Lego Kidsfest 2011, Pittsburg

Via Mark of Classic Game room. He does say "legos" quite a bit, but you'll have to deal with it. Mark and the CGR is really the only media outlet I follow when it comes to teh vidya gamez. I think gamer culture has degraded from the nerdy pastime into the mainstream wannabe-geek entertainment hub it is today. Poo.

About four minutes he features some of Peter Morris' starfighters, which for me is the highlight. Some of the fighers in the video:



click any of the images to see his starfighter photo set.



Classic Game Room on Youtube.

Peter Morris' flickr.

BW2011 pt.2: And we will Crawl

I was able to get into the vendor's area before the mad public was let in. I nabbed some of Will Chapman's accessories (brickarms) just before the line that had stretched the length of the hall was let in. On a second excursion to the booths for some sand green wedges I overheard one aggressive soccer mom exclaiming to another:

"I'm buying my son a minigun"

Love is purchasing third-party precision molded plastic.

I liked this fish.
The bottom the the new Star Destroyer is not sloped. Seems as if the Kuat Drive Yards subsidiary of The LEGO Group is slacking.

I could have sworn I took more photos of this WWII-era U-Boat. Its creator had threaded some obnoxiously small lighting system through it. Fickle!
The Middle Earth display had some impressive castle-fantasy set ups, some better than others. Here are my favorite bits.





That's all old dark grey.

I quietly accompanied Kevoh, Nick Dean, and Lukas to the LEGO store and witnessed the purchase of nine 7984 for a parts draft.


I observed a brickwarz table-top war game, notable combatants included Robby and Carter Baldwin. I nearly fell asleep during the beginning dispute over the rulez, but when the game actually started I found myself able to take interest in....

Well, let's just say it must be a more engaging activity for the participants than spectators. This blogger will stick to "Advance Wars". Actually, the dim lighting in the empty restaurant area was reminiscent of staring at an old 2001-model Gameboy, before all the LCD displays were back-lit. Good memories, but not really. I took the opportunity to gawk at Carter's NATO armor.


After the battle closed, during which vehicles were found to particularly useful infantry-ramming instruments, I brought my ugly beige/brown mech over from the tweepunk dirigible table where Jonesy was kind enough to make room for it. I talked with Peter and discussed 2 x 2 round tiles with Robby while Carter ordered pizza on my laptop.

Former(?) crewman Jacob and I questioned the appropriateness of the display card next this Tank Girl MOC.

"Think about it like the first time you got laid. Gotta go, "Daddy, are you sure this is right?"

Yeah, I don't get the reference. But it did stand out against the some of the more drab, dull military displays.

Cool sci-fi towers:



Some guy with a possibly french accent was toting a laptop computer, on video chat. He was showing the person on the other end around, who if I heard the man with the computer correctly said was from Montreal. Like many others he had stopped to gawk-view at the twee-fantasty-nonsense-battlefield display and all its flowers. The man on the computer screen wished to know its creators, and while he didn't recognize their real names he did know them by their flickr screen names.

It was a weird, detached-but-connected kind of feeling.

The last thing I did before leaving was talk with Rocco Buttliere. After the public and all its dumb questions (where can I buy that?) he was able to disassemble sections of his models for me to peer inside of. His work is heavily based off that of Spencer R.'s, but he claimed he reworked the internal bits to his own liking. Finding different routes to the same conclusion is its own art.

We talked of things like compensating for the lack of trans smoke 1 x 2 plates and headlight brick vs. brackets when it comes to half-plate maneuvering. Looks can be deceiving, even the most rectangular of his builds had some sneaky, intricate internal SNOT. Not as obsessive as Jaster, but still damn impressive. Check out the old grey/new gray transition on the maintenance floors of the WTC towers.

Brickworld 2011 part 1: my heart is slowly dryin up

On the cover of Modest Mouse's 1997 sohpomore album are the towers of the Westin hotel in Seattle, Washington. The convention, BrickCon, is held in Seattle Washington. The convention, Brickworld, is held in the Westin hotel of Wheeling Illinois. These bits of trivia seemed a lot more connected in my head but appear kind of stupid written up, so disregard this paragraph, play the awesome song, and skip to the cluttered convention photos.



I gawk-awkwardly came across the tuii effectors throwing back pepsi throwbacks and hovered around their collaborative display.

"Camp Twee" found itself in an event advertised as a "train drag race" but ended up more of a contest of stamina and control. Those lacking found themselves hurdling Matt's locos off the track and into their competitor's boxcars. A wee kid ran around the table yelling to the operators, "Slow down! Speed up!" and the word "biff" saw regular use.

Say, you look familiar.

I also talked briefly talked with Marcus Schultz of the upcoming custom kit producer Brick Battalions (site under construction). I respect his determination for pursuing the WWII themed kit market despite competition from outfits like Mechanized Brick and Daniel Siskind's Brickmania, the latter of which also had a booth on site.


I also admire the builds themselves, I'm not a military equipment whiz but Marcus' work seems to utilize smoother and more modern techniques than that of Brickmania's. Particularly this piece Wehrmacht Armor, love the 2 x 2 flag/flap on the turret. He spoke of more soon-to-be available products soon to come around, when their site is up for use I'll be sure to do a feature post.



Some rather attractive steam engines:


Not the least of which is Matt DeLanoy's take on the Southern Pacific GS4.

lol trains on a space blog

This model is based on a design from the Portal video games. No, for real, I mean it.

Kyle Vrieze's light blue mech. We talked some about something and then caught the unveiling of what some referred to as Dano's latest MOC. It will be available in September for mass-consumption for people who like Star Wars or do not have enough plates.


Frank Lloyd Wright-looking haus. Granted, that style of architecture lends itself well to reproduction with Lego blocks, still an impressive display if not technical. The color variation in the red roof tiles, probably a result of age, weathering, and lapses in quality control, is a neat effect.

Winged things, of one kind, and another.

Reeeed Robin

Yum! Some of my favorite builders have updated:


Another one of Pierre Fieschi's miniature behemoths. He announces this the first use of a new camera. As a long-time fan of his work this is thrilling as his earliest MOCpages-era work is marred by poor image quality and jpeg grain. The build is up to par with the pixels, above is my own crop so click this freaking link to view full size.



Crimso Giger, boys.



Ralph Salvesburg. The man with the plan. Er, plane.



Soren? Moko? No bro, its Tony.Barth up in this .


Brickworld, anyone?

Project Geosword

Do I know what it is? Not really. Does it not matter because it's just that awesome? Totally.
Read all about it on Red Spacecat's Flickr