Hi, I still exist! Some of you may have even seen me in Portland when I went up for the Bricks Cascade convention a couple weeks ago.
Photo: BayLUG members participating at Bricks Cascade. L-R: Adam and Simone; Kara; Maragaret; Jennifer; me; Leonard and his son.
The event took place over four days (May 15-18), open to the public for the last two. Thursday and Friday were all about expo setup, panels and presentations, and games. Saturday and Sunday included some of those activities but were mostly focused on the public expo.
After setting up the stuff I brought (more on that later), I took part in the Master Build contest. I hadn’t signed up for any of the games, but I got in line for this one and was able to get in when a few people didn’t show up for it. We were each given two LEGO sets to build with, Set 31147 3-in-1 Retro Camera and Set 11006 Classic Creative Blue Bricks, and we were to build something original based on the theme of “Castle or Pirates” using only those parts. Here’s what I came up with:
I went with the “Pirate” option and said it was a blue-haired trans woman hacker in the 1990s pirating CDs and uploading songs to Napster. I didn’t win, but I was pretty happy with what I made. Besides this event, other activities I attended included a keynote presentation by Portland local-boy-made-good LEGO set designer and LEGO Masters Season 1 contestant, Boone Langston; award ceremony, in which I won an “Honorable Mention” trophy for my Rainbow Apartments Micropolis model; closing ceremonies, at which BayLUG won the PUBLIC CHOICE AWARD!!! for our collaborative “Once Upon A Time” display; and the traditional group photo, taken during teardown on Sunday.
My own contributions to the expo were all in the Micropolis area (including the Rainbow Apartments and all my other Micropolis models) and the BayLUG collaborative display where I brought my Jack and the Beanstalk model (not yet posted on the blog, but that will be coming soon).
The Once Upon a Time display was made for our annual holiday show at the Museum of American Heritage in Palo Alto, and only about half of the overall display was included from that project at Bricks Cascade. I have some photos of that event but haven’t posted them yet, so watch this space. Club members Adam and Simone towed a trailer to Portland with their models and a couple of other club members who weren’t able to attend in person sent their models along with them. Others of us drove (as I did) or flew, bringing their models along to the event. It was a great show and we were interviewed by the Beyond the Brick YouTube channel about it. Watch that video here:
We were beyond stoked to hear our name called during the closing ceremony to win the Public Choice award (as voted by the public visitors during the expo on Saturday and Sunday). I’ve won various awards at conventions, but the two big ones (the other being Best in Show, voted by the convention attendees) have remained elusive. Still, I have to concede the award is almost certainly mainly due to the contributions of Adam and Simone with their huge castle and all of its animated effects.
I took about 1800 photos in all, mostly featuring all the MOCs (“My Own Creations”) that people had brought to display. You can see all my photos on Flickr, organized into albums by theme/area:
- Activities – 25 photos
- All MOCs – 1680 photos
- Architecture theme – 59 photos
- Art theme – 204 photos
- Bionicle theme – 101 photos
- Castle and Pirates theme – 86 photos
- BayLUG OUAT display – 95 photos
- Aardvark theme – 4 photos
- Cactus Brick display – 34 photos
- Cosplay theme – 10 photos
- Great Ball Contraption theme – 63 photos
- IdahoLUG Avatar display – 38 photos
- Jurassic Park theme – 83 photos
- Mixed theme – 118 photos
- Mecha theme – 51 photos
- Micropolis theme – 32 photos
- Microscale theme (except Micropolis) – 9 photos
- Oregon Episcopal School display – 33 photos
- Mosaic theme – 34 photos
- Photography display – 11 photos
- Planes, Trains, And Automobiles theme – 101 photos
- Pop Culture theme – 121 photos
- Post Apocalyptic theme – 66 photos
- Space theme – 137 photos
- Star Wars theme – 104 photos
- Technic theme – 21 photos
- Tokens Given – 17 photos
- Town and Country theme – 105 photos
- Vendors – 126 photos
Much of the BayLUG Once Upon a Time display will be displayed at BrickCon in Bellevue, Washington, this coming September 4-7 (public expo September 6-7). I’m not sure if I will be there or not, but my Jack and the Beanstalk will be.
