TexLUG-SA

Thanks so much for such a successful event. It was great to see so many people visit our booth. I just got back from an out of state trip so pictures of the event will follow shortly. I’m also working on a great video that should be a lot of fun.

The event apparently brought in 11,500 people. If you stopped by the booth and signed up thanks I’ll be following up with you next week to give you dates on our next meeting.

Recheck this post for updates on pictures and video when they are uploaded.

Photos:

Tony’s flicker photoset

Check it out we have a new layout tool that lets you create your layouts online.So check out the upcoming layout for the HBCE 2008.

We had a great time. The event went of without any problems. Here are the photos. You can see from them that we had a great time. You also get to see the museum exhibit that I created for the ITC. Cool stuff.

So the attendance numbers are in… over 8,500 people. Nice. This is the first time we have completely covered the tables with baseplates and the effect was an extremely polished looking display. Check out Tony’s pictures of the event. We gave out an entire box of book covers another first.

We held the meeting at my place. We built a HEB logo on two gray baseplates. And discussed the March event.

All in all the event went really well photos and summary will follow soon…

On Saturday, September 17, 2005, TexLUG-SA was invited to present a LEGO Town display at the San Antonio WAHM Expo, which took place at the Alzafar Shrine Center near Blanco Rd and Loop 1604. Most folks participating in the convention had to pay for their booths, but TexLUG was honored with a free booth (actually two) with the understanding that we would put on a decent display and provide an area for the kids (and some adults) to build their own creations.

I arrived precisely at 10:05 AM and discovered that Chris Macdougald had already arrived some minutes earlier with wife Connie. I was able to locate Chris and Connie through use of my cell phone and Chris met me up front to unload my small contribution to the display (a harbor scene on 8 32×32 baseplates) plus some accessory material. Once Chris and I had completed the unloading of vehicles, the building began in earnest. Ideally, we wanted to be setup by 11:00 AM when visitors to the convention were to be allowed through the doors. I have to say, however, that despite the fact that we did not complete the basic display until around 11:15 AM, we managed to accomplish in 55 minutes what would have taken six of us to complete in double the time a few years back.

The results were, with all humility, outstanding considering the small assemblage we had and the enormity of detail that went into the display. In just under one hour, Chris, Connie, and I had managed to:

• Unload both vehicles
• Get the 3 large foldout utility tables in the formation that we wanted them
• Spread out the play area and the LEGO that went with it.
• Set up the rope barrier around the display (including getting the PVC into the buckets and threading the rope)
• Set up a fourth table with all the literature available to the public which Chris and Connie had brought along in neatly organized fashion
• Completely assembled the entire display which measured a square area roughly eight feet per side.

Chris brought along the majority of his collection which, even incomplete, still lacked the space to put even half of it on the table. My own harbor area occupied the rightmost forward corner (facing the aisle away from the booth), and Chris joined up with my blue baseplates to complete the harbor area. Connie was a HUGE help and without protest accepted the various assignments that wives of collectors like Chris inevitably find themselves performing. It was Connie who helped Chris with unloading all the storage bins containing his many assembled sets, it was Connie who, at my beg for help, placed all 42 little tires (stripped from as many wheels) around the docks in my harbor so that they would take on that harbor look. It was also Connie that saved us by being the food gopher that day.

Chris is becoming more adventurous in the creation of MOCs with each event, and Saturday was no exception. Chris really outdid himself this time with a miniature golf course, a full zoo complete with aquarium which featured a well-known professional basketball player (who shall remain nameless in this recollection) getting eaten by a shark (a “sha’k attack” get it?), and a house that was carefully designed to blend in well with the commerical house sets from LEGO which Chris put all around. Especially cool was the fact that he had brought along two miniature tubs, one filled with vehicles of all sorts which acted as filler on the roadplates, and the “tree-tub” which I promptly emptied as I dispersed them all around the display in what I thought were appropriate areas. I
only brought five trees of my own.

Anyway, the amount of success that a display reaps (or doesn’t) is measurable solely by the reactions of those members of the public who happened by our booths. In this, I can safely state that TexLUG-SA helped the organization as a whole to earn yet another A in Enthusiasm.

There were all manner of young children present of all ages, with some being participants in the convention and some being visitors. Initially we Chris, Connie, and I were a little apprehensive as the 30+ members of a aerobics/dance/cheerleading team ranging from ages 4 to 16 used the aisleway in front of our display to perform some minor calesthenics. We also performed the familiar battle of the barrier as we struggled throughout the day to keep various children in unguarded moments as they “made the run” in their eagerness to touch various elements of the display. But all in all, it was good fun.

I almost forget to mention that Chris managed to mount a wireless CCTV transmitter inside the engine of the train he set up, so that the view from inside the engine could be seen on a nearby TV he and Connie had brought along (with everything else). After one minor mishap in which the train derailed after “running over” a minifig, Chris graciously stuck a Jar-Jar Binks minifig next to the track in such a way that it appeared to be run down on TV everytime the train made a pass. Ah, my favorite scene in the whole show.

The kids were ESTATIC about the building area, and of course several kids wanted us to keep their MOCs intact (at least for the duration that the kids were present), so half of the literature table became devoted to displaying the kids’ MOCs.

But most stunning of all was the level of praise and curiosity levelled on TexLUG as a whole by the large numbers of adults that wandered by, with or without kids in their entourage. Concerned parents asked a number of intelligent questions, with the most prominent being “What does TexLUG do?” We tried to answer that with a combination of literature, descriptions of past meetings, and our own enthusiasm.

One of the folks who came to visit us was a woman who owns the Blue Cactus Cafe along with other members of her family. She herself had three boys along who were active participants in the LEGO building, and she invited TexLUG-SA to meet at the Blue Cactus Cafe in future meetings. She gave each of us a 8.5 x 11 blue handout with a small calendar detailing events that will take place at the cafe in September, as well as featuring a full menu on the back. Chris and I are thinking about meeting there one of these months. Primarily, their offerings are in the BBQ-potato salad-beans-coleslaw range, although I am somewhat eager to try out their “BBQ Nachos” followed by a plate of meatloaf and two sides. They are located in an state-recognized historical building (former Wetmore General Store and Post Office) at 13525 Wetmore Road, one block north of Thousand Oaks. They have live entertainment and other events throughout each month. Their phone numbers are (210) 490-7330 for general info and (210) 355-0587 for reservations. Website is www.thebluecactuscafe.com/

Another solid event, even with just the three of us, and Chris and I truly feel that we made further progress in educating the public about who TexLUG is and what we do. I leave Chris and Connie to add their own observations and anything I left out.

- Pat Hough

Update Photos
Brickshelf - Chris & Connie’s Photos

Email From San Antonio Children’s Museum
I saw the article in the Express News a few weeks ago about your TexLug group. It’s the first time I’d heard about it, but I think it sounds very fun; a great release for adults.

I work at the S.A. Children’s Museum (located in Downtown San Antonio), and I am interested to know if your group would coordinate a kids’ project at the Children’s Museum on Thursday, June 10 between 5:30-7:00 p.m. for our “Contraptions A to Z” Exhibit Preview Party for our members & donors. It’s a perfect match and I think would be very fun for your members, as well as our guests. We’re expecting 100-120 people (kids & adults) and we want to provide a fun learning activity for kids where they can build (and design if they’re old enough) their own contraption, and I thought you could do this with Legos (there’s even a book about Lego Contraptions I saw online).

The “Contraptions A to Z” exhibit is made up of 26 inventive devices (one for every letter of the alphabet) for kids (and adults) to interact with, while also learning about the mechanics and amazement of how things work. It opens to the public on June 11 and will be at the Museum through Sept. 12. We could display one of your Lego Contraption Creations in our front
window on Houston Street with signage about your organization, if you wish. I could list you as a sponsor of the Preview Party, as well (and your members and their families would be invited to attend, as well).

Thank you for your time. I would be happy to get you more information about the Preview Party and/or the Exhibit if needed.

Email: Meeting Notes

Greetings, local TexLUG folks.

First off, allow me to welcome John Kornhaus to the SA/New Braunfels Chapter of TexLUG. John joins us from the heavy-hitter WAMALUG (Washington D.C. Metropolitan Area LEGO Users Group). By coincidence, Brickfest 2004
will be held in nearby Arlington, VA, August 13-15. We ran into John at the Children’s Museum (see below) and
he brought along his nice family. Talk about mutual euphoria; the man said he’d been looking for US for weeks.

I shouldn’t say this, but… >:-} (eat your heart out, Houston, Austin, etc. WE have a former WAMALUG member in our midst now. Ha!)

Also, Wayne Murray honored us with his presence at the Children’s Museum as did Travis Scott (along with Mom
and siblings). I expect Troy was working.

We recently added a new display to the San Antonio Children’s Museum. Chris is due 100% credit for the
controversial idea of getting together a modular, perpetually-running marble machine. Only now can I
admit to my skeptism; I am amazed we actually got the thing running. The Children’s Museum folks were so
impressed that they allowed us to put it in the front window right there on Houston street.

To my disappointment, I returned there on the weekend following that Thursday to show off our creation to a
group of friends. Alas, the marble machine was not running and the weekend staff confessed that they had
no key to access the window display so that it might be turned on!! Major bummer!

Just had to get set #4483 (Imperial AT-AT) and it was worth it. The gray pieces are right up the alley of a
space fanatic, and it stands up nice and sturdy. One minor complaint: the head is the last major assembly
to go on the model (if you follow the directions in order). Yet it is the most rickety, finicky assemblage
of parts and at the same time the most difficult to attach to the rest of the model; several times did it
come apart while in the process.

When is the next meeting??!! I’ve got baseplates I need to give to Lee! A Bionicle wall-hanger to give to
Travis! We’ve got Austin’s Fall meeting to discuss as well. We should meet very soon, IMHO.

- Pat

Meeting Information
See below for post meeting information.

Update - 02/13/2004 - Northwest Vista College has agreed to lend us the Banquet Room in the College Commons building. Time has been discussed below. This is located about 5 minutes from my house, so room for you out-of-towners is available on a first come first serve basis.

• Main Campus Location
• Campus Map - College Commons
• Flyer (DOC) TODO: Fix Link
• Flyer (PDF) TODO: Fix Link

Pre Meeting Information
I have come up with a preliminary draft of the layout for this meeting. Please take a look at the PNG image. Please let me know what space you would like or what changes you would like made. When refering to the diagram I would like to use letters for the columns and numbers for the rows. For example, the upper left corner section of track is A1-B2.
Please tell me which road plates you will be using and where so I can put them in.

I was thinking that the blue plate table could be put on wheels so we could roll the sea in and out to get around the layout. Also, we could run a track to go over an inside section for the bridge builders out there. I thought it would be a good idea to have the bridges on the inside so no one messes with them. Just in case they fall, we don’t have to look everywhere for pieces.

Layout Image (GIF) TODO: Fix Link Updated 02/24/2004!
Layout Image (PNG) TODO: Fix Link Updated 02/24/2004!
Track Designer Layout File TODO: Fix Link

Location is still being worked out. Time is from 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM Saturday and 10:00 AM - 3:00 PM Sunday. I was planning on having the public access from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM on Saturday and from Noon - 2:00 PM on Sunday. Input is more than welcome. Also, we are going to attempt to inform the media.

We should be hearing from San Antonio Express-News soon. Also, there might be some TV crews there. Be sure to wear your t-shirts.

Monorail is allowed and encouraged in the layout with the following height requirements. 15 bricks in height in all locations except when coming in and out of a station then it can go to 5. Please let me know where you would like your track to be and I’ll figure out where it goes on the layout map.

Please check back here as any changes will be posted here.

Please read - TexLUG-SA January 24, 2004 meeting notes about this event.

Attendees

• Future TexLUG Members
• TJ
• Tanya
• Laura
• Anthony
• Christina
• Travis
• Ed
• Tim
• Lee
• Mark
• Pat
• Chris
• General Public

Overview
I haven’t really had time to update the site. Or add my own opinions/thoughts of the event. It was much better than expected. Note to self add more ASAP!

However, that doesn’t mean that other don’t have something to say. Here is what other members had to say about the event.

• Anthony
• TJ

Photos

• Anthony
• TJ
• Ed

Greetings,

First, off lets thank Lee for hosting the meeting many thanks…

Second, thanks to Pat for coming up with the meeting notes for this past meeting… They were posted today.

Also, the site (www.texlug.org/sa/) and images have been updated to reflect the current spaces claimed.

If you haven’t staked your claim please do so soon…

Also take a look at the latest meeting notes from January 24, 2004 on our website to read about ideas we have for the contest and make your voice hear if you have any better ideas.

TexLUG-SA: I have 5 sets of 7831 which we can use for the timed creative build contests. I did have 14 at one point and most of the pieces are in my parts box (I think)… .

Also, the string idea I had was from the new sets 4090 & 4094.

Hope to hear from & see you all soon!

Chris

Attendees

• Lee
• Pat
• Joe (Pat’s roommate)
• Travis
• Mark
• Chris

Overview
The following was taken from an email to the TexLUG mailing list.

I decided to go ahead and sum up our meeting for Chris. The man did almost everything else! Except Lee did pick a great place to meet for this month (Fuddrucker’s, which I tend to pronounce differently); a grand idea, sir.

The weather here has been pretty grim; cold winds, gray overcast, and sporadic rains. But this did not prevent most of the San Antonio crew from attending the mini-meet.

Attending this meeting of Saturday, January 24, 2004, were Lee, Mark, Chris, my roommate Joe (unofficial capacity only), our newest member, Travis Scott, representing also his father, Troy Scott, and myself. The Scotts are heavily into Bionicle, incidentally.

The meeting got underway fairly smoothly despite both mine and Chris’ individual traffic hitches. Lee opened the proceedings with some complimentary chili-cheese fries (you villian ) and showing us a boat composed of Oriental Expedition elements. I should have paid more attention as I did not gather whether it was a set or a MOC. It had quite a number of elements I don’t have, however.

Chris, in the meantime, dropped all of our jaws with the MOC he plans to debut at the next big TexLUG meet in March. Yes, a MOC from Chris, he who only collects sets! I won’t spoil everything by offering further detail.

THE MOST IMPORTANT ITEM, as I see it, is where are we going to host the next big TexLUG meet. My efforts regarding this have been ongoing but unrewarding, since the lowest price tag wanted for the space we require (which isn’t all that much) is $300 per day (and I encountered much higher prices). Chris and I agreed that the maximum we could probably afford was $150 per day. I am going to try my local community center here in Windcrest and some lower priced hotels like Holiday Inn on IH-35 near Fort Sam Houston next. I am also going to use my membership in the UTSA Alumni Association to try to get us a space there for the March weekend. Chris is continuing the pressure on Northwest Vista University to host our event.

Incidentally, congratulations to Chris. He begins a new and more prosperous job on Monday, January 26th.

THE SECOND MOST IMPORTANT ITEM is the contests we are going to hold. Realizing of course that the majority of these contests really depend on the amount of public involvement that takes place, we came up with the following:

• Re-introduction of the LEGO Racers idea, where participants had a set time limit to build their entries and then race them to a finish line.
• A LEGO puzzle, where I build the pieces to a geometric puzzle which, when put together properly, forms a familiar-looking something. Whatever it is, I will provide a photo of what it should look like to each contestant to use as a guide. There will be a set time limit here, as well. The fastest time to put the entire puzzle together or, failing that, the most pieces put together in the correct way in the time allowed, wins the contest.
• The LEGO Creator contest, where each contestant has the same number and type of elements (although color may vary) and each has a certain time limit to build as many different MOCs as possible; they must actually represent something in the real world to be constituted a MOC, and will be subject to the opinion of a judge or judges. The most MOCs in the time allowed wins the contest.

THE FINAL ITEM is the layout for the main MOC display. Chris provided color sheets of the current layout, which also detailed where everyone who thus far had contacted Chris had staked their claims. These folks are, thus far: Lee, TJ, Mark, and myself, with Chris making a serious effort to cover with his sets the unclaimed areas at the time of display. Travis Scott’s MOC depends on my own, so I will try to bring it to the February TexLUG-SA meeting for that purpose.

Thus far, the following have more or less staked out their territory on the big layout:

• TJ Avery
• Mark Bagnall
• Lee Rahe
• Travis Scott
• Pat Hough

We would love to hear from Laura Hayden, Anthony Sava, Tim Rueger, and anyone else seriously contemplating showing up in San Antonio this March of 2004.

Photos
No photos taken at this event.