Monthly Archives: October 2007

BrickCon 2007 Day 3 Report

Based on the three I’ve attended, the last day of LEGO conventions primarly seem to involve three activities:

  • Invasions: Space invades castle, castle invades town, I invade myself…
  • Group photos: Pictures of fellow builders, secret societies, and mysterious online organizations…
  • Teardown: Pack it up and haul it (or ship it) home!

People who’ve uploaded photos since Saturday (includes photos through Sunday):

Invasions

Group Photos

Builders’ Lounge:

Castle:

KeithLUG:

Teardown

Nathan Proudlove ships himself back to Manitoba in his Blacktron II box (I get to keep the SHIP):

This is how The Omicron Weekend got home:

I’ll add more stuff tomorrow (interesting news as well as cool LEGO creations). That’s it for tonight!

BrickCon 2007 Day 2 Report

Photos from day 2 are starting to show up from the following people:

Here’s what I did today:

9:00 A.M.
LEGO Store Pick-a-Brick at the event venue included large bins of minifig parts (10 pieces for $5). I picked up several more yellow Slave Leia minifigs, along with torsos from the green Scout Trooper torso, among other cool finds.

9:30 A.M.
Saw prototype of some stuff…

10:30 A.M.
Scrambled to do some last-minute setup of my steampunk, post-apoc, and castle stuff.

11:00 A.M.
Public hours began, and I spent an hour stamping people’s hands and handing them raffle tickets. It was nice to meet Arpy in person as well.

12:00 P.M.
Lunch with Josh. Shop-talk about The Brothers Brick with delicious Greek food.

1:00 P.M.
Bumped into Caylin, so Josh and I went with her for a second lunch. At BrickCon, you learn to injest comestibles when you can…

1:37:50 P.M.
Best princess-themed Moonbase end-cap ever (with proud builder):

3:30 P.M.
Presentation by Bram Lambrecht about software he designed to convert 3D models to studs-out LEGO designs. Download the PDF from Bram’s LEGO site (252 KB PDF).

4:00 P.M.
Public hours end. Official Brothers Brick BrickCon 2007 photo opportunity (with honorary brother Steve Vargo in the background):

4:30 P.M.
Judged Steampunk and Castle creations for awards. Next year, I’ll be accepting bribes. It may not influence my decisions, but I will accept any free LEGO you may want to give me. Here I am (on the right) giving a critical eye to the joust pavilians, with Tom Raffert and Jim Foulds (from the LEGO Universe team):

Here’s Steve Vargo’s winning battle scene:

5:00 P.M.
Official BrickCon 2007 Classic-Castle.com photo shoot (look for better pictures later):

5:15 P.M.
Formal induction into KeithLUG. Rites were performed. Sacrifices were made. Swag was received.

6:30 P.M.
Award ceremonies and presentations. Got excited when Andrew Lee‘s name was announced for winning the microscale category (heard “Andrew B.”). I was surprised, because I thought the other Andrew had built better stuff. Apparently the judges agreed. Fortunately, I didn’t actually get up and embarrass myself…

Jim Foulds from the LEGO Universe project provided some details about the game. You can read what he had up on the screen here.

8:00 P.M.
Hung out with Steve Witt, Andrew Lee, Zach Clapsadle, and many others to build Cafe Corner floors for the Cafe Corner Tower. No instructions at our table, so had to reverse-engineer ours from a prototype (L to R: Andrew, me, and Steve):

9:00 P.M.
Watched the Dirty Brickster (LEGO white elephant game) and distributed chocolate.

10:30 P.M.
Drive home, eat chocolate chip cookies (I love my wife!), upload photos to Flickr (187 photos, 218.11 MB), watch Saturday Night Live (meh), and write this.

1:18 A.M.
Off to bed, with an event I need to be at later this morning at 8:30…

BrickCon 2007 Day 1 Report

First of all, notice that NWBrickCon is now “BrickCon.” Cool.

I actually don’t have a whole lot to report, since the first days at LEGO conventions have become mainly social and acquisitive for me. In other words, I tend to spend most of my time chatting it up with people I haven’t seen in six months, a year, or never (if I only know them from the Web), as well as poring over minifig bins from sellers in the Brick Bazaar. Well, I guess talking with other fans — especially meeting people I’ve gotten to know online — and buying LEGO is pretty much all I end up doing for most of the con, but describing that to all of you out there who can’t be here won’t be especially interesting…

Pictures are a start, though. I’ve just uploaded all of my own photos to Flickr (photoset) and photos from other attendees are starting to show up in the BrickCon group pool.

In terms of LEGO creations I haven’t seen before (at least in person), I’m excited about the Miniland-scale Cafe Corner, a great steampunk section, KeithLUG’s Omicron Weekend, not one but two Mecha-Godzillas, new Moonbase modules, and a fantastic Castle display. I’ll highlight some of the coolest stuff once everything’s been set up and I’ve spent some time taking decent pictures. Of course, you don’t need to wait for my pictures. Check out Lonnon Foster’s photoset or Joe Meno’s setup set for great shots of some really excellent stuff.

Here’s the Miniland Cafe Corner (before complete setup, so still missing the street scene I saw later in the day:

And the afore-mentioned Mecha-Godzilla:

Bruce, yes, I’m excited to report that there’s a great selection of vignettes and microscale this year! Rest assured I’ll photograph both and tag them so you can find them for VignetteBricks and MicroBricks. Looks like you’ve already noticed Shannonia, though. ;-)

I’m off to bed.

Brickfilmers in the Wall Street Journal

Brickfilmers and Brickfilms.com continues to get more exposure. The Wall Street Journal has just published an article about brickfilming and includes interviews from Michael Green, Joshua Leasure, Robinson Wood, David Pagano, Zach Macias, Lewis Chen and myself, Nathan Wells. Purists should be pleased by my single quote. ;)

The article.

In addition to the article, there are two videos. If you’re interested in seeing brickfilms by those interviewed, click their names. Each link leads back to their Brickfilms Directory of films.

I’m off to NWBrickCon 2007!

  • Sigfig: Check!
  • Manel: Check!
  • Joe Vig: Check!
  • Henry’s clone: Check!
  • Snacks: Check!
  • Princess Box: CHECK!!!

NWBrickCon starts tomorrow! Look for daily updates to The Brothers Brick, and follow along at home with the NWBrickCon group on Flickr.

Croak.

I’m not 100% sure (correct me if I’m wrong — it has happened once or twice), but I think Tim Zarki may have actually started this weird but undeniably cool trend with “Captain Cake and Trusty Navigator” (above). The trusty navigator is wearing the helmet.

UPDATE: Tim provides A Brief History of Frogspace on There’s a Moose in My Salad.

Here’s Captain Cake on his command deck:

Ribbit.

I’ve been really, really busy with school recently (and it’s not going to lighten up for a while), so my duties to TBB has suffered. However, the moment I saw this Frog Senate from Flikerite ~Gladius I knew I had to post it. Little frog chairs = win.

News: New concept art from LEGO Universe

The most recent LEGO Universe Newsletter included links to some tantalizing concept art for the upcoming LEGO Universe game:

News: Photos of 2008 impulse purchase sets

Haven’t you ever walked up to the checkout at a grocery store or toy store, looked at all the really terrible, cheaply made toys that are supposed to attract your attention and wished “Why couldn’t these be LEGO instead?! I want minifigs! With accessories!” Well, I have, and my wish has come true! Hurray!

I can’t wait for 2008!

(Via How Many Studs to LEGOLAND.)

Rock on, dbol! Rock on.

I’ve always felt that LEGO vignettes are like haiku (though maybe Bruce might have made that comparison first). Dbol actually combines the two with this great vignette of a gamer playing Guitar Hero with an unimpressed female onlooker:

Rock stars preen and strut
While they shout at the devil
But he’s just a geek.

This isn’t just an amusing vig — it’s got some interesting techniques, like the curtains and the wonderful large-screen TV.

News: LEGO discloses the future of LEGO Trains

The LEGO Group has asked LEGO Ambassadors to pass along the following information about the future of the LEGO Train system. This message includes details on the status of 9-volt trains:

Billund, Oct. 1st ’07
Dear all,

Many of you are aware of the on-going discussions on the 9V train system. We would like to thank you all for the input you provided to us directly and through different channels. Based on critical business decisions and the consultations and discussions with various AFOLs we have decided to focus on one single solution in order to avoid the complexity of maintaining two systems in parallel and in order to solve the issues we have with the actual 9V system and the remote control City train system. We envision one upgradeable train system for all ages in the future.

The LEGO Group has considered the future of the 9v at length, and has come to the conclusion that there is not sufficient demand for the product line to be profitable and competitive. The existing machines need to be replaced and minimum order quantities at external suppliers for motors and speed regulators are so high that the investment The LEGO Group would have to put in, would not be rational or reasonable compared to sales figures of the existing 9V system.

The implication of this is that the 9v elements sold now are the last of the remaining stock and subsequent production of elements for the 9V platform has ceased.

The LEGO Group will launch elements for a new train system based on the new electric LEGO Power Functions system in 2009. Using the LEGO Power Functions system the new train system will benefit from a set of electric elements that are cross theme, widely available and not completely train specific which allows us to amortize the development and on going cost across multiple themes. We are at an early development stage of the new train system and several AFOLs are already involved in the development process, to ensure that the new system will accommodate the types of features and functions requested by the AFOL community. This collaboration with AFOLs is very important to The LEGO Group and we strive to involve the Adult Fan Community as much as possible.

Holger Matthes, Germany, currently member of the AFOL team which is involved in the process of developing the new system explains the situation in this way:

“The LEGO train system has to fulfill different needs for different target groups in a very special way. On the one hand it’s a toy for kids because it is easy to set up and because of the playability in the kid’s room, and on the other hand it is also for AFOLs who build huge LEGO train layouts with realistic looking train models and functionality. The LEGO Group is aware of this and the company tries to support both needs within the given restrictions (e.g. costs for a niche product like the LEGO trains).”

Using the universal LEGO Power Functions system for trains will give The LEGO Group the ability to match the demands and wishes of the AFOL Train community in the future.

Steve Barile, USA – President of ILTCO (International LEGO Train Club Organization) and one of the involved AFOLs says about the new train system:

“I am excited that the new universal Power Functions system can make track side accessories viable and potentially automated and interactive.”

He continues:

“With the track being exclusively plastic the LEGO Power Functions Train system has the potential for new and innovative track geometries and continued innovation by both The LEGO Group and the AFOLs.”

These AFOL quotes give you an impression of what will be possible with the future system and we will keep you up to date on the development of the new LEGO Power Functions train system. We expect to have more information and details to share with you before the end of the year.

Richard Stollery, Head of LEGO Community Development

UPDATE: You can read translations of this announcement in various languages: