Gen Y-er On The Loose: I've Given Up Trying To Think Of Creative Titles For These: Bricks Cascade

Bricks Cascade

Portland, Oregon

February 28 - March 3, 2019

This year's Bricks Cascade was a little bit different for me. I opted not to take any time off work -- nor did our school holidays naturally fall during the con, as they were nice enough to do in 2018. As a result, I missed some of the games on Friday as well as the Opening Ceremonies. Ah well.

I was there Thursday evening to set up some MOCs. Then on Friday evening I arrived in time for the WAFOL (Female LEGO fans) meet & greet dinner.

On Saturday, during public hours, I got a surprise visit from my brother, sister-in-law, and nieces! This was my nieces' first time to the con, and my brother's first appearance since 2014.

4-year-old J was mesmerized by Ben's Funland, naturally.

The girls lasted about an hour, but seemed to really enjoy all the things... especially those that either moved or could be climbed upon.

* * *

I played only two games this year. I did the sadistic Build-in-a-Bag...

And, on Saturday evening, I participated in a kind of Master Build game using pieces from one of the new LEGO Movie 2 sets...

Below: This set's designer, and Senior Designer for LEGO, Nicolaas Vas, signs autographs...

Earlier in the day, he gave a presentation and did a Q&A. Those who were in attendance got a ticket for the evening's game.

We were each given part of the set and told to build something. I built this...

Here are a few of the other builds. There was so much creativity!

This year I wanted to get a team together for Team Speed Build. I did recruit enough people to form a team. But the sign-up happened at 8pm Friday at the front desk, just as the nightly meeting was ending. By the time I got back to the hall, there was already a line in front of the sign-up sheets. By the time I reached the front of the line, all the slots were filled.

Bricks Cascade is great in so many ways, but I really wish they'd consider going electronic for game signups in the future. There are still occasional problems with this method, sure, but it's so much less stressful than the "first come" method. If I don't make it into a game, that's fine. But I guess I'd just rather that the reason be "random draw!" rather than "you didn't run out of the meeting early enough and camp out in front of the registration tables, fool."

In the end, though, the Team Speed Build took place in front of public on short tables, so really? Maybe not getting into it was for the best... this time.

* * *

Meanwhile, out on the display tables...

My Kitchen Exhibition ballooned to 7...

...with the addition of a 1930s model...

...and an Edwardian vignette...

I had fun making an industrial Microscale playground...

A challenge was put out to make a MOC that included an "Octan" piece, and so Quacktan was hatched...

LEGO mazes aren't a novel concept, but I wanted to make one of my own. It was fun watching kids standing before it throughout the con with their little fingers moving around in the air, "tracing" their path to victory. :)