Inside the Malaysia AFOL Summit 2017

Sunday, June 25th, 2017 by Brickfinder

I had the opportunity to attend the Malaysia AFOL summit last weekend thanks to the gracious invite by the LUG of Malaysia.

It would be a largest gathering of Malaysian AFOLs (Adult Fan of LEGO) in a forum in where Malaysian LEGO User Groups (LUGs) and the LEGO Community managers were able to discuss and share the achievements and challenges pertaining to the management of a LUG.

Community managers Jacky Chen and Tanja Friberg were also in attendance which would wind up the final leg of their whirlwind tour of Asia.

I actually had the pleasure of meeting both of them during their Singapore stopover for the Singapore AFOL Summit earlier last week.

The Malaysian AFOL Summit was held at the Dwi Emas International School and members of both the LUG of Malaysia and Synergy LUG were on hand showcase their achievements.

There were two MOC (My Own Creation) competitions that would culminate during the event, the first being The Fourth Build contest where builders had to take an existing Creator 3-in-1 set and construct a “fourth” build with just the pieces available.

There were a lot of amazing entries but a crowd favourite was the angler fish which was just spot on.

The other MOC contests was a free build exercise which didn’t have a size limit so everyone was encouraged to submit their latest creation.

I have to say that a lot of these really blew me away especially Lendy’s LEGO Voltron Defender of the Universe model which is currently being considered by the LEGO Ideas team to be made into an actual set.

There were also a slew of notable entries like Heartbricker Joe’s Technic Imperial Shuttle to Brandon’s Owl Cafe to Winston’s Museum of Natural History.

You might have encountered them online but there is nothing like actually seeing the builds live and in person.

The LOMers also organised a building competition for both the kids and adults which was to create a LEGO model with just 2×4 blue bricks.

There were really some ingenious builds and I was particularly fond of the magnifying glass (for obvious reasons).

Tanja and Jacky took on the judging duties as the entries were vying for the LEGO Billund Airport (4000016) as the top prize.

What was really cool were the parting gifts for both Jacky and Tanja. The LOMers built two palm size LEGO Ketupats which they beautifully framed. The design is quite different from the ones we’ve seen from the Cities of Wonders Gift with Purchase.

It was really great to catch up with some old friends whom I’ve had the pleasure of making since the start of Brickfinder’s LEGO journey. It really warms my heart to see how far you guys have come. Hope to see everyone really soon!