Eilif

Brickworld 2009 reports

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Wow,

Brickworld was awesome!

A few quick highlights, in no particular order:

- Talking to alot of AFOL's that I have not seen for a while, or have only met or heard about online.

- Getting to meet CopMike, Ricecracker, and a few of the other EB'ers

- Having a converstion with Tormud Askildeson (TLG exec) about Community Development.

- Scoring some great stuff from Brickarms and Brickforge. Guns and Vespa's respectively!

- Winning the "Inspiration Award" collectively with Hinkley and two other friends for our Building In Lawndale (BILd) LEGO educational program.

- Seeing a ton of great MOCs!

- Winning an Exo-Force Base in the raffle!

- Participating facilitating the LEGO Serious Play seminar, Community Service, and BILd classes, and attending other great classes like LEGO mosaics and Architecture.

A few other observations about the way the Brickworld staff (and LEGO retail) really tried to improve in many ways from last year:

-The aisles were better organized to allow an easier flow of traffic.

-The addition of on-site PAB was a great bargain at 5 bucks each for bags only slightly smaller than regular PAB grab bags!

-They tried to better organize the 50%-off-damaged-boxes sale night at the LEGO store, and even though it wasn't perfect (the last 40 or so people got very little), it virtually eliminiated hoarding, and alot more people got to enjoy some great LEGO for half off.

-Also, there were more presentations, a third room for MOC display, a faster closing ceremony, and a better organized raffles.

Well done to all who worked to make this a stellar event. Can't wait until next year!

Edited by Eilif

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A few other observations about the way the Brickworld staff (and LEGO retail) really tried to improve in many ways from last year:

-The aisles were better organized to allow an easier flow of traffic.

-The addition of on-site PAB was a great bargain at 5 bucks each for bags only slightly smaller than regular PAB grab bags!

-They tried to better organize the 50%-off-damaged-boxes sale night at the LEGO store, and even though it wasn't perfect (the last 40 or so people got very little), it virtually eliminiated hoarding, and alot more people got to enjoy some great LEGO for half off.

-Also, there were more presentations, a third room for MOC display, a faster closing ceremony, and a better organized raffles.

Well done to all who worked to make this a stellar event. Can't wait until next year!

I completely agree with the above four points, they improved the event a whole lot. Being able to pack while listening for the

raffle numbers got a lot of people out an hour earlier than they expected, including me.

Someone poured a bag of the PAB into one and 2/3 of the regulat PAB cups from the stores. $5 was a steal!!

Paul (Who was right next to the BILD booth)

Edited by PaulF

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Oh man, sounds like Brickworld was a blast once again! I really should find some time and money to go in one of the coming years...

Oh yeah, I was wondering all weekend long: were there any unexpected new sets revealed by TLC during the event? Last year the Death Star was the show stopper, anything like that this year?

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Hey Paul,

Good to see you here. Were you the gentleman with the street that faced the BILd booth?

Oh man, sounds like Brickworld was a blast once again! I really should find some time and money to go in one of the coming years...

Oh yeah, I was wondering all weekend long: were there any unexpected new sets revealed by TLC during the event? Last year the Death Star was the show stopper, anything like that this year?

I don't think there were any new sets unveilied. The only "new" info they showed/told us was a built version of Fire Brigade, and the fact that there are no plans to make elves.

They did have some of the not-yet-released power miners and space police, and others, but nothing we haven't seen here on EB already.

Edited by Eilif

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I don't think there weren't any new sets unveilied. The only "new" info they showed/told us was a built version of Fire Brigade, and the fact that there are no plans to make elves.

They did have some of the not-yet-released power miners and space police, and others, but nothing we haven't seen here on EB already.

Too bad, I guess. I was hoping for the unveiling of a Tantive VI, but alas, we still don't know for sure if this will be an official release or not.

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Hey Paul,

Good to see you here. Were you the gentleman with the street that faced the BILd booth?

Yep - right on the other side of the clunking door

Paul

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I went on vacation for a week following Brickworld, so I am only now getting back home and unpacking (physically and mentally) from Brickworld. I just posted my day by day coverage on my blog, but for those of you who don't want to read through all of that here are my highlights:

- Winning the Combo Build and Dirty Buildster!

- Shaking hands with Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen and having him spend a little time looking at my display

- Talking with John-Henry Harris (LEGO set designer) and Asli Bilgin (the woman behind WomenBuild)

- Hanging out with lots of other lego fans (both AFOL and TFOL varieties), seeing people from last year again and making new friends

- Showing other FOLs the cool details in my MOCs and having them show me theirs

- Talking to the public about my animations and creations

- All the great panels/discussions

- World of Lights

A few other observations about the way the Brickworld staff (and LEGO retail) really tried to improve in many ways from last year:

-The aisles were better organized to allow an easier flow of traffic.

-They tried to better organize the 50%-off-damaged-boxes sale night at the LEGO store, and even though it wasn't perfect (the last 40 or so people got very little), it virtually eliminiated hoarding, and alot more people got to enjoy some great LEGO for half off.

-Also, there were more presentations, a third room for MOC display, a faster closing ceremony, and a better organized raffles.

I agree that these were vast improvements from last year. Not having to sit through the endless reading of raffle numbers was greatly appreciated. I also got really lucky with the in-store event and didn't have to wait in line at all, but I think they they should probably tweak it a little bit for next year. If they had a sign-up sheet like they did for the pick-a-brick or if they did the raffle ahead of time at the hotel and had time slots attached to the different colors that would prevent people from having to stand in line for so long. That time is better spent hanging out and looking at MOCs. :grin:

But yeah this was an amazing 4 days and I can't wait for next year! I'm already planning out my display.

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3674226900_5c6a572aea_o.jpg

Me, Stash2Sixx, CopMike

3673418003_28067b22b3_o.jpg

ToT-LUG's Dave & Stacy, Me, Stash2Sixx, CopMike

This was one of the coolest parts of the weekend. We had left a bowl of 1x2 frown bricks on the table and let the drunk AFOLs just sit and play and they made some pretty cool stuff. We didn't intend it to be a social experiment, but the result (see below) was pretty cool.

3674227042_d5930a3f39_o.jpg

Nannan Z, Lee, Matija, Dave_ToT_LUG, and cjedwards: the guy who built this-3170471356_fd78a83707_m.jpg

Railbricks's Jeramy had just run out of the picture...

The organizer of BW, Bryan Bonahoom and Kyle from BrickForge's wife, Rachel are sitting in the window sill.

The result of the drunken 1x2 creative build:

3673418137_00b57637c0_o.jpg

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3673418003_28067b22b3_o.jpg

ToT-LUG's Dave & Stacy, Me, Stash2Sixx, CopMike

Geez...how blasted do we look in this picture? I think Stacy is the only one who looks remotely sober. I'm still recovering from that week. I've realized I'm not as 'seasoned' at partying as I was in college.

This was one of the coolest parts of the weekend. We had left a bowl of 1x2 frown bricks on the table and let the drunk AFOLs just sit and play and they made some pretty cool stuff. We didn't intend it to be a social experiment, but the result (see below) was pretty cool.

3674227042_d5930a3f39_o.jpg

Nannan Z, Lee, Matija, Dave_ToT_LUG, and cjedwards

This was a lot of fun! I sincerely hope this will be an ongoing Brickworld tradition. It was nice to finally hang out with good friends and just build for the sake of building. I have to say that the results were actually pretty impressive.

Now that I am back from Brickworld (and somewhat recovered) and have had some time to reflect, I will share my thoughts.

Pillars of Awesomeness:

Hanging out with a bunch of great AFOL friends.

Meeting tons of new people who were all really cool!

Getting to meet some of the TFOL's (Ricecracker, -Five-, George, etc.) who are brilliant builders and are future AFOL's.

Seeing tons of amazing MOC's. I'm certainly going to have to step it up next year.

Drunk Build

Hanging with Hinckley & CopMike all week. Stacy and I miss you guys!

Meeting Stash2Sixx

BW SigFig Picture

Scoring big at the LEGO store.

Awesome PAB at the event.

Meeting Kjeld & Jørgen.

Presenting Kjeld, Jørgen, and Tormod with official 'ToT-LUG' containers.

Things I Wish I'd Done:

Take more pictures.

Brought Plexi.

Built more containers to trade.

Swapped contact information with more people.

Attended more sessions and panel discussions.

All in all, Birckworld was great! :thumbup: :thumbup: Adam, Bryan, and the whole organizational team did a great job pulling everything together. I am confident that 2010 will be even better...make plans to attend now. :classic:

-Dave

ToT-LUG

Edited by Dave_ToT-LUG

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Brothers-Brick is playing this video which contains Stacy_ToT_LUG, Cyclone Breezerider (aka Dave) & Copmike and me. Enjoy!

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This absolutely was the best Brickworld so far, can not wait to see how it can be out done! Does anyone know how many people came to the event over the 2 days? I would love to know if the numbers were greater than last year. For those of you who have not been a registerant... Save your money, get off your butt, ask for time off, plan your trip and get building!!!! You are missing out on the greatest 4 days of the year!! Hats off to the Brickworld Team for doing a great job, keep up the good work, and we will keep building new and great things to showcase!

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