BRICK 2015 - Lots and Lots of Lego
"Would you like", I asked attimes_bracing, "to go to a Lego show?"
When I was young I was very into Lego. General Lego sets at first (this was the early 1970s, when themed Lego was a limited subset of Lego's output) and then Lego Space and Technical Lego. I still have most of my old Lego sets from that era in my Mum's loft (as she occasionally reminds me, in the hope that I might one day retrieve them.) I've occasionally had mild relapses when a particularly nice kit has come out, such as the Mars Rover I got for Christmas in 2003, although I managed to restrain myself when faced with the Death Star or the Shield Helicarrier. So, when I saw that BRICK 2015 was coming to the NEC, I asked S (who apparently survived a Lego-free childhood) if she'd be interested in having a look. She was, so I booked tickets and off to the NEC we went...
We got there just before opening, to find a large but well-managed queue; for an event where almost all the attendees were families with children it was remarkably calm and well behaved. The show was divided into various areas (interspersed with lots of building zones with huge pits of bricks) organised broadly as follows:
I've put an album of photos online (there are lots, so I've not embedded them here) with captions.
We pretty much had our fill in about an hour and a half; I could have stayed longer admiring some of the beautifully-detailed larger creations but by that point the show was getting very full. I did make one purchase, in the form of the Flatiron Building kit from the Lego Architecture range. Slightly to my disappointment, it turns out not to include Minifigs of TOR editors Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden, who (along with the rest of TOR's staff) actually work there...
This entry was originally posted at http://major-clanger.dreamwidth.org/41251.html, where there are
comments.
When I was young I was very into Lego. General Lego sets at first (this was the early 1970s, when themed Lego was a limited subset of Lego's output) and then Lego Space and Technical Lego. I still have most of my old Lego sets from that era in my Mum's loft (as she occasionally reminds me, in the hope that I might one day retrieve them.) I've occasionally had mild relapses when a particularly nice kit has come out, such as the Mars Rover I got for Christmas in 2003, although I managed to restrain myself when faced with the Death Star or the Shield Helicarrier. So, when I saw that BRICK 2015 was coming to the NEC, I asked S (who apparently survived a Lego-free childhood) if she'd be interested in having a look. She was, so I booked tickets and off to the NEC we went...
We got there just before opening, to find a large but well-managed queue; for an event where almost all the attendees were families with children it was remarkably calm and well behaved. The show was divided into various areas (interspersed with lots of building zones with huge pits of bricks) organised broadly as follows:
- Lego creations, i.e. not specific kits but rather 'models' in the more traditional sense built from general Lego bricks and parts. These varied from quite small (ones that could easily be mainstream Lego kits) to absolutely huge, including a model of the Titanic at standard Lego Minifig scale of about 1/40. There are evidently lots of groups of enthusiast Lego modellers out there, and many of the creations we saw were huge and very detailed. There was a rock concert, an airport terminal (not clear if it involved little reproduction TSA searches...), a 747 and Concorde, any many Star Wars models, including an AT-AT about the size of a large dog. I was particularly taken with two creations evidently made by Gerry Anderson fans - a model of BIG RAT from Joe 90 and a huge diorama of Marineville from Stingray.
- Large Lego statues - there was a Hobbit scene, a huge Hulkbuster Iron Man, and a full-size (well, outside at least) TARDIS.
- Dealers' stands selling either Lego-based artwork, customised Minifigs, or out-of-production kits. The latter were at prices ranging from high to absolutely eye-watering. Lego has done several kits of the Millennium Falcon; want the Ultimate Collector's version from 2008 and it could be yours - for £3,500.
- Areas plugging new Lego products, including video games and associated kits.
- A shop (run by Toys'R'Us) flogging a large but not exhaustive range of current kits.
I've put an album of photos online (there are lots, so I've not embedded them here) with captions.
We pretty much had our fill in about an hour and a half; I could have stayed longer admiring some of the beautifully-detailed larger creations but by that point the show was getting very full. I did make one purchase, in the form of the Flatiron Building kit from the Lego Architecture range. Slightly to my disappointment, it turns out not to include Minifigs of TOR editors Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden, who (along with the rest of TOR's staff) actually work there...
This entry was originally posted at http://major-clanger.dreamwidth.org/41251.html, where there are
comments.