AFOLCON and The LEGO Show Q&A

Huw

Use this discussion to ask questions about these events. Warren, one of the organisers, will answer them.

warrenelsmore

Hello!

andhe

Is there one planned for 2012? (Is this the sort of question you mean?)

drdavewatford

No - I suspect Huw was probably thinking of questions where the answer isn't already slapped on the Brickset front page....

;-)

Huw

^ Quite!

To get us started here are two I received by email earlier:

1. Is it £60 including access on all 5 days?

2. I think I'd want to attend all 5 days but not sure if I'd have anything worth exhibiting. Do you have to exhibit?

andhe

Where on the frontpage? These type of things should really be made more obvious... Serves me right for accessing directly to the forum :p

Matthew

Where on the frontpage?

http://brickset.com/news/article/?ID=1470

Huw

Bloody 'ell, is the AFOLCon logo not big enough for you, andhe? :-)

andhe

I was joking... :p

Here's my question though:

Will there be sessions in the evenings? And Will evening passes be available? (Rather than taking two days off work).

warrenelsmore

Sorry for the delay! We spent all of yesterday driving from Scotland to Belgium on the way to the AFOL weekend in Skaerbaek (guess what we're doing today!). So...

1. Is it £60 including access on all 5 days?
> Yes. If you register as a full delegate you get access to everything. All the talks/workshops/goodies/LDC trip/public day access - everything. If you only want to display over the weekend, you can register as an exhibitor - but then you'll miss out on all the 'inside' info of the convention days.

2. I think I'd want to attend all 5 days but not sure if I'd have anything worth exhibiting. Do you have to exhibit?
> No! In fact, lots of our delegates from last year didn't exhibit. Whether you want to do that or not is entirely upto you.

Will there be sessions in the evenings? And Will evening passes be available? (Rather than taking two days off work).
> We're are looking at this for the weekend. We're hoping to setup some public sessions on the Saturday and Sunday evenings. Those would be open to any full Delegate, exhibitor, or AFOL that just attended the LEGO Show on that day. We don't have any final details yet, and they certainly won't go into the detail of the convention days - but they would be open to more people and would give you a taster of what the Thursday/Friday are like.

Hopefully that makes sense! Keep the questions coming!

andhe

Question: What was in the conference goody bag last year?

drdavewatford

^ And more to the point, what'll be in it next year ?

:-)

LostInTranslation

^ Personally I'm hoping for something Star Wars related, seeing as AFOLCon coincides with May 4th :-)

warrenelsmore

@Andhe - last year the goody bag (which itself was a custom printed shoulder bag) included...

1Kg bulk LEGO (all new 2011 parts)
A conference badge and AFOLCON / LEGO Show lanyard
A conference 1x8 printed brick
A polybag (about half of which were Star Wars)
A set of Space Police stickers

The final contents of the 2012 bag depends on what we can get of course! But it will contain at least the Kilo of LEGO, bag, badge, lanyard and printed brick.

andhe

Thanks! Sounds good!

Redbullgivesuwind

I was thinking of putting up a historical scene as a possible exhibit are there any rules as to whats okay. i was thinking a crusaders battle

Jabba_the_Taff

I'll find out tomorrow if I can go. Will the lego shop have the double vip points promotion?

warrenelsmore

@Redbullgivesuwind - There are some rules, but not many. As a LEGO supported event, anything on display does have to follow the 'brand values' so there are some things excluded (LEGO terrorists for example!). However, historical scenes are generally OK and a crusaders battle certainly would be.

@Jabba_the_Taff - re: VIP points, at the moment we don't really know. That would be handled directly by the LEGO brand store though, so it would be completely up to them I'm afraid.

stagus

I have never 'done' a show before. I have all the modulars except market street. Is it ok to display a high street scene? I am in the process of designing my own modular to add in to the mix?

stagus

Hi....never done a show before but I was thinking about doing a street scene as I have all but one of the modulars. Would that be ok?

warrenelsmore

@Stagus - I think you might have enquired on our website too? No problem! While we certainly wouldn't say 'no' to a display with official sets in, it would be great to see your MOC's mixed in with them too to make a really great display.
What we would love is something that inspires the public. So a whole street of modulars, with roads, cars, extra buildings etc would be great - just like this display http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=4785792

The best thing to do is to register on our website (www.afolcon.com) and let us know what you're planning. Don't worry if you don't know everything yet, you can always change it later or chat with us about it :-)

stagus

Ok....I've registered.....it will be a street scene (if accepted) with modulars + moc(s). Kinda odd for me to now get nervous (a normally fairly sane 42 year old). MOC design started.......oh lordy.....May will no doubt rush round.

bluemoose

^ you'll be fine; there's plenty of experienced MOC'ers in the UK who'll be happy to help if you want any advice or encouragement ... [cough] ... http://www.brickish.org ... ;-)

stagus

@bluemoose.....ta, I will have to change my build order now too.....just happen to know the Death Star is landing on Xmas day. That and maybe the Imperial Shuttle (selling my golf gear is sponsoring this I might add). Anyhow, currently building the Pet Shop to complete my run of buildings!!

stagus

Alright....ideas for the parade, superhero float, marching band, space/alien float & pirates float. I an thinking maybe some srilt walkers too. Any comments / ideas?

cavegod

Having watched the power snooker i have to say Event city is bloody huge!

atkinsar

Better get cracking on that life-sized AT-ST then cavegod.

warrenelsmore

Well, we're not using all of it! Not this year anyway ;-)

But yes, it's seriously massive. They did the X-Factor Manchester auditions there too.

Matthew

^ I don't expect it's cheap either? I went to the Tutankhamen thing there, and that only used half of it, but was enormous....

warrenelsmore

Matthew - no, it's not, nothing on this scale is cheap, sadly. And actually Tutankhamen only used 1/4 of the space!

Matthew

^ *Gulps*

How much are you using?

warrenelsmore

We've got halls 1 and 2 - which is about 6000 sqm. I didn't actually book both halls, apparently it was a 'book one, get another free' type deal!

So, for anyone who is concerned about there not being enough space for their mocs.... there really is nothing to worry about!

andhe

Cool, as I was hoping to bring my 1:1 scale sand crawler I've been working on for 15 years :p lol.

cavegod

be good to get that minifig scale Tantive IV Craig built??

legofan101

Hi am thinking of going to the Manchester 2012 Lego conference and would like to hear from anyone who went this year as to how it went.

warrenelsmore

Well, I would reply - but seeing as I run the show my answer might be a little biased! However, James Shields reviewed last years' show for 'Brick Issue' - the Brickish Association club magazine. There's a PDF of it here: http://brickish.org/bi.aspx

Si_UKNZ

can you take any kids to the event, e.g. babies/toddlers?

warrenelsmore

Si - not to the Thursday/Friday of AFOLCON I'm afraid. We want to keep it an adult-focussed event.
If you're going to exhibit over the weekend though, yes - your* kids are certainly welcome for those days.

*I have to say 'your' kids just to make sure that you are their legal parent or guardian. Otherwise it gets all sorts of complicated. And to point out that 1 exhibitor bringing along 20 kids it's really fair..... it has been tried!

ash

Last years show was what got me back into Lego! I didn't go but I was at the museum with my kid at the time and got really jealous of everyone walking around with all this Lego stuff! This year I think I'll go not sure about the whole thing or just the public days yet (I'm not a fully fledged MOC-building AFOL so don't know if I'd find the talks interesting or not),

It's a great location for it though.

Speaking of young kids is there any particular public day that's better for them than any other in terms of what is going on? Likewise which was the least busiest last year?

MinifigsMe

Hey @warrenelsmore,
just wondering what sort of thing is suitable or not? I've been making a load of custom sports figs, mostly roller derby and making a track to put them on. As far as Moc's goes it's incredibly basic, though I am going to add more to it. From my point of view it would probably be a great way of advertising my figs, but I'm not sure if it really fits with what you want to do? Might not interest lego purists!

Another brickset member (who might change his mind, so I won't out him!) is considering doing a football stadium using my figs too. Would a little sports area be of interest or not? cheers!

warrenelsmore

@ash - there's not any particular day that's busier or quieter really. But as with most shows, you'll find things will be calmed at the start or the end of the day.

@Savage_Steel - Well...... It depends on what you call 'custom figs' really. Our contract with LEGO stipulates that we 'Your display must contain only LEGO elements' and technically that extends to custom-modeled figures with clay etc too. Having said that, you'll remember Carl Geatrixs' display last year uses alot of model railway accessories and LEGO loved it.

Really, the decision point is if the public are going to think they are looking at LEGO elements, or if they obviously aren't. I'm sure the standard will be fine, that won't be a concern!

MinifigsMe

Cheers for that warren, they're completely lego, just with added decals and perhaps some paint.
Like I say, the moc isn't much, as a derby track is fairly simple, but I plan to add a balcony, changing rooms, more market stalls etc...
Think this should link to some pics:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.183280968438727.28350.183256265107864&type=3&l=e0e61c5db6

warrenelsmore

Looks fine to me - can't wait to see it! :-)

andhe

Is the Brickset discount just for the AFOLCON or for the legoshow as well? Doesn't seem to be working for me (sad face).

princedraven

I can't register at all, tried paying with PayPal or credit card both do nothing when clicking the link (using Safari if that matters)

warrenelsmore

@andhe - the Brickset discount is just for AFOLCON, but it should be working.

@Ppprincedraven - I've just tested it with Safari and don't see any problems. You'll need to accept cookies, but nothing more than that. Drop me an email to: [email protected] and I'll see what's going on.

warrenelsmore

An update - I've had more feedback that the form doesn't work in some cases. If you have that problem, try http://www.regonline.com/afolcon2012 - which takes you directly to the registration site. That seems to fix it for most people.

andhe

Thanks warren, was just trying to buy lego show tickets so that explains why the double discount wasn't working!

princedraven

Thanks Warren all booked :)

brickstories

Wife has just bought me a weekend ticket woohoo!!!! now I just need to find somewhere to stay............

warrenelsmore

@minifig_erik - there are hotel recommendations on www.afolcon.com, but I'd be quick - I've heard some of the allocations are running out already!