Tag Archives: Conventions

LEGO conventions happen all over the world, and there’s a LEGO convention happening somewhere just about year-round. Though we can’t cover all of them, we’ll do our best to bring you highlights from BrickCon, Brickworld, Bricks by the Bay, AFOLCON, LEGO Fanwelt, Brick Fiesta, and all the rest.

BrickExpo 2011 is nearly upon us

An update for those hoping to attend Brick Expo 2011 in Canberra (August 6-7 2011).

Exhibitor space at Brick Expo 2011 is almost full. If you’re a late starter and still wanting to exhibit you need to make contact immediately. This year there will be a number of special events including a VIP Cocktail Party.

Special guests speakers including Ryan McNaught (Australia’s LEGO Certified Professional) and Jamie Berard (Senior Designer at LEGO Billund).

Brick Expo is held during the 1st weekend of August in Canberra Australia.

For all the details visit the website www.BrickExpo.com.au

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

Less than one month until Brick Fiesta

The count down has started for Brick Fiesta, the first fan-based LEGO convention in the state of Texas. If you can make it to Austin from June 30 – July 3, don’t forget to register by May 31st to secure your engraved badge. The last day to receive the special rate at the hotel is June 9th.

Brickfete, Ontario, July 28-31

One for our Canadian and American readers.

The Brickfête Team would like to invite all the Brothers Brick readers to Ontario, Canada this summer for our inaugural LEGO Fan Convention for the adult hobbyist.

July 28th to July 31st
The Assembly Hall
Toronto, Canada

To register for the four days visit www.brickfete.com

Just over a month ago, the Brickfête Team announced our plans to the world; in that time the guest list has been filling out. Now it’s your turn to join us for some “Old School” fun.

Our list of events has been posted www.brickfete.com/events
which includes plans for:

Build Challenges

Live auctions

Prize raffles

RC racing and,

TWO Mindstorm’s Robot challenges. Classic TUG of WAR and FIRE FIGHTING

Come display with us and enjoy the company of other AFOLS. Perhaps be a vendor some of your awesome LEGO items. Watch or better yet participate in games and challenges! What better way to challenge your robot building skills then to build a robot to try to race to an OPEN FLAME before the other robot gets there?

All the details and more can be read on
www.brickfete.com

Brickfête’s Public Day
The general public is invited to view the awesome LEGO Creations on display
July 30th, 2011 – 10am until 5pm at the Assembly Hall – Tickets sold at the door

We cant wait to see you there,
The Brickfête Team
“A festival run by fans, made by the fans, for the fans.”

Announcements for Brickworld 2011

For the 750 (and counting) who are registered to attend Brickworld this summer, here are some announcements and reminders.

MOC registration ends today May 1st!
Apologies for not posting the reminder earlier, but in case you missed the deadline, you can direct any questions to the MOC card coordinator, Mark Larson.

Keynote speaker:
This year the keynote speaker will be Mr. Adrian Jones. Mr. Jones is the General Manager of the new LEGOLAND Park in Winter Haven, Florida and is also Vice President of Merlin Enterntainments Inc USA. The main topic of discussion will be the soon to open park.

Pre-order items:
You can now pre-order the event kit and other items. One important note is that you must purchase the engraved name badge if you want one (it is no longer included in your registration fees). You must pay for your pre-order items by June 1st.

LEGO store discount:
The LEGO stores will no longer offer 50% discounts on damaged-box items. Instead there will be tiered discounts of up to 30% on all available items. There are some restrictions including a limit on duplicates and no reselling. This seems like the best way to ensure people get what they want at a decent price.

Setup:
This will take place as early as 9 am on Thursday. So if you have to miss Wednesday (such as due to work or hotel room availability), the only scheduled event you’ll miss out on is the opening ceremony.

Charity auction:
I’m particularly excited that you can donate MOCs to the charity auction and have all the proceeds go to Creations for Charity! You just have to show up with the MOC and fill out a form. It’s really easy and in the past MOCs have been some of the best sellers.

Transportation:
The fastest and most popular method to get from the airport to the hotel is by taxi. In particular, American Taxi has the best rates (~$35 from O’Hare to the Westin). Their number is 847-255-9600, which you may want to store in your phone.

Hotel rooms:
As usual, Brickworld is held at the Westin Hotel & Convention Center. Don’t wait until the last minute to book your room because the standard two-bed rooms have already already sold out!

Light registration:
Even though full registration is closed, you can still sign up for the light registration until May 18. The main differences include the inability to display MOCs and limited access to the display halls. More details are on the home page of the website.

Announcing PythonScape at BrickCon 2011 [News]

With our announcement of Numereji 2421, it’s clear the convention season is upon us, but the collaborative display that we’re organizing is hardly the only group build at BrickCon this fall. Iain Heath has just announced PythonScape, a Miniland-scale homage to the wonder and beauty of Monty Python.

I’ve already called dibs on the Black Knight, but there are still plenty of funny characters and scenes open for contributions. Following the success of Bricks of Character, I’m sure this is going to be awesome.

Announcing “Numereji 2421” at BrickCon 2011 [News]

This year marks the 50th anniversary of human space flight, as we celebrate Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin‘s historic orbit on April 12, 1961. This year also marks the start of a new but attenuated space age — one without NASA’s Space Shuttle program. In a sense, humanity stands at a fork in the road of our collective existence. Do we fold back in on ourselves and continue eking out a day-to-day existence on a planet with fewer and fewer resources, or do we adapt to our changing world and find new ways of living — both here at home and possibly beyond?

These are serious questions with philosophical, scientific, and political import. But they’re also pretty cool inspiration for building with LEGO! The collaborative display for readers of The Brothers Brick at BrickCon 2011 later this year is titled Numereji 2421.

For hundreds of years humans traveled through space like locusts, jumping from one planet to the next as they exhausted each home in turn. An outbound emigrant ship suffered a navigational and power failure that led to crash landing on Numereji, a terrestrial planet with a breathable atmosphere. Although the colonists crashed in an arid part of the planet, there may be a broad variety of environments beyond the horizon.

They settled into their home and built the town of New Howland. They held little hope of response to their distress signal, and for thirty years they survived off the remains of their ship, struggling to live alongside the alien flora and fauna. In time, they built a thriving, sustainable community.

Things changed five years ago when rescuers unexpectedly arrived and tenuous links were established with Outworld communities. Waves of immigrants have begun to arrive, and New Howland has become the main spaceport. Will Numerians follow the old pattern or take the new path blazed by the pioneering crash survivors?

The theme of BrickCon 2011 is “Building a Community.”

NASA Mars colony concept art Applying this theme to the collaborative display we’ll all build together, in what direction will your contribution take our fragile colony? Will you build a wind farm or a smuggler’s base? A cyber-library or Terran Expeditionary Marines recruiting office? Our future rests in your hands. The choice is yours.

We don’t currently have any particular standards in mind for the display, though we are returning to minifig-scale. The inevitable mix of technologies, terrains, and building styles provides lots of opportunities for a diversity of contributions.

Sources of inspiration for this display include:

Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space
Ernest Callenbach’s Ecotopia
NASA and Russian/Soviet Space Agency concept art, particularly from the 60’s through 80’s
Concept Ships and affiliated blogs

Brickworld registration almost full!

If you’re planning on attending Brickworld from June 15-19 but haven’t registered yet, please register now because the number of available spots is approaching the 650 limit. There’s currently 614 people signed up for the full registration, and I don’t want our readers to miss out on the last few spots.

Bricks By The Bay 2011 Cybercity display

The boys at RoninLug and some friends [Andrew Lee (onosendai2600), Fradel Gonzales (Slice151), Brian Heins, Brandon Griffith (icgetaway), Paul Meissner (Legosamurai), Paul Lee (polywen), Chase Lewis ([Vid]), Tory B, Dane Erland (Lord Dane), Cole Martin (zeehelmut), Cole Blaq, Keith Goldman (Hook Monkey), Jeff Cross (Octopunk), Tommy Williamson (GeekyTom), Don Reitz (Don Solo), Jack Marquez (Ewok in Disguise)] are pretty smooth at assembling collaborative displays and this year’s Bricks by the Bay (BBTB) display doesn’t disappoint. An excellent futuristic city. And it shines too.

Heaps more pics can be found.

Sign up for BrickMagic in Raleigh, NC May 5-8, 2011

The second annual BrickMagic Lego festival is happening in Raleigh on Mother’s Day weekend. This year’s event will have more display space along with a two-day private convention on top of the weekend public expo. Perhaps more exciting is their recent announcement of a $1000 cash prize and LEGOLand annual pass for the best in show creation along with features in BrickJournal magazine for the best creations of each category. Click here to register for BrickMagic 2011.

Registration Open for Bricks by the Bay 2011, March 25th-27th

Announcing a LEGO convention for those in the ~~southern~~Western parts of the USA.

Registration is now open for the second annual Bricks by the Bay, taking place March 25th – 27th at the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara in the San Francisco Bay Area, California. Last year’s convention was agreed to be a great success by all who attended, and this year’s takes place at a new venue with over twice the space! Also, this is the same weekend originally planned for Brickfest 2011 (now cancelled) so if you had planned to attend Brickfest, consider making a trip to California instead. Registration is capped at 400 attendees and almost 100 have already signed up, so register now to secure your badge. Early registration discount offered until February 25th.

For more info check out the Bricks by the Bay site. There is also a call for presentations; if you’re interested in hosting a talk, break-out session, or special activity, contact Paul Sinasohn here.

Brickvention 2011 roundup

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.

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

Registration for Brickworld 2011 now open [News]

Registration is now open for Brickworld 2011! As usual, Brickworld will take place in the third weekend of June in Chicago. It is a four and a half day event featuring a private convention and public expo at the Westin Chicago North Shore. Because of the continuous swelling of participants and visitors each year, Brickworld will now start on Wednesday night, making it one of the most-attended and longest and Lego conventions all around.

The metaphor I use to describe Brickworld is a powerhouse. It’s a very dynamic convention with so much to take in at once. With four display rooms, seeing all the creations in detail is between difficult and impossible. Likewise, we’re closing in on 1,000 registered attendees, so there’s always many new people to meet and old friends to catch up with if you’re returning. Meanwhile, don’t forget that you still have until the end of January to design this year’s event kit.