BayLUG Celebrates Fifth Anniversary at LEGO Truck Tour
Members of the Bay Area LEGO Users Group (BayLUG) celebrated their fifth year of association by putting on a major display at the LEGO “What Will You Make, Americas” 2003 Truck Tour in Old Sacramento this past weekend (October 10-12, 2003). On October 10th, 1998, a small group of bay area LEGO enthusiasts who later formed BayLUG set up displays at the Club Room at the Kezar Police Station in San Francisco, then walked to LEGO’s “Imagination Tour” Roadshow in the Golden Gate Park Panhandle. It was a fitting commemoration that exactly five years later, BayLUG was a major participant in LEGO’s current hands-on touring show.
BayLUG’s exhibit at LEGO’s “What will you make, Americas” 2003 Truck Tour stop in Sacramento from October 10-12 was a great success. Members treated thousands of Northern Californians to displays of their own creations, including an operating LEGO train layout and two monorails, and encouraged them to sign up for the new Sacramento LEGO Users Group (SacLUG) mailing list. The exhibit included a town display with Roy’s huge fire station, Bill’s amazing sculptures, Dave W.’s statue of Liberty with Spiderman, Russell’s Thomas the Tank Engine and friends, part of the San Francisco Waterfront Project, Dave S. and Paul H.’s spaceships, the BayLUG Bullet, and many other wonderful LEGO creations, all housed under a 10×10 foot tent canopy. In addition to BayLUG’s exhibit, the event offered visitors four activity areas, three hands-on building areas, and a “Can You Find It” challenge to locate specific LEGO items within the BayLUG Exhibit.
The Truck Tour stop was in the Old Sacramento district, right in front of the Discovery Museum, adjacent to the California Railroad Museum on the river. Attendance built steadily throughout the weekend with about 500 people on Friday, about 800 on Saturday, and well over a thousand on Sunday. The club handed out more than 1800 flyers about the exhibit over the three days. As the temperature climbed into the 80′s, the museum also provided tired and thirsty exhibit staffers with refreshments.
The Truck Tour also provided an opportunity to gauge interest in forming a local Sacramento-area LUG. Response was overwhelming, with more than 200 people and families signing up for the mailing list! Roy Gal will be organizing the first meeting soon, with help from BayLUG.
On Sunday, when LEGO’s master builder was not feeling well, BayLUG member Paul Sinasohn volunteered to fill in. Paul took photos of attendees’ models and talked to them about LEGO building.
Despite the early challenge of the sloping, dusty dirt surface, and the crowds on Sunday, BayLUG members enthusiastically set up, manned, and took down their first outdoor display. The show was a huge success, and a good time was had by all.