Remember “the good old days” when being in a hall with thousands of (masked and vaxxed) people at Comic Con LA did not sound like a terrifically terrible idea? Everyone 5+ was eligible for vaccine protection! Masks worked! It was a heady time… things were looking up, and only a few weeks more until Bricks LA!

Looking back, Bricks LA 2021 had been virtual. And 2020 was the last time I’d seen most of my friends in person. Bricks LA 2022 was the con the community had been waiting two years for! And it was just around the corner!

Whoa there buddy… By mid-December, Los Angeles was reeling thanks to Omicron. And the event had to change. Bricks LA organizers had decided in October to make the convention “AFOLs only”. That meant no public, no hangers-on. Only AFOLs with vaccination cards could attend. Yes, we love to share our MOCs with the public, but the organizers of Bricks LA care deeply about the health and wellbeing of their AFOL community and they refused to put on an event that would endanger us in any way. So they booked the safest hall, with the highest ceilings and best HVAC. They took every COVID precaution possible.

Approaching Christmas, however, it looked like even the most stringent measures wouldn’t be enough for any group to meet safely. I saw friend after friend fall ill during those weeks. Still, I yearned for Bricks LA. For my part, I decided to isolate for the two weeks prior to Bricks LA. I couldn’t control what might come into the convention hall, but I could control what I wouldn’t bring in myself.

By the New Year, though, as cases continued to skyrocket, it all seemed futile. Omicron wasn’t messing around. Should I stay home? Ultimately, I decided that isolating for two weeks only to continue isolation would have been beyond my mental health capacity. I packed my N95 masks, grabbed some MOCs, and I drove to Pasadena.

Beginnings

The hall was rather empty (which might have been almost a little relieving). Apparently, a large number of registered attendees had grappled with my same safety concerns and decided not to take the risk. Some of those who backed out had fallen ill, some had been exposed or had some symptoms that might possibly be COVID and didn’t want to pass any risk on to the rest of us, and some just downright didn’t feel safe in a crowd.

This must have been a tough call for every person who stayed home, but I’m sure those who attended the con were grateful for every sacrifice—including myself. Those of us who threw our hats in the ring could breathe a little easier knowing that AFOLs were looking out for each other. Thank you to those who stayed home. And we missed you.

Detail — Image of an octopus staying home.

I hadn’t built many MOCs I loved during quarantine, but that wasn’t the point. I brought what I had. And it still took me hours upon hours to unpack, due to the constant, wonderful distractions of “long lost friends” and laughter!

The most important item I had packed was “the hug curtain”.

I am not “a born hugger”. I’m from the midwest. We hide our feelings. By 2020, however, I had AFOL friends I loved to hug. Now it’s 2022. Was a transparent, thick gauge shower curtain going to protect us from COVID-19? Well, it was better than nothing. And the hugs were glorious! (Note: The hall was also well-stocked with hand sanitizer.)

Friday was for setting up. Did we play a game? I don’t remember. There was an opening ceremony. And a recording of Anne Rafferty from London who brings the FUN to The LEGO Group as Vice President of the Digital Consumer Engagement team—she wished she was there. These words may sound flippant in my attempted brevity, but it really is special that The LEGO Group is involved so deeply with the AFOL community. Thank you, LEGO!

And there were Nerds there! (Not all who had planned on attending, alas.) I set up my MOCs in their themes between our Nerd-in-Chief Dave’s heart mosaic and a Maleficent Castle in a wonderful little Nerdy corner.

MOCs

And, finally, I started walking around to see the MOCs. (OMG IT WAS SO EXCITING TO SEE MOCS IN PERSON!)

Mini masterpieces by peter aoun and Brandon Griffith

LEGO for me is an IRL thing. I love cons, I love LUGs, I love MOCs. I have grown weary of scrolling through images on a computer, no matter how amazing those images might be. I need to appreciate the brick in real-time, in real size, preferably with a real creator nearby. In addition, Southern California is home to some world-class builders. I could gush for paragraphs about the MOCs I drank in.

A steampunk plane with a six foot wingspan by chris wight

I didn’t take enough pictures. (Here is a full gallery from Bricks LA.) I was too busy enjoying reality. I’m sprinkling a few images throughout this article. Still, you’ll have to imagine in scrolling how great it all really was in person.

What I remember most from the first day was that we AFOLs were on cloud nine. We stayed in the hall, laughing, until the convention center literally kicked us out. (Some people went out for drinks. That wasn’t in my comfort level.) …which just means that I’d run straight back in at the opening bell on Saturday!

Activities

You know what I love at conventions? Games. In particular, I love losing games. I’m not the fastest builder, and I can’t reverse engineer a vehicle off a box to save my life… but I have fun doing it! I love losing! My favorite game to lose is the team build. (This year, teams were reduced to groups of three. And my team barely lost at all!) At Bricks LA, losing is winning. And the low number of attendees allowed people to play more games than usual. #glasshalffull

Support brick on tables — play brick on tables

The organizers had also set out board games (and some LEGO games) if we (somehow) got tired of our favorite brick. And there were tables of support/play brick that we could peruse and pull from to take home and MOC with. Basically, that was an excuse to socialize. What happens is you end up looking for pieces that others are looking for just as much as for what you want. Win-win-win.

Day two culminated in an awards ceremony. Even with the reduced number of attendees, there were many wonderful builds that merited the honor. The ceremony was joyous. (I even took home some trophies.)

Several cons have a grand tradition of “after dark” mocs. Bricks LA had never done this, but since there was no public, we gave it a go. It was a first attempt, and the AFOLs were largely distracted, but it was fun. And then they kicked us out again.

Sunday was more games, more people time, and - oh, I forgot to mention the spending opportunities!

There wasn’t a real “vendors aisle”, but Crazy Bricks was present and individuals brought plenty of stuff to trade and sell. Also, the antique shop across the street happened to have someone’s collection on clearance. AFOLs kept appearing with bags of bulk magic. (That was an epic collection.)

Of course, even though the masks and concern allowed us to feel comfortable, the threat of COVID was always in the shadows, and on Saturday an active case was discovered. The person left the event and their traced contacts tested negative. The attendees were notified in a very professional way.

Swag

Look how far I am, and I haven't even mentioned the swag! What?

On arrival, we were given a goodie bag with support brick, a t-shirt, printed bricks and polybags, a pen, a commemorative Mr. Peanut minifig hat, and an amazing con kit we have come to expect from Tim Heiderich. This year we got Griffith Observatory. Brilliant build, beautifully researched, and check out those custom printed bits inside!

The weekend was full of not just games, but also with drafts and talks. Lugola’s Peter Aoun hosts the best drafts, and talks ranged from a LEGO Masters presentation to battle bots from BrickNerd’s own Will Fong, to an interactive MILS tutorial taught by our own Dave Schefcik.

Taking the opportunity for better photographs

The convention ended on a high note with a few extra awards, including “MOCs of Note”, one of which was Stephen Pakbaz’ Ingenuity.

“Best in Show” went to Jesse Gros’ impressive “League of Legends”. (There was no “People’s Choice” this year for obvious reasons…)

Finally, we spent hours on heartfelt farewells… and packing back up. (My van was filled to bursting going home.

The great news (one week out) is that Bricks LA doesn’t seem to have been a superspreader event. The good news is that the organizers will continue organizing online “Brick Brunch” events. The bad news is that Bricks LA is now officially “on hiatus”. My fingers and toes are all crossed that this is a temporary situation. It’s been a rough two years without AFOL convention engagement, and it would be a tragedy to permanently lose that forum for joy.

Brick Brunch

Addendum: We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the virtual “Brick Brunch” hosted by Bricks LA for virtual attendees the weekend after the physical show. This included some fascinating presentations from LEGO, a game or two and general chatting among AFOL attendees from all over the globe.

There were a few standout sessions from a variety of interesting people working areas that LEGO hasn’t really highlighted in the past:

LEGO Graphic Designer Ashwin Visser who discussed the work that goes into minifigures, stickers and printed elements.
LEGO Design Engineers Andreas Malling Jensen and Tore Christensen showcased how they take elements from design to production, demonstrating plastic flow and discussing manufacturing considerations.
Head of US Marketing Cristina Liquorias chatted about managing a global brand with moving partnerships and product launches.
The BrickLink team shared information on how they are working with the community in their development process as they become more integrated with LEGO.

Overall, Bricks LA was a needed hug—it might have been smaller scale but it was exactly what the doctored ordered—a great big helping of the AFOL community!

What did you think of Bricks LA 2022? Let us know in the comments section below!

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