BrickCan 2017 - LEGO Public Exhibition

BrickCan is finally here after a year long wait and I checked out the public exhibition today which had tons of amazing LEGO builds on display. It was amazing and awe-inspiring to see the creativity and what you can do with a box of LEGO bricks. I'm definitely going to be opening up some more sets to build this weekend! Check out some of cool builds below! 

There was a pretty large winter scene that I really liked! There were a lot of people around so I couldn't take a full picture but here are some parts of the build.

The lit up ice rink was very cool!

The Vancouver 2010 Olympic cauldron!

The Burrard St bridge.

I thought this Victoria bus build was very nice and detailed!

Arch of Constantine. I really liked this one.

Some miniature versions of modulars that LEGO has out.

The steam clock in Gastown.

You will be assimilated; resistance is futile.

I really like any LEGO builds with trees so this one was probably my favourite.

For Game of Thrones fans - Pyke Castle! If you look closely, you can spot a banner with the house Greyjoy sigil.

There were some amazing LEGO mosaics as well. They're all made of 1x1 tiles. Amazing!

One of the fan favourites was this house from Up.

Jurassic World.

I really like the use of LEGO croissants in this build!

Batman and Robin to the rescue!

Dragon dance.

The Fallout Shelter was a huge hit last year. Each person gets to build one scene and it gets put together. The lights make this build stand out and it's so interesting to see the creativity behind each scene.

This aquarium scene was very cool.

I only just learned about Fabuland this year so it was nice to see a display using these characters.

There were a lot of different steampunk and mech builds.

A grayscale modular build.

Canada 150 in the flower bed. This is pretty amazing!

There were lots of vendors selling LEGO and LEGO related products, including engraved bricks, jewelry, soap, pillows and art. I didn't end up getting anything today, but I really enjoyed looking at the minifigures for sale.

Classic space.

Star Wars.

At the end of the session, any child with a ticket can get a free bear build. It's very cute!

BrickCan will be at the River Rock Casino for one more day so grab your tickets now! A ticket is valid for a 2 hour time slot to look at all the builds and check out the vendors.

LEGO Easter Egg Hunt

Happy Easter! I picked up the LEGO Easter Egg Hunt seasonal set to build this weekend. It's a cute little scene, though I think I liked last year's Painting Easter Eggs scene better. This one was a little bit too disjointed for my liking. 

Here's a look at the front and back of the box. You get two neat little minifigures.

Here's the completed set. My favourite piece has to be the chicken!

And of course, here's a speed build if you want to watch me build it:

LEGO Romantic Valentine Picnic

There is less than a month until the popular LEGO convention, BrickCan, is back! My friends and I are getting very excited. I have been building a lot of small LEGO sets as we get closer to the date to get hyped up. The next set I opened up is about a month late, but it is the Romantic Valentine Picnic, set #40236. This was an exclusive LEGO Shop seasonal set with a $12.99 CAD price tag. I really love this set because it is so colourful and there are so many food pieces, which come in handy when I take minifigure photos. The best part is the extra pieces that are included are...food pieces! I also like the LEGO built trees.

Here is a look at the front and back of the box. It really catches your eye.

I think this set makes a really great display piece. It's got everything - flowers, food, trees, minifigures!

Take a look at the speed build video:

LEGO Passport - Minifigure Companion Set

It's spring break for the kids and LEGO has just released this adorable LEGO minifigure passport/travel accessories kit! It's great for minifigure photography and for people who like taking pictures of minifigures in the real world while on vacation - like me!

This little set was only $5 so I couldn't resist picking one up even though I have many of the accesories already. The box is a printed suitecase and once you open it up, you get a "passport" which contains building instructions as well as some photography ideas. You also get some cards where you can write stuff for your minifigure to say.

Dumping out the 41 pieces, we get a jumble of neat pieces.

All built and ready to relax!

I think I'm definitely going to be having some fun with these!

Here's an unboxing video I shot in case you wanted a more detailed description of everything!

LEGO Brickheadz - Beauty and the Beast

With BrickCan just a little over a month away, I decided to bust out some of my LEGO to build. Brickheadz is a new line that LEGO just released on March 1, 2017 with themes from Marvel Avengers, The LEGO Batman Movie and Disney. If you have a LEGO VIP card, you were able to purchase the Brickheadz on February 15 as an early release - which I did! Beauty and the Beast is one of my favourite classic Disney movies, so I couldn't pass these up. I didn't receive them in the mail until just a couple of weeks ago, and I was really eager to open them up. Check out the pictures below and the live and speed build videos I've uploaded on Youtube.

Tale as old as time.

Belle.

Beast.

New Pirates of the Caribbean BrickHeadz are being released next month to coincide with the newest movie of the franchise.

I think LEGO is capitalizing on the popularity of Funko Pop vinyl figures since they look awfully similar. These are pretty small (smaller than a Funko Pop) and pretty quick and easy to build. Let me know your thoughts on Brickheadz - love them? Hate them? They retail for $12.00 in Canada. There will most likely be sales on the in the future - when there is, should I buy more? Make sure you subscribe to the blog and stay tuned on the Surprise Toybox Youtube channel for more LEGO builds and fun things!

BrickCan 2016 - A Weekend Full of LEGO!

The long awaited LEGO convention, BrickCan, happened at the River Rock Casino Resort this weekend. This four-day long event drew thousands of LEGO fans to Vancouver to participate in keynote talks, games and display models in an a public LEGO exhibition. As BrickCan was geared towards AFOLs (adult fan of LEGO), tickets were completely sold out!

Visitors were greeted by a LEGO replica of the Digital Orca sculpture by Douglas Coupland, one of my favourite art pieces in Downtown Vancouver. The orca was also used in the 2016 BrickCan logo. 

A two-hour time slot was allotted to ticket holders to view the LEGO displays and visit vendor tables. There were some incredible pieces that were so awe-inspiring; the creativity and attention to detail on the builds were just amazing and made me want to start building my own models!

The first build I looked at was based on Mouse Guard, an adorable comic illustrated by David Petersen. The builder created an entire medieval village with various scenes from the comics, including the one-eyed owl, an enemy of the mice.

There were several cities that spanned an entire table, complete with motorized trains. It was fun to spot the little details the creator added in, such as a boat in a garage that I heard others commenting on.

These type of builds are one of my favourites - rocks, water and foliage. How they make something with such straight lines like a LEGO brick curve into a natural scene is beyond me; I can really appreciate all the effort that must be put into these models!

Another favourite was the amusement park scene, Brickland. Similar to Disneyland (remember Star Tours?), this diorama had so many fun things going on - a ferris wheel, roller coaster, pirate ship ride, ice cream trucks and lemonade stands. There were plenty of minifigures scattered everywhere to recreate the hustle and bustle of a theme park and it was really fun to pick some of them out with faces that fit so well with the scene. 

The theatre floor had the majority of displays and was packed with people.

There were a lot of amazing pop culture builds that included characters from Predator, Halo, Star Trek, Assassin's Creed, Battlestar Galactica, Doctor Who, Marvel superheros and much more!

Neverland never looked so good!

I really enjoyed "Parrot Island". Sometimes you can't beat the classic pirate LEGO sets from the 90's!

This was another great scene with running trains. The build was amazing to look at.

There was even a Smurf village!

There were also several mosaics, which was built from tiny LEGO plates. Can you imagine how long this orca would have taken to make?

This unbelievable diorama based on the game Fallout Shelter was back lit, which created a very eye-catching effect. Each little "room" had a different theme - very cool!

LEGO and technology meet! A clever builder incorporated LEGO scenes into his computer and his music player! This is the side of the CD player.

Visitors were encouraged to vote for their favourite LEGO build. The winning model was "The Wall", created by David Guedes, Keith Reed and Daveed Gagnon. This massive build was several feet tall, and very fitting since tonight was the return of a new season of Game of Thrones!

Let's not forget the vendors! There were LEGO sets, bricks, minifigures to purchase, along with books, art, jewelry and t-shirts. The popular minifigures and sets were flying off the shelves, and it was very fun to dig through the bins to see what you could find! It was also the perfect place to hunt for a long retired set that is now hard to find as the vendors had giant collections for sale. One of the vendors provided engraved LEGO bricks and was so popular, the wait time was 1.5 hours!

Once your two-hour time slot was up, children 12 and under could pick up an exclusive custom-designed BrickCan LEGO kit to take home, which featured the orca whale in the BrickCan logo. I wish I could have gotten one! There was also a Creation Station where anyone could go and be creative with the tubs of LEGO bricks there. Kids young and old (adults too!) were having tons of fun!

I had an amazing time at BrickCan and am looking forward to attending again next year! Make sure to sign up for notifications so you don't miss out on your ticket for BrickCan 2017!