@bengood921
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I came up with something already. The v1 area is 592 square feet. The v2 area is 448.5 square feet, without anybody having to give up any table space. It looks like it might be a little cozy on the inside, although I’m not sure it’s that much worse than last year’s. It should still be better than 2023, when we were really crowded and with other people. We should definitely give up on any thought of having an interior table at this one though, it’s clear from Todd’s last reply that those days are over.
I’m feeling (maybe over-)confident that this will be enough to make Todd happy. I’d encourage everybody to read over his message and re-evaluate what they’re bringing. But my thinking is that it’s actually unlikely that people are gonna be able to cut enough for us to remove an entire or table or two, which means it’s unlikely that we’re going to be able to further reduce our footprint.
The overall space shortage is a real problem with no obvious or easy solution, and it’s one that isn’t going to go away. Nonetheless, I will point out that Todd’s suggestion that we not grow beyond last year feels like an arbitrary reference point. We have four more people registered than last year, with only two leaving the display area (and one of them is me, which means I’m still taking up space elsewhere), so I don’t see how we were not gonna grow.
I’m posting the layout here for now, I want to hear feedback on it before I send it to Todd. My gut feeling though is that its gonna be the best solution we have.
I had thought it was gonna be smooth sailing this year. I was wrong. Todd emailed me back, and he doesn’t like our submission. Below is his response in its entirety. There’s multiple directions we can go with this, so I’m going to post it and let people reply here as they wish.
For now, my only commentary is that when I made the layout, I mostly was just happy that I got it to come out in a nice neat rectangle. But it does create a large interior space that is a luxury the event doesn’t have. I don’t know when I will have a chance to look at it (sometime after 11th Hour), but if anybody has any suggestions on rearranging the tables, feel free to post it here. Even if it’s just a sketch on paper that you photographed to post here, I can convert that to a presentation drawing easily enough.
“Hi Ben,
I’ve added Steel City LUG to the website.
I’ve also uploaded Map #1b to http://www.BrickFair.com/file/ – make sure you’re viewing the correct event. Note that your island grew from 515 sq ft last year to 581 sq ft in your Version #1 drawing. With a 30” standard entry gap + 8’ “inner” tables you are enjoying a 10.5’ wide interior (which opens to 13’ in the middle). 8’ is standard maximum width with several island having only 5.5’ interior width.
Back in February I sent an email out to the largest LUGs/collabs. It read:
This message goes out to the LUGs: NOVA-LUG (Charlie), GardenSLUG (Rick), EmpireLUG Fallen Kingdoms (Blaine), Charm City LUG (Nathan), HARDLUG (James), L-Gauge Modular Standard (Monty), WamaLTC (Randy), RVA LUG (Dennis), and the Great Ball Contraption theme (Scott).
BF/VA is officially bursting at the seams. I want to return at least 1 bounce house back into this show. And (at least one of) either the Derby or Stay & Play. The public is noticing the shrinkage of hands-on features. Also I’d like more freedom when mapping.
I am asking you each to reduce your LUG footprint from last year by at least 20%. Attached is a mid-res map of last year’s show for reference.
If I magically inherit a billion dollars I promise the only thing I will do is buy/build a venue big enough for all of us, with lights that go completely dark for World of Lights, and all new, never-stapled, perfectly level tables. But until then we must grow in different ways.
Please see if you can squeeze some air out of your island, at least not grow beyond last year’s size.
Thank you,
Todd”
>> My wires have a 2X4 Black brick on both side that you can separate and there are prongs on the inside of the brick and metal sides that connect with at 9V transformer.
Do you have a photo or a BrickLink number? I don’t know this piece, and I’m not able to find it on BL.
>> I plan on bringing both the HP Castle and Sauron’s Tower, both on rotating stands.
Wait, people are doing displays for this one? I’m still planning on coming next Wednesday. I cashed in my supply of Amazon rewards points for three sets of varying sizes, and the plan is to get a table and build as many of them as I can.
I looked at the map and I noticed that parking appears to be an issue. There’s no parking on the 11th Hour property, and, as far as I could tell, there’s a complete absence of public parking in the surrounding area, so I assume we have to find street parking.
>> I found your car, @bengood921. It wasn’t easy, I tracked it down at the Country Store in Mount Joy.
That guy is clearly an imposter, I haven’t been in Mount Joy in at least ten years. I think a bigger question is, why were you in Mount Joy?
>> Is anyone considering attending Bricks in the Six this November?
Sorry, this one’s a no-brainer for me, I don’t see how I could possibly miss Steel City LUG’s first ever convention.
I didn’t see this one coming. Todd specifically told us that he was content doing the two VA events for the foreseeable future, although that was two years ago.
I’m admittedly having trouble generating enthusiasm for this one. It isn’t any closer to us than Fredericksburg. I was at PBF in 2015 and the venue is one of the least charming I’ve been to, and I remember our hotel not being that convenient to the venue. My Lego schedule for 2025 already has plenty on it. I might be tempted if there’s a significant LUG presence at the event, but given its proximity to TUBS, this seems unlikely. Incidentally, the website is showing this one as a four-day event, starting on a Thursday.
Also, when I go to my account tab for this event, towards the top is says “The Steel City LUG collab: [green checkmark] You are in charge” [followed by table information waiting to be confirmed].
I am definitely not in charge. We can get into the hall at noon that Wednesday, and as previously mentioned, at noon I will be going straight to the GBC area and won’t be in the LUG area until I’m done setting up my GBC, which will probably 2-3 hours. I can still advise and whatnot, but I’m really hoping that somebody else will volunteer to take over.
>> I wasn’t trying to call you out;
No worries, I didn’t feel called out. March was an unusual month. I did, in fact, get the table request submitted to Todd before the end of March (by less than two hours), but I couldn’t put in an attachment, so that was sent more recently, after he sent an email reply, and so I’m waiting for Todd to approve the specific plan.
In the meantime, we are on the website. Will is correct about how to register your MOC. That means when you register, after you fill out the card and advance, there is a page that says Where Will You Display? You can pick a theme, -OR- (emphasis in original) you can pick a LUG/Collab. We appear on the drop-down menu for LUG/Collab, and that’s what you want to pick (unless you’re registering something that you’ve built that won’t appear in our area). As explicitly stated on the page, what you choose is for map planning purposes, and doesn’t affect trophy considerations.
As far as I know, Will is also correct that there’s no deadline for MOC registration, other than the cards. I can say from experience that printing your own MOC card on site can be a hassle, in part because of unforeseen problems (such as the printer failing to print properly), so I’d strongly recommend finalizing it before the deadline. I did print my own card on site last August without issue though.
Hopefully Todd approves our plan as is, in which case we just sit back and relax (and build) until the event. If more LUG members decide they want to join us, we’ll worry about it then. Once Todd fixes our footprint on the map, we will not be able to add more tables, but that’s unlikely to happen before mid-June.
Here’s version 1 of the table layout.
I believe I understood Jonny & Kristin’s intentions with how they filled out the sheet.
Tim asked for an 8′ table, and then said he needed 2/3 of it. A 6′ table is 3/4 of an 8′ table, so unless I misunderstood his intentions, Tim has been moved to a 6′ table. It also worked out well to give him his preferred option of double depth.
My layouts were a bit convoluted until I had the brilliant insight that three 8′ tables is the same as four 6′ tables (24′, if you do the recreational math).
I put Jonah and Frost next to each other, and Jonny and Kristin next to each other. JR needs to be on the bottom because he’s on 6′ tables. Everybody else’s placement I just filled in however. If people want to switch around for whatever reason, now’s the time to sort that out.
There should be room for a table in the middle. If you want, I can dimension that out so we can see how the space works out. I’m not sure we want to get too attached to this layout yet since Todd hasn’t approved it or even seen it.
If anybody has any suggestions or complaints, or want to propose something completely different, now’s also the time to sort that out. In the meantime, there’s two hours left in March, so I am going to send this plan to Todd, with the explanation that the arrangement might change, but the table count will probably not.
>> Is anybody working on this?
I got back to my house late tonight. I had technical difficulties with Delly and I was way busier at my parents’ place than I’d expected.
I can try n come up with something tomorrow and send it off to Todd just so we can say we submitted our table request in March, unless somebody else wants to do it. We can always make changes afterwards if we need to.
>> Starting March 17, I will attempt to come up with a table layout based on what we have so far. Somebody else will need to submit it to Todd.
That’s tomorrow. I won’t be able to work on it tomorrow. I should be able to look at it later this week. If anybody else wants to come up with a first draft, feel free.
>> March 19th
As mentioned on other threads, I am not available for the rest of March. I will be out of town for this one.
>> Meet the LUG event will be held on Wednesday, April 16th.
This is looking possible.
>> Does that Snuggle Station remind anyone else of Severance?
Hahaha, I hadn’t even thought of that. NO SPOILERS!!! We’ve only watched two episodes of season 2, and probably won’t be able to pick it up again until April.
>> Is the snuggle station there all week?????
I know, right? It’s too bad I will be out of town the next three weeks, I would also be interested in the snuggle station. It’s been a running joke in my family that Ben loves baby goats ever since I saw them hopping around at Plymouth Plantation and I thought they were super cute, when I was, um, about to start my senior year of high school. To this day, every time we’re at a restaurant and goat is on the menu, somebody in my family will say “Hey Benjie, I bet it’s *baby* goat” and then my dad will make baaa-ing sounds.
>> That said, I don’t remember specifically what he said his solution was.
I don’t think he had one at the time. His policy of BrickFair badge and nothing else wasn’t announced until last month (although there might’ve been rumors before that), but more importantly, it’s gonna be implemented for the first time at FXBG25. So I’ll be interested in hearing about how it goes (for those not on the FXBG25 thread, I had to withdraw), cause I’m wondering if there’s gonna be a lot of push-back. I’m still hoping his circle of advisors can convince him to do lanyards, he does listen to what people say.
I have no idea who the guilty parties were (as a cranky old man, my gut feeling was “young people”) so I don’t want to make any accusations, but I would suspect that it’s people who are newer to the event. Anybody who’s gone a bunch of times knows that security and respect for the other exhibitors is a fundamental part of the culture, and smuggling people in goes against that.
I’d thought of that too but two badges sounds like a giant hassle to me, plus there’s a risk that you end up looking like this guy:
On the official website, on the News page:
Feb 3rd 2025
Complete Name Badge
Exhibitors are required to wear their complete name badge at all times. It must be worn alone. The current show’s badge must not be buried among other badges. Sorry folks :/
So after reading your message I realized that my last post might be obsolete; I’m not sure you will be allowed to use your avatar tiles to decorate your badge at this event, although of course you would be at non-BrickFair events. See below:
>> is there any way to tell what color the name badges will be?
No. The only way I can think of to find out is to use the BrickFair contact form and ask Todd. But I’m not sure he will say ahead of time. He’s on record that the reason the colors are changed every year is a security thing, the security people at the venue are told to look for that year’s colors. Announcing the colors ahead of time seems like it would be a conflict of interest there.
Historically Todd has chosen a lot of color combinations that I consider awful, and I eventually stopped trying to come up with stuff that I might be able to use in a MOC. Instead, all those bricks are gonna be used for landscape internal support.
A bigger issue now is Todd’s new rules for badges this year. At Chantilly last year, for the first time ever, I skipped closing ceremonies (I was worried about my teardown time), but Will Kay told me about it afterwards. Apparently there’s been big problems with people switching up their badges, sending them outside, and the essentially smuggling in their friends who are not registered attendees after hours, which obviously is a big security concern. So if I’m understanding the new rules, we have to wear the badge as given to us in our goodie bag and absolutely nothing else with it. So you can’t wear your old convention bricks, or your Steel City LUG brick, or your Brick Circuits brick that lights up, or your custom-engraved private joke bricks, or your black & yellow name and city bricks. None of that. From what I’ve gathered on the BrickFair Bound forum, it’s a very unpopular decision, and I don’t understand why Todd doesn’t just get lanyards like the other conventions. Once FXBG is over, I’ll be waiting to hear from people there as to how it went with the badges.
>> So is the avatar really an opportunity to have a custom image printed on a tile, not necessarily a photo ID part of the badge that must be worn at all times?
As I recall, Todd created them as a way for people to decorate their badges. On the Attendees page, there’s a tab where you can see all the avatar tiles that have been submitted thus far for that event. I didn’t always submit anything (which I now regret), and the default was the BrickFair logo.
In this photo there’s seven avatar tiles. The 2×4’s are a design by Chris Giddens that I got off of Flickr, and the other three are my own designs based on Giddens’.
>> Is this some artifact that was left over from last year?
I would think so. I’m pretty sure that once the last one ended, Todd’s focus turned almost entirely to Fredericksburg, and the website will revert to Fredericksburg at every opportunity.
I’m not sure exactly where you’re seeing that line. Despite it, you should be able to register and pay – which I have already done and I believe so have other people – which is important if you’re planning on making a reservation through the site at the HI. You should also be able to register MOCs and upload your avatar tile. I’m seeing a “Map not yet posted” line on the map tab, which is typical of all BrickFairs until about a month before the event.
>> Does anyone know if there is a Discord or forum for this year’s event?
PS – it occurred to me that the best place to ask about collabs at the event might be on the BrickFair website itself. Yak is Todd’s Q&A discussion forum, you can start your own thread there, and people do read them and reply. You might get minimal response until after Fredericksburg is over though.
>> Does anyone know if there is a Discord or forum for this year’s event? I know New Hashima things are becoming more common and I am interested in building a block or doing some other large collab.
I don’t know how to search for forums on Discord, anything I’m on is because I got an invite, and I’ve found most of them to have little traffic and be of minimum use. If there’s a forum specifically for BFNoVA25 or even just BrickFair, I’m not aware.
There is a channel called “The BrickFair Bound”. They mostly talk about hotels and restaurants and meeting up before the event, but somebody there might know where to direct you. (There is a “BrickFair GBC” specifically for planning GBC loops at BrickFair events.)
To my knowledge, the New Hashima people have their own forums on Discord, I know one was used to plan the really large BWC23 display. I don’t know if they’re doing a New Hashima at BrickFair this year. I’d heard that Stephan is done with BrickFair, but they did one in 2023 without him.
Below is the link for the Google Doc for signing up for table space. Krista based it off the one we used last year, and I modified it based on what I think we need this time around.
Starting March 17, I will attempt to come up with a table layout based on what we have so far. Somebody else will need to submit it to Todd.
Reminder that because of a potential shortage of space, BrickFair is discouraging outright repeats from last year. MOCs should be new or a significant upgrade or revision of a previous one.
If there’s any questions or problems with the spreadsheet, let me know.
