BrickFest 2005

[Magnus]

Hi all,

Quick update on BrickFest stuff:

I'm very grateful to Edward Kohl, who has kindly volunteered to help out with the Castle Room. If there are others who want to help, please don't by shy about getting in touch with me personally - just send me a PM.

I've been conducting a thread on Lugnet.castle and over here on the gaming board as well, and we are looking into the possibility of having some kind of gaming as part of the Castle Room activities. BrickQuest looks interesting. provided there is enough interest and space I'd really like this to become part of the Castle Room this year.

I'm excited about this and have already gotten some useful feedback and ideas. I think at this point there seems to be lots of interest in expanding and improving the communal building display, so that will of course be an important part of the room.

cheers

Magnus

[JPinoy]

How about Lego Chess? It can be done in several scales...
-small: 1 minifig = 1 chess piece
-large: uses 16x16 plates with minifigs squads and small buildings as rooks

[Magnus]

I think that would be a lot of fun, Lenny (and by all means, others) , do let me know as your thoughts on that develop.

Is BrickQuest something that would be cool to do on the public day or not? LEGO chess strikes me as something that might be fun to do on the public day, let me know what you think.

Magnus

[CatsToy]

After the last BrickFest I built a jousting track using technic chain powered by a crank as a test run. The lead of the horse was attached to the chain via Lego rubber band.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
(C_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ) C = crank

The crank was in the way of the lance so I took the MOC apart with the idea of raising the ground up and embedding a motor below ground. I would like to hide the chain/gears and use magnets below the playing field. I have not tried this yet but it would look cleaner if it works.

Ed

[SavaTheAggie]

I like the magnet idea. If you built brick-built horses with a fake barding that dragged the ground, you could hide the magnet under there. You could even hide minifig car wheels under there to help with performance.

On the underside of the raised playing field, you could have two rail road tracks, each with one train motor with a boom and a magnet attached. With the booms, you could suspend the magnets closer to center than you could if they were simply lifted above the two motors (since the LEGO train track would prevent it).

It'd be just like the train racers that were at Brickfest '03, except instead of head to head racing, it'd be head-on racing. You could design it so that the booms lead the horses to pass mere centimeters from each other.

Then you'd place your knight on the horse and a third person would count down to when you turned the train regulator switch.

To make the knight's fall off better, you could brick build their legs into the horse (or no legs at all) and attach the knight's torso by means of a jumper plate. The one stud holding the torso on would be a weak connection, encouraging a knock off blow (and only half a knight lieing on the ground would make for a satisfyingly gory outcome).

I'd also like to say that going to Brickfest this year is looking to be a greater and greater possibility for me. On top of that, if I play my cards right, I may be even able to build and bring the giant castle I've planned. I think I could build it in three months time...

Of course with a 144+ x 144+ stud footprint, Magnus might tell me and my castle to get lost and find another room And if I drive, then that would mean I could bring the red dragon and the temple and the griffon and the treant and the...

--Anthony

[Glencaer]

Interesting idea Tony - however, one of my hopes was that rather than pre-made knights, people could bring their own knights and joust them. I'd prefer for the entire knight to sit on the horse, rather than just the torso.

A brickbuilt horse is seeming more and more like what I want to do. Building Barding is an especially good idea. I'm definately going to look into that. I'm thinking I'm going to use pull back motors because they are the easiest to deal with - and it adds a bit of user input into how the joust goes - pull back a lot to have the knight go fast or pull back a little and have him go slow?

I've enjoyed reading this discussion! lots of good ideas for dynamic display items.

Speaking of magnets - has anyone thought about using magnets underneith a baseplate as a way of simulating minifigs wandering around a village?

-Lenny

[Magnus]

Lots of cool ideas about jousting here, very cool. Magnets, wheels, technic motors, chains etc...

Anthony, hope you can make it! Last year we did have a few big castles and I think people liked them a lot! I really hope not to have to turn anyone's stuff away, but the earlier you register (with MOC cards of course) the better chances you have. If you aren't sure if you can finish it in time, how about beginning with the inner ward and bringing just that if you don't finish everything?

Magnus

[CatsToy]

Lenny,
Check out this link, http://news.lugnet.com/announce/moc/?n=2566
It is a town setting with minifigs wandering about with the use of magnets underneath the baseplate.
They even have a video of the testing of the magnets and one of the results.

Ed

[Glencaer]

Thanks CatsToy,
I've seen that pic before, and it is impressive. What first turned me on to the idea was this: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=920218 and http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=920224 , those are pics from a DixieLUG meeting I went to. I forget the guy's name, but they were uber cool. But they also seemed very simple to handle.

-Lenny

[Sir Dillon]

Sorry for reviving a older thread, but wondering; is there an age limit to Brick Fest?

[Glencaer]

You have to be over 18 to attend by yourself. If a parent/guardian comes with you (as in, is with you the whole weekend)you can come but you should be older than 13. BrickFest is primarily for adults, and there isn't much directed towards the younger audience.

[Magnus]

Nice to see this thread getting some action again after drifting for a while. I trust that Christina Hitchcock's recent revelations about the very special guests this year have many of you looking forward to August even more:

http://news.lugnet.com/announce/?n=2938

While I'm at this, I'll put another shout out, does anyone have any cool ideas for contests and competitions?

Certainly, there will be awards in many categories and I encourage everyone to enter the intra-theme micro and vig competitions:

http://news.lugnet.com/events/brickfest/?n=3065

But if you have any ideas for a Castle Room-specific competition, feel free to share. Last year we had the My Own Castle Competition, which I think was a relative success (it certainly spawned someexcellent MOCs) although there was some confusion, for which I apologize, as to the size constraints - which resulted in many votes going to castles that weren't entered in the first place.

Of course I welcome people to build their own castles again, the Castle Room wouldn't really be complete without a bunch of crenelated masterpieces.

Competition-wise though, I'd like to do something different this year. I've heard about some great MOCs being built as we speak, but it would be great to have a competition - especially one that might draw a crowd. I may have an idea or two myself, but I want to hear form you guys before I decide for sure.

There was also some interest in gaming in the Castle Room and once again I welcome gaming, but I do need someone to take a lead in organizing that, whether we're talking about BricksQuest, BrickWars or anything else. So if there is a gamesmaster out there somewhere who is interested, please get in touch!

Other ideas for the Castle Room are of course welcome and encouraged.

[venvorskar]

I have never been to Brickfest but it sounds exiting!
I dought I will be able to go because of the cost but I might.

[SavaTheAggie]

Contest Ideas?

Texlug had a Medieval Siege Engine contest that was a lot of fun. I ended up winning third place, I think. The rules were pretty simple, and we had some pretty awesome MOCs show up.

Trebuchets ruled the day, of course.

http://www.texlug.org/fall2003/index.html

So we could do that if we wanted. The rules are there on the Texlug page.

The setup was pretty simple. MOCs, Targets, Measuring tape. Tim's floating arm trebuchet must have gone over 30 feet, it was most impressive.

Given that, we'd also need a long, empty hallway. But if memory serves correctly, there was one right behind next to the castle room that you could use to get to the space room. Heck, we could use the siege engines to defend against the evil spacers!

That or we could just find a good place outside or in the lobby.

Just an idea.

--Anthony

[quiksand]

I was wondering if anyone could post a link with event info. ticket price, directions, event schedule, lodging, information such as this. Any would be helpful. I am coming from Utah, so this is not just a drive down the street for me. Also, should those attending plan to see other attractions in the area? Is Joe Blow AFOL invited to all three days, or would I be considered general public, and not invited for all of the events? Is there enough to do to fill all three days if I am invited for the three days? In general, I need a lot more information. My wife lives for traveling, and other then Jeep Jamboree, this is one of the few things that I would want to go some where for myself. I usually don't get out much.