We had our April meeting of the Bay Area LEGO Users’ Group (BayLUG) at the Museum of American Heritage in Palo Alto on April 16, 2011. Lots of people brought models to share and/or stuff to sell, and we had a special activity for the kids where they could build skyscraper towers out of LEGO bricks and then test how they fare on an earthquake simulator table. Click for the pics from the meeting:
This Railroad flatcar with bulkheads was inspired by the NMRA 2011 official HO gauge car for this July’s convention in Sacramento.
Here’s a picture of the prototype I based it on:
A bunch of us are planning to put together a large LEGO layout at the NMRA convention in Sacramento this July. If you want to join the effort, check out the planning wiki and sign up to participate.
A new interview I gave about Bricks by the Bay has been published on the KA-GO site. Just one week to go! Are you excited?
I’m happy to report that the registration form for the Bricks by the Bay 2011 LEGO convention is now available for general registration. I’ve been working hard with a team of volunteers (we can always use more help if you are interested) to get the convention organized and planned.
So if you’ve been waiting for this news to register for the convention, your wait is over. Head on over to the site now and sign up!
Yesterday was the last day of the BayLUG/BayLTC show at the Museum of American Heritage in Palo Alto for another year. We had hundreds of people come through to admire the exhibit including a few friends of mine.
The show is called “Living LEGO-cy” and this was the 7th time we’ve had it. For the first 5 years it was free, but then in 2008-9 the crowds were totally beyond our ability to manage, and it taxed the museum’s and our ability to handle, without any benefit to either institution. So we started charging $2 per person last year, enabling BayLUG to provide a loan to support the startup of Bricks by the Bay’s first convention. This year we kept it the same, though BBTB no longer needs the financial support, and raised a tidy sum for both the museum and the club (who split the income 50/50).
Click the photo above to see all my pictures from the event, or you can view a slide show of the images. See also the opening weekend post I made last month.
As in previous years, we filled the room with LEGO. In the center was a 12′ by 25′ train layout, and all along the sides of the room we had various miscellaneous LEGO exhibits on all types of themes. A few of us had some space to sell LEGO and LEGO-related accessories – I got rid of a bunch of sorting containers I no longer use (tackle boxes and stackable containers) and some bags of parts that I didn’t need; others were selling whole sets and minifigs and other small items. We also used this as an opportunity to solicit for new club members, which we had several of, and to distribute flyers for Bricks by the Bay 2011, and lots of people said they would be there. If you missed out on this exhibit, a similar one will form a centerpiece for the Bricks by the Bay exhibit hall. Hope to see you there!
This past weekend was the opening for the annual “Living LEGO-cy” museum display by BayLUG (Bay Area LEGO Users’ Group) over the holiday season at the Museum of American Heritage in Palo Alto, CA. The show runs through January 9, 2010 and is open Fridays through Sundays except holidays.
Click the picture for all the photos or view them as a slide show.
The Bay Area LEGO Train Club (BayLTC) just got done with a train show. For the past few years we’ve been participating in train shows over Thanksgiving weekend in Pleasanton, at the Alameda County Fairgrounds, but this year the show was held in San Jose instead. We put together a large train layout as usual, but since several key members weren’t able to participate we had a little difficulty filling the space. Still, I think it was pretty successful over all.
Click the picture above or view it as a slideshow.
On October 30, BayLUG had its October 2010 meeting at the Museum of American Heritage. We had a "Halloween" theme contest at the meeting.
Click the image above to see the pictures or view them as a slideshow.
BayLUG had its September 2010 meeting on Saturday, September 18 at Johannes’s church in San Leandro, CA. The contest theme was “National Parks” and I put together a model for it in just a couple of hours before leaving home for the meeting. My model is a Glacier National Park tour bus. I’ll post more about that with better pictures soon, but you can see it in the photos of the meeting. Click the image to view the pictures or see them as a slideshow.
