Questions on going to Brickfest

[The Josh]

I just registered and I'm going to Brickfest, but I have a couple of questions/comments about Brickfest.

1. When I registered, I didn't have an association so I made my affiliation classiccastle.com. Is That ok?

2. Although I'm not a Lugnet member, I read something about matching flag colors to mocs. Should I get flag colors, or can someone see if red over blue is up for grabs? If I should have flag colors, red over blue would be my preference.

3. I'm not sure where to put this, so I wanted to give a heads up on what I plan on bringing to Brickfest. I am going to bring a couple of small models, including a cool tent (my own design), a very small bridge, and possibly a peasants hut. I am also going to enter the castle competition. I might try to make some buildings and wall sections for the castle wall standard, but I make no guarantees because I may not have enough bricks (a problem I have more and more often) to successfully build other models. If I do have the bricks and the time, I might bring a surprise or two....

Please help me by answering my questions. Thanks!

-The Josh

[JPinoy]

1) Yes its ok for that you ARE a CC member! Im also associated w/ BrickLink as well as Classic-Castle.com, but CC is my primary association. Despite the fact that I hangout more in BrickLink than over here.

2) HUH? Didn't know that! Will have to change mines to Green & Black.

3) Im bringing my military mocs. I know its odd, a CC member with an alternate timeline, Modern/Near-Future Military stuff.

The year is 2014, a battle scene in the Xinjiang region of China between the Chinese People's Liberation Army with their newest & most powerful class of tank the T-105 "Imperial Dragon" MBT + some Red Guards armed with new "Infantry Miniguns". -VS- An infiltrating group of militants from the world's largest terrorist organization the Global Islamic Liberation Front who have spilled over from Khazakstan and have entered China trying to destabilize what is planned in 3 years to become largest democratic nation on earth.

[Glencaer]

1. When I registered, I didn't have an association so I made my affiliation classiccastle.com. Is That ok?

Yes, that is fine, but make sure it is Classic-Castle.com (capitalized with the dash).

2. Although I'm not a Lugnet member, I read something about matching flag colors to mocs. Should I get flag colors, or can someone see if red over blue is up for grabs? If I should have flag colors, red over blue would be my preference.

Check the .castle newsgroup - Marc Nelson is keeping a list of what has already been requested, and you can see there. To request a color combo, just email him (his email is on the .castle post i mentioned).

3. I'm not sure where to put this, so I wanted to give a heads up on what I plan on bringing to Brickfest. I am going to bring a couple of small models, including a cool tent (my own design), a very small bridge, and possibly a peasants hut. I am also going to enter the castle competition. I might try to make some buildings and wall sections for the castle wall standard, but I make no guarantees because I may not have enough bricks (a problem I have more and more often) to successfully build other models. If I do have the bricks and the time, I might bring a surprise or two....

Sounds awesome! You can also list the MOCs you intend to bring by going to the BrickFest website and clicking on the "MOCCard" link - which will officially let the BrickFest organizers what you intend to bring and how to fit it all in.

If you plan on brining wall sections, send me an email (lah5980@fsu.edu) or post here what you intend to bring. I ask because designing the 3CS town will require knowing what pieces are available.

I'm glad to hear CC-ers are going to BrickFest! It is going to be totally awesome this year!!

-Lenny
Assistant Castle Coordinator

[Glencaer]

2) HUH? Didn't know that! Will have to change mines to Green & Black.

Be sure to email Marc Nelson about reserving that combination. Keep in mind you have to supply all the flags yourself.

3) Im bringing my military mocs. I know its odd, a CC member with an alternate timeline, Modern/Near-Future Military stuff.

Keep in mind that you won't be able to set these up in the castle room. There is going to be a town room - I'm not sure if these count as town or scifi.

Be sure to fill out what you're bringing on the MOC-Cards, as this will help BrickFest planners immeansely, as well as providing you nifty little description cards for your stuff.

-Lenny

[JPinoy]

Be sure to email Marc Nelson about reserving that combination. Keep in mind you have to supply all the flags yourself.

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Keep in mind that you won't be able to set these up in the castle room. There is going to be a town room - I'm not sure if these count as town or scifi.

Be sure to fill out what you're bringing on the MOC-Cards, as this will help BrickFest planners immeansely, as well as providing you nifty little description cards for your stuff.

-Lenny

2) Thanks.

3) I know, it'd be disturbing to Castle fans to know that a bunch of terrorists, PLA soldiers, light attack vehicles, and a huge tank is sitting next to some Castles. This will of course have to fit into Town. Its not THAT far into the future nor is the theme that removed from real world occurences.

[Magnus]

As the BrickFest Castle Room coordinator, I'm very happy to hear of people coming!

For information about the CCC flag system, please see this post/thread on Lugnet:

http://news.lugnet.com/castle/?n=20068

Basically we are going to have a system whereby each builder has a unique two flag combination to use to identify his or her MOCs.

Please take the time to fill out to MOC cards at the BrikFest website as this will help us plan for how much space and tables we need. Whether you are building a MOC for the CCC display or the MOCC or another MOC for the Castle Room of the convention in general, it is quite important to fill out the MOC cards. Thanks.

In the past, WWII era to contemporary and near future military-themed MOCs have gone in the space room. I'm not sure if they will go there this year too, but they are certainly welcome at the convention, and space will be made for them. But not in the Castle Room.

If you have any questions about BrikFest, feel free to post here or send me a private message or email me at thunder_road@hotmail.com

[JPinoy]

Space room? How does WWII and Modern military count as Space? As for my NF Military, its not that far into the future.

The only 2 factions that remotely even looks like space military is the World Union and Philippines (futuristic ones) factions. Even then neither use phasers, blaster beams or anything. Just ETC (Electro Thermalchemical) guns, EMP missiles and etc, all of which are techs being developed today. I think that modern = Town/World City theme.

Plus I have this feeling that some of my fellow Castleheads are more likely to visit the room with the theme EVERYONE can relate to, Town, than to visit the Space room.

[Formendacil]

Well, I can't make it to Brickfest, but I'm not sure about that last statement of yours, JP. Personally, if I could make it (and believe me, I'd love to), I'd visit the Space room second. If you substitute futuristic technology for primitive mechanics and magic, and if you change castles to Spaceships, then I think that you'll find that Space and Castle are very similar.

And personally, I think that Military MOCs, even if contemporary with today's (or yesterday's) lives, and yours aren't quite, should be more closely identified with Science-Fiction than with Town. My reasoning: Town is intended to be CIVILIAN. It is about ordinary people and ordinary things. Things that everyone can identify with. Whereas the military and such is removed from the general field of experience, and is certainly not Civilian in nature.

I don't know if the Space room is the best place to put them, but I think that there is a strong case for not putting them with Town.

[JPinoy]

So if I were to present a different military related scene... instead of a battle you have soldier minifigs from CZ-GC's alliance factions (China, USA, Philippines, Israel, Japan, India, UK) saying goodbye to their minifig families as their being deployed overseas to combat the GILF terrorists (none of which are in the scene).
There's no fighting what so ever in the scene, just a poignant moment in having to say good-bye and come back safely. Would that be considered Town or Space/Sci-Fi?

[The Josh]

Thanks for answering all of my questions! Because of your help, I was even able to get the flag color combination that I wanted. It's also an honor to be considered and recognized as a member of Classic-Castle.com.

I look forward to seeing you all at Brickfest. Time to start building!

-The Josh

[Formendacil]

So if I were to present a different military related scene... instead of a battle you have soldier minifigs from CZ-GC's alliance factions (China, USA, Philippines, Israel, Japan, India, UK) saying goodbye to their minifig families as their being deployed overseas to combat the GILF terrorists (none of which are in the scene).
There's no fighting what so ever in the scene, just a poignant moment in having to say good-bye and come back safely. Would that be considered Town or Space/Sci-Fi?

Never mind.... I was just supporting the other side for the sake of it. Personally, I don't care.

But surely you wouldn't forgo a battle scene.... when you have all those hundred of figs?

[The Brick Rat]

A question for Lenny and Magnus:

I am coming to Brickfest and have been working on a
3CS Town. I have the walls built, but will not have
anywhere near enough buildings to fill it. When put
together the Town walls take up an area of 7 baseplates
x 7 baseplates (it takes 25 32 x 32 baseplates to fill in
the center). Altogether we're talking 2 Gatehouses, 4 outside corners and 18 straights.

Now, the way the Town is contructed it needs to be in it's 7 x 7 baseplate configuration (you won't be able to mix and match them with other people's wall sections). But, I can easily take 2 of the outside corners and add a bit more wall (making it a "T" configuration) so that other wall sections could be added on to it.
This would make my town one 'sector' of a larger 3CS town.

So, my question is: Are you all interested in my
bringing the whole thing? When combined with everyone else's
wall sections would that be too much town space (argh, I said 'space') to fill for the amount of MOC
buildings you expect to have? I can, of course, also
bring a smaller section of the town (the front section
would be 7 baseplates x 2 baseplates) with me.

Ken

[JPinoy]

I was only trying to point out how civilian and military life are intertwinded. Besides soldiers are people too and when they're not in uniform they're your regular everyday civilians.

Me forgo a battle scene?! HA! The display I'll have will not have massive amounts of figs... this IS modern combat btw. Instead it'll be somewhat of an ambush type scene.

[Magnus]

Space room? How does WWII and Modern military count as Space? As for my NF Military, its not that far into the future.

I think in the past, military stuff has been put with space for two reasons:

1 There may have been space for it in the space room, and not elsewhere.

2 Many space MOCs seems to be quite military in nature, and there are some near-future military MOCs which kind of are somewhere in betweeen Military and Space, and they all kind of go together.

I think once a large WW I era battleship went in the Pirate room, probably because it wasn't THAT modern and there was a shared theme of naval technology and there was space there. Someone brought a terrifiic WWII era armoured train once which went in the train room, again because of the shared theme.

So this isn't an exact science. It is a combination of the unpredictable practicalities of where there there is space to display stuff, how many military MOCs there are and where they can be slotted in. Because Lego never put out a seperate military theme, and because there are never as many military MOCs as other themes, they have not usually gotten their own room.

I can say right now that I do not think that the castle room will be the appropriate place for them.

I think the important thing is that you do bring you military scene, so that people can get to have a close-up look at it, and no matter where it ends up getting placed, it will get seen.

[Magnus]

Thanks for answering all of my questions! Because of your help, I was even able to get the flag color combination that I wanted. It's also an honor to be considered and recognized as a member of Classic-Castle.com.

I look forward to seeing you all at Brickfest. Time to start building!

-The Josh

Cool, I'm glad you got the colors you wanted. Look forward to meeting you!