Month: September 2021

Brickvention’s Back in 2022: New Venue, New Dates. Exhibitor Applications Now Open

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Brickvention is Australia’s Premier LEGO Fan Event, and was directly responsible for me coming out of my dark ages over 12 years ago. After a year of on-again, off-again lockdowns, the team behind Brickvention have announced the 2022 event. With a new venue, timing and logo this year, a lot is changing! This year, the event has been designated an AFOL Networking Event by the LEGO Group.


The Royal Exhibition Building, home to the event from 2012 to 2020 is currently being used as a COVID-19 vaccination hub and isn’t available. So this year, the event will take place at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre (MSAC) in Albert Park, Victoria. Located on the other side of the City Centre, this venue offers a huge area for exhibiting MOCs, in an appropriately socially distanced fashion.


The timing is also a little different: rather than mid-January, it will take place much earlier in the month: after bump-in (January 6th), there is AFOL Convention Day (January 7th), followed by two days of Public Expo on the 8th and 9th of January.

[more information after the break]

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Tune up and turn your amp up to 11 as the LEGO Group reveals the new LEGO® Ideas Fender® Stratocaster® set

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The development of the electric guitar certainly resulted in defining the sound of a generation or two in the twentieth century. The Fender Stratocaster first appeared in 1954, and continues to be one of the most recognisable guiltar shapes in the world. Today, the LEGO Group announces a new Ideas set, not sourced through the standard Submission/10000 votes pathway, but rather as an entry in last year’s LEGO Ideas ‘Music to Our Ears’ contest.

The model brings us a small scale version of the iconic Fender Stratocaster, as well as a fender Princetone Amplifier. There are elements to allow you to construct the body of the guitar in either black or red, as well as 6 string elements, and a Fender-LEGO Print fabric element. I love the way that the designers have replicated the silhouette of the instrument, while including details such as the tremolo arm, tuning pegs and pickups. Likewise, the use of grill tiles captures the texture of the cloth on the front of the amplifier. All packed into a model 31cm long, and 11cm wide.

The LEGO Ideas Fender Stratocaster set will be available from the 1st October 2021 from LEGO Stores and www.LEGO.com/Fender. It has 1074 pieces and has a recommended retail price of $99 / £99 / €99 / 159.99 AUD / 139.99 CAD.

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Builders’ Journeys: Inez Begins with Botanicals [79002 – Attack of the Wargs]

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Welcome once again to Throwback Thursday, and our regular Builders’ Journeys. In this column, AFOLs write about a set that had a profound influence on them, and the LEGO® builder they were to later become. Today, we hear from Inez, known as @iv_lego, on Instagram.

Inez lives in the Philippines and has become renowned for crafting MOCs based on real-world flowers, particularly those native to her part of the world. But it turns out that there was one set that showed her the way towards using LEGO bricks as a medium to create these flowers and trees…

“When I started with LEGO sets in 2012, I knew immediately that I wanted to build plants and landscapes. At that time, the landscapes included in LEGO sets were still rather drab, and their trees were still very blocky. My first MOCs were trees, but they weren’t all that great. Probably because I didn’t know what I was doing. “

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The Thrilling Adventures of Brick Dad: Book Review

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Henry Pinto and Cade Franklin shot to fame during the first season of LEGO® Masters Australia when they brought home the winners’ trophy. With a generous dose of creativity, to say nothing about a fair bit of talent in the ‘building with bricks’ department, Henry and Cade have released a book, in time for Fathers’ Day here in Australia.

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10284: LEGO FC Barcelona Camp Nou: Another Entry In The Top Ten Largest LEGO® Sets.

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Football Stadia represent the tribal Colosseums of the modern world. In their simplest form, they represent places where your tribal heroes don colours and fight it out with the opposition, in front of their supporters. Of course, we live in a far from simple world, and before long, the trappings of big business and high finance enter the fray.

In 2020, we have seen the Old Trafford football stadium as well as the Roman Colosseum released in LEGO form. These structures are similar in form and purpose, although the nature of the contests within may vary. Perhaps it is only appropriate that this year, as the LEGO Group release a 5500 piece version of Camp Nou, the home base for FC Barcelona, it has been designed by Rok Zgalin Kobe, who has been responsible for the majority of sets released with the architecture badge in the last few years, as well as the Colosseum.

Certainly this model features a part count in between that of 10272 Old Trafford and the 10276 Colosseum, and more blocks of colour than were offered in the Colosseum set!

The new LEGO FC Barcelona Camp Nou set is fantastically detailed. Features include the stands, pitch, team tunnel, media boxes and even the team’s coach. The score board also references the club’s momentous 5-0 win over rivals Real Madrid in 2010 and two of the stands proudly feature the “Mes que un Club” motto that is known by fans around the world.

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