Idaho LUG Blog


Blog History

January Meeting 2025

1/17/2025 12:19:42 PM

Starting off the new year with many STEM events at local elementary schools. Lots of show and tell this month.

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December 2024 Meeting

12/24/2024 11:08:42 AM

Time for our annual holiday party with our Dirtybrickster gift exchange!

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Festival of Trees 2024

12/3/2024 8:30:11 AM

Festival of Trees is our longest event each year, it takes a lot of people to ensure its success. Thank you to everyone who volunteered and brought in holiday builds!

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November 2024 Meeting

11/22/2024 6:39:46 PM

Our annual Member Appreciation meeting was a great success. Thanks to everyone who volunteered throughout the year!

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January Meeting 2025

17 Jan 2025 12:19

Happy New Year! We had a great turnout for our first meeting in 2025, thanks to everyone who brought builds for show and tell.

As usual we will be helping out with many STEM events around the Treasure Valley. We will need people to help with these events go to SignUpGenius to volunteer. Here is a list of STEM events we have scheduled so far.

  • 30 January - Horizon Elementary 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm
  • 6 February - Anser Charter 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm
  • 6 February - Hunter Elementary 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
  • 20 February - Roosevelt Elementary 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm
  • 22 February - BSU Science and Technology Fair 10:00 am - 3:00 pm
  • 10 April - Adams Elementary 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm
  • 11 April - Compass Charter 5:30 pm - 8:30 pm

Show and Tell

Zach-Starfighter Jake-Crabmech Lori-Heart
Zach - Jedi Starfighter and Droids Jake - Crab Mech Lori - Heart Artwork
Thad-Helmet Emmanuel-D&D
Thad - Helmet Emmanuel - Rock Monsters Declan - Classic Minifigures
Connie-IceFestival Daniel-Animaniacs Austin-Applejack
Connie - Modified Ice Festival Daniel - Animaniacs Austin - Applejack from My Little Pony
Gerd-Coaster Luka-RC Car Michael-TrainCars
Gerd - disco rollercoaster and Santa's post office mashup Luka - RC Car Michael - Train Cars

Activities

In 2025 we are going to offer workshops, training and other activities as a part of our meetings. Greg spent some time discussing the various activities included with the STEM kits that we use at Elementary schools around the valley. Laura provided a workshop on creating low const lighting for LEGO displays using batteries and LEDs. Next month we are planning on doing an introduction to Great Ball Machine (GBC) modules.

We also gave out some non-LEGO baseplates for inspiration in making a simple MOC for a large LEGO Quilt that we will put together in March. If you picked up a baseplate we are looking forward to your creations. If you would like to participate in the project please contact Chris

Future Meetings

We have been meeting on the first Tuesday of the month at ABU Games for a LEGO game night. We are currently running a D&D campaign and many other LEGO board games are always available. If you would like to play some LEGO board games, bring your own games or just want to have more time to socialize with members of the LEGO community we would love to see you. Our next game night is scheduled for February 11th at 7PM.

Our next meeting will be the third Thursday in February (20th) 7PM at Bricks & Minifigs.

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Tags: LEGO,MOC,Meetings

November 2024 Meeting

22 Nov 2024 8:23

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_Nov2024_1 Austin_Nov2024_2
Austin- 53 Buick SkylarkAustin - "Red Thunder" Helo
Logan_Nov2024 Shawn_BrickIdaho
Logan - Winter SceneShawn - 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.

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Tags: LEGO,MOC,Events,Meetings

October Meeting 2024

18 Oct 2024 18:50

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 HalloweenEthan - Necromancer's Castle Tim & Holly - Castle and Pumpkin Patch

Halloween MOCs

Ashley-Jack&Sally Austin-Changeling Chris-HauntedFarm
Ashley - Jack & SallyAustin - My Little Pony ChanglingChris - Haunted Farm
Connie-Firehouse Daniel-CustomMinifigs Emma-Graveyard
Connie - FirehouseDaniel - Custom MinifigsEmmanuel - Graveyard
Luka-RCCar Luna-Portal2 Merideth-ScaryTree
Luka - Remote Controlled CarLuna - Portal II SceneMeredith - Scary Tree
Sawn-Chainmail Thad-OpticalIllusion Shawn-MonsterFighters
Shawn - ChainmailLuna - Portal II SceneShawn - 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.

Table1 Table2

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. 


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Tags: LEGO,MOC,Meetings

September 2024 Meeting

20 Sep 2024 20:33

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_AquaZoneVehicle Austin_ChristmasTruck
Austin - 1966 T-BirdAustin - AquaZone Vehicle Austin - Christmas Truck
Ashley_Tree Daniel_TMNT Luca_RCCar
Ashley - Tree Daniel - TMNT Diorama Luca - RC Car
Jake_MelinniumFalconCoffeeTable Thad_Sword
Jake - Millennium Falcon Coffee TableThad - 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!

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Tags: LEGO,MOC,Meetings

July Meeting

19 Jul 2024 12:21

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_Jul24 Lori_Jul24 Peter_July24
Thad - Swords with Belt Lori - Flower Frame Peter - Color Palettes
Daniel_Jan24 IdeasTrophy1 IdeasTrophy2
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.

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Tags: LEGO,MOC,Meetings

June 2024 Meeting

24 Jun 2024 13:11

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. ShowAndTell1


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. 

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Collection of information about Idaho LUG meetings and events as well as other posts from our members on various LEGO topics.

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