@bengood921
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The 17th works for me. The weekend after that is ILG. The weekend of the 31st would work for me also.
I’m interested also. One of those weekends I expect to be in Lancaster, but it hasn’t been decided which one yet, I’ll see if I can nail that down this week.
I knew this one had to be coming. I don’t know where they’re getting the other photos from, I only know the first one from Flickr:
https://www.brothers-brick.com/2025/12/14/close-encounters-of-the-holiday-kind/#more-468359
I’m taking another look at that pic, and it’s clear (pun intended) that transparent wouldn’t work in this case, the buildings would be too difficult to make out without the white around them.
>> I’m going to get the 3.8inx2.5in
Are we getting glossy, matte, or transparent? I’m thinking I would buy two.
I parked behind Kristin’s car at TUBS, and I took a pic, since I didn’t know whose car it was at the time.
>> (I am not sure it was ever used.)
It was definitely used. It was the background in all five phases from November 2018 to Jan/Feb 2019:
I’m sorry to hear that you won’t be at TUBS, but considering that you needed the transplant, presumably this has to be considered good news. Will you at least be able to attend TUBS as a public spectator, or is that not an option right now? If not, I’ll send you some pics when we’re there.
>> We are offically on the map! Sharing a small island with our Northern Neighbors Buffa-LUG
Have you still been talking to Todd? Are you aware that Steel City LUG is still on the map twice? Is he aware? I know it’s not the final version of the map yet, and I figured he’d fix it eventually, but he recently posted on brickfair-dot-com: “Every table is accounted for. Any new MOCs should squeeze into existing table spaces.” And so my concern is that he’s accidentally overlooking an entire island of tables that could be used.
Hello Nick, and welcome. That’s a lot of black and gold in that pic 😀 My terrible towel is folded up in a drawer somewhere :/
>> Meaning All of the MOCs….. I highly doubt this would be popular among some people.
Yeah that’s alone is a deal breaker. Besides trusting third parties to handle my precious MOCs (hard pass), I’m pretty sure it would amount to a lot of standing in line waiting your turn to load in and out, which is a lot of time wasted when you might not have any to spare.
I also looked around the site and at the venue maps, and as far as I could tell, in order to get the equivalent space to the Dulles Expo, which we were already too big for, we’d have to rent five or six halls in the building, across more than one floor. There’s also no public parking. It was my one complaint about Bricks Cascade in Portland, where it also made loading in and out a huge hassle, and I’ve heard it cited as a reason that BrickFair Alabama ended – the AFOLs came but the public didn’t, because parking is an issue there.
At closing ceremonies at BFVA24, Todd dispelled a rumor (that I had not heard) that he was going to sell BrickFair, saying among other things, he needs the money. And from what I’ve heard, Chantilly is the one that makes all the money. So I have trouble believing that Todd will just let it go. But I don’t know what he’s gonna do. I’m still hoping Ikea gets blocked somehow.
>> and possibly report back to Todd for some corrections.
I’d say you don’t need to be in a hurry on that. My experience is that version 18 is a low number and that he constantly revises the map. But also, I suspect his thinking is that it’ll be easier for Steel City LUG to give back unused space towards event time than it will be for him to give us more if it turns out we need it. However, it’s also possible that he’s basing it on our presence the last couple years at Chantilly, in which case he might be disappointed. I don’t know if he’s aware of TUBS, or if he’s considering that the close proximity of the two events on the calendar may deter some people from going to Oaks. He’s been a PA resident for some years now though, so he must be aware that Oaks is actually farther from us than Chantilly. Probably not by enough that the distance alone would be a deal breaker, but in this case it means that “located in PA” is not a selling point.
I noticed tonight that three weeks ago Todd started posting map files for this event:
https://www.brickfair.com/file/
He did say he has no idea what to expect for MOCs for this event – I remember at the first Fredericksburg, he said we were “thin on MOCs” and that we should spread out as much as possible – but I see that Steel City LUG has its own 8-table island (complete with a support column right in the middle of it). But on the registered attendee list, I don’t see any Pittsburgh names I recognize besides Will M.
The registered attendee list is currently at 205, which isn’t bad, but definitely makes it a smaller event, which can be a tough sell with the public. I still don’t want to commit to this one because of TUBS, and the fact that I’m still building for that.
The article on The Burn notes at the end that everything is preliminary, that no permits have been obtained, and no date is set for construction. So I can at least hope that this might turn into a Monroeville situation, where there’s a lot of outcry, and thus alternate plans are created where the convention center remains open.
Three days ago somebody asked on Yak about registering for BFVA26, and Todd replied with: “I’m really trying to avoid a repeat of this year where I obtained a contract 1 week prior to show. Dulles Expo says they’ll get me a contract in Oct/Nov.”
It’s possible that they lied to him, but my guess is that it’s more likely that the person he actually communicates with there was not in the loop on Ikea.
I had not heard about the Ikea until Dan’s post. I don’t see how this is anything other than an epic disaster for BrickFairVA.
I went on the site, and somebody’s brought it up on Yak already, and so far Todd’s only response is “Well **** me.”
The first two years (which I didn’t attend), BrickFair was at the Sheraton in Tyson’s Corner, and somebody else pointed out that that building is already being converted into an apartment building. And I’m pretty sure the reason Todd left the Sheraton is that BrickFair had already outgrown it.
>> Do we think I will still earn VIP Points when I make purchases at the LEGO stores? I have heard mixed things on this and I don’t know how to change my status from seller on Bricklink
I had not noticed that this could be an issue. I need the answer to that also, because I want my VIP points. I last sold on BL in 2008, and after my inventory got deleted out, I made an attempt to relist it all in 2012 (I spent hours and hours on it but only did a fraction of what I have) and never re-opened. Right now it’s now it’s of the lowest priority and isn’t happening anytime soon.
Yeah I thought it was strange that they said “enter your email or username” and then when I entered my email, they said no, enter your username instead. But I got it to work also.
I got four more tables for Both, they’re set up. I used the extra table they gave us for myself. Everybody else I’m waiting to hear from before I request tables. Our interior space is huge, so that won’t be an issue.
All our tables are 24″ depth. Getting more tables isn’t a problem, but if you need more than 24″ or 48″, you’re going to have to add another table.
I hadn’t checked my YT subscription page since last week. This one finally got posted, whoop! I haven’t watched it yet.
I sent version 3 to Skip this evening and got a reply. He wrote:
>> Hi Ben – Mark said we can just change/rearrange the tables once you’re
there. Thanks!I didn’t realize Mark was still involved. My comment in an earlier email that I thought it would be easier to have the table setup people have the correct plan, since redoing the skirting can be a big hassle was ignored.
So that’s where we’re at. I plan to be there before noon on Thursday.
I had a plenty of time to think about our table layout on my long drive back to Pittsburgh tonight. I had written:
>> they shorted us 19 inches. ‘
>
>> although I have rearranged tables in both versions, I have not changed the number of tablesNeither of these statements is correct. On the drive, I realized that during my rearranging, and I’d somehow lost a table. Skip gave us 12 tables, and my proposals all have only 11. I’m not sure what I should read into the fact that nobody else pointed this out.
But it’s probably a good thing that I didn’t notice earlier, because if I had, I would not have submitted the proposals to the group the way I did, and yet, considering the fact that nobody has complained about a lack of table space, I still consider version 3 to be our best option. If people want to add a 12th table back in, we can discuss it, but right now I am not seeing a solution that doesn’t involve either asking Skip for a bigger footprint, or asking Will or Kevin to split the displays onto tables on opposite sides of the island. I also was admittedly not a fan of Skip’s layout because it creates crowded corners for the people sitting with their displays at those tables.
If people have anything to say on this issue, I am all for it, but the time to do it is now. I still have plenty of building to do and so I’ll have only so much time to devote to table layout plans over the next three days. At some point I’ll have to let Skip know, and I am still planning for 7pm today. Rearranging the tables ourselves would be easy enough, but rearranging the skirting could be a huge hassle, so it’s better if we tell Skip ahead of time.
