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 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.

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.

There is a nice BBTB Slideshow on CNET.

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.

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.

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.

In order to have adequate materials, please let us know if you plan to attend. This is not meant to be a mandatory RSVP, but to get an idea how many kids we will have there. You can comment under this post or send email to indicate that you will apply.

Here are the rules of the contest. For more information see the Parents Wiki page about the event (requires login).

Car Construction

• Only cars built from the LEGO elements available at the meeting may race officially.
• Using the provided axles and wheels, build a car that runs on these wheels down the provided race track (a PVC channel).
• There is a 6 wheel limit per car, which may be reduced to 4, depending on the number of participants.
• The car must fit entirely within the start box marked on the channel.
• After a race, you can modify your car and challenge somebody else.

Cars built, or partially built, elsewhere, and/or with non-club LEGO elements may participate as time allows.

Races

The cars will be lined up with their fronts the starting line, the referee will give the starting signal.

The car whose front-most part first passes the finish line is the winner, as determined by the referee, whose decision is final.

If none of the cars makes it all the way to the finish line, Referee can call for a re-race or ask that the cars should be modified before racing again.

Finish and Prizes

After a half or 1 hour (or when deemed appropriate by the organizers) racing will end.  We will take pictures of the participants with their final cars if they so desire, to post on the BayLUG web site.  There maybe a small prize for the winner of each race, by participant age group, or some other prize format.

Racers are reminded that they may also display their car(s) and other vehicle creations at MoAH’s Vintage Vehicle’s Fair, Sunday July 25th!

There were interesting building and planning sessions, contests, prizes and of course lots of talking about LEGO for attendees of the three-day event.

The last day the creations and vendor spaces were open to the public. With more than 2500 visitors attending, braving lines of up to an hour and a half, and the rain. Unfortunately, there we so many guests, some had to be turned away due to facility and departure restrictions. Everyone who entered thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Photos by Karlong Chan.

Should anyone have information regarding the LEGO or the stolen pickup truck where the buildings were found, please contact Fremont Police Detective Bill Veteran at 510-790-6900.

We’d like to sincerely thank the many Fans of LEGO around the country who’ve sent condolences, and even replacement parts to us. LEGO as a hobby is truly a community for all ages and backgrounds, with only imagination required.