I'm back from GWLS...

 

  • I'm back from GWLS...

    Posted by Huw, 03 Oct 2010 18:01. Filed under Events (UK).

    10217: Diagon Alley
    Harry Potter/General, 2011
    More details...
    ©2011 LEGO Group

    After two-and-a-half tiring days I'm finally back from Swindon, and just about ready for bed (it's just gone 11pm here) :-)

    It was a fantastic event, made even better by meeting some of the Brickset regulars for the first time (DrDaveWatford and atksinsar to name but two)

    If you didn't make it, or even if you did, you can read all about the goings-on at the official website, and I also encourage you to read today's GimmeLego blog entry in which DrDave discusses two particularly impressive models that were on display.

    I'm also well chuffed that I won prizes in not one but two competitions over the weekend. My team of four (Myself, James S, Tim F and Duncan) won the speed building competition on the Saturday evening: 6 teams competed to build Sonic Boom set:5892 as quickly as possible. We each won a copy of the set! Then today, I came second in the drag racing competition with my Technic elastic band powered vehicle, completing the 10m course in just over 4 seconds. I was beaten by a young lad with nothing more than a standard pull-back motor powered car, by about 0.2 seconds! He chose the largest set which left me with the Empire State Building, 21002. What a shame :-) In third place was a Brickset reader Matt who had the fastest motor-powered car. Well done Matt!


    23 comments, latest one posted 31 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)
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Comments

Posted by Murdoch17 in United States, 03 Oct 2010 18:33

Congrats Huw and everyone else who went. It must've been fantastic to go! Oh, and just so you know, the picture is of Daigon Alley, not Matt. Oh well, it's the thought that counts.

Posted by buzzandwoody2000 in United States, 03 Oct 2010 19:19

This set looks very cool! I am thinking about getting it. It looks like it has good detail!

Posted by bricklord in United States, 03 Oct 2010 19:32

Where can I find those instructions for the lego TARDIS? That was cool.
The U.S.S. Intrepid looked awesome in those photos!

Posted by MrVx in Canada, 03 Oct 2010 20:34

Thanks for the update. I wish to attend an event like this some day, hopefully with my already-Lego-obsessed son ;-) By the way, you probably meant Empire State Building set #21002 instead (#20012 is a Bionicle).

Posted by refriedbeans in United States, 03 Oct 2010 20:39

Just so you Know HP buiding instructions are available now.

Posted by ShatteredGnome in United States, 03 Oct 2010 20:41

How, what was the largest set that the first-place winner got?

And MrVx is right, the set number is for a bionicle set.

Posted by M4X1994 in Netherlands, 04 Oct 2010 01:19

21002 is the empire state building.

Posted by Doctor Leg O'Brick in United Kingdom, 04 Oct 2010 02:35

@bricklord, youtube, tipe in doctor sinster or go to tabletown.

Posted by Teflon70 in United Kingdom, 04 Oct 2010 03:41

Yes, living in Bristol, it was a short hop along the M4 for me with the family. I didn't get to speak to Huw, he was on the phone when I walked past the trains, but I did speak with Dr Sinister, Ralph S and Mrs Diment. I was the one with the child on my back!!!!

The show was really great and the warship display was amazing, with Ed's 7m long ship as the centre point of the show - and rightly so. We shouldn't forget that there were also a further warship and a submarine on the same stand, which were excellent and added to the 'fleet'.

Having just been made redundant I didn't spend too much, but I did pick up some pieces at the brickarms stall, having pushed aside several small children to get to the front of the queue!!!!!!!!!!!
I would like to see an AFOL only hour at the show, so we can take nice photos without kids arms or parts of heads in the shot. I did note that the show quietened down from about 3pm on the Sunday, so mental note to self and others, who may be interested, leave it a bit later and you can get a better view of everything. I enjoyed walking around all of the exhibits for a second / third time and got better photos during that period.

I really must join the brickish association and get something made for next year's show, but the other half would prefer to see the house redecorated and my twin duaghters looked after!!!!! Talk about conflicting demands.

Well done to all who participated and especially to the organisers, once again I was not disappointed.

Posted by DrDaveWatford in United Kingdom, 04 Oct 2010 03:43

Cheers, Huw - great to meet you too, and congrats on your winning haul in the speed building competition and the drag racing. The sonic boom set you won is excellent, but if you're a fast builder you'll be done with 21002 Empire State Building in less than a minute ! Great packaging, but not much of a set in there...... I certainly wouldn't object to an Eiffel Tower-sized version, however.

@Teflon - some excellent comments. I felt sorry for the builders of the superb destroyer and sub as their efforts were overshadowed by the Intrepid. On another day, exhibited on their own, they'd be wowing the crowds in their own right. Also, I love the idea of an AFOL-only hour at the show, just to give us old gits a chance to get photos etc., but logistically it'd be pretty difficult with all those AFOLs bringing kids to the show.

Posted by Doctor Sinister in United Kingdom, 04 Oct 2010 04:03

@bricklord - Instructions for my LEGO TARDIS can be found at the following link. There is a complete downloadable set of images, my original YouTube video and two other videos covering my daily talks at the show.

http://www.tabletownonline.com/TARDISinst.php

Dr. S.

Posted by atkinsar in United Kingdom, 04 Oct 2010 07:24

Great to meet you too Huw, I actually recognised you this year thanks to your appearance in brickjournal! Had a great day at the show, just read on the official site that it was quiter on Sunday morning, I thought it was rammed compared to last year!

It's difficult to look past the warship as the biggest highlight, it was simply staggering. I'm congratulating myself on spending a grand total on lego of...£4.50, such self-restraint is not usually evident I can promise you :-)

Oh and Huw, I'll be joining Brickish later today, didn't get round to it at the show, too busy stopping small hands from destroying expensive models.

Posted by bluemoose in United Kingdom, 04 Oct 2010 08:17

@DrDave - it was good to meet you, even it was only very briefly; things were a little hectic in our little unplanned show office ... we never needed one before, but I guess that with the show growing year-on-year it's going to be essential from now on.

@atkinsar - sorry we didn't get a chance to meet; hopefully we can rectify that at a future BA event :-)

Posted by trfislegomad in United Kingdom, 04 Oct 2010 09:09

@Dr Sinister - Thanks for providing the link the the plans for the Tardis. For info, when I have tried downloading the zip file it says the file is corrupt and I can't open it.

Posted by bluemoose in United Kingdom, 04 Oct 2010 09:22

@trfislegomad - I've just tried downloading the instructions zip file & it worked fine for me ... so not sure what to suggest other than to try again.

Posted by theenigma in United Kingdom, 04 Oct 2010 09:33

Congrats Huw!

Good to know that you and the team had a brilliant, if tiring, weekend!

I missed coming down on the Saturday due to the onset of a cold and I never really made it out of the starting pen from then on! It's been duvets, Lemsip and copious cough sweets to try and tempt me back into the land of the living!

Fingers crossed that everything will be fine for next year, I don't want to make this a regular Brickset tradition :-(

Cheers for keeping us all up to date :-) Harv

Posted by Orsie in United Kingdom, 04 Oct 2010 11:07

I was there i saw huw and said hi i saw doctor sinister and i think i saw bluemoose aswell but im not sure.

Posted by legofoofleflyboy in United Kingdom, 04 Oct 2010 11:55

I went last year and had a great time, but its just so annoying having to drag my mum along with me!

Posted by atkinsar in United Kingdom, 04 Oct 2010 12:42

@bluemoose, definitely, I need to try and attend a few more events in the future, even if they are a bit further afield than Swindon. Thanks to everyone who helped organise GWLS this year, another cracking show.

Forgot to say, congrats to Huw on your winnings! And to everyone else, you should check out DrDave's GimmeLego blog if you haven't already, it's well worth a regular read.

Posted by GoldenT147 in United Kingdom, 06 Oct 2010 07:28

I also live near Bristol but couldn't make it to this event as I only found out about it at late notice.

Am trying to curb my current level of expenditure so probably a good thing that I didn't go to be honest! Is this a yearly event and is it always held in Swindon or does the venue change periodically?

Posted by Huw in United Kingdom, 06 Oct 2010 08:13

It's always at Swindon on the first weekend in October.

Posted by iso3200 in United Kingdom, 06 Oct 2010 15:07

We had a good weekend away as part of my 9yo sons birthday treat. Stayed at the Premier Inn Swindon West on Saturday night and got to the Museum nice and early Sunday to beat the crowds and atrocious weather. The train layout was fantastic. I would have said Hi to you Huw, but you looked quite intense as the crowd descended on the great display! I had my work cut out from stopping little fingers from ruining the trees on the front edge of the table ;-) We'll definitely go again next year.

Posted by legoisawesome in Canada, 06 Oct 2010 20:23

Looks awesome! and has lots of detals

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