Shopping CartWe are excited to reveal the annual theme artwork for Brickworld 2018. The subtle reflection of the four seasons created by Mark Larson is a true masterpiece.
Brickworld Indy Groupon Deal
Brickworld is pleased to announce that we have partnered with long time sponsors Clone Army Customs and Eclipse Grafx to bring you a Groupon deal for Brickworld Indy! For $31 you get your event ticket plus a a goody bag from each sponsor. Each goody bag is valued at $25, making the value to you $62! Don’t miss out on your chance to fill this deal as there are only 1,000 available!
You can see the Groupon deal by clicking this link.
Announcing the Where Is Kevin Hinkle? Challenge!
That’s right. This year at Brickworld Chicago, we will hold a Where Is Kevin Hinkle? Challenge. Your job is to make a vignette that is no larger than 16×16 studs and no taller than 20 bricks. Kevin Hinkle himself will judge the vignettes and select the one that pleases him the most about where/how/when you depicted him.
If you don’t know what a vignette is, it is capturing a moment in time. We do this all the time with our layouts. Now you just need to focus on one thing. Where is Kevin Hinkle? Maybe he is in a happy place. Maybe he is lost in space. Maybe he is floating in the ocean. What you build is up to you. Whether you win is up to Kevin.
Use your own Kevin Hinkle minifigure in your vignette. But, if you don’t have one and want to enter we have some to loan to you for the challenge. The first 20 entries that show up in Chicago and ask Bryan to borrow a Kevin Hinkle figure can be covered. We suspect that a lot of you planning to enter this contest will already have one of Kevin’s old business cards.
The winner will earn a Brickworld trophy and an opportunity to get their picture taken with Kevin.
Good luck!
2018 Keynote Speaker
We are excited to announce 
the 2018 Keynote Speaker at Brickworld Chicago will be Dr. Roy T. Cook. If you have attended past Brickworld events, you have probably seen Roy (mostly in the evening as he is a night owl). Roy has helped make Brickworld an awesome event by being the Dirty Brickster and Dirty Buildster coordinator every year except the inaugural year of the event. He has attended every Brickworld Chicago convention and has done some kind of philosophical presentation at a lot of the shows. Roy is also a very accomplished builder both individually and as a member of VirtualLUG. And, you might have noticed Roy as the judge for the Cutthroat Builders Challenge the last couple of years.
Roy’s keynote address will be focused on his new book LEGO and Philosophy: Constructing Reality Brick-by-Brick. We are just guessing here, but knowing Roy, the address will be pretty entertaining. So, don’t miss out on the fun. And, we would bet that reading the book before the event might really make the address exciting to see.
A little more information about Roy:
Roy T Cook is CLA Scholar of the College and John M. Dolan Professor of Philosophy at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities. In addition to authoring three books and over a hundred academic articles and essays on mathematical logic and the philosophy of mathematics, he studies the philosophy of popular art, and is co-editor of The Art of Comics: A Philosophical Approach (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012, w/ A. Meskin), The Routledge Companion to Comics (Routledge, 2016, w/ A. Meskin and F. Bramlett), and LEGO and Philosophy: Constructing Reality Brick-by-Brick (Wiley-Blackwell, 2017, w/ Sondra Bacharach).
Navigating the Website
If you are a veteran of Brickworld, you have probably found the convention pages with things like schedules, set drafts, collaborative displays, games, challenges, etc. If you are not a veteran, you might find a lot of cool things if you look a little deeper on the web site.
To help get you started, we suggest you check out the list of people already registered for the event at https://brickworld.com/registrant-list/ …once you are there, you will see an entire menu of pages in the left sidebar to explore. Have fun!
Brickworld Chicago Registration is Open
Registration for the Brickworld Chicago convention is now open. Log in to your Brickworld account to register.
Once you register, you will be able to sign up for display space, MOC cards, and activity leader positions. Plus, you will start receiving informational emails. If you miss informational emails, you can always see the archive on the convention blog.
The convention is our annual celebration of sharing our love of the brick with 1,000 of our closest friends for 5 days at the Renaissance Hotel and Convention Center in Schaumburg, IL. During the convention, the attendees help each other learn and have fun by providing workshops, presentations, games, set drafts, challenges, and many other fun things. In 2017, the final schedule had nearly 130 scheduled activities. Plus, there are many impromptu things that simply happen. Learn more here.
As always, there are a limited number of rooms available at the Renaissance in the Brickworld block. So, don’t wait to reserve your hotel room too! To reserve your room, click here. The Renaissance is forecasting that they will be sold out of overnight rooms on Tuesday, June 12, and Wednesday, June 13.
More hotel information:
- Rate is $145 for a Single or Double room
- Reservations phone numbers:
- Reservations Toll Free: 877-303-0104
- Reservations Local Phone: 847-303-4016
- The group rate is valid thru May 23, 2018.
- Hotel Info: Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center Hotel 1551 N. Thoreau Dr. Schaumburg, Illinois 60173
2018 Event Kit
We are excited to announce the 2018 event kit. It goes arm in arm with this year’s theme. Of course, we get together in the summer, so representing another season seemed appropriate. This year’s kit is a snowman. The designer of this year’s kit is Bryan Bonahoom. Bryan has previously contributed the green lantern event kit in 2013 and the GBC workshop kits in 2014 and 2016. This year’s kit consists of 225 pieces and will sell for $20+tax. There are 100 copies of the set produced. In order to purchase a set, you must be registered for and attend Brickworld Chicago.
Announcing the Brickworld LUG Network
Brickworld is excited to be adding a new twist to event organization for 2018 and beyond. We are creating the Brickworld LUG Network! Does that sound familiar? It is kind of a spin on the LEGO Ambassador Network concept. The idea is to have 1 member from each LUG that participates in Brickworld events to be the ambassador of that LUG in the forum. This ambassador will help communicate new ideas and activities from Brickworld to the LUG and from the LUG to Brickworld throughout the year.
We think this will vastly improve communication with LUG members planning to attend Brickworld. Since in the past we have relied on emails that are generally sent to people that have registered, this will help us reach people that haven’t registered yet. It will also streamline communication with the LUGs when it comes to displays and the layout. The major benefit is that it will give us the ability to communicate with LUGs long before registration opens and it will help us all in planning the fun for the convention in Schaumburg.
So, we are looking for a member from each LUG to represent the LUG in this forum as the ambassador. While we don’t care what member you choose, we recommend that it not be the LEGO ambassador as that person is already doing a lot for your LUG and sharing the effort is a great way to get more people involved.
We will be starting LUG Network activity very soon. So, if your LUG wants to be involved (and we hope you all do), please send an email to Bryan if you have his address or use the contact us link on the Brickworld web site to let us know your name, your LUG, # of members in the LUG, and where the LUG is located. Bryan will add you to the private forum and we can get this started!
We hope you share our excitement about this new addition to the event communication.
IndyLUG Food Drive LEGO Exposition
Brickworld is excited to be partnered with IndyLUG to organize the fist annual IndyLUG Food Drive LEGO Expo! The goal is to collect non-perishable food items for the Hamilton County Harvest Food Bank. We are also supported by the Good Samaritan Network in helping prepare for the show. The city of Fishers was kind enough to donate the use of Saxony Hall to make this possible. We hope you can make it out to the show to support a wonderful cause!
Does Your LUG/LTC Display at Brickworld?
We are trying to update our club list on the Brickworld web site. If your LUG displays at a Brickworld event and you are not on this list, please let us know if you would like to be added and provide the proper name of the club, a web page link, a Facebook page/group link, and a Flickr photo pool link if you have them so we can get all the information out there. If your club is already on the list and we don’t have all of your links, please send them to us. Thanks for your help!