And for Jon Walker (Jon1138), those three prongs are excellence, imagination, and the capacity to carry out his plans. It seems that every year, large spaceship designs get more innovative and more unorthodox in their shapes, and the Dalu planetary defense craft is certainly at the forefront of these original designs.
According to Jon, it checks in at 150 studs long, and 60 studs wide, making it deceptively large, and all the more impressive in its structural integrity.
A certain LEGO convention here in Seattle wasn’t the only major event happening this past weekend. To share what was going on in England, we’re pleased to bring you this guest report by JasBrick.
Whilst pictures from Brickcon this weekend tantalised those of us that could not get there (I almost fell off my chair when I saw the Tower of Orthanc by OneLug) I am pleased to say that my own weekend was filled with a Lego event closer to home… Steam: The Great Western Lego Show.
Since 2002 the annual Great Western Lego Show has been held in Swindon UK and this year was another amazing event that proved that this is the biggest Lego event in the UK calendar. The event is organised by Martin Long and a team of dedicated volunteers from the Brickish Association and is set in the impressive surroundings of the Steam Museum that is dedicated to the history of the British Railways (which means a serious number of Lego train MOC).
Steam consists of two public exhibition days and some fantastic opportunities for AFOLs to socialise (some people are still hungover ;-)). One thing that really stood out for me this year was the fact that the Lego company really made an extra effort to support this event with the presence of two designers (Jamie Berard and Morten Graff-Wang) over the whole weekend and the simultaneous unveiling of the new Castle Joust set in conjunction with Brickcon.
In addition to a huge number of pretty amazing standalone MOCs like Eyrie Town by Rod Gilles (2 much caffeine, an online friend that I had the pleasure of meeting for the first time at this event).
What makes Steam really special is the number and scale of collaborative displays at the event. One of my favourites was The World of Harry Potter that included a series of amazing scenes from the films recreated in Lego. Here is one picture of the Great Hall from Hogwarts by Thorskegga:
And the defence against the dark arts classroom by Andrew Danieli:
One event that dominated the early part of 2011 was the Royal Wedding in April and Warren Elsmore and a team of helpers have created one of the biggest builds I have ever seen with a very accurate recreation of Westminster Abbey… just look at the size of that monster:
For those more interested in Sci-Fi there was plenty on display such as the amazing layout by the Peter Reid (legoloverman, who also impressed me with a few wonderfully detailed custom minifigs that he had created before finally seeing the light and putting such heinous behaviour behind him) and Tim Goddard (RogueBantha):
Humour and amazing building combined in The Seige of Haradford Castle where James Pegrum (peggyjdb) was ably assisted by Barney Main (slyowl) in a rather vicious battle fought between the fleshie and yellow armies over the battlements of a truly impressive castle built by James. The battle progressed throughout the weekend culminating with a win for James after sneakily taking advantage of the fact that Barney had to leave early.
The above are just a few of the highlights of this tremendous weekend and please check out the Gimme Lego blog by Dr. Dave Watford for more insight into the event and the following galleries to see what amazed the over 7,000 visitors to this year’s display.
Looking forward to next year already!
Jas
This latest spaceship by T.Oechsner, a veteran of Classic-Space themed models, is certainly a beauty. All the antennas and other technical accoutrements are perfectly placed to give this spaceship a menacing, sturdy feel.
The purpose of this post is two-fold: 1) to show off Dave Stannard’s (Brickhead) excellent models and 2) to serve as inspiration and a reminder for the 7777 Redux contest.
Dave has been working on his LBB layout for quite a long time and, to me, it exemplifies what LEGO Ideas Books are all about, and that KISS can apply to LEGO models too. Dave’s models aren’t full of weird and tricky connections but they still look really great. Not they’re free of SNOT or studless but on the whole he keeps his techniques close to that of official sets. If you’re thinking of entering the 7777 Redux contest you could do worse than to check out his photostream.
The winners of the Maschinen Krieger (Ma.K.) Starfighter contest have just been announced. In the words of its creator TR Brownbridge (.Tromas),
One last thing…I think I can speak for Tim & Peter when I say this…this was without a doubt the best line up of contest entries that we have ever seen. You have no idea how hard it was for me (us) to narrow it down to a final 10 let alone final 3. Everyone of you should be super proud of your entries!!
First place went to Robiwan Kenobi’s Neuntöter which has already been blogged here
In second place was the Space Falke by Gregory Haga (The Lantern Rouge)
Third place went to Mountain King with his Dragonfly
The quality of the entries was absolutely superb. I have to admit I wasn’t expecting many people at all to capture the Ma.K. vibe (as I see it) and was utterly blown away but how many people did, and how well they did it. We really had a a hard time even narrowing down the final entries and picking a winner was a real challenge. Make sure you go to the entry thread to understand why we had such a hard time.
One thing we all agreed on is that John Judy’s (neim343) entry was both amazing and ineligible. While the paint took it up a notch it did breach the rules that no model should be painted, merely parts. But we all felt it needed honourable mention as it wouldn’t look out of place on the winners podium of a ‘real’ Ma.K. contest without being restricted to LEGO.
Finally the “Heart Tile” award for best use of an existing printed LEGO brick had to go to Tyler Clites’ (legohaulic) Höllenhound. The zebra tile was odd yet looked great and was thus a natural winner.
Part of the joy of the advent calendars is the surprise of not know what comes next. Jamie‘s calendar continues to do just that. I particularly like today’s play off Dorian Gray. I expect the Bonemeal Hag to appear in her own Grimm fairytale.
Click for October 1-4!
886 Space Buggy holds a special place in my heart, so I always appreciate seeing reinterpretations of this tiny, classic set. I recognized the inspiration behind this version by _zenn immediately.
Aaah, BrickCon. That magical time each fall when hundreds of LEGO fans descend upon the Exhibition Center in Seattle for a relaxing weekend of fun, friendship, and sleep.
Wait. I’m kidding. Sleep never enters the equation.
BrickCon has morphed quite a bit for me from my first event to now. I began attending BrickCon in 2005 (it was NorthWest BrickCon at that point). The ENTIRE event fit into the Rainier Room, which now is just the general assembly room. This year marked my seventh BrickCon and ninth overall event.
Time flies when you’re having fun, right?
What’s also changed quite a bit for me is how I experience BrickCon. In the beginning, I was simply an attendee. I registered, I went, I showed off my MOCs, and I went on my merry way. I’d help out coordinating the Castle display when I could. But in 2009, that changed. At one of the SEALUG meetings, it was mentioned that they needed someone to coordinate prizes. “I can do that,” I thought. So I stepped up.
So there’s the story of how I became Prize Coordinator for BrickCon. I can blame (thank?) Sean Forbes for the “Prize Goddess” moniker, and that’s the one that stuck.
Determining which prize goes what, where, and to who is an entirely scientific process, but not really. It’s taking a look once again at what I have to work with and spreading it across the four major ceremonies that have door prizes (Opening, Keynote, Awards, Closing). Making sure those are dividing properly and separate from what goes to the public is important, too. Part of my job ensures that any incoming prizes are dividing amongst the various pools, too, so that one event isn’t too overloaded. I try and keep Closing as short as possible, too, since by that time people typically are packing to head home.
This year we added a sort of “Santa Claus” prize pool for public and private hours. During the public hours, volunteers would wander around the crowds and hand small sets (provided by the con) and kid’s t-shirts (provided by the LEGO Store in Bellevue) to the kids. Watching their faces was amazing; the look of disbelief was typically first, followed by the giant smile. There was some suspicion that the gifts were completely free, but it was pretty easy to work around. Anyone who passed out those prizes had the same smile.
It’s incredibly busy working with the prizes. In terms of BrickCon, if it didn’t involve prizes, I typically had no information or clue about it. My focus was prizes; I needed to be available to receive incoming donations and prep for the next assembly. I had enough time in between assemblies to enjoy spending time with my friends and enjoying BrickCon for what it is.
Thanks to Joe Meno, Andrew Becraft, and Bill Ward for their photos!
…could stop Bruce Lowell from building this awesome mailbox. I never thought I would say that a box had beautiful lines and curves but this one does.
I have to say that Castle totally rocked this year. This was my sixth year being involved in the Castle section at the Con and I think this was the best so far. Everyone involved really stepped it up this year and they all deserve a round of applause.
The quantity of creations was overwhelming and we had to beg, borrow and steal more area (Many thanks to Steve Walker and Wayne Hussey for making that process virtually painless and to Scott Fowler for graciously giving up part of the neighboring Pirate tables). But quantity doesn’t really say much about a section. It was the quality of the creations that really blew me away. I knew that the builders who were coming had skills but they all out did themselves.
Our collaborative layout was packed with so many builds, flowing from one to another, that it was difficult to see everything and the section of stand-alone models was outstanding.
We had three categories for which builders could win a trophy and a LEGO set. The voters were very hard pressed to make their selections, but they finally did and the winning models and builders were:
Best Overall Castle Creation:
Hogwart’s Castle by Alice Finch
Photo of Hogwart’s by Bill Ward
Best Community Contribution:
Al Wahat by Sebastiaan Arts
Best Fly-in Dragon:
Whiskers by Myself
Hearty thanks also need to go out to the following people and companies: To Will of Brickarms for the awesome contributor packs and prototype weapons that he made especially for us, to Ryan of BrickWarriors for the sweet fig packs he donated and to Learning Loft Toys for the Lego set prizes they donated to our winners.
We all had a great time and plan to make next year even bigger and better. So if you want to ‘Go Medieval’ at BrickCon next year, please join us! BrickCon!!!
Garry King likes building ships from the Battlestar Galactica universe, and he likes them big. His newest Battlestar Berzerk is so large that it requires internal supports for this 54-pound behemoth. More pictures and detailed descriptions are on MOCpages.
First of all, I’d like to thank everyone who contributed to the Numereji 2421 display at BrickCon in Seattle last weekend! Because of your skill and creativity people got a much clearer idea of our vision.
We plan on a Numereji 2422 collaborative display at BrickCon 2012 and look forward to the return of great creations, changes to reflect the passage of time, and phenomenal additions.
Congratulations to the winners in our four categories who were acclaimed by peer balloting!
Best Overall: The Ark by Drew Ellis (also Best Capital Ship for the entire Space display)
Best Building: Communication Station Iris by Alex Fojtik (counter-rotating arrays of awesome)
Best Terrain: Numereji Ranchero by Josh Wedin (and unofficial sillyness prize)
Best Vehicle: Scavenger by Shane Weckstrom (NPU purple basketball player pants)
Special thanks to Brandon Bannerman for his CSS Howland hull design and for working on the hulk up to the wire.
Justin Pyne also deserves a shout out for his very close second in the Terrain category and for embracing the challenge of a peaceful space town. Shows heart in a youngster.
I also enjoyed displaying my own Earthship House, and a barn built from a sections of Howland hull. More pics of that once I get a good light box set up and get rid of this stalker rain that followed me back to San Diego.