Mini LEGO Con

Name of Model: Mini LEGO Con

Created by various people, see below

Found at (semi-official Flickr group): https://www.flickr.com/groups/2318936@N22/

Details: As I hinted at earlier, there's a big project I've been involved with for a while now that I am really excited to share with everyone. That project is Mini LEGO Con - in short, a miniland scale model of a LEGO convention. This is a massive group layout that you can expect to see at many LEGO conventions (and other conventions, too!) in the years to come. Mini LEGO Con was first displayed at BrickCon 2012 by Steve Oakes (BrickCon Microscale coordinator) and Mariann Asanuma (former LEGOLAND Master Model Builder). Mariann brought Mini Con to other events throughout 2013 (BricksCascade, Emerald City Comic Con, BrickWorld, BrickFair VA, Bricks by the Bay, BrickCon). After BrickFair VA, BrickFair coordinator Todd Webb decided to make Mini Con a part of BrickFair going forward, and purchased the parts required to assemble the layout at future conventions. Most notably, Todd decided to change the layout from being a caricature of a convention to being an exact match - at BrickFair, the baseplates and tables are set up in the same layout as the convention itself. Back at BrickFair Alabama 2014, I (Dan) assembled the miniland-scale (roughly 1:20) tables, chairs, and stanchions for use at BrickFair events, the next of which will be in Manchester, New Hampshire, this upcoming weekend (public hours are May 10th & May 11th, 2014, 11:00am - 4:00pm, we'd love to see you there!). If you've registered to participate, you should make sure to bring a miniland-scale version of yourself and microscale versions of the models you're bringing (BrickFair provides the bare bones of the layout, so you shouldn't need to pack your own mini tables and mini stanchions). If you're attending as public, you're in for a real treat, as this enormous layout will completely match the map of the convention (and should be filled in even more than the layout in Alabama earlier this year). Can't make it to New Hampshire next weekend? BrickFair will also be in Virginia (July 30th-August 3rd) and New Jersey (October 30th-November 2nd), and similar, smaller layouts (without BrickFair's backing) should be appearing at BrickWorld Chicago (June 11th-15th) and BrickCon (October 2nd-5th). We're hoping this catches on more generally as a theme and a building standard for group layouts at LEGO events (like moonbase or the Cafe Corner standard). I've started a Flickr group to make it easier to find ideas, inspiration, and displays related to this theme. For blogging purposes here, we're mostly talking about LEGO conventions, but these displays are also a hit at Comic and Sci-Fi conventions (think: minilanders in costume as their favorite characters) and I intend to expand to Maker Faires this year as well. The Flickr group discussions include an attempt at a list of all Mini Con events.

BrickFair 2010 Round-Up

Name of Event: BrickFair

Found at: http://www.brickfair.com/

Details: I'm sorry about the sporadic posts lately - we've done as much filling in as we're going to and will be daily again starting now. As mentioned earlier this week by Matthew (Brickapolis), the LMOTD team was at BrickFair last weekend, and we're still recovering from that whirlwind of LEGO action. I personally took nearly a thousand photos in an attempt to exhaustively cover every creation on display and as much of the action as possible. It was exhaustive, alright - I'm still tired from a few late-night photo runs. In addition to photo-taking and running performances of the NXT Robot Band, I also hosted a "Blogger's Roundtable" event, nominated two trophy categories, and got involved with several of the games. A word to the wise: getting truly involved with a LEGO convention can be work that may require a second vacation afterwards. In addition to my own photos and the links below, we're also expecting more coverage to appear in the coming weeks - my "NXT Robot Band" (prepped for this year's music theme) was videotaped a few times by someone from CBS, and I'd expect their report to show up sometime in September. I'll try to update this page with additional links when I can. As always, you can send in your tips to legomodeloftheday@gmail.com - I'm sure we'll be seeing plenty more come in, thanks to the ~1,000 registrants and nearly 20,000 public visitors. In the meantime, check out my photos and the photos/videos of these people who didn't win the competition to take the most photos: BrickJournal flickr set: Brickfair 2010 Preparation BrickJournal flickr set: Brickfair Set 1 BrickJournal flickr set: Brickfair Set 2 BrickJournal flickr set: Brickfair Set 2 (yes, two with the same title) Official group pool BernMarsh's flickr set notenoughbricks's flickr set jchanes927's flickr set cajunjoel's flickr set Joe Architect's flickr set MiniBricks Madness' report KateKintail's brickshelf gallery pjmoyer's brickshelf gallery Cale Leiphart's flickr photos Brothers Brick blurb qiaochang's flickr set morganbarr's flickr set rclaburn's flickr set Rob Bender's flickr set AB Quest's flickr photo sets TJJohn12's flickr sets: Thursday Friday rschoonover's flickr set Brickapolis' flickr set pcgeek's Brickshelf gallery dan_larson008's flickr set primus30eight's Brickshelf gallery billb♥Lego's flickr set teodude's flickr photos Some amateur-ish video from goobers who can't handle using terminology correctly, but think you should watch ads for the privilege of seeing their goofy clips (and yes, that's the least snide I can be while describing these): Fox 5 DC clips CNN clip We almost missed this article by some blowhard at the Washington Post who couldn't even be bothered to look up the name of the event, but did find time to write a few insulting and even misogynistic comments for good measure. We recorded audio of a few festivities at the event - once we've determined if any of it's useful, we may share some of that as well.

BrickFair 2010

This past weekend hundreds of LEGO fans of all ages gathered in the Dulles Expo Center in Chantilly, VA. This was no small gathering either! With over 700 attendees and just under 20,000 public visitors, BrickFair is America's largest LEGO convention. LEGO conventions like this one are a great way to meet fellow builders, talk shop (and smack), buy some LEGO, and for the first time this year; sell LEGO during a sanctioned "yard sale" time. We'll post a full round-up this weekend, but here are a few flickr photosets to whet your appetite. Richard Schoonover's flickr photos Cale Leiphart's flickr photos Brendan "BernMarsh"'s flickr photos Joe Meno's flickr photos If you were wondering whether or not to attend a Lego event/convention near you, take the plunge! It's tons of fun!