Idaho LUG Blog

As an official LEGO User Group we get a support package from LEGO every year. Some of these sets are given out as prizes to the public at our various events. We also give some of these sets to our members based on their volunteer time. This is one of our biggest meetings of the year and it is a lot of fun.

Announcements

Festival of Trees is November 27th - December 1st, we will be loading in sets beginning on Monday November 25th. Anyone who has some winter/holiday themed MOCs that they want to display at the event are welcome. We are also providing LEGO free play and a Make-and-Take set for sale. All proceeds from the Make-and-Take go back to the Saint Lukes Foundation. Any members who want to volunteer to assist during the event are also welcome.

Bricks and Minifigs will have a brick sorting event on Tuesday December 3rd from 3PM - 7PM. You can earn some free bulk as well as discounts in the store.

Our annual Christmas Party will be on December 19th. Please bring your favorite treats to share. If you would like to participate in our Dirty Brickster gift exchange bring an official LEGO set valued at at least $20. We will provide all of the rules for the gift exchange during the meeting.

Show and Tell

Austin- 53 Buick Skylark	Austin - "Red Thunder" Helo
Logan - Winter Scene	Shawn - Rainbow Idaho

Looking forward to 2025

Once again a big Thank You to everyone that volunteered in 2024! We have many more opportunities to volunteer next year.

We have started a LEGO game night where we bring in LEGO board games to play. We will be starting a D&D campaign as well.

Have a safe and wonderful Holiday season and we look forward to seeing everyone at our December party.

Our August meeting was full of announcements and events. STEM day at the Western Idaho Fair was the day after our meeting. Brickslopes and the Boise Comic Arts Festival were the weekend after our meeting. Bricks and Minifigs is having a carnival and need some help with builds. We are also starting planning for our fall events which include a Haunted Builds contest in October, Festival of Trees and of course our November member appreciation meeting.

STEM Day at the Western Idaho Fair

Every year the first day of the fair includes a STEM event and this year we setup two tables for tower builds. We had over 200 towers built during the event. Many thanks to Shawn and Jerry for working the entire day!

Events

Brickslopes is finally here! We will be carpooling down starting on Thursday August 22nd. Several of our LUG members will be displaying MOCs and appreciation tiles are available. If you are attending Brickslopes Chris has tiles for you to place on your favorite builds. We also have the opportunity to vote for our favorite build as a LUG. We have our exclusive "One Hot Potato" award. We will be getting together on Friday night to decide on our winner.

The Boise Comic Arts Festival is August 24th and 25th at the Boise Center on the Grove. LUG members are encouraged to bring their builds to the event. Loading can begin at 10AM on Friday the 23rd. Thad and Greg are leading this effort and more information is available on our Facebook Page.

There is another opportunity to help out Bricks and Minifigures with their carnival attraction builds. Helping out will earn you a free small tub of bulk. This will be on Thursday August 29th from 4pm - 9pm.

The Village at Meridian has asked us to display Halloween Themed MOCs on October 16th. More details to come.

It's not too early to think about Festival of Trees. Once again we will be displaying winter themed MOCs up in the children's area. We will also have several free build tables as well as a build that can be purchased. 

Show and Tell

Peter - LEGO Store	Austin - Mazda Miata	Austin - Bird

Upcoming Meetings

For our September meeting we will be sorting bulk brick that was donated to the LUG. You will have an opportunity to purchase bricks for your collection. Proceeds from this sale will go towards supporting the LUG.

Bring your "Haunted Builds" to our October meeting. We would like to see your best Halloween and Scary MOCs during this meeting. We may be providing some prizes to the best haunted builds.

Many thanks to everyone who attended the August meeting our next meeting will be on September 19th at 7PM!

Our May meeting was focused on preparation for MOCFEST! 2024. We spent some time discussing last-minute details and preparing for the show. We put together this year's trophies and assembled the builder bags with a bunch of cool gifts for our builders. We are looking for submissions for 2025 trophy ideas, please submit your ideas as a Stud.Io file or a picture of your prototype build to Greg. The trophy needs to be fairly easy to build and try to keep the parts cost low. 

We are also looking for more ideas on builder activities as well as presentations that will be open to the public. This year we have seven activities and five presentations scheduled. We are looking to increase that number next year. Please send your ideas to info@idaholug.com.

Setup will involve setting up several kids activities including a Duplo area, free build and a new graffiti wall. The main hall will also be configured to display the MOCs which will be arranged by theme. We have nearly 200 MOCs registered and we are looking forward to a great show. 

Show and Tell

Lighted Octagon by Thad Space Base Lab Spider-Man No Way Home by Oliver

Infinity Gauntlet Spaceship by Landon

Events

Displayed the Saturn IV rocket at the Village on May 12th. There will be another space-based event at the Village in June. We also have an opportunity to bring MOCs to FanX in September. More details to come!

Finally, remember that BrickSlopes is 23 - 35 August in Sandy Utah. Greg has a discount code available for LUG members.

Thanks to all the members for all your help with MOCFEST! and for working so hard to get your MOCs ready for the show. Our next meeting will be on June 20th at Bricks & Minifigs in Boise.

Over the past three months, we have done ten STEM events starting with the BSU Engineering and Science Fair. We participated in eight Elementary STEM Nights and a First LEGO League event at Hubbard Elementary.

MOCFEST! 2024 is about a month away and we need to keep getting the word out. If you would like to put up a flyer you can download one here. Please register for MOCFEST! as soon as possible so we can get a good list of MOCs and Activity registrations. If you need help with registration, entering your MOCs under your profile, or registering your MOC for the show take a look at our FAQ page. We have several workshops and presentations scheduled for this year. If you are interested in presenting this year or in the future please contact Greg. 

Our next meeting will be the day before MOCFEST! setup and load-in. We will be building the show trophies, assembling builder swag bags and other show preparation. 

Future Events

The Village has an event on May 11th where we will display the Saturn V. and provide free play. The Village has another event in June, we will provide free play and we would like to display Space-Themed MOCs. The June event will be on the center green most likely under tents. We will put all the details on our calendar.

We are looking for ideas for a Make-And-Take item for Festival of Trees in November.  Last year Shawn designed a Reindeer which cost $15 and had about 30 pieces. All proceeds for these Make-And-Take items go to the Festival Of Trees. They will pay for the required pieces but we would like to keep the part cost less than $10 if possible.

Many group members will be going down to BrickSlopes this August. We are coordinating carpools as well as lodging so keep in touch if you are going to BrickSlopes.

Show and Tell

Thad brought in his latest weapon a Boneshard Bow	Jake brought in his finished Marionette60
Oliver with a scene from Spiderman (2002)	Greg showed a flower in a vase600
Daniel Killer Whale	Daniel Dinosaur scene

As always take a look at our events calendar frequently to stay up to date on upcoming events. Our next meeting is on 17 MAY hope to see you there!

Our March meeting was on March 21st, and we discussed our many upcoming events. These include several STEM events with local elementary schools, HACKFORT and MOCFEST! 2024.

Events

We have several STEM events coming up in April. We are looking for more volunteers to help with a big event at Compass Elementary on April 12th. There is also a First LEGO League (FLL) event on April 13th. We will also be adding an event for Liberty Elementary on May 1st. These are great events and we encourage all members to volunteer.

We will be displaying MOCs at HACKFORT on Saturday March 23rd. HACKFORT asked us to provide more support, but we did not have enough time to schedule volunteers. With more time we hope to have a much larger participation next year. We would like to setup a Great Ball Contraption (GBC) for next year's event. The Steiners are planning a GBC workshop for some time in late April. 

The Village has several events scheduled for this Summer and have asked us to participate with some builds and activities. They have a car show and a space themed event. More information will be available soon.

BrickSlopes registration is open and IdahoLUG members can get a discount code from Greg. The event is scheduled for 23 - 25 August at the Mountain America Exposition Center in Sandy, UT. 

Keep an eye on our event calendar for all the latest on our activity.

MOCFEST! 2024

  Planning for MOCFEST is in full swing and we have a great plan put together. We are still looking for sponsorships so if you know of any organizations that would potentially sponsor MOCFEST please let us know. There will be a silent auction on Saturday May 18th and we are looking for donations. If you have anything to donate, please bring it to our next meeting on April 18th. 

  This year we will be having more activities, presentations and workshops. If you are interested in conducting a presentation or workshop, contact us at info@idaholug.com. Registration for MOCFEST! 2024 will open on April 1st. Register to display MOCs and participate in the many activities that will be available.

  We will keep both IdahoLUG.com and MOCFEST.com up to date.

Show and Tell

  Several members brought builds to share at our meeting. Zach brought a lightsaber (I didn't get a pic) based on the GWP available with the UCS AT-AT. Thad brought in several arcade and pinball builds and Daniel brought in several wheelbarrow builds for wheelbarrow races.

A big thanks to everyone that attended and your continued support of the IdahoLUG. Our next meeting will be on April 18th 7PM at Bricks & Minifigs.