Tag Archives: Brickworld

TBB readers speak! Your favorite LEGO moments of 2023 [Feature]

When we asked what LEGO moments meant the most to our readers, you all answered with a plethora of LEGO moments covering the last 12 months. There were tales of set construction, attendance at conventions and shows, awards won, and one big collab that people can’t stop talking about! Thank you to everyone who took the time to fill out the form. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to cover every submission we received in this write-up. But don’t let that stop you from talking about your favorite LEGO moments of the past year in the comments. Now, let’s unpack all these great responses!

Check out your LEGO highlights of 2023 below!

LEGO Creation of the Week (#28): “Die in Your Arms” by Casey McCoy

Every week readers of the The Brothers Brick Telegram channel choose the Creation of the Week: one project that impressed all of us the most. Casey McCoy gets almost a third of all votes cast by our readers with his charming Die in Your Arms diorama. Such a touching scene, with lovely color palette. Well-deserved!

Meanwhile, the new vote is already on! Join our Telegram channel to follow all the best LEGO creations, latest news, and, of course, vote for your favorites. See you there!

This moody piece gives us the blues. Several shades of it.

When describing this LEGO creation, a commenter on Casey McCoy’s photo stream said it best; “I’ve never had a lego model stir my heart the way this one does. Absolutely fantastic composition and beautiful use of color. This is art.” When something like this evokes such profound emotions, it is art indeed. This piece is called Die in Your Arms and I’ve found myself gazing at this image for long moments at a time. Perhaps the dead being was already white when they were alive but I imagine that, as its soul drains from its body, so does the blue color. Casey tells us that this model only uses the following colors: Black, Dark Blue, Dark Azure, Medium Azure, Dark Bley (bluish gray), Light Bley, Light Aqua, and White. He also went on to say that it won Best Vignette at Brickworld Chicago 2023. The folks of Brickworld most certainly made the right choice.

Die in Your Arms

Brickworld Chicago 2017 registration now open

Registration for Brickworld Chicago 2017 is now open. Brickworld Chicago will be held June 14-18, 2017, at the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg, IL.

Learn more about BrickWorld 2017

Ready, Set, Escargot!

This past weekend saw one of the world’s great annual LEGO conventions arrive, Brickworld Chicago. With it came dozens of new builds and spectacular collaborations to dazzle the public. One such dazzling display came from the builders of Eurobricks, a popular online LEGO forum, who built a spectacularly intense and hilarious snail race for the ages.

Ready, Set, Escargot! by Peter Strege

This award-winning collaboration was a truly large and world-spanning operation kept together with tight planning and a singular cohesive snail design made by team leader Mark Larson. His design, which was itself awarded the title of Best Creature at the convention, was used by nine other builders to construct more snails which were individualized with unique colors and themed castles–and then finally placed into an epic race.

Giant Troll Castle by Mark Larson (Photo by Peter Strege)

See the rest of the layout after the break

Brickworld Chicago 2016 registration now open [News]

Registration for Brickworld Chicago 2016 is now open. Brickworld Chicago is held June 15-19, 2016, at the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg, IL.

Registration
There are three registration tiers with their perks outlined on the convention page. All registration types are ages 18+; registrants under 18 years of age must have a parent/guardian register and attend Brickworld with them. All Access and Full registration is available until 5/16/16. After that date, Late registration is the only option.

All Access registration is $55 and allows access to all scheduled events and activities, and includes a name badge and the Brickworld commemorative brick.

Full registration is $80 and includes everything from the All Access tier plus eligibility for displays, door prizes, the goody bag, and Brickworld awards. Full registration is limited to 700 registrants.

Late registration is $100 and allows access to all scheduled events and activities, and includes a name badge and eligibility for collaborative displays only.

Hotel
Brickworld is held at the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center, and attendees can choose to stay at the connected Renaissance Hotel for an event rate of $139/night. Two room types are available: 1 king bed, or 2 double beds. Phone and online reservations for this event rate can be found here.

Two-dimensional personality

Another big build unveiled this weekend at Brickworld (the first of many, we expect) is this 60 x 40 inch mosaic of our favorite synthetic celebrity Hatsune Miku (初音ミク) painstakingly put together over the course of the past year by Chris Rozek. The funny thing is, this isn’t even the first time we’ve featured a life-sized LEGO Hatsune!

Solacium

Peter Mowry is known for building some of the largest, most detailed and most unique LEGO spaceships ever seen. And his latest opus – the Solacium – is no exception. It should come as no surprise that this beast was over six months in the making.

You really have to see Peter’s builds in person to truly appreciate their scale. And if you’re in the vicinity of Brickworld Chicago this weekend, you’ll be able to do just that! As builders begin to prepare for this largest of state-side LEGO conventions, they are finally unveiling their latest works online. So stay posted for more awesome builds in the coming days.

Brickworld Chicago DVD Kickstarter project

The hosts of Beyond the Brick is starting a Kickstarter project to produce a DVD of Brickworld Chicago 2015 featuring coverage of the convention and interviews with builders. For $20, you can get a copy of the DVD, but those who contribute more can look forward to custom minifigs and creations, and even commissions.

Beyond the Brick’s extensive video coverage of Brickworld Chicago

Beyond the Brick has posted a 1.5 hour long video tour of Brickworld Chicago. It’s the closest thing there is to checking out the exhibits in person.

Homer’s The Odyssey – Ὀδύσσεια

Those lucky enough to go to Brickworld Chicago this year were treated to VirtuaLUG‘s story time with their incredible 300 square foot retelling of Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey.

Olympus (center) by Bart Larrow 3/55
This amazing collaborative layout tells the story of the Greek hero Odysseus and his 10 year adventure home after the battle of Troy. Feel free to take the video tour of this massive Layout, courtesy of our friends at Beyond the Brick:

VirtuaLUG of course is the mega-group that brought us Lord of the Rings (2011), Alice in Wonderland (2012) and The Wizard of Oz (2013). So it came as no surprise that they took home Brickworld’s top prize (and Master Builder to boot!):

image (1)VirtuaLUG (Not pictured: Bart, Kevin, Kyle, Mark and Leo)

VirtuaLUGs Odyssey (Brickworld Chicago 2014)

Follow the story of Odysseus as told by VirtuaLUG →

Flashlight, flashlight, FLASHLIGHT!

(…ok, ok, that’s the last time I’ll use that joke in my post titles, I promise!)

So at first glance this may just look like a couple of 70’s era space figs in a particularly greebly version of the classic LL928 Galaxy Explorer set. But take a closer look…

That’s right, those are GIANT mini-figs and one HUGE spaceship! Well actually they are LEGO spaceman LED flashlights and this crazy scene is brought to you by our very own Simon Liu, who was given the flashlights as gifts and figured this was the most logical thing to do with them.

Of course, the blue spaceman has been magically transformed into Benny from The LEGO Movie. And with the addition of Simon’s giant Unikitty, the scene now makes total sense… It’s obviously from the sequel, and this is our hero’s plan to deal with the giant monsters from Planet Duplo!

I was fortunate enough to drool all over marvel this at Brickworld Chicago a few weeks back, where Simon’s creation won the award for BEST SPACESHIP. Congratulations, Brother Si-MOCs! All that bribery and blackmail clearly paid off.

There’ll be no living with him now… :-)