AFOLCon 2011 - How did it go?

Legoboy

I've provided a link of most of the photos I took:-

http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/sets/72157626508828907/

Arrived at 9.50 on the Sunday and waited for the museum staff to unlock the doors. When they did, there was a mad rush through the museum and up the stairs to stand in line to gain entry to to the exhibition. Whereas what I saw was good - especially the UCS AT-AT, Slave 1, Westminster Abbey and St. Pancras Station, there weren't as many designers attending as I'd expected. In the 'History of Lego' exhibition, they had my Eiffel Tower and Taj on display as well as the Statue of Liberty which made me very jealous since I long for that one. I'm not sure it would have been there for tomorrows visitors had a staff member not been watching over it. :-)

There was a lady displaying her own complete range of POTC. Alongside them were a handful of Alien Conquest sets which had been provided by Lego. Some of the AC sets were incomplete and if tempted to, the POTC lady had been instructed not to open the sealed boxes behind them since they were yet to be released.

The bricklink stores I thought were not so good imo. Minifigforlife wasn't bad - they had a second hand Enzo for £60 or so on my first visit which had gone an hour later :o(. The other store on the other hand had the usual odds and sods but what I couldn't understand was why they were selling current retail sets for 20% over the rrp. Or rather I could understand it - the not so 'LEGO- educated' parents were buying them for their kids....a lot of it too! The same sets were selling in the LEGO store at rrp so I guess the parents would have been miffed had they realised afterwards.

All in all a good day and what I saw impressive, but a little disappointed with the limited number of mocs to view.

James.

atkinsar

Thank you for taking the time to upload your photos, I almost feel like I've been, there were so many! I'd seen a lot of the stuff previously at STEAM (you must go this year btw) but there was a decent amount of new stuff on display.

Westminster Abbey, just wow!

Legoboy

Thanks atkinsar. Westminster Abbey was just amazing. I wondered how long it took to set up each time it was moved to display.

drdavewatford

James - fantastic pics, and many thanks for sharing ! Warren Elsmore's St. Pancras model never fails to impress me, and there was loads of other great stuff there. Unfortunately I was in the U.S. for a couple of days and only got back on Saturday so couldn't go.

I was lucky enough to see the Abbey in its half-built state (I even got to place a couple of hundred floor tiles....) and was pretty blown away then, but the finished article looks utterly incredible. It was basically built by 4 people in about 6 weeks I believe, none of them LEGO employees. Astonishing. Can't wait to see it at STEAM.

Martin

Apologies for being pedantic, but you visited The LEGO Show, not AFOLCon (unless you really did attend the AFOL Conference on Friday).

On a lighter note, Dunc's giant 375 castle never ceases to impress me in thumbnails as looking like the original model. The Abbey was also indeed impressive, and all the better for DrD's flooring :-)

There was a fair amount of stuff there that's not been to STEAM before actually, mainly because there were some international exhibitors at MOSI. It was good to see people travelling this far to show their stuff. Perhaps we'll get some guys from mainland Europe at STEAM this year.

LEGO_Nabii

I had a great time. I don't think I've been to a better first time event and hopefully this will grow into an annual event with a growing reputation.

Just a note on Flump2565's comment that he expected more designers, I'm Mark Stafford, a LEGO Designer and I was there all day every day, also present was Senior Designer Specialist (and squidman creator) Tim Ainley, Carl Greatrix the TTGames LEGO Designer and a Master builder from the local LEGOLand Discovery Centre. LEGOWorld in Holland gets only 4 designers and it has 80,000+ visitors over eight days, so I thought the ratio was pretty good. What we will try to do next time is make sure we are more clearly obvious as Designers so if that's who you want to talk to then you can find us more easily!

Or come to the AFOLCon days instead of the public LEGOShow event and there are plenty of opportunities to chat. I really enjoyed the more relaxed atmosphere.

Huw

Welcome aboard, Mark, sorry I didn't get to see you at AFOLCON!

Jabba_the_Taff

Finally getting round to commenting! I went on the Sunday and had a marvelous time. I thought it was a really good venue for the show. There was a really good variety of displays/themes. I would have to agree about not really being able to tell who the Designers were. Perhaps if there was a note in the leaflets we got on entry, saying who or what to look out for? Also, looking at going forward next year I noticed a couple of things. The history of Lego section, as impressive as it was, could do with a timeline with annotations. I overheard a few people sounding like they wanted to learn bit more to add to their observations of the advances illustrated by the sets. (I did splurge some info at one of them!) Maybe a few talks on the public days might be nice as well, I really enjoyed those I saw at STEAM in October. And finally, a few of the displays could have benefited from a few more tables to spread out on. For example, the PotC and Alien Conquest display was really rammed and there was plenty of space there to spread out just a little more. I hope that hasn't sounded like I'm being overly critical, because it really was fantastic. I saw lots and lots of happy families, with many older children obviously looking like they were inspired to keep on building through those potential dark ages!

rocao

Hi Mark, thanks for announcing yourself. I've seen your MOCpages previously, and it's quite neat to be able to put a "face" to some of the LEGO set designs, so thanks for that!

LEGO_Nabii

It was great to meet so many new fans (including some AFOLs coming out for the first time) but I could have done with a few more familiar faces, the few UK fans I know all missed it!

Jabba_T_T -yeah picture of us would be a good idea for next time, I'll suggest it. We actually lined up Timeline presentation from the LEGO Idea House (LEGO's private staff museum) to bring to AFOLCon, but it was destroyed during transport back from LEGOWorld Copenhagen in February and no one knew until we went to pick it up. Hopefully a new one will be ready for next year! (No LEGO was harmed, only display stands and information boards.)

bluemoose

Disappointed I had to miss it (and you & Megan), but I think Julie explained why. Will definitely try to make it next year; it'll go into the diary once Warren decides where/when AFOLcon 2012 will be.

trax_3

Apart from Steam this has been the only other lego event i've attended since coming out of the dark ages about 3 years ago. It was a pleasure to mix with other like minded AFOLs and see so many fantastic mocs on show. The conference day on friday was well worth attending. Big thanks go to the organisers and those who presented. Bring on AFOLcon 2012.

Matthew

Disappointed I had to miss it (and you & Megan), but I think Julie explained why. Will definitely try to make it next year; it'll go into the diary once Warren decides where/when AFOLcon 2012 will be.

Was it your wife in the Brand Store wearing a LSMK polo shirt and a badge that said Julie?

bluemoose

^ Yes :-)