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.

Brickvention 2010 coming to Melbourne Jan 23-24 [News]

Registration is now open for Brickvention 2010, the Australian LEGO convention put on by Brickventures. I attended last year’s Brickvention and it was an impressive display. The public crowd on the Sunday was ridiculously huge. I’ll be there and I hope more of our readers can attend.

Brickvention is an annual convention and exhibition of LEGO® brand building bricks presented by adult hobbyists from around the Australia.

Brickvention 2010 will be held over the weekend just prior to the Australia Day Holiday (January 23rd – 24th) in Melbourne, Australia and promises to be an exciting event.

Join us to view hundreds of models created by LEGO® Builders from around the nation.

Build with LEGO® parts at our Building Zone.

Purchase LEGO® sets, parts and minifigs.

Win Prizes!

Similar to previous Brickventions, this year’s event will feature presentations, games, competitions, trading, and of course models by LEGO® fans from all over Australia. With much so more space available, the 2010 Brickvention promises to be even bigger and better than previous years!

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.

LEGO auditions for model builder in Manchester, UK [News]

I just heard that they’re recruiting for a model builder for the new LEGOLAND Discovery Center in Manchester, UK. It could be a pretty cool opportunity for someone among our UK readership.

Here’s the word:

DO YOU HAVE THE BRICK FACTOR?

SEE YOUR MODELS IMMORTALISED FOREVER IN LEGO

OPEN auditions are being held at The Lowry Hotel on 27 November 2009 for a position as model builder at the new LEGOLAND Discovery Centre.

Faced with millions of LEGO bricks when they arrive, auditionees will need to show how skilled they are at building LEGO models by creating an animal model in just fifteen minutes. The successful builders will then pass to the second stage of the auditions when they will need to create a famous face out of LEGO.

The audition aims to find a potential model builder who is skilled enough to be responsible for developing new features, exhibitions and building new models as well as working with the thousands of children expected to visit the attraction.

Neil Crittenden, general manager of LEGOLAND Discovery Centre said: “We are holding open auditions to find the most talented and enthusiastic model builders. It is an unusual job available and we hope to meet some LEGO fanatics from the North West. We are looking for someone with a great sense of fun and though that holding an open audition would be the ideal way to find the perfect candidate.”

The exciting new role will be based at the unique indoor attraction opening in March 2010.

Described as stepping into the biggest box of LEGO in the world, the attraction will host a unique MINILAND, which the successful model builder will need to create and maintain, as well as a number of other features including offer an exciting themed ride, a tour of a LEGO factory where children can help make their own LEGO brick. Plus there will be lots of opportunities to create their own models, race LEGO cars and areas for birthday parties.

The auditions will be held in meeting room seven and eight from 10am – 5pm at The Lowry Hotel in Manchester.

Auditionees need to register in advance by emailing register@legolanddiscoverycentre.com

For more information please contact the LEGOLAND Discovery Centre contact me, Nikki, at: ldc@brazenpr.com

If a reader ends up trying for this job, please get in touch. It could make for a pretty interesting story.

Medieval Fayre by SlyOwl

SlyOwl busts out of the starting gate with this entry for the Colossal Castle Contest. Packed with all sort of fun olde time carnival action, the dark of side the fair is revealed in the depths below the midway.

Announcing Creations for Charity!

I’m excited to announce a new online charity event that has just started! The event, called Creations for Charity, sells custom LEGO creations from fan builders to raise money to buy LEGO for underprivileged children. All funds will be used to buy LEGO sets for the charity Toys for Tots. From now until early-December, there will be new creations listed to be auctioned. Come visit the store to see what we have!

If you are interested in contributing a creation, you can read the details here. Happy holidays everyone!

The Colossal Castle Contest has begun [News]

Now in its seventh year, the massive multi-category contest, run annually by Classic-Castle has gone live.

Categories include Technological Advances, Alternate Sets, Medieval Mariner, Outlaw Escape, Eastern Medieval Life, Religous Life, Knight’s Training, Custom Castle Figure, Brick Castles, Fantasy Castles and Misc. The prizes are quite impressive, including vintage Castle sets, new sets, older MISB set, custom accessories and more. So get out there and get medieval!

Rubber ducky, you’re the one . . .

Like Dan, I picked up a bug at BrickCon, but unlike him I dont’ have the good sense to avoid blogging while sick.

While (or “whilst,” if I want to be contextually appropriate) BrickCon was the big event on this side of the Atlantic last weekend, builders in the UK geared up quite successfully for The Great Western LEGO Show (Oct 3-4) at the STEAM Museum in Swindon, England. They have a lot to brag about, both individually and collectively, but this sculpture of Bert and Ernie by James Shields (LostCarPark) is what caught my feverish and sentimental eye.

As Ralph Savelsberg said in the comments for the picture “Is anybody our age not a fan of these two?”

BrickCon 2009: Andrew’s wrap-up [News]

Like years past, BrickCon 2009 was both exhausting and exhilarating. Bear with us as we travel home, sort through photos, and put our thoughts in writing. I’ll update this post over the next couple of days, along with a full write-up of Zombie Apocafest 2009.

In the meantime, please enjoy the photos we’ve all been uploading. I dropped my camera on its lens first thing this morning (Khaaan!), so Thanel has kindly given me permission to upload a few of the photos we took together of the zombie layout.

Thanel acted as The Brothers Brick’s official photographer for the weekend, and has pictures of just about everything.

Day 1 (setup & socializing)
Day 2 (opening ceremonies)
Day 3 (most of the LEGO creation photos)
Day 4: Wacky Racers
Day 4: Dwarf Toss

The BrickCon pool on Flickr is the best way to find all our event pics in one place.

As much fun as running the zombie layout was, the highlight of the weekend for me was winning “Best of Microscale” for my micro Battlestar Galactica hangar. My look of surprise was both genuine and absolutely ridiculous.

Here’s a quick roundup of BrickCon follow-ups from around the Web:

We are off to BrickCon!

Andrew, Thanel, Caylin, Dan, and myself are all heading to BrickCon. Therefore, you probably won’t hear us much over the next couple of days, other than brief updates.

Have fun and we will be thinking of you!

How to get from Sea-Tac Airport to BrickCon at Seattle Center for $4.50

Last year, we posted an offer to connect people coming in by air based on their arrival times, enabling people to share transportation. That was before Seattle built a light rail line that’ll get you from the airport to Seattle Center for less than five bucks. Oh, and you get to ride a monorail along the way.

Mark Sandlin‘s Infothingy has the details:

For the graphically challenged (and to help people find this from the interwebs):

Catch the Link Light Rail Connector Bus at Bus Bay 2, near Baggage Carousel 1. It will take you to Tukwila International Blvd. Station. This bus is free.
Take the Link Light Rail train into Seattle. ($2.50) Stay on the train until you reach Westlake Station, which is the last stop.
Go up the escalation and into the Westlake Center mall. Go to the top floor of the mall to the Seattle Monorail station.
Take the Seattle Monorail to Seattle Center. ($2.00)

Be sure to click through the graphic to a great discussion of other useful ways to get to BrickCon for cheap — more money for bricks!

Zombie Apocafest 2009 BrickArms Defense Pack debuts in 72 hours [News]

Why yes, that is a BrickArms Cricket Bat and M1 Carbine.

Thanks to the generous folks at BrickArms, we’ll be giving away a bunch of these to those of you who contribute to Zombie Apocafest 2009 at BrickCon 2009 later this week. Each Zombie Defense Pack will include a prototype cricket bat and M1 carbine, along with other great stuff that remains Top Secret.

The cricket bats in particular will be in short supply outside these packs, and there will be a limited number of packs, so be sure to build something awesome.

BrickCon 2009: Last-minute logistics

Well, if we haven’t convinced you to attend BrickCon next week, you’re pretty much stuck following along at home, so we’re moving on without you. For those of you who’ll be joining us at Seattle Center a week from today, this post includes a bunch of important information — especially for first-time attendees.

Past attendees will also notice that this is largely an update of last year’s post. Please forgive the repetition.

Fill out your MOC cards by September 28

MOC 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.

Fill out your MOC cards on BrickCon.org by September 28 to ensure that they’re printed on the nice card stock that will help them stand up next to your amazing LEGO creations.

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

By the way, 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. Seriously.

Bring 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 2009 is 5972 Space Truck Getaway.

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

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

You should soon be receiving a message from BrickCon organizers with details on when, where, and how to unload your LEGO creations at Seattle Center. Last year, the loading dock was only available during the following times (we’ll update this as the 2009 times are finalized):

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

Given the limited space (it’s a tunnel), please only use the loading dock if you have massive amounts to unload.

Give us a tour of your LEGO room

One of the most interesting things about LEGO User Group (LUG) meetings is getting to see another LEGO fan’s building space.

If you’d like to share what your LEGO room looks like with fellow BrickCon attendees, bring a few good photos on a thumb drive for projection during the con.

Build!

With a week left, you still have time to build something and bring it for one of the many collaborative displays. Here’s a list of the various themes planned for this year’s convention:

Battle Bugs
Capital Ship Modular Project
Castle
Great Ball Contraption
Mecha
MicroCity
Model Team Motors
Operation Bricklord
Space
Town/Train
Zombie Apocafest 2009

See you next week!

Pictures of 2010 LEGO sets – Atlantis, Toy Story, & more – at Festival RFFL [News]

UPDATE: High-res photos of LEGO Atlantis sets are now out.

——–

Alexander (Shurik) posted pictures of some of the 2010 sets that LEGO has displayed at a sponsored event in Russia called Festival Rossiyskogo Fan Forum Lego. The featured sets include samples from the following themes: Atlantis, Toy Story, Prince of Persia, Star Wars, Power Miners, City, Bionicle and more.

EDIT (TG): These pictures were uploaded due to a miscommunication and have been removed from Flickr at the request of TLG. The local Ambassador, Igor Makarov, asked me to remove the deeplink which I have done.

UPDATE: Target.com also has box art for one of the 2010 LEGO Power Miners sets, 8188 Fire Blaster: