Last Day at BrickCon

And it was a doozy. Almost 5000 people came on Saturday, and the crowds on Sunday looked as bad from where I was sitting. The article about BrickCon showed up in the Sunday Seattle Times, but I didn't make the cut (no surprise). The article itself was a little small, I thought, for such a big event. They supplemented it with a photo gallery of 15 images from the convention, but only online. The paper version only had about three images. The tenth image online shows a couple of folks picking through the bricks at the Math 'n' Stuff booth, pretty close to where I was most of the convention.

Let's start today's image gallery with the Big Hairy Spider, one of my favorite all-time LEGO creations simply because I never would have thought of it, and the way it was accomplished was so fantastic.

As you can see, it's BIG... it's hairy, and it's a spider. The dots around it on the table are a legion of little LEGO spiders from various sets. The entire table was devoted to bugs. Now, a close up of the Big Hairy Spider reveals what it's made out of:


Those hairs are the little handles that the minifigs use in their machinery. They are basically levers, the knobs at the end fit in a minifig's hand. It's so freakin' awesome that someone saw those handles and thought, "Those would make excellent hairs for a terrifying spider creation!"

Also on the "bug" table was this nightmare (click to make bigger):


This is an actual, living beehive with a ton of very bored and frustrated bees in it building their hive around a bunch of LEGO bricks. I don't know about anyone else, but it had me shivering from a bit of bee terror.

Let's move on. *shudder*

On the Microscale table I had to stop and take pictures of this TARDIS and Dalek.


Microscale is a tough one to master, as it is the art of suggestion along with the art of restraint. Personally, I'm very impressed with this pairing. There were a ton of great microscale models there, most of them incredible if only due to the sheer imagination that went into them. For instance, look at the dalek. The base is four minifig binoculars. The eyestalk is a minifig wrench. I'm not even certain what the plunger is, but the gun is a lever like the spider hair. Thinking sideways is required to be a good microscale builder.

On the other end of the scale is the miniland size figures. These are the size of figures that you will see if you go to LEGOLAND and look at their models. In this case, there was a set of superheroes. Four DC Comics figures with a couple of Marvel ones in the middle that I ignored (*grin*).


Green Lantern and Batman. The logos appear to be custom, but everything else was pure LEGO.


And Wonder Woman with Superman. Hey, where's Aquaman?!?? I need my Aquaman fix. *grumble*

Over near the Math 'n' Stuff booth was this wonderful arch:


On Friday, when we arrived, they were just starting to set it up. It took several hours and several people to get it put together safely. As I write this I'm willing to bet that some people may still be removing it. I left in all the background to it so you can get an idea of just how big it is. Very impressive.

Ok, this post is getting really long, so I'm going to put in a cut here. Just follow the link to get the full post. Folks reading this via RSS or a direct link should just see an extra line after this, then the rest of the post.

Another Day, Another Brick

Very very tired after a frenetic day at BrickCon, watching over children and trying to be helpful to people. I got some PR done, even got interviewed by a reporter (I think from the Seattle Times, but not certain).

I used my phone to try to video one of the coolest things at the LEGO convention, but the video that resulted was blurry and you couldn't really tell what was happening. I may try for it again tomorrow, but I can't make any promises. The display in question was a dual-layer one. On top there was an ocean with ships and sea life and stuff... and a whirlpool sucking down an old sailing ship. In motion. The whirlpool was spinning, at a decent clip, too. Then you went down under the table, and you could see the whirlpool spinning in the background as an undersea civilization went about their daily lives. All made from LEGO. And really, really cool.

But hey, you want to see more pictures, right? So here's three more. First up is a close-up of Miyazaki from the awesome Miyazaki display I posted about yesterday:


Next up is the entire Miyazaki display. Click to see a bigger image and ooh-and-ahh over it.


And last up is a test of your perception skills. How many ninjas do YOU see in this picture? And yes, you can click to make this one bigger too.


Tomorrow is the final day of the convention, and after that I'll rest here in my sister's apartment for a day before driving back over the mountains.

Still in Seattle

I was at BrickCon for most of the day, helping set up the Math 'n' Stuff area, as much as was possible. I saw a few old friends, met a couple of new ones, and got very hot in the stuffy Exhibition Hall. But first, I stopped by the Math 'n' Stuff shop where I saw this on the wall:

No one could tell me what the shop did to deserve the certificate, but they posted it anyway. Kind of fun!

I saw many many many great LEGO creations, and had to pick and choose what to take pictures of and show off, because if I posted a ton of pictures, I'm sure I'd bore the heck out of many people, and sensory overload any LEGO fan. So here's a choice selection of three pictures of LEGO creations that I found interesting.


This buzzard is part of a larger display of an old broken down car in the desert. It was a cool display, but the LEGO buzzard just got me where it counts. It's so freaking creative and awesome! And better yet, I think I might have the pieces that I could duplicate it with!


This is over near the Math 'n' Stuff selling area. It took me much longer than it should have to realize that the large LEGO poster is the cover of a Classics Illustrated comic book. It's just WOW!


This Totoro is part of a much larger display of Miyazaki-based LEGO creations, including Kiki from Kiki's Delivery Service, the main characters of Spirited Away, and ... I can't name all of them. Just a ton. And they were really well done. The guy setting it up was taking a lot of time and making sure he got it right, so by the time the exhibition opens to the general public tomorrow, I'm sure it will look even more incredible.

Well, I'm so tired right now that I'm not sure I'm going to finish writing this entry, so maybe you'll see a post from me tomorrow and maybe nozzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

BrickCon 2008

I had a hard weekend, as I've never been good with the general public and we had a LOT of the general public out in force that weekend. But I got some good pictures during the down times after and before the public was let in. So I'll let the pictures do the talking (click for larger versions):

There was a lot more I didn't take pictures of, including a fantastic multi-table zombie apocalypse that just was stunning in both originality and the ability to convey gore and zombies with just LEGO bricks!

The shop area was slightly hidden, and we had the worst spot, with horrible light. However, my understanding is that our shop did fine despite a number of setbacks that nearly killed us (like the computer systems not working at all the first day, and having a major glitch on the second, and being understaffed both days, and... I could go on but I'll stop there before I start hurting in memory).

As my bonus for coming over the mountains to help, my boss gave me a 2008 LEGO Advent Calendar, which I will be blogging like last year.

And, dang it, I got a cool BrickCon LEGO nametag, which I've wanted since I first saw them a few years ago. That made up for any number of pains.

Update: Here's a Flickr Search for BrickCon 2008. And here's the Zombie Apocafest in full glory.