BayLUG News

The 8th Annual “Living LEGO-cy” show opens this coming weekend in Palo Alto. Hosted every year by the Museum of American Heritage, 351 Homer Avenue, Palo Alto, California, the exhibit features a wide variety of amazing and innovative LEGO Creations and LEGO trains running through familiar city, farm, and suburban scenes, all built from LEGO bricks.

It opens on Friday, December 9, 2010 and runs through Sunday, January 15 2012 during regular Museum open hours: Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 11am to 3:30pm. It will be closed Christmas Eve and Day, and New Years Eve and Day. All ages welcome. General admission is $2 for the Exhibit, Museum Admission is Free (but donations are welcome). Current BayLUG and MoAH members are FREE! No strollers inside the exhibit, please.

The December 2-4 weekend was a busy one for many BayLUG members, setting up the exhibit. Members overcame a number of challenges in both setting up the train layout with under table clearances, and with installing displays. Everything was ready just in time for MoAH’s Member Holiday Party late Sunday afternoon, as you can see in the following pictures. Click any of the pictures to view a gallery of photos from the exhibit setup and party.

The Bay Area LEGO Users Group and Train Club (BayLUG/BayLTC) and the Museum of American Heritage present the 8th Annual “Living LEGO-cy” Holiday LEGO Creation and Train Exhibit at the Frank Livermore Learning Center at the Museum in Palo Alto.

The Exhibit will feature a wide variety of amazing and innovative LEGO Creations and LEGO trains running through familiar city, farm, and suburban scenes. It opens on Friday, December 9, 2010 and runs through Sunday, January 15 2012 during regular Museum open hours: Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 11 to 3:30. It will be closed Christmas Eve and Day, and New Years Eve and Day! All ages welcome.

$2 Exhibit Admission, Museum Admission is Free. No strollers inside the exhibit, please.

On April 16th, 2011 in Palo Alto, buildings shook, people ran for their lives, earthquake after earthquake shook again and again. Then bricks came crashing down, skyscraper after skyscraper – LEGO bricks, that is – scattered all over the ground. After all, we were at a Bay Area LEGO User’s Group (BayLUG) meeting.

The BayLUG Kids’ Building activity was again a big success. This month’s “A Whole Lot of Shaking!” simulated an earthquake with Lego buildings. The challenge was to build the tallest structure that can withstand a simulated earthquake.

The buildings ranged from simple boxy structures to complex towers with earthquake resistant features such as dampeners, pendulums and wheels.

Which size base would be more stable: 2×2, 4×4 or 6×6 (that is in Lego stud size), the kids pondered? Would a chunky building or a wide-based building that tapered to a skinny top be more earthquake resistant?

The test site was simple, a shake table basically comprised of several rubber balls sandwiched in between a wooden frame on the bottom and a top piece of wood board. Gently jiggle the top piece of wood and we have an earthquake.

More than 15 kids attended and the activity ran overtime, as the kids wanted to keep building and keep shaking it up.

Last weekend, many BayLUG members and more than 3500 others enjoyed viewing and discussing LEGO creations at the 2nd Annual Bricks By the Bay Convention. The event was organized by a non-profit company established by three BayLUG members, including former President Bill Ward. Held this year in the much larger Hyatt Regency Santa Clara adjacent to the Santa Clara Convention Center, record numbers of both convention and public day attendees turned up. Convention attendees, including many BayLUG/BayLTC members, provided the many fabulous LEGO creations on display, and participated in LEGO-related discussion and tutorial sessions, contests, and had fun. There was a BayLTC train/town layout in the center of the exhibit hall as well as many LEGO creations in a variety of themes and a showcase of old LEGO sets and products. Public attendees viewed and discussed convention attendee MOCs, interacted with LEGO and LEGO Education staff, and reviewed many types of products available from vendors. The event was another triumph for the company, and the community!

There is a nice BBTB Slideshow on CNET.

At the recent February BayLUG meeting at MoAH in Palo Alto, members present voted unanimously to update the Club’s bylaws as discussed over the past few months. The revised bylaws will be posted soon.

In addition, the meeting featured a “Farm” build contest, and a Kids Activity that built and tested catapults.

The next regular club meeting is March 19th in San Leandro. The March Build Contest theme is “Creative Combinations,” in honor of the Bricks by the Bay convention the following weekend.

After a month and a very busy final weekend, BayLUG/LTC’s 7th Annual Holiday Exhibit at the Museum of American Heritage in Palo Alto closed on Sunday January 9th. More than 3500 visitors toured the Exhibit this year which again featured many BayLUG members’ imaginative LEGO trains, and other creations for the holidays. Many visitors commented that they thought the exhibit was the Club’s best one yet.

The Exhibit was more refined and offered more variety for visitors of all ages and interests. MoAH provided improved lighting and nice fabric skirting for the display areas. This year’s train layout featured a larger downtown area, a Zoo, farm, ‘burbs and other scenic and humorous aspects, and unexpected surprises for visitors to find. Again surrounding the train layout were a wide variety of LEGO displays including exquisite large crane, VLA, ship and historic models, artistic works, classic sets, and many other interesting creations filled the display cases lining the walls.

Photos by Bill Ward.

What a day! There was a huge turnout at the Fall Public meeting Halloween Eve, October 30th, of the Bay Area LEGO User’s Group at MoAH in Palo Alto. It was also the Meeting that commemorates the club’s founding 12 years ago. LEGO fans of all ages had several activities to choose from.

BayLUG President Mark Benz oversees the building contest

The BayLUG Members’ Building Contest had a record number of Halloween-themed entries. The contest display table ran out of space, so some building entries overflowed onto an adjacent table. Entries ranged from popular trick-or-treat houses, to a full size glowing 3-D LEGO Jack O’Lantern, to gigantic spooky fortresses, and many other awesome creations too numerous to list.

Each builder gave a short presentation of their LEGO original creation, delighting BAYLUG members and the public. Members voted after and prizes were awarded in each of the age category: under age 6, 6-11, and 12+.

Next up was the kids’ building activity, the idea was to build LEGO bridges. Each young builder had an identical kit of LEGO bricks. and building challenges to building a bridge where a hard-boiled egg can fit under the bridge AND the same bridge can also support the egg. One variation of the challenge was to use a heavier and larger soup can instead of the egg. Another challenge variation was to build the bridge with the fewest number of bricks. There were as many creative building solutions as there were builders.

Then there was a popular LEGO Parts Draft event. The LEGO kit used was the 7570 Ostrich Race from the new Prince of Persia series.

In addition to many new creations members brought to show, throughout the day, new and played-with bulk and kitted LEGO was available for sale or trade. Many BayLUG members and LEGO fans found the needed parts to complete a LEGO project ,or discovered other LEGO elements that inspire planning a new project.

Thanks again to MoAH for hosting another great day with happy and content BayLUG Members.