Bricks by the Bay 2020 Virtual

Yesterday, July 11, was the first-ever online edition of the Bricks by the Bay LEGO convention. I set up a MOC (“My Own Creation”) exhibit in my dining room, since we couldn’t meet up in person this year.

BBTB 2020 MOCs 01

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Play 101 Bricks with me at Bricks by the Bay Virtual

I’ll be hosting a game of 101 Bricks at the upcoming virtual Bricks by the Bay event. Sadly the pandemic rules out any in-person activities this year, but they’re having a Zoom-based online convention instead, next Saturday July 11th. It’s not too late to register, and it’s only $5 per household to attend!

101 Bricks is a game that I picked up at BrickCon in Seattle a number of years ago. I used to host the game in person at Bricks by the Bay and earlier this year I even played it at Bricks Cascade. (They called it 99 Bricks at Bricks Cascade, but it’s the same game with 2 fewer elements.)

I don’t know if this has been played on Zoom before at one of the other virtual conventions, or if this is the first time it’s being done… so there may be some glitches, but we’ve got a pretty good idea of how to play this online. The rules are pretty simple:

  1. Everyone brings 101 bricks of their own to the event. They can be any LEGO elements, any shape or size. Every element counts! Things like tires, minifig legs, etc. are all counted separately; in other words, if it counts towards the parts count on a LEGO set or if you can order it individually on BrickLink, it should count separately towards your 101 bricks for this game. We won’t be able to verify your brick count, but we will require you to turn your camera on with Zoom so we can see your bricks and the things you build with them, so be honest.
  2. The person running the game (me) will announce a series of build challenges. Each one is 3 minutes long. You build, using only the parts you brought with you, something that matches the theme of the challenge. If you’ve seen LEGO Masters, it’s like that, but only 3 minutes per build.
  3. We will spotlight the video of each participant in turn and then vote to determine a winner for each round, and the totals are tracked in a spreadsheet. Vote will be done by Zoom poll, so only one vote per Zoom connection is allowed. (If you have several people in one household joining us, each can vote if you use multiple devices — just turn the audio off for all but one of them in the room please.)
  4. After 10 rounds (or however many we have time for), the winner is the one with the most wins.

So if you’re interested in joining us, register for Bricks by the Bay and join the 101 Bricks room on Zoom on Saturday at 6pm. (Note: hours may vary; schedule is subject to change).

Bricks Cascade 2020: 99 Bricks Contest

A month ago I was attending the Bricks Cascade LEGO convention in Portland. A highlight of that event for me was on Friday when I participated in the “99 Bricks” challenge, in which you have to build a bunch of different models out of the same 99 elements, each one to a different theme or subject matter, and you only have 3 minutes to do it in! I think my favorite was the first one I made, a robot:

1: Robot
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Bricks Cascade 2020 MOCs

It feels like a million years ago, but it has only been 4 weeks since my first (and I fear it may be only) LEGO convention of 2020, Bricks Cascade, in Portland Oregon. Despite early worries about coronavirus, I had a pretty great time, and don’t seem to have caught anything. Since then, of course, I’ve returned home and have been sheltering in place and watching with horror at the way the virus has spread across the world. It feels almost impossible that an event such as this could ever happen, much less just a few weeks ago. It’s amazing how quickly we adapt to changing realities. Everyone, please stay home and help flatten the curve.

Anyway, let’s try to forget about COVID-19 for a minute, and talk about the MOCs (My Own Creations) at the event. As usual at LEGO conventions, I tried to take photos of photos of all the MOCs displayed by the builders there, and think I probably didn’t miss much if any. Here’s an image of my MOCs that were on display in the Art area:

Bricks Cascade MOCs 0025
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East Bay Mini Maker Faire 2019

Last Sunday, as we do every year, BayLUG had a display at the East Bay Mini Maker Faire in Oakland, CA. Several of us brought Micropolis modules and we had a pretty extensive city set up, plus a variety of other models. See the photos below for more details – click on any photo to go to the Flickr photo album.

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BayLUG October 2019 Meeting

This past weekend I attended the annual BayLUG anniversary meeting in San Leandro, CA. It is the club’s 21st year, but we had a big celebration last year for the 20th and this year it was more like a regular meeting. We had a Halloween themed contest and lots of people brought models to show. My photos from the meeting can be seen here or on Flickr (click any photo to go to the album).
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Bricks by the Bay 2019

This year’s edition of Bricks by the Bay, the annual LEGO convention in the San Francisco Bay Area, happened last weekend. It seemed like I wasn’t going to be able to go due to illness, but thanks to the miracle of antibiotics, I was able to go! Here are some of my models (Teddy, Kermit, Owl and California Flag) on display:

BBTB 2019 MOCs 353 BBTB 2019 MOCs 361

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