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Bricks Cascade 2020 MOCs

April 23, 2026March 28, 2020 by Bill Ward

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:

Flat Owl

April 23, 2026March 3, 2020 by Bill Ward

Inspired by the “platecraft” technique used in Christmas decorations by Chris McVeigh, and my own Flat Santa and Flat Rudolph holiday decorations, I wanted to try the technique on a larger scale and without tying it to the holidays, and this was the result:

Advent 2019

April 23, 2026December 24, 2019 by Bill Ward

I can’t believe it’s already December! As I do every year, I’ve purchased all of the available LEGO Advent Calendar sets and for each day I will be posting photos of that day’s models and discussing them. This year we have four Advent calendars: City, Friends, Harry Potter (new calendar theme), and Star Wars. I was a day late getting started – out of town for the weekend. As usual, each post was originally a separate blog entry, starting with Day 1, and continuing with a daily post about that day’s advent models. However, to clean up the site, I’ve condensed all those daily posts to a single post per year. Here’s the 2019 edition.

Book Review: From an Idea to LEGO

April 23, 2026December 6, 2019 by Bill Ward

The book From an Idea to LEGO by Lowey Bundy Sichol is a part of a series of books providing a history of well-known companies, such as Google, Disney, and Nike, for children. But since this is a LEGO blog, we’ll just focus on this one.

Fan community reacts to LEGO buying BrickLink

April 23, 2026November 27, 2019 by Bill Ward

The LEGO Group announced this week they will be acquiring BrickLink, the online marketplace for LEGO parts. This has sent shockwaves throughout the entire LEGO fan community.

East Bay Mini Maker Faire 2019

April 23, 2026October 31, 2019 by Bill Ward

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.

BayLUG October 2019 Meeting

April 23, 2026October 16, 2019 by Bill Ward

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).

Book Review: Build a LEGO Mustang

April 23, 2026October 3, 2019 by Bill Ward

I’ve been an admirer for some time of Polish LEGO fan PaweÅ‚ “Sariel” KmieÄ‡ from Warsaw, Poland. He builds some of the most brilliant LEGO scale model vehicles I’ve ever seen and is a wizard with TECHNIC mechanisms. One of his models, the Shelby GT 350-H, has been made into a book, Build a LEGO Mustang. As of this writing, Amazon offers it for US$13.99, discounted from the cover price of US$19.95. Here are the front and back covers:

Book Review: LEGO Holiday Ideas

April 23, 2026September 13, 2019 by Bill Ward

This Christmas, you might consider picking up a copy of the new book from DK, LEGO Holiday Ideas. The list price is US$14.99 or CA$18.99 but you can get it for less and support my blog by using the Amazon link provided:

Caltrain Gallery Cars

April 23, 2026August 28, 2019 by Bill Ward

This isn’t a new model, but it is one that has never been featured on my blog before, even though it was first built almost a decade ago. It’s the Gallery Car used by Caltrain commuter rail service on the San Francisco peninsula, to go with my Caltrain F40PH locomotive.

LEGO Masters Casting Call

July 24, 2019 by Bill Ward

There is a new LEGO-related competition reality show coming to FOX TV in the US, based on the LEGO MASTERS show that has been a big success in the UK and Australia. They’re looking for contestants. If you’re interested, read on.

Bricks by the Bay 2019

April 23, 2026July 20, 2019 by Bill Ward

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:

Micropolis Canal

April 23, 2026June 30, 2019 by Bill Ward

I’ve built some new Micropolis modules, running a canal through the city. It’s not an original idea, but rather one that I borrowed from photos I saw online, and decided to make my own versions of.

Follow me on Social Media / Micropolis Houses

April 23, 2026June 26, 2019 by Bill Ward

I’ve recently been trying to up my social media game, and want to post an update and reminder. I’ve started being a bit more active on Instagram and Twitter, and I’ve been posting on my Facebook page for a while now, but if you’re not following those then now’s a good time to start.

Micropolis Suburbia

April 23, 2026June 25, 2019 by Bill Ward

Suburban Micropolis houses.

BayLUG June 2019 Meeting

April 23, 2026June 12, 2019 by Bill Ward

Yesterday, June 9th, we had a meeting of BayLUG at the Museum of American Heritage in Palo Alto. Click any of the photos below to see the larger version from Flickr, or click this one to see the whole album on Flickr:

Maker Faire Bay Area 2019

April 23, 2026May 18, 2019 by Bill Ward

As we have done every year since the very first Maker Faire in 2006, BayLUG has a display at this year’s version of Bay Area Maker Faire in San Mateo, CA.

RIP Art Gugick

April 23, 2026April 3, 2019 by Bill Ward

I learned this week of the tragic death in a car accident of Arthur Gugick, beloved LEGO artist from Beachwood, Ohio.

Advent 2018

April 23, 2026December 24, 2018 by Bill Ward

In 2018, unlike the last two, we don’t have a 24-in-1 set (“Christmas build-up”) to play with, unfortunately, so we’re back to just the basic Advent calendars in City, Friends, and Star Wars. As usual, each post was originally a separate blog entry, starting with Day 1, and continuing with a daily post about that day’s advent models. However, to clean up the site, I’ve condensed all those daily posts to a single post per year. Here’s the 2018 edition.

BayLUG 20th Anniversary

April 23, 2026October 8, 2018 by Bill Ward

We had the 20th Anniversary meeting/party of BayLUG (Bay Area LEGO Users Group) in San Leandro on October 6th, 2018.

Amusement Park Train

April 23, 2026September 25, 2018 by Bill Ward

I made this cute little train earlier this year. It’s meant to represent a cheesy fake train that you might find at an amusement park to ferry passengers between the parking lot and the rides. It features three cars and an 0-4-0 locomotive, built on the 9V train motor base. The cars use the smaller diameter wheels so that they can be low to the ground.

Bricks by the Bay 2018

April 23, 2026July 16, 2018 by Bill Ward

This past weekend was the 9th edition of Bricks by the Bay, the bay area’s local LEGO convention. I was a co-founder and President from 2010 through 2015, until I resigned and skipped the 2016 event. I returned last year to repair my relationship with the local LEGO community and am feeling very happy to have been accepted and welcomed back into the fold.

Short C-23 Sherpa

April 23, 2026July 16, 2018 by Bill Ward

This Short C-23 Sherpa is an Army surplus cargo plane that has been converted for use by the US Forest Service as a “smokejumper” plane – firefighters jump out of a perfectly good airplane into a burning forest! I built this model as a commissioned kit for one of the USFS pilots, including instructions.

Talks at Bricks by the Bay 2018

April 23, 2026July 15, 2018 by Bill Ward

For the first time in a few years I gave my Brick Geometry and Studs On All Sides talks at the Bricks by the Bay LEGO convention in Santa Clara, CA. I updated both presentations for this event by adding a few new pages in each one.