Brighton Bricks Shop Window Competition

Lego Shop Window Competition

I run Brighton Bricks an adult fan of Lego group and have an idea of a Lego Shop Window Competition to do sometime this year

The idea is shops in North Laine area of Brighton have a Lego Minifigure hidden in their shop window, we then encourage people to hunt for these figures, and mark down on a form which shop has the Batman figure in it etc.

This is a way to raise awareness of both Brighton Bricks as well as shops in the local area, which hopefully encourage people to visit your shop

At the moment it is an idea stage but want to know what shops maybe interested in taking part

Also if each shop could donate a very small amount we should have enough money to buy some good Lego Sets which could be prizes

If this is successful we could run it again, either in same area or different part of Brighton / Hove  

You can check out Brighton Bricks on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram  

Share Your Story: The Bright Green Penguin Story so far

Share Your Story: The Bright Green Penguin Story so far

As you may know, I started Share Your Story's Live A Good Story back in Jan, and have been working on it ever since (missed Feb meet up due to family emergency) & March meet is coming up soon

 http://www.sysbrighton.co.uk/

In preparation for that, want to think what I want to achieve, my three goals were

1. Finding a job in Brighton

2. Setting up a project for Bright Green Penguin (will be known as BGP from now on)

3. Looking into setting up BGP so I could earn an living from it

and here is how they are going 

1. Not going well at the moment. Partially feel I'm either too experienced or not enough experience. 

2. Deciding between using the Lego show I am doing already, or more of a BGP idea

Weirdly I think picking the Lego show as a cheat, as something I'm already doing. Also I feel I need to do something as BGP, something to make people aware of what I do. The Lego show is happening in May at Dice Saloon. Have a few non Lego related ideas

My two original non Lego ideas are a BGP map, a foldable map which features on certain area, championing the creatives,  charities, community groups, supporting local shops. Sort of make it a map/magazine

The other idea is a Doing Good board game / card game / iSpy book. Wanting something to encourage people to do good, recognising Good behaviour

3. This is the big problem, as I can't seem to decide on what I could do. Part of this problem is not being able to focus on what BGP is all about.

Or should I be focusing on Brighton Bricks. Lego is something I love, but just doing BB feels like I missing out on all the great stuff BGP does.

Even though I have been doing BGP a few years now, I'm still not sure what it is, and I think that is why I feel take up has been so slow on this. I have a quite a few followers on Twitter but don't feel I have had any real impact on my the world

Also think I go from one idea to another, like a magpie & cant focus on one thing. Maybe you this is something I need to change, or embrace

So need to focused on what BGP should be about, what I want it to achieve. I know the main thing is I want to expend it from being just me to a bigger thing, to working with others

*BGP career ideas*

Consultancy

Running people's social media accounts

Selling other people's creative work

Running / Hosting events

Creating my own products

*Brighton Brick ideas*

Selling Lego sets / Lego related items

Organising Lego events for kids

Organising Lego events for businesses, team building, problem solving etc

Custom Lego printing

Setting up a BB shop / cafe

So I hope to have for the next Live A Good Story ideas of what I could do

If anyone has any ideas / suggestions would be great to hear

Bricks - Lego Show at The Excel Centre

Here is a collection of my photos from The Lego Exhibition at The Excel Centre, for more of the photos check out my Instagram Account

The Week That Was

Last week in pictures ​

Takeaway pizza from outside Brighton Station

My journey from home to the station every day  

Brighton Bricks meetup  

Street Art on way back from Brighton Bricks

Art Exhibition at Parkhall Business Centre  

The Parkhall Business Centre's Tree of Hope for local children's centre

Parkhall Business Centre Christmas Fair

Stick It On at The Joker, raising money for charity Rise

Meeting at Rendezvous Brighton regarding my Lego Charity appeal, and checking out the art work there  

Wild Strawbery Christmas Fair

My plate after Pork Belly Roast Dinner at Basketmakers Arms

InHouse Space, North Laine

Charity Lego Collection Drive in Brighton - Can you help?

As founder of Brighton Bricks, I am wanting to set up a Lego collection drive to donate to a children's hospital in Brighton. This is being organised with Fairy Bricks, a charity with the aim of Brightening the lives of sick children through Lego.

So to help with that, I am planning to organise a Lego drive in Brighton. What I am looking for is venues, be it a shop, cafe or community centre where people can go and drop off the Lego sets to. Depending on the venues, this could be a one day collection date, or over a period of time.

I will be tweeting, blogging, and trying to find any other way of promoting this to everyone and encouraging people to donate. I will also be producing a blog post giving ideas of what to donate. It needs to be brand new Lego (unopened for H&S reasons as it is going to an hospital) and the main themes to donate are Lego City, Creator and Friends.

So if you know of anyone who has a shop or cafe, or any other venue who would be willing to accept boxes of Lego please let me know at nick@brightgreenpenguin.com We can then talk about if we want a one day collection, or if a longer period would work for you. I can arrange to pick up boxes if it gets too many. We can have as many venues as possible

Brighton Bricks - The Dream

Thanks to everyone who came along to last nights Brighton Bricks meet up

Good work was done on our logo idea, still a bit more tinkering & we should be done 

This post is about two things, one to say this group is open to anyone who loves Lego & lives in the Brighton area. So feel free to spread the word about Brighton Bricks, come up with ideas about the groups directions. Ideas for events or ways to attract new members  

So if you have ideas or suggestions about the following let me know: 

• Future events
• Event location  - still at Alcampo or if people have any other suggestions
• Events to be held evenings or weekends (or both) 
• How often should we have meet ups
• Activities for future events  
• Ways to attract new members  
• Org or people we should connect with  
• Other Lego groups we can do partnerships with  

The second thing is about my future ambitions for this group. The main one is to register as an Lego User Group (LUG), so we can enjoy the benefits of support from the Lego Group. We can only do this after being an active group for 12 months 

I'm planning from next year to see if I can set up a stall at one of the many craft fairs throughout Brighton, selling Lego Minifigures  as well as stuff like Lego Crayons (I made them using the Lego ice cube moulds) and raising awareness of the group 

My grand idea I would love to do is set up our own Lego exhibition at a venue in Brighton, where we can display models, have sellers etc. Of course this is a long way off but it is good to have something to aim form  

So please feel free to post to the Facebook page or to our Twitter account if you have any ideas or can help us grow in any way 

Dr Who & Lego: An Adventure in Bricks

Doctor Who is coming to Lego, and as both a Lego geek and a Dr Who fan this is a time I can't wait for.

This is the blog post from Lego Ideas announcing the new set coming out 1st Dec 2015

https://ideas.lego.com/blogs/1-blog/post/44

Looks amazing doesn't it? This set was chosen from the Lego Ideas, which if you not aware is a site which allows fans to submit projects, and if it gets 10k votes, it has the possibility of being turned into a real set. Previous Lego Ideas sets have included Ecto 1 from Ghostbusters, the Big Bang Theory, Exo-Suit by Peter Reid, A collection of birds.

This was the set which got the 10k votes,

Quite a few projects were submitted after Lego announced it was now accepting projects. Previously Character Building had the licence, thus there was no point in submitting ideas. I am not normally a fan of non Lego based mini figures but I did have to get this!

I think Doctor Who was always in Lego plans, as the Doctor is making an appearance in the new Lego Dimensions game

I think this is an theme, which has so much potential with Lego, they have all the old Doctors in the video game, so it is only time when actually mini figures and sets get released either via its own theme or via Lego Dimensions

To me it is the perfect match, the interesting thing is will it just appeal to people like me, AFOLs who grew up watching Dr Who as a kid, or will the kids of today like the idea of building their own Tardis. I hope so.

Now just a selection of pictures of what happens when fans of Lego and Dr Who combine

Brighton Bricks - 29th Sept Write-up

We had a great meet-up last night for the third Brighton Bricks event, held at the Alcampo Lounge on London Road  

The task this month was to create a logo / mascot for the group. Something which can be used to promote us, used on marketing materials like badges, t-shirts & of course Lego figures 

Below are some photos of our logo ideas, big thanks to Kevin who came up with the seagull idea. We want everyone to go away and build their own version of the seagull & letter B. So at the next meeting we can decide on which is best design & which one we going to use

The idea of the seagull & letter B represent both Brighton & Lego, something simple, but also something which can be customised & we can have special Christmas, Halloween etc  versions.