Brickvention 2011 Roundup

 

  • Brickvention 2011 Roundup

    Posted by jpmanalo, 26 Jan 2011 05:52. Filed under Events (Australia).

    Those of you watching the Australian Event news here at Brickset may know that I have recently had the pleasure of attending Australia's premier AFOL event, Brickvention. This year, Brickvention was held at a much larger venue compared to previous years, but incredibly, there were still waiting times of up to two-and-a-half hours to enter on Public Exhibition day! Even then, many people still had to be turned away at the door towards the end of the exhibition.

    The AFOL group that I am part of, SydLUG, won the People's Choice Award for our Wild West display, 'El Bricko'. Congratulations also go out to the other winners at the event, including David Scalone for his rendition of Hogwarts Castle (pictured).

    Tim Gould (gambort), over at The Brother's Brick has written an excellent round-up regarding the event, complete with links to images of many of the major displays at Brickvention 2011.

    I hope to be in attendance again next year, and strongly encourage Australian AFOLs to consider registering and planning for next year's event.


    19 comments, latest one posted 28 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)
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Comments

Posted by Irene in United States, 26 Jan 2011 08:25

Thank you for posting the link. The (few) pictures were just lovely.

I very much envy people who can design their own buildings and scenes.

Posted by PaulTR in United States, 26 Jan 2011 08:45

This is so cool! These people have mad skills, and I can't even imagine how much time they put into these creations. Congrats to the winners!

Posted by EliteLeader99/brickboy2 in United States, 26 Jan 2011 09:55

THAT IS SO AWESOME!!!!!! Is it a real set?

Posted by skherbeck in United States, 26 Jan 2011 11:04

That Hogwarts Express is beautiful. I wish Lego would release a detailed, running Hogwarts Express such as this as a Lego Exclusive! I would also love to see a return of the Western theme and a detailed, running General Locomotive! We need more large, detailed sets for those of us who don't have the skills to create such amazing MOCs as these!

Posted by Orange Lemons in United States, 26 Jan 2011 16:08

I agree, that Western town is amazing! As a side note, does anyne know how they got the siding effect on the general store? I'd love to mess around with an effect like that.

Posted by Carl in New Zealand, 26 Jan 2011 16:12

the hogwarts castle is amazing! So is the Western Town! EVERYTHING HERE IS SO AWESOME!

Posted by Greyface in United States, 26 Jan 2011 16:21

I like that Hogwarts a lot! Not my usual cup of tea, I like it more spread out and film-accurate, but it had a lot of charm!

Posted by LegoAdventures in Australia, 26 Jan 2011 17:04

I agree although the Hogwarts Castle looks Phenomenal, I would have liked a more accurate Castle, The Great Hall looks a bit small, and it looks a bit all to bunched together. And personally the Hogwarts Express Tender needs to be a bit lower. That said it is still an Outstanding display and you can definitely see that they have put an Astronomical amount of effort in.

Posted by jpmanalo in Australia, 26 Jan 2011 17:46

@Orange Lemons: David Scalone, the builder of the 'Hogwarts Castle' pictured, is also the builder of the General Store on the Wild West display, 'El Bricko'. To achieve the weatherboard effect on the side of the General Store, David used a technique similar to one that Mike Pianta used on his louvered railway wagon:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/scruffulous/4358322817/

Posted by Branko in Australia, 26 Jan 2011 21:44

The attendance wasn't so great from my perspective. The queue was so long that I could not manage to let my kids see the show this year. I hope that next year they will use a batch-ticket number that allots a time-slot like all big shows have done in Melbourne.

I appreciate that nobody could have expected such a great turnout, but I do feel sorry for my kids that they missed out.

Posted by Orange Lemons in United States, 26 Jan 2011 22:03

@jpmanalo: Thanks for the link. I think I recall seeing something similar only it had a curve rather than the weathered effect.

Posted by ambrose in Australia, 26 Jan 2011 23:16

why don't they have brickvention in perth? i really wish i could go to it, but it is in the eastern states!!!!

Posted by jpmanalo in Australia, 27 Jan 2011 02:30

Brickvention is run by a not-for-profit group of volunteers who do it out of thier own interest for LEGO. The organising committee had anticipated greater attendance this year (compared to previous years), but were surprised with the level of interest shown.

I assure you, everyone involved did not intend to upset any children; indeed, many have young children of their own, and are well aware of the many disappointed children that missed out from seeing the exhibition. A number of suggestions have been made to the organising committee, and they are taking all of these suggestions onboard for future events.

I was told that the reason for the long queues was fire regulations restricting the number of people who could be inside the Melbourne Town Hall at any one time. I am also of the understanding that the organisers of Brickvention are looking at using a much larger venue for next year's Brickvention event.

@Ambrose: If there is enough interest in Perth, why don't some of the AFOLs over there consider hosting an event like Brickvention? This is exactly what happened in Canberra, where AFOLs in Canberra got together to organize Canberra BrickExpo (which, by the way, is on again during August 2011).

Posted by slope_modified in Australia, 27 Jan 2011 07:24

@Ambrose: It's unfortunate that Perth doesn't have a convention yet, but there is a club that has been putting on a display for a few years now. The Perth Adult Lego Society puts on a major display at the Model Railway Exhibition in June.
Visit the website and find out!
http://sites.google.com/site/perthlego/

Posted by mlavwilson in United States, 27 Jan 2011 11:35

Other than the 4 or 5 in flickr, are there any more detailed images of that castle?

Posted by jpmanalo in Australia, 27 Jan 2011 17:45

@mlavwilson: I'll ask David Scalone if there are any more photos of the Castle, and if there are, I'll post links here.

Posted by Dr Rod in Australia, 27 Jan 2011 19:48

David (Flickr Mr Offset: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mr_offset/) is planning on taking some more photos with a better background in more of a "studio setting" soon. I'll hassle him :)

Posted by mr_offset in Australia, 29 Jan 2011 06:37

Thanks to jpmanalo for posting the Brickvention roundup. It was definitely a great event and one that us SydLUGgers will be involved with next year.

Thanks also for the feedback relating to Hogwarts. I will be taking more photos and will post them shortly.

Posted by Exus in United States, 29 Jan 2011 23:08

What do they do with the displays? Take them home and play with them? If so, I want to be them.

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