Dfenz

Thanks for the comments. I've since reduced the height by two bricks without losing any of the colour scheme. I think it makes a difference and I'll post some revised pics this evening. Still have to do some decals so technically its still a WIP.

The organisers will no doubt let you know what's happening and I'm pretty sure they'll want to confirm all displays well before people travel to the show. More exhibitor info is available here http://www.afolcon.com/afolcon/info . One of the rules states that set-up MUST be ready by 9.30 on the Saturday (their emphasis not mine). I can only assume the organisers wouldn't want people setting up stuff while the paying public are wandering around. Its a bit unfair on the early arrivals.

Just completed a first go at a Dublin Bus double decker in current liveries. Its currently 7 studs wide but I'll probably convert it to 8 wide before I commence work on a single decker to accompany it. Ads, Dublin bus logos and numbering yet to be added.

One airline promo set for me also please Many thanks Dfenz

I plan to be there for the entire weekend although I suspect Monday might be the riskiest from a MOC disappearing act perspective. That being said, the larger MOCs such as those the size of St Pancreas or Westminster Abbey (two of last year's exhibits) can hardly be moved before the official close of business. One improvement this year is that exhibitors can display free of charge without attending AFOLCON and they will be given time to set-up on Friday night meaning that most stuff should be in place when doors open to the public on Saturday. As regards the 'first come, first served' aspect I suppose from a shopping perspective it might be better to arrive on Saturday rather than Monday. Some stuff may be more in demand! Last time around the Lego Show tickets were staggered so that crowds were spread evenly throughout the day rather than having 80% of the day's attendees arrive at peak time. There might be different arrangements this year given the venue change (it can handle much bigger crowds) and for those with weekend passes but I'm sure the organisers could clarify this for you.

As Duq mentioned in a previous post the brick.ie team had layouts at two Irish model railway shows in 2011. On the first occasion they were completely unprepared for the level of detail, not only in the custom -built trains in Irish liveries but also the station, viaduct and other detailed buildings that formed part of the overall layout. There was some fantastic comments. Postings on the model railway websites afterwards confirmed that we'd taken the serious model railway enthusiasts by surprise. At the second exhibition another bunch of model railway enthusiasts were won over. Indeed the second invite was received because of the reaction of the public at the first layout where not only did it attract a much younger audience, they tended to hang around the layout much longer. Model railway exhibitions are not targeted at children. One of the manufacturers of the train kits in Ireland has made comments to the model railway community that they seriously need to look at running junior sections to ensure the hobby doesn't die out. As others have mentioned the age profile of the model railway hobby is skewed towards the over-50s. This isn't surprising given the investment in time and especially money required to build their fantastic and incredibly detailed layouts. Some of the models are off-the-shelf but the layouts themselves are not. There is an incredible amount of work going in to producing the buildings, backdrops and electrics for model railways and many are expert electricians, mini-painters/printers and carpenters. Unfortunately I'd expect that the necessry 'do not touch' signs and typical height of the layout tables don't exactly sell the hobby at exhibitions to those small children attending. Instead the children and their parents gravitate towards those trains that are accessible to them. If they could have bought the MOCs many would have. They loved the interaction and the ability to request that this train or that train be next to leave the station. The model railway guys were definitely surprised at the 9v system (which from a practical perspective we found to be streets ahead of PF from an ease of operation perspective - try pressing stop as a train approaches the end of the line and see how often those buffers get tested!) and asked lots of questions. PF switching of points also went down very well but overall there was an appreciation of the work done in creating models out of the limited parts and colours available from a LEGO system. LEGO layouts tend to be relatively large given the size of the track and in some exhibitions I suspect space might be an issue. While model railways are incredibly detailed they are often much smaller than their LEGO counterparts as they typically have a front 'public' section and a hidden section behind the scenery where the operators control the tracks, points etc. and fix/ park trains. From the perspective of anyone running a model railway exhibition, having a LEGO section is a 'no-brainer' as it widens the demographics and increases publicity for the event. LEGO is far more media friendly and some of our LUG were able to plug the event on national radio during an interview on AFOLs in Ireland. We had people travelling to the exhibits from far many parts of the country just to see the LEGO models. We had a teacher from a Cork school at the exhibition report back to a colleague in Cork that she'd seen fantastic LEGO display while visiting Dublin, not realising that she was speaking to the sister-in-law of the builder ... its a small world.

The AFOLCON website has recommended hotel information including details of preferential rates. The (Premier Inn) hotels nearest to the event centre are not being used by the event organisers. My link

If you can't get flights direct to Billund, a flight to Northern Germany, e.g. Hamburg might work if you don't mind driving for a couple of hours. I plan to fly from Ireland to Hamburg (possibly returning via an evening flight from Berlin on Monday)

This is a great idea if the technology can deliver up to date prices. Of course I'd like to see country specific versions so that those outside the US could benefit. No doubt a list of retailers with prices available online could be compiled for each country if you wanted to go international.

I'm wondering the same thing. While it might be useful to see MOC pictures in the one place I hope the site doesn't become so swamped with pictures that you can't find anything. For eurobricks members with access to a very wide range of dedicated forums and the facility to monitor new threads as they arise across the entire site I'm struggling to see why I should bother reposting links to pictures to that site. I think LEGO missed an opportunity in that a hosting service by LEGO would probably prove attractive to many users that might fear the collapse of a photo hosting site or deletion of their prized photos of long-dismantled MOCs. I'd prefer to post an MOC picture within a dedicated thread on a specific eurobricks forum such as the one for trains than upload it to the rebrick site and have it buried by all the other similar pictures. While the cream may well rise to the top, there are probably ways to mainipulate the system that I haven't even dreamed of that would artificially enhance the popularity of some pictures. Also unless people repost their older photos for a period of time there will still be a vast library of older stuff not in rebrick. We all post MOC pictures for feedback purposes, hoping that our efforts are generally appreciated by our peers and that any criticism (if it must be received at all) is both measured and constructive. It remains to be seen if the feedback on rebrick will be better (or more) than for this site. Ultimately one test will be whether people get better and a higher level of feedback from a wider community on rebrick than they would get by posting links to the same MOC on eurobricks, flickr or other sites. I suspect that initially many of the people signing on will be members of other forums and will continue monitoring/using threads of interest to them on existing sites such as eurobricks or commenting directly on photos at flickr. Comparing feedback experiences on rebrick to feedback currently obtained will take a bit of time to analyse and the experience will perhaps determine if people go to the trouble of reposting photos on rebrick. As many people post their MOCs on multiple websites the comparison of feedback over the next few months can be made. Of course there are people who don't post pictures of MOCs or comments at all and it is perhaps these people that potentially could benefit the most as they, in theory anyway, will now only have to go to one site for their fix. For these people a key ingredient will be the ability to access the type of MOCs they are interested in and in that regard there are probably some improvements that can be made to the way the information is displayed. For instance, I think far too much space is given to the twitter feeds many of which are inane and irrelevant to the 'rebrick' theme. As a one stop gallery with tentacles spreading into other sites, it will be really important from a user experience over the next few months that the site gains a reputation not only for having the best and most comprehensive MOC picture collection around but that it is easy to explore. There's not much point in being a LEGO Louvre if the Mona Lisa is hidden behind sketches by 7 year olds!

Just a heads up that hotel information (including discounted rates) have been added to the AFOLCON site. £65 for a double room for the Copthorne (inclusive of breakfast). The recommended hotels are not the nearest to the venue. These dont have function rooms.

I agree tunnels are real brick gobblers. I built a small (2 x 48x48 baseplates) tunnel on a bend for our recent brick.ie display in Dublin. I had to use grey near the inside of the tunnels where people could see in but the infrastructure underneath used lots of second-hand bricks that I acquired in a charity shop. I still needed lots of green pieces though.

We had Heuston Station out again at the recent South Dublin Model Railway Exhibition, this time in a modified layout with the addition of a tunnel to brighten things up a bit. There is actually a tunnel in reality but not so close to the station. Alfenz did some station-mastering.

I've now received an amended booking showing the correct price. Good to know I'm the guinea-pig (tester) for the booking process!! Any prize for the person making the first booking?

I received a confirmation back which doesn't include the 10% discount despite referring to the Eurobricks event in the email. I've queried this. I assume its an error that will be rectified in due course. I assume no-one else had this problem?

There will be 4. Only Alfenz and I are Eurobricks members.

I'm coming with my family. I'll book a chalet for us and will confirm here when its done. We'll be there for the entire event. I'm the responsible person (i.e. the person paying the bill!!!)

While all the information is on the front page telling us how to book am I correct in thinking that we should wait until there is a sign-up thread before we book our chalets? I'll be confirming attendance 4 nights (Wednesday to Saturday) along with my family so the Irish contingent will take one of those L5 chalets. I'll probably fly to somewhere in Northern Germany, such as Hamburg and drive a hired car to Billund. I just want to make sure at the moment that I'm not supposed to be organising accommodation just yet.

Just a heads up that Legoland Germany is offering the fantastic Merlin annual pass again that many of us picked up in Germany a few years ago. Like last time they have reintroduced full all year round access to Legoland Billund as part of the price. This might be useful for someone planning to visit the German Legoland or indeed some of the other Merlin parks next year. There is currently a 4 for 3 online offer on the Legoland.de website which might be of interest to families. I've upgraded my normal Legoland passes (which I used this year to get into the California park) to the Merlin passes for the purpose of next year's Billund trip.

I've also reported the seller. The more the better. 19 UCS falcons have now been "sold".

I thought the latest episode was poor. The Cybermen were under-utilised and surely someone else by now over the years would have experienced emotions sufficiently strong to stop the conversion. Come-on if someone's about to wipe your brain and weld a metal suit onto your skin you'd be rather scared! What a cop-out filler episode. About the only good thing was the 'cyber-rat'. As for next week I wonder if the 'doctor' that dies is actually river-song. Did she get a doctorate at the end of the episode this week? As already pointed out the Xmas specials mean next week won't be the last voyage of the tardis with this particular doctor.

Its since been removed. Ebay starting to get its act together?

My experience of Legoland Billund is that it is expensive and I don't recall ever getting too many great deals in the park. On the other hand the German park has an all-year round discount tent. However, the sets available vary and I don't recall seeing Star Wars sets on sale in the past. I'll be there in a few weeks so I'll be in a better position to comment then as to the current position. The store itself at the entrance to the German Legoland should be no more expensive than LS@H in my experience. While there may be sale items I find German department stores (e.g. in Munich) and the Lego store in Munich itself usually have better deals. There is a separate thread on Munich Lego shops which you can check out. Amazon may also have better deals but it really does depend on what you are looking for and what's on offer at that particular time. Prices and availability change quickly in online stores.

There are at least three department stores selling Lego within a very distance of each other and as noted above they often have great deals. The toy store beside the central McDonalds is very deceptive. It has a very large basement section. When visiting Reim Arcaden don't forget also to check out the Mueller store at the opposite end of the mall. Any time I've visited it has had a large selection of well-priced Lego including some clearance items along its back wall. If you have a car and have time, I highly recommend Legoland Gunzburg which as has been pointed out is about 70/80 minutes away on the autobahn. There is a fantastic PAB there in the 'factory' building and if I am not mistaken a discount tent. If you are flying to Munich, the last time I visited there was also a toy store across from the car rental counters - not discounted though!

New MOC for Irish Rail 201 locomotive.