Philly Brick Fest 2014

[Philly Brick Fest]

Philly Brick Fest is a fan festival for LEGO® enthusiasts of all ages. The inaugural event runs from Thursday April 24th and Sunday April 27th at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center.

[Sid Sidious]

I'd love to go, but spring break ends April 7 and classes go until May 7.

[Omicron]

Kinda curious about the name, as the normal Brickfest still uses it. :/

www.brickfest.com

-Omi

[Stash2Sixx]

Any inquiries or discussions over the names of conventions can be taken up with the organizers of the events themselves. I don't think we need to discuss it here on an open forum. Thank you.

[Philly Brick Fest]

We posted a couple of new videos about the event on our YouTube channel. Here is one of the vids:

[The Jersey Brick Guy]

This will be my first lego event. Can't wait!

[Aaron]

I've never been to a LEGO convention before, but I have a feeling this will be my first one. I feel like I'd be cheating myself if I didn't display my trains at it. ;)

[programmerdan]

Thanks for posting this! I'm about 2 hours away, but this looks like a great first LEGO convention for me too. I'll have to see if I can convince my schedule keeper to let us go :).

[Dadster]

Woo-Hoo. This is literally down the road from me...

[kurigan]

Philly Brick Fest 2014. I plan to attend, does anyone else? I’m just curious if there’s a chance to meet any Classic Pirates people. This is going to be my first Lego convention so it’ll be something of an adventure.

[Mr. Townsend]

Not Philly Brick Fest but Brickfiesta 2014 in San Antonio, TX. Display your ships with mine in the warm south Kurigan.

[SkaForHire]

I haven't really been paying attention, Brickfiesta is in San Antonio this year? I really should have gone last year when it was only 45 minutes away -- but they had it on my wife's birthday. It was a hard sell.

I might make it down to San Antonio though this year. I almost had the dates right to go to Philly too (getting back to the original post), but I will be there a week later.

[kurigan]

Well it's almost time, this weekend, so I figured I'd bump this and see if there was any new interest. How about it?

[Rick]

Well it's almost time, this weekend, so I figured I'd bump this and see if there was any new interest. How about it?

Merged with the existing thread in the Events forum.

[darwinquincy]

So did anybody go today? We are going tomorrow, and are trying to figure out how early we need to get there in order to get tickets.

[The Jersey Brick Guy]

I was originally going to write my opinions on the event Saturday night but decided it was best if I waited a few days to let everything sink in. For anyone reading, this shouldn't be viewed as being negative or anything else along those lines but as constructive feedback.

Admission:

I didn't pre-reg for the event as my wife had another convention that same weekend. I wound up traveling from Lancaster to Oaks on Saturday (which would of been the same drive if we left from our home in NJ). I arrived after 12, so I missed the rush of everyone getting in at the start. The lines moved in a quick fashion with separate lines being for cash and credit. I didn't see any signs for pre-regs, so I can't speak for if there were any lines for it.

When I paid, $15.00 being a reasonable price for day of admission, I was given just a ticket. I wasn't given a program or anything else (more to come on this later), but I understand from hearing people in front of me that there was GroupOn, Amazon Local and one other company running a special where you received a T-Shirt. I had no idea about this, but would of signed up before I left to claim my t-shirt. Again, with me deciding to go at such a last minute, it wasn't that big of deal for me.

First Impressions:

Having been to different conventions at this location before, I knew what to expect when I got to the complex. (Little Parking, long waits, smelly areas, etc..) After I handed my ticket to the girl collecting them, I walked down a cattle shoot that dropped you right into the hall. There were kids running around everywhere. The areas were broken up into the MOC sections (some large and some small), the racing area and the vendor sections and speaker area. The areas were self-explanatory so signage was not needed but would of been nice.

MOCS:

There were some real nice MOC's there, I saw a bunch of great ideas that I would like to incorporate into my town. I don't know if it was up to the individual tables or was a rule in general, but there were a lot of kids very close to them which made it hard to actually see any of them without kids running into you.

Dealer Section:

Firstly, I understand the dealers need to make money at these things, but the prices on EVERYTHING were outrageous. I was hopping to get a deal or two but wound up only buying a few mini figures so I wouldn't walk away empty handed. The dealers were all busy and seemed to be making money which was good for them.

Programs:

Again, not having received a program, I had no idea what was going on when. This was really lame in my opinion as I went to see new things but didn't know what was going on when. I just happened to catch the guy from lego at the tail end and would of liked to have seen his entire Q&A section.

Personal Thoughts:

If there was (or was there??) a AFOL night, I would of went to that instead of having to fight a bunch of little kids who were everywhere. If there wasn't one, or was one, please make sure there is another one next year, as this will be the night I would prefer to attend.

I also stopped at the King of Prussia Lego store following the show and were listening to a bunch of "dads" talking to one of the stores employees about how unorganized the event was. I know this was the first one and there will be growing pains with it. I don't want to write the event off just yet and will give it another year or two before I decide if it's worth going to every year or not.

Thanks!