Bill Ward's Brickpile » legostore

Buzz Lightyear at Hillsdale Mall

Bill — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 08:37:20 +0000

On July 23-25, members of BayLUG volunteered to help LEGO Master Builder Steve Gerling and LEGO store employees, and thousands of kids, build an 8-foot tall statue of Buzz Lightyear, from Disney’s Toy Story movies.

The event was held at the Hillsdale Shopping Center in San Mateo, CA, near the LEGO store. Kids built 8 by 16 stud "bricks" out of 2×4 and 2×8 bricks, which were then assembled into the large model corresponding to the 2×4 bricks in a smaller sample model. BayLUG members volunteered to assist with the project, making sure there were always enough bricks for the kids to build with.

I was there on Saturday all afternoon, and came back Sunday night to help with teardown, but they had already done most of it already by the time I got there, thanks to the help of all the kids. We weren’t paid for our help, but we were given discounts on LEGO which is just as good :-)

Click the image above, or here for a slideshow.

Frisco Bucking Bronco

Bill — Sat, 23 May 2009 23:02:27 +0000

When I heard that LEGO was opening a store in Frisco, TX I asked my friend Sylvia who lives there if she could stop by the grand opening and try to score one of these bucking bronco sets. They were given out to the first 300 customers at the new store. But Sylvia is not one to do things halfway – she was third in line to get into the store, and first to check out. That’s right, this is the first ever bucking bronco given out at that store! Check the timestamp on the receipt…

No related posts.

Globe Display at Hillsdale LEGO Store

Bill — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 06:55:28 +0000

Today, we set up a new BayLUG display at the Hillsdale LEGO store featuring a large globe, two aircraft, and a ferry, all built by Paul. The ferry and small airplane are old LEGO sets; the rest is original.

Spaceman/Nanoscale Display at Valley Fair Mall

Bill — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 03:14:34 +0000

Last Saturday, we changed out the display at the LEGO store in Santa Clara.

The Bay Area LEGO Users’ Group installed a new display at the Valley Fair Mall in Santa Clara, CA featuring a large spaceman model and various nanoscale spaceships by Charles and Adrienne, and a rocket-powered knight by Bruce. This replaces my Blackburn Hotel that had been on display since May 31.

Click the big picture to go to the set page on Flickr, or you can view a slideshow of the photos.

Ski Slope Display at Hillsdale LEGO Store

Bill — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 19:56:08 +0000

On June 1, 2008, we set up a display at the Hillsdale LEGO store featuring models by several members of BayLUG.

The base and the snowboarders were by Anne, with trees and a snowmobile by Bruce, a ski slope and concession stand added by Jim. I added several minifigs (skiers and snowshoers) and a snowmobile.

Click the big picture to go to the set page on Flickr, or you can view a slideshow of the photos.

Blackburn Hotel at Valley Fair Mall

Bill — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 07:08:22 +0000

From May 31 to July 5, my Blackburn Hotel (Version 2) was on display at the LEGO Store at Valley Fair Mall in Santa Clara, CA in the BayLUG window.

This is a redesigned, bigger model of the mythical Blackburn Hotel that I originally built for the Bay Area LEGO Train Club layout. I haven’t done a proper photo-shoot of the hotel itself, but you can see pictures of it in a Flickr set I created to collect all the images of it, including the ones from this store display.

For the store display, however, I had to customize it a bit. I left off the rooftop sign, and modified the baseplates. The version that was used in BayLTC train shows used regular road plates for the street, rather than the tiled half-road (16-stud-wide baseplates) seen in the store display. Also, because the left side of the hotel was located on a street corner, the model didn’t include the road there, while on the right side there was an 8-stud half-alley. When we installed the hotel at the store, that caused the sign to be pressed against the background side wall, and the right side to have a strange gap. So, we ripped the baseplates off the bottom of the hotel and moved everything over by eight studs, putting in a partial road on the left side. Thanks to Russell and Bruce for their help reconfiguring the baseplates.

Click the big picture to go to the set page on Flickr, or you can view a slideshow of the photos.