We are pleased to anounce The Sydney Brick Show will be back at the Sydney Town Hall in 2017! Join us on Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd of April for a fun filled show. The show will again be raising funds in support of Bear Cottage Manly, and tickets will go on sale in early 2017. Details on exhibitor applications and our Kids Creation Competition will be available soon. Stay tuned to the website or our social media pages for updates and announcements.Can't read the text above?Try another text or an audio CAPTCHAText in the box:What's this?I don’t have a LEGO problem. I have a storage problem, a finance problem, a “sharing with the spawnlings” problem–and now with two LEGO events in my local area, a “must attend all the LEGO Shows” problem. I have been taking the Evil Genius Family (EG Inc) to the Sydney Brickshow for four years now. Each year the show is an absolute hit with the kids AND the bigger kids. This isn’t some special LEGO licensed event.
The Sydney Brickshow is a fan event. LEGO thinks it’s great and sends promotional staff to support it from time to time, but it is a community event organized and presented by SydBricks (a group of AFOL–that’s Adult Fans Of LEGO) with the City of Sydney. The show itself operates in support of Bear Cottage, an initiative of The Children’s Hospital at Westmead (Sydney). We’re talking HUGE displays of free-play LEGO. Sometimes there is inspiration from LEGO sets; sometimes there is a re-telling of some pop-culture icon. Whatever the theme, these are fans just like you and me. Well, less like me… These fans have skills. I mean, check out this beach scene: You won’t find this as a set in any store. You’re going to have to cannibalize whatever you have at home. But it’s not just a flat LEGO scene. Look at the curve in that wave! The use of the linked bricks! That’s an added level of creativity! True fans will appreciate the attention to detail in builds like this.
I saw 5-year-old fans appreciating the extra touch with “submerged” mini-figs or “textured” sand. Sometimes, the fans just want to build (and see) their fandoms, whether or not LEGO has released a set. This year had a stand-out Pokemon display. Not only were the Pokeballs impressive, the complete layout for the “Original Opening Route” was equal parts nostalgic and encouraging. The Sydney Brickshow even has a Junior Builder event, a competition run just before the show opens. Twenty Junior Builders are chosen to display their own LEGO designs at the Brickshow, giving them the opportunity to join in the fandom and encourage other kids to build at home. That’s the secret weapon for these local exhibition shows–not the LEGO itself, but the ability to inspire you to go home and create your own builds. I overheard one parent comparing the Sydney Brickshow to the other hot LEGO ticket in town, Nathan Sawaya’s Art of the Brick: DC. Both exhibitions are designed to inspire;
both show the endless creativity available with LEGO as a medium. But while I love Nathan’s ability to show play as an art form, I also love the approachable nature of the local exhibitions. We’ve had this discussion before with fellow GeekDad writer Jamie Green’s In Favor of the Small Con, but I really think it needs to be emphasized more. I love taking the spawnlings to events like the Sydney Brickshow and meeting people who love their hobbies. People who are proud of their passion and want to share it with other fans. For me, the star of the show was Henry Pinto: Best Newcomer of 2016. He just started this year, displaying a chess set he had originally built for his son to learn how to play. He also had a very cool collection of Bat-vehicles, as inspired by the Nolan films. What made Henry stand out, and pretty much the exact reason I love local shows is Henry’s approachable nature with the audience. Not only was Henry willing to show how he made his chess set, he actively encouraged the kids to recognise the pieces they may have at home.
He interacted with the people at his table and showed them how to make it too. He allowed the kids to touch and hold the chess pieces, identifying individual bricks within the design. He even shared stories about being a LEGO fan (and how he can recognise the sound of vacuumed LEGO bricks from any room in the house). You don’t get that level of attention at a big con. While I love LEGO in any form of exhibition, it is the guys like Henry Pinto who will bring me back to my local next year. Have a local show or exhibition we should know about? Share it in the comments! We have GeekDads and GeekMoms everywhere, and we love to check out the local geekdom! EG Mum did not receive any sponsorship for this recap–the EG Family happily paid for the family tickets as the money supports a fantastic charity with a local children’s hospital.When I was asked which sets I was looking forward to and would like to review out of the summer wave, my immediate answer was 41101 Heartlake Grand Hotel, which brings together my love of the Friends theme and detailed LEGO buildings.
It is the largest set ever in the Friends range, coming in at an RRP of £99.99 and a piece count of 1552. But is it worthy of the moniker “grand”? Read on to find out... The box art is the usual depiction of the finished model, but as well as highlighting some of the details of the set, the back of the box reveals a cool play function that is not obvious from the front – the tower on the side of the model houses a lift (elevator) that can be raised and lowered. It is also shown that the various “modules” which form the building can be configured in different ways. The first surprise upon opening the box was that although there are two instruction books, one is A4-sized and perfect-bound with a flat spine, containing a whopping 236-pages! Book 1 is a small, thin booklet containing the instructions for the peripheral models and book 2 deals with the main build of the hotel. I’m afraid this set is not for the sticker-shy as there are over 30 stickers on the single sheet, some of which could be omitted without detriment to the overall look of the model, though I applied all except one, a circular portrait of a female character that is supposed to be affixed in one of the bedrooms.
(I decided that I didn’t think it added anything to the room). For those of you seeing this set as a treasure trove of parts, you will not be disappointed. There is a multitude of unique or uncommon parts. As I type this, full online inventories for this set and the others in the summer wave are not available, so when I say something is new or unique, I mean “as far as I know, prior to the summer wave”. The façade of the hotel is predominantly white, but has accents of dark purple, pearl gold and medium lavender, and it is amongst these colours that most of the rare and unusual parts are to be found. We have a large number of dark purple slopes in various sizes and angles, as well as rounded plates and a 1x6x2 arch. In pearl gold, we have pillars, round profile bricks (12 of them!), fence pieces, 2x2 macaronis, frogs, 6x6 round modified tiles and the new ornamental 1x1 brick with projecting scrollwork (CapnRex101 called it a “capital brick” in his review of 41098, where it is included in tan).
The Grand Hotel adds 1x3, 1x8, 2x6 and 2x2 corner bricks and a pair of 4x4 macaronis to the range of medium lavender parts now available. Added to this are a few printed tiles (two of which also appear in at least 41098, and I am certain the gold record tile will be present in the pop star sets) and a very interesting and potentially useful tan 1x4 curved element with spokes in it that fits neatly under a 1x6x2 arch to provide a nice decorative finish. Oh, and there are two pink suitcases. It’s a real treat to see so many new parts becoming available in the purples palette and the new gold pieces are going to be fabulous for bringing a bit of bling (or an ornate gilded touch, if you’re more refined) to many future MOCs. The mini-dolls are spread across the first few bags, of which there are 11 in total (plus one of large plates). Stephanie, Andrea and Olivia are fairly typical specimens, though Stephanie appears to be dressed for a luau, wearing a lei over a bikini top and sarong.
The hotel manager/receptionist is wearing a very nice formal red outfit and reuses the ‘starlet’ hair in reddish brown, as was also used for Emma’s mother in 41095. I like that we are getting a wider range of female hairstyles now, especially this one for a more mature look than the predominant ponytails. The porter sports a smart dark-red uniform and cap, and reminds me of all those classic Agatha Christie-type books/films set in opulent hotels in the 1920s and 30s. First off, we build what I call the peripheral models. Often these annoy me as I would prefer more bricks to be used in the main model, but that’s actually not the case here. The extras add additional storytelling as always, but the main model is so substantial that there really does not seem to be anything lacking in it. The first mini model is a traditional luggage trolley, which to my mind should be shorter and taller, but it serves its function adequately nonetheless. Next up is a pretty innocuous little snack cart, followed by a rather stylish fountain, which makes excellent use of the large pearl gold clam shell piece and is topped off with a pearl gold frog, creating a nice decorative flourish.
Possibly the next build (two pieces of chained fence over a flowerbed) is a touch superfluous, but I suppose it helps to delimit the garden area, which also contains a table and four chairs for the guests to relax in. All of these models are built from bag 1; bag 2 contains the parts for a very nice black taxi. I’m not usually that interested in vehicles, but I do like the design of this taxi. It is very practical and sturdy but has a frivolous pink interior, and can seat four mini-dolls comfortably. The boot (trunk) opens up and can house a suitcase. Oddly, there is no steering wheel in the car though! Now we move on to the hefty second manual. From here on, it is all about the hotel. Each bag builds one “module” of the build. The techniques used throughout are not complex but the modules are solidly constructed using a mixture of panels, 1x2x5 bricks and arches, which I am pleased about since I dislike it when models achieve height solely through the use of panels and lack some of the robustness conferred by interlocking bricks.
Although the modules are repetitive in terms of the symmetrical outward appearance of the hotel, the interior features of each one are different, so there are variations and surprises involved because of this. Downstairs we have a café with a range of tasty treats and a reception offering newspapers and postcards. The entrance features a chandelier hanging over the red and gold tiled flooring and a red “carpet” stretches outside beyond the revolving door (it really does revolve). The panels for the frontage of the hotel all require stickers I’m afraid, but I think the gold patterns do add an extra level of detail and class. Also downstairs we have that stalwart of a luxurious hotel lobby – a grand piano. This is a gorgeous rendition of a piano at this scale; the detail on it is incredible, down to the black lever holding the cover open. The second floor of the hotel comprises two bedrooms, each with a narrow balcony. One bedroom includes a bathroom, a single bed and a TV, while the other is a bit more plush, with a larger bed that has an azure headboard and a dressing table chock full of toiletries.
One complaint would be that the only way to access one of the bedrooms is through the other, but this is a minor gripe. On the roof, we have a small pool for the guests to relax in, as well as a cleverly designed sun lounger and a little bar for those essential refreshments. The last section of the build involves the lift shaft, which is subsequently attached to the hotel by means of Technic pins and bricks in the same way that modular buildings can be connected together. The shaft is made up of a range of bricks, plates and windows, leaving a 1-brick wide gap on the side for the Technic mechanism to slide up and down. The lift can be locked in position at a level by flipping the Technic axle across so that it rests on a pin. This is the same kind of mechanism as used for the lift in the modular Town Hall 10224, which my nephews absolutely love playing with. I think this is a fun play feature that also serves a practical purpose and aids storytelling. It would have been easy enough to leave this out and just let children imagine how people get from one level to another, but I applaud the designer for including it, as I think it really does add a great function.
In case it isn’t clear from the foregoing, I really love this set. I am a big fan of “dollhouse”-type buildings like Haunted House and the modular buildings, and I think this is as close as we will get to a Friends modular, in terms of part count and detail; while the build is not as brick-intensive and intricate as a modular is (it’s still 500 - 1000 parts short of a modular), it is still satisfying and results in a substantial model, which took me over three hours to build. The colour scheme is harmonious and not too garish, with the pearl gold accents offering an excellent touch of glitz and glamour to the building. To my mind, the parts selection cannot be faulted. With the inclusion of the taxi and the two members of hotel staff, there are numerous storytelling possibilities for children, and I think adults will be impressed with the end result too; the model could certainly grace any AFOL display shelf and not look out of place. I do hope to see someone try to fully modularise the hotel in the near future, to expand the number of rooms and to flesh it out even further with corridors and stairs;