Questions on going to Brickfest

Discussion and planning of large-scale Castle Themed displays and events
Magnus
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CCC layout

Post by Magnus »

The Brick Rat wrote: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

WOW!

If you actually have space for all of this in your car/truck or however you ae planning to transport ths to BrickFest, I would strongly encourage you to bring as much as possible.

The CCC display is supposed to be a modular display. and if you layout can be incorporated into it, so much the better.

You say that there aren't enough buildings to fill your town layout, so I'm assuming you would be OK for other people's MOCs to be put inside your walls in the empty spaces?

One thing I'm wondering is you call this a CCC town, but you say it is not compatible with other CCC MOCs. Is this because the walls are a different size?

PLEASE fill out the MOC cards on the BrickFest website. :) THis way we will avoid running into "too little space/too few tables" problems.
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JPinoy
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Re: military theme

Post by JPinoy »

Magnus wrote: 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.
.
This is why I wanna encourange raising the number of Lego Military fans. True its not something Lego itself developed, but like the Ancients, and Mechas, its a Lego fan created theme. But then there could be a change in Lego's policy, I mean they finally decided to do Mechas (no not Bionicle, REAL mecha) after the great fanfare of Lego Mechas.

Anyhow, I've been contemplating the creation of a Lego Military fansite. Basically a Lego Military version of Classic-Castle.com. A site such as this could encourage the growth of this fan created theme. But I need some allies in this....
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Glencaer
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Post by Glencaer »

JPinoy wrote:Space room? How does WWII and Modern military count as Space? :? As for my NF Military, its not that far into the future.
The difference between "Space" (which means Science Fiction) and "Town/Trains" (which means Contemporary realist) is the fictional element.

Take it this way: Crimson Skies MOCs (of which there are quite a few) belong in the Space room. Crimson Skies is an Alternate Future set in the WW2 era, but supposes that the US collapsed during the Great Depression. This makes the technology they work with ficticious, hence, Scifi (albeit scifi of the past, rather than scifi of the future).

Your "Near Future" MOCs are not representations of actual people or technology from any period of time (now or in the past - they are a ficticious concept relating to a imminent future), thus making them science fiction, and therefore 'Space.'

As far as which rooms will get the most traffic, trust me, the Space room will be near the top of the list. Please don't try to portray being in a particular room as being worse than being in another room. The best place for all MOCs is in their correct place - and trust me, they will all be seen. Especially if they are good.

As far as discussion of a Military themed website, that doesn't belong in this thread.

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The Brick Rat
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Re: CCC layout

Post by The Brick Rat »

Magnus wrote:
WOW!

If you actually have space for all of this in your car/truck or however you ae planning to transport ths to BrickFest, I would strongly encourage you to bring as much as possible.
I'll be driving up in a minivan, so it's no problem bringing the whole thing.
The CCC display is supposed to be a modular display. and if you layout can be incorporated into it, so much the better.
I can easily make a couple of connector sections so that other people's wall sections can be added on to make a larger town.
You say that there aren't enough buildings to fill your town layout, so I'm assuming you would be OK for other people's MOCs to be put inside your walls in the empty spaces?
It would definately need other people's MOCs to fill it. That is why I was concerned - will there be enough MOCs to fill a town made up of my walls connected to everyone else's.
One thing I'm wondering is you call this a CCC town, but you say it is not compatible with other CCC MOCs. Is this because the walls are a different size?
The walls conform to CCC standards in everything except the connection bricks. Where the CCC standard uses two 1x2 technic bricks with one hole, my walls use one 1x2 technic brick with two holes. The reason for this is my walls are made up of 1x6x5 and 1x2x5 bricks with stone printing (as found in some HP sets - thanks Bricklink, esp. Troy) and in order to keep the printing 'unbroken' along the entire section, the change in connector bricks was necessary.
Also, I have a moat around my town. Instead of being built on one 32x32 green baseplate, my walls are built on two 16x32 baseplates - one green and one blue.
PLEASE fill out the MOC cards on the BrickFest website. :) THis way we will avoid running into "too little space/too few tables" problems.
I will do this today. I will be away from internet access for three weeks soon, so it will be mid July before I'm back online.

Ken
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Glencaer
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Re: CCC layout

Post by Glencaer »

The Brick Rat wrote: It would definately need other people's MOCs to fill it. That is why I was concerned - will there be enough MOCs to fill a town made up of my walls connected to everyone else's.
There will definately be enough city to fill any wall we have. Jason Spears is bringing quite a few houses (something like twenty), I've got quite a few (about ten) and a few other people have committed houses. Wall pieces tend to be where we need help, so bringing this many will help a lot!
The walls conform to CCC standards in everything except the connection bricks. Where the CCC standard uses two 1x2 technic bricks with one hole, my walls use one 1x2 technic brick with two holes. The reason for this is my walls are made up of 1x6x5 and 1x2x5 bricks with stone printing (as found in some HP sets - thanks Bricklink, esp. Troy) and in order to keep the printing 'unbroken' along the entire section, the change in connector bricks was necessary.
Also, I have a moat around my town. Instead of being built on one 32x32 green baseplate, my walls are built on two 16x32 baseplates - one green and one blue.
Okay, perhaps it would be best if you emailed me (lah5980@fsu.edu) exactly what you plan on bringing. Connecting issues aren't important (we can just place a green plate to hold the two pieces together. The moat may cause some minor problems, but I don't expect anything too big. Jason Spears' wall pieces will include some water front as well, so I'm going to try to work the two together.

Closer to BrickFest I'll send out an announcement asking for the total number of wall pieces coming to fest and will create the layout for fest then.

-Lenny
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Post by JPinoy »

Glencaer wrote: Your "Near Future" MOCs are not representations of actual people or technology from any period of time (now or in the past - they are a ficticious concept relating to a imminent future), thus making them science fiction, and therefore 'Space.'
I suppose you know the whole story of Conflict Zone - Global Crisis? Do you know that the story is actually alternate timeline which began to split from our own timeline around 1980, which means there's strong parallels to our own timeline and etc.? Please don't make assumptions about my stories as they far more complex than you can imagine.

Here's a small gist of whats going on just to prove that your assumptions about my theme is way off the mark.

Saddam Hussien (didn't you see his fig?) is power in this story and he manages to conquer all of Iran. Osama Bin Laden dies fighting Saddam's invasion near the Afghan border in the early 90s and gets replaced by the ficticious Wahid Ghazi who happens to be far worse than OBL. With OBL dead there's no 9/11, but other things happen. Also Saudis fall from power when Saddam conquers half of Arabia. US & coalition are more careful as Iraq is more powerful and won't confront him till the mid-90s in this timeline as Iraq manages to make a few nukes as well as a "Scud Storm" launch platform.

With the capture of Saddam in 2004 (what did I say about parallels?) , the Arabian Defense League is created amd is composed of: Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, & Oman (look at the ADL flag's 6 stars). United Republics of Central Asia is also created to defend against Wahid Ghazi's G.I.L.F. and the Novaya Russia.

Soviet Union collapses but you have neo-commies wanting to rebuild it, they call themselves Novaya Russia. NR's emergence prompts some East Asian commie groups to band together and manages to fund themselves well with their commie allies in South America.. they work together to become the Union of Armed Revolutionary Forces.

As for your comment of how my theme has no representations of actual people... you got that old Saddam fig. Megablocks, I've put myself in their as the head of the People's Guard military of the Philippines around 2010. And there's more....

In 2008 the US president is the former US Army Chief (during Clinton administration)... General Shinseki (as a Japanese-American, the first minority president; US public wanted a Democrat again but was still in war with the G.I.L.F. and U.A.R.F. thus the need for a Democrat with military experience and expertize).

Yitzak Rabbin didn't get assasinated in this timeline which is why you have the emergence of the Israel-Palestine Military Alliance in 2013. Arafat is in the theme, as is Tony Blair, General Pervez Musharraf, GWB, Ayatollah Khomeni, Sharon, Putin, and etc. ...... you name it they're there!

As for technology "not being of any time period".....
Ever heard of the M1A2, Al-Khalid, LecLerc, T-72, T-98 tanks?
Real life guns like the M-16, AK-47, G36, MP5, M249?
Shoulder fired weapons like the LAW, SMAW, RPG-7s?
Aircaft like AH-64, Ka-50, Mi-24 Hind helis; and MiG-25, Kfir, Mirage 2000, Jianji-10, F-18 fighter jets?

The so-called "futuristic weapons"..... guess what, the ones Im making are based on REAL WORLD still in development technology like Electro-ThermoChemical guns, Metal Storm technology from Australia, American troops with OICWs, AICWs, the F-22, MiG 1.44, Jianji-14, F-35 JSF, Euro Fighter Typhoon, Su-37 Berkut and etc. Search google.com if you don't believe me nor have heard of these systems before.

Conflict Zone - Global Crisis spans from 1980 to the late 2030's. (No, the world doesn't end!)
Last edited by JPinoy on Mon Jun 28, 2004 3:35 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Magnus
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Re: military theme

Post by Magnus »

JPinoy wrote:

This is why I wanna encourange raising the number of Lego Military fans. True its not something Lego itself developed, but like the Ancients, and Mechas, its a Lego fan created theme. But then there could be a change in Lego's policy, I mean they finally decided to do Mechas (no not Bionicle, REAL mecha) after the great fanfare of Lego Mechas.

Anyhow, I've been contemplating the creation of a Lego Military fansite. Basically a Lego Military version of Classic-Castle.com. A site such as this could encourage the growth of this fan created theme. But I need some allies in this....
I've personally built in the military theme in the past and will hopefully continue to do s in the future and there are plenty of people who build in this theme. At BrickFests past, some of the very most impressive MOCs have been built in the military theme. The fact that lego has chosen never to put out their own military theme doesn't help matters but people are very inventive overall. Have you checked out

http://news.lugnet.com/build/military/ ?

That would be the best place for you to recruit likeminded builders.

Keep in mind that if there seems to be a current dearth of interest in the contemporary military theme, that it may feasibly have to do with the regretable fact that current world events bring the theme of modern war frighteningly close to home for many of us. Many AFOLs will have been personally affected by what is going on in the Middle East now, and some of the more action-inclined builders may feel more comfortable building action related MOCs based firmly in the past. Like for instance CASTLES :)

It is likely that some of the people attending Brickfest will have friends and loved ones in harm's way in the Middle East. Some attendees may be Muslim. Some may have lost friends and loved ones on 9/11. If you are building in a near-future military theme, I would encourage you to keep this in mind in regards to what sort of MOCs you choose to display. People should be able to appreciate impressive military style MOC building without feeling an insensitivity in regards to the very scary things which are very real and are happening today.

I say this not as BrickFest Coordinator, but as an AFOL and a modern military enthusiast who does not see BrickFest as the the right place for bringing up sensitive and controversial topics.

Good luck with your military Lego website!
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JPinoy
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Post by JPinoy »

Thanks Magnus,

Anyhow Im from the Philippines who have our own communist and islamist (not "real" muslims) insurgent problems. My girl is from Israel, we live in a county thats just a few minutes north of New York City. So yeah, we're quite familiar with the scary stuff with regard to what goes on in certain parts of the world.

*added*
The main influence for my military theme is Tom Clancy scenarios, some real world events, and Command & Conquer games. But I do have my own interpretations and predictions as to what can go on in an alternate timeline in this "what-if" theme.

Fear not about the Xinjiang Border Battle scene, as the G.I.L.F. have more in common to the GLA of C&C:Generals than to Al-Qaida or whoever. Besides tons of people play C&C:Generals for cathartic reasons, myself included. Im sure there'll be people who'll like a scene of terrorists getting completed OWNED by brave soldiers.

Its a clean straight up battle, no civilians, cities, or towns. Just the grassy Central Asian steppes and 2 opposing armies.
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Glencaer
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Post by Glencaer »

JPinoy wrote: As for your comment of how my theme has no representations of actual people... you got that old Saddam fig. Megablocks, I've put myself in their as the head of the People's Guard military of the Philippines around 2010. And there's more....
You are using a real name, but in a fictional context and fictional timeline. If I do a story about Alexander the Great, but in this story he achieves immortality and rules the entire earth; does that make my story about someone real? No, I have taken a historical character (real) and made him fictional (false). Your story is interesting, but not very realistic - and either way, the details of it are inconsequential to my argument.

I'm well aware that some of your concepts include contemporary technology, but a look through your BrickShelf folder showed most of what you have built/ is fictionalized.

Either way, this is officially thread-jacking now, please stop.

Can we return to something related to BrickFest?

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Post by JPinoy »

Thread-jacking? Don't blame me, its this guy's fault... http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=807418 :P

No its realistic, just not "accurate". I dunno, maybe the definition I use for realism is more towards the painting/art form definition of realism while you have a different concept.

But back to BrickFest....
I have a question that just recently popped up in my head with regard to MOC displays...

-I was making those MOC description cards in BrickFest.com and noticed the selectable baseplate area of display. I was under the impression they'll provide baseplates for our displays, or do we have to bring our own?

-Is 4 32x32 X 2 32x32 is large enough for a believable battle scene with minifig scale MOCs or should I make the area bigger?
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Magnus
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baseplates

Post by Magnus »

JPinoy and all,
JPinoy wrote: But back to BrickFest....
I have a question that just recently popped up in my head with regard to MOC displays...

-I was making those MOC description cards in BrickFest.com and noticed the selectable baseplate area of display. I was under the impression they'll provide baseplates for our displays, or do we have to bring our own?

-Is 4 32x32 X 2 32x32 is large enough for a believable battle scene with minifig scale MOCs or should I make the area bigger?
There will be hundreds of people at BrickFest and most of them I imgaine will be bringing MOCs of some sort. BrickFest does NOT have thousands of baseplates and will not be providing baseplates for MOCs or individual displays. I know this because I asked about this myself, as I need some extra baseplates for a display I am putting together for the Castle Room, and even as Castle Room coordinator I was told that there simp are no extra baseplates to go aroun. So bring your own, or just set up your display on the table.

I believe that the reason you are asked how many baseplates youe MOCs take up is merely a way to work out how many tables we need per room. One 32 by 32 baseplate is equal to a square foot, and this makes it easyto calculate how much square footage we need in regards to tables.

JPinoy, as for your battle scene, it is impossible to say without seeing what you have. If you have lots of landscaping on baseplates I'd encourage you to take up as much space you you can build. If you are just concerned about placing your figs a significant distance from your tank, I'm not sure you need that much space.
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Post by Formendacil »

Glencaer wrote:Take it this way: Crimson Skies MOCs (of which there are quite a few) belong in the Space room. Crimson Skies is an Alternate Future set in the WW2 era, but supposes that the US collapsed during the Great Depression. This makes the technology they work with ficticious, hence, Scifi (albeit scifi of the past, rather than scifi of the future).

Your "Near Future" MOCs are not representations of actual people or technology from any period of time (now or in the past - they are a ficticious concept relating to a imminent future), thus making them science fiction, and therefore 'Space.'
Just a little question about this: does the Castle room operate along similar lines as the Town room (in other words, does it have to have actually existed in some form or another in REAL history)?

If so, then what happens to the middle ages equivalent of Scifi (FANTASY)?

Just curious! :)
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Post by Glencaer »

JPinoy wrote:No its realistic, just not "accurate". I dunno, maybe the definition I use for realism is more towards the painting/art form definition of realism while you have a different concept.
Think of it this way: non-fiction vs. fiction. Fiction would be your story, non-fiction would Goldstein's Short History of the Middle East.

See the difference?
JPinoy wrote: -I was making those MOC description cards in BrickFest.com and noticed the selectable baseplate area of display. I was under the impression they'll provide baseplates for our displays, or do we have to bring our own?
As Magnus pointed out, yes.
JPinoy wrote: -Is 4 32x32 X 2 32x32 is large enough for a believable battle scene with minifig scale MOCs or should I make the area bigger?
It can be.. it depends on how the battle is depicted and whether you're trying to do an entire battle or just a scene from a battle. (Modern battles have been known to last for days and take up hundreds of square miles).

But scale usually is as important as simple coolness - does it look cool?
Formendacil wrote: Does the Castle room operate along similar lines as the Town room?
No. Fantasy is welcome in the castle room. Both realism and fantasticalism are a part of Castle (on both our site and in the official theme), and it is up to the builder to include elements of both or either.

-Lenny
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JPinoy
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Post by JPinoy »

Thank you for using the right words now. Fiction -vs- non-Fiction.
You really can't say that my story is not "realistic" because even training missions the military uses for its soldiers has fictional countries & character, but uses them in a realistic way. Eg: special ops has to contact and befriend a tribal warlord and fight a local terrorist group of a fictional country.
Who's to say that what happens in CZ-GC can't happen in the real world? Personally... there are some elements in this story that is quite frightening since its VERY possible to the point that there's even some evidence of those things in the real world.
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Post by wlister »

Hey JP, This is getting tiresome, isn't this thread supposed to be about the Castle room at Brickfest? Forgive me if I'm out of line, but the thread is waaay off topic. None of this has to do with displays anymore. Other questions/topics about Brickfest would probably serve all of us better if they were over at Lugnet. That is what Lugnet is for. :wink:

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