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if you still plan on bringing your great hall I can just place the boathouse with you and have it separate from my things
Yes, I am bringing the Great Hall. You can have the Boathouse near it or elsewhere, whatever your preference. 🙂
Re: reserved space for the LUG – The two versions of the the layout that I sent to Todd use the same set of tables assigned to people the same way in both, the second version is just a more compact rearrangement of those tables. I took my time sending version 2 to Todd (for a long time, I was waiting to see if anybody else would add to the thread here), so I’m not sure yet which version he’s using, since I haven’t heard from him directly. But he did update our status at some point, so we’re “on the map”, although that map hasn’t actually been made yet. Since there’s already 900 people registered and he didn’t like version 1, I predict he will use version 2. I did tell him that we were having trouble reducing our table count in any meaningful way, and that since last fall I have emphasized using as little space as needed and not repeating builds from last year.
The amount of space you have for your MOC’s is what’s on those layouts, which are based on the spreadsheet we filled out in March. The overall space given to the LUG is not going to change at this point, so any rearranging done would have to be within that framework.
When you register your MOC’s, it will ask you to choose a theme or a collab. You need to choose Steel City LUG from the collab menu. When you enter the dimensions for your MOC, that information is to help Todd and theme leaders plan the space needed. In this case, the theme leader is me, the space is already assigned, and so I’m not going to look at that information, and so it doesn’t really matter what you put there.
I know there’s been other points of discussion raised in this thread, but I won’t have time to go back and look at them all until at least later this week.
Update: I got an email reply from Todd about version 2 of our table layout. It is just three words. They are, in no particular order: Ben, Todd, and Super. One of them has a comma after it, one has an exclamation point, and one has no punctuation. I’ll let you guys figure it out.
Therefore, we can consider version 2 to be officially approved. I’m going to suggest that the LUG bring as many table clothes as possible. I know in 2024 Krista brought a bunch and we didn’t use them, but the BF table cloth system leaves a lot to be desired, and I had to run around finding some in both 2023 and 2024. This year, I will not be available for that part.
I’m going to suggest that the LUG bring as many table clothes as possible.
We should definitely have the 3 (or is it 4?) SteelCity LUG black table cloths.
Amazing news @bengood921! Thanks for all the work on that. It’s truly appreciated.
I know we bought new plain black ones for home and garden. I believe they’re at Josh’s. I’m planning on getting there on Wednesday, but probably in the evening. It would probably be beneficial for someone getting there early to have both them and the LUG branded ones so they can start setting up right away.
Todd has started making maps. He likes to update them a lot, so the link below is to the page where he makes the files accessible, rather than the map itself. The map he mentioned in the email this morning (version 10) is already obsolete (version 11 is up). I’m pretty sure anybody can see them as long as you’re a registered exhibitor.
He wants me to approve it, to make sure there’s no errors. I’m not seeing any issues.
Up to 14 now! We’re by the front entrance this year. Interesting. Just a reminder that if you come in the front doors right in ft of our table, no carts on that floor.
Im liking the placement this year! Might be a bit harder to get stuff in and out with the seemingly stupid cart rule, but should make for a good bit of foot traffic!
A couple of questions from a newbie –
I see on the website that there are a lot of games and such to participate in. Is it important to sign up for those in advance (now?) or can it wait until we get there. I don’t want to miss out on the fun.
How many people here are staying at the Holiday Inn (The Brickfair hotel)? I signed up and guess I am supposed to receive an email at some point. A little concerned that I might miss the email if it falls in my spam. Can someone post a heads up if they received the email from Holiday Inn to pay for their room?
My MOC is part of a town display that I am creating. Should I register just my MOC or the whole creation or both?
Looking forward to the event. Now to get my creation finished….
>> I see on the website that there are a lot of games and such to participate in. Is it important to sign up for those in advance (now?) or can it wait until we get there. I don’t want to miss out on the fun.
Sign up now. If you go to your My Account page on the website, at the bottom is a list of important deadlines. The deadline for games signup is July 15. Most games have limited openings for participation. Todd fills them by lottery based on who signed up, and afterwards you’ll get an email informing you of what games you were selected for. The info will also be in your My Account page. They do a waiting list for each game, cause sometimes people don’t show up, but it’s a long shot at best.
>> How many people here are staying at the Holiday Inn (The Brickfair hotel)? I signed up and guess I am supposed to receive an email at some point. A little concerned that I might miss the email if it falls in my spam. Can someone post a heads up if they received the email from Holiday Inn to pay for their room?
This happens every year, I (as well as other people) become concerned that I haven’t heard from them yet, but I always do. There’s also a Hotel tab on your My Accounts page, and if I’m remembering correctly, the information there will change once the email has gone out. But yes, I can post here when I hear from them.
>> My MOC is part of a town display that I am creating. Should I register just my MOC or the whole creation or both?
I’m confused about what you’re asking here. Isn’t the town display also your MOC? People do sometimes break down larger displays into smaller registrations, either because they want the individual MOC cards, or because they want a specific part of it to be eligible for a specific trophy consideration.
>> Just a reminder that if you come in the front doors right in ft of our table, no carts on that floor.
>> Might be a bit harder to get stuff in and out with the seemingly stupid cart rule,
For those unfamiliar, the no-cart rule is specific to the two glass door main entrances – you can’t push items on a cart through any of those doors. The rule was implemented around the time the front entrance was redone (which was the same time the second room was built), and so I’ve assumed that it’s to prevent wear & tear and potential damage to the glass doors, even though I’ve been to other (nicer) venues where carting through the glass doors is standard practice.
You can cart through any other door in the venue, as long as it’s open. On the map, you can see a set of double doors that goes directly to the outside right by the lower right corner of the Steel City LUG area. But I can’t specifically recall if they open those doors during load-in/out times.
To the left of the main entrance is a roll-up garage door, and that’s going to be your best option. They open it for several hours on Wednesday and Thursday and (sometimes) Friday afternoons. But they don’t post the hours it’s gonna be open (presumably for security reasons, I know of one major incident), and I don’t know if you can arrange to have it opened at other times (they don’t have anybody stationed there to open it on demand), so you have to be there when it is open. There’s also double doors on the left side and the back that I’ve used in the past, including last year.
I’m confused about what you’re asking here. Isn’t the town display also your MOC? People do sometimes break down larger displays into smaller registrations, either because they want the individual MOC cards, or because they want a specific part of it to be eligible for a specific trophy consideration.[/quote]
Sorry for the confusion. Yes my display is my MOC but it has some components that are not original. I guess if I am just looking for MOC cards, I can register the whole display. I don’t think that any of my original creations are going to be up for awards.
I guess if I am just looking for MOC cards, I can register the whole display. I don’t think that any of my original creations are going to be up for awards.
I believe that when you register your mocs there was an option to incline them for awards or not. Registering them does give you moc cards in your registration packet.
Unrelated, I have yours and James’s LUG badges. I’ll bring them with me.
Sorry for the confusion. Yes my display is my MOC but it has some components that are not original. I guess if I am just looking for MOC cards, I can register the whole display. I don’t think that any of my original creations are going to be up for awards.
Hoth has many elements that aren’t original. The UCS AT-ATs, the snow speeders, the figures. And that’s ok, the overall is a MOC because those elements and more are put together in a unique way. So call it whatever you want, even if it’s only part of the whole.
I see on the website that there are a lot of games and such to participate in. Is it important to sign up for those in advance (now?) or can it wait until we get there. I don’t want to miss out on the fun.
Yes, Sign up for every game and or parts draft you are interested in now. Then, go to the “My Account” tab and you can rank them in order by your most desired to least desired. I don’t know what if any this has to play in the “Random” drawing for games, but the way I see it if It didn’t have some pool, it wouldn’t be there. Its also worth noting that you will not be in everything you pick. Last year ironically the only game I got to play was the putt putt, which I am okay with because I love putt putt. But I got denied for every other game offered except for the 3 putt putt games. It is also worth noting, if there is a game you really want to play but don’t get selected, still show up. They take attendance and if everyone isn’t there they will allow the alternates and then anyone else who is interested if there is room for them.
How many people here are staying at the Holiday Inn (The Brickfair hotel)? I signed up and guess I am supposed to receive an email at some point. A little concerned that I might miss the email if it falls in my spam. Can someone post a heads up if they received the email from Holiday Inn to pay for their room?
You should get an email that tells you to call the hotel (i believe a number is provided, but I genuinely cant remember) and place a credit card onto your room hold. I believe last year this email came out about 2 weeks before the event. One thing about the hotel, this hotel is outdated. Make sure you have cords and charging blocks for all of your electronic needs, as well as maybe a plug strip. I remember last year Alexis and I needed to run to the Wal-Mart across the parking lot to buy additional charging blocks because we are so used to hotel rooms having in room USB Ports.
My MOC is part of a town display that I am creating. Should I register just my MOC or the whole creation or both?
I would say do both! Register the town as a whole, and then you can register separate buildings, vehicles, or whatever within the town.
At risk of beating a dead horse here, there is no harm in registering each individual thing. I have a couple of MOCs within MOCs myself.
Just an FYI, I’ll be running the banana dot set draft with Chuck assisting me. I just found that out, lol.
Donna@timf I just found out that Jordan will be attending the Ambassador meeting and doing a presentation at some point.
You can cart through any other door in the venue, as long as it’s open. On the map, you can see a set of double doors that goes directly to the outside right by the lower right corner of the Steel City LUG area. But I can’t specifically recall if they open those doors during load-in/out times.
There is a roll-up garage style door just to the left of the main entrance. That is normally open a fair amount Wednesday and Thursday for initial load-in. That would be the best access point for carts/wagons.
@timf I just found out that Jordan will be attending the Ambassador meeting and doing a presentation at some point.
Nice!
Just a reminder that Friday (July 11) is the deadline to upload an avatar image to the Brickfair website to be printed onto your custom 2×3 tile.
>> Just a reminder that Friday (July 11) is the deadline to upload an avatar image to the Brickfair website to be printed onto your custom 2×3 tile.
Tim beat me to it. I got my tile uploaded this evening. There’s been a bunch of questions about the avatar tiles throughout the thread, so here’s a consolidated recap:
If I’m remembering correctly, Todd has told us that he created them as a way to personalize and decorate your brick badge, which is a bit ironic now that you won’t be allowed to put them on your official entry badge. You can put pretty much anything you want on the tile. For anybody who needs ideas, or is just curious: if you go to the Attendees page (from the options listed on the left of the BrickFair exhibitors’ page), there’s four tabs, one of which is called Avatar. It will show any avatar that’s been uploaded, as long the person checked in their account that it can shown publicly.
After you bring up your file on the Avatar upload page, there’s an option to trim it, and the system will force it to be a 3:2 aspect ratio, since it’s going on a 2×3 tile. It’s pretty basic though, so I’ve found that it’s easier to have my file already trimmed to a 3:2 ratio when I upload it, and then I can just select the whole thing on the trim page. I don’t know how the system converts large files into a manageable size for printing in such a small area (I vaguely recall that there used to be a pixel limit), but this evening I uploaded a .png that’s 3000 x 2000 pixels and it accepted it without issue. I don’t know if the system accepts any file types other than .png and .jpg.
The tiles are white, and the printers can not print right up to the edge of the tile surface. Therefore, there will always be a very small but nonetheless visible white border around your image.
Revisiting the subject of the Holiday Inn contacting us about our reservations: as predicted, people have started getting restless because we haven’t heard from the HI yet, so there’s a discussion thread on it on Yak, which is on the BrickFair site. So people might want to monitor that, I’m guessing somebody will post there once they’ve heard from the hotel. Somebody’s already pointed out that based on last year, we should be hearing any day now.
>> Sorry for the confusion. Yes my display is my MOC but it has some components that are not original. I guess if I am just looking for MOC cards, I can register the whole display. I don’t think that any of my original creations are going to be up for awards.
This has been covered but I’m going to recap this one also for future reference: when you register a MOC, it’s more about what’s physically going in the display space than claiming creative ownership. Some town/train builds see the use of modular buildings, possibly modified or expanded; Star Wars people may use sets or Rebrickable or their friends’ designs for vehicles, and a lot of GBC modules are event kits or copies. That stuff all gets registered.
How you break down your display into separate MOCs is up to you. I prefer a single card, regardless of the size of my display, and I dislike clutter from too many cards, but some people will really break it up even if it’s a single display, either because they want to give the name and information for each individual build in the display, or because they want it to be eligible for a certain trophy category.
Did you know that Brickfair has its own Wikipedia page? 😀
The attached image from version 42 of Todd’s layout shows Steel City LUG’s position near the entrance – so cool!
According to the BFVA25 site, Anne and I were #97 on the room reservation list, but we haven’t heard anything either.
Finally I updated my part of Ben’s google doc, I suspect this would be a good time for others to take a second look at it also.
If there’s any questions or problems with the spreadsheet, let me know.
>> Did you know that Brickfair has its own Wikipedia page?
Yep, it has some interesting stuff, although it’s incomplete, because Todd stopped releasing attendance numbers, although that doesn’t explain some of the omissions.
>> The attached image from version 42 of Todd’s layout shows Steel City LUG’s position near the entrance – so cool!
Btw, there’s a support column, right above the number 3 in Greg’s image, and I would assume that that’s where the island will be getting its electricity. A thick cord will run across the floor to the nearest table, and it is supposed to be taped down so it’s not a safety hazard. You might want to keep an eye on it, I had to track somebody down in 2023 to get it done. (Last year we had a column inside the island, so I think we just let it go.)
I have not used electricity at BFVA other than for GBC, where a loop of heavy-duty power strips is provided for the entire island. So I’m not sure what happens once the electricity enters our area. I think we need to provide our own power strips, extension cords, and splitters, but I’m not sure. Todd has posted a .pdf called Electricity Do’s and Don’ts, although it looks like it was made by the Dulles Expo, not BrickFair. If you have any electricity questions, I would post them to Yak on the BrickFair site, and I would do it now, because I can’t tell you more than that myself. Other people might, since LUG members used electricity the last two years.
https://www.brickfair.com/file/122/Electricity%20Dos%20and%20Donts.pdf
>> According to the BFVA25 site, Anne and I were #97 on the room reservation list, but we haven’t heard anything either.
It’s still being discussed on Yak. Todd is in touch with the HI, and we still have to wait.
>> Finally I updated my part of Ben’s google doc, I suspect this would be a good time for others to take a second look at it also.
I had not looked at it since the end of March. Nobody asked for changes to either my first or second table layouts, so there was no need to consult with spreadsheet after I did the first plan, because the tables didn’t change, only their arrangement.
So I was surprised, and concerned, to see that at some point Chuck and Donna @cw142d requested one 8′ table, since no space was given to them in the layout. However, I see on the BrickFair MOCs page that Chuck has four builds registered in the Star Wars section. So presumably he will be displaying there (in which case they shouldn’t be listed on the Steel City LUG google doc). But I’d feel better if somebody confirmed that.
I’m also looking on the BrickFair site at everything registered for Steel City LUG, and I’m seeing that Frost @tfdesigns and Jonah have nothing registered. The deadline for MOC cards is nine days away. (I don’t know that BrickFair has an official MOC card policy, but I’m gonna guess that they’d prefer you use the ones they print for us. Brickworld has officially banned any MOC cards that aren’t issued by them.)
Crap, I didn’t catch a typo for @cw142d in the previous message. I’m not sure if editing the message will send out a notification, so here’s another message just in case.
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