BrickCon08: Planning Thread

[Robin Hood]

Dan, last year we did communicate outside C-C, via e-mail, but as others have suggested, there doesn't appear to be any good reason to do so this year, so I'm not aware of any other communications taking place outside this forum. No reason to feel left out.

Did I say I felt that? (Checks post) I guess it might have been interpreted that way. Left out is not how I feel, rather..........(thinks long and hard for the right word) rather like I am entering a strange new world and am unsure of which to proceed. Did that make any sense?

That said, some planning for the con does inevitably happen at SEALUG meetings (the "host LUG" here in Seattle), but the only thing that happened at the last meeting was that Thomas reminded everybody there that he wasn't taking on the Castle Coordinator role this year. That spot's still up for grabs, if anybody's interested.

So I was right. Cool.

Yes, the display we're talking about here is the display at the con. It's assumed that most Castle contributors to that display will be C-C members (though we're always happily surprised when someone new shows up at the con with a huge section or castle). Thus the con planning happening here, rather than elsewhere.

So, (forgive, I am being dense today) more or less all the castle Mocs that will be shown at the con will part of this display, baring anything that isn't compatable?

Hope that helps!

Very much so, I appreciate it.

Oh, and we're even stranger in person...

Gee, thats so comforting.

Dan

[plums_deify]

So, (forgive, I am being dense today) more or less all the castle Mocs that will be shown at the con will part of this display, baring anything that isn't compatable?

Yep. If you bring it, we'll make it fit. Always works out that way.

Oh, and we're even stranger in person...

Gee, thats so comforting.

And Dan, you have noooooooooo idea....

[BreadMan]

Yep. If you bring it, we'll make it fit. Always works out that way.

Don't take that to mean you have to have your mocs be part of the display of course. We always have plenty of standalone stuff as well, I'd say usually about 20-40% standalone and 60-80% combined display. People seem to like putting stuff in the combined display (it's a lot of fun obviously) but imho the standalone stuff always gets more noticed.

Rocko, 5' is pretty standard for display width at our previous shindigs and Josh said his section is also going to be 5' wide so you should be fine. I think the biggest we've ever done was 6' 8" (8 baseplates) at PDX 07 but BrickCon was 5' the past two years (I checked the old layout plans).

[Robin Hood]

So, (forgive, I am being dense today) more or less all the castle Mocs that will be shown at the con will part of this display, baring anything that isn't compatable?

Yep. If you bring it, we'll make it fit. Always works out that way.

Oh, and we're even stranger in person...

Gee, thats so comforting.

And Dan, you have noooooooooo idea....

Thanks. I think.

Dan

[RebelRock]

Ok, I've got my final dimensions laid out. My dio will be 144x144 studs(nine 48x48 baseplates in a square). It's Base8 compatible and the edges are the BPB standard.

I'm curious how many others will be using BPB or the single thickness baseplate method.

[BreadMan]

I'm curious how many others will be using BPB or the single thickness baseplate method.

We usually try to aim for as much BPB as possible and bump up anything that's not. If it gets to a point where that's not really feasible there's usually enough green brick lying around to make some transitions for baseplate level areas, and really once everything is laid out with figs and trees a 1 brick transition isn't as noticeable as you'd think.

Rocko, are you going to have any base8 features that continue from your edges or is it just gonna be green grass on all sides? It's sounding like our display is gonna be huge this year. Kick Megablocks.

[RebelRock]

I'll have two paths. One on the front and another on the right side. My body of water is self contained.

[The Blue Knight]

Boy, forget to check a forum in a while and you people get dilusions of grandeur! Wait, I have those too, never mind.

So have we come to any underatnding about the shape and size of the display? I like the displays where we can go (retreat) behind. Either against a wall like BC 06, or U shape like BC 07. I was so swamped with the stuff for the latter con that I just didn't have as much time to hang at the display. Of course an island arrangement does give nice 360 views. OK, so I guess it doesn't matter.

This has been a challenging year work wise, and I have gotten at my Lego only a handful of times, so I have little to bring right now. I hope to remedy that with a re-vamped Helm's Deep, and even (unlikley) an Orthanc. I have been making some custom figs though and I could bring a lot if figs.

Bread-the classic build does indeed sound interesting. My 29 year-old castle (the one I showed you last year) has been disintegrating bit by bit over the winter, but the yellow parts could make a nice classic-era original MOC. Let me know if you have put any more specific thought to it.

Another thought; several themes have done collections of original sets. BF07 saw the Classic Space fly-in, and last BC had the Pirate Sail-in. Are we up to a Classic Castle Ride-in? Or March-in, or some such thing?

BTW Ted, I like Brickington as a town name.

Richard

[Remyth]

An update on me:

At this point it looks like there is about a 75% chance of me making it to NWBrickCon this year (a lot better than ever before!) I've been bagging and begging, and I might have broken my mom down a bit. Lets all hope!

If I can make it, my main contribution will be a castle (of one form or another, not sure exactly what yet) on something about 2 32x32 baseplates by 2 32x32 baseplates. It might be coastal, and it might not, it depends on what the layout needs. I don't what to commit before I'm sure that I'm going.

I'll be able to build a few buildings for the town, for sure.

Another thing: is anybody interested in doing another fig trade, like the one we did for Brickfest in '07? I'd be willing to put it together, and if I can't make it (which I'm beginning to really hope I might be able to), Chris can kinda over-see the transactions at the Con.

Thanks!

[BreadMan]

I dunno how they do things up there in Oregon, but if I remember right back when I played soccer there was usually one or two more people than the team actually needed in case of special conditions like someone is sick or, say, needs to go have a blast with a bunch of fellow lego enthusiats for the weekend. Tell your mom I said to get yerself up to Seattle.

[Remyth]

I dunno how they do things up there in Oregon, but if I remember right back when I played soccer there was usually one or two more people than the team actually needed in case of special conditions like someone is sick or, say, needs to go have a blast with a bunch of fellow lego enthusiats for the weekend. Tell your mom I said to get yerself up to Seattle.

I told my mom you said that, and even showed her your post. She started laughing, so I think she might be giving way. *knock on wood*

Maybe a petition would help...

In Christ,

[J1A3L5]

Hi Everyone -

As usual I'll be there, but I don't think I'll be contributing to the castle display this year.

-John.

[castlebuilder100]

Darn John, I just love your castles.

[JoshWedin]

Okay, I have some news! At the SeaLUG meeting yesterday (in case someone isn't aware, the Seattle Lego Users Group organizes BrickCon), it was decided that Andrew (aka Dunechaser) and I will be the co-coordinators of the Castle layout this year. Andrew will attend any meetings that I can't make and I will handle the online planning. So, its official, we now have a voice in the planning of our area.

I have seen a preliminary layout of the Con and Castle will be immediately inside the front entrance. We will be the first thing that people see as they come in, during the public hours. Very sweet. Our area is pretty big. We have about nearly double the table area that we had last year.

That's all for now. I will be getting the exact dimensions of everything after a bit. Just wanted you all to know what is going on.

Josh

[Dunechaser]

Maybe a petition would help...

*signs petition*