Brickfair Virginia 2022

Since you were never answered, I suppose I will. Short answer is yes, it’s cool.

If you’ve been to other conventions before, it’s going to be like that mixed with an art gallery. There are multiple vendors set up to buy things from, ranging from the con’s merch to official Lego products and third-party inventions. Multiple activities are set up, though most are on the younger end and/or require additional payment to participate (bingo, getting balls into cups, etc.). And there are sections of various size displaying a multitude of creative works, most made of Lego, generally separated into large categories. If their creators are present, you can chat with them to learn more about their builds, different features, and even be shown aspects that are initially hidden. Provided it’s not too loud and they can hear you, plus other conversations I imagine. I’m not very social, so I didn’t chat much. I totally didn’t weird out several of them with my intense staring to figure out a build’s construction.

But if you are social, I imagine it’s a great opportunity to meet and chat with some excellent builders. Just seeing a lot of MOCs in person that I’ve only viewed through pictures online is quite something in of itself. No photoshop or camera tricks to fool anyone, it’s just there and viewable in all angles. And if you want to take pictures, you can. Most seemed to encourage the photos and had CRQ codes to follow them on other sites, see their other works, or videos of building the things.

Though unlike what most nerds probably think of when it comes to conventions, like Comicon, cosplay wasn’t much of a thing. There were a few that had some neat props/life-sized versions of Lego stuff, and one had a semi-pirate getup, but no costumes. It probably would be a nightmare to have that in the crowds though. There also weren’t any panels or talks during the public days, but that’s different if you’re there for the exhibitor/VIP days. So if you want even more, register early to get access to that option. I was unable to, so I can only speak from the public perspective.

Downsides are that it’s very loud, due to very large and open rooms plus the large crowd. And if you’re like me and continuous loud noise gives headaches, definitely bring some pain meds. If you’re only interested in seeing stuff, even with the crowds and trying to take in every detail, it will only take two hours to go through everything at most. Maybe slightly longer if you photograph everything and not just the stuff you thought was cool. So unless chatting with other people, meeting friends, shopping, or participating in other activities there isn’t a whole lot to do. But I don’t expect they designed Brickfair for people to be there the entire time it’s running, outside of maybe exhibitors, so not necessarily a problem.

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This was perfectly comprehensive, it’s as if I were actually there. Thanks @ajtazt

I’m definitely a chatty kathy but I’m also kind of a weird dude so I usually don’t engage unless necessary or if they initiate

I wanted to go this year, but life got busy and pricey, so I’ll have to bump that dream to the 2023 back burner

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You must have missed the Sans guy.

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Memelords don’t count. :stuck_out_tongue:

But also I did not see him. Saw a Twitter photo though.

Edit: When you hit reply too soon.

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I miss all the good stuff

i didn’t see under the mask so i thought that they were a woman for a second :sweat_smile:

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maybe it was racie?

this would be disappointing

reality often is

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You must have also missed the few dudes in classic castle get-up.

Also, if you want to know the identity of Sans, it was Lego Obsessionist

The con was really fun and I finally got some inspiration for new stuff to build (and built some small stuff there at least.) Got to meet a few people from the boards/from the TTV channel, and learned that the general public was more interested in a quick-ish textural build than MOCs I actually spent time on… I’m not entirely sure what to make of that. Definitely planning to be there next year again!

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You might say there was no one in costume sans him?

please ignore the fact that there were other people in costume.

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It should be addressed that there were several MOCs stolen, damaged and hotel vandalized at BrickFair VA 2022. I’ve had 5 Bionicle MOCs stolen some time after 6pm Sunday after public closed. Others have come out to report their losses that did not appear in Lost and Found.

Very disappointed.

For the precautionary interim, as BrickFair PA is at the end of September, I will not be displaying MOCs in the Bionicle category, and I’m hesitant to display in other categories in general. I already cancelled an offer of hosting a historic LEGO display, Bizarre LEGO, which was a hit at BrickFair NJ 2021.


If any of these have popped up in the following time after BrickFair VA, please contact me any way you can, I am most social media and have also posted this report on them and Yak (BrickFair message board).

Todd is not happy with these outcomes either; Dulles Expo Center would be very happy to restrict exhibitor hours to earlier in the night to prevent these losses again. which means less activities and less time to enjoy everyone’s builds aside from public hours.

Maniac4Bricks

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