I returned home from BrickFair last night at about midnight. It was a crazy fun blast. Photos from the event are starting to pop up on BrickShelf and Flickr.
As you can see above, there was a pretty huge turnout from the public as well. I gather that the total number between the two days was between eight and nine thousand people. That’s a lot to be crammed into a hotel ballroom. Fortunately, next year, BrickFair is moving to a real expo center. I’m psyched about all of the space (Space!).
I tried to take photos of the “impaired” speed build competition, but the lights were turned down in order to make things more difficult. If you ever have the opportunity to watch a bunch of drunk LEGO fans (all of legal drinking age, of course) trying to assemble a gear train in the dark, on a multi-colored tablecloth, I highly recommend it.
There were also some pretty epic creations on display at the show. I’m pretty sure that some may have even debuted there. There were definitely a few that I hadn’t seen on the internet. I enjoyed Chris Edward’s “ArchipeLEGO“, which he has posted as separate islands here. Another highlight was Brickistan, a middle-eastern castle diorama that was chock full of detail, and hard to find photos of. A friend and I also had a pretty big creation up our sleeves for the convention, but we haven’t gotten the photos ready to post yet.
I’ve been getting nagged to post pics of Brickistan for a long time by various people, but I’m notoriously bad at posting pics generally. I’ve got some from BrickFair (although I’m sure others have better pics), and I’ll post some some closeups of various individual modules once I’ve unpacked it (probably later this week before it’s all out of the packing).
-Sandy
Wow, thanks for the top billing! I didn’t expect to see my name in here.
I do think my islands are better viewed in person than in photos, so I was happy to be able to show them off!
As for “ArchipeLEGO,” all credit for that name goes to PennLUG’s Mike Tighe (assuming that’s where you heard it).
The quick and dirty set of photos I took at the event:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bosta/sets/72157622136466412/
Glad to hear the event is moving to a bigger venue next time.
I got some shots of the “Brickistan” castle.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/brick-apocalypse/sets/72157622015515367/
The detail work was just amazing!!
The drunk build was a lot of fun. I managed to tie for first place in the event and my co-winner and I agreed to split the grand prize and consolation prize. Turns out that we each liked our prize as is.
Speed building the Eiffel Tower was a lot of fun too. That’s one fragile set.
I’m sure the Brickistan builder must be excited about the coming Prince of Persia sets. :-)
Assuming I’ve got the flickr link right, this should be photos of Brickistan at BrickFair:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/32171754@N00/sets/72157622144870704/
And yes, I am excited about the PoP sets, although all I’ve seen thus far are the minifig pics Joe Meno posted from ComicCon. I’m very curious to see if any new architectural elements or colors will be released. I long for a return of sand blue.