Independence Day

Independence Day - Brickworld Chicago 2017

Independence Is Upon Us! Will you fight to save the day against the alien scourge attacking our planet? Find out more by watching the video below.


Join us on our journey as we spoke with Aaron Fiskum and Allen T. Hickmon about their trophy winning Independence Day collaborative build. These exhibitors decided to do a LEGO build together to maximize their impact for an amazing display. Fans of the science fiction thriller movie Independence Day will delight at the sight of this display. The hive mother-ship is attacking a city and the human military is coming to the rescue. Will the city survive the assault or will the humans defeat the hive aliens? This masterpiece of LEGO construction and ingenuity was debuted at Brickworld Chicago in 2017. Brickworld allows exhibitors from all walks of life and demographics to compete against one another for the best displays. The exhibitors use this friendly competition as a way to step up their display and build games each show in order to delight all the attendees. Every year, at each location Brickworld brings new exhibits.

The works of Allen T. Hickmon can be found on his Instagram page. There you can keep up with his past, current, and future display builds. Allen teaches courses and does custom LEGO builds and you can find out more information on his website.

Aaron Fiskum is another talented LEGO builder and he can be caught up with at his FLICKR account. Aaron shows off some amazing past builds and you can follow his progress there.

For more information on exhibitors, displays, vendors, and where to the find the closest Brickworld: Visit Brickworld's website at Brickworld.com. There you can learn about future events and purchase tickets. Brickworld is host to LEGO builders from all around the globe and features attendees from all walks of life. LEGO has created a medium in its toys that transcends cultural barriers and its only limits are your own imaginations.

ChiLUG Brick wall

ChiLUG – Brickworld – Chicago 2017

What does ChiLUG stand for? The easiest answer is to say the Chicago Area Lego Users Group. It's what their name is. Who are they exactly? ChiLUG was founded in 2012 and shares Lego building with their community. Their mission? "To design, build, and display diverse and unique LEGO creations, and share our building techniques and ideas with the world." according to their President, John Thornton.

When you get right down to it ChiLUG means a lot of different things like most LUG groups. ChiLUG is a home for some, a learning experience, a hobby, time away from the mundane, a place to discuss Legos, a time to build, family time together, and friendships getting put together much like the Lego pieces we all love. Elizabeth and I felt very welcome among them during our time at Brickworld Chicago. We spoke with Mike McDermott of ChiLUG and he gave us some insight into their builds and his love of constructing Batman scene landscapes. We looks forward to seeing ChiLUG and Mike again. Our first time meeting him and we felt right at home. They honored us by adding an Emunah Graphics engraved brick to their wall of unusual bricks. See if you can spot us in the thumbnail image! Thank you ChiLUG for all you do in your community.

Heroes Club LUG

Heroes Club LUG - Brickworld - Chicago 2017

What is Heroes Club LUG? Brickworld is always full of surprises and one such surprise this year to us was Heroes Club LUG. Heroes Club LUG is a LEGO fan club based out of China who appeared at Brickworld Chicago this year featuring amazing mech builds and a famous garden build. You can find pictures of their builds on our Facebook page or in the links of the video.

We were fortunate enough to meet Prince Jiang, Ambassador of the group, at Brickworld this year. He was excited to speak to us and tell us about Heroes Club LUG. Also, Prince Jiang gave us the best news any LEGO fan would love to hear. And you're ALL invited! You might not be able to make it for 2017 but you can certainly try for 2018! What's the news? Watch the video and let Prince Jiang tell you himself.

LEGO spans continents. That's the beauty of the brick. There are international languages and then there are international toys. Language barriers dissolve when it comes to bricks. We were honored that Prince Jiang took the time out from the expo to speak with us that weekend. We look forward to seeing more of Prince Jiang and Heroes Club LUG at future Brickworld expos.

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Brickworld - Indianapolis 2017 - A Story to Remember



I cannot say enough positive things about the Brickworld Lego expos. We were fortunate to be invited to attend the latest one in Indianapolis which kicked off the 2017 Brickworld season. First off I would like to thank everyone at Brickworld and Bryan Bonahoom for having us out and putting on such a great event.

Second, I would like to take a moment to thank all the vendors and exhibitionists who took the time out to interact with us, allowed us to put them to video, and showed excellent customer service. In a forthcoming blog we will be showcasing the vendors.

Indianapolis’s expo is held in a large convention center at the fairgrounds. There is approximately 6600 square feet of LEGO displays and vendors. It’s hard to get through everything in a single day and if you rush you will certainly miss out on seeing something.

Bryan told us a story about a Make-A-Wish recipient and their experience at Brickworld. I can’t tell this story in a way to do it justice and really it’s something Bryan should tell. He explained to us about a lone LEGO large scale mini figure that represented the child and was their YouTube channel sidekick. This was the first time this LEGO figure was displayed at Brickworld and the child it honored had passed away.

In the many years I have spent working alongside or with conventions and expos the one thing that has always tugged at my heart was the amount of charity that goes on at them. I have watched Edward James Olmos play in a Jedi vs Rebels laser tag event to raise money for charity. I have seen graphic novel artists silent auction off their works to aid causes. I haven’t seen anything before now as wonderful as that LEGO character on display as a tribute to a child.

What I took away from Brickworld Indianapolis this year wasn’t something as tangible as what could be found at a vendor’s booth. It was the emotion and love for bricks and pieces that all the people share with each other right down to the comradery of the fans. The engineering and science that a pile of LEGO pieces can inspire is limitless. The imagination of a small child learning to play with interlocking bricks for the first time is priceless. What holds LEGO together isn’t the patented design. What holds LEGOs together is the community that can be built from it simply by playing with your first set.

Brickworld Fort Wayne 2016

Brickworld - Fort Wayne 2016

In 2016 Elizabeth and I watched the documentary “A Lego Brickumentary” on Amazon. We both share a love of LEGO products. While watching the documentary, we learned of a series of LEGO expos called “Brickworld” and their owner and executive director Bryan Bonahoom. We did some research and found out that there was a Brickworld expo happening in Fort Wayne just a few short weeks away. Of course, we both had to go.

While there we were wowed with the displays on the expo floor and the inter-activeness of it all. This was truly an all ages event. There was plenty to see and plenty to buy. The vendors and the displayers were all very nice.

By a stroke of sheer luck, I happened to be able to meet Bryan Bonahoom. I had previous experience working for other conventions and expos and I had a few ideas for his. We were of the same mindset and got along well.

After talking and meeting with each other later I cut together a short promotional video using cell phone footage taken at Fort Wayne and voiced it over. My wife and I were very fortunate that our experience could help promote such a wonderful series of expos. Emunah Graphics is honored to have a networking relationship with Brickworld and is looking forward to seeing how it can grow in the future.

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