General Fairy Bricks Discussion

SirKevbags

Although not a huge fan of general discussion threads personally it has been pointed out to us that we have not been keeping the Forum updated enough with general Fairy activities. This hasn't been by accident, it was felt that reporting every donation etc may be considered a little spammy so perhaps containing things within this thread is the way to go. The main source of our updates and communication tends to be our Facebook page. Lets try it and see.

So where better to start than Friday when there were things happening in West Yorkshire and London. Firstly in Huddersfield we had another person taking part in our Virtual 5K Run (you pay £5 and run, walk, cycle, swim, waddle or anything in between at your own pace and are then sent a medal and printed brick, additional external sponsorship is optional.) Well when I say person, I actually mean cat. Huddersfield Railway Station has a rather popular cat living there called Felix so it was thought that we could use a tracking device to monitor her steps with her Facebook fans providing sponsorship. We built a LEGO version of her to celebrate her involvement. It has proven to be a great success with over £3000 raised in voluntary sponsorship and an appearance on the BBC Website :-) @MinifigsMe was there as MC while ably assisted by @CoraHarrison and her partner Helen.





While all that was happening ooooop north I had ventured south to join forces with nine other Fairies (correction, that should have been nine but we had to drop to eight because some fellow by the name of @Huw didn't arrive until 4pm when we were packing up!) so we could visit the Royal London Hospital armed with £2400 of sets for a stay and play day. Inspired by our partnership with Goldman Sachs and unlike our regular hospital donations the days are built around us being there from early morning to mid afternoon and building sets with children. That's a mix of inpatients and outpatients who have been invited along for the day. More of these days throughout the country would be wonderful but sadly the number of hospitals with a large enough play space is limited. I'm sure Forum Members @LostInTranslation, @drdavewatford, @Shib and @caperberry who were all part of the team would agree that it was a day well spent! Not all of the sets were given out on the day and the rest remain with the hospital Play Specialists to be used as they see fit.



So that's the near past taken care of. On the horizon we have a trips to Skaerbaek, STEAM, Dubai and Brick Birmingham. The Big Raffle will return in November and the hospital donations will keep happening. If you have any questions feel free to ask them here or drop me a PM. We are always looking for people to get more involved, especially with events and would love to hear from you if you have a fundraising idea or would like to be involved with a donation etc.

 

snowhitie

Great to hear some more about the events. I'm not on Facebook so I appreciate this write-up.

If there is anything I can do administration- wise from a distance, always willing to help.

LostInTranslation

I definitely think this is a great idea to keep us updated on Fairy missions!

Felix is doing a grand job for you, good on her! 

I was really happy to do my part in being involved at the Royal London last week, it was a very good day, most definitely well spent. I'd happily do it again (though I've nearly used up all my holiday until 2017 now :-( ) 

I'm already planning what to donate for the Big Raffle in November. Maybe I should find a Big prize worthy of the event? Hmmm...  And perhaps a few little things too as I never can resist adding extras! :-) 
Also must start thinking of what the brand new 2016 totalizer will look like! 

Hurray for Fairy Bricks! 

snowhitie

@starwars4ever as @LostInTranslation mentioned above, in November there is going to be a big raffle for Fairy Bricks, who provide sick kids with Lego sets, so a great cause.So you'll be able to take part in the excitement then ;)

Legopants

What a lovely looking pussy! Good luck, Felix!

I'm not a Facebooker either, so I look forward to reading the updates posted here :-)

Looking forward to seeing the FB crew at this year's STEAM and can't wait for the FB Raffle in November - see what I can dig out as a prize bundle.

SirKevbags

This is kind of after the fact but it might make you chuckle. You have no idea how long this took to shoot............

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhJQNkcG9cY

Paperballpark

^ are Mark and Fly so bad at learning their lines that you had to do that many takes? ;)

Coyotelily

Saving up for my big raffle tickets, had so much fun with the last one - trying to think of a rarer set I can donate, sure I have something stashed somewhere- question is where ?

LostInTranslation

@Coyotelily - will Linda be partaking again too? :-) 

Edit -  am I right in thinking it was your friend Linda who swapped the Mark Stafford model for a key chain? If not my comment makes no sense at all!! 

stlux

Not on Facebook either, so echoing other people that it will be great to read about what's going on in Fairyland here.
Looking forward to the November raffle!

Coyotelily

@LostInTranslation yes that's right, we still laugh about it now, to be honest I think she's looking forward to the raffle this year, and she's lucky enough to get another winner, unlike me !

BooTheMightyHamster

I don't do Facebook either, so lovely to hear what the Fairy Bricks gang have been up to. Top work, folks!

Fantastic to hear that the raffle is making a return.  I'm sure I've got one or two interesting things I can put up as prizes.

/starts saving for tickets

bendybadger

BooTheMightyHamster said:

/starts saving for tickets

Maybe @SirKevbags should start shaving for tickets.  Imagine how much he could raise by shaving the hairy fairy beard off?

GothamConstructionCo

bendybadger said:

BooTheMightyHamster said:

/starts saving for tickets

Maybe @SirKevbags should start shaving for tickets.  

For a moment I thought you were going all Sean Connery on us @bendybadger :o)

SirKevbags

bendybadger said:

Maybe @SirKevbags should start shaving for tickets.  Imagine how much he could raise by shaving the hairy fairy beard off?

An extremely dangerous suggestion.........

SirKevbags

Felix has completed her 5K. There were some problems with the tracking device (she refused to wear it!) but station staff have been keeping a close eye to monitor her steps. To match her 5K walk she has also raised over £5000 in voluntary sponsorship and introduced Fairy Bricks to a whole different group of people. So grand job all round.



The only slight negative is that due to all the extra attention and treats, she has gained a little weight so is now on a strict diet!

LostInTranslation

Well done paw-some gorgeous Felix! 

Legopants

LostInTranslation said:

Well done paw-some gorgeous Felix! 

Purr-fect! 

snowhitie

Well done Felix, at least she will have enough warmth to get her through winter then ;)

Legoboy

Wish I were a cat.  Wish I had four legs.  :)

Good job Felix.

bendybadger

^if you were a cat you would just have 2 dodgy knees instead of the one.  

Legoboy

It appears I have two dodgy ones so at least I'd have two decent ones as back up.

Calv

THere's an article in the latest Rail magazine about the exploits of Felix and Sir Kev. Very good read.

bendybadger

I was about to do a 5K walk on Friday and hoped to tie into the Fairy Bricks 5K and follow in Felix's footsteps (not literally as walking Huddersfield station would be boring) but I have just found out that the event is completed.

Will walk it anyway and try and raise some cash for fairy bricks. 5K I can manage 100K just seems silly :)

SirKevbags

@bendybadger Sorry about that. I think something similar will happen again. Something Christmas related has been discussed or it might be into 2017. The medals have been very popular! 

SirKevbags

Great work today from @Kevin_Hyatt and his good lady Jen as they visited Bluebell Wood Childrens Hospice. The funding for this one has been generated from Kevin and other members of the LUG in Sheffield at various events and meetings throughout the year. They are already on their way to funding a second delivery somewhere. Fantastic work folks!

Legopants

@SirKevbags - it's November! Any news regarding this year's FB MegaRaffle?

bandit778

In anticipation of the up and coming Fairy Bricks Raffle, I thought I would check out the 2014 raffle thread (Link below for newer members that, like myself were not about at the time).
What started out as a brief look to see what sort of thing to expect - led into reading through of all 42 pages of the thread as it's very addictive reading and bloody hilarious in places.

Now looking forward to this event even more and hoping that the totals can be beaten again by the ever increasing Brickset community.

http://bricksetforum.com/discussion/15445/fairy-bricks-the-big-raffle-draw-now-complete/p1

catwrangler

I'm glad you posted that link, @bandit778 - so lovely to see the hospitals receiving the Lego! :) 

SirKevbags

An important day, our first collaboration with LEGO themselves.

messy

Nice tea shirt!

SirKevbags

@pricey73 Leading the team at Alder Hey today in Liverpool. And he is a pretty decent taxi driver to!

SirKevbags

A couple of lovely visits to round things out for 2016. Manchester and Birmingham, identical donations and not a licensed set in sight!

CCC

You might need to start supplying storage cabinets with the donations :-)

SirKevbags

As silly as it sounds that's why for a multi ward place, £2400 of sets at RRP is the maximum we currently donate because of basic problems like storage.

SirKevbags

As the picture says! We really need to build a Jason. First person to name them correctly with their Brickset Forum name from left to right will win a prize!

Legoboy

Very good.  :)  merry Christmas.

@jujem71, @MinifigsMe, @SirKevbags, @EdDiment; @cheshirecat,

SirKevbags

That is the correct answer, well done. However the use of the semi colon after Ed's name does however invalidate your entry. Sorry @Legoboy but rules is rules ;-)

Legoboy

That's a mark on your screen.  ;)

Daft thing is, I get that sometimes when pushing spacebar after pasting text.  No idea how or why.

flump

Since @legoboy is illiterate, here's my guess, with no punctuation.

@jujem71  @MinifigsMe  @SirKevbags  @EdDiment  @cheshirecat

sirrich69

Well in that case

@jujem71 (Julie), @MinifigsMe (Caroline), @SirKevbags (Kev), @EdDiment (Ed), @cheshirecat (Martin)

and no semicolon in sight.

snowhitie

Not sure if you were joking or not @SirKevbags :) Or are you sending a prize to @legoboy and  @flump?

Nice looking figs!

Legopants

Who's the ugly one in the middle? :-)

SirKevbags

This is very unfortunate but we have reason to believe there could be a duel entry. Only a thorough and full investigation can uncover this ;-) But as @Huw is sunning himself it will have to wait.

@sirrich69 if only you had not attempted to add real names, you have a spelling mistake there ;-)

@Legopants you're not wrong on that and could likely do with a beard increase! 

Legoboy

Legopants said:

Who's the ugly one in the middle? :-)

Take that back.  The one in the middle's my favourite.  Absolutely love him.

CCC

SirKevbags said:

This is very unfortunate but we have reason to believe there could be a duel entry. 

Swords at dawn or pistols at dusk?

Calv

^ Flick fire missiles at noon!

Bumblepants

SirKevbags

@Bumblepants I share your frustration, we all do :( I continue to hit brick walls though with payment processing (this is despite being sent the correct and relevant paperwork on several occasions)

It's even more annoying when the Brickpicker thing is going on but they are operating under US law which is different to the UK which appears to throw the likes of paypal and stripe :(

I could fire it up in a half arsed fashion, gifted paypal payments etc, it's how this entire thing started after all but there is to much at stake now in regards to the organisation to take that approach.

LostInTranslation

Well as soon as you are ready @SirKevbags rest assured we will be buying tickets by the dozen! 

In the mean time, Fairy fans can plan their Fairy Friday cake sales! 
I've had to switch mine to Friday 3rd March due to a clash with another charity event at work but am already thinking about what to make and how to encourage even more involvement at work. 

Bumblepants

I understand, I just got excited thinking about it.