This past weekend the VLC attended the Family Farm Day at London Heritage Farm. Participants were encouraged to visit the VLC bee building station to add a bee to a beehive!

This all day event also saw people connect with wildlife, enjoy live music and much much more!

Paul Hetherington is an award winning LEGO artist. His building style is known around the world for it’s fun storytelling, building techniques and masterful use of colors. Paul’s work has been featured in books, magazines, online blogs and news stories. He was recently featured in The LEGO House Masterpiece Gallery in Billund Denmark. Paul also has a large gallery of his creations that travel to Brick Universe LEGO fan events. Paul is available for commissions and continues to create original pieces for his travelling show.

BrickUniverse

BrickUniverse is a LEGO Fan Event that travels to various US cities throughout the year. They invited me to have a gallery of my creations at their shows starting in 2017. At most shows I have at least 20 large creations on display.  To date I have attended over 30 shows in 20 different US cities.

At each BrickUniverse show I fly in a day early to set up all the models in my gallery.  This usually takes about 8 hours. The owners of BrickUniverse store and transport my creations in large wooden crates. Many of my creations have lighting effects and automation which take additional time to set up. Seeing the enjoyment the families get from seeing the models makes all the work worthwhile. During public hours I am onsite to answer questions about my creations. Talking to the public about my passion for LEGO is my favorite part of attending BrickUniverse.

BrickUniverse features 6 LEGO artist’s galleries as well as a fan zone that gives local LUGs space to display their creations. The artists include; Jonathan Lopes, Rocco Buttliere, Lia Chan, Martin Harris, Ej. and Abby Bocan, and myself. In addition to the displays, BrickUniverse has had 4 building zone areas, a challenge zone, a Duplo zone for younger builders as well  as a great selection of vendors selling all types of LEGO related items. BrickUniverse provides a fun family event that inspires builders young and old to build their dreams.

Buffalo Phil’s Pizza & Grille

Buffalo Phil’s Pizza & Grille approached me in 2018 about building some large LEGO displays for their restaurant. They offer train delivered food and they wanted to fill in the spaces between the train track with engaging LEGO displays. The owners want their restaurant to be a destination. The one place that kids of all ages have to visit when in the Wisconsin Dells.

In 2019 I created a large BrickCity that took over 6 months to design and build. I enjoyed designing a large food themed city that was inspired by downtown Disney. The models were created in my studio and then shipped down to Wisconsin in sections in large wooden crates. The displays were then reassembled and lighting and automation were added. The automation can be triggered by putting coins into a coin mechanism. This ensures the LEGO train motors don’t get worn out too quickly by running non stop.

In 2022 Buffalo Phil’s requested an addition to the BrickCity focusing on space themed creations for their main dining room. I created 9 large scenes over a 6 month period which are now on display. These displays feature even more automation including custom lighting, motorized features, smoke and even a real laser battle! In addition to the 9 custom scenes there are many official LEGO sets on display as well. If you visit Wisconsin Dells these LEGO displays are a must see and are free to view when you visit Buffalo Phil’s Pizza & Grille.

If you wish to see more of Pauls work check him out at his Website, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and Instagram.

This past weekend VLC was at the Scandinavian Midsummer Festival in Burnaby. Here we had a city layout for people to see including some pop-culture build and builds on landmarks in the Lower Mainland. Can you spot them?

This years winner of the Dean Lovell Award for the Outstanding MOC of 2021 was won by John N for his Vancouver Fireboat #2 build

Every year the VLC nominates the builds of our members to receive the Dean Lovell award for an outstanding MOC created in the previous year. This award recognizes a great VLC builder who passed many years ago and was created to honour his memory.

Check back next month when the winner is revealed.

This years nominees are:

Vancouver Fireboat #2 by John N

Hardware Store by Andrew D.

Translink Lego New Flyer XE40. 8 wide by Will F.

Atomic Ranch by Paul H.

Jewelry Store and Sweet Shoppe by John and Ayleen

Hello VLC Readers!

I’m Sean, our new publicist, what does that mean you ask?

It means that going forward we’re going to be a lot more active here showcasing what is happening within the VLC, our previous shows, upcoming events, behind the scenes of a Registered LEGO® User Group, and showcasing the work of our members.

You can also follow us at the VLC Instagram page for some fun behind the scenes, amazing builds, and more!

It’s the time of year where the VLC donates LEGO to the Surrey Christmas Bureau. Led by Andrew Delbaere @fraservalleybricks, $3737 of LEGO and an additional $360 in cash donations was donated this year. This is more than double last year’s $1700 total donations. For more on this, follow the link to the Surrey Now article below:
https://www.surreynowleader.com/community/lego-mountain-donated-to-surrey-christmas-bureau-by-members-of-local-club/?fbclid=IwAR1NBx59kr3ertCrng1CI6INiobYZXBK_sL4qLvoN8PErWiWYAcpP1uw7Jw

From the VLC’s June meeting, the month’s meeting contest was to build something that is smaller than minifig scale. Included in the gallery; a seaside village from Heidi; Godzilla attack from Joanne; LACMA from Jayleen; a fighter jet, microscale MILS roads, and bridges over the River Tyne from Neil, and a red rocket by Allan. Thanks to everyone who participated, there were some really great builds from everyone who took part.