Last week, I was lucky enough to attend the "Biggest Little ANE (LEGO Authorized Networking Event) convention in the West"! BrickSlopes 2022 took place in Sandy, Utah at the Mountain America Exposition Center. For a little history, BrickSlopes started in 2013, and with the exception of the year-that-must-not-be-named, it has been going for nine years with eight conventions. Like most LEGO conventions I've attended, it’s a fan convention put on by primarily volunteers for AFOL/TFOLs with an exhibition open to the general public.

I've attended various brick conventions for over six years now. Most are three- or four-day events with opening and closing ceremonies, keynote speakers, presentations and games—and of course we can’t forget SWAG. BrickSlopes has all of these and does it all very well. But there are a few subtle differences. The VIB (Very Important Builder) convention was three days from Thursday through Saturday, with public hours on Friday and Saturday. Sunday is not a convention day due to the local market, and all MOCs must be packed and moved out Saturday evening.

Check-In

Starting at 12 noon on Thursday, we could check in and get our VIB lanyards and name tags, swag bag, T-shirts and brick badges. It was run very smoothly by the fantastic staff at registration. They did an excellent job of expediting us through the line and onto the convention hall floor. There was a lot of unpacking to do! With 24,000 square feet of display space to fill, 194+ registered attendees brought more than 454 MOCs (My Own Creation) to show—it was their biggest convention to date.

Swag

The swag bags as they are called—or brick "booty" if you’re a pirate—contianed a LEGO key chain, vendor coupons, a convention minifig (the last year that is possible), a random Simpsons CMF series 1 figure (I got Nelson), and a small mix of LEGO elements (beskar ingots, metallic silver candle sticks, candle holders, reddish brown curved window frames, lots of five-pointed flower stems, three pearl gold whip/flex pieces and three globes). From my perspective, it was a great mix of "booty" this year.

Set-Up

With 24,000 square feet of display space, you would think that would be enough space for vendors and MOCs, but it was a serious challenge to find spots for everyone’s creations. The mosaic I displayed in was one of the last to be placed due to space limitations, but some reshuffling by the theme coordinators. (Nobody wants their MOC blocked from view!) Theme Coordinators are miracle workers, taking display pieces and playing Tetris with them to arrange each unique build while maximizing space. Maybe next year there can be more display tables to make it easier.

BrickSlopes has seven different themes that almost any MOC could fit in: Castle & Adventure (including Pirates), City & Train, Friends, Sculpture & Mosaic, Space, Star Wars, and Technic & GBC. There was overflow space for these themes as well, though most MOCs were organized by subject matter like Mario-themed MOCs were grouped together, or airplanes or temples or trains, for example. I think this makes for easier viewing for all.

Sessions

This year, BrickSlopes had over 40 first-time AFOL attendees, including myself. I attended the “First Timer Introduction” session on Thursday where organizer Steve Paulson gave an overview of what to expect at the convention, how things run with presentations, games, and ceremonies, then hosted a Q&A with an impromptu swag giveaway for first-timers who asked questions. I added this set to my growing pile!

I also attend the $15 Draft where several Star Wars BB-8 sets were already parted out and for the participation fee, you get to choose from about 150 bags of elements in order until they are gone. It worked quite differently from other conventions I’ve been to as the sets were provided and sorted. It seemed to work well this way and go quickly (only an hour), but when you don’t sort you have less knowledge of what is available. But kudos to whoever sorted the pieces for us!

I also got to watch the Master Build Seed Part Challenge where builders have to greater something amazing out of only the Play Bricks and one other part they provide in bulk. The Play Brick area was so huge they used snow shovels to move the piles of LEGO around. (They tout a million bricks to play with for the public!)

Ceremonies

Opening Ceremonies were Thursday evening and presented by the main BrickSlopes showrunners, along with lots of volunteers. Unsurprisingly. it started on “AFOL Time”… meaning a late start as most things are at some conventions. They presented the history of BrickSlopes and shared some entertaining stories. And of course, there were door prizes!

The AFOL’s in attendance at Thursday’s Opening Ceremonies.

The ceremony was followed by an awesome “Meet and Greet” pizza party at the Hyatt House hotel nearby. It was a good way to have some great conversations, meet people, and finish the first day. (I was too busy admiring the mountains and the sunset to take a picture of the food!)

The Public Arrives

Because of the shortened schedule, the public arrives on Day 2 of the convention on Friday (which feels fast in comparison to other conventions). I arrived at 10 am to finish setting up my MOCs, plug in my battery pack, fire up some tunes, and do a morning MOC walk. There were lots of amazing creations to check out! Here are a few that caught my eye including some of mine.

At high noon, the public burst through the doors ready to experience all the LEGO fun. They were lined up out the door! Some even brought LEGO creations—I learned that kids under 12 can pay an extra $5 and bring a MOC of their own to display near the Kids Block area sponsored by Bricks and Minifigs.

Modules and Masters

There were a few other fun things at BrickSlopes. Their official con model was a small GBC module kit—these are all the rage at a lot of LEGO conventions as kits for AFOLs. Priced at $50 for AFOL attendees, it was a great little module that also included a motor. I liked how well the logo was brick-built into the side of the module.

I even got to meet a few contestants from the US LEGO Masters: Mark and Stephen Erickson (season two winners), Liz Puelo (season 3 contestant and BrickNerd patron), and Jennifer Smart (season 2). I saw her partner Susan Earls from afar but was unable to meet her in person. All were great and very personable. The upcoming season should be a good one!

The rest of the convention was a whirlwind. There was lots of public interaction around the MOC tables from AFOLs showing off their stuff and kids asking questions like how many pieces are in each build. The brick-built “graffiti wall” also was a big draw, as were the Play Bricks and Kids Block areas.

The Final Chapter

Saturday came and went fast, ending with Closing Ceremonies. There were lots of awards and acknowledgements for MOCs and volunteers and more. BrickSlopes announced that the charity Keelhaul Cancer raised over $1,100 in donations from AFOLs to help support those in the community impacted by cancer.

Nerds of Note

As a BrickNerd Contributor, I had the honor of bestowing a few our our shiny, gold “Nerd-of-Note” awards. We award these to people who help contribute to the community, people who nerd out share their passion, or to people who build interesting MOCs that might have missed out on being oficially recognized.

Out of the hundreds of entries it was hard to decide who to give mine to, but I narrowed it down to two. I gave my first to Christy Lewis who built “Potters Polyjuice Predicament” for the concept alone. In the diorama, it turns out that Harry played the ultimate prank on the wizarding world and everyone turned into Harry! I thought the story concept was wonderful so many different minifigs—but all with Harry’s head. It goes to show that a good idea is all you need sometimes!

Potters Polyjuice Predicament by Christy Lewis

The second award went to Maddie Crowley for their Charlie Chaplin mosaic. It was packed with some NPU (Nice Parts Usage)and really captured the art style-look. It was minimalist in parts but beautiful in execution.

Charlie Chaplin Mosaic by Maddie Crowley

The End

That closes out BrickSlopes 2022. It was a glorious three days in Utah with wonderful people. (Special thanks go to to Art R Jr. and Art R Sr. for letting me join them on the ride to and from Utah.) I’ll definitely be back for 2023! You can check their website for exact dates when they announce them, but in the meantime, the theme for BrickSlopes 2023 is “Bucket List”. Get your MOC thinking caps, start building, and see you in Utah next year!

Did you go to BrickSlopes this year? What did you think of the convention? Let us know in the comments below.

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