the jman sayeth: Philly Brickfest 2014

In my 20 odd years of going to comic cons and assorted conventions, it’s hard to believe but your friendly neighborhood jman has never been to any sort of Lego Con.

I know, right?  I’m kinda disappointed in me, too.  What kind of AFOL am I, anyway?!?!?

Before you say: “Not a very good one”, let me first respond by saying I finally made up for this egregious error by going to Lego Fan Festival/Philly Brickfest 2014 at the Philly Expo Center this past weekend.

To be honest with you, cause I feel that we’ve gotten real close over the years, I really wasn’t sure what to expect going to this thing.  For one, although the Expo Center has the word “Philly” in it, it’s not exactly in Philadelphia.  Which is to say, I hadn’t ever been there before, mostly because it’s almost an hour away from Philly.

And, two…I just plain didn’t know what to expect.  I’ve been to some horribly small/terrible shows in my day, and with Jethro, Jakob, Kelly Marie and Nathanial all in tow, I was hoping beyond hoping this thing wasn’t going to suck and I wouldn’t be stuck listening to an hour’s worth of complaining on the ride back home.

As it turns out, it didn’t.  Quite the opposite, actually.  The organizers crammed a lot to do and (mostly) see in the show’s 75,000 square feet of floor space.  They had a “Brick Fest Derby”; where you could build your own car and then race it against other custom made Lego cars, down a 35 foot long track.  There was also little shows going on, trivia events, places for the kids to build, etc.

I have to admit, because I didn’t know what to expect, I was pretty unprepared, too.  Meaning, that I would’ve gotten there a whole helluva lot earlier, than I did. Because, believe you me…it was crowded.  The thing is, what you really have to keep in mind here where it differs from other comic-type cons is that this is a different type of “crowded”.  This one is full of kids.  And kids means strollers.  Strollers + crowds = not a lot of maneuverability.

I also would’ve scheduled some time to go by myself.  Because a good portion of the floor was exhibitors…exhibiting.  If you love Lego, that’s the real reason to go to this thing.  Some of the MOCs there were downright impressive.  And by impressive, I mean amazing.  There were too many to comment on individually, but a few of my favorite vignettes/models/MOC were:

This crazy Vietnam looking war scene.  I couldn’t even tell you how long the actual display was.  Besides being impressive, the use of the translucent clear, blue and green 1×1 round bricks as water was very impressive.  And expensive, to say the least.

Then there was this set up, that I think is from some movie/show, but I can’t quite recall.  And of course, me being the butthead I am, didn’t think to ask the creator of the set up if it was an original or inspired by something.  Duh.  Regardless, if it is from a movie/show shoot me a line and remind my aging brain what it’s from.  And if it’s an original MOC?  Then it’s that more freaking impressive.

There was also this enormous city set up that was being attacked/invaded by aliens.  So much clever stuff going on with it, that I would’ve taken more time inspecting it, if I didn’t have my kids hanging all over me.

There were a fair number of vendors at Brickfest, too.  What good is going to a con, if you can’t blow your hard earned money quickly?  I bought a couple of minifigures…but the coolest thing(s) I bought?  Check out these Lego heads from Citizen Brick (FYI.  No monies have exchanged hands for that plug.  I bought these heads fair and square.  They are just too cool not to show and plug the hell out of.  I mean they look like they came right out of an “official” Lego box.).  These are just a few of the heads they had.  They were selling far too many for me to buy them all.  Besides the custom heads, Citizen Brick also sold custom torsos and legs and army accessories and zombie accessories and all of it.  I’ve never been to their website, but I’ll be heading there shortly.

God!  So awesome.  I probably should end my uncompensated gushing now.

So, if you haven’t already surmised, I (plus the crüe) had a good time at Brickfest 2014.  Needless to say I’ll be adding it to my personal con schedule going forward…

Before you go, make sure you check out the new episode of the Almost Internet Famous Internet Show.  It’s packed with vitamins!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3x6m7PqANIQ