Brick Fieata 2013 Overview

It has been a while since I have updated.  Sorry about that but I have been on vacation and then went right into Brick Fiesta.  Here is a very brief summary of what the event and a few highlights: 


Brick Fiesta 2013 is currently underway this weekend.  It is the Third Brick Fiesta and is unique in that it is the only Lego Convention in the Americas that is operated by a LUG.  Additionally, it is the only traveling convention in the Americas.  It started in Austin Tx, then moved to Houston, and this year it is in Dallas.
It is a young con so it is still evolving but Huw gave me permission to share some content from the con with you guys this week.


Kevin Hinkle of the LEGO Community team was, of course, present at Brick Fiesta and didn't reveal any surprises.  It was however revealed by a LEGO store manager that the rumors are true that the LEGO Games line is discontinued.

Jordan Schwarz of Rail Bricks gave an interesting presentation on both Rail Bricks and the growth of Conflict-Based Play in LEGO sets.


One of the really creative concepts I saw was by Dave Smith who put micro-vignettes inside the Star Wars planets.



I was also very excited to see a Rubik's Cube solving robot in attendance.  I have seen the videos before but it is quite another thing to see one in the flesh.  This build was assembled by a young lady named Katie and was unfortunately entered too late to be considered for an award.

Chris MacDougald's roller coaster is also always a crowd pleaser at the Texas events.


As far as vendors went, it was mostly the standard (and welcome) variety but I was surprised by the quality and availability of custom printing that is becoming available with modern technology.

I am not usually prone to picking up the third party military parts but I was really impressed by the modern era camouflage that was printed directly onto these jackets being sold by Modern Brick Warfare, especially given the complex shapes and contours the jackets had.

Additionally, TexLUG member Will Horner brought his flatbed printer to the show and was printing on brick to order.  Depicted in the image above is my own "Brick-Hero" Logo printed on a 2 x 4 tile using his printer.  I am certainly looking forward to getting some more custom prints from him in the future.

But of course the thing to see at every LEGO Convention is the MOCs.  Later on I will be loading up as many pictures of the MOCs as I can get, but for now, I have created a flickr set of all of the builds that have been nominated for awards.

The pictures can be found here. In case you are wondering why there is a U.S. flag in every photo, flags are used to distinguish the Nominated MOCs.

In a few days I will update with a link to images for the other projects in attendance.

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On a parting note, I would like to add this MOC that I think got overlooked at Brick Fiesta and wanted to personally throw it in with the nominees: Ethan Balmer's Austin Bricky Limits Music Festival.