Some of our amazing PerthLUG builders had a massive weekend at Bricktober across October 10 and 11 this year! With over 8000 members of the public coming through the doors it was a mix of joyfully sharing our beloved creative hobby with young and young-at-heart fans alike, with just a hint(?) of running our social batteries a bit low!
Marvelous MOCS
Castles and dragons and creatures, oh my! We’ll take you skipping along the proverbial ‘brick’ road of Bricktober to highlight the winning contributions from our members, and then we’ll also share more builds from our group’s members later in the article (so keep scrolling!)
People’s choice – 1st place went to Lande Jack for his epic ‘The Citadel of Eldoria’ castle build. The scale of this was spectacular and the details throughout equally so for the buildings, landscaping and characters. With so many walls that opened up to reveal incredibly detailed and lit up minifig worlds inside as well it was no surprise that visitors thoroughly enjoyed exploring every inch of this build. 
Exhibitors choice went to Kirsty Vermeer for her incredible castle build ‘The studded fortress of Doom…ish’. Masterfully built and full of delightful details like a baby dragon reading a book with its teddy bear, the princess saving the prince, a wondrous wizard, a cat and owl playing chess, and a truly magnificent sculpted dragon enjoying a tea party.
Best in Show went to Jane Gibbons-Eyre for ‘The Wonderful World of Beatrix Potter’ – Peter Rabbit in the raddish patch, Mrs Tiggy-Winkle having a cuppa, and Jemima Puddle-Duck emerging out of a beautifully crafted book with the picture on the page emulating the watercolour painting style of Beatrix Potter. For those who aren’t aware Peter Rabbit has reached 10,000 votes over on the LEGO Ideas site, so we’re all crossing our fingers it gets approved to become an official set! Jane also took out People’s Choice 2nd place and a G award!
And two other G awards, from one of our local LEGO Master, G, Gerhard Engelbrecht went to Dirk Slawinski for his ‘Build-Your-Own For Science Outreach’, a marvellous (and growing) collection of small builds of Australian animals with free instructions so you can build them yourself. And Leanne Van Heerwaarden for her ‘Tea for Two?’ tea party with cheeky little mice running amok on the picnic blanket amongst the tea pot, tiered cake stand and cups and glasses, enjoying the food and drink or making a mess! 
Rotary Chair’s choice went to Paul Gamble for his ‘Timber Workers’ scene – each horse was built slightly differently dependent on parts availability in the colours, and the scale of this build matches the Miniland scale used in the LEGOLAND parks around the world – the figures (Minilanders) are around 10 or 11 bricks high, between 1:17 – 1:20 scale compared to real life. 
Critter Collaboration
Alongside our individual members exhibiting their amazing MOCs, we also had a PerthLUG collaborative build. In the past we’ve done habitat stacks, apartment builds, mosaics and more, but this year we had a lot of fun bringing together lots and lots of animals into a Zoo!
We had front and rear entrances with elephant sculpture fountains. There was monkey business going on in both the monkey house and elsewhere around the zoo. And lots of minifigs were enjoying their day out taking in all the animals and attractions, including:
a brilliant homage to the Lion King (Marcus Dabner & Tash Apary), animal hospital (Sue-Ann Cee), science centre (Dirk Slawinski), and lots and lots of animals: hedgehogs (Jenna Leung), camels (Dale Horsley), ostriches (Kim Brackman), monkeys (Ryan Veenstra), butterfly pavilion (Katja Lee), giraffes (Bea Stephens), aquarium (Penny Kincaid), bats, goats & spiders (James Lucas), entrance and exit (Katja and Ryan).
It was also exciting to be able to have our Recognized Fan Community (brick built) ’tile’ alongside our display. Successfully migrating across to the new LEGO® Fan CoLab earlier this year was an achievement we were incredibly proud of as a group!
A huge thanks to our indomitable PerthLUG Committee Secretary, Sue-Ann, for looking after the display and making sure some of our endangered critters (i.e. rare valuable animals) didn’t go extinct (i.e. go home with any adoring fans), and chatting to visitors about our group across the whole weekend.
ArtyBricks
We were also delighted at the opportunity to showcase a selection of the artworks from our ArtyBricks – Natural Elements art exhibition at the Kent Street Gallery from earlier in the year.
8 of the 16 artists brought along their artworks fusing LEGO® bricks with natural materials in comment of our relationship to the environment.
From left to right:
Leave Me a Home Among the Gum Trees, 2026 – Doug Paice – LEGO, Marri Bark, Expanding Foam, Acrylic on Board
Undermining, 2026 – Doug Donnelly – LEGO & Rock
Insect Collection, 2026 – Bea Stephens – LEGO, Taxidermy Insects (Dragonfly, Tarantula, Scorpion, Centipede) & Leaf Litter
Powerplant – Lukas Mack – LEGO & Burnt Sticks
Crazy Bird Lady – Leanne Van Heerwaarden – LEGO, Vine Branches & Bird Nest
Cù Sithe, 2026 – Paul Gamble – LEGO & Gum Leaves
Bioengineered Brushtail, 2025 – Kim Brackman – LEGO & bottle brush
Snatched: A Hot Chip Tragedy, 2026 – Narelle Hickey – LEGO, Beach Sand & Cardboard
Wanted Alive, 2026 – Kim Brackman – LEGO, Feathers, Foliage on Board
Images from at the gallery:
More Marvelous MOCS
And to finish off we’ll leave you with some more eye candy from some of our other incredibly talented members from the Bricktober weekend… I apologize for missing a few builders who’s works I didn’t get good photos of!
‘The Fleet Base’ – Emma Huggins, ‘Wanaka’ – Paul Roberts, ‘Godzilla’ – Rigby Cable
‘Castle Seaford’ – Nathaniel Inouye, ‘Zombies Garden’ – Doug Donnelly, ‘The Owl House’ – Kayleigh Lange, ‘Two Maxi Figures in a Trenchcoat’ – Dianne and Shane Horvath, ‘Spring has Sprung’ – Amy Lau, ‘Perth City Skyline’ – Bea Stephens 
‘Separated Space’ – James Lucas, ‘Granny Squares’ – Lee Battersby, ‘Faeries of the Flower Court’ – Liam Tennant, ‘LEGO Lane Reimagined’ – Nicole Couper 
‘Star Wars’ – Stephen Slaney, ‘Star Wars Victory and Death’- Jasper Greenhill, ‘Pirate Camp’ – Rod Iseppi 
