Tag Archives: Events

LEGO fan events and conventions happen all over the world, from LEGO Fanwelt in Germany to BrickCon in Seattle. Follow along at home with our coverage of the people, news, and models from events everywhere.

Philadelphia Zoo display features sculptures by Sean Kenney

Sean Kenney has been busy building sculptures for the Creatures of Habitat display at the Philadelphia Zoo. The display aims to inspire awareness of endangered species and protection of our planet, and it will run from April 10 to October 31, 2010.

This huge life-sized polar bear is made up of over 95,000 LEGO pieces and took over 1100 hours to construct together with a team of 5 assistants. Sean deliberately and carefully captured the realism of a bear that seemed to be a little frustrated, a little sad and confused at the same time about the predicament of being an endangered species.

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Adrian Drake: Am I doing it for ego? Probably. – Boilerplate & Beyond Vol. 2 [Interview]

For our second installment of interviews by Keith Goldman, we explore the possibility of an AFOL pedophile, prize-sniping, the future of collaborative displays, and more. Take it away, Keith!

If you’ve been to a convention or paid any attention to the hobby in the last decade, you’re probably familiar with Adrian Drake. Whether you call him The Drake, The Prize Sniper or Johnny Old-Guard, just don’t call him late to the building party. The Drake’s website BrickFrenzy was one of the first LEGO sites I encountered in the year 2000 when I began searching the internet for LEGO.

Although his high water mark was undeniably “Badger Badger Badger Badger”, The Drake has put his stamp on just about every theme in the book and inspired a generation of builders.

I sat down with The Drake in the Louisiana Superdome, the largest dome stadium in North America and the only domed structure large enough to contain our collective MOCs, fans, and egos. We talked about who’s was bigger, old Trek vs. new Trek, and LEGO.

The Build

Keith Goldman: You are the creator of the Tribunal, the largest science fiction SHIP on record. What are its official measurements and how do you react to the persistent charges that it closely resembled a giant tampon?

Adrian Drake: The Tribunal is 487 studs long, which is 12 feet, 8 inches, and roughly 20 inches in diameter. All told it weighs around 118 pounds. I’ve estimated it to be about 40,000 pieces. As for its tampon-ness, I just have to accept it and laugh it off. It’s not like I can say that it doesn’t! But that’s how the source material was, so that’s how it is.

You might wonder why I didn’t make it a bit longer and break the 500 stud barrier. To be honest I had no idea how long it was going to be until it was done. I based the entire scale of the model off the size of the 4×4 quarter domes that make up the fuel tanks, to scale to the source artwork I used. By the time I knew the length it was too late to rebuild something to add even 13 studs without it looking tacked on.

More of Keith’s interview with Adrian after the jump: Continue reading →

First Kockice exhibition in Croatia

The Kockice Klub is making their first Lego exhibition in the city of Velika Gorica in Croatia on Sunday, February 14. My friend Matija Grguric wanted me to pass the word, so if you’re in Croatia or the surrounding countries, this is an event you may want to attend.

BrickMagic LEGO festival coming to Raleigh, NC May 8-9, 2010 [News]

BrickJournal and their publishers TwoMorrows are hosting a LEGO event May 8-9, 2010 in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Here’s the event’s description:

Meet professional LEGO builder NATHAN SAWAYA, and help him assemble an incredible LEGO structure!

See a huge hall filled with custom LEGO creations by top AFOLs (“Adult Fans of LEGO”) from around the country!

Participate in workshops on building techniques and making custom minifigures!

View animated LEGO films running continuously both days!

Watch a robotics competition by First® LEGO® League teams from area schools!

Build a special LEGO Mother’s Day rose for your mom!

Cheer for the Great LEGO Boat Race, and see presentations on Mindstorms, creating LEGO Mosaics, and more!

For exact times and prices, check out the BrickMagic website.

Bricks Adventure 2010 happening right now in Hong Kong [News]

With sincerest apologies for the belated post to our thousands of our readers in Hong Kong, Bricks Adventure 2010 has been happening on the University of Hong Kong campus, January 27 through February 12.

ArzLan, Antony Tam, John Ho, and many other talented builders are there, along with America’s own Dan Siskind.

Photo by Erikmok

Check out all the photos in the Bricks Adventure 2010 photo pool on Flickr.

Colossal Castle Contest Winners Announced! [News]

The Classic-Castle Admins have finished the judging and announced the results! Check out the winners. There are some excellent castle creations there. If you need more Castle goodness, take a peek at all the entries. While there were less entries this year, the quality seems to continue to rise. I can tell you, it was hard to judging this year.

Announcing “Big in Japan” – collaborative display for TBB readers at BrickCon 2010

A LEGO zombie apocalypse is so last year (and the year before that). We’re pleased to announce that the collaborative display that The Brothers Brick will be coordinating this fall at BrickCon in Seattle will be inspired by the rich history and culture of Japan.

Like these wonderful characters from Hayao Miyazaki’s My Neighbor Totoro by Iain Heath (Ochre Jelly) — elements of the “Miyazakitopia” section Iain is planning for the display — we’ll welcome creations spanning many different eras and building styles. Part of the fun of a collaborative display is figuring out how to fit it all together once all the builders and their creations arrive at the convention!

From the epic Battle of Sekigahara to Godzilla battling Mothra in retro-future Tokyo, both reality and fiction from the Land of the Rising Sun provide plenty of inspiration for great LEGO creations.

Many of my earliest posted LEGO creations were inspired by the legends and history of land where I was born, and I’m personally looking forward to building again from that cultural heritage.

This is the earliest we’ve announced a collaborative display — for good reason. We hope that Big in Japan will inspire some truly different LEGO creations (like Proudlove‘s dekotora), alongside the iconic samurai and mecha we expect. From sketching designs to buying the parts you need on Bricklink, planning substantial contributions to the display may take the next eight or nine months.

As in years past, we’ll have prizes and giveaways, though we’re still working out the details about what those might be. In the meantime, break out those Kurosawa DVDs, crack open some Natsume Soseki novels, and start building!

Registration now open for Bricks by the Bay 2010 [News]

The San Francisco Bay area in California is hosting a new LEGO convention later this spring called Bricks by the Bay. The event will be held in Fremont on April 9-11, 2010.

You can now register for Bricks by the Bay on their website.

Registration for Brickworld 2010 now open! [News]

Beginning today, you can register for Brickworld 2010 in Chicago during June 17-20. Brickworld is the largest annual LEGO convention in the US with 570 registered attendees in 2009. This year, the coordinators have booked the entire Westin Hotel & Convention Center, which includes 30,000 square feet of space dedicated to displays, presentations, competitions, marketplace and more.

Check out photos from previous Brickworlds on Flickr, or you can watch our videos of the 2009 convention. Click here to register and join the fun!

Jolly Roger contest on Forbidden Cove

Forbidden Cove is hosting a major pirate contest, know simply as the Jolly Roger Contest. Very similar to the Colossal Castle Contest on their sister site, Classic Castle, there is a plethora of categories and prizes. Go check it out and win yourself some loot!

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.

Manchester Master Builder Auditions Report [Interview]

James Shields traveled all the way from Ireland to Manchester in order to audition for a master builder spot at the new LEGOLAND Discovery Center there. We announced the auditions last week, and James went to check it out. He’s posted photos for everyone, and graciously agreed to this interview about the process.

TBB: Thanks for telling us about your experiences in Manchester, James. Let’s get started: Was this an all-day affair?

JS: Yes, it ran from about 10am until nearly 5pm.

TBB: Did they give you a building challenge? If so, what was it?

JS: There were two building challenges. For the first round we had 15 minutes to build an animal of our choice. This sounds easy,. but 15 minutes disappears incredibly quickly. I built a polar bear (though it started out intending to be a gorilla). About half of the candidates got through to the second challenge, which was to build a face. Again, it was up to us what face we wanted to build, and what techniques we wanted to use. I went for the fantasy author Terry Pratchett because I’m a fan of his work, and I thought he looked distinctive. Again an hour is very tight for this, so I concentrated on the centre of the face, with a view to expanding it if there was time left over. I built upwards, using sculpting techniques, and was quite pleased with the result, although I only got from the lips to the forehead (it would have been nice to include the beard and Terry’s distinctive hat). There were some excellent builds, and I wouldn’t have liked to be judging, but I was very pleased to get through to the final four and the interview stage.

TBB: Were there a lot of other AFOLs there trying for the job? What about non-AFOLs?

JS: Most of the participants were AFOLs to some degree, and there were clearly some very talented builders. However, one of the finalists hadn’t touched a brick in ten years – he said that Lego had inspired him to become a professional modelmaker using other materials.

TBB: What did the non-AFOLs think of the hobby, assuming they were aware of it?

JS: The one I spoke to said he was seriously thinking of unpacking his old Lego collection.

TBB: Do you think that being an active LEGO hobbiest helped you out in this process, or was that not a factor in what they were looking for?

JS: Definitely. I think the biggest factor was the skills I’ve developed over the last few years. In the interview stage I also stressed AFOL activities I’ve been involved in and how they are (hopefully) relevant to the position.

TBB: The big question for me, was it fun?

JS: Yes, I thoroughly enjoyed the whole day, especially the building challenges.

TBB: Is there anything else you’d like to add about the process?

JS: A major part of the event was to win publicity for the LDC, so everything was under the scrutiny of cameras, and we were all interviewed to camera several times during the day. It was made clear that PR was part of the modelmaker’s role, and as a result they wanted someone who can handle it.