I just learned about The Brick Train Awards. There are various categories and winners are chosen for each region, and those winners then move forward to the global competition.

We definitely have some skilled MILUG train builders ( @sema4 @MikeS @Ptrotter ) as well as other skilled builders who may want to try making a train so I thought I would share this. The 2020 awards were just announced so there is definitely time if anyone wants to create or refine an existing train they have for the 2021 awards (looks like the submission window is in June).

Just added MosaiCon photos!

Our website has been updated with a few new blogs and a couple of photo albums have been added to our Facebook page with some of events from earlier this year.

It was announced today that the LEGO Ideas site and LEGO Rebrick site will be merging and Rebrick will be shut down in September to create more of a one stop shop that will serve as "the crowdsourcing and co-creation hub for teen and adult LEGO fans".
There will be some improvements to the functionality of the site as well as a few small changes to the Ideas program and the structure of contests.

There is a pretty cool prize for this LEGO Ideas contest:

"We invite you to show us your LEGO moment in space! Use your imagination to create the ultimate space model – make it as sci-fi or realistic as you wish, just stay within a base of 16 x 16 studs. One lucky winner has the chance to have their entry transformed into a new Gift with Purchase set, and will win a collection of past exclusive Gift with Purchase sets!"

What an honour to see the MILUG collaborative Bavarian Village MOC (my own creation) being featured on The Brick Show's YouTube review of top MOCs at BrickCan 2018! You can find us at the 2:45 mark.

There is a new LEGO Rebrick contest with some great prizes! Create an ultimate NEXO KNIGHTS mech and submit your photo/s on LEGO Rebrick. Contest ends June 27th at 7pm pst.

The next cmf series will be the 2nd wave of Disney characters. There are definitely some must-haves for me including Chip 'n Dale, Jack Skellington and Sally, and the black and white Mickey and Minnie (although different than the Steamboat Willie figures I am happy I can get these for $5 each rather than having to buy the overpriced set that's $120 for 751 pieces).

Here is a list of sets projected to be retiring in 2019. The list of over 100 sets is broken down by theme which is great. Most notable (for me) are The Great Wall of China (Architecture), Parisian Restaurant (Creator Expert), Pirate Roller Coaster (Creator), Ninjago City and Ninjago Docks, and 5 Ideas sets including Saturn V and Voltron.

A message from the organizing committee from Bricks in the Six:

Hello LEGO Enthusiasts and Friends!

If you didn't already know - Bricks in the Six is coming back to downtown Toronto, this time to the Westin Harbour Castle Hotel and Conference Centre on July 23, 24, 25, and 26.

This year we are going to be bigger and better with well over 30,000 square feet, making us Canada's largest LEGO Fan Convention! We know that there are many LEGO conventions - including several amazing events that are also running the same weekend we are running ours - but if you find yourself drawn towards the Toronto area in July, we'd love to have you join us!

Last year, we had more than 140 registered AFOLs covering just over 25000 square feet spread out across a bunch of different rooms - well this new space is one much larger space PLUS breakout rooms! Hurray! And we are bringing even more interactive opportunities to you this year, so that you can find more ways to have fun and play well with each xother.

We've changed our website quite a bit (and it is still under construction), primarily to accommodate our changes to the registration process to (eventually) try and make things easier for you. You can register and create an account now by visiting our "new" website at https://brickassembly.ca/convention/register/ - this will allow you to register for this year's 2020 event (and hopefully future events as well).

Creating your account is just the beginning - once you get your account set up on the site, you can go to the "Shop" and purchase your "Event Registration," or "Vendor Registration" there. Early bird registration pricing is live now, until end of day February 29th - so if you wait until March 1st or later, the price will go up! Registering early also helps the organizers plan for the event, so please, the sooner you register the better

We have a discounted hotel rate again this year, matching last year's rate at $239/night. You can book your room by clicking here.  As mentioned last year, this is a great rate for staying in theheart of the city during the summer. But we recognize that this may not work for everyone - but the good news is that the event hotel is highly transit accessible, with many alternative hotel options, so you have options on where to stay at a number of price points.

MoC registration will be opening soon, and we are going to be working on releasing the schedule much earlier this year - stay tuned for that info!

We are so very excited to bring this event back to you again, and can't wait for you to join us. We have received much feedback since our 2019 event, and are going to bring back the things you love, improve them, and make it as fun as possible for all of you!

No doubt we forgot something, so if you have any questions, feel free to reach out at info@brickassembly.ca - if you have ideas on how to contribute, we would also love to hear from you! We are always looking for more help, and value a diverse range of opinions on how to make this event the biggest success possible.

Thanks so much, and look forward to building with you soon

Graeme and the Bricks in the Six Team

@Ptrotter that totally works too

@Ptrotter that would be awesome! We usually end our meetings with a bit of a show & tell segment so that works perfectly. I look forward to seeing it!

I just learned about The Brick Train Awards. There are various categories and winners are chosen for each region, and those winners then move forward to the global competition.

We definitely have some skilled MILUG train builders ( @sema4 @MikeS @Ptrotter ) as well as other skilled builders who may want to try making a train so I thought I would share this. The 2020 awards were just announced so there is definitely time if anyone wants to create or refine an existing train they have for the 2021 awards (looks like the submission window is in June).

Congrats on getting your submission accepted and good luck @vdog ! There have been a record number of submissions passing the 10k mark the last two rounds (26 and 35 respectively) as there are more people online voting. I don't know if you are on Facebook but I know that those who plug themselves on the various LEGO Facebook groups tend to do very well and their submissions often see a surge in votes after their posts, but be sure to include a link to your submission on Ideas!

The ambassador for the LDraw community has announced the second LDraw parts update of 2020. Here is the original message from their library admin...

The 2020-02 LDraw Parts Update has been now been released. This adds 712 new files to the core library, including 510 new parts and 15 new primitives.

Thanks are due to all the part authors who created or corrected parts for this release. The small, but dedicated, band of reviewers also play an important role in keeping files moving through the Parts Tracker and deserve just as much credit.

You can preview the new parts in 2020-02, and download the zip-file update or Windows install package directly from LDraw here. Alternatively you can use the LDView option File | Check for Library Updates... to install the update.

@ian at least there are various sessions so some will be at a more reasonable time! When you sign up you can select which seasions you want to go to. I just selected all of them and if it works with my schedule that day then good, if not then no big deal.

A message from the LEGO Group:

Dear AFOLs,

COVID-19 keeps changing our plans – but for once something nice also comes out of it. Unfortunately LEGO House has had to change our long planned AFOL day on the 24th September into a digital experience. This is extremely disappointing for all the AFOLs who purchased a ticket and had been looking forward to a great experience in connection with the Skaerbaek Fan Weekend. The positive side effect is that the digital fan day will be available for everybody all over the world!

Participants are very welcome to participate in all three hours if they have the time – and enough coffee at hand. But they are also very welcome to tap in and out of the day as it suits them – and their time zone.

The host for the day will be play agent Emil Saaby, and he’ll introduce all speakers and do his best to ask your questions to the speakers. We would already now encourage everybody to think about the questions they would like to ask, so we can secure smooth sessions.

Please find the programme for the 24th September 2020  at this link – and  please note that we would like participants to sign-up for the individual sessions:

https://legohouse.com/en-gb/what-s-on/lego-house-fan-day/

The LEGO House will be closed for any public traffic that day so there is unfortunately no possibility to join the sessions in person. Thank you very much for your understanding.

The Brickbord is hosting a new contest: "The brickfilm/cartoon/animation-contest Nr.2"

In this contest, brickfilmers animate a brickfilm, which also contains other materials like paper, wool, clay or even digital implemented cartoons. Anything that can be animated may go wild! We want to celebrate the diversity of brickfilming and animating with this small contest. Implementing other materials along with LEGO-Bricks is widely seen in animation (Like the "Kragle" and other housewares in the LEGO-Movie) and extends the possibilities of stop motion techniques. (It is also a lot of fun!)

The brickboard is happy about the generous sponsoring of prices by LEGO! Participants have got time untill 26th September 12pm to submit their movies.

The rules are explained in this Video: (There are also english subtitles aviable)

https://youtu.be/yrumkYmFr4Y

And in the article on our Website "brickboard"

The first brickfilm/cartoon/animation-contest was held in 2015/2016 with a different set of rules, but nevertheless here are some entrys:

https://youtu.be/buTcaS4I1CA

https://youtu.be/jeujZtlYybs

So if you are a brickfilmer or know someone who loves brickfilming, you are free to send these links to them. We are always happy to see new faces and inspire others with brickfilming!

A message from TLG:

LEGO AFOL book vote! We’re going to make a book for LEGO superfans with input from AFOLs about the LEGO brick – and we’re giving you the chance to help decide what kind of book it will be. We’ve consulted with a panel of AFOLs to come up with three book ideas to choose from, but you can only vote one time for one idea. So choose wisely and spread the vote in your communities!  

To learn more about each book check out the LEGO Ideas blog.

There is a link to the voting page on the blog or you can go directly to voting here.

Bricks in Motion is hosting its annual summer contest!
This contest encourages participants to create a highly polished LEGO stop-motion animation with the theme of "Fright and Fear." 

The contest is sponsored by Dragonframe, BrickStuff, and Minifigs.Me, who are providing the prizes for the winners.

If you're a brickfilmer or know someone interested in making a LEGO stop-motion animation this summer, please visit their website for more details. The contest runs from July 6 - August 31, 2020.