I LUG NY at Brick Fair, Virginia 2013

  I LUG NY attended Brick Fair this month in Chantilly, Virginia and had a blast! We have been an active LUG for just under 3 years now and have established ourselves as a credible LUG in our eyes, in the eyes of LEGO and at all of the venues in which we’ve had exhibits and models on display at (Lyndhurst Castle in Tarrytown, the Larchmont Public Library, Massapequa Public Library, several LEGO Stores in New York and New Jersey, and the Stamford Museum and Nature Center in Connecticut). What we hadn’t done previously is establish ourselves within the LEGO fan community. This was I LUG NY’s statement while at Brick Fair. We are a viable LUG from the great state of New York. Members of I LUG NY have been attending Brick Fair for many years and displaying MOCs throughout the various themes but this is the first time we set up a collaborative display.

     I know for me personally it was a different experience to have people come up to me and ask for advice on growing a LUG because this was me in 2010 while hanging out with the guys from the amazing PennLUG (Pennsylvania LEGO User Group). In 2011 a handful of us were in attendance at Brick Fair once again and we held an impromptu meeting one evening with other Brick Fair attendees from NY to try and recruit new members. In 2012 we had 8 LUG members attending and handed out several I LUG NY minifigures to various LEGO folks and fellow LEGO fans. Yet again we had our mocs on display throughout the different themes so we didn’t have a singular presence and we decided then that 2013 we would have a group display.

     Mike Bader contacted Brick Fair organizer Todd Webb and requested floor space for our collaborative display. During the monthly meetings leading up to BFVA we communicated with membership our plans and acquired approval for renting a Uhaul truck. Members who couldn’t transport their own models down to BFVA brought them to the July meeting and Mike graciously brought them back to his house for storage until the show. Mike, Bill Probert and Rick Theroux traveled down to VA together in the Uhaul truck and showed up Thursday morning. Several members joined them in setting up the display throughout Thursday, Friday and into Saturday morning, just before the public began pouring in.

     Peter Espersen, Online Community Lead for the LEGO Group focusing on the 13+ age group, visited our display and said it was great that New York and NYC finally had a LUG. By the way, he said he has the I LUG NY minifigure on display at his home that we presented him with last year. Kevin Hinkle, Community Representative for the LEGO Group in charge of “all of the Americas now”, spent time at our display Saturday night and was awarded honorary membership in the LUG with an I LUG NY t-shirt.

     We were also recognized for our building skills having 3 of our MOCs nominated for a Brickee. Bill Probert took home the Brickee for “Best Train” for his Barber Seville Trolley car. Cody Wells (C3brix) was awarded a Brickee for “Best Sci-Fi” for his Star Trek Enterprise and I was nominated for “Best Train/Town Building” for my Stepping Stones Lighhouse but lost out to Hatter’s fantastic and deserving Astro Bowling alley MOC.

     The public really enjoyed our display and the LUG enjoyed being at Brick Fair Virginia again. Cody routinely had a swarm of people asking him questions about his 3′ tall Stark Towers. Mike had people ask him questions about his impressive and huge rock quarry. Will’s lit up Space Monorail station had gawkers throughout the weekend. Marwan’s passenger train with sensor controlled opening train doors/passengers wowed public and AFOLs alike. The trains and monorail kept the attention of visitors as they walked around our display. Rick and Will’s Jurassic Park elicited great reactions from the public. Phil’s skyscraper reached 8′ and could be seen from the entrance to the Dulles Expo Center even though we were in a back corner of the exhibit space.

     Perhaps most gratifying were the kind words from the AFOL community. We want to say thank you to those who came over to our tables to spend time with us and talk about our display. To each their own and some LUGs have a space collaborative display, some a town/train display and some a castle display. We try to combine as much as we can so that we can include each LUG members’ building preferences in our displays. To some, this type of collaborative display seems like a mish mosh but to many others we were told that we made it work. We planned as much as possible before leaving for Virginia using a discussion thread on our members only forums and a google drawing that Rick created that enabled us to plot our MOCs on the virtual display.

     In all, 16 members of I LUG NY attended Brick Fair Virginia. We had 3 members attend in 2010 showing a handful of MOCs, a far cry from the 16 members and 320 square foot display we set up this year!