhibition with awards. A limited amount of swag bags, merchandise and commemorative models will be made available for purchase at a later date which is awesome. It’s not the full experience, but the hybrid option isn’t bad if you don’t live in the area or can’t fly to Seattle for that weekend.

I attended Brickcon 2020 or should I say virtually attended Brickcon 2020. It was fully virtual that year due to COVID so this will by my first hybrid experience. You can learn about my experience here: My experience. You can also read a quick intro here Intro and Swag and see a review of the convention set here: Convention Set Review.

I have not been able to attend a convention in person, but would like to some day. In the meantime, this is a great alternative option. I enjoyed the last time and I’m looking forward to this year. I’m hoping to be able to volunteer again like I did last time and with any luck, I’ll be able to purchase some swag as it included some cool stuff during my last venture to Brickcon. If you’re like me and can’t make it in person, but have the time to attend virtually, go for it!

The keynote speaker for this year is Angus MacLane who was the Director for Pixar movies like “Finding Dory” and “Lightyear.” The Brothers Brick site has a good write up about it here.

Hope to “see” you there!

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!

BrickCon 2020 - Intro and SWAG

I attended BrickWorld Virtual in May of 2020 and when I saw that BrickCon was also virtual this year (2-4 October), I had to sign up. If you’ve never head of it, BrickCon is normally a Seattle based convention. Based on a search online, it has been going on since around 2002 and is usually the first weekend of October. Hopefully someone can correct me if I’m wrong.

The convention was in the Pacific Coast of the US time zone so being 9 hours different didn’t help much as I would miss a bunch of the late night/early morning happenings. I did however sign up to be a “trusted virtual guide.” I don’t know how trusted I can be with leading people around virtual conventions, but it gave me a chance to help out and meet some new people. I’ll go into the convention in a separate post. For now I want to talk about the swag.

To attend as an AFOL you had to pay a bit more than the $5 the public paid, but they had various levels ranging from $25 to $90. I went for the biggest package being that it was my first BrickCon and I wanted to see what it was all about. So here’s what I got…

Tee-Shirts!

The first one is the Convention shirt and was designed by Kevin Hinkle. I definitely had my phone and computer on so that accurately reflects me(no tablet though). The next one is my TVG shirt to designate that I was one while on screen. I didn’t have the background set up for Zoom and you really couldn’t see the shirt, but that’s okay.

Also included were a few printed bricks. You had the option to get some custom ones so I got one that had my blog name. It also came with the yellow BrickCon 2020 brick. Finally, it had the white one which on the back says it is a recognized AFOL Networking Event. I stacked that on top of my BrickWorld brick so I can say I have attended two.

Still more swag… Next up was a baby minifig with the BrickCon logo on its shirt. Super awesome! Also, there was a 2x4 tan tile with the logo for this convention to include the date. Note the blue plate behind them is just from my collection to take the picture. It didn’t come with the swag pack.

Additionally, there was this fun pin with the logo. I’m not sure of the reason for the split up. Is it supposed to be like the shape of the LEGO House®?

I have not been to a physical convention yet, but apparently BrickCon hands out bags of parts for you to trade with other attendees. They did the same this year and you could then set up trade with people who live near you or I guess mail them to each other. I got six different parts and thankfully they are not standard bricks or plates. There’s a printed window panel, a tile with studs on the bottom, a larger window frame, a round 2x2 with an odd bottom (not sure what to call the light greenish one), a gold colored slope, and then a light gray 1x1 roof type slope. I’ll have to figure out how to build with these, but since I had never seen most of them, I’m pleased with what I was sent.

Lastly is the Con model. This one was designed by Chris Molloy. He’s the managing editor for the Brother’s Brick and a LEGO Ambassador. I have not built the set yet, but will and will post a review. The model is in a post disaster type world with a space minifigure exploring the ruins. The space minifigure comes in a rare orange color in the classic space theme. There are a few other cool pieces included. I look forward to digging into it.

Okay, that’s the cool swag. Are you drooling yet? I was super excited to get the container in the mail.

I’ll post later on some of the events I attended.

Happy building!