brickcon – Page 3 – Bill Ward's Brickpile

Nobody expects the Spanish Iniquisition!

You’re probably well aware of the famous Monty Python sketch about the Spanish Inquisition (if you’re not, or if you haven’t seen it in a while, or just want a good laugh, it’s available on YouTube). Well, it turns out that someone – I know not who – put together a LEGO homage to this great piece of British comedy on the castle display at BrickCon. In fact, I even took a picture of it. But the thing is, I didn’t spot it at all until someone pointed it out on my Flickr photos!

The guy who spotted it, who goes by the name </arpy>, edited my photo and reposted it in his photostream. Isn’t Creative Commons grand? Anyway, here’s his version of the photo:

I guess I should spend more time admiring the creations and not so much time staring at the viewfinder of my camera, eh?

My Video of BrickCon 2008 (Part 1) on LAMLtv

At BrickCon 2008, I shot video of a lot of models on display and interviewed a few people. The result has just been released as an episode of LAMLtv, the new video podcast arm of LAMLradio. This episode features interviews with Simon Kent, design lead at Lego Creator in Denmark, and Jenn “The Brick Chick” Wagner, as well as footage of models on display.

I have enough footage to make at least one more episode. I hope you enjoy! Let me know if you have any feedback – comments, questions, or suggestions. And if you are interested in video, contact James Wadsworth and offer your services. It’s a lot of fun to be involved in LAMLtv and there’s always room for more.

Slides from Half-Plate Offsets Presentation at BrickCon

The slides from the Half-Plate Offsets presentation I gave at BrickCon are now available online. The slides are freely available and redistributable using a Creative Commons Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share-Alike license.

Download here: half-plate.pdf

I took video of the presentation, but I haven’t watched it yet. If it comes out well, I’ll post it online also.

My BrickCon Haul

When I flew home I was really worried my suitcase would be overweight. Arriving at the airport, I hauled it up on the scale at the check-in station, and my face fell when it came up at 64 pounds and change. Since most airlines have a 50 pound limit for baggage, I feared I’d have to pay a fee for overweight bags. But happy day, Virgin America’s limit is 70 pounds!

Here’s what I got:

Set # 7090: Crossbow Attack (Castle) – freebie in my event bag – MSRP: $6.00
Set # 7738: Coast Guard Helicopter and Life Raft – City Build-Off prize – MSRP: $40.00
Set # 8635: Mission 6: Mobile Command Center (Agents) – was built and disassembled, parts may be missing – Raffle prize – MSRP: $90.00
Set # 3831: Rocket Ride (Spongebob) – bought at LEGO store at 25% off – MSRP: $30.00
Set # 7724: Advent Calendar – bought at LEGO store at 25% off – MSRP: $30.00
Set # 10192: Space Skulls – bought at LEGO store at 25% off of existing sale price ($69.99) – MSRP: $100.00
Set # 10185: Green Grocer – bought at LEGO store at 40% off (scratch and dent) – MSRP: $150.00
Set # 10189: Taj Mahal – bought at LEGO store at 50% off (scratch and dent) – MSRP: $300.00
4 Pick-A-Brick large cups – bought at LEGO store at 25% off
1 Pick-A-Brick bag from the bins at the convention – $5 for a good sized ziploc bag
20 minifig parts from the bins at the convention – $10.00

When I went to BrickFair I didn’t win anything in the drawings, and I missed out on the scratch and dent because we got there too late. At BrickCon however, I was much luckier: they had a drawing of sorts to determine the order for the scratch and dent, and my number was the first one called! There was only one Taj Mahal at 50% off, and I got it! Then on the last day I won one of the more valuable sets in the door prize raffle!

The LEGO all arrived home intact, but the suitcase was a total loss. I put it out on the curb hoping a neighbor would take it, and it finally disappeared this afternoon. Both of its handles had ripped off, internal plastic bracing along the sides had crumbled, and one of the zipper pulls was lost. (It was already in pretty bad shape before the trip to Seattle, so it’s not just from that trip).

Home from BrickCon

I got home late last night after returning from BrickCon and slept in until noon.

What a weekend! I finished uploading all my pictures from the show finally. I took 446 pictures in all, which I think is a personal record. I still need to go through them and rotate the vertical ones, though. What I usually do for events like this is make a separate photoset with what I think was the best pictures from the event, but that’s probably going to take at least a week.

I also took a bunch of video footage. I did several interviews on behalf of James Wadsworth for LAML Radio, and once I send them to him hopefully he’ll find some clever use for them as well as other “B-reel” footage I got. LAML Radio, for those who aren’t familiar, is a LEGO-oriented podcast. It mostly consists of interviews and LEGO news, and is usually quite interesting and a great way to get motivated to build something if I’m otherwise not feeling creative. If you use iTunes, you can find it easily there, and/or just subscribe to it in your blog reader.

Anyway, if I didn’t see you at BrickCon this year, hopefully you’ll be able to make it next year.

BrickCon 2008 so far

BrickCon is going very well so far. There are tons of great models on display, many great deals to be had on LEGO, and some amazing news.

I took a lot of photos yesterday and they’re all up on my Flickr account. The biggest news was the unveiling of a new castle set, the 10193 Medieval Village. I made a video of it and posted it on YouTube (but had to wait until 12 noon today so that BrickJournal.com could have an exclusive 3-hour early announcement). I also created a special photoset for just those pictures so you don’t have to dig through all the images in my BrickCon set to find them.

BrickCon here I come

I just bought my plane tickets (on Virgin America, natch) and am looking forward to my second brick convention this year! I’ll be arriving at Seattle airport at 11:35am on Friday 10/3 and leaving Sunday evening. I have a room at the Hampton Inn (official hotel for the con). Question is, how do I get there from the airport? I would rather not rent a car…

Home from BrickFair, thinking about BrickCon

I made it home safely from BrickFair last night around midnight – another pleasant Virgin America experience. I can’t say enough good about that airline. The employees actually smile! When was the last time you saw that?

Anyway, the next LEGO convention is BrickCon in Seattle in October. Virgin America flies to Seattle too. :) I had other plans that weekend but I’m seriously thinking about changing them…

LEGO fan convention in northern California?

UPDATE – The convention, Bricks by the Bay, took place on April 9-11, 2010, and we’re in the planning process for the 2011 event. You can read more about it at the Bricks by the Bay site.

Some of us in BayLUG have been talking about having a LEGO convention here in northern California. This would be similar to some of the existing ones that have been taking place around the country for years:

Brickfest (Washington DC and Portland OR)
Brickswest (San Diego CA)
Brickcon (Seattle WA)
Brickworld (Chicago IL)
Brickfair (Washington DC)

There’s a thread on LUGNET about it started by Russell Clark, the BayLUG president.

If you haven’t heard of these before, here’s the basic idea. We take over a hotel or convention center for a weekend (hopefully a 3-day weekend), and 100+ LEGO fans descend upon it from all over the country (and maybe a few from overseas). The LEGO company usually sends some high level executives and other representatives. The local LEGO store usually has some special discounts and an after-hours sale just for con-goers.

We’re currently looking at hotels in and around Santa Clara and San Mateo, since that’s where our two local LEGO stores are. If you have any ideas for venues or would like to offer support, please let Russell or me know.