It was around this time last year that I wrote about my efforts to cultivate a local MOC-building community here in Louisville, KY. Just as our momentum was building, all of our plans were put on indefinite hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thankfully, vaccines were finally approved last year and administered at significant levels so that in-person events could finally be considered once again. BrickUniverse’s traveling “LEGO Fan Festival” is one of those events, and it finally made its return to Louisville last weekend (Jan 22nd-23rd). I am happy to report that we had a great showing, and the sun is shining brightly once again on our Kentucky home. Welcome back!

The BrickUniverse Experience

For those not familiar with BrickUniverse here in the United States, their convention format is a little different than the typical LEGO conventions that we tend to write about here on BrickNerd. Their primary focus is on the public attendees, and providing them with a consistent event experience: “Showing families - both parents and children - the endless possibilities with LEGO bricks.” They also focus on taking their fan conventions to communities that don’t already have either a strongly established local convention or LUG, and that tend to be overlooked as a result. As such, I have affectionately referred to Greyson Beights who runs BrickUniverse as the “Johnny Appleseed” of the LEGO community. Just as John Chapman is remembered for propagating apple trees across midwestern America, Greyson is known for propagating new LEGO building communities wherever BrickUniverse goes.

Since the first priority of the “Fan Expo” is to deliver a great experience to the public, Greyson recruits an elite team of building rock stars to headline the tour. Many of them we have interviewed over the last year, like Rocco Buttliere and Paul Heatherington. From an attendee perspective, when a traveling expo brings the best-of-the-best builders and delivers all of their MOCs right to your doorstep, “Everything is Awesome!” Who could complain?! It’s a unique opportunity to see best-in-show MOC’s from the recent “Brick XYZ” convention in person that you would otherwise never get the chance to see.

Getting to explore the Vatican City without all the crowds? Count me in! Thanks, Rocco Buttliere!

For BrickUniverse Louisville 2022 , the headlining traveling displayers were Rocco Buttliere, Jonathan Lopes, Martin Harris, Lia Chan and E.J. Bocan. (Unfortunately, Paul Hetherington couldn’t make the trip down from Canada this time around). Each of those builders is given a personally dedicated section to display their builds with their tables spread out in a pleasing way. It is very reminiscent of an art gallery set up, and a great way to take in each build and appreciate all the details.

Strolling across the Brooklyn Bridge… without all the traffic. Built by Jonathan Lopes

Even if you have been fortunate enough to see their displays before, as a fellow displayer you still get the opportunity to see what it takes to transport and assemble all of these gems. Since expos such as these tend to have a much smaller number of displayers (20-30) than the larger conventions, it makes for a good opportunity to get some quality one-on-one time with fellow builders, and perhaps a building tip or two. When attending a “cozy-con” like this, you will talk with all of the displayers eventually. It is inevitable.

E.J. Bocan and Rocco Buttliere talking about how the LEGO brick tolerances are stacking up on E.J.’s Louisville Slugger Museum.

The “Fan Zone” is the designated displaying area for the non-headliners such as myself and rest of the local “MOC TALK-ers”. Since there are no guarantees as to who or what will show up in the Fan Zone, especially when testing out a new local market, these sections are a lot like Forrest Gump’s proverbial box of chocolates; you never know what you are going to get. As I mentioned during Part 1 of my MOC TALK article, sometimes this means people displaying their set collections but many more are seeing the infinite possibilities of forging their own path and displaying creations of their own design.

This public-focused format does mean less of a focus on the AFOL displayer experience than at other conventions. Apart from the 6-7 hours of set-up time on Friday, the rest of the time is mainly spent behind the display tables during the public hours. There are some games and events that occur during set-up time, but more often than not, more people are consumed with set-up. There are no opening/closing ceremonies, no seminars, no official convention kits, etc… But one important thing to also note is that there are also no convention registration fees for the displayers either. You read that correctly; $0.00. All you need to do is send them an e-mail with how many tables you want, and “bam!” your name is put onto the convention map. That said, each local displayer is still given the most important SWAG of all: a coveted “BrickUniverse Louisville 2022” brick badge. Woohoo! (Seen in the first photo of this article.)

Now, On With the Show!

The view from my little corner of the BrickUniverse

Overall, BrickUniverse Louisville 2022 felt like it picked up right where the 2020 show left off. The public attendees were very engaged and excited to see the show back in town as much as the displayers were. In talking with a couple of the vendors, they mentioned their sales at recent shows have been higher than the “pre-COVID” days. This correlates strongly to the demand we had seen for all things LEGO during the times of stay-at-home curfews and quarantines.

Speaking of COVID, over the course of the two days I’d say about 75% of the public were wearing masks… And speaking of masks, the weekend prior BrickFair Alabama had no mask mandates or capacity limits in place (which was consistent with their local guidelines). I bring this up because at least one displayer and one vendor who were at that Alabama show had to back out of BU Louisville because of sickness. It’s a shame that they weren’t able to participate at the Louisville show, but much appreciated that those individuals took our safety into consideration and respectfully stayed home.

For those that were able to attend, I tried to take a few more pictures of displayers this year than their actual displays. I mean, hanging out with fellow displayers and AFOLs is what we have been craving in the return of in-person events, right? Unfortunately, I still missed taking photos of quite a few people, so sorry to those that got left out.

Ryan Habeeb putting the finishing touches on his new Mos Eisley layout (on the tan baseplates I lent him)

Ken Brooks setting out his collection of Technic vehicles and heavy equipment.

Stu Pace trying to remember exactly where that part attached again…

Lia Chan getting the launch pad prepped for lift-off.

Martin Harris releasing the Golden Snitch to begin the Quiddich Match… with 500 points awarded to Hufflepuff… Why? Because in my youth I was sorted onto a T-ball baseball team named the “Tweeters”, so I have a soft spot for people getting stuck on teams with unfortunate names.

Jarvis Brinson of TNVLC, behind his Batcave and assorted vehicles.

Jenn Williams of TNVLC talking to an attendee about her builds. If recall correctly, this was her first convention, and she was over-the-moon when one of her builds earned an award.

Oh hey, that’s me reassembling my custom Y-wing model. Well, whaddayaknow? Photo courtesy of LEO Weekly / Carolyn Brown @cebrownphoto

Two displays I do want to highlight both come from Nate Tanner. The first is a replica of Paul Hetherington’s “Imagine It! Build It!” BrickLink AFOL Designer set that Nate rebuilt at Duplo scale. The plan was for Nate to display it side-by-side with Paul’s version, but as stated earlier Paul was unable to make the trip down. The least I could do was display it here side-by-side in photo form (that’s Nate and his son in the background).

And the second display is for those rare LEGO collectors out there. Nate came across one of the 2002 LEGO EXPLORE Super Trucks that had been recalled. In the words of LEGO: “Please stop playing with the truck immediately.” As requested, it is instead being recycled… as a display piece and used to spread the word about the recall status.

Where the Locals Go

Since BrickUniverse is a condensed 3-day experience for the displaying AFOLs, any socialization is typically limited to time spent after the public display hours are over. After a long day of displaying, that usually just means dinner and then crashing in bed for the night (or when Paul is in town, hitting the nearest Tiki Bar). However, we locals knew we would be remiss without at least arranging an after-hours visit for all of the out-of-towners to one of our favorite used bulk LEGO stores, Madhouse of Bricks.

What really sets the store apart is that they do a rough sort of their used bulk and have tables designated to specific types of parts: standard bricks, standard plates, rounds, wedges and slopes, brackets and tiles, Technic, large figure parts, windscreens, large vehicle parts, tires, etc. Martin Harris was suitably impressed. At check out, he was overheard saying, “This is by far the best store arrangement I’ve ever seen. What you are doing here is a game-changer. I need to convince my friends at Atlanta Brick Co. to start doing this” …you have been warned ;)

Shout out to “Hoosier Bricks” for arranging the “AFOL Night” at the store, and being mindful enough to capture the event during a Live Stream. If you are looking, I’m the one with the grey hair, plaid shirt, and his back to the camera. Hoosier has also posted a few videos from both days of BrickUniverse if you are curious to see what the show was like from another perspective. He also attended BrickFair Alabama this year, so you can catch some of that action as well.

With that, it’s time to put the lid on this breakdown of BrickUniverse Louisville 2022. You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here. Might I suggest heading to the next available LEGO convention near you? And as you do, continue to take LEGO’s “Play Well” mantra to heart, and let’s help each other stay both healthy and happy so we can keep these shows on the road.

What is the next LEGO convention that you are most excited about? Let us know in the comments below!

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