Tag Archives: BrickCon

BrickCon happens the first weekend in October every year in Seattle. BrickCon is the longest continuously running LEGO fan convention in the world, and it’s also our favorite LEGO con! Learn more (and consider attending yourself) at BrickCon.org.

BrickCon 2008: Thursday October 2nd

Andrew, Josh, and I are at BrickCon this week (the third and last LEGO convention in North America of 2008).

As usual, Thursday is arrival and setup, and from our photo coverage you can see the 20,000 square feet of display area in the process of filling up with marvelous creations. Andrew and I have uploaded a few pictures to our respective Flickr photostreams here and here. We will keep you updated with news of the opening ceremony and other important events happening Friday.

P.S.- this blog entry was written in the comfort of Andrew’s living room. More blog fests from headquarters to come…

EDIT (AB): Lonnon Foster has also begun uploading photos to his Flickr photostream.

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BrickCon 2008: Last-minute logistics (and more free stuff)

Apologies for boring 99% of our readers, but this is still the fastest way to communicate with the fairly large number of TBB readers who are attending BrickCon later this week.

Fill out your MOC cards now

MOC (My Own Creation) cards identify your LEGO creations for fellow attendees and the general public. They also help theme organizers like Josh and me plan for how much space is needed (more on how that relates to the zombie display later in this post).

Fill out your MOC cards on BrickCon.org. A couple quick points:

Unless you want to spend the public hours explaining what “SNOT” and “MOC” are to kids and their parents, avoid “AFOL-speak” in your descriptions.
Zombie creations go in “Other,” not “Train/Town” (whose organizers I suspect think they’re being invaded at this point; that doesn’t actually happen until Sunday).

Remember, only “registered” LEGO creations (ones with MOC cards) will be eligible for the various awards given out by BrickCon.

Pack your LEGO creations for travel or shipping

Before you stuff your LEGO into your carry-on luggage, consider reading the LUGNET post by Duane Hess and the Classic-Castle.com article by Lenny Hoffman about packing and shipping LEGO.

Wouldn’t you rather spend your time socializing and integrating your pristine creations into the display instead of rebuilding them?

Unload your LEGO at the venue

By now, you should’ve received a message from Daniel Brown with details on when, where, and how to unload your LEGO creations at Seattle Center. The loading dock is only available during the following times:

Thursday 8am – noon
Thursday 5pm – 9pm
Friday 8am – noon
Sunday 5pm – midnight

Please only use the loading dock if you have massive amounts to unload. For more details, please see Daniel’s e-mail. If you didn’t get that e-mail, let us know and we’ll post more information here.

(CC-licensed photo of the Space Needle by Chris Blakely.)

Get to and from the airport

I know several of you are looking to share rides between Sea-Tac Airport and the BrickCon venue at Seattle Center (301 Mercer St., Seattle, WA 98109). Transportation options include Shuttle Express, taxis, and rental cars — all available near baggage claim.

If you’d like to share a ride with someone to cut costs, post a comment here with your arrival time, and when two or more of you are interesting in connecting, I’ll put you in touch through e-mail.

Bringing stuff for the draft and Dirty Brickster

Drafting a LEGO set allows you to get parts in large quantities that you might otherwise have to buy individually (from, say, Bricklink). Read more about how the draft works on SEALUG.org. If you want to participate, the draft set for BrickCon 2008 is 7626 Jungle Cutter.

Dirty Brickster is a LEGO “white elephant” gift exchange. Bring something that would be worth $10-20 to the recipient, wrapped.

Help bring some order to the Great Chaos of the Zombie Apocafest

With so many last-minute, “Oh, I’m so there!” contributions (thanks in no small part to BrickArms’ generosity, I’m sure), we don’t have a very good sense of how many zombified LEGO creations to expect for the Zombie Apocafest.

Filling out a MOC card will help, but could we also get a quick roll-call from readers planning on bringing a building? (Vehicles will be easy enough to incorporate into the display.) I’ll be at the venue nearly all day Thursday to help with setup — Castle and the zombie display in particular.

Build your GO MINIMAN GO Photo Contest entries

If you haven’t entered our GO MINIMAN GO Photo Contest yet, you can do so right there at BrickCon.

Just swing by The LEGO Group’s table, dig through the bricks, build a vig or dio, have it photographed, and fill out the entry form. Oh, and you get to keep what you build.

Get your Brothers Brick LEGO brick

Last but not least, the first 100 people who come up to Josh, Nannan, or me and say “It’s a brick-built world out there” will get a custom-engraved brick — your choice of “The Brothers Brick” or “Brothers-Brick.com”.

Oh yes, this is gonna be the best BrickCon yet! See everybody in a couple of days!

Let us know what you want to see from BrickCon 2008

For those of you who can’t make it to BrickCon 2008, Josh, Nannan, and I will be covering the con starting this Thursday.

We want to know what you’re most interested in seeing from us. By voting in the new poll and leaving a comment here, you can help shape our coverage of BrickCon 2008. Our coverage of BrickCon 2008 is in your hands.

(Photo by Adam Hally.)

So, do you want to get to know some of the people behind the creations featured here on The Brothers Brick? Are you most interested in product announcements from LEGO, BrickArms, and other companies? Maybe you want to see more pictures of people’s creations and group displays. Let us know!

Note: If you see an error when you try to vote, rest assured that your vote is still being counted. It’s a conflict between two WordPress plug-ins.

[poll id=”14″]

New BrickArms Zombie Defense Weapons Pack at BrickCon 2008 [News]

BrickCon 2008 begins this Thursday! When I announced prizes and giveaways for the Zombie Apocafest, I realized we needed a good way to repel the zombie menace.

What better way to fend of that flesh-eating horde than with a special set of weapons designed for just that purpose from BrickArms?

In addition to the other prizes and giveaways, BrickArms and The Brothers Brick will be handing out new Zombie Defense Weapons Packs to everyone who contributes a building or vehicle to the Zombie Apocafest display. That’s right: BrickArms for free!

The weapons pack is full of the tools of the zombie-hunting trade:

SW500 Magnum Revolver (for stopping power; x2)
M21 Sniper Rifle (for keeping your distance)
Mk48 Mod 0 Machine Gun
AK Assault Rifle (doesn’t jam as easily as the M4/M16)
Uzi Submachine Gun (x2)
Bipod (x2) and Monopod (x3)
Combat Shotgun (brand-new prototype)
M1 Garand Rifle (in black)
M1 1911 .45 Pistol (backup weapon #1)
Baseball Bat (backup weapon #2)
Glow-in-the-dark Zombie Head

If you don’t have time to build something for the display, you’ll be able to buy your very own Zombie Defense Weapons Pack at the BrickArms table. And if you can’t make it in person, BrickArms will be making these available through the re-launched BrickArms.com.

Well, I’m off to finish up my final building for the display and begin creating the horde itself… :D

Counting down to BrickCon 2008 and the Zombie Apocafest

Update: Zombie Apocafest 2008 is now over, and it was awesome. Don’t miss our full coverage here on The Brothers Brick:

BrickCon 2008 is less than a month away. The list of attendees is growing, and it’s starting to look like this will be the first 200-attendee BrickCon!

Today and tomorrow are your very last chance to register at the $50 price (registration goes up to $60 on Tuesday, September 8), and the last window of opportunity to guarantee your personalized brick badge engraved by Brick Engraver.

Plans for group projects at BrickCon 2008 are well underway, with lots of progress on the Zombie Apocafest and ChiefLUG Initiation.

To sweeten the deal, The Brothers Brick will be handing out some cool prizes and giveaways:

Custom-engraved bricks to add to your badge for everyone who contributes a vehicle or building to the LEGO Zombie Apocafest
10190 Market Street for the best building in the zombie layout
10200 Custom Car Garage for the best vehicle in the zombie layout

If you’re worried that you don’t have any LEGO zombies — don’t sweat it. We’ve got you covered with a horde of at least 80 zombies. :twisted:

And for those of you who can’t make it in person this year, there’s still the GO MINIMAN GO Photo Contest with even more prizes! The contest is open to everyone over 18 worldwide, and entries are already stacking up in the GO MINIMAN GO photo pool, so take a look at the rules and try your hand at a scene inspired by the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, or 2000s.

Vipers, ChiefLUG, the LEGO Zombie Apocafest, and Brickcon 2008

Update: Zombie Apocafest 2008 went off smashingly at BrickCon 2008, October 2-5. Don’t miss our full coverage here on The Brothers Brick:

The pre-registration price for BrickCon 2008 goes up from $40 to $50 next Tuesday, August 5th. If you’re still thinking about joining Nannan, Josh, Keith, me, and lots of other Brothers Brick readers in Seattle this October, now’s the time to register!

If you’re still on the fence, here are a couple building challenges and contests to whet your appetite.

ChiefLUG Initiation

ChiefLUG will be extending initiation to anybody who builds a LEGO Viper from Battlestar Galactica. Here’s what ChiefLUG founding member Ryan “Chief” Wood has to say:

ChiefLUG is a superrad group of Lego fans dedicated to veggie platters, crazy group builds, being awesome, and pretending to be half as cool as KeithLUG. You might be familiar with our work.

To join ChiefLUG, you just have to build and bring a Viper, like the one above designed by Andrew Lee (more photos). Creative color variations are encouraged.

The Brothers Brick LEGO Zombie Apocafest

Not to be outdone by some upstart KeithLUG wannabe, KeithLUG itself, or a bunch of reasonably well-adjusted Train/Town builders, we at The Brothers Brick are sponsoring the first ever large-scale LEGO Zombie Apocalypse. Think Shaun of the Dead. Imagine Max Brooks’ World War Z in LEGO.

Naturally, we’ve recruited some of our favorite twisted LEGO minds to contribute, including Rocko™ and Justin Pratt:

There will be free swag for participants, of course, including prizes in various categories (such as Best Building, Best Vehicle, or Best Minifig) the quality and quantity of which will be determined at our whim between now and October.

To make the display easy to integrate, we’re asking participants to follow the modular building standards exemplified by Cafe Corner, Green Grocer, and Market Street. Well, basically anything featured on Brick Town Talk — with a zombie twist, of course.

Since I can’t find any documentation on what the “Cafe Corner standard” is, here’s my take:

Building stands on one or two Baseplate 16 x 32 with Square Corners.
Two connectors on each side of the building: Technic Brick 1 x 2 with Hole placed on studs #10-11 and #22-23 (from the front of the baseplate).
Floors can be any height (though 9 bricks high appears to be the standard).
Curb at edge of baseplate built from 1 x n light gray tiles, and sidewalk built from dark gray tiles, seven studs from the curb to the building (curb + sidewalk = 8 studs).
Building can be any size (though 16 x 16 or 16 x 32 appears to be the standard), built eight studs back from the front of the baseplate with an eight-stud “alley.”

(Please correct my description of the standard as necessary, and I’ll update this. I can post the standard separately too, if there’s interest.)

We’re talking about the apocalypse here, dear readers, so variations are certainly allowed. We’ll also do our best to integrate larger structures (like Justin’s bombed-out office building). We respect zombie diversity, certainly, but I really love the old Harry Potter troll as the basis for my own zombie horde.

And don’t forget survivors. And their multifarious modes of transportation.

So, if you’re coming to BrickCon, we’d love to include your contributions to The Brothers Brick LEGO Zombie Apocafest. Bring whole buildings, or partially destroyed buildings. Bring a truck. Bring just one zombie. Whatever. There’s room for one and all at the Zombie Apocafest!

Call for presentations at BrickCon 2008

BrickCon 2008 is coming up in less than three months — October 2-5 in my lovely city of Seattle, WA. If you haven’t registered yet, read all about the people, LEGO creations, and events in our past coverage of what I think is the coolest LEGO convention around. (Awesome brick-built BrickCon logo by Adam Hally.)

Important: The price for registration goes up from $40 to $50 on August 5, so if you know you’re coming, register now to save some money — to spend at the Brick Bazaar or LEGO Store, of course! ;-)

Anyway, one of the great things about LEGO conventions is amazing variety of stuff to do. Thomas Garrison and the rest of the BrickCon planning team are interested in hearing your ideas about presentations, seminars, round-tables, and other activities you’d like to see at BrickCon this October. For more info, read on…

BrickCon 2008 is looking for any talks, roundtables, and special activities you would like to see at the Con this year.

This year we have two classrooms adjacent to the exhibition hall with real, hard walls so we anticipate being able to program presentations/activities for up to twenty people during public hours or other activities. Additionally, public hours have been further reduced from last year, leaving more programming time for events requiring larger spaces.

Past talks have included manufacturing custom parts, an introduction to LDraw, and slideshows of LEGOLAND (insiders’ and outsiders’ views), among many others.

Roundtables, or moderated discussions, have included sorting, Moonbase standards and design, landscaping, and anything that someone can think of.

Activities already planned for this year include the Dirty Brickster, a draft, and speed and blind builds.

All we need for more talks, roundtables, and activities are ideas and people to run with them. Projectors and a computer will be available (although bringing your own laptop ensures compatibility). All spaces can be configured with tables and chairs as desired.

Any registered attendee who would like to run a presentation or activity should e-mail proposals or questions to Thomas Garrison (the three letters Tee Double-U Ess AT morfydd DOT net–please mention BrickCon in the subject). If possible, please include a possible title, brief description for the event program, and any time constraints or facility requirements. Events are typically scheduled to run up to fifty minutes but can be scheduled for more or less time.

Our hard deadline for proposals is September 8. This gives Thomas time to make a schedule and get everything into our printed program. Earlier is better.

BrickCon is an annual adult LEGO hobbyist convention and exhibition in Seattle. BrickCon 2008 will be October 2-5, 2008, in the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall. For more information and online registration, visit: http://www.brickcon.org

I hope to see lots of you this October in Seattle!

Registration now open for BrickCon 2008, October 2-5 in Seattle [News]

If you’ve never been to a LEGO convention, you probably don’t know what you’re missing. Even if you’ve seen thousands of pictures, it’s not the same.

BrickCon is my hometown LEGO con, held each October in Seattle. Registration is now open, and I’d highly recommend signing up today to come to our fair city this fall.

Naturally, the big draw at any LEGO con is all the LEGO! You might see creations like Kevin Blocksidge’s “Victorian Floating Rock” or a War of the Worlds tripod by Lino Martins:

Maybe you prefer Town creations, like “The Real Cafe Corner” by Alice Leber-Cook, or huge Castle battles:

Of course, BrickCon isn’t just about LEGO. Where else can you have your picture taken with Josh, Shannon, Brendan, a dude in a kilt, Robin, John, and The Keith?

And don’t forget the adoring fans (that’s the back of Michael Rutherford’s head):

Oh, there’s also free stuff. Here’s Steve Barile winning 10181 Eiffel Tower:

When the con is done, here’s how we ship Nathan Proudlove back to Manitoba:

If you’re still not convinced, you might want to check out our past coverage here on The Brothers Brick:

So, what are you waiting for? Register today!

NWBC 07 on LEGO TV

Head on over to LEGO TV and check out some video coverage of NWBC 07 and Brickfest PDX.

Via news from LUGNET.

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.