BayLUG News

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.

We will have a special  kids’ activity next Sunday at MOAH.  It is scheduled for 1:30 pm, after the regular contest. The activity is building and racing cars on the spot.  It is open to all kids who are BayLUG members, either as individual minor members or through a family membership.

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!

As you have likely heard, the recent Bricks By the Bay LEGO Convention in Fremont was a huge success by almost any measure. Organized by Bricks By the Bay, Inc. a non-profit company founded by BayLUG members, the event showcased fabulous LEGO creations by LEGO fans of all ages, and from many places, filling the Ballroom at the Fremont Silicon Valley Marriott Hotel. Also featured were Keynote addresses by LEGO company executives, including Mads Nipper, Executive Vice President of Market & Products from Billund, Denmark!

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.

We are pleased to announce that our (Mark Benz’s and family) remaining LEGO creations, stolen in February, were returned recently. An individual who wishes to remain anonymous purchased them at a San Jose Flea Market. The individual contacted a Bay Area LEGO User Group member by email, who forwarded their information to us.

The stolen LEGO creations were returned at the Fremont Marriot, site of the Bricks By the Bay LEGO Convention last weekend. These last creations returned are primarily custom LEGO Trains, models of the famous California Zephyr and others, as well as many scenery elements. While dirty, they appear to need only minor repairs, though it will take months to rebuild the destroyed SF Landmark buildings recovered last month.

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.

Bricks by the Bay presents the first-ever LEGO convention for Northern California. Themed “The Brick Artistic,” it is a celebration of the LEGO hobby and the brick as an artistic medium! This isn’t a BayLUG event but BayLUG is a major sponsor and participant. We’ll have a large BayLUG presence there as well as LEGO enthusiasts from all over the United States and perhaps even overseas!

There will be a public exhibition on Sunday, April 11 with a huge hotel ballroom full of LEGO exhibits from all over the country and maybe even overseas! For the serious hobbyist, the convention will run Friday through Sunday, April 9-11.

Location: Fremont Marriott Silicon Valley, 46100 Landing Parkway, Fremont, CA. For more info, see our event details page or visit bricksbythebay.com

The Bay Area LEGO Users’ Group and Train Club (BayLUG/LTC) is pleased to announce their 5th Annual “Living LEGO-cy” public Holiday LEGO Show again at the Museum of American Heritage in Palo Alto.

The annual event is fun for the whole family, and grows larger every year. This year, BayLTC presents a 12 by 25 foot, fully sceniced LEGO train layout with trains running through well known San Francisco, town and suburban scenes. In addition, BayLUG members have a WIDE variety of their own cool LEGO creations and models on display, from huge cranes and dragons, to classic cars and Santa.

The show, in the Museum’s Livermore Learning Center, is open every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 7 December 2008 through 11 January 2009 from 11am to 4pm ONLY.

Free admission, though donations to the museum are always appreciated. The Museum is located at 351 Homer Ave. Palo Alto, CA. For more information please see www.baylug.org or www.MoAH.org or call (650) 321-1004.