00:00Showing you around BrickFest Live at Birmingham NEC, so you don't have to come,
00:05and you shouldn't come, it's rubbish. This dinosaur area when you first come in is probably the only
00:10good bit that they've got in here. There are some fun builds as you can see, various dinosaurs
00:18that have been built by the people running the event and they do look cool. I can certainly
00:24see why they put that front and centre as you walk into the event. But then you get past that
00:28and the disappointment really starts to set in. Most of the event is empty space and piles of
00:34loose Lego and the onus is very much on the people visiting the event to build stuff with, and that's
00:39an area they're supposed to build stuff to go with Mario. This area you build stuff to put on
00:44this graffiti wall. There's some kind of race of some kind that goes on over here. Lots of
00:51inflatables and things around for photo opportunities. There are the odd big build that
00:57have been built by the event organisers like this one that's scattered around the event,
01:03and there is just this one shop which again is run by the event organisers and only contains
01:10Lego sets aimed at kids. There's Lego friends in there, there's a few superhero bits and a
01:15little bit of merch. There are no traders here, no traders at all, no independent community built
01:23and it's just so much empty space and piles of bricks. The intention very much I think is that
01:29this event is aimed at kids to come along and play with Lego for a few hours rather than
01:35collectors or enthusiasts coming along and enjoying a normal brick convention. There we have
01:42another corner that is largely just a big pile of Legos and off the back here it's just a big
01:47bouncy castle. There are some examples of the only Lego sets that are in the only store in here
01:53and then you come around this side and once again it's more of the same. It's
01:59piles of Lego that you can build yourself, there's a colouring area
02:04and then they've got this big mosaic that you can be involved in building.
02:10If this event was advertised as just being an opportunity for kids to come along and play with
02:14Lego I would get it but it's not. There's a massive sign out the front that describes it as
02:19the UK's biggest brick festival and not only that I've paid to come in on a VIP ticket. This got me
02:25in at 9am Saturday morning and as part of my VIP ticket it cost me £40 and we got two of them
02:33so we paid £80 to be in here early. There is absolutely no benefit to being here early because
02:40there's nothing to buy, there's no reason to want to get in early. As you can see there's nobody here
02:45I have to urge you not to come. The reason I want to get this TikTok out so early on Saturday
02:53morning, if you're on the fence about coming to this event at the NEC this weekend, it's running
02:57all weekend, just don't. It is one of the biggest cons I have ever experienced and I've been coming
03:06to conventions for 15 years and I've never seen something so overpriced that offers so little.
03:13I did ask for my money back, I spoke to the event organiser, he said no, the only way I can get my
03:18money back is to go on the website and ask them. Of course they'll also say no, it even says no
03:22refunds on the website but by the time they've got back to me next week he'll be long gone with my
03:28money. He did give me a little bit of a lecture about how it's an event for kids, I shouldn't
03:32have come just as an adult. There's a sign out the front advertising it's the UK's biggest brick
03:37festival and it says it's for all ages on their website so I'm not having that at all. I want my money back.
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