You might have seen that we've just announced The LEGO Show won't be running this year. But don't worry! We are still very much planning to run AFOLCON again in 2013 and are looking at potential venues and locations at the moment. It's unlikely to be in Event City (it would be a bit drafty with just us) and currently we are looking towards the Autumn rather than May. We'll announce more details as soon as we have them.

Watch this space....

We've just turned on our two webcams so you see how the record breaking mosaic is progressing!

The LEGO Show, taking place at EventCity from 5 -7 May, has announced that it will be supporting Manchester’s Key 103 Cash for Kids campaign during the 3 day show next month.

 

Commenting, Teresa Elsmore, one of the show organisers, said: “We have some great fundraising opportunities at the LEGO Show and we really wanted to support a local children’s charity. Cash for Kids is a fantastic charity that is dedicated to supporting children and crucial organisations across Greater Manchester. We will be doing our best to raise as much as we can for them.”

Cash for Kids is a grant giving charity that supports over 350 organisations across Greater Manchester that directly helps children affected by disability, abuse, neglect and distress. To date the charity has delivered over £2 million into the local community, helping more than 100,000 children.

Emma Brown, Charity Manager for Cash for Kids, said; “We are over the moon that The LEGO Show has chosen to support Key 103’s Cash for Kids at this event. We hope that everyone has a great time.”

Visitors to the LEGO Show will be able to support Cash for Kids by donating a LEGO minifigure. The donated minifigures will be included in the shows flagship model, details of which are still to be announced. For every minifigure donated the LEGO Show will make a donation to Cash for Kids.

For any visitors who don’t have any minifigures to donate, there will be collection buckets at the show so that you can make a donation to Cash for Kids.

During the 3 day show event organisers will be attempting to break the world record for the largest ever built LEGO® mosaic, and will be enlisting the aid of visitors and celebrities to the show to help build it. Celebrity square makers will be making mosaic squares prior to the show and their signed squares will be auctioned off after the event to raise even more funds for Cash for Kids.

Teresa added: “We are really excited about the celebrities we have lined up to take part in the world record attempt and help us to raise even more funds for Cash for Kids.”

The show is aiming to make a 143m2 image containing approximately 550,000 LEGO® bricks.  To complete the mosaic, the show organisers will need at least 2,000 members of the public to help by building a mosaic square, giving visitors the unique chance to be part of an official world record.

The LEGO® Show will be the largest LEGO® event in the UK and is the only show in the country to feature LEGO® designers direct from Denmark and LEGO® certified professionals.

Already confirmed for this year’s show are a special display from the Discovery Centre, specialist building workshops, LEGO® Brand store, LEGO® brick marketplace, a special 2012 celebratory build, LEGO® cinema, play areas and of course a spectacular fan display.

Tickets are now on sale and a family can save £10 by buying their ticket in advance. Further information and advanced tickets are available from http://www.thelegoshow.com

Find LEGO® Show on Facebook or follow @LEGOShow on Twitter to keep up to date with the latest show news.

The UK’s only LEGO certified professional, Duncan Titmarsh from LEGO building company Bright Bricks, has been confirmed as one of the key features of the 2012 LEGO Show taking place at EventCity, Manchester from 5 – 7 May.

 

Duncan and the team of professional LEGO builders at Bright Bricks carry out amazing LEGO projects in the UK and abroad, and have been responsible for a number of spectacular projects, including the 3 tonne, 12m high LEGO Christmas Tree that the team constructed at St Pancras station, London in 2011.

During the LEGO Show Duncan will be joined by his Bright Bricks business partner, professional LEGO builder Ed Diment. Duncan and Ed have more than 30 years’ experience building LEGO and they will be sharing their valuable experience during a series of Make and Take building workshops.

Duncan Titmarsh said; “We love building LEGO, and we are really excited to be holding these workshops during the LEGO Show. This is a great show for families and enthusiasts, and we look forward to meeting lots of LEGO fans over the weekend.”

Event Director, Warren Elsmore, said; “Bright Bricks are a great addition to the show. These workshops provide visitors with a unique opportunity to learn about building LEGO models from two of the UK’s leading LEGO experts.”

The workshops are suitable for all ages and levels of LEGO experience. There is a charge for the workshop but participants are able to keep the LEGO set used. Visitors who want to take part can put their name down for a session when they arrive at the show. Announcements will be made before each workshop so that no-one misses their slot.

Visitors to the show will also have the opportunity to take part in a world record attempt as the Show attempt to build the largest ever built LEGO mosaic. The 143m2 image will contain approximately 550,000 LEGO® bricks. To complete the mosaic the show organisers will need at least 2,000 members of the public to help by building a mosaic square, giving visitors the chance to be part of an official world record.

The LEGO® Show 2012 takes place at EventCity from 5 – 7 May. The 3 day show is the largest LEGO event in the UK and is a great day out for all the family.

Tickets are now on sale and a family can save £10 by buying their ticket in advance. Further information and advanced tickets are available from http://www.thelegoshow.com

Find LEGO Show on Facebook or follow @LEGOShow on Twitter to keep up to date with the latest show news.

If you're hoping to display at AFOLCON and The LEGO Show - then now is the time to register! 

As we get closer to the show, we'll soon start to finalise the floor plan and layout. So, if you want to display at The LEGO Show, then you must have registered this by the 1st April. After then, we won't be able to allow any new registrations.

All is not lost after the 1st April though! You'll still be able to register for AFOLCON until the 16th April to attend the convention. But if you're any MOCs to display - make sure you register them before the 1st April!

Quite a busy day today! The team here at AFOLCON have just announced the full lineup for this years' convention. Well, almost the full lineup - we still have one or two surprises left to come....!

The full list of all the speakers and sessions is now available on our Agenda page, as is the full agenda for the weekend. We've two days packed full of LEGO fun, followed by a fantastic weekend too. Here's some of the highlights!

- Adam Vaugn, Alex Bidloak, Bjarke Schonwandt, Duncan Titmash, Ed Diment, Mark Stafford are your speakers,

- Plus a Keynote speaker and a special guest yet to be announced!

- For any AFOLs coming to The LEGO Show as an exhibitor or just a fan, we'll be hosting two special AFOLCON sessions on Saturday and Sunday nights - free to everyone to join in

- The AFOLCON auction will be held on Sunday night - your chance to get some great bargains with some VERY special lots.

We're also announcing a couple of deadlines. The show is filling up, so if you would like to exhibit your MOCs at The LEGO Show - you must register with us by the 1st April. If you not want to display, the deadline to register for AFOLCON is slightly later - the 16th April. So make sure you're not late!

Finally, did you notice a change at www.thelegoshow.com? Take a quick peek in the top right. We're pretty proud of that icon!

The team here at AFOLCON are please to announce a whole raft of LEGO speakers for this years' convention! Joining the already announced LEGOLand master builder and LEGO Certified professional, are Mark Stafford (LEGO Ninjago designer), Adam Vaugn (LEGO Friends designer) and Bjarke Schonwandt (Senior Manager, Consumer Perceived quality). 

We're very happy to have Mark return for his second year presenting at AFOLCON. Last year, he brought with him a whole range of test models that were used in the production process, and he's promised the same for this year! Adam will be giving his first AFOLCON session looking at the development of the new LEGO Friends line. Years in development, he'll be explaining how LEGO Friends is designed to welcome a wider audience to the LEGO family. FInally, Bjarke will give you an exclusive insight into how LEGO manages the quality of the LEGO sets and elements. How do LEGO track what is good and what is bad? Most importantly, Bjarke is asking you to bring along any samples you have of what is not acceptable - the challenge has been set!

We still have a few more speakers to announce for AFOLCON 2012, not least our Keynote speaker. But they'll be more details of that soon. As well as details of our Auction. We've just come beck from Billund actually, with all manner of goodies. They'll be more details soon, but we will say this. It's *good* !

Yes, AFOLCON is back! We'll be back in Manchester on the 3rd and 4th May 2012.

We're a few new things to tell you though. Of course we'll have the best AFOL speakers to listen to, LEGO designers to chat to and more - but we've been listening to your feedback from 2011 and have made some great new additions:

- A new venue! Yep, we filled out MOSI last year, so this year we've moving to an even bigger venue. Event City at the Trafford Center is bigger, has free parking for 3000 cars, has much longer opening times and is directly opposite the LEGOLand Discovery Center!

- Sessions split over two days. Rather than cram all our content into a single day, we're decided to split the sessions over two days this year. So that's more time to meet, chat and build!

- FREE displaying at The LEGO Show. Now that we have much more space, we're happy to say that any AFOL who wants to display at The LEGO Show can do so without attending AFOLCON. Of course, only AFOLCON attendees will get access on Thursday and Friday, and only AFOLCON attendees will get our packed goodie bag. So if you're coming anyway, why not get the full experience?


We'll have much more to say soon, but for now, have a look around our new site and see what you think. Registration for 2012 is open now!