The Unofficial LEGO Builder's Guide

I stumbled upon this wonderful little model the other day:

If you click on the image above you’ll head over to MOCpages and you can see the yellow submarine that Dave Teague’s 9-year-old daughter built. Next to one of the images you’ll find a very kind reference to ULBG. I think it’s fantastic to see a talented young builder who has taken one of the techniques from the book and used it to create her own original model. That was one of the key ideas I had in mind when writing the book - that people would use the information to explore their own ideas - so it’s fantastic to me to see it actually happening.

AB

Yes, Brickfest 2006 finished up about 3 weeks ago, but I’m still posting about it. It was my first Brickfest and there was enough to see and then talk about that I didn’t figure it would all fit in one blog entry. (Suddenly I feel like Doogie Howser writing one of his journal entries at the end of each episode - do other bloggers ever get that feeling?)

O.K. back to Brickfest….

On the Saturday afternoon I did a book signing for a couple of hours. As previously mentioned here, Rick Sellers was extremely generous in offering to give up some of his afternoon to help sell books. That allowed me to concentrate on spelling peoples’ names correctly. As you may know, both the Saturday and Sunday afternoons were open to the public with paid admission. And since Rick and I were set up across the lobby from the entrance to the grand ballroom (where many of the models were displays) it helped to generate quite a bit of foot traffic. A number of these folks either recognized the book (from the net or seeing it in a store) or were interested enough right then to buy a copy.

There were also several BrickFest attendees who had brought their copies from home. Of course, I was more then delighted to sign those ones. Thanks to everyone for your support!!

Now a few pictures. Thanks to my wife Kathie who played the role of paprazzo for part of the afternoon. Most of the photos below were taken by her.

Bill Pollock had a larger-than-life copy of the book’s cover mounted and displayed in the lobby. Yes, for an author this is pretty much the height of cool.

A young reader with his newly defaced…. er, autographed copy of the book.

Several people asked for directions, no kidding. Mostly to find the other room with models displayed in it and also to find the Brick Bazaar. But despite our best attempts neither Rick nor myself could answer the million dollar question, “where is the popcorn?” Since everyone was smelling the distinctive aroma of freshly popped kernels.

Rick Sellers = #1 super helper of the day. Thanks again Rick!

My biggest fear was misspelling the name of the person for whom I was autographing the book. Amazingly I think I made it through the entire afternoon without doing that once.

Bill Pollock who tirelessly promoted the book all weekend and without whom you wouldn’t be reading about the book signing.

The young girl with the large pick-a-brick cup was later seen balancing it on her dad’s head. My wife still laughs at that memory.

More folks who paid to get in to see LEGO models and were hit with my live infomercial as they exited the display room.

You may not recognize Jeremy Kirsch but you will eventually hear more from him. He’s the Director/Co-Producer of an upcoming documentary film called LEGO Nation. I’m really looking forward to seeing the final product!

One of my goals for the book was that it would appeal to not only adult builders getting started in the hobby but that it would also find an audience with younger readers. I think it succeeded.

That’s it!

Allan B.

This note’s for you!

[This is a reposting, with edits, of my previous invitation. But hey, it’s my blog I can repost as much as I want. ]

As I review the web stats for apotome.com I often notice hits coming from different cities in Ontario. From Windsor, Waterloo, London, Guelph, Toronto, Ottawa and many other great places. Don’t worry, I’m not tracking you. I just find it interesting to see so many hits from this region of the country. And since I know you’re already reading my blog, this message is for all of you folks across Ontario.

This is a personal invitation to you (adult LEGO builders) from me, to join in the LEGO display that will be part of The Hobby Show in November, in Toronto Ontario.

For those who may not be familiar with the show, let me go over a few quick details:

- This is a 3-day show featuring many different hobbies showcased for the public. Typical attendance is about 25,000 people over the 3 days

- Our LEGO display is just that…. a display only. It’s not competitive and there’s no pressure to bring anything in particular. Bring one big model. Bring several small ones. It’s up to you. But the fun part is having a place to show off your models and spend a few days talking with fellow LEGO builders from this region

- The show is very inexpensive for participants. We’re working hard to keep costs to an absolute minimum. A limited number of show passes are available free for those bringing models for display. But please get in touch right away if you want to qualify for a free pass. They will go quick. You can still attend no matter what, but late notices may be required to purchase a weekend pass to the show. And as noted, there should be few if any other costs (besides your food and coffee!)

- You can attend for one, two or all three days. Of course, it’s the most fun to be there for the whole weekend but that’s just not always practical for everyone. So let us know when you can be there and we’ll work the display around your schedule.

That’s about it. If you have other questions please do let me know and I’ll do my best to address any concerns you have. As noted, this is a personal invitation to all of you Ontario builders who may be thinking about coming out to a public event for the first time. I was hesitant at first myself. Until I organized the first Hobby Show LEGO display (2003) I’d never done a public show. But it went really well and I had a great time. I now have a number of new friends who I otherwise wouldn’t have met. This year marks our 4th appearance as a group and should be our best ever. That reminds me of one more item. The “group” that I speak of is really just an ad hoc gathering of people who do this one show a year and then leave you alone for the rest of the year. LOL That’s right, there’s no dues to pay, no meetings to attend, no email discussion lists to keep up on. This is just three days a year that are opened up to anyone who may not get to bigger (and more expensive) events such as Brickfest. So if you’re looking for a very low-stress weekend of LEGO fun, then this show is for you.

Please email me at: HobbyShowLEGO (at) apotome (dot) com

Remove the usual spam blocking methods, of course.

I’m looking forward to hearing from you and then meeting you in November!

All the best,
Allan B.

As the owner of a nearly 75 year-old Underwood manual typewriter
I was, of course, delighted to see a model like this appear on Brickshelf:

I love this model not only for its retro theme, but for the incredible use of slopes,
arches and other parts that give it such a clean and elegant appearance. Wow…

I’m enabling comments on this post (something I don’t normally do) and I’d love
to hear your thoughts on this really cool model.

AB

Before I get into any details about last weekend it’s time for some thank you’s.

1) Have you ever seen the TV show Overhaulin’ ? I like the show, especially the amazing designs that Chip Foose comes up with. I’ve just never liked the premise of the show; where they pretend to steal your car so they can overhaul it. So imagine if you could have your car redone without the anxiety and stress of thinking you were robbed? It happened to me.

To travel to Brickfest my wife and myself swapped our 1999 Grand Am for my mother’s 2005 Grand Am. Ours didn’t really need extra miles on it, but hers was running with very low mileage. So image my surprise, upon our return, when I saw my folks drive up to our meeting point (to swap cars back) when I saw our old black Grand Am looking shiny… like it had been washed. But I was even more surprised when I realized my dad hadn’t just washed it, but had touched up all the rust spots with new paint (many spots!), had detailed the interior, waxed the heck out of the entire outside, cleaned and treated the tires to make them shine like new and even gone and gotten the radio fixed since it was previously locked out and had a broken LED display. Oh, did I mention new wiper blades?

So thanks to my dad for such an amazing surprise. It sure made a nice end to an already great trip.

2) Thanks to everyone at Brickfest. I mean everyone. Every single person I met was kind and welcoming; many of them excited for me that this was my first Brickfest.

3) Thanks to Rick Sellers for giving up much of his Saturday afternoon to help sell books during my book signing. Rick handled the sales and chatted with people while I was busy trying to make sure I spelled their names right in their books. Rick took a tremendous amount of stress off my shoulders and I can’t thank him enough.

4) Thanks to the Canadian contingent at Brickfest. A double thanks actually…. first, for including me in some of the jokes, laughter and fun. And second, for excluding me from their attempts to have Canada become the first country ever to be banned from Brickfest.

5) Thanks go to Bill Pollock of No Starch Press who travelled across the country to help promote my book along with a number of other great titles from the No Starch Press catalog. Bill is dedicated to his authors and this author, for one, appreciates it.

6) To everyone who either bought a book and got it signed, or brought a previously purchased copy from home to get it signed. You were all so kind with your feedback about the book. It made the long hours that went into it all the more worthwhile.

7) Thanks also to my wife Kathie. For taking pictures during the book signing and for generally being proud of her husband. She makes me feel like a star.

Now the numbers explained. In my last post I did one of those cheesy Mastercard commercial ripoff thingies where you work down from a big number to something “priceless". Here’s what those numbers meant:

1600 road miles
This is roughly how far we travelled from home and back in eight days. We stopped in a lovely coastal town called Chincoteague, Virginia on our way down to see the heard of wild horses that run on a nearby island. We did see them, and it was amazing.

417 LEGO builders and fans
I believe this was more or less the official attendance this year. Can 500 attendees be far off in the future?

30 LEGO employees
We were told that this was the number of LEGO employees attending the fest. Wow… that’s a huge percentage of the overall attendance. Many travelled all the way from Denmark. That makes our 1600 road miles seem like small potatoes. LOL I was very fortunate to meet some of the LEGO Shop at Home staff who actually take care of customer phone orders. These are the front line people helping moms and dads pick out LEGO sets and I think their work is to be commended.

5 states in 8 days
I’m pretty sure we hit 5 different states along the way. There’s no boy scout badge for doing this, but I found it interesting anyway.

3 Pick-a-Brick cups full of tiles
Is there anything better? It was worth the one and a quarter hours standing in line on the Thursday night to pay for these. Yummy yummy tiles!!!

1 ten foot tall tower
To be clear… this was only meant to indicate my one big model. My 10 foot-tall CN Tower. There was another builder though who brought not one, not two, but five massive towers to display. The work of Adam Reed Tucker was astounding and I was pleased to have gotten a couple of minutes to talk to him about how his buildings are constructed.

Tons and tons of priceless memories and stories.
Here’s the priceless part as noted above. Does it really require any further explanation at this point?

All the best,
Allan B.