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.

Si-Moc’s shrinking LEGO talent

TBB’s very own Simon Liu was celebrating yesterday… No, not a queue of ladies at his door on Valentine’s Day, but the 5-year anniversary of his first “big boy build” and explosion into the LEGO community. To celebrate all that is LEGO (fun, friendship, contests, community spirit, etc), Simon is running a celebratory Mockaversary competition, best described in Simon’s own words:

Give me an idea that you want.
I’ll choose stuff only from this page.
If I build it.
It’s yours.

The third Mockaversary gift is a microscale build called Micro Katoren that fulfilled two requests, build a castle and build in the Kaliphlin style as part of the larger Guilds of Historica (GoH) community. GoH was one of the first Build-RPGs hosted on Eurobricks and Simon was heavily involved in the initial concept. This is an anniversary moment in itself as the community is still thriving. Micro Katoren is a microscale replica of The City of Katoren, a collaboration between jsnyder002 and soccersnyderi.

What a lovely guy Simon is. I’m just a bit concerned about how he is going to ship my life-sized LEGO Canadian Mountie all the way from Canada to the UK… Maybe I should have asked for a LEGO beaver instead.

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Registration open for Japan Brickfest 2016, June 4-5 in Kobe [News]

KLUG, the LEGO Users Group (LUG) based in Osaka, Japan, is putting on the largest LEGO event in Japan this June called Japan Brickfest.

The event will be held June 4-5, 2016 at the Canadian Academy international school on Rokko Island in Kobe. (I went to second grade in Kobe, and it’s a lovely city.) Registration for builders is now open, but closes at the end of February.

KLUG itself includes a number of names that should be familiar to both LEGO builders on sites like Flickr and MOCPages as well as readers of TBB. KLUG seems to be a bilingual LUG with both Japanese and English-speaking members, so if you’re a gaijin AFOL in the Kansai area who misses your LUG back home, KLUG and Japan Brickfest sound like a great way to get involved with LEGO in Japan.

Attendee pricing is based on requested table space. For more details, see the builder page (in both Japanese and English) on the event website.

Brickworld Chicago 2016 registration now open [News]

Registration for Brickworld Chicago 2016 is now open. Brickworld Chicago is held June 15-19, 2016, at the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center in Schaumburg, IL.

Registration
There are three registration tiers with their perks outlined on the convention page. All registration types are ages 18+; registrants under 18 years of age must have a parent/guardian register and attend Brickworld with them. All Access and Full registration is available until 5/16/16. After that date, Late registration is the only option.

All Access registration is $55 and allows access to all scheduled events and activities, and includes a name badge and the Brickworld commemorative brick.

Full registration is $80 and includes everything from the All Access tier plus eligibility for displays, door prizes, the goody bag, and Brickworld awards. Full registration is limited to 700 registrants.

Late registration is $100 and allows access to all scheduled events and activities, and includes a name badge and eligibility for collaborative displays only.

Hotel
Brickworld is held at the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center, and attendees can choose to stay at the connected Renaissance Hotel for an event rate of $139/night. Two room types are available: 1 king bed, or 2 double beds. Phone and online reservations for this event rate can be found here.

BRICK 2015 – London LEGO show roundup [News]

Last weekend saw thousands of LEGO fans descend upon London’s Docklands to visit BRICK 2015, the UK’s largest LEGO show, now in its second year. The Brothers Brick were there, and here’s a roundup of some of the coolest models we saw.

Builders from across the UK and Europe brought some amazing displays, including a number of models previously featured here. The enormous Hadrian’s Wall layout, the stunning recreation of Her Majesty’s Theatre, and Lasse Vestergard’s little gem History of the World. It was a genuine pleasure to see these all “in the brick”.

But onto other things, like the Brick Abyss from a trio of Swiss builders. A huge magical steampunk island archipelago with motorised elements, lighting, and smoke machines, the Abyss display was mobbed by kids and adults alike for the entire weekend…

More great models from the show after the jump

BrickUniverse Raleigh 2016 open for registration

BrickUniverse FOL Conference is returning to the Raleigh Convention Center in Raleigh, North Carolina from April 1-3, 2016. Registration for all three days is $55 and includes a goody bag, brick badge, and entrance to all of the FOL events. This is also one of the unique conventions that offer free registration to exhibitors. Check out the BrickUniverse website for more info.

Registration open for BrickCan 2016 [News]

Registration is open for British Columbia’s first LEGO convention. BrickCan is April 21-24, 2016, at River Rock Casino in Richmand, BC, Canada — just a short drive beyond the border and outside of Vancouver, BC.

Registration
Adult (19+) registration is $75 CAD through January 20, 2016. After that, registration goes up to $85 CAD.

After January 20, space permitting, registration may open to teens (14+). Check BrickCan’s registration page for more information.

To register, click here and create an account. Once you’ve created an account, you’ll be routed to the registration page.

Hotel
The convention is taking place at River Rock Casino. Convention rates are $159 CAD per night ($189 for a 1 Bedroom Suite), and available up to 3 days before and after the event. Please note that if you are staying before or after the convention itself, you’ll need to call the Reservation line.

Because this is taking place in our neighbor to the north, please note that non-Canadian citizens will require a passport to cross the border.

Creations for Charity live stream happening this Friday-Saturday, 11/27-11/28

The annual Creations for Charity 24-hour live stream presented by Beyond the Brick is taking place starting this Friday at 5pm EST. This is an event where Lego fans from all over the world can join the hosts from Beyond the Brick on air and participate in a variety of Lego-related activities, all in support of Creations for Charity. Whether you want to watch the live stream, participate on air, or pledge a donation, there’s ways for everyone to get involved. Head on over to creationsforcharity.org for more details and to sign up.

Tested video features “Best Castle Building” from BrickCon

Tested made a visit to BrickCon this year and interviewed David Frank about his award-winning Manor House, which we featured here a couple of weeks ago. Check it out for some great background on a wonderful build!

The Wall – Rome’s Northern Frontier

Brick to the Past is a British collective (and veritable Who’s Who of top-notch castle builders) that focuses on large historical LEGO displays. The team finally unveiled its 2015 opus at the STEAM expo this month, and it’s a real humdinger! Entitled The Wall, it’s an expansive and gorgeously detailed slice of Romano-Celtic life along both sides of Hadrian’s wall.

The Roman side features a full minifig scale fort, villa, temple, bath house, milecastle and town. Whilst the Celtic side features an Iron Age village, farmhouse and standing stones. All laid out amidst some great contoured landscaping and a long snaking section of the famous wall.

If I recall correctly, we reported on a community poll that LEGO conducted a few years ago, to gather suggestions for possible future LEGO themes. And if also I recall correctly, a large number of you cried out for a Roman theme. So while we wait and hope for LEGO to finally see the light, I thoroughly recommend you get your fix by checking out all the detailed photos of this awesome display.

Click here for more photos

BrickCon 2015 only 2 weeks away [News]

That’s right, the grand pappy of LEGO conventions opens its doors soon in Seattle, Washington. For builders, it’s time to finish up those creations and make final preparations – the most important of which is to REGISTER! Regular builder registration ends September 18th (this Friday) after which the fee jumps from $75 to $100. As well as saving you money, registering before this deadline also secures your engraved badge bricks and goodie bag, so don’t delay. Visitors to the public exhibition (October 3rd and 4rd) can buy tickets either at the door or online, but we strongly recommend online to reduce your wait time on the day.

The theme of BrickCon this year is MOCking History, so expect some interesting mashups of the past, present and future. All the usual building categories (Space, Town, Castle, and so on) will be represented, as well as several new ones… Alongside a new Wild West display will be the Battle of Bricksburg, a civil war collaborative diorama sponsored by The Brothers Brick. BrickCon is also pleased to introduce Screen Scenes, an area dedicated to mini-fig based builds inspired by film, TV, and videogames.

As well as registering themselves, builders should also remember to register their creations. Table space is not infinite, and theme coordinators need to know what people are bringing ahead of time, so that layouts can be properly planned. Bringing an oversized, unregistered MOC during setup is considered very bad form, and may result in your build not being accommodated.

Now is a great time for builders to explore the BrickCon website to find out about all the games, sessions and other activities being offered. There’s always a lot going on, so it helps to plan ahead so you don’t miss out. This year’s parts draft sets are 41085 Vet Clinic and 41075 The Elves Treetop Hideaway. There are also 26 different vendors peddling all kinds of LEGO wares. And if you like scoring stuff, consider supporting the BrickCon Video Kickstarter by our pals over at YouTube channel Beyond the Brick, to guarantee a souvenir video of the whole event and some cool one-of-a-kind rewards.

The Brothers Brick is a proud sponsor of this event. If you have any general questions, we’ll certainly do our best to answer them in the comments. Or you can contact the Con organizers directly. Otherwise, we look forward to seeing you all – and your creations – in a couple of weeks. Make sure to come find us and say hi! But please do NOT pet, feed, or make eye contact with the lemur…

…it’s his mating season.

Military aircraft builders at Brickfair Virginia

Most of my fellow Brothers are already getting geared-up for BrickCon in October, but at that time of year, sadly, I can get away from work only barely long enough to attend Steam in the UK; a trip to the US is not in the cards. However, in the last few weeks I was in the US for a holiday which included attending Brickfair Virginia. I haven’t yet been home long enough to find the time to go over all the pictures that I’ve taken, let alone to find the owners of the models in them on-line, but will hopefully get around to that in the next few weeks. For now I want to share some of my experiences and to give a shout-out to the military builders I have been hanging out with, specifically Aleksander Stein, Evan Melick, Matt Hacker and Corvin Stichert. This year they displayed a collaborative airfield layout full of excellent minifig scale (near-future) military aircraft, helicopters and ground support equipment.

The event consisted of three set-up days, which were for registered attendees only. There were a lot of organised activities, including games and talks about build techniques, as well as two talks by the guys from Beyond The Brick about their youtube podcasts. I was too busy chatting to other builders while all of this went on, but I did catch an excellent talk by Gary Brooks (whose Battle of Waterloo was featured here a few weeks ago) about building landscapes, that taught me a few new tricks. The set-up days were followed by two public days, during which we all got to display our models to an appreciative audience. I know some exhibitors dread these, and they can get very busy, but I enjoyed talking to the audience and demonstrating the folding wings and undercarriage of my Wildcat fighter.

The fun didn’t end at Brickfair. Since all of us share an interest in military history and technology, the next day we hit the road (and thanks to the satnav, DC rush hour traffic on the way back) to visit the USMC Museum in Quantico. This had a little LEGO twist: its shop features an impressive model of the USMC Memorial by Nathan Sawaya, which was the perfect backdrop for a group photograph.

I know that there must be a fair few people among you who have never actually been to any sort of LEGO convention or event. I was like you for a long time. Building with LEGO was something I did on my own. Later I started sharing models online, which added a welcome social component. However, as I found out when I joined Brickish in the UK and started attending events, nothing beats face-to-face meetings with fellow enthusiasts and being able to see their builds in real life. I’d like to thank Magnus Lauglo for inviting me to brickfair several years ago and for offering me a place to crash this year too. Congratulations to our very own Simon for winning four (!) Brickee awards, including best aircraft. Thanks guys, I had a ball.

The Brothers Brick

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