Category: BayLUG

Bay Area LEGO Users’ Group – www.baylug.org

Yoda Build Event at Hillsdale Shopping Center

LEGO has been doing these “Yoda build events” all around the country as promotions for their retail stores. We finally got a chance to participate in one! 20070721-6481

Members of BayLUG spent most of the weekend of July 20 and 21 helping out with this project. A Master Builder from LEGO, Stephen Gerling, was on hand to construct the giant LEGO sculpture of Yoda from Star Wars. It was based on a smaller model built almost entirely out of 2×4 bricks in brown, tan, and sand green colors.

To build the giant sculpture, kids were invited to come and construct giant LEGO bricks. Each brick was 8x16x4, or exactly 4x in each dimension the size of a standard 2×4 brick. Lots of 2×4 and 2×8 bricks in each of the three colors were on hand, and laminated instruction cards were set out for the kids to follow. We ended up with many many bins full of the giant bricks, which were used to construct the Yoda sculpture. In fact we had plenty of bricks left over, so at the end we took the instructions away and just let the kids build whatever they wanted.

The event was a lot of fun. We didn’t get paid, but we got some very special deals on bricks from the store to compensate for our time :-)

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

Recent BayLUG Store Displays

My LEGO club, BayLUG, has been honored to be able to display some of our work at the local LEGO stores.

Save 9V TrainsUnderwaterMicroscale Town

We are doubly fortunate in that we are the only LEGO user group in the neighborhood of not one, but two LEGO stores: Hillsdale Shopping Center and Valley Fair Mall. It can be a bit of a challenge sometimes coming up with two different displays, so sometimes we will cycle them from one store to the other. The last few times we’ve put in a display I have taken pictures using my cell phone camera, but never got around to blogging about them. So instead of having one post for each installation, I’m posting just one entry to cover all of them. There are several dioramas represented here:

  1. A “Save 9V Trains” display, featuring several train models on shelves to show what is possible using our favorite train technology. Installed 1/13/2007 at Valley Fair.
  2. Undersea diorama by Mathew, with various club members adding boats and other small models to complete the display. Installed 5/30/2007 at Valley Fair.
  3. A microscale town, featuring Russell’s COIT tower and several small buildings and vehicles by Loren. Installed 6/2/2007 at Hillsdale.

We’ll be installing new displays in both stores soon, so watch this space. I’ll try to be more reliable about blogging them…

This blog entry corresponds to two photosets on Flickr, so click each of the big pictures to go to the corresponding set page on Flickr, or view the Save 9V Trains slideshow (just 2 pictures), the Underwater slideshow, or the Microscale Town slideshow.

Vintage Vehicles and Family Festival 2007

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BayLUG took part once again in the Museum of American Heritage‘s annual Vintage Vehicles and Family Festival in El Camino Park in Palo Alto, CA. We had a small booth with several models on display and lots of LEGO for sale.

The festival featured lots of classic cars on display and live music performances all day long. It was a lot of fun! The pictures featured here are of our LEGO club booth, but I also went around and took pictures of all the cars.

Click the big picture to go to the set page on Flickr, or click on an individual photo. Or, you can view a slideshow of the photos.
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[tags]lego,baylug,vvff,vvff2007,moah,paloalto[/tags]

BayLUG at Maker Faire 2007

We had a great time at Maker Faire again this year.

BayLUG Group Photo

We had a train layout like usual, around 23 feet square, featuring a city downtown, CJ’s Hollywood diorama, a suburban area, farm, Bruce’s 10 foot bridge, rail yard with lots of rolling stock on display, James’s Goofy Train, and a new feature, with Jim and James collaborating on a double-figure-eight loop with Mindstorms control preventing any wrecks at the crossover tracks, and featuring Jim’s Hogwarts castle diorama. In addition we had several tables along the perimeter of the room with several items on display, including Jim’s Mindstorms/pneumatic calculator.

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

I also had a chance to wander around Maker Faire and take pictures of some of what I saw. You can find those pictures on Flickr (slideshow) as well.
BayLUG Group PhotoPhoto ShootJames In Photo ShootJim's CalculatorDC-3Johannes's Ancient BuildingsJeremy's LEGO TownPaul's CathedralJim's Santa Fe TrainsCJ's Hollywood Diorama IICJ's Hollywood Diorama IDowntown/HollywoodDowntown, featuring Johannes' skyscraperDowntown IIDowntown IDowntown/Figure Eight LandFigure Eight LandFigure Eight/HogwartsATATRide'em DinosaurboyHogwartsGoofy LandGoofy Trains ParkedYard 1Yard 2Yard 3Yard 4Yard CornerCraneFarmSuburbia 1Suburbia 2Suburbia 3Suburbia 4Suburbia OverheadJim Pointing to CalculatorDC-3 with Engines RunningDC-3 Front ViewJeremy Town during showJohannes' Ancient Buildings during showDesert Fort?Santa Fe Engines 1Santa Fe Engines 2Santa Fe Train CarsSanta Fe Trains by JimPagoda and Cathedral by PaulBruce's BridgeMeeting on the bridgeTrains on the bridgeIndustrial areaConstruction siteBig yellow crane by LindaYard during showRolling Stock on display during showGoofy LandHogwarts/Goofy Land during showHogwarts during showHogwarts and DinosaurHogwarts ExpressFast Train on Figure EightDowntown from Figure Eight during showTrain station and DowntownPark and CondoStreet SceneLooking UpLooking Up AgainJohannes' SkyscraperCJ's Hollywood DioramaParking LotTraffic Jam in SuburbiaHiking along the tracksView from InsideSuburbia/DowntownSuburbua with Finger PointingSuburbia/FarmFarmCowsBridge with Speeding TrainsSign

[tags]lego,baylug,bayltc,makerfaire,makerfaire2007[/tags]

Join us at Maker Faire!

This weekend, BayLUG will be taking part in Maker Faire, a celebration of creativity – from electronics to sculpture to sewing. We took part in it last year (see my blog entry including pictures from that event) and will have a bigger, better layout this year! Come by and say hi![tags]lego, makerfaire, baylug, bayltc[/tags]

BayLUG Meeting April 15 2007

We had a BayLUG meeting on April 15 at the Museum of American Heritage in Palo Alto.

I brought some items to sell as well as the new Café Corner set (which I had just purchased) to display. Plenty of other members brought some great new models to display. I was particularly impressed by David Simmons’ new Space Police ship, and Mathew Clayson’s San Diego Coaster train (similar to the Caltrain equipment here in the bay area).

We had an “alternate model” contest – build a model using only parts from one or more LEGO sets valued at $20 or less MSRP. I built a model (a dragon, using parts from the Blade Titan Exo-Force set) but didn’t win. The winner in the adult category was a guitar and amplifier built using a vehicle set, built by one of our newest members. There were some very impressive entries in the kid categories as well. Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures of the contest entries or write down the contestants’ names, so I can’t give any more detail than that. :-(

I forgot my camera but took some pictures with my cell phone, which you can see on flickr (slideshow) or just click the photo on the right.[tags]lego,baylug,moah[/tags]