Jul 14

If CoWLUG had a summer camp!

Posted on July 14, 2015 by Jessica

CoWLUG doesn’t have a summer camp. But if we did, this month’s meeting had just about everything we’d all want – a case of LEGO sets, build challenges (including alt builds and blind building,) set drafts, pizza, lugbulk, part swapping, moc sharing, plenty of friendly jibing, and loads of builders who play well together.

First of all, a huge thank you goes out to Christian for organizing the gathering and providing the awesome space that is hobbyDB. Thank you to the LEGO CEE team for providing a case of sets for the evening’s building events and to Joel for making the drive to bring them in for everyone. Finally, thank you to Ian and Abby for running LUGBULK once again and sorting every single order for all participating members so all they needed to do was show up to pick up their brand new brick! This is no small feat, so if you haven’t thanked Ian and Abby profusely, do so immediately!

In case you missed ‘camp’ this summer. Here’s a taste of how it unfolded.
Husband & wife team alt build (above.)

Pizza! Also provided by Ian and Abby!

Sets provided for the build events. We’re such devoted builders, we build with the sets before we even open them.

Blind build round one. Thank you once again to Ian and Abby for the blind build setup!

Builder hands doing their best to figure out parts and part placement.

Blind build round two!

Blind build results. Interestingly, every single builder ended up with a minifig head as the lamp light.

Individual alt builders utilizing open space on the ping pong table.

More team alt builders (above & below.)

And a sampling of some of the results.

Lastly, anyone who wanted to use their set for the set draft had time to disassemble and sort for the draft. Future meetings will be scheduled every other month and held at hobbyDB in Boulder. There will be more set drafts (probably one every meeting,) so stay tuned to the CoWLUG group email for those details. There is also a full calendar of displays planned this year on into 2016. Check the email list for information on those as well and reply directly to each display’s organizer if you’d like to participate.

May 25

Denver Comic Con 2015!

Posted on May 25, 2015 by Jessica

DCC has grown substantially from it’s first launch several years ago. So has CoWLUG! Just six members displayed LEGO builds on six small tables at that first event in 2012. This year there are over 20 members exhibiting work across dozens of tables arranged in configurations across enough floor space that one can no longer photograph the entire display in one photo frame.

Families of cosplayers abound throughout the exhibit hall. Here they happily look out over the expansive city and train display.

Lester is one of the original six to display at DCC. His steampunk builds and costumes are a favorite.

At the other end of the spectrum, both Alex & Cy represent some of our newest members. Affectionately dubbed ‘the Bionicle boyz’ by a few members, they and their expansive Bionicle display is a very entertaining addition to the CoWLUG family.

This is also the second year of collaboration at DCC between CoWLUG & DENLUG. Combining forces and brick makes for beautifully detailed displays. Ralph overlooks his cityscape as members finish with setup.

Derek’s robot and building (top, above) create a transition to spaceships by Joe (bottom, above.)

Jim’s ever-expanding, interactive amusement park is kept busy during all hours of the con.

Members who participate in the display work hard from start to finish, building, setting up, and speaking to fans. There is a little time for play. And of course for capturing some of the amazing cosplayers on the floor of the exhibit hall.

Inside Ian & Abby’s build area, there appear all kinds of miniature versions of the adult cosplayers. It’s not every day little Leia sits down with miniature Batman. LEGO makes it possible!

Ian works at getting more interactive aspects of the display up and running. His organization brought an unwieldy group of builders together into a brilliant display. From the beginning of our first invitation to DCC, it’s been a display that takes careful planning and dedication. I would personally like to thank Ian for taking the event to the next level for CoWLUG.

It’s not possible to photograph all three sections of the display unless one had access to a lift to hoist the camera up above the madness. From this vantage point, you can however see a bit of the expanse.

Theme builds of all sorts are popular at the event. Donnie does it up right and in vibrant color!

Imagine gets a visit from a live Songbird in front of his Bioshock build (above.) And the pilot for Sazabi stopped by to claim his mech (below,) also built by Imagine.

No one, however, seemed overly concerned about this guy showing up next to the LEGO. (Lord Business & the Kragle, below.)

Speaking of The LEGO Movie, Imagine chats with some enthusiastic fans marveling over the submarine brought to life from the film.

Enthusiasm is not limited to fans attending DCC. Nick, of ChiLUG (above), came to town with Alyssa (mosaic & table below) to share his expertly built weapons from various popular video games. The intricately detailed builds beg to be flaunted, of course.

The popularity of LEGO crosses over into several fandoms when one sees their favorite thing built out of the bricks. Before the exhibit hall opens, interviews are held for various media outlets. Jim, Imagine, Ian, Derek and Lester were snagged for the task.

The best part of Denver Comic Con is getting to hang out with fans of LEGO from the very smallest (top photo) to the most costume coordinated (bottom photo.) So if you didn’t get a chance to build for the event this year, or volunteer to interact with the visitors and with you had, put it on your calendar for next year and come join us. It’s sure to be a good time.

Mar 20

MOCs & Elves Parts Draft @ CoWLUG Member’s Meeting

Posted on March 20, 2015 by Jessica

If you’re lurking on the CoWLUG YahooGroups list and wonder what happens at the meetings, here’s a little sampling of activity around the MOCs table from the March 2015 meeting. Lots of great stuff being built and planned by members who have been with CoWLUG for years, but also by a slew of brand new members. The Elves parts draft was an intense and crowded event. If you want to see what that’s all about, come to the next meeting with the selected set, ready to sort!

Mar 20

Estes Park – Rails on the Rockies – 2015

Posted on March 20, 2015 by Jessica

For the Estes Park Train Show, we took a gamble and tried to do Las Vegas. The numbers were against us: We had 13 builders for the show and we were setting up on Friday the 13th. But I guess the odds were in our favor and we hit the jackpot! Las Vegas was a great success. I would like to thank all those who built for it, and all those who spent time at the show helping out. Thanks also goes to Jeff who helped transport some of the MOC’s for those who could not make it to the show.

(photo by Meghan)

Six of our builders made casinos. I felt that Meghan’s Caesar’s Palace was outstanding; many people took extra time to look it over. Our other casinos were: the MGM by Michael, a Star Wars version of New York, New York by Art, the Camelot Casino by Lester, the Flamingo by Samantha, and the Luxor by Duane. Building the Strip with two road base plates wide added greatly to the layout. Jim’s monorail along the Strip added nicely to the overall effect.

(upper photo by Lester, lower two photos by Meghan)

At the center of the front tables, Stefano’s large train station held everyone’s attention, as well as a large desert area. At one side was Jeff’s Star Wars Sarlacc Pit and skiff. On the other side were a few of Jim’s amusement park rides. The kids just loved the push buttons to make the rides move. One of our new members, Pete, brought a few of his trains to run in this area. He even let some of the visitors run his RC train.

(upper photo by Lester, lower photo by Meghan)

The remainder of the layout displayed our version of Suburbia, with a wide variety of houses. Everyone got big kick out of the different kinds of buildings. Stuart’s Upside Down house and his Cookie and Milk house, Lester’s Despicable Me house, Sam’s Duplex (with good and bad neighbors) and a Wedding Chapel, Doug’s Cape Cod home, Meghan’s multiple buildings, Duane’s various buildings, and a Wedding Chapel from one of our young builders, Nikolai. We ended that section of the tables with a farm, an oil refinery, a train switchyard, and odd buildings here and there.

(photos by Lester)

There was so much to see, that it took people a long time to look over the details. We were told by many visitors that they came to the show just to see what we’d built this time, since we have a different theme each year.

(photos by Meghan)
Thanks again to all who participated! -Lester

Page 4 of 13‹ Previous 1 2 345 6 7 Next ›Last »