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*Some Assembly Required
Article and Photography by Matthew Crandall
Wow…what a ride!
BrickFest 2007 has come and gone, and in a whirlwind of three days. I have seen how adults can act like children, and children act like there’s magic in the air.
A little background: I’ve been building with LEGO for 37 years, off and on--mostly on. I thought that with 23,000 elements, I had a good sized collection. (That thought actually got shot to ribbons by joining LUGnet.) I’ve been a member of the LEGO Club since 1993. I’d been to LEGOLAND California twice, and a number of LEGO retail stores including the first one at the Mall of America. I’d even seen the really huge model of the U.S. Capitol building.
But a convention for “adult” LEGO builders? In my backyard?
This I had to see.
In essence: this was the first AFOL convention for me and my wife. Deena came along for the ride, and the following is a chronicle of what we experienced in the organized chaos that was BrickFest 2007.
Four weeks prior:
I discover that I am going to be able to attend all three days of the convention. A quick change to our hotel reservations, and an e-mail to Matt Chiles to let him know what I can bring to the Classic Space Fly-In. Then I take all my Space models and assemble them, just to make sure all the parts are there. Amazingly, considering that much of my LEGO was stored where others could get to it and then it got moved some 2,000 miles, they are intact. Only one element was broken; the part holding the antenna on the #6834 Celestial Sled snapped. A quick trip to Colene’s shop on Bricklink got that resolved in short order. (Thanks again, Colene!) I then find a Shop at Home mailing box, and load the Space models into it. This is quickly dubbed the Box O’ Space models.
Two weeks prior:
I send an e-mail off to Steve Witt at LEGO; I’ve decided to enter the first ever Brickmaster Build-Off. I am going to build to Minifig scale version of set #540, the Swiss Villa. Except when I get done, it is more of a cross of the Swiss Villa and the # 356 Italian Villa. I spend the weekend working on the MOC; I decide to name it the “Cruella d’Villa” as a result. It has to be less than 1,000 elements…and it was. I set it on top of my all in one printer.
One week prior:
My bride loves to ski, so we’re up in Bend, OR at Mt. Bachelor. After she’s done skiing (I don’t ski at all—I went snow tubing), we are back at our hotel. I spend part of the afternoon and evening building the #8272 Snowmobile. (It seems appropriate.) Deena admits she’s looking forward to next weekend as much as I am. We still aren’t quite sure what to expect, but have a few ideas.
Thursday, 3/29:
It’s time to load the car with as much as we can. We are leaving early tomorrow; Deena has a Chamber of Commerce Greeters meeting (which serves breakfast and loves guests!) so I am going to go with her, then we are leaving directly for BrickFest...which means we are leaving at 7:00 AM. That is why I’m loading suitcases, the Box O’ Space models and some baseplates, and anything else I can get in the trunk tonight, so as to get as much sleep as I can. If BrickFest is like any other convention I’ve been to, sleep will be limited.
Friday, 3/30:
We arrive (finally) at the Portland Convention Center. Grabbing the Box O’ Space models and the Cruella d’Villa, we head off for Hall “A.” What we find when we get there is interesting. Lego is flying all over the place: A model of a statue is going up. All kinds of houses, spacecraft, castles and trains are being erected. People are laughing, joking, and generally having all sorts of fun. After getting checked in, finding the Classic Space Fly-In Table is easy—it is near the front, next to a fantastically detailed model of the Portland Convention Center created by Jeremy Rear.
Jeremy’s model of the Convention Center.
Several people are working to get baseplates and Monorail track down. Deena and I build the models I am supplying, then we start to get things built and add to the general craziness. Matt Chiles, in his brown hat, finally shows up—he’d been doing a session. Wolf Read is assembling something like half the monorail on one side of the table. These two are folks you need to meet. I also met René Hoffmeister (webmaster of LUGNET); he was kind enough to look something up for me on LUGNET so I can finish my MOC card. Thanks again, René! Something that amazes me is the number of Star Trek T-shirts I see…for a LEGO convention, at least I think it is quite a few. (I could have worn one of mine; I certainly have enough of them!)
After several hours of building, taking in two seminars (Creating a Town Layout and “Talk Me Into Bley”), buying some parts for a Bionicle that was missing a few elements (you gotta love garage sales—but it’s better if all the right elements are there!) and looking at everything, it’s auction time. I bid on several items, but only win one of them: A Bionicle clock that will grace my office space. I pay for my clock, and realize it is time to check in at the Red Lion. After we’ve unpacked, we grabbed some munchies at Windows (The lounge on the sixth floor), then back for the opening session and keynote address. This is the only time I felt like I’ve barged in on family…everyone seems to know everyone else. (That feeling didn’t last long, I might add.) I don’t win any of the door prizes, but hey—the stuff I really want to win is coming up, so I’m okay with that.
Following this session, there is a little free time. I use it, after talking the ears off Richard Stollery, Senior Director, Consumer Experiences, LEGO Direct from LEGO, to buy some elements I was looking for, then it is off to the LEGO Store for Midnight Madness. If that isn’t what it was called, it should be! Imagine this: 200+ people crammed into a store that realistically should hold about 85. Scratch and dent, pick a brick—those items go pretty well and pretty fast. The boxed models don’t move quite as quickly—but still move. At the price breaks that we are offered, who can resist? Some stuff looks like it’s flying—or at least walking on its own power; all I can see are legs. Deena goes and sits down outside for a bit until the herd thins out, then comes back and asks if she can grab anything else for me. (Now, that’s love!) Props and a big thanks to ALL the LEGO store employees; I understand that they finally chased the last of us out at 2:30ish AM! Those folks are phenomenal, and were cool under pressure and nice to us all. This is where I feel like I am starting to fit in with everyone. We are laughing, talking, and buying all sorts of stuff. I didn’t take my camera with me tonight for good reason: there wasn’t enough room for it!
We left after I was done, and retreat back to Windows for a late munchie, sodas and some talk around the table. I meet Todd Thuma and Josette Pieniazek, and a number of others. But…since my day started at 6:00 AM, and it is now approaching 1:00 AM, we finally decide to take our leave.
One of my models on the Classic Space Fly-In. I love the little number bricks; I thought they were classy!
Saturday, 3/31:
Deena is going to run a few errands this morning, so I leave her some cash and (having stopped at Burgerville for breakfast) head off to what was supposed to have been the BrickFestmeet and greet. Except it is all newcomers, and darned few of us. (Gee, I wonder why?) The Portland group was represented, and at the end of the meeting a few of us signed up for its mailing list. I’m hoping to get to some meetings as I can—Portland is a two hour drive from where I live. I move the Cruella d’Villa to the Brickmaster judging table; it’s the first one to show up there.
More assembly at the Classic Space Fly-In, a session on landscaping your display, more looking around and shopping, and then…what do you mean it’s 12:00 already? Back to Burgerville for lunch (which I also bring back for Matt Chiles, who looks like he needed a meal), some more assembly at the Classic Space Fly-In, then watching some of the NXT Sumo competition. Geez, I want one of those Mindstorms NXT sets like you wouldn’t believe! Some of those creations are really sharp!
Since we’ve made plans to meet up with some other folks for a dinner meeting, we leave a little before three. (I confess: I take a short nap once back in the room.) And, because our meeting went short, we make it back in time for announcements and the raffle. That is all good, even though I don’t win the Mindstorms NXT set. Then, just taking in what we have completed so far, it is almost like walking through LEGOLAND, except it’s all indoors and all big people (since we were all big kids, I can’t really say adults or grownups). We take our leave a little after 9:00, and catcht the MAX tram and ride it around for a bit in the fareless square area. Then it’s back to Windows for more libations, chatter and general carousing until the wee hours. Deena and I call it a night just after midnight.
Sunday, 4/1:
Today’s the day. Today is the public exposition. We dress in the official BrickFest t-shirts, add a minifig to my event badge that I now look like down to the blue hat, pack up the car, go to Burgerville for breakfast (and they really should have been a sponsor!) and then walk into a very magic place. Spaceships large and small, a hotel with King Kong Jr. scaling the side, Spiderman and Doc Ock battling on a crane, an entire Imperial battle station, and all the 10:34 clock tiles running right on time. Sheep grazing outside ye olde village, complete with a Starbucks hut. A cuckoo clock that is only three minutes different from my watch. A horde of Toa and other Bionicle.
Putting the final touches on the Classic Space Fly-In table.
I do a little last minute shopping; buying an unopened Bionicle. An ILTCO railbox. The handcar from Big Ben. The Cruella d’Villa is joined by creations by Matt Chiles, Todd Kubo, and the ultimate winner of the Build-Off, Nathan Proudlove. Way to go, Nathan!
Speaking of hordes, at 11:00 AM promptly the doors opened to the public. And they come in. Lots of them. Deena is volunteering at the registration table; I am over at the Classic Space Fly-In table. At one point, I feel like a tour guide at a park that shall remained unnamed in Anaheim: “Yes, these are all the Classic Space models, from 1978 to 1999. Yes, they are in date order. Which ones did you have? No, we didn’t put the bars up to keep the kids away…they know better. They know how long it takes to put one of these together. No, we put them up to keep the adults from walking up, picking up a model, and going ‘I had this when I was a kid!!!”
…and they kept coming in: Deena is handing someone a LEGO plate-card. You can see her in the corner, in front of the grey door on the right, behind the table.
I am able to get away for lunch, take a few pictures from the high end of the bleachers, and buy Gary Istok’s most excellent LEGO history disk. (I highly recommend this as a resource, by the way.) Then it is back to the table, “No, you can’t buy this set from Wal-Mart or Fred Meyer’s. It hasn’t been made since (insert year here). You might try Bricklink or eBay. Be prepared to spend a bit on it.” One guy comes by with two large zip bags of LEGO. He has the idea that there are dealers who will swap or buy. I tell him he could get at least $20 on eBay for it; I’ll buy it for $10. Since he wants to unload it, I buy it. (And, by using Peeron, LUGnet, and Bricklink, I’ve found a good chunk of four different models. Not enough to complete one of them without adding some stuff, but the bulk is Technic parts—and there’s about a half pound of those!—made it well worth my while.)
A shot of the crowd from the cheap seats.
4:00 PM comes all too fast. We shoo the last of the folks out, and have a short closing meeting in which Deena wins a copy of the convention model and I dont win the Santa Fe Super Chief. we really get into the sad business of the teardown. Whole towns start coming down. The hotel comes down. All the spaceships are claimed by their owners, including mine. Boxes come out, bubble wrap bubbles, and everything is coming down. We start dismantling the Space Fly-In table—baseplates and monorail track, so carefully laid out, come up awfully fast!
The author stands behind all his work. (Or in this case, kneels.)
With the knowledge of having to work on Monday and a long drive home, we grab the Box O’ Space models and the Cruella d’Villa, and left for a sushi dinner. Having said our goodbyes, I thought that was it…until I remembered that I had left a decent pen at registration. Deena drives me back after we eat, and I retrieve my pen. Had we been a half hour later, there might not have been too many people left there. The hall—which just a few hours before had held a lot of people looking at a lot of LEGO, is virtually deserted. I say a few last goodbyes, and walk out the back door, full of raw fish and many happy memories.
Epilogue:
It is now several days afterward. I’m sitting here, with LEGO all over. I’ve put all the event models back where they belong, been logging all the new stuff on my list (and will upload it to LUGnet soon enough), built two rabbits and a chick for Easter décor around my office space, fixed the Bionicle that now stands between two ExoForce mecha, and I’m still enjoying the sense of afterglow. The clock I bought has come out of the box and sits right in front of me. I have uploaded my pictures to Brickshelf, so they’re all there to share.
The funniest thing is that, while putting the BrickFest t-shirt on Monday morning, I noticed on the back it says, “Some Assembly Required.” That is true of the AFOL community as well as LEGO itself: It is a good thing to assemble. So may you all Play Well and Prosper!
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