The Brick Connection– A novice Lego fan explores the great brick world of LEGO

Hello LEGO friends!

I hope all my fellow Americans enjoyed the holiday weekend. It’s back to reality now. Especially for me, since after my nice 3-day weekend, I will now have no weekend. Huzzah!

That’s right, as I mentioned last week I will be in northern New Jersey this weekend for a Lego convention. Brick Fest Live at the Meadowlands Expo Center. For any football fans out there, this is right by MetLife stadium, home to the New York Jets and New York Giants.

Not only do these New York teams not play in New York City, they don’t even play in New York State. And they have to share a stadium. Haha, LOSERS!

Have I mentioned that I am a Philadelphia Eagles fan?

Anyway, instead of you reading about me learning something, I’m going to teach you about something:

The joys of LEGO conventions!!

Where do I begin…

Okay, so they’re not the most glamorous events. If you were to attend one as a Lego fan, you would probably have a blast. If you were to attend one as a vendor, you…well actually, some of you guys might still have fun with it, but I just get tired and kind of bored (depending on the amount of people there.)

When you attend a convention as a fan you get to go when you want, stay as long as you want, and leave whenever you want, with no extra work.

As a vendor, I have to be there early to set up, be there for every single second that the convention is open, and then stay after to clean up.

This weekend’s convention is an extra long one. There are a total of 6 sessions, each 4 hours long, spread out over 3 days. We do get a 2 hour break between sessions each day, but it ends up being a 10 hour plus day when all is said and done.

If there are a lot of people at the convention and especially if those people come to the BrickWarriors booth, time can go by fast and I can even enjoy myself. If there are hardly any people there because it’s 7:30 on a Friday night, it can get agonizingly boring.

Now I don’t want to sound like a Negative Nelly. At conventions I get to meet some really nice people. I get to see people’s minds figuratively blown when they discover BrickWarriors for the first time. And sometimes I get to travel to really cool places that I wouldn’t normally get to go to if it weren’t on the company’s dime.

But did I mention how long the convention is??

So I wanted to give you a quick behind the scenes look at convention preparation.

We use tool bins to conveniently travel with our many pieces and divide them up based on themes. Below is a picture of 8 of the 13 bins I am taking to New Jersey. What I have to do before leaving is go through and refill any pieces that are low.

This next picture is the rest of the stuff I need to take to the convention including a few boxes of our board game, t-shirts, minifigures, books (written by Ryan Hauge and Amanda Taylor), the t-shirt mannequins, cups for our booth shoppers, tape, signs, etc.

Here’s a shot of some of the minifigs we will be selling, all outfitted in BrickWarriors accessories:

When everything is set up, this is usually what it looks like:

Exciting stuff, huh?!


So that was my quick behind the scenes look at convention fun. Since I have a short week at the office I needed a quick and easy topic to discuss. Hopefully it was of some interest to you.

But we're not quite done. I also wanted to share some videos that I have shot at or about conventions for my vlog: Behind the BrickWarriors Mask.

The first two were filmed at conventions. One in Leesburg, Virginia, May 2014 and the second one in Marlborough, Massachusetts, May 2015.

Scouting for Bricks 2014:

Brick Fest Live 2015:

The last video I wanted to share is my favorite Behind the BrickWarriors Mask. If you’ve ever seen one of those funny BuzzFeed videos, it might seem familiar. It’s all about the “fun” interactions I have with people who come to the BrickWarriors booth at conventions. Maybe it will provide you with some information that could be helpful if you ever get the chance to visit the BrickWarriors convention booth.

So that’s all I have for this week. If you are in or around Secaucus, New Jersey this weekend, July 10^th, 11^th, and 12^th (2015 for those of you reading this in the future), come visit me at Brick Fest Live!

Here’s the website if you need any information about tickets or the location: http://brickfestlive.com/

For everyone else, I’ll catch you next week to discuss a topic that I have totally already thought of.

In the mean time, happy brick connecting!!

*Compliments, general feedback, and constructive criticism are welcome. Any haters that are gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate can go step on some Lego with their bare feet.*