After being dropped off at Sea-Tac airport by my wife and picked up at San Diego airport by fellow
SEALUGger, Mark Rideout, my BricksWest trip began...
Mark and I passed on the grand,
Grand Palisades - which featured suit and tied attendants and "facilities" - to save a few bucks, and stayed at the Holiday Inn Express - staffed by Jimmy and Billy who threaten each other's vital organs with highlighter pens. But at least we had a fridge and microwave!
For dinner, Mark and I were joined by Matt Gerber and his wife (and kids), Tim Courtney, and Eric Sophie and his fiance. Fun was had by all, especially when discussing Mecha design as artistry, Tim's forays into politics and social discussion, and the shockingly large cost of a dinner for 9 at
Karl Strauss' Brewery.
The night ended with Mark and I spending a few hours polishing his Homeworld-inspired Space MOC for display at the BricksWest pavilion.
(Picture of Mark Rideout's HomeWorld-inspired space ship
courtesy of Ahui Herrera, and BrickShelf)
The day started by getting lost searching for Denny's in the Carlsbad, CA. suburbs.
Display setup ended up taking 2.5 hours, but there was only minor breakage. Mark and I arrived just in time to see Ashley Glennon guiding his class through the building of a microfig Star Wars X-Wing attacking the Death Star trench.
(Steve Jackson and Ashley Glennon - with Jeff Ranjo in the back playing with Ashley's microfig creations)
(Chris Snead speaking, David Johann in background, Bryce McGlone waiting)
Next, I attended the Mecha round-table discussion where the design of joints and weight balancing was discussed. Key speakers were Bryce McGlone, Chris Snead, and of course Eric Sophie.
(Bryce McGlone and Bionicle-based Mecha)
(Gigi and Eric Sophie)
After a lackadaisical lunch with Mark and Dan Jassim at the In & Out Burger, we returned to the LEGOLand Pavilion to watch over our displays and interact with the throngs of kids and parents.
For dinner, the mecha folks joined Mark and I to try Carl's Jr.. I was especially impressed with their bacon and onion ring cheeseburger! Creating one of the most memorable moments of the convention was meeting Jeff Ranjo, a mecha builder and animation designer at Disney. Jeff was a key artist on the refreshingly witty
Emperor's New Groove. His contributions included the singer in the opening musical number and the "fly death scene". While the movie was frowned upon inside Disney and under-performed at the Box Office, it's one of my favorite comedies of all time and meeting one of the makers was a lifetime experience! Given my non-stop gushing over the movie, neverending flattery of his contributions, and constant criticism of Disney's recent sequel-itis, Jeff was VERY accomodating of our discussion
.
Post-dinner festivities included a very enlightening Q&A discussion with Brad Justus, Corporate VP of
LEGO Direct (Shop At Home, Legends, and MyOwnCreation lines).
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