TechnicRCRacer

Bricks by the Bay: My Experience (Updated daily)

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Hi all!

I want to share an event called Bricks by the Bay located in the Santa Clara Convention Center in California. It is my favorite LEGO show of all! As of posting this, it starts tomorrow with workshops including ramshackle building style and other fun building experiences (kits are included and usually have a nice parts collection!) The next day, the real event starts! People set up their displays in a gigantic ballroom (vendors fill up a whole other ballroom) and members (who pay for the full experience) get to mingle with others, walk around, and participate in fun activities, which include building a set one-handed or in the bag, racing down slopes (Wacky Races) and Tape Ball, a fun game where parts are stuck in a tape ball and you need to rip them out as fast as you can. The next two days are public days where people come in to look at your MOCs! It is very popular (and very crowded) and it is fun to meet people who come to your stand.

I will be giving updates daily starting tomorrow with lots of pictures! I will also be displaying there. 

 

P.S. I am no way connected with the people organizing this event (becides incidentally being in the same LUG) and I am just a fan!

Website if you want to know more:

https://www.bricksbythebay.com/en/

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I'm excited to hear how it is, I've got tickets for Saturday! Bringing my wife, toddler, and infant, so not sure how long we'll be able to stay lol. Hoping your notes help me prioritize!

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@Brickey34Here it is! And thanks for replying!

Day 1!

Today was all about workshops. I attended 3: Ramshackle Style Workshop, Fonts & Lettering, and Towers and Tall Structures.

 

Ramshackle: (building kit)

43327408202_0cf42df52a_z.jpg

This was very fun! There were many cool parts and lots of people to chat with! This was run by Flynn DeMarco from BayLUG (my lug and so is everything else) and was very cool! Here is the completed model:

43327410112_fe852ec066_z.jpg

 

Fonts and Lettering:

Kit pic:

43327408572_20bd024a1f_z.jpg

Not much, but enough to make some cool fonts. I did not have time to photograph it, but I will add a pic soon. This was run by Li Li and he makes some really cool fonts! Look at this:

34730805743_8739c3853a_b.jpg

 

Towers and Tall Structures:

The kit is GIGANTIC!

43327408792_062502ceb2_z.jpg

It was very fun and a great learning experience! Here is a pic of the workshop (kind of)

43327408942_98ef0fc8d4_c.jpg

Here are the completed models:

43327409242_e59050d04e_c.jpg

43327409502_f493887706_c.jpg

(and yes, I am aware that I placed the model upside down :tongue:)

 

Early Setup:

Here is a cool model I found that was set up early! (not mine)

43327409902_f174a0b6b5_c.jpg

 

Opening Ceremony (sadly no pics)

We got a video from Niels Christiansen! He said hi and praised us for being cool :tongue:

Door prizes are fun! You scan your badge at the beginning and they enter you in a raffle. Everyone gets a prize! I got a small creator set :shrug_confused:

 

Goodie Bags!!!

Each bag had one Flexo kit (add ons to Lego that are flexible), a Mixel for some reason, some custom capes, a custom printed mini figure, and some custom printed name bricks (by PromoTec)

(no pics right now)

I am super excited for tomorrow! See you soon!

 

-TechnicRCRacer

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Cool! Did you get to keep those kits from the sessions? How does that work? 

Do you think if I go tomorrow, I'll be able to get the goodie bag? or was that just for today? 

 

So excited! 

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1 hour ago, Brickey34 said:

Cool! Did you get to keep those kits from the sessions? How does that work? 

Do you think if I go tomorrow, I'll be able to get the goodie bag? or was that just for today? 

 

So excited! 

Yes, you get to keep the kits! I think you have to pay for the full Thursday - Sunday ticket to get the goodie bag. I will have to post Day 2 tomorrow because the keynote speaker tok a long time and it is late :P

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Day 2!

Day 2 was super fun! I set up my stand:

42687112654_ab3de40025_c.jpg

Here is a picture of the convention space for displaying:

41595581720_6d3ab3cf95_c.jpg

There is another ballroom just for vendors! I am trying to get the elusive monorail :P

This is my favorite MOC: a cyberpunk city with lots of monorail (6 trains in all!)

41595581030_bd5e66a9f6_c.jpg

I took part in the build by the box activity, where you cannot use instructions and only the box picture to build a small model. This time it was 60145 Buggy. I lost :P

The keynote speaker was someone known as BRICK 101 on Youtube and he was very cool and funny!

I am excited for day 3!

Edited by TechnicRCRacer

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Day 3:

Day 3 was pretty fun! There was this huge rocket:

41626061830_57b5a686cb_z.jpg

I also finally got monorail track! It needs some cleaning, but it looks great! It was also quite a good deal. Beyond the Brick was there doing interviews and there was tons to look at!

@Brickey34 How was your visit?

Day 4:

Today was pretty fun! Not many activities, but it was fun to hang out and chat.

I got interviewed by Beyond the Brick! It was kind of scary, but it was very exciting. It was sad to leave, but the conference was tons of fun and a great experience. Has anyone else gone? Let me know!

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Thank you for the report :sweet:. I was there for three of the days and have to say its fun, more so if you meet people you know!

Our very own A.C. Pin was displaying his flower MOCs prior to transporting them for display in the yellow zone at the LEGO house.

42635395415_f641a35871_z.jpg

 

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On 7/21/2018 at 12:23 AM, Cara said:

Thank you for the report :sweet:. I was there for three of the days and have to say its fun, more so if you meet people you know!

Our very own A.C. Pin was displaying his flower MOCs prior to transporting them for display in the yellow zone at the LEGO house.

42635395415_f641a35871_z.jpg

On 7/21/2018 at 10:02 AM, TechnicRCRacer said:

Cool, I talked to him a bit! It’s awesome that they will be on display at the 

LEGO House!

 

Just saw this today and had so much fun meeting/talking to attendees about the floral MOCs. Best part was winning the NPU award!
AC
29568960418_a96370bcdd_c.jpg

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