Tag Archives: Brickvention

Pry it from my cold, dead hands, mate!

Apparently, Australia had gun-toting outlaws, too. Aido Kessler has built a LEGO replica of Ned Kelly, an Australian outlaw who roamed the Land Down Under almost 150 years ago. He was known for wearing a suit of bulletproof armor with an iconic helmet. What is neat about this is it was the official convention model at Brickvention this past weekend. So, if you were there, it is possible that you could have also gotten -uh-your cold, dead hands on this hot exclusive model. Aido tells us it’s very odd seeing your creation on the front of a box, an experience not many of us can boast. He must be having the best week ever as we have recently featured another of his creations. Check it out as well as many of his other amazing works in our Aido Kessler archives.

Bushranger

With 7,000 pieces, this golden LEGO dragon welcomes in the New Year

Next weekend, the LEGO convention Brickvention will return to Melbourne, Australia, bringing with it so many brick-built creations from the continent. Now we’ve seen some pretty impressive stuff from this show in past years, so it should be no surprise that a LEGO dragon of this scale will be making an appearance for this year’s con. From the mind of Donny Chen, this marker of the coming Chinese New Year 2024 can stretch out to 2 meters long and contains 1300 2×4 oval tiles as golden scales.

As impressive as the body is, with a flexible skeleton supporting all those tiles, the dragon’s face is also quite the marvel. Pearl gold has a fairly limited part palette, but Donny is still able to create some fantastic shapes in constructing the eyes, crown, and jawline of this majestic mythical beast. I particularly like his use of 1×1 slopes to create the appearance of small scales along the dragon’s snout and chin. I hope those of you able to make it to Melbourne can enjoy it in person.

There are pirates aplenty amid these LEGO islands made from 800,000 bricks

You know you’re in for a seriously large LEGO creation when four great builders (Joshua Morris, Rod Fiford, Gavin Rich, and Handoko Setyawan) put their heads together on a pirate scene. And with the Cerulean Straits clocking in at a fully-detailed nine square meters, they did not disappoint! All 144 baseplates of brick were on display recently at Brickvention in Melbourne, Australia. I’ll do my best to cover as much of the 800,000 bricks as I can….

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Click here to discover the treasures buried within this build!

Brickvention 2013 – 19th-20th Jan – Public Tickets available

I’ve been rather less active in promoting Brickvention (Australia’s premier LEGO convention) this year, entirely because I’m rather sad to not be going this time around. But I would be terribly remiss if I didn’t remind all our Melbourne readers that it’s coming soon (19th and 20th January 2013 to be precise) and you need to book your tickets ASAP. In my experience each year gets bigger and better and since the last one was super fun I’ve absolutely no doubt this one will be even more excellent.

Sadly exhibitor and convention tickets are sold out so if you’re not already booked in you must go as a visitor. And I cannot stress enough that you need to book your tickets in advance and that the event has entirely sold out each recent year.

Brickvention is Australia’s premier LEGO® fan convention

Brickvention is an Australian based convention for LEGO® fans. It is a two-day event that brings together LEGO fans of all ages from all over Australia to view original and unusual creations built by Australian modelers and collectors. So if you love LEGO, come along and view the amazing creations and models made out of LEGO.

The event features a huge collection of LEGO models including trains, castles, pirate ships, Star Wars™, space ships, planes, buildings, sculptures and many more. There will also be competitions, face painting and LEGO sets and merchandise for sale.

The next Brickvention will be held over the weekend of 19th and 20th January 2013 at The Royal Exhibition Building, Nicholson Street, Carlton, Victoria, where anyone can come along and view the amazing creations made out of LEGO.

LEGO fans of all ages are welcome on the Saturday and Sunday from 9:30am – 5:30pm.

Brickvention 2012 round-up

I’ve just returned from Melbourne where I attended my third (maybe fourth…) Brickvention. Each year this convention gets bigger and, more importantly, better. A huge thanks to the organisers for making it such a great event.

For those who could not attend here’s a selection of some of the great creations that were on display. Or of course you can find your own by wading through the tags or Brickvention group. And if you took photos please remember to add “Brickvention” and “2012” to your tags and submit it to the group.

Mark Curnow's Bumblebee

Mark Curnow (Brickton) brought this utterly amazing version of Bumblebee from the new Transformers movies. This thing was incredible, both for size and detail. It was funny coming up to it from behind where it looked like a jumbled bionicle creation (with no offense to the great bionicle builders out there) but from the front you realised the jumbling was 100% truth to the source material.

  • Jannie Sasson's QuidditchWith full stands and an incredible minifig selection, Jennie Sasson bent walls to capture the geometry and activity of a Quidditch tournament. Her use of 3D for the players gave the tournament a wonderful feeling of action.
  • IMGP7251The Canberra LUG brought along this wonderful rollercoaster using the old blue track. Watching it zip around the track was a pleasure. I know David Boddy has some great videos of the show too.
  • Travis Matheson's 'Nova' class shipsI have to admit I missed Travis Matheson’s ‘Nova’ ships at the actual event, but having spotted the pictures now I really regret it. Some excellent microscale love.

And of course these are merely a few of the many great models and displays that the 10,000 audience members got to see. We’ve already seen Ryan’s rocket and I’ll blog Mike Pianta‘s and my creation later.

PS. Excuse the messy pictures. WordPress hates this sort of layout for some reason. And I hate taking too much space or boring you with excess words to fill space.

Brickvention 2012

Thanks to an excessively busy patch in my life it’s been a long while since I blogged anything LEGO. Unfortunately this probably won’t change much for a little while at least.

But I felt I should take a few moments to remind everyone that the public tickets to Brickvention 2012 are selling out fast. So if you want to come see Ryan McNaught’s Apollo 11 (and a bunch of other good stuff) you should book soon.

It’s on in Melbourne Town Hall next weekend (21-22nd Jan 2012)

Brickvention 2012: Jan 21-22 Melbourne [News]

Registration for Brickvention 2012 and tickets for the public days are now open. The 2012 event will be held in the same place as the 2011 event (Melbourne Town Hall) with public days on the 21st-22nd January 2012 and a registered attendees only day on the 20th (with setup on the 19th).

As ever I expect this event to be heaps of fun. Last year’s event was huge and if past growth continues we can expect this year’s to be even bigger. I’m sure details of collaborative events will be announced closer to the time so keep an eye on the website for future announcements.

DCP_3943The timing makes BV 2012 a bit closer to Australia Day this year so if you’re coming from interstate or overseas try booking your accomodation sooner rather than later.

Please note that this year a new system is in place for registration. And especially note that a pre-purchased ticket will be required to attend the public days. This is to ease waiting times for those attending.

To become a registered attendee able to attend all days and display your models:

Follow this link to the Brickvention 2012 registration page at TryBooking
http://www.trybooking.com/ZYA

Registered memberships cost $60 (plus booking fee).
Make sure you bring along your printed tickets to the event.

Due to venue size, there are only 150 registrations available. The first 50 people who register will be entered into a special competition organised by LEGO Australia.

If you want to just check out the displayed models on the weekend:

Saturday 21st and Sunday the 22nd from 9.30am – 5.30pm are the Public Expo days, allowing the general public of all ages to watch LEGO® builders at work and view LEGO® creations and displays.

You will need to pre-purchase tickets for this display.

Adults – $10 (plus booking fee)
Children – $6 (plus booking fee)

Children under 3 are free

You can purchase tickets at TryBooking

Make sure you bring along your printed tickets to the event!

And if you don’t know where and when it is:

The next Brickvention will be held over the weekend of 21st and 22nd January 2012 at The Melbourne Town Hall, corner of Swanston and Collins Streets Melbourne Victoria, where anyone can come along and view the amazing creations made out of LEGO.

Brickvention 2011 roundup

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As I mentioned in my last post I spent last weekend (14th to 16th) enjoying myself at Brickvention 2011. This year is was significantly larger than last year with 140 AFOLs attended and 8000 people through the door on public day. In order to deal with an increasing number of attendees (last year there were 3000 through the door) the event had moved to a bigger venue but with a three-fold increase in attendance it simply wasn’t enough. Sadly many people had to wait two hours to get in and some were turned away at the end of the day. The event seems to be approaching the size of some of the smaller European and US fests.

But I suspect our readers aren’t too interested in statistics compared to pictures. After giving attendees a weekend to get their pictures up there are now a bunch of photos up on flickr (check the BV pool and BV 2011 pool or appropriate tags).

My absolute favourites were the steampunk ship Hyperion (top) by Darren Reid and the Sydney club’s Western display (bottom). Much to my chagrin I spent most of the public days building and didn’t get to see many of the smaller models but I did get a quick moment to wander around and check out the bigger models so can also recommend Ross Crawford‘s crane (right), Kevin Hall‘s Drachenberg castle, Ryan McNaught‘s The Love Boat (left) and Hogwart’s school (left) by David Scalone. But there was numerous other great models around the place.

IntrastellaBV2011-25

I certainly look forward to Brickvention 2012 whenever and wherever it may be. If you’re in the region this event just gets bigger and better each year so do come along. And many, many, many thanks to the organisers. They put in a lot of effort and ran a very tight ship.


David Cook has posted timelapse photos of the start of public day

Brickvention 2011 in Melbourne: Jan 14-16 (reminder)

Just a reminder to those in Australia that Brickvention 2011 will be held in under two weeks so if you’re planning to register as a full participant best get in quick. The public day requires no registration but for an AFOL I strongly recommend being there for all days.

Full details can be found on TBB or at the Brickvention website but the short of it is as follows:

  • Dates: 14-16 January (14-15 full participants only, 16 public day)
  • Venue: Melbourne Town Hall, corner of Swanston and Collins Streets Melbourne Victoria.
  • Cost: Full attendance – $50 for Full registration (over 15), $25 for under 15 registration, Public day – $6 Adults, $3 Children, $15 Family (2 Adults, 2 Children)

This year will be the fifth event and my third and I’ve had a great time each time. I highly advise all Aussie fans and especially those in and around Melbourne to come along.

And taking advantage of bloggers privilege I’ve included a preview shot of a collaborative layout between Mike Pianta (scruffulous) and me. If you come along on Friday you might even get to see me crying at the damage done by the Qantas baggage handlers.
Brickvention Teaser

Brickvention 2011: Jan 14-16 Melbourne [News]

Once again it is Summer and that means it’s time for Brickvention. As Australia Day falls on a Wednesday this year Brickvention breaks from its usual tradition of falling on the long weekend and will be held from the 14th to the 16th of January instead which hopefully means cheaper flights and accomodation.

Registration is now open so if you haven’t already started planning your trip now is a good time. One other notable change is that this year it’s in the all new venue of Melbourne Town Hall due to the enormous crowds at last years event.

In a nutshell:

  • What is Brickvention?

    • Brickvention is the premier convention event for the Australian LEGO® Community.

    Brickvention is a 2 day event for AFOLs (Adult Fans of LEGO®) Like other conventions, it offers workshops, presentations, special events and challenges.

    The event celebrates the coming together of the fan community that has evolved as a result of the Internet and exploring and developing the LEGO® hobby.

    Brickvention occurs annually on or near the Australia Day weekend in January.

  • When is Brickvention?

    • Brickvention 2011 will be held on Saturday the 15th and Sunday 16th January 2011. The Saturday is for registered attendees and is aimed at Adult fans of LEGO®. Sunday is the Public Day where everyone is welcome.

  • Where will Brickvention be held?

    • Brickvention 2011 will be located at: Melbourne Town Hall, corner of Swanston St and Collins St, Melbourne :

  • Who can come?

    • Saturday the 15th includes sessions intended for AFOLs (Adult Fans of LEGO®) 18 years of age or older. Younger convention attendees are welcome to come with a registered adult, but keep in mind many of the activities outside of the Public Expo are targeted toward adults.

    Sunday the 16th is the Public Expo, allowing the general public of all ages to watch LEGO® builders at work and view LEGO® creations and displays. – registration is not required for the Public Expo.

  • How much does it cost to attend?

    • Convention: Saturday the 15th includes sessions intended for AFOLs (Adult Fans of LEGO®) to get together and discuss LEGO®, building techniques, models etc. and includes a number of events such as presentations and competitions. – Please register for these competions prior to Brickvention.

    $50 for Full registration (over 15)
    $25 for under 15 registration. Children under 15 attending the 2-day convention must be accompanied by an adult

    Public Expo: Sunday the 16th from 10am – 5pm is the Public Expo, allowing the general public of all ages to watch LEGO® builders at work and view LEGO® creations and displays. Registration is not required for the Public Expo.

    Adults – $6
    Children – $3
    Family – $15 (2 adults and 2 children)

If you’re in the neighbourhood I highly recommend attending. It’s by far the biggest AFOL convention in Australasia. I’m already fully booked.

Brickvention 2010 Roundup

The above image by batwingtm will take you to the flickr group which also includes pictures from previous Brickventions. I’ll add more links as I find them.

Well I’ve just got back from Melbourne after attending Brickvention 2010 and having a little holiday. I’m very tired so will keep this brief but I felt I owed it to our readers and the 70 Australian who attended (plus the 2800 people that came to see!) to blog something from the convention before the week was out. I took no photos myself (camera had a dead battery and they always turn out bad anyway) but there’s a bunch of them up on Flickr now (alternate link to search on Brickvention 2010 tags).

PS. Below is the best in show award winner. I’ll be blogging more about it ASAP.

Brickvention 2010 Reminder

I’m sending out a pre-Christmas reminder that the previously mentioned Brickvention 2010 is coming up fast so get registered if you want to participate in the Australia Day weekend.

So far Brickvention has people registered from all six states and a final full attendence of at least 50 is expected as well as a predicted 2000 people through the door on the public day (it was crazy last year). If you’re from Australia or the neighbourhood this is your best chance to catch up with a bunch of LEGO fans from the local region. I’ll be there for the whole time so drop by and say hello.