Posts Tagged ‘harry potter’

I just attended the longest consecutive running LEGO convention in North America. Brickcon 2012 was the 10^th anniversary of North-West Brickcon. The link between LEGO and Science Fiction and Fantasy is undeniable. In fact, Brickcon is responsible for hooking me up with Stack Exchange in the first place. I became aware of LEGO Answers SE thanks to a Facebook post by Mellissa McConnell after last year’s convention. It was just a matter of time before I wandered over to the Science Fiction & Fantasy site.

This year’s event drew more than 470 convention attendees and over 12,100 visitors during the 12 hours of public viewing. Held in Seattle at the Exhibition Hall from Oct. 4-7, it brought together people from around the globe. Sweden, England, New Zealand, South America and Canada all sent representatives to rub shoulders with their American counterparts.

Superman and Wonder Woman’s family dynamic.

Venom defeats Spider-man.

The energy level when I walked into the Exhibition Hall was palpable. These people were stoked, and rightly so. They came to play, and they came to show you how well they play. But there is more to a Lego Convention than just showing your projects to the world. There is a camaraderie that exists between builders. Sure, they want to show you what they built, but they also want to see what you have come up with. They feed off each other a lot like we here at Scifi.StackExchange.com do. Someone gets inspired, and then everybody gets inspired.

Kirk, Spock, and McCoy dispose of some unneeded personnel.

The themes were many and varied. They ranged from architecture to art. Castles and Superheroes. Microscale and macroscale creations abounded. The Best in Show model was a breathtaking version of Hogwarts Castle, but it could have easily been the 14 foot tall Space Needle, or the 20,000 piece Bat-Cave. Once you throw away the instructions that come with the sets, anything goes.

The Space Needle.

Thursday and Friday were spent checking in and setting up, though some MOCs weren’t actually completed until moments before the doors opened to the public on Saturday morning. But, like I said, Brickcon is more than just showing your model to the world. Seminars and contests for the attendees take place throughout the weekend. Each conventioneer gets a “goody” bag and an engraved Lego badge that allows them “back stage” access to a side of the convention the general public doesn’t get to see. In fact, some builders shy away from the press of the crowds during the public viewing portion of the event, choosing to take part in blind builds, bag and box builds and other assorted contests centered on building speed, agility and creative ability rather than bask in the glow of public attention. It’s enough for some to just be there with friends and other like minded individuals that soon become friends.

The micro-scale model of the Brickcon convention.

This year, my MOC was a microscale version of Brickcon. It consisted of Lego tables displaying microscale MOCs while being viewed by miniland scale Lego people. I put the idea out there and before the weekend was done, people from all around the country had added to it. Marianne brought an entire table from California and populated it with models she and her brother had made. Alaskans Breann and Ty pitched in too. Breann added a tiny Bionicle while Ty built an oilrig then added a nanoscale version of it and a miniland version of himself. Fellow Washingtonians Gus and his parents built a dead on Jeep CJ-5 and then whipped up a microscale version to place with the growing micro display. Shawn and Amanda, another couple of locals from Washington and Meg from Colorado also joined in by adding tiny replicas of their models and a risque miniland figure to place in the crowd. It was my first collaborative build, and it went over better than I had imagined. 

The Batcave.

The 20,000 piece Batcave was outstanding. It included interior lighting and all the bells and whistles you could imagine. Here is a link from another Batcave fan that just about says it all. (My photos did not do it justice) From the top to the bottom, Wayne and Carlyle created a masterpiece.  http://kotaku.com/5950767/you-have-to-see-this-incredible-lego-batcave-no-excuses

However, this year’s People’s Choice and Best in Show awards went to Alice’s mega Hogwarts Castle. She began building it for last years convention and hasn’t stopped. It is HUGE. It is eye catching, and she nailed it. If you look closely enough, you’ll find what you are looking for.

Best in Show Hogwarts Castle. Oh wait, that’s my micro-scale version.

Here are a couple of shots of Alice’s award winning creation:

Hogwarts Castle.

Hogwarts Castle.

You can find more photos from Brickcon 2012 at FLICKR.

So, to sum it up, if you’ve never been to a Lego convention, you are missing out. The energy levels are high, the entertainment value is well worth the $9 general admission and the experience can be likened to Comic-con. The only thing better than coming to the public display is joining the behind the scenes activities the convention attendees enjoy. It truly is eye candy for all ages. I’ll look for you next year. I’ll be the guy wearing the Major Stackings badge.

All the movies:

• Magically gifted children age at an extremely inconsistent rate. (They aged 6 magic years in 10 human years).
• All the students immediately outgrew their wizarding robes after the second year, the robes will rarely be seen again.
• Harry Potter is the only one who gets into trouble for using magic outside of Hogwarts.
• 16-year-old Voldemort looks nothing like 17-year-old Voldemort (or 11-year-old Voldemort for that matter). If George Lucas had been involved this would have been fixed by the third release of the DVDs.
• Most of Griffindor (a house based on bravery) is comprised of students too afraid of their own shadows to be of much use half of the time.
• The “good enough” mentality is just as strong in the magical community.

Yeah, these are all definitely the same person.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone:

• The Sorting is not conducted in alphabetical order – what kind of system is that? Oh, and you’ll never see another Sorting.
• It is okay for teachers to play favorites, particularly Heads of Households.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets:

• Children get injured constantly at Hogwarts and no one raises an eyebrow, but as soon as a few students get temporarily petrified, the future of this 1000-year-old institution is in jeopardy.
• Sometimes the students age in reverse order.
• Hagrid’s home (and really all of Hogwarts) is ridiculously overrun with spiders, at least until it no longer serves as a plot device.

Beginning of movie, middle of movie, end of movie.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban:

• I don’t know what Dumbledore was doing during Harry’s second summer break, but he must have been hitting the gym or something. He started the third year looking like an entirely new man.
• Malfoy is the only student to get injured for which there appears to be consequences to the staff and other involved parties.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire:

• For some reason everyone decided that 70s long hair was cool. The girls, the guys, everyone.
• Harry only uses magic four times (in a movie about wizards).

You can tell Harry is the chosen one by the way his hair flows in the wind.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix:

• Despite the looming threat of Voldemort’s return, everyone managed to find a barber shop over the fourth year summer break.
• Harry is a rage-oholic who likes his rage-ohol shouted at, not stirred.

Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince:

• Harry has apparently become homeless and now lives in a dirty subway tunnel.
• All of Harry Potter’s problems from the previous movie would have been solved if they just looked in his memories.
• The Slug Club sounds even worse when spoken aloud.
• Any fool could look at 11-year-old Voldemort and know he was going to grow up to be a mass murderer.
• They should be brewing gallons of “Liquid Luck.”

That is the look of a well balanced kid.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 1 & 2:

• Harry doesn’t like other people taking risks for his sake. He’d rather let Voldemort just win already.
• Despite being free for 5 years, Dobby continues to wear the same tattered rags. His only addition is a pair of shoes. Yeah, that’s all you needed Dobby.
• The Weasley’s rebuilt The Burrow to look exactly like the old one did. That means their shabby house is by choice and not by circumstance.
• Every wizard’s house is apparently located in the middle of some huge empty field (except Snape’s).
• Even though people Disapparate together (holding hands) they rarely Apparate near each other.
• Harry is a wizard who never seems to think of magic as a solution to a problem. He’d rather jump into a freezing pool of ice water than cast a spell to warm the water first.
• Everyone is from Godric’s Hollow (which Harry didn’t know). It is apparently the source of all wizarding families.
• Gringott’s is probably not where you want to bank anymore, because they lost roughly 100% of their staff as a result of Harry’s break-in.
• Based on the number of people who died on that bridge, there can’t be all that many wizards left.

This post made possible by a grant from SciFi.StackExchange. That isn’t just a plug at the end of a PBS show, it’s the truth. Something like a ba-jillion years ago (Nov 15th 2011) I was one of the recipients of the Complete Collection of Harry Potter on DVD. I chose DVD because a) I didn’t have a BluRay, and b) I am not forward looking.  I received this grant on the promise to help promote Harry Potter questions and answers on the site.  Thanks to my contributions (and maybe others, I’m not keeping track) as of the writing of this post Harry Potter is the #1 tag on SciFi.StackExchange.