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Subject: 
Brickfest report
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.org.us.wamalug
Date: 
Tue, 13 Jun 2000 15:31:40 GMT
Viewed: 
1337 times
  
I'll chip in with my description of the fest, for those who weren't there.
(and for those who want to improve it next year.)

My Dad and I flew in at ~5 PM on Friday evening. We proceeded to get lost in
D.C., so I only got to the fest around 8. Still, I managed to have a few hours
of fun. Mostly, I was introduced to lots of people (some of which I've never
talked to before). It was really great to put faces with the names, etc. Name
tags where definitely useful <grin>.
Most of Friday was spent (for me) in the castle room, which unfortunately was
out of the way and usually quite empty. The display was amazing, I must say -
most of it was brought in by Christina Hitchcock, a WAMALUG member who (sadly
for me) doesn't go online much. Her MOCs were beautiful, you can see a glimpse
of them here (and the pictures before and after it):
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=6887
Other features of the castle-room included the modular castle wall, mostly
Rich's but also supported with sections by me and Marc Nelson. (Oh, and one
blue K8 section).
I'll post s'more about that later in .castle.

What little time I didn't spend in the castle room went to the main room
(aka "train room", "k8 room"). I enjoyed watching the trains, and seeing a
real-live metroliner, as well as a <Set:398> that Thomas Main brought along.
There were some real gems on those shelves, MOCs as well as sets. Lindsay's
_Gloire_ was there in all its glory, and Tim's "bathroom in space" generated
quite a few laughs (the concept of his modular transport is quite cool as
well, IMHO).

On Saturday morning, we started the Pirates Game. That was fun filled
with "Arrrgh"s and bottles of rum... lots of stuff is being said about that,
I'll suffice to say that most of the action wasn't on my side of the room. I
still had a blast watching other people blast the skeletons and dinos on the
respective island. ;-)
Sometime during the game I joined the alliance between Lindsay, Tim, and Mike
Schamus, altho' Lindsay broke it once he got his merchant ship... Arrgh. ;-)
Also, I got nicknamed "hurricane Shiri" after I was ROFL and accidentally
knocked down Steve Campbell's port... Sorry, Steve! :-)

Later, we saw a really great demo of stop-motion animation by Thomas Foote. (I
think there was another one later by Greg Perry, but I missed it. :-(  )
Thomas showed us some hilarious stuff, ranging from a little guy blasting
aliens with his 'lil gun all the way to a technic cyborg battling mechs with a
captured fig for his amusement. Thomas' dubbing made the movies even funnier!

Later that evening, I discovered the miracles of K8. Stephen rounded us up 10
minutes before the "building contest", so I managed to sneak in a hastened
entry (my infamous spiral staircase). Christina's b&w house won first prize,
and her (and Jameson's) life sized sword + shield won 2nd. After all
the 'good' entries had won, Stephen was left with one prize so he reluctantly
gave it to me <grin>.
I sticked around in the K8 area for a while after that, tho', and had a great
time. I managed to build some half-normal stuff, and was very inspired by the
big pile of stuff. I got some decent ideas that I might implement soon enough.

Late Sat night, Chris Layton had a random drawing of sets for people who
registered for his store (Brick Direct). There were a few sets, and everyone
who won got to choose one by order. Of course, I got the last choice and got
the insectoids set... somehow, I knew it would happen all along. ;-)

Sunday morning marked the shopping at the Store (as the WAMALUGs call it).
That was an Experience. It isn't often that you get to see a bunch of "mature"
adults groping around a door, yelling "me! over here!", grabbing sets by the
dozens and convincing each other why each set is worth it. All good-natured,
tho'- no one took seconds of sets before other people had firsts...
It was funny to see Buffie offer us damaged insectoids, with absolutely no
takers... ;-)
I had gotten a lecture the night before from my mom about how we have no room
at home for all the sets I'm buying, so once we got to the campus I opened the
boxes and started stuffing the bags... I actually managed to fit seven sets
into one box.

After shopping, I did some trading with Cletus; this led us to a discussion
about what to do with the insectoids, and also why lego town have so much
police stations. (Cletus figured that since the ratio is 10:1 male to female,
the male minifigs are quite disgruntled... ;-) )
Then Tom Cook opened a bottle of cherry soda (or something) that shot out all
over us... needless to say, no-one went barefoot in *that* area afterwards...

Near noon, Rich Schamus demonstrated the awesome powers of Dremel and paints,
much to Stephen's dismay... his colored dragons were fabulous, and his
modified train was quite ingenious. He showed us how he makes red *male* hair
from a red helmet in real-time (I got to save the hair, yoohoo! ;-)
I showed my 'lil Octan fairy, which was a big hit in the Castle room... even
Christina, who (in her words) "doesn't support these things" had a good laugh
at that one. :-)

Then they opened the new K8 box... by this time, not too many people were
left, and so about 10 of us were gathering around the big piles and scrounging
for pieces. It was so much fun, and it was very interesting and funny to see
how after ten minutes, we all knew what everyone else was looking for.
Like "Bendy-arm" Abe, and Chris Busse's SO and her shutters... :-)
Bram and I made like pirates and took, um, more-than-a-handful of pieces...
*much* more... <grin>

Around 2 PM, when people were starting to pack up, I realized that we hadn't
gotten a chance to play Medieval BrikWars... I asked Marc Nelson and Nathan
McDowell if they were up for the game, which they were. But... by the time we
had lunch, started to get organized, and tried to figure out how to play-- we
realized that we didn't have dice, the rules, OR enuff time. So we gave up. :-(

By that time we were completely exhausted, and people were *really* leaving...
I stayed 'til 6 PM, by that time there were barely a dozen of people left.
Unfortunately, my flight was delayed, and so I walked in around 2 AM monday...
ugh.


All in all, though, I had a blast!! Words cannot describe how great it was to
meet actual people behind all the web-interface. It was the ultimate
experience, and it'll surely be talked about for years. At least by me. :-)

-Shiri



Message has 3 Replies:
  Re: Brickfest report
 
(...) Hi Shiri, I thought that you might want order more insectoids. S@H has special sale this week. Check at: (URL) 6907 Sonic Stinger for only $12 dollars. You save 50% off. HeHeHe. I bet you don't want buy another insectoids. Ha-Ha. I am glad (...) (24 years ago, 14-Jun-00, to lugnet.org.us.wamalug)
  Re: Brickfest report
 
(...) Dear Hurricane: My fort was able to recover but I don't think some of Frank's Redcoats will ever be the same again... Don't forget to tell the good people you kicked over Tim Courtney's cutter, too. I think you were up to a Category 3 of the (...) (24 years ago, 14-Jun-00, to lugnet.org.us.wamalug)
  Re: Brickfest report
 
(...) 'Hurricane Shiri', Hmmm? Fair enough. From this day forth let it be decreed that 'Hurricane Shiri' is to be restricted to the eastern U.S. and is to not set food anywhere West of the Mississippi River. This decree has been set forth for one (...) (24 years ago, 14-Jun-00, to lugnet.org.us.wamalug)

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