Brickvention 2010 - The Wrapup

Well, wasn't it fantastic! So many great MOCs, so many great people! It was a great weekend, and I took a number of photos which I'll have on Flickr in a few days time. But for now, there already are some photos of the event on Flickr, you can check out the photo sets here and here.

I particuarly enjoyed the big white castle (sorry to the builder who's name escapes me) which can be seen in this photo:


And of course there was the amazing cathedral by Teunis Davies, not complete but still one of the most fantastic MOCs there:


And it would be almost a crime not to mention the brilliant Airbus A380, then there were the spaceships, the whole train layouts, the bridge between them, the train station and the alien city architecture buildings just to name a few. All in all it was a fantastic weekend, and I really couldn't give credit to every good MOC because they were all so stunning! Well done everyone, and thanks for making this such a brilliant weekend.

What did everyone who went think of Brickvention 2010?

I'm just starting to recover, and at this stage the commitee hasn't had a chance to take stock yet, but we were almost overwhelmed by it's success.

Early indications was it was going to be huge, and it was. We had more registrations than we had planned for (the commitee ended going without goodie bags to make sure everybody else got one), and public attendees were at least double last years, Our estimates with still two hours to go were about 2500 people. I'll get more accurate figures when I can. Suffice to say we may need to consider a larger venue for next year.

Personly I had a great time. It was great to meet up with Cpt Zuloo and have a quiet chat, in my few minutes where I was away from the chaos of commitee duties or manning the M>LTC train layout.

We are trying to collect all the photos we can in the flickr Brickvention group so if you have a flickr account and pictures of BV2010 feel free to join up and add them.

ETA: Oh and I've just noticed my new title (I suspect I have Cpt. Zuloo to thank), for those who need an explaination see this photo of my partner picking up the remains. By the way it wasn't slippery fingers, but the Moc had been knocked during the day, and cracked, once I picked it up I could feel it breaking up, but didn't get it to a surface before disaster struck

Having only gotten back into lego a few months ago after a 22year odd absence I was gobb smacked at popularity of the event.It took my family and I about half an hour just to get the elevator.The anticipation in the queue was electric and once in our expectation was exceeded and then some.Like all who went I was blown away,every where I looked was eye candy and peoples heads LOL.A BIG congratulations to all involved :::

looking forward to seeing some photos. sounds like to it would have been awesome to see. I'll wait till my kids get older and I don't have to keep explaining to them why the big castle is not for sale.

The event was awesome but I did find it exhausting. We had trouble working around the timeframes and only had 1.5 hours, on the day of the public entry, to setup. Still I did manage to run a video camera till it ran out of tape and take some photo's. Everywhere you looked was jam packed full of awesome models. It was very much an eye's wide open event.

Whether appropriate or not, let me publicly thank the following:
- The organiser’s of Brickvention. Letting me exhibit and putting on such a great event.
- Teunis for a brilliant train layout (my favourite theme) and incoporating some of my MOCs.
- Peter for being Peter. He made me laugh, he made me cry (his roundhouse made a sound I never want to hear again).
- Victoria for the glorious weather the whole time.
- The big Maori working for the tow truck company that just laughed when I said I had money in the meter.
- My long time friend Tim who fed us and gave us somewhere to stay.
- Everyone that brought along a MOC, they were all fantasic, photo's barely do them justice.
- Robert for helping us with the packup. His help saved us from being locked in the carpark.

The final door count was 2700 paying public attendees.

Oh and welcome to ANZFOL aZz, if you're interested there is a lego users group called MUGS who have monthly meetings in Melbourne. You can join our mailing list here

Thanks done

aZz wrote:Thanks done

Good to know that people are becoming more active in their local LEGO communities.

That's a downside to living in Canberra - there is no LUG, just a few good friends who play with bricks.=P

Captain Zuloo wrote:That's a downside to living in Canberra - there is no LUG, just a few good friends who play with bricks.=P

That's the core of a LUG, just find a few more people and make it a regular meeting. It's essentially how mugs started. A good way to get new members is by exhibiting, and lego trains are often a drawcard for train exhibitions. You can start small with a personal layout, without having to run the exhibition yourself.

That's pretty much what we've been doing. You can check out my layout here and Bodville's layout here. Although we are thinking of putting together a Canberra LEGO expo at some point in the next few years.

Captain Zuloo wrote:That's pretty much what we've been doing. You can check out my layout here and Bodville's layout here. Although we are thinking of putting together a Canberra LEGO expo at some point in the next few years.

I've seen both of those before, but hadn't connected up Blocksville in my mind with you (Bodville is a bit more obvious . Now you need to start holding meetings after the displays and hand out cards to see if people come. Some of the activities we have at MUGS are building comps, partsies (we part out sets which we have bought on sale), we go to a local shopping centre to see whats new in the Lego aisle, and we bring our most recent Mocs. We also eat lunch (at the shopping centre) and sometimes also dinner after the meeting.

Hey Peterab, do any Tasmanians make the effort to display their lego at the Brickvention ?

I'm pretty sure Robert Kingston was from Tasmania.

Thanks Captain Zuloo, I have been able to touch base with him.

His photos of the Brickvention are fantastic and a must see !

Indeed they are, and he was a fantastic guy, he helped us get out of the carpark without paying a massive fine! Perhaps if you're in contact with him Free Spirit, you could ask if he'd be interested in joining us here at ANZFOL. I think he'd be a brilliant asset to the forums and I'd be very pleased if he could make a post here or there.

Be assured that I am working hard on making sure Tasmanian Lego Collectors make some noise on this forum.

In time he will be one of them as he expressed to me that Brickvention was on his to do list in 2011.

I edited the video footage I took at Brickvention and it's now up on YouTube.

Bodville visits Brickvention 2010

I'll point out that my favourite theme is trains. I only shot video of MOC's so there no Starwars. However there is a section on the A380. I did not get much of Teunis Davies cathedral as I ran out of tape and by the time I got to the massive castle with the video camera they were already pulling it down : (

I've just watched your video footage Bodville and I must say that my jaw dropped within a few seconds of it starting.

I can see why so many patrons walked through the doors, that bridge caught my eye especially the framework of it.

Hey, now see, your bridge WAS noticed.
Great footage Bodville, it was brilliant to see it all again. It sure was a great day!

I'm just dumbfounded. I didn't realise how cool this was(and how much I missed out). Just fantastic. Some serious hours were put into those creations, I don't know how they managed to transport them safely and to setup and dismantle in such limited time.

I'm also surprised that they let the public up so close and personal to the mocs (and no major accidents?). It looks like such a friendly warm and enthusiastic atmosphere, lots of smiles and awed expressions.

A lot of inspiration.


Thanks Bodville for the video post. I've been looking at your youtube videos as well, I love that dodgem cars moc you did.

Hey guys, where does one find the Dodgem Car MOC.

This I gotta see for myself.

I have a YouTube page with now 32 movies. Some show automated Lego models:
2008 Gantry Crane
Dodgem Cars

This is probably my best work.
A stop motion film which took 3 months to make.
CYCLIC

The AFX Lego slot cars are also worth a look. Stuff it! watch 'em all, they take me long enough to make.

guymontag wrote:I'm just dumbfounded. I didn't realise how cool this was(and how much I missed out). Just fantastic. Some serious hours were put into those creations, I don't know how they managed to transport them safely and to setup and dismantle in such limited time.

I'm also surprised that they let the public up so close and personal to the mocs (and no major accidents?). It looks like such a friendly warm and enthusiastic atmosphere, lots of smiles and awed expressions.

A lot of the mocs are even better in real life, photos don't really do justice to the really big ones like Ryans airbus. You get better at transport and setup the more you do it. Dissmantle time can be speeded up by dropping your mocs on the floor, though some exhibitors haven't learnt how this is done yet, but I try to share my skills where I have them.

The commitee has discussed having barriers, but so far we don't see a need. We had very few parts missing after the event, and the only dammage I'm aware of was to trains being knocked while running. The train club sees this as unavoidable, and we have enough rolling stock to change trains while repairs are undertaken. On the whole we like the fact that we are one of the few cons that let the public get really close, it does give a more freindly atmosphere.

Since the moc owners are often near their display, for AFOLs they will often pick up their mocs and show off their building techniques, though a lot more of this happens on the registered attendees day, as the crowds get a little silly on public day

So amazing. I cried when I looked on the castle stuff. Tears of joy and envy.

That was great and all, but we all know that French sailing ship was the coolest.