After a delay from their initial February Dates, SydLUG’s new event – Brickbuilt – is coming up rapidly. Here’s the news, from their ambassador, Gregg Odlum …
What: BRICKBUILT SYDNEY 2022 – Sydney’s biggest LEGO event Where: Accor Stadium (Stadium Australia) at Sydney Olympic Park. The event will be held in The Millennium Room, enter via Gate C near the Olympic Park Station)
When: May 7-8, 2022. 9am to 4pm Saturday; 9am to 3pm Sunday
Why: To Raise Money for The Children’s Hospital at Westmead
If you have spent any time engaging with online LEGO discussions, you will have undoubtedly come across a post asking “What piece is this?” “What set is this from?” or “Is this even LEGO?”
The AFOL Engagement Team at the LEGO Group is trying to understand a little more about why AFOLs might help others out with such queries, which tools they use to solve the problem, and why they do. Whether you have ever answered such a question, you race to be first to answer it, or you don’t really care, why not take 5 minutes to fill in this survey.
Do you enjoy helping people in their quest to identify elements and sets? What’s your tool of choice?
Why not leave your thoughts below, and until next time,
Have you ever thought about building a LEGO set as a social activity? Have you given it a try? Join me as I seek the help of a few friends to put together 71741 Ninjago City Gardens.
In Melbourne, we have spent a little bit of time lockdown over the last 18 months (individual definitions of ‘a little’, and ‘lockdown’ may vary). As such, we have spent quite a lot of time unable to catch up with friends In Real Life™. A couple of weeks ago, we regained the privilege to visit friends in their homes. As such, it has been quite exciting.
But first, let’s go back a few years. I have known Andrew, Kris, Dan and Cameron since school. That takes us back to the mid-eighties. We have all headed in different directions in our lives, but have kept in touch. A few of us are married with kids – and as such, around 15 years ago, we started a regular monthly catchup poker game to… reflect on the responsibilities of fatherhood with a jury of our peers. Exceptionally low stakes: no cash, not even jelly beans. After a while, this regular catchup has evolved in a number of directions: late-night geocaching, escape rooms, board games. My professional life seemed to involve a little more weekend work than the others, but I still keep up with the gang when I can. During our lockdowns, we moved over to the virtual catchup – shared online card games and first-person shooters!
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.
In this day of online this and streaming that, a lot of us still like to sit down with a good book to entertain and educate ourselves. Regular readers of the Rambling Brick might know that we have a slight nostalgic leaning towards history of LEGO bricks. As such, the latest activity from LEGO Ideas might be of interest for you:
LEGO Publishing, a division of the LEGO Group, is excited to announce a public vote on LEGO Ideas to choose the direction for a new book celebrating the rich history of the iconic LEGO brick, made in collaboration with AFOLs.
The new Brickheadz 40383 Bride and 40384 Groom sets arrived just in time to sit down and build them together with my wife on our wedding anniversary. Do they have everything we need to customise a happy couple on their wedding day? Read on to find out…
I would like to share a little bit of personal news with you. It’s not directly related to LEGO bricks, but stay with me. I’m sure we can find a way to bring it around.
What a fortnight it has been. Last week began with the shocking news that the LEGO Group is poised to complete the buy out of Bricklink. Its big news. And its hard to believe that it is just to ensure this great resource has been purchased by the LEGO Group, just so they can keep close to Adult Fans. A bit, maybe, but there are so many questions that get raised: are they looking to identify resellers? Look at the purchasing habits of AFOLs around the world? Ensuring that community support programs are being used appropriately? Or just trying to work out what color bricks are popular?
But this was just the front end of the week. By the middle of the week we were getting our inboxes assailed by endless emails advertising shopping opportunities: Black Friday, Black Friday Weekend, Cyber Monday… What?
Well, I have several, but only one is particularly relevant to you today. It is to find order amongst the chaos. Yes, we are talking about sorting the LEGO collection: mine has gotten a little out of hand.
This topic is frequently brought up discussion groups, so I thought I would tell you where I have been, and let you know where I am going. I know many of you have well sorted collections/resources, some are a little more…chaotic.
My current collection of building bricks has evolved from my children’s collection: started around 10 years ago.
In those early days, after graduating from one box, Continue reading →
