Vancouver Lego Club

VLC at Vancouver Mini Maker Faire – June 1st and 2nd, 2013 10am-6pm

Posted on May 10, 2013 by chump

Are you a DIY kind of person? Do you like to tinker with stuff? Are you into neat contraptions and all things steampunk? If any of this interests you, get yourself down to Vancouver Mini Maker Faire at the PNE Forums on June 1st and 2nd.

Maker Faire is the Greatest Show (and Tell) on Earth—a family-friendly showcase of invention, creativity and resourcefulness, and a celebration of the Maker movement. It’s a place where people show what they are making, and share what they are learning.

Makers range from tech enthusiasts to crafters to homesteaders to scientists to garage tinkerers. They are of all ages and backgrounds. The aim of Maker Faire is to entertain, inform, connect and grow this community.

In the past, the VLC has been wanting to come on out and show our creations, but other commitments have precluded us from showing. Well, no longer, the Vancouver LEGO Club will definitely have a table there this year. We’re starting out small, just to get a feel of the scene but do come by and see Crawler Town (shown below) and a few other of our member’s creations.

UPDATE: It looks like a never before seen re-imagined steam punk version of Star Wars Cloud City as well as the whimsically animated Fun Haus! (based on the Mexican Día de Muertos) by BrickBaron will be making appearances at Vancouver Mini-Maker Faire. Come by and say hi!

Crawler Town roams the barren wastes of a post steam-punk world after cataclysmic climate change do to excessive coal use. Several such cities exist but Crawler Town is the most popular due to the Aero 500 hydrogen fuel cell Air races that are held.

For a list of all the other Maker’s that will be there go to the Vancouver Mini-Maker Faire website.

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LEGO GAGA, The Built This Way Ball – BrickBaron aka Paul Hetherington

Posted on May 23, 2013 by chump

Vancouver LEGO Club brick artist Paul Hetherington has released his photos of LEGO Lady Gaga castle tour set including a video of it all in action and set to Lady Gaga’s song Just Dance. Crank up the volume and click on the photo below to start the video.

Paul has taken the time to recreate many of the iconic moments and outfits from Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Ball tour. It went to BrickCascades in Portland earlier this year and I’m not sure where this MOC is going to show up next on display (but we’ll let you know when it does). For more photos of Paul’s LEGO Gaga, please go to BrickBaron’s Flickr photostream

Lego Lady Gaga, Black Jesus, Amen Fashion

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If only there were a LEGO Vancouver Canucks…..

Posted on May 23, 2013 by chump

Bob Kronbauer of Vancouver is Awesome tweeted the following a week back regarding James H’s now revisionist history of the Vancouver Canucks Stanley Cup 2013 playoff run.

Original Tweet found here:

Hey @car2govancouver, have you seen the Lego version of the Stanley Cup playoffs at Oakridge? It ends well. ow.ly/l4I2L #canucks

— Vancouver Is Awesome (@VIAwesome) May 15, 2013

You can still see the whole diorama in person at the Oakridge Mall LEGO Store till the end of May. What will be in next month’s showcase? Stay tuned!

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Help Build a LEGO Garden – Park Royal Mall – every Saturday in May 2013

Posted on May 10, 2013 by chump

Correction: I originally wrote this was every Sunday, but as the dates below clearly show, it’s every SATURDAY. My apologies for any confusion.

Calling all LEGO® lovers. Join Park Royal and LEGO® Certified Professional, Robin Sather, every Saturday in May to help build a huge garden out of LEGO® bricks. Plus, watch the master in action as he constructs giant flowers and insects all out of LEGO®.

DATES: May 4 & 11, 2013 – Park Royal North, Centre Court;

May 18 & 25 - Park Royal South, Centre Court

TIME: 10AM – 4PM

COST: Free

UPDATE: Thanks to those who came out to help in the past few weeks. One more to go! Here’s a few photos from week 3.

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LEGO Store Oakridge Mall – One Year Anniversary Build – 8 foot Yoda

Posted on May 10, 2013 by chump

Lego Oakridge 1-Year Anniversary

Join us in celebrating the LEGO® Store’s 1-Year Anniversary at Oakridge Mall!

Celebration will be taking place May 17-19, 2013

With a LEGO® Master Builder constructing an 8-foot tall model of Yoda™ out of LEGO bricks!

Plus, be one of the first 300 people to make a qualifying purchase and receive one of these exclusive giveaways:

Free LEGO® Birthday cake with a $50 purchase!
Free LEGO® Minifigure set with a $75 purchase!

UPDATE: It took three days but it finally got done! Thanks to LEGO Master Dan, the LEGO Oakridge Mall Store, the many volunteers and for all those who came out to build the bricks needed to build the 8 foot Yoda.

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May 2013 LEGO Oakridge Community Showcase – James H

Posted on May 9, 2013 by chump

I’m a big fan of James H’s MOCs. There’s a simplicity about each of them but yet there is always so much details and many stories going on that bring the diorama to life.

What you’re seeing below (and on display at the Oakridge LEGO Store this month) is a depiction of his own house (sand green), or rather half of it. He’s built each house so that it opens and closes in half dollhouse style. The other half (dark green) was built and displayed during our Make A Wish BC & Yukon Winter Wonderland display at the Van Dusen Gardens Festival of Lights (shown below below).

So go check out the display and make sure to drop by on May 17th through 19th for the One Year Anniversary Party where they’re doing an 8 foot tall Yoda build.

An earlier look at the complete dark green house, with dark tan scallop shingles.

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Douglas Coupland seeks LEGO Gatherer – The Province Newspaper

Posted on May 8, 2013 by chump

Earlier this week there a buzz was created when writer and artist Douglas Coupland tweeted:

I am looking for a Vancouverite with a car to help me buy Lego online. Info attached here.

The next thing I knew, I saw that CTV News had published a story and soon The Province Newspaper came around asking questions too. I knew that one of our members, Paul Hetherington had tweeted Mr. Coupland back inquiring about the job. And with that I knew that I couldn’t compete with him. Paul lives on the north shore, runs a Bricklink store, has a huge personal collection, an encyclopedic knowledge of LEGO elements and how all the pieces interconnect and is an award winning LEGO artist. I fully endorse Paul to Mr. Coupland.

Good luck, Paul! And for anyone else wanting to apply for the job send an e-mail to lego.gather@gmail.com

Below is The Province Newspaper article published on May 7th, written by Frank Luba. Reproduced from The Province website

Douglas Coupland seeking ‘Lego Gatherer’ for new project

Douglas Coupland, above, has his sights set on a project involving Lego.
Photograph by: Jason Payne , PNG

Vancouver artist Douglas Coupland is looking for what he calls a “Lego Gatherer.”

Coupland, who is probably best known as a writer but has an extensive oeuvre in other art forms, put out a call Sunday on Twitter for someone to help him “gather a number of specific Lego pieces for a specific project.”

The person selected will need a car to get to meetings with Coupland on the North Shore, where he lives, and a PayPal account to cover online purchases.

The job, which will be on a contract basis, sounded interesting to Pierre Chum of the Vancouver Lego Club.

“I think it’s fabulous to be able to work with another artist who wants to build in the Lego medium,” said Chum. “If you look at some of the stuff he’s done before, it seems to be that he loves his Lego. He’s unabashedly a lover of Lego.”

Chum said that among those interested in the position is North Vancouver’s Paul Hetherington.

With approximately two million Lego pieces of his own and fantastic creations such as a tribute to Lady Gaga and her Born This Way tour, Chum things Hetherington would be an ideal candidate.

Coupland did not respond to a request for an interview, but all the details for anyone interested are available at pic.twitter.com/HsVYA4Nv9c

fluba@theprovince.com
twitter.com/frankluba

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April 2013 Vancouver Oakridge Lego Store Community Showcase

Posted on April 11, 2013 by chump

Hot off the successful run at the Britannia Mine Modern Mining Display this past spring break, comes April’s contribution to the Oakridge Mall Lego Store Community Showcase. A lot of you were disappointed that you couldn’t see this in person so we’ve scaled down the display tremendously and fit it into the display box. This is a collaborative effort from VLC members Dave D., Keith R. and Lee W.

Hopefully I’ll upload a better image soon than what my iPhone took.

Better yet… Go see it for yourself!

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LEGO Artist Paul Hetherington on Shaw TV’s The Rush – Apr 10, 2013

Posted on April 11, 2013 by chump

Way to go Paul! Great job in showcasing your LEGO building talents and representing the Vancouver LEGO Club and all adult LEGO hobbyists. Paul has been interviewed on Urban Rush about 8 years ago. After seeing the article in last month’s The Province newspaper, he was asked to come back for another interview with Fiona Forbes and guest co-host Robin Dunne.

Just in case you missed it last night, here it is on Shaw TV’s The Rush TV YouTube channel.

Here’s a few more pictures from TheRushTV’s and Fiona’s twitter Feed

Paul Hetherington, Fiona Forbes and Robin Dunne on Shaw TV’s The Rush

A LEGO version of Chewbacca Forbes at Jabba’s Palace built by Paul H for Fiona.

Fiona and LEGO Chewbacca Forbes

p.s. While the last month may appear to the contrary, there are more members to the VLC than just Paul Hetherington. He’s just had a good run with his LEGO creations being featured and it’s well deserved. I’m sure you’ll continue to see more of his MOC’s shown here.

However, look out for more of our members MOCs and interviews in the months to come, I know Dave D is working on Crawler Town 2.0 and many of our other members have exciting projects in the works.

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Thanks for coming to the Britannia Mines – Modern Mining Display in LEGO

Posted on March 25, 2013 by chump

Thank you very much for those of you who were able to make it up to the Britannia Mine Modern Mining display over the spring break period. Unfortunately, our display has now come to an end but that doesn’t mean the mine doesn’t continue to operate throughout the year. Their operating budget comes directly from ticket sales so please do recommend your friends, family and colleagues to come on out and see it for themselves.

Here’s some more photos of our display with more to come.

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