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Sep 14

First Annual Fort Collins Comic Con!

Posted on September 14, 2015 by Jessica

Awesome overhead shot of the CoWLUG tables by Ryan.

Many CoWLUG members have been part of “the larger Comic Con” in Colorado for several years in a row. Distill all the goodness of that event down into a single day and you have Fort Collins Comic Con. The Aztlan Community Center just north of the main part of town was transformed into a cozy venue which made all the participants and attendees feel like they were hanging out with a huge group of their friends for the day.

Six CoWLUG builders filled their two allotted tables with plenty of LEGO goodness for attendees to enjoy.

The smaller event and minimal table space to keep an eye on made it possible for Imagine to join in the cosplay fun. Here, in his Mandalorian armor, he lines up with other cosplayers before presenting on stage before the judges and audience.

Just like a lot of events held in Fort Collins, the small and friendly atmosphere of Fort Collins Comic Con promises to make the event a favorite for CoWLUG and others for many years to come.

A huge thank you goes out to Ryan for successfully organizing the display for CoWLUG, as well as all the builders (Ryan, Jeff, Cy, Donnie, Eric & Imagine) who volunteered their fantastic creations and time to make the display exciting for all the viewers.

Sep 01

Brick Fest Live! 2015 Denver

Posted on September 1, 2015 by Jessica

Potentially our largest display this year, Brick Fest Live! 2015 was a great success! With about 30 CoWLUG members displaying creations and supplying parts for the displays (including new members, Steven Lopez and Kathy Nicolai), we spread the LEGO love over 1180 square feet….that’s 59 8’x30” tables!!

Up front we had the Modular Town, featuring Buildings from Myself and Jim West, as well as railyards by Ralph and Chris Hembree.

…flanked by a forest fire thanks to Ralph and “Friend’s Town” courtesy of Cynde.

Around the bend, We travel through Jim’s Amusement Park….

…and into Lester’s Steampunk and Old West towns…

On the Other side of the Display, we had Jason’s Airport, Jerry’s train station and mountain…and a super keen arctic scene from Ralph!

Adjacent to the cities, we had MOC’s from Todd and Cynde, Ralph’s Minecraft Display, and some awesome trains from Wil Hata as well as MechTech thanks to Dan Wray.

Our “Middle Table” featured an epic Pirate assault on Reed’s Hope Castle.

Alas, This ended up being the only effective cannon against the castle…

Finally, in our “Third section” we had Jeremy’s Collection of MOC’s, including this one, which was my favorite!

An awesome USS Enterprise from Steven Lopez

and the Infamous GBC (Great Ball Contraption) thanks to Ian, Abby, Jim West, Serena, Todd and numerous others.

Along with the “bumper car arena” from Ralph, Annette and Darin, among others.

Though this Brick Fest Live! Event was mainly an event geared towards the “kids and parents” crowd, we did meet several new potential AFOL members. The event featured 4-hour sessions with numerous interactive mosaic and free building stations and a “build / race your LEGO car” area, featuring some spectacular crashes as well as an array of LEGO video games on Xbox 360s.

As well as a mix of Various LEGO themed vendors….

…a couple of which supplied, Lester, Dan and myself with some awesome new gear and guns!

However, perhaps the biggest news from the event is it’s desire to grow and be a full blown 3-day LEGO AFOL convention, here in Denver….potentially as soon as next year!

Thanks, once again, to all that helped out and displayed…we could not have done any of this without you.

Photographs, story and event organization by Christopher Briggs.

Oct 04

Loveland BrickBuilder Expo – The First!

Posted on October 4, 2014 by Jessica

A Brick Expo in Loveland, Colorado! Certainly. With the enthusiasm of John Metcalf and a dozen CoWLUG members, behold the first annual BrickBuilder Expo. Held in conjunction with the NoCo Mini Maker Faire, now in its second year, the emphasis for all is on making things. For the LEGO part, team builds for the public are a huge highlight (below.)

For the AFOL among us, chatting about LEGO elements, colors and build techniques is on the agenda for the afternoon. (Imagine, Stefano & Ryan below.)

And of course there has to be a gathering of creations for all to see and share. (Dan’s Steampunk Dragonfly & Mech Diorama below.)

Newer members to CoWLUG, Doug (left) Joe (right) and Kieran (not pictured), collaborate on a fantastic build loaded with details. And cute goats! Joe is also the organizer for the event, connecting members to the Expo, making sure all activities run smoothly. Thanks Joe!

Closer details of Joe’s spaceships (below.)

Being in the same space as the NoCo Mini Maker Faire, makes for some great interaction – among mechs and droids, mechs and kids.

That’s Imagine’s giant anime mech by the way, alongside his floating Bank of the Prophet from Bioshock Infinite (below.)

Speaking of the Maker Faire – there’s all that too! Giant robots breathing fire, human foosball, cardboard cities, air cannons, swords – did I mention giant robots?!

Displays cover all themes, as shown by Collin’s Star Wars mash up (below.)

Jake covered dungeon/castle, island & spaceship themes (below.)
Jeff always does some amazing things with Bionicle (below.)

Jim’s button pushing crazy carnival rides are a super hit with all ages and do not dissapoint.
John, the Brickbuilder instigator and new CoWLUG member, presents Loveland in micro scale. It’s a lovely tribute to the town of the same name.
The LEGO Movie submarine, executed in brick by Imagine, is a hit among new LEGO fans, and sidles up along Ryan’s Tardis (which does NOT open) and spaceships of the real and imagined sort.

There’s a record store by Ryan (which you should go support on LEGO Ideas if you haven’t already,) Modulex built items (also LEGO if you didn’t know,) and headphones entirely out of LEGO – all built by Ryan too!

Reference materials? You say you want a chart of LEGO colors? Well we have that too! Or at least Ryan does. If you can’t see it in person, check out his Brick Colorstream Flickr page for the most excellent and up to date reference on LEGO colors.
What? No trains? Of course not! Where there is LEGO, there are bound to be trains somewhere. Stefanos has his modern train station running a train provided by another newer member, Chris (below.) I might also add that if you scroll back up to Jeff’s Bionicle, you will see a very clever Bionicle train too. Did you miss it? Well, go back up and look.

Mar 22

LEGO for Montbello Library

Posted on March 22, 2014 by Jessica

Early in January of this year CoWLUG was contacted by a librarian of the Denver Public Library from the Montbello Branch with a request for LEGO donations. Many of the smaller-sized patrons of the library worried about not having the means with which to pull together a collection of LEGO that would enable them to participate fully in the upcoming 2014 LEGO Building Contest – Building Books!

With the help of over a dozen CoWLUG members, a few boxes of LEGO sets and bulk elements were collected during February. Donnie made the final delivery of the donations to the library making it possible for the branch to host it’s first in a series of build days in March.

Shanna Shadoan, librarian at the Montbello Branch and also the person who initially reached out to CoWLUG for our help, was happy to report that over 70 children and parents attended the first build day. The photograph above shows just how busy the build tables were during the event. With this new “community set” of LEGO available at the branch, there should be many more build events to come. We wish all of the children much luck in the upcoming contest!

A huge thank you goes out to all the CoWLUG members who generously donated from their collections, as well as a special thank you to Donnie for making the special delivery to the library.