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Author: Bill
Another 2006 Garden Gnome by another Bill posted by another Ward
In Ted Ward’s pictures from Northwest BrickCon 2006 I came across a picture a while ago of a garden gnome, created by Bill Volbrecht, former LEGO Master Builder.
As far as I know, Ted Ward is no relation to me, and neither is Bill Volbrecht.
As to why this is interesting, I built my own garden gnome in 2006 as well – while I was in Fairfax VA for the Brickfest convention (it wasn’t at the convention; I built it from parts I bought there, in my hotel room afterward). I posted it here shortly after I built it in September 2006. Here’s mine for comparison:
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As for comparing the two, well I think that he did a better job on the mouth and eyes, but then I was limiting myself (as I’ve done for almost all of my sculptures) to only basic bricks, not plates or slopes or round parts. However if I may be so bold, I like my hat better: it is asymmetrical. I also think the details on the belt are better on mine. But the clincher is that his is functional: I believe that the hands are designed to hold business cards. Mine are hidden behind his back because hands are too hard to model :)
Spaceman/Nanoscale Display at Valley Fair Mall
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
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
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.
June 2008 BayLUG Meeting
BayLUG (Bay Area LEGO Users’ Group) held a meeting on June 22, 2008. Here are the pictures from that meeting.
We had a club contest at the meeting with a theme of “rolling stock.” Bruce’s entry, a revamped 4-8-8-4 Cab Forward locomotive, sporting a new larger diameter boiler, won first place in the adult category. Charles and Adrienne contributed a flatcar with an assortment of hobos. In the younger categories we had two entries, a 7-year-old named Ryan who won his age category with a “Police Spy Train” and Tim (age 11) whose boxcar came in second place. There were no entries in the 12-18 category.
I didn’t bring any models but I did bring the plastic trays I’ve been using for sorting, and demonstrated them by working on the new LEGO Factory Star Justice set during the meeting. I purchased the colorful plastic bins at a local drugstore and have found them to be very helpful when sorting bricks.
Click the big picture to go to the set page on Flickr, or you can view a slideshow of the photos.
BayLUG at Maker Faire 2008, Day 1
For the third year, the Bay Area LEGO Users Group (BayLUG) is taking part in Maker Faire.
We have a 25-foot square train layout and several additional tables, including a large Technic crane and excavator. The show is open until 6pm today (Saturday, May 3) and tomorrow (Sunday, May 4). Hope to see you here!
Click the big picture to go to the set page on Flickr, or you can view a slideshow of the photos.
April 2008 BayLUG Meeting
We had another meeting of the Bay Area LEGO Users’ Group (BayLUG) today at the Museum of American Heritage in Palo Alto.
Members of BayLUG descended on the museum’s meeting room for a day of buying and selling parts, schmoozing, and displaying our latest models.
For the meeting contest, which had a Disney theme, I brought a pair of Mickey Mouse ears I had made out of LEGO. I won the contest in the adult category! (Of course, I was the only entry in the adult category, which takes a little bit of the fun out of it…) Unfortunately in the excitement I failed to take a picture of the contest entries…. I’ll post about the mouse ears separately.
Click the big picture to go to the set page on Flickr, or you can view a slideshow of the photos.
Yuri’s Night 2008
The Bay Area LEGO Users’ Group (BayLUG) took part in Yuri’s Night Bay Area at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, on April 12 2008.
The event was a cross between an airshow, a rave, and a mini Maker Faire (which we will be taking part in next month). We had a display of some of our LEGO models, mostly following a space or futuristic theme, as well as a play area where adults and kids alike could crawl around and build stuff. I brought my DC-3 and the “Fast Flyers” jet.
Click one of the pictures to go to the set page on Flickr, or you can view a slideshow of the photos.
January 2008 BayLUG meeting
I’ve fallen a bit behind blogging about recent BayLUG meetings, though I did post the pictures online. Here we have pics of the meeting in January at Dave Porter’s house in Woodside. We also had a meeting in Palo Alto on February 24, but I missed that one as I was out of town that weekend. Our next meeting is this coming Sunday, April 20, at MoAH in Palo Alto, and it’s open to the public so come by and say hi!
Club member Dave Porter has a house in the mountains where he puts up a display every year for the holidays featuring a very detailed train layout with lots of great scenery. And every January for the past few years, the club is invited up to view the layout and have a big meeting at his house. It’s always a lot of fun.
Click the big picture to go to the set page on Flickr, or you can view a slideshow of the photos.