Bricks by the Bay 2012

[Pingles]

I attended Bricks by the Bay yesterday as my first ever Lego show.

I was absolutely blown away by the masses of people there. We pre-paid for tickets so we got to go in right away but there was an enormous line (2-300 people?) waiting to buy tickets at the door.

Inside there was plenty to look at and plenty of vendor booths which looked to be doing very good business. I couldn't even get close enough to take pictures of what they were selling because of the large mob of customers at each.

The local Lego store was assembling the new R2-D2 and had a Ninjago arena set up but otherwise was very quiet. Maybe because they weren't selling anything.

The Lord of the Rings Tower was there (8 feet tall or so?) with the Ent Battle around it. It was definitely the star of the show although a Medieval Castle gave it a run for it's money.

Again, the thing that blew me away was the volume of people. I went to this event thinking it was gonna be a few tables of models and 20 to 30 people looking and instead it was what I have always imagined a real Lego Official show to be like. Now I have to upgrade what my vision of one of THOSE is like. I can only imagine.

[NiceMarmot]

Thanks for the report. I thought about going with my 5 yro son, but am glad I didn't if it was a total zoo. Maybe next year I'll go as a full participant and attend the sessions on Saturday and maybe Friday. Then you can see all the stuff probably without the masses of people on Sunday. BTW, those guys (BayLUG or whatever they're called) usually display several other times during the year, like at MakerFaire in San Mateo in May and in Palo Alto at Christmas.

[SilvaShado]

We went for the full 3 days and it was so much fun! I'll be writing a blog about it soon for TheBrickBlogger.com.

The best thing to do is if you don't want to go for all 3 days and don't want the zoo of the public day, find someone who is going to for the whole weekend and get a guest pass to come in on Friday or Saturday. It's only for adults, though, but it's so much quieter on those days. This is assuming they do it again next year.

[Pingles]

We went for the full 3 days and it was so much fun! I'll be writing a blog about it soon for TheBrickBlogger.com.

The best thing to do is if you don't want to go for all 3 days and don't want the zoo of the public day, find someone who is going to for the whole weekend and get a guest pass to come in on Friday or Saturday. It's only for adults, though, but it's so much quieter on those days. This is assuming they do it again next year.

I am eager to read your Blog about it.

I once signed up for a HOLOGRAM introduction course at a Museum and when I arrived I found out that I was the only adult with about 25 10-year-olds. I had fun, but geez, I was feeling mighty CREEPY during the class.

That experience has stopped me from signing up for ANYTHING remotely kid-related.

So I am eager to hear what the Friday and Saturday consist of.

[SilvaShado]

I am eager to read your Blog about it.

I once signed up for a HOLOGRAM introduction course at a Museum and when I arrived I found out that I was the only adult with about 25 10-year-olds. I had fun, but geez, I was feeling mighty CREEPY during the class.

That experience has stopped me from signing up for ANYTHING remotely kid-related.

So I am eager to hear what the Friday and Saturday consist of.

Bricks by the Bay was not for kids, it was for adults. Granted, there were kids there, but in the minority. There was a good teen group, but the majority was adults. I haven't been to any other LEGO fan conventions, but from what I've seen, most of them are aimed at adult fans.

I'll post a link to my blog once it's up, but it could be a couple of weeks. Haven't had the time I've wanted to write and sort through the pics I took.

[SilvaShado]

Here's the first part of my blog on my experiences at Bricks by the Bay.

[edit] Here's part two!

Edited April 12, 2012 by SilvaShado