Idaho LUG Blog

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. 

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!

2023 was a very busy year for the LUG. We spent over 3000 hours on the Avatar project and displayed it in Idaho, Utah and California. We participated in many STEM events at several elementary schools and put on MOCFEST! in October. We are going to build on the momentum of last year by starting this year off quickly.  We have eight STEM events scheduled including:

• BSU Engineering and Science Festival
• Koelsch Elementary STEM Night
• Hunter Elementary STEM Night
• Roosevelt Elementary STEM Night
• Hidden Springs Elementary STEM Night
• Andrus Elementary STEM Night
• Adam Elementary STEM Night
• Compass Charter STEM Night

MOCFEST! 2024 will be on May 18th and 19th at ABU Games, planning is already in progress. We had a record number of builders bring MOCs last year and we are hoping to have even more participation this year. We are also planning on having many more events for our builders to make the show more engaging. Let us know if you have some ideas for engaging the builders in the Treasure Valley and beyond.

Show and Tell

Miniature version of the Natural History Museum Modular Building	Very detailed modular house with a full interior
A crown that can be worn	Is this a flail or a mace?
Landscape on a MILS plate for integration into a bigger scene

As always some fantastic builds and some great discussion within the group. Our next meeting is February 15th at 7PM where our theme is "Lovely Bricks"