FACTS Autumn 2016 convention report

Another great edition of Fatcs took place the past weekend, and of course I was present once more with the delegation of BeLUG.

I had some guests on my `hit` list this year for signatures, and off we went on a very early saturday morning to Flanders Expo Ghent for a weekend of fun and joy.

The BeLUG booth

Located in the Fan Village, or Hall 3, we had a booth full of sets and moc`s alike.  The BeLUG team of builders consisted of myself, Kris, Matthieu, Hans, Wilfried, Inge and Stefan.  Stefaan and Zwits joined along for "moral support as well.

This resulted in a wide array of models on display, going from a Link mosaic all the way to the Flying Dutchman.  Build UCS sets where also present on the booth, and the big Bowser by Koen accompanied us as well.

See our whole booth in this short movie:

All the BeLUG participants also received the event brick for their badge for this edition:

The Convention

As always, it was a huge show, and it keeps expanding.  A large variety of traders was present once again, and nice deals could be found if you kept your eyes open.

Large setpieces where once again on display, ranging from Jurassic Park to Star Wars.

And there was a lot of activities going on, like Drone Racing, and the chance to play games in Virtual Reality.

And the foodtrucks where great... they had coffee!

The Guests

Headliner this edition was The Hoff, but he wasn`t on my signature target list.  That was Sean Astin, Samwise from The Lord of the Rings.  I had with me his minifigure to sign, and he is a nice chap.

The other two signatures I was after where of british gentlemen Sylvester McCoy (the 7th Doctor, but I went for a signature on my Radagast minifig) and his successor, Paul McGann aka the 8th Doctor.  Paul was really suprised I went through the effort of getting a custom 8th Doctor figure, and happily posed with it.

The cosplayers

The stars of any convention, these are the people dressed up as their favorite characters, and there where some true masterpieces to behold once again.  From Catwoman to the Knight that says Ni,  every one was a star during the weekend.

Meeting friends

FACTS is also a great place for meeting with friends you mostly know online.  For example, I finally got to meet Peter, an awesome bloke I have been Twittering and chatting with for a long time already, in real life, and get to know the person behind the keyboard.

There was also a small reunion of some Lego friends at our booth.  As we like to use friendly nicknames for each other, I can only say that from left to right we have Mister President, Miss Buys-it-all, Mister Booba, Mister Baggins and The Dark Lord.

The Loot

So hwat did I bring home?  Well, of course first and foremost my three signed minifigures, being Samwise Gamgee, Radagast the Brown and The 8th Doctor, all who are now sitting proudly in my cabinet.

I also found these two sets at a British trader, the old Minecraft sets including the Cusoo one, the 003 The Forest.  I got them for 25 each, a great deal considering only the light damage to an otherwise still sealed box.

And of course, the event brick has been attached now to my brickbadge, which is starting to take on epic proportions for this year :-s

And so FACTS has come to an end once again, and preparations will start for the builds for spring 2017...

... but I`m not sure I can make them!