Set Review - #40560-1: Professors at Hogwarts™ - Brickheadz - Harry Potter

Here are Brickheadz numbers 170 to 173. Can you believe we’ve had that many already? #40560-1: Professors at Hogwarts™ was released in the US on 27 June 2022. It retails for $39.99 and contains 601 pieces. This works out to $0.067 per piece which isn’t too bad. The set contains four of the professors who teach at Hogwarts to expand on the Harry Potter characters that have been offered in BrickHeadz form besides the three main characters.

Onto the review…

The front shows the 4 figures with the BrickHeadz and Harry Potter logos. It also gives the number of each character. The back then just shows the same figures and that you can remove them from a base that you build out of plates.

My set showed up damaged (thanks FedEx). There was a big hole tear in the box and one of the parts bags was open. Thankfully nothing ended up missing during the build.

The contents are four numbered parts bags with two bags each for eight total. Each numbered bag is tied to an instruction booklet so you could build this set with other people if desired.

Bag number one is tied to Brickheadz number 170 Severus Snape™. The design seems to capture the character pretty well. You get a few 1x5 tile pieces which is fun if you are like me and still enjoy seeing them. He also comes with a flask for building potions. The unique printed tile is a purple tile in the front that is his shirt.

Next up is bag two which builds number 171 Minerva McGonagall™. My daughter built this one and realized she clipped the hat on wrong as compared to the instructions, but I’m okay with the large feather pieces being in the back so we left it. Are the feather pieces from Ninjago? Or Monkie Kid?

This one has two printed tiles in the front as part of her robe and also a gold ring attached as a necklace. The set comes with an extra one which is a bonus if you are trying to create a “Lord of the Rings” scene. There is a gold cup that the figure holds which is also a nice addition. I don’t think it’s too rare, but they are often clear versus gold.

Bag three builds number 172 Alastor Moody. There was some interesting SNOT work to get the brown band on his forehead. While building it, I wasn’t sure how it was going to work, but it looks good in the end. You get a printed eye piece element and then his shirt/jacket is a printed tile. There are a few 1x5s as well. The hair portion is fun to assemble with the various curves and angles. I think they did a good job trying to recreate the movie character here.

Lastly, bag four builds number 173 Sybill Trelawney. I like how they integrated the cloth headband the character wears and the glasses are fun with the nose bridge in the middle incorporated into the face as a brick. The hair is another fun section to build with all of the angles and curves that end up coming together in the end. There’s a printed tile in the front as her shirt and she’s holding a tea cup.

Here they are all together. Not a bad bunch if you are a fan of Brickheadz or the Harry Potter theme. I am not a collector of Brickheadz and I only purchase sets that interest me. I’m a fan of the Harry Potter stuff and I added these to my collection of previous Harry Potter Brickheadz. For the price per piece the cost isn’t too bad and if you wait until closer to the end of this set’s shelf life, you might be able to get it on discount.

Happy building!

A Place Where Minifigures Can Go to Drink Adult Beverages

Or maybe this post title should have been: Set Review - BrickCon 2022 - Convention Model - The Wooden Duck

If you scroll back in the blog a bit, you can see my posts about attending BrickCon 2022 virtually. As a virtual attendee, I was able to order SWAG and a convention model just like they physical attendees. My order arrived quickly after the event was over. You can see more on the SWAG here.

I ordered the convention model from 2020 as well and you can see that review here.

“The Wooden Duck” was the name of this model and it contains 346 pieces. You can see my write up about a talk Chris Malloy did at BrickCon 2022 here. I tried to summarize the process he went through without typing it out word for word. I don’t remember how much I paid for the model. Maybe $30? I thought the cost was reasonable and BrickCon mentioned that they don’t make a profit on the model. It’s assembled by volunteers and they just pass along the cost to us.

The box has a distinct look to it with a design also made by Chris of the model. The front also has the BrickCon logo and the number of pieces. The back has the BrickCon logo and the year. My box got crushed during shipping and the seal came undone. Not a big deal for me as I intended to build it and not keep it sealed or sell it.

One side of the box has Chris’s name on it. Another had a hand written number stating that I purchased #184 of 250 total models. I’m not sure I've ever owned such a rare product.

The contents were a plastic bag with parts in it and then the instruction booklet. BrickCon used the LUGBulk program to source the parts and then the volunteers went through and helped to put the parts in each bag. The instructions are printed which is nice, but there are a lot of steps crammed into each section. BrickCon assumes the buyers of these models are AFOLs who build regularly so this won’t be a big deal. It probably wouldn’t be great for kids or newer builders.

The set comes with one minifigure who is a bartender. He has a glass and what has been used as a cast, but is being used as a cloth. His face has two prints. The side I took the picture of and then a laughing face. I like the torso with the suspenders and tie.

The set comes with 3 printed tiles. One is an art piece from #10297-1: Boutique Hotel. One is a mirror from… um… I’m not sure. Then the last one is a custom tile, unique to this set. It has the infamous wooden duck, a reference to the 90th anniversary of LEGO and its start in 1932, and finally the number 21 in reference to the 21st BrickCon.

Onto the final build… this design is jam packed with a ton of details considering the size and piece count. Plus, it was designed knowing a lot of great pieces would be used for AFOLs who want to take it apart for MOCs. The brick red color along with the sand green pieces are two colors that aren’t super popular and they’re great to see. The various items used as bottles are very creative and it really looks like how you’d picture a bar. The balls used as lights hanging on the top are all glow in the dark pieces which is cool and one of the bottles glows in the dark too.

Chris threw in a squirrel. I’m guessing it was so you had another opportunity to get a squirrel. I’m not sure why there would be one at the bar. Maybe it’s eating the pretzel?

Overall, it’s a great build. I like the piece usage and the cost was very reasonable considering what you get. There is some play functionality in that you can add more minifigures or add the bar to another scene. If I attend BrickCon again, I hope to have the ability to get the convention model. Nice job Chris!

Set Review - #10311-1: Orchid - Botanicals - 18+

2021 saw the release of #10280-1 Flower Bouquet and since then the Botanicals Collection line has been pretty popular. In 2022 we saw two more sets in the theme get released. The first one is #10311-1: Orchid. This one was released in the US on 15 April 2022 for $49.99. It contains 608 pieces which works out to $0.082 per piece. The good news is that at the time of this post, a few retailers in the US have had it on sale as of late. I purchased it from Target and was able to get the VIP point offering from LEGO too. It’s not as many VIP points as buying direct from LEGO, but it’s better than nothing and the set was on sale.

The box looks similar to the Flower Bouquet with the black coloring and and 18+ greebling. The front shows the front side of the set. The back gives another view, dimensions of the flowers, a picture of the actual flowers, and a few close up shots.

The set comes with four numbered parts bags, two longer Technic axles, and an instruction booklet. Bag one contains a piece separator.

The first bag builds the internals of the pot for the plant. It is a good example of how to make something round out of bricks that are typically square. You build an internal structure using plates and then connect the outside with Technic beams and pins.

The second bag adds the design to the outside of the pot. I’m not sure of the official name of the blue color, but I like the shade of blue. If you end up not liking the set, getting some of this blue color is a decent perk. Repeating the step a bunch of times isn’t exactly fun, but my NLS and I built it together so we shared the load.

The third bag builds some leaves, stems, and roots. Like the flower bouquet, this one has little blurbs in the instructions that explain what you are building or where a piece came from in the LEGO world. The instructions can be challenging to follow all of the angles of the stems, but in the end it doesn’t matter a whole lot as you can have the stems grow in whichever way you want them to grow.

Here’s the final build. The last bag builds 6 flowers and then 2 of the smaller ones. The design of the larger ones is pretty cool. I especially like the frog piece that is mixed in. You can place the flowers wherever you want on the stems, but we did our best to follow the instructions.

Definitely a fan of this one. It looks pretty realistic and my NLS was even willing to set in the house as she was glad to not have to water it (still have to dust it).

Definitely look to pick this set up on sale. I’ve seen it a few places for $41 at the time of this posting. Maybe it’ll go down further for Black Friday sales.

In the meantime, happy building!

Set Review - #910023-1: Venetian Houses - Bricklink Designer Program

The 2021 Bricklink Designer Program Round 2 sets made it a little while back and I finally got to put one together.. I was most excited about #910023-1: Venetian Houses. It contains 3,470 pieces and retailed for $289.99 in the US. That works out to $0.084 per piece. While this is a hefty price to pay, you are getting two 32x32 base plates with buildings. Or said another way, you are getting two modular buildings in one set.

Part of my inspiration came from seeing some Venetian styled houses back at a show in Germany in 2019 (scroll down a bit to find them if you go to the link). I have so many ideas of sets I’d like to expand upon and here is yet another one.

I don’t have one of these available in my store (sorry), but I have a few others if you are looking for the Bricklink Designer Program sets. You can see them at the Bricks for Bricks Bricklink store here.

Onto the review…

The box is similar in design to the Round 1 sets. It’s all white with the BrickLink logo on it. The front does give credit to the fan designer so that’s a nice perk for them. Also the Bricklink silver seals are on the box along with the standard LEGO seals.

This set came with a bunch of parts bags and then another box of parts bags. When it’s all done, you get 17 sets of numbered bags, two 32x32 base plates, two 16x16 plates, and an unnumbered bag. Similar to previous sets, there are no printed instructions. You can download a PDF version from the BrickLink site or use the LEGO Builder app. I did both and it worked okay, but I still prefer building without having to stare at a screen.

The first set of bags follows the build of a traditional modular building by laying out the sidewalk area and then for this one, some of the canal. You also get started on a bridge over the canal.

Bag 2 finishes up the bridge by installing antennas as the railings. You also build up a dock area with some barrels and then the floor of the first building. The build starts on some of the walls and a door.

Bag 3 continues work on the first floor. Two walls are built up with a similar pattern used throughout the build that gets a little old, but works for the design. The door isn’t exactly flush with the frame so there is a slight gap, but it’s not overly glaring based on how an outside arch is added in. Inside the building there are works of brick art. I assume it is some sort of art gallery. Additionally you add in a set of stairs built as a spiral staircase. It looks cool, but I’m not sure how practical it is for a minifigure to climb up.

Build 4 wraps up the first floor. It adds in some windows in a nice design which gets a bit old by the end of the build as the same design is used for each set of windows. While I complain, it does look like what I would think a building in Venice would look like. The bag comes with 4 minifigures, but more on them later.

Unlike most LEGO sets, the end of the bag doesn’t end with the floor. Instead, you start on the second floor before finishing up this bag.

The fifth bag continues the second floor. It adds some walls and then inside a tiled floor (single color), a bed, an old fashioned phone, and a small desk and chair. Maybe it’s not an art gallery, but the home to a painter or someone who just likes brick art?

The sixth bag finishes up the second floor by installing the walls, adding a tiled top so you can connect another layer, and adding a few details like the rain spout.

The seventh set of bags adds the roof. This is built by using curved slope pieces. While the walls are all very white, it is nice to have a bit of color variation in the roof with the orange, nougat color, and darker tan-ish color (I know, not the official color names). The roof has a nice gentle slope and I think it goes well with the building.

The eighth set of bags starts the second building on the second baseplate. Similar to the last one, you build out the sidewalk and canal way. Then you get started on the walls.

The ninth set of bags continues work on the first floor. The walls and windows are built similar to the previous building. The door again isn’t flush with the frame, but it works here. Inside, I initially thought it was a hotel with a reception desk, but it ends up being a book store. In this bag, you build the cashier stand, a book shelf, and a table with some chairs for people to sit at. The minifigure who works there comes in this bag.

The tenth set of bags adds more wall. This set comes with a lot of the brick design textured bricks so if you’re a big fan of those, you’ll be pleased with this set as there are a lot.

Internally to this build, there are a few more book shelves added in and a reading area in one of the corners. You get a few printed tiles that are added in as newspapers. The “books” help to break up the build with some additional color. This bag comes with 2 more minifigures. An adult female and a boy who is reading a book about half his size.

Bag 11 mostly finishes up the first floor with walls and windows. You install a door on the back of the building which can be used for people on boats to stop into the shop. Lots more brick textured bricks are used.

Bag 12 is split between two floors so we’ll start with this floor. You wrap up the first floor by topping off the walls with tiles and a few studs so the upper floor will fit on. You also add in the small dock area for a boat to pull up to drop someone off. Then you build a gondola. This includes 2 more minfigures.

As mentioned the other part of bag 12 is the next floor shown in the first picture. Bag 13 then starts to build up the walls and windows with similar techniques from the other floor and building.

Bag 14 adds more of the walls and you get more brick textured pieces.

The inside of this floor isn’t fully furnished, but it is meant to be some sort of music studio. Here you get a minifigure scaled piano along with a piano player.

Bag 15 finishes up the walls and adds a music stand and saxaphone player. I forget where the break was, but you add the tiles on top for modular building stacking purposes too.

Bags 16 and 17 finish up the roof. It is built in a similar style only this one has a chimney and a small window. You also get 2 sea gulls bringing the total that you get with this set to 3. The roof is color similar to the other building which helps to make it stand out from the white and tan of the rest of the building.

13 minifigures total is pretty good for a modular building type set. You get a decent mix of genders, ages, and parts so no complaints there. Many of them have dual printed heads so even better.

$290 for a modular building set is quite a bit, but it’s somewhat in line with #10255-1: Assembly Square. Although Assembly Square comes with more pieces, this set wasn’t as mass produced so maybe it’s tough to do a direct comparison. Either way, I’m a big fan. I think the set was a great build and I look forward to adding it to a city of modular buildings (some day). Some of the structure techniques were a bit repetitive, but in the end, they look great and in the style of a Venetian building.

This is the part where I normally recommend whether you should buy the set or not, but it’s not available from LEGO so you’ll by it on Bricklink or eBay or elsewhere for quite a bit more. The good news is that you can get the instructions online for free and can try to purchase the pieces on your own or use your own collection. I’m not sure which would be cheaper, but it’s an option.

Did anyone else get this set? What did you think?

Happy building!

This is the LEGO® Train Set We've been Waiting for... (maybe)

LEGO announced the results of their latest Ideas round on 25 October 2022. There were 39 submissions that achieved 10,000 votes this round and oddly enough, LEGO selected 4 to become sets. This is after rounds where we’ve had over 50 submissions and only 1 was selected. I’m not sure how they figure it out, but I’m excited as this time a train submission finally made it over the hurdle into being selected to become a set.

Fan Designer Thomas Lajon (aka LEt.sGO) from France built a version of the famous Orient Express using the Bricklink software Stud.io and it was selected to become a set. You can read his 10K club interview here.

The fan design looks good and I’m sure some of the photo editing skills help, but he does mention in his interview that the wheels he used don’t fit on the track so hopefully LEGO can fix this when they get to work. Also, his set is 2,991 pieces so if it stays that large, I could see this being a $300 set (or more with a motor).

Here is a top view of the engine. It shares the same color as #10194: Emerald Night, but hopefully the design is different enough that we won’t see a repeat of that set.

Here is a top view of the passenger car with the roof removed. I wonder if the set will come with options so you can turn the car into a passenger car or a dining car or a sleeping car. Or if LEGO gets really bold, the set could come with more than one car… whoa!

So LEGO…. how can you get this set right for fans?

1 - Make sure this train fits on LEGO gauge rails. I’ve been to multiple places where I’ve seen fans posting about their disappointment in #76405-1: Hogwarts Express Collector’s Edition. A lot of fans were super excited about a details, non-CITY train coming out geared towards train fans. There was a lot of disappointment when the community found out it couldn’t be run on your existing track and it was just meant as a display piece. So keep it on the L-Gauge rails LEGO!

2 - Additional coaches would be great. Or let me rephrase that…. Additional coaches would be great if I didn’t have to drop another $300 on a copy of the set.

3 - Make sure we can motorize this train. Does a motor really need to cost $40? While being able to display #10277-1: Crocodile Locomotive was nice, moving it to some LEGO track with a motor made it that much better. Oh and if you missed the Crocodile Locomotive set, I have one available in my Bricklink store.

To be fair, this is not an easy task. Build a product that does all that and that won’t cause me to break the bank. Don’t worry LEGO designers. I have faith in you! You can do it! I look forward to seeing the final product in a year or so.

In the meantime, happy building!

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!

Creations for Charity 2022 - Open Now - 15 October to 30 November

Our campaign for 2021 supported Creations for Charity and while this year we will give to another worthy cause, it doesn’t mean you can’t support more than one. The 2022 Creations for Charity drive started on 15 October 2022. You can see their start post here. If you don’t remember them or you’re new, you can check out what Creations for Charity is about here. Most importantly, you can visit their shop to purchase cool custom MOCs and minifigures. Last year they raised over $35,000 to give to kids at 15 different locations across 7 countries. It would be great to see them expand that further this year.

Also, it’s not too late to donate a MOC. There’s a link on the shop page if you want to do that.

If nothing in the shop looks enticing, you can donate cash as well through their PayPal link.

Lastly, stay tuned for the 24-hour live stream hosted by Beyond the Brick.

Happy building and thanks for giving!.

Set Review: #71034 - Series 23 Collectible Minifigures

We’re at the last collectible minifigure series of the year. #71034: Series 23 contains 12 new minifigures and they were released in the US staring on 26 July 2022. They still retail for $4.99 per bag. This series contains 8 costumed minifigures which is quite high compared to past offerings. Not saying that’s a bad thing, just different from the past. There are also a number of holiday themed minifigures as this series will take us through the end of the calendar year and past Thanksgiving and Christmas LEGO Shop @ Home still gave an initial cap of 16 bags and 2 boxes for 28 minifigures total. We’ll see if that remains or if they end the cap later. I’ve been able to purchase collectible minifigure series offerings from Target and Walmart online with caps on individual orders, but no overall cap.

I don’t see the price changing anytime soon, but of note, I saw Series 22 on sale at Target and Best Buy before it retired so perhaps if you wait, you may see Series 23 go on sale in December closer to when it will come off the shelves.

My comments on the individual minifigures is below. Happy building!

Green Dragon Costume Guy comes with a dragon tail, the wings, a head piece and two horns on top. I think it’s a pretty cool looking minifigure.

Ferry Captain is fun with the giant boat that he’s wearing, but I think the red smoke stack is slightly in the way. I guess you could just remove the one in front of him if you wanted.

Next is two Christmas themed minifigures with Reindeer Costume Girl and a female Christmas Elf. They both come with some extra accessories which is good. The elf is a new torso and hair piece from any of the previous ones so that is a nice addition for anyone looking to add to their Winter Village themed layouts.

Wolf Costume Guy comes with a bag and is licking his lips so he just ate something or maybe hopes to eat something. This one is reminiscent to Series 19’s Fox Costume Girl with the sack and looking for food.

Knight of the Yellow Castle is the name Brickset.com and Bricklink.com list for this one. I’m guessing this is a reference tot he yellow castle of old, but I find it odd that it is colored pink. Wouldn’t it be yellow?

Cardboard Costume girl flashes back to some of the minifigure robots we’ve had in past series. This time, it’s a costumed minifigure.

Popcorn Costume guy has shown up in a lot of great MOCs on line with Series 17’s Corn Cob guy.

Oddly, the Snowman was the hardest one for me to find. I eventually got it and then another so who knows. This one is actually a costumed minifigure. There is a minifigure head underneath the snowman head. Interesting that they chose that option versus just molding a solid snowman head.

Turkey Costume guy is the first Thanksgiving reference we’ve seen in a CMF series, right? This one is pretty fun and comes with a pumpkin.

Lastly we get Sugar Fairy girl. This one is very similar to Series 17’s Butterfly Girl in terms of size and the wings. This one comes with a tutu, candy cane, and a tiara.

Finally, the Nutcracker comes with a sword and a 1x1 round tile printed nut to crack. This figure looks similar to some of the Pirate themed soldiers from the past. You might be able to mix him into a MOC without anyone spotting it.

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!