Inside the Brick Ballarat 2013

I quite like Facebook and occasionally someone shares something that is really useful. A friend of ours passed along the event invitation for Inside the Brick's Lego expo at the Ballarat Trotting Track in Ballarat,Victoria. I jumped on the computer and booked tickets for 9 on the Sunday and knowing Ballarat fairly well planned a couple of stops to be made while we were there which would make it a productive outing.

It just happens that Daylight savings ended today so an early start was really early. The boys don't usually get driven around early morning out of town so it was pretty novel for them to see fog in the fields as we drove along.

We got there a little early, just as the hard working Rob Deakin was putting the signs out, so we ducked down to Lydiard street for a coffee and hot chocolate and then raced back. Almost no cars there in the carpark when we left but by the time we came back there were quite a few excited bodies piling out of cars.

We trundled upstairs and were amazed to see Ryan McNaught's "Elvis" Sky Crane, which he built this year for Brickvention 2013, as we came through the entrance. 



You can get some idea of the scale from the A4 folder on the table. 



We'd already seen this in the Lego magazine which we got in the mail last week. B2 just realised as I'm typing this that it was the same one.

My youngest had his priorities and the first stop were the Lego goodies on sale from Toybricks. He got a few minifigures that he was missing, I got a legionnaire and we also got the new version brick seperator which was a nice find. Son number one is a bit fussier and didn't get anything.



We got a laugh from this warning sign on the Lego Star Wars table.

After looking at the first couple of exhibits including the Brickmans mech B2 wanted to know where the Lego free play tables were. He's a fair bit smaller than me and couldn't see them. I said "listen" he stopped, swivelled around and made a bee line for the crunching sound coming from the corner.

After a quick house build we were ready to continue. We saw giant Steampunk ships, Star Wars creations, buildings, trains, vikings, a huge Friends display and some MOC aircraft. After that there was only one thing to do ... some more building. I'll add some more photos as time permits.
  

Size of the expo was probably spot on with enough room between and around the tables although we left pretty early before crowds could build up. We missed the robotics girls too which was a bit of a bummer. The only other thing i thought of was an option on ticket sales to include a printed expo brick with your ticket? We all had a good time at the expo. I haven't seen any building at our place yet but at least one of my minifigures feel asleep thinking of Lego.



Asleep, light on, Lego book in hand.