Tag Archives: Event

LEGO fan events and conventions happen all over the world, from LEGO Fanwelt in Germany to BrickCon in Seattle. Follow along at home with our coverage of the people, news, and models from events everywhere.

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.

Top 10 LEGO news stories on TBB in 2015 [News]

Did you know that a new Star Wars movie came out in 2015, with accompanying LEGO sets? If you’ve been living in your basement working on your LEGO masterpiece and weren’t aware, one glance at TBB’s top LEGO news stories would provide a clear picture of just how much excitement has preceded what turned out to be a rather excellent movie. Like our round-up of most popular LEGO models of 2015, LEGO Star Wars stories have dominated news coverage this year — especially since the sets were first revealed in September.

The actual Top 10 list is heavily dominated by set announcements, so hit the jump to check it out.

75139 Battle on Takodana

But some interesting and important news doesn’t necessarily show up in this top 10 list. Back in July, TBB celebrated its tenth anniversary, and I reflected on what it’s been like running a LEGO blog for 10 years. I promised we would be making some changes to improve the experience for our readers, and we’ve done exactly that. After BrickCon in October, we added eight new contributors, who’ve all helped us improve our coverage of both LEGO models and LEGO news. We’ve significantly broadened our geographic diversity, with two new contributors from the UK (both Scottish, coincidentally) and one each from Russia and South Africa — adding to our existing team from the US, Canada, and the Netherlands. Our new contributors have helped to free up our editorial staff to focus more on time-consuming content like LEGO set reviews.

In other news, Chinese artist Ai Weiwei’s LEGO project generated some interesting discussion in the comments, and several of our contributors participated in the annual Creations for Charity event.

Meanwhile, TBB staff were also a strong presence at LEGO conventions such as Brickworld in Chicago and BrickCon in Seattle, where readers and contributors built a rather epic American Civil War display in LEGO, featuring help from a corps of volunteer dinosaur cavalry.

First Illinois Volunteer Dinosaur Cavalry

And in the UK at BRICK, Elspeth took on LEGO Wonder Woman.

Elspeth

Click through to see all of the top LEGO news stories of 2015!

BRICK 2015 – London LEGO show roundup [News]

Last weekend saw thousands of LEGO fans descend upon London’s Docklands to visit BRICK 2015, the UK’s largest LEGO show, now in its second year. The Brothers Brick were there, and here’s a roundup of some of the coolest models we saw.

Builders from across the UK and Europe brought some amazing displays, including a number of models previously featured here. The enormous Hadrian’s Wall layout, the stunning recreation of Her Majesty’s Theatre, and Lasse Vestergard’s little gem History of the World. It was a genuine pleasure to see these all “in the brick”.

But onto other things, like the Brick Abyss from a trio of Swiss builders. A huge magical steampunk island archipelago with motorised elements, lighting, and smoke machines, the Abyss display was mobbed by kids and adults alike for the entire weekend…

Abyss

More great models from the show after the jump

BrickUniverse Raleigh 2016 open for registration

BrickUniverse FOL Conference is returning to the Raleigh Convention Center in Raleigh, North Carolina from April 1-3, 2016. Registration for all three days is $55 and includes a goody bag, brick badge, and entrance to all of the FOL events. This is also one of the unique conventions that offer free registration to exhibitors. Check out the BrickUniverse website for more info.

Registration open for BrickCan 2016 [News]

Registration is open for British Columbia’s first LEGO convention. BrickCan is April 21-24, 2016, at River Rock Casino in Richmand, BC, Canada — just a short drive beyond the border and outside of Vancouver, BC.

BrickCan_logo

Registration
Adult (19+) registration is $75 CAD through January 20, 2016. After that, registration goes up to $85 CAD.

After January 20, space permitting, registration may open to teens (14+). Check BrickCan’s registration page for more information.

To register, click here and create an account. Once you’ve created an account, you’ll be routed to the registration page.

Hotel
The convention is taking place at River Rock Casino. Convention rates are $159 CAD per night ($189 for a 1 Bedroom Suite), and available up to 3 days before and after the event. Please note that if you are staying before or after the convention itself, you’ll need to call the Reservation line.

Because this is taking place in our neighbor to the north, please note that non-Canadian citizens will require a passport to cross the border.

Creations for Charity live stream happening this Friday-Saturday, 11/27-11/28

The annual Creations for Charity 24-hour live stream presented by Beyond the Brick is taking place starting this Friday at 5pm EST. This is an event where Lego fans from all over the world can join the hosts from Beyond the Brick on air and participate in a variety of Lego-related activities, all in support of Creations for Charity. Whether you want to watch the live stream, participate on air, or pledge a donation, there’s ways for everyone to get involved. Head on over to creationsforcharity.org for more details and to sign up.

Creations for Charity 24 Hour Live Stream Presented by Beyond the Brick

Tested video features “Best Castle Building” from BrickCon

Tested made a visit to BrickCon this year and interviewed David Frank about his award-winning Manor House, which we featured here a couple of weeks ago. Check it out for some great background on a wonderful build!

The Wall – Rome’s Northern Frontier

Brick to the Past is a British collective (and veritable Who’s Who of top-notch castle builders) that focuses on large historical LEGO displays. The team finally unveiled its 2015 opus at the STEAM expo this month, and it’s a real humdinger! Entitled The Wall, it’s an expansive and gorgeously detailed slice of Romano-Celtic life along both sides of Hadrian’s wall.

The Roman side features a full minifig scale fort, villa, temple, bath house, milecastle and town. Whilst the Celtic side features an Iron Age village, farmhouse and standing stones. All laid out amidst some great contoured landscaping and a long snaking section of the famous wall.

If I recall correctly, we reported on a community poll that LEGO conducted a few years ago, to gather suggestions for possible future LEGO themes. And if also I recall correctly, a large number of you cried out for a Roman theme. So while we wait and hope for LEGO to finally see the light, I thoroughly recommend you get your fix by checking out all the detailed photos of this awesome display.

Click here for more photos

BrickCon 2015 only 2 weeks away [News]

That’s right, the grand pappy of LEGO conventions opens its doors soon in Seattle, Washington. For builders, it’s time to finish up those creations and make final preparations – the most important of which is to REGISTER! Regular builder registration ends September 18th (this Friday) after which the fee jumps from $75 to $100. As well as saving you money, registering before this deadline also secures your engraved badge bricks and goodie bag, so don’t delay. Visitors to the public exhibition (October 3rd and 4rd) can buy tickets either at the door or online, but we strongly recommend online to reduce your wait time on the day.

The theme of BrickCon this year is MOCking History, so expect some interesting mashups of the past, present and future. All the usual building categories (Space, Town, Castle, and so on) will be represented, as well as several new ones… Alongside a new Wild West display will be the Battle of Bricksburg, a civil war collaborative diorama sponsored by The Brothers Brick. BrickCon is also pleased to introduce Screen Scenes, an area dedicated to mini-fig based builds inspired by film, TV, and videogames.

As well as registering themselves, builders should also remember to register their creations. Table space is not infinite, and theme coordinators need to know what people are bringing ahead of time, so that layouts can be properly planned. Bringing an oversized, unregistered MOC during setup is considered very bad form, and may result in your build not being accommodated.

Now is a great time for builders to explore the BrickCon website to find out about all the games, sessions and other activities being offered. There’s always a lot going on, so it helps to plan ahead so you don’t miss out. This year’s parts draft sets are 41085 Vet Clinic and 41075 The Elves Treetop Hideaway. There are also 26 different vendors peddling all kinds of LEGO wares. And if you like scoring stuff, consider supporting the BrickCon Video Kickstarter by our pals over at YouTube channel Beyond the Brick, to guarantee a souvenir video of the whole event and some cool one-of-a-kind rewards.

The Brothers Brick is a proud sponsor of this event. If you have any general questions, we’ll certainly do our best to answer them in the comments. Or you can contact the Con organizers directly. Otherwise, we look forward to seeing you all – and your creations – in a couple of weeks. Make sure to come find us and say hi! But please do NOT pet, feed, or make eye contact with the lemur…

…it’s his mating season.

Military aircraft builders at Brickfair Virginia

Most of my fellow Brothers are already getting geared-up for BrickCon in October, but at that time of year, sadly, I can get away from work only barely long enough to attend Steam in the UK; a trip to the US is not in the cards. However, in the last few weeks I was in the US for a holiday which included attending Brickfair Virginia. I haven’t yet been home long enough to find the time to go over all the pictures that I’ve taken, let alone to find the owners of the models in them on-line, but will hopefully get around to that in the next few weeks. For now I want to share some of my experiences and to give a shout-out to the military builders I have been hanging out with, specifically Aleksander Stein, Evan Melick, Matt Hacker and Corvin Stichert. This year they displayed a collaborative airfield layout full of excellent minifig scale (near-future) military aircraft, helicopters and ground support equipment.

Brickton Air Force Base Collaborative Display - BrickFair VA 2015

The event consisted of three set-up days, which were for registered attendees only. There were a lot of organised activities, including games and talks about build techniques, as well as two talks by the guys from Beyond The Brick about their youtube podcasts. I was too busy chatting to other builders while all of this went on, but I did catch an excellent talk by Gary Brooks (whose Battle of Waterloo was featured here a few weeks ago) about building landscapes, that taught me a few new tricks. The set-up days were followed by two public days, during which we all got to display our models to an appreciative audience. I know some exhibitors dread these, and they can get very busy, but I enjoyed talking to the audience and demonstrating the folding wings and undercarriage of my Wildcat fighter.

Brickton Air Force Base Collaborative Display - BrickFair VA 2015

The fun didn’t end at Brickfair. Since all of us share an interest in military history and technology, the next day we hit the road (and thanks to the satnav, DC rush hour traffic on the way back) to visit the USMC Museum in Quantico. This had a little LEGO twist: its shop features an impressive model of the USMC Memorial by Nathan Sawaya, which was the perfect backdrop for a group photograph.

BrickFair 2015 - Lego Military Models Goes On A Road Trip

I know that there must be a fair few people among you who have never actually been to any sort of LEGO convention or event. I was like you for a long time. Building with LEGO was something I did on my own. Later I started sharing models online, which added a welcome social component. However, as I found out when I joined Brickish in the UK and started attending events, nothing beats face-to-face meetings with fellow enthusiasts and being able to see their builds in real life. I’d like to thank Magnus Lauglo for inviting me to brickfair several years ago and for offering me a place to crash this year too. Congratulations to our very own Simon for winning four (!) Brickee awards, including best aircraft. Thanks guys, I had a ball.

In theaters and on demand now: A LEGO Brickumentary [News]

After much anticipation and waiting by LEGO fans, Daniel Junge and Kief Davidson’s film A LEGO Brickumentary finally hits select movie theaters in the US today. And for those of us not fortunate enough to live near one of those theaters, it’s also available on iTunes and on demand now!


We had the opportunity to see the documentary last year at the Seattle Film Festival, and you can read our own review. On the whole we loved it – apparently more than some movie critics who have recently described it as a 90-minute ad for the LEGO company. In its defense, the film was not paid for by LEGO, and spends more time outside the hallowed halls of Billund than it does inside them. We think any true LEGO fan will enjoy the breadth of topics it covers, the playful and heartwarming presentation, and excellent brick animation by our friends over at BrickNerd Studios.

And if you look pay attention, you may even spot a few of us in the film ;-)

Have a smurfy day!

Despite more comebacks and fewer female characters than the Star Wars franchise, the Smurfs are still wildly popular today, almost 60 years after their first appearance as a Belgian comic strip. With two new Smurf movies behind us and another one in the works, it was only a matter of time before fans got tired waiting for LEGO to get in on the action, and took matters into their own hands. Which is exactly what Lee Jones and a team of builders did at BrickWorld Chicago did last month!

This huge diorama depicts the Smurf village, complete with forest landscaping, mushroom houses, and a forced-perspective version of Gargamel’s castle. All beautifully rounded off with the giant intruding faces of Gargamel and Azrael (courtesy of Tyler Halliwell and Kevin Lauer).

But the most remarkable part of this display have to be the Smurf minifigs. No, you’re not seeing things… Those aren’t shoddy clone brand figures. And no, LEGO didn’t secretly launch a line of collectible Smurf figs when no-one was looking. These are 100% custom manufactured! Lee’s team worked with BrickForge and Brick Fortress to design and produce custom components (heads, tails, even rotatable arms) all to “LEGO quality”. The results speak for themselves. Our pals at Beyond the Brick talked to Lee at BrickWorld and got the low-down…