A Tale Of Two Conventions

Last week I had the pleasure of making the trip down to the San Jose area to attend the 2nd annual Bricks by Bay Lego convention. And since BBTB is the ancestral birthplace of Bricks of Character, it was also a bit of a pilgrimage (except without the bandits and dyssentry). This year the event took place at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Santa Clara. Going to a convention in a hotel that's hundreds of miles of from home has many advantages. Such as being in a hotel. That's hundreds of miles from home. Because PLAYTIME!

Now if you're reading this and thinking "Oh god, here comes another turgid report on another random nerd-filled Lego convention", then I'm afraid you're only 50% right. Because by an amazing twist of fate, the Nova Albion steampunk convention was going on in the same hotel at the same time. And even for those of us that were not already massive Lego steampunk fans like my buddy Guy Himber, this was an opportunity not to be missed!

Guy and I had already planned for this well in advance, growing as much Victorian-issue face fungus as our childish faces could muster, and putting together some appropriately outlandish and anachronistic costumes.

The exhibition space for BBTB was several times larger than last year, providing most themes with a veritable orgy of display space. The Bricks of Character theme was present once again (hosted by yours truly) and our 'piece de resistance' this time was the 8-foot long Santas Workshop scene by rising talent Carl Merriam.

This is the first time the entire thing has been on display since it left the store window at Macys in Fresno. And quite the sight it was to behold!

I particularly liked the elf that's all hopped up on coffee from the little coffee machine, and the fact that these elves are able to fabricate videogame consoles!

   The other highlight of the show was the Cyber City collaborative diorama, made by the guys at RoninLUG. This was a densely packed Bladerunner-like nighttime city scape that came alive with all kinds of lights, sounds, LCD screens and even a monorail. You'll find a million photos of this on the web by now, so instead I've created a video 'fly through' of the diorama, with music.

   Among other awesome works at the Space table were Charles Esseltine's fleet of super-greebly ships and Andrew Lee's impeccibly detailed MEGA Destroy Super Action diorama, featuring a giant Japanese-style mecha stomping on a Japanese-style town eating monster in the middle of a Japanese-style microscale rush-hour cityscape.

   Over in the Medieval & Fantasy area there were many large castle dioramas, a good steampunk presence, and this wonderfully original curiosity: a series of vigettes by Brandon Griffith and Ayleen Gaspar depicting memorable scenes from the movie Blazing Saddles. This was just about as "out there" as anything anyone has ever seen at a Lego convention. Hilarious. Politically incorrect. Wish I'd thought of it!

Meanwhile, on the Nova Albion side of the building, a very different set of MOCs were on display, in much quieter and more civilized surroundings, at the Museum of Curiosities. All manner of brassy, leathery, 'punked-up' artifacts and gadgets, from weapons to gas masks to medical devices to dead fairies and even a steam powered tricycle (...nah, that'll never catch on).

    Guy, Carl and I had an equally squeee-worthy time perousing the many vendor areas, looking at all kinds of wonderous merchandise, from aethericly-powered vacuum-tube-encrusted wrist-wearable nerf-firing crossbows, to a plethora of goggles, goggles and more goggles.

Meanwhile meanwhile, across a lobby filled with people in the most elaborate and peculiar costumes you have ever seen (and the occasional Dalek), a wholly other group of nerds fans were enjoying typical Lego convention fayre such as games, contests, sessions, shopping and a floor-load of loose brick, as we continued to feverishly try and complete our setups for the public exhibition.

     Because these two conventions had collided, the organizers of both had arranged for some cross-pollination. BBTB attendees could buy extra badge bricks to gain entry to the steampunk con, while Nova Albion attendees could buy ribbons to stick to their badges to gain direct access to our space. Many of the punkers I spoke to were very suprised - and then immediately very excited (Sarah!) - to learn that a Lego con was going on barely a league away! Which meant that during table setup I did run into some rather atypical sights for a Lego convention. But it was all 'pleasantly diverting' nonetheless!

Our duties at BBTB meant than Guy and I had to yo-yo continuously, in full cosplay regalia, between both conventions. The highlight of the Steampunk con were the evening balls. As far as we could tell, the objective was to get your photograph taken with as many young ladies in corsets as possible. Well I don't know if that really was the idea, but we certainly made it our mission! And that wasn't particularly difficult since Guy had fabricated an amazing brass top hat, which meant we basically got stopped every 30 seconds to get our picture taken or explain how it was made or let people fondle it. It was quite the head turner, I can tell you!



Along the way we also got to show Guy's steampunk Lego weapons to the League of Steam, who were demonstrating a working net gun and plunger shooter. Then later on a bunch of shadowy figures inducted us into the League of Proper Villains (details of which I cannot divulge as I am sworn to secrecy). Erm, so how many times is that for the word 'league' now exactly?

On the final day of the festivities, the public were invited to come and see the fruits of our Lego. Well over 3000 people showed up, and due to better space, a better hotel, better planning and better weather, the atmosphere was relaxed and everyone got through in relatively short order. When I eventually got outside to photograph the queue around the block, there wasn't one. There wasn't even a queue for the door!

During the public hours we hung out inside the Bricks of Character pen and tried to amuse ourselves by working on some steampunk respirator mask kits (...which would have come in handy earlier in the day, when it smelled like one of the visitors had been recently sprayed by a skunk!). By this time Guy had unceremoniously shaved off his mutton chops, and the brass top hat now doubled as a combination waste paper basket / spitoon.

When it was all over, the displays had all been packed away, and the closing ceremonies completed, a few of us lingered in the hotel lobby for the remainder of the evening, watching the number of Steampunk cosplayers gradually diminish. And we unanimously concluded that "cross-conning" was such an awesome experience, that every Lego con from now on should do double duty like this! And from what I hear, the organizers of BBTB and Nova Albion kind of agree. Now if I could somehow get the organizers of BrickCon and SteamCon in a room together...


Additional photos by Guy Himber and Tim Inman

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And for those of you that get all squishy when you think about the combination of steampunk and Lego, make sure to check out the forthcoming summer steampunk issue of BrickJournal magazine, guest edited by Guy Himber, and featuring a ton of Lego steampunk related articles, including a full writeup of the Bricks by the Bay / Nova Albion 'mashup'.