This was the first edition I participated in as an exposer, joining in on a collaboration build with BeLUG and Guilds of Historica members from Eurobricks (including my guild leader ;-) ).
Though my addition was rather modest compared to what some others brought, we build a mighty big Castle display this edition. Dominated by two humongous castles and three full cities, two armies clashed in the middle.
Now, I was a bit suprised at the amount of gifts the participants received. On saturday morning, before opening, we received a goody bag, which intrestingly contained a Lake-Town Guard. later on, we received the engraved `event brick`, and a set of Creator from the organisers.
Of course, now I tote a `geek badge` as well, I picked for my first bricks the Mitgardian colours to display name and nickname, and a red and white Antwerpen brick to show my `origins`. To this, the BM brick was added, and topped with a Bilbo I bought just for this.
During the day, I also received this gift from old wargame buddy Sgt Looney. He had been with his family to Legoland, and the promo brick was one of Castle. Thanks mate, really appreciated!
I thought at times I was in the wrong convention, meeting a lot of both TSA members including my former `commanders in chief`, as well as a few Magic players from my local watering hole. And I`m glad I could find the garbage truck for Benji.
But of course, you are all here to see glorious pictures, so let`s start of with some `impression pictures` from during the friday build up, the EARLY morning on saturday, over to the humongous crowd on sundays...
But now to the real deal, the other pieces on display.
Without a doubt, the Menenpoort from Ieper (Menin Gate at Ypres) was the queen of the show. This build has been featured on various television shows recently, and with the 100 years memorial of world war I, this is a true wonder to behold.
Waar is Ally? is a Lego variation on Where`s Waldo. She was hiding somewhere in the City display, and for those failing to find it, she is revealed in the last picture of this small series.
The evermoving ball contraption was present again, and had some new modules added.
Lego City remains a very popular theme to build, and here are a lot of tables that featured it as a theme. Some had funny details, some had awesome techniques, but they had one thing in common: they all looked great
Apart from our table, there was of course other fantasy and medieval on display, like this lovely Rapunsel`s tower as well as others
One builder had a whole series of microscale vs minifig scale builds present, including a lot of `can you?` games for the microscale.
Belgian pro builder (and cabaretier) Dirk Denoyelle was present as well, and he had brought along some truly magnificent pieces of art.
Technic and radio controlled cars where very present as well this year
As where some awesome mosaics
Mindstorm robots battled it out in the arena
A collection of various official planes
The ships of the Red Star Line are ready to set sail...
Sculptures where featured as well, including a very impressive, but probably not going on tour much anymore due to the difficulty packing, Bowser from Super Mario.
Space, it remains cool to be seen. It even included a picture with the epic Monorail, and a self build Stargate.
Star Wars remains an immensely popular theme amongst young and old, as these various builds all show.
There was also a Friends table present, as well as a nice winter landscape.
Trains are another of those mainstay themes within the Lego community, and a wide variety of tables where present.
A speciality this year was a pond for floating ships
A western table, including a train track which on sunday had a pump wagon running around in circles.
Finally, there was a large display of ww2 german vehicles.
Saturday Evening
A variety of activities where planned for those that remained after the show for the club dinner, including a `find Benny` game. I didn`t find them all 4 btw. There was also a Super Tombola, and here I did get lucky, taking home for my 5 euro ticket the 4th price, the Maersk Container Liner. A 150 average priced set for my ticket, lovely.
But our Castle Table proved to be real gobblers, taking down no less then 3 out of the 4 final prices, with Maxim taking home the Fairground Mixer and Peter the Tumbler which was the nr 1 price. His GF had already taken second place in Find Benny, granting a Lord Business Lair, while the sister of another of our team had won a large Creator set in the tombola. That was a LOT of euros at our table...
The Loot?
So what did I buy? Well, I mostly `invested`, in things like my name badge, but also already an engraved brick for my big project of 2015, which I want to bring to BM A`pen 2015:
I also bought the club polo, to be `one of the boys`, and collected my loose bricks order. Lots of brown leaves are now ready to be sorted.
For the rest, I kept it rather modest actually. Loose parts and a heap of minifigs for further moc`cing (I realised during this weekend I can actually build bigger and higher, and will be trying it for sure, amongst a lot of other things I learned on techniques and practicality).
Wait, more gifts and prices???
Yes, after closure we all received a second goodie bag, so that is another Lake Guard for my Hobbit collection! And spending my last few euros on the regular tombola (1 euro per coupon), I managed to get a category C (the Chima polybag) and a category A (the Creator set) from it. More bricks for brick mountain!
So that concludes a very awesome first Brick Mania as participant. Lots of bricks and experiences have been added to my Lego life, I met some awesome people and generally had a gigantic blast!
Will I be back? You betcha!
Epilogue
What is the most popular minifig with the kids up to age 5 in the Castle lay-out? I started noticing it during the sunday, and two others started paying attention to it and agreed.
The answer?
Wow, that looks like great fun.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenIt always amazes me just how inventive you can be with LEGO.
Thanks for the images.
Tony