Idaho LUG Blog

Our October meeting featured many Halloween builds and attendees voted on their favorites. The top three builds are shown below. The rest of the builds are shown below.

Members Top Voted Halloween MOCs

Zach - A Star Wars Halloween	Ethan - Necromancer's Castle	Tim & Holly - Castle and Pumpkin Patch

Halloween MOCs

Ashley - Jack & Sally	Austin - My Little Pony Changling	Chris - Haunted Farm
Connie - Firehouse	Daniel - Custom Minifigs	Emmanuel - Graveyard
Luka - Remote Controlled Car	Luna - Portal II Scene	Meredith - Scary Tree
Shawn - Chainmail	Luna - Portal II Scene	Shawn - Monster Fighters Sets

Announcements

Several members brought builds out to Witches Night Out at the Village on Wednesday 16 October. It was a bit wet but there was a good crowd and it was a fun event. Looking forward to participating again next year.

Saint Lukes Festival Of Trees begins on 27 November 2025. We are looking for lots of holiday builds to display up in the kids area. We will be loading in on Monday November 25th. There are many opportunities to volunteer to help with our make-and-take, free build area as well as talking to visitors about the Idaho LUG and the builds. There is a SignUp Genius link on our facebook group as on the homepage for logged in members.

Our upcoming meetings will be very busy. November is our member appreciation night and final prep for Festival of Trees. December is our annual holiday party with a gift exchange and treats. To participate in the gift exchange bring an official LEGO product worth at least $15. All the rules will be covered before the gift exchange begins.

Still looking for feedback on our Game Night proposal. We would like to do an additional monthly meeting to play games if we get enough interest. Our initial plan is to have members bring games in like Chess or Ludo to share with others who would like to participate. If we get enough interest I would like to run an AD&D campaign based on the LEGO Dungeons & Dragons set.

Our next meeting will be at 7PM on November 21st at Bricks & Minifigs, looking forward to see you there. 

Our September meeting was well attended, we saw some great MOCs and had donated bulk LEGO available for purchase. 

Events

We have been invited to display MOCs at Witches Night Out at the Village at Meridian. We have been asked to bring Halloween themed MOCs to be displayed in front of the LEGO Store on Wednesday October 16th from 6PM - 9PM. You can register your MOCs on this site which will help us determine the amount of table space we will need. More information about the event can be found here.

Our next meeting will be on 17 October 2024. We are asking everyone to bring their Halloween MOCs to our meeting for a show and tell. Greg has promised some prizes and we are looking forward to seeing some great builds.

Festival of Trees will be November 27th - December 2nd at the Boise Center on the Grove. We will once again be displaying MOCs in the Kids area. We will also be providing some activities during the event. We need lots of volunteers to assist with the activities as well as monitoring the area. Volunteer sign-ups will be available soon.

Show and Tell

Austin - 1966 T-Bird	Austin - AquaZone Vehicle	Austin - Christmas Truck
Ashley - Tree	Daniel - TMNT Diorama	Luca - RC Car
Jake - Millennium Falcon Coffee Table	Thad - Broadsword

Other Items

We are considering doing a game night once a month at ABU Games. This would be an additional monthly event for members of the LUG. The plan is to start a Dungeon's and Dragons campaign based on the new Dungeon's and Dragons: Red Dragon's Tale Set. We will also have a variety of LEGO board games. If you have a LEGO board game feel free to bring it along. Dates will be announced soon.

A new LEGO series Rebuild the Galaxy is available on Disney+. Greg recommended the series, let us know what you think.

We hope to see you all at Witches Night Out and at our next meeting!

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!

So many announcements for our "Summer Fun" meeting. Several events are coming up fast as well as many opportunities for creative ideas.

Events

We are having Brunch and Bricks on July 27th from 10:30 AM - 12:30 PM. We will be cooking breakfast food, sign up to bring something. Come for a swap meet, minifigure trade or just to hang out with fellow LUG members. We will be sharing the location details on our Facebook group.

We have an opportunity to volunteer at the annual STEM day at the Western Idaho Fair this year. Friday August 16th - 12pm-8pm. If we participate we would be doing the tower build challenge as part of the larger STEM activities tents. We would be outside but under shade. Entrance passes would be provided to volunteers.

Thursday August 1st Bricks and Minifigs is having a Building Carnival. Come and help rebuild or build new attractions for the annual Boise Bricks and Minifigs Carnival. Participants will receive a free small tub of bulk. The building carnival will be from 5PM - 8PM.

Brickslopes is quickly approaching. There is still time to sign-up and use the ILUG discount code but you need to hurry. Contact Greg if you need the discount code. Shawn has also reserved an AirBnB for the group. Lodging and travel arrangements are being coordinated on the ILUG discord group. We still need input on a slogan for our Brickslopes t-shirts. If you have an idea please let us know.

We need your Ideas

Brickslopes has invited ILUG to create a trophy that our group will award to one of the builds at the show. We would need to design and supply a custom trophy that fits on a 6x12 base that they will provide. They will custom print a phrase on a brick in the base. The idea is that this is an ILUG themed trophy (ULUg printed brick is "ulug sees u". Lug Vegas is "chaa-ching") We are looking for designs and slogans for this opportunity. We need to submit the slogan this week and can bring the trophy to the show.

We need a t-shirt design for MOCFEST! 2025. The theme for next year's show is Locomotion. We are hoping to have t-shirts as an option for one of the builder swag packages and we need help creating a good design.

We are looking for designs for this year's make-and-take activity at the Festival of Trees. We will be submitting ideas to the foundation and they will pick the project they would like to fund. This should be a fun holiday-themed build that can be done in a dozen or so steps and have a parts cost of around $10 range. In the past, we have done ornaments, a micro gingerbread house and a micro nativity.

Show and Tell

Thad - Swords with Belt	Lori - Flower Frame	Peter - Color Palettes
Daniel - Muppets Stage	LEGO Ideas Contest Trophy

Many thanks to everyone who came to the meeting. If you attended but did not record your attendance online you can click here. Looking forward to seeing everyone at Brunch and Bricks on July 27th. Our next meeting will be on August 15th 7PM at Bricks and Minifigs.

MOCFEST! 2024 was held May 18th and 19th at ABU games. We had a great event with over 800 attendees, over 200 MOCs, 57 builders and many activities and presentations. Many thanks to all of the builders, volunteers and people who attended the event. We received some great feedback and we are always open to more please send any feedback you have to info@idaholug.com.

Planning for MOCFEST! 2025 is already underway. The theme will be "Locomotion" so we expect to see some great train layouts along with many other moving MOCs. The event will be held on the 21st and 22nd of June 2025 once again at ABU Games. We are seeking designs for trophies as well as a T-shirt design. Submit your ideas to info@idaholug.com by September. We will be discussing these ideas at our future meetings. We will have additional space for MOCs and we are planning on displaying Avatar once again. 

Brickslopes discount code is still available for ILUG members. Cutoff for custom T-Shirt is 15 July. Looking for ideas for the phrase on the back of the shirt. Last year was ILUG! ULUG? People interested in sharing rides or a place to stay can coordinate on Discord.

Space event at The Village in Meridian on Wednesday June 26th. We need Space Themed MOCs. We will be setting up the Saturn V and running a free play area between 11AM and 3PM. We will be setting up the Saturn V at about 10:30 AM.

Peter brought in some BrickHeadz he designed based on the new Friends minidolls. 

We have been discussing having a Summer get together probably sometime in early August. We would like to meet at a park (i.e. Kleiner Park) for a potluck-style BBQ. We will be sending out some more information soon.

Many thanks to everyone who attended our June meeting, our next meeting will be on July 18th 7PM at Bricks & Minifigs. 

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.

We had a busy meeting discussing the many STEM events we have been doing around the valley. We have already supported three elementary school STEM nights as well as the BSU Engineering and Science festival. There are still four more already on the calendar.

To help out with facilitating STEM events Greg has put together kits that contain everything you need to support an event. There are signs promoting the group and MOCFEST!, instructions for several STEM activities and all the bricks you need for the event. Two kits are currently available and there are plans to put a few more together.

HACFORT is doing a technology theme this year and asked us to help out with STEM events. Unfortunately we aren't able to support them this year but there is an opportunity to display MOCs indoors at the Grove on Saturday March 23rd. Contact Greg if you would like to display your MOCs. We would like to be able to display a Great Ball Machine (GBC) during the event next year.

MOCFEST! 2024 is scheduled for 18 - 19 May at ABU Games. We are holding weekly planning meetings and all members are welcome to participate. Contact Greg if you would like to attend the planning meetings. There will be several volunteer opportunities as we get closer to the event.

Only one show and tell this month a throwback to some classic Bionical sets, Core Hunter and XT-4

One of our members has two MOCs up on LEGO Ideas if you have an account you can take a look at his contributions under GeckoGamer004. Gecko Diaoramas is currently a staff pick!

In other LEGO news a new gift with purchase (GWP) Micro Rocket Launchpad will be available from February 16th - 18th for all LEGO Insiders with the purchase of $200 or more. There is also a rumor that one of the collectable minifigure (CMF) sets will be based on Dungeons and Dragons. This will probably be available in September.

Many thanks to everyone that attended the meeting. Next meeting is on March 21st at 7PM!