BayLUG at Maker Faire Bay Area 2015

Earlier this month, BayLUG (Bay Area LEGO Users’ Group) participated once again in the annual Maker Faire Bay Area, in San Mateo, CA. This is the 10th annual Maker Faire and the 10th that we particpated in (though I personally was out of town for last year’s show). We had a 75′ by 15′ space featuring a train layout, Great Ball Contraption, robotics demonstrations, sculptures and mosaics, WWII ships, and a kids’ play area. Continue reading “BayLUG at Maker Faire Bay Area 2015”

Looking forward to Maker Faire

This coming weekend, May 18-19, I’ll be joining a bunch of LEGO enthusiasts from BayLUG (Bay Area LEGO Users’ Group) at Maker Faire yet again. This annual event has been going on every year at the San Mateo Event Center (aka Fairgrounds) since 2006 and BayLUG has been a part every year. This year we have a 40′ by 40′ space which will feature robotics demonstrations, a kids’ play area, a working train layout by BayLTC (Bay Area LEGO Train Club), and lots of LEGO models on display. I hope you can come and see the show, and stop by to say hi.

Besides our LEGO exhibit, there are hundreds of amazing exhibitors and vendors offering everything from knitting to welding, from woodworking to electronics. It’s a celebration of all kinds of do-it-yourself hobbies and homebrew activities, and always lots of fun. Many of the art exhibits that you would otherwise have to go to Burning Man to see are there, and there are lots of great hands-on activiites for kids of all ages.

In the meantime, or if you can’t make it, take a look at my photos from previous years’ Maker Faires.

Maker Faire 2011

My local LEGO club, the Bay Area LEGO Users’ Group, has been displaying at Maker Faire every year since it started in 2005. Maker Faire is an amazing event, full of all kinds of creativity, from knitting to robots to welding to music. A lot of the art cars and artistic displays that Burning Man is famous for can be seen at Maker Faire in a much more pleasant climate. Regardless of your hobby, it’s a hobbyist’s paradise. And if you’re ever looking for a new hobby, it’s the perfect place to find one.

We had just over 20 club members participating to some degree, at various points during the setup and event. We set up the tables and displays Friday afternoon and Saturday morning, and opened to the public at 10am Saturday. I have no idea how many thousands of people came through, but the crowds were nonstop all weekend. The show wrapped up at 6pm last night and we quickly tore down and packed up the display.

We had a 40′ by 50′ space set aside for our club to use, and we divided that up into four distinct areas.

In one corner we had a train/town layout, which is where I spent most of my time. We had a downtown area with buildings, cars, trucks, etc. I had two blocks, one featuring my Blackburn Hotel and other buildings, and the other with my City Park. We also had a suburb full of houses and smaller businesses, and a train yard for storing the trains that weren’t running. Inspired by the Log Cabin set, we had a little campground area featuring two of those cabins and one large one that I made out of three of that set. I also parked my RVs in that area, and we had a lake with an island full of bison/buffalo in the middle for reasons I don’t really understand, but they were cool buffalo. I called them the water buffalo. There was a large open space on the layout which we filled with creations built by kids in our MOC building area (see below).

Besides the town/train layout, we had a row of tables along one side with all sorts of other creations by our club members, including some of my sculpture pieces, Marcello’s Japanese Navy WWII ships, Charles’s spaceships, some Technic creations by Jeremy, and some of my assorted models including the big yacht and some of my 7-wide cars.

The other two corners of our space were devoted to a MOC building area and a Mindstorms demo area. In the MOC building area, we had bulk LEGO parts dumped out on the floor and kids of all ages were invited to build whatever they liked out of the parts. We displayed the parts on the train layout so that the kids could contribute to our display. The Mindstorms area featured live demonstrations of robots of various types run by Eva and Steve, who worked tirelessly all weekend showing the robots off to the public and teaching them about LEGO robots.

To see what it all looked like, click the photo below or click here for a slideshow of all the pictures.

Maker Faire 2011

BayLUG at Maker Faire 2010

Here are the pictures from the Bay Area LEGO Users Group & Train Club‘s exhibit at Maker Faire 2010 Bay Area in San Mateo, CA.
BayLUG at Maker Faire 2010
We had a 40′ by 50′ space just like last year, but this time we set aside about half of it as a play area for the little ones. We dumped out loose LEGO parts on the floor (including a DUPLO area for the really little ones) and spread them out on some tables as well, so that fairegoers could build whatever they wanted. We then had some tables set aside to display these MOCs (My Own Creations), and had volunteers who would take pictures of the models and put them up on a computer. I brought my video projector and we had a continuous slideshow running all weekend with pictures of these MOCs.

Besides the play area, we had the usual train layout, and a row of tables for other themes such as space and sculptures.

You can see all my BayLUG pictures from Maker Faire in the BayLUG at Maker Faire 2010 photoset (slideshow), or see Maker Faire 2010 for all my Maker Faire photos, including both LEGO and non-LEGO displays.

Oops, I forgot to blog about Maker Faire

Maker Faire happened on May 30-31, and here it is almost three weeks later and I haven’t posted anything! We (BayLUG) had a 2,000 square foot display featuring a train layout, 8-foot-long battleship, amusement park & goofy train area, giant Technic cranes, robotics demos, and lots of models of all types on display. We even had emiko oye‘s jewelry artwork made out of LEGO, fresh from tours of art museums around the country.

I posted the pictures on Flickr right away after the Faire ended but i never got around to posting anything here about it. Click the photo to view the whole gallery or try the slideshow.

BayLUG at Maker Faire 2009

BayLUG at Maker Faire 2008, Day 1

For the third year, the Bay Area LEGO Users Group (BayLUG) is taking part in Maker Faire.

Train layout and admirers

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.

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]