The mosaic is finished! Brian Pilati, ULUG’s president, sent this message out after the build:

Thanks everyone!

The project turned out awesome!

I really appreciate everyone who came and helped … we could not have done it without everyone!

This was a really great project. Thanks to SelectHealth for giving us this opportunity!

As usual, the time lapse is after the break.
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Ok, apparently the whole thing collapsing was an April Fool’s Day joke and the mosaic is still intact. Very funny guys. We’re getting really close to finishing up, and it should be done tomorrow. See today’s time lapse video after the jump.
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Today was the second day of the build, and the model is coming along nicely. Tracy said:

The build was going really good today, until the thing crashed and we lost about 400 bricks off it. but hopefully we will be able to make headway on Wed.

The mosaic is still looking great. Watch another time lapse video after the break.
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So… I suppose it’s about time to start updating the website again! We’ve been very busy for the last 7 months displaying at train shows and holding club meetings, along with a couple special projects for SelectHealth, a local health insurance company. In February we built a large LEGO cake to celebrate the 3^rd anniversary of their logo, and today we started on a week-long project to build a large mosaic of the logo. The finished mosaic will contain over 11,100 LEGO bricks and will be about 4′x4′. Click the link below to see a time lapse video of today’s progress.
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It’s showtime again!  Come and see us at the Utah Valley County Fair!

• Date: August 13-16
• Location: 475 S Main Spanish Fork, Utah

Our display will be located at the covered tennis courts.  Here’s when we’ll be there:

• Wednesday the 13th: 4 PM to 10 PM
• Thursday the 14th: 12 PM to 10 PM
• Friday the 15th: 12 PM to 10 PM
• Saturday the 16th: 10 AM to 10 PM

See ya there!

AHH!!!

After a great show, you’d think there’d be news about it sooner! I apologize; it has been one wild summer.

But it’s true: our show June 27-28 was great! We put on our biggest display yet in the West Valley Family Fitness Center, and everyone who came loved it. Here’s a breakdown of this show’s stats:

• 248 people attended
• We sold 24 packs of fruit snacks and hard candy
• We sold 4 official sets and 32 grab bags
• We sold 8 keychains and 1 T-shirt

We worked really hard during this show, most notably in advertising. For instance, every thirty minutes someone went out to distribute fliers. Our work paid off, though, and everyone had a great time.

A new member also joined our ranks! Ryan Adams made his first appearance at this show, bringing an awesome collection of custom minifigs. Welcome, Ryan!

We’ll be at West Fest this Friday and Saturday displaying our Lego train and city layout in the West Valley City Family Fitness Center (5415 W 3100 S West Valley). It’s gonna be a great show; come and see us!

But we haven’t done any updating as far as our two most recent shows are concerned, so before this new one, let’s take a quick look at what the club has been up to!

On April 11th, ULUG and GBLT&C attended the Scout Jamborall at the South Towne Expo Center. It was our second Jamborall, and it brought great success. We were one of the favorite booths, and even received a small writeup in the Salt Lake Tribune! This event was also the first time we had no electricity, and we ran all the trains off of a modified NXT train regulator built by George. We merged the two cities into one mega-city, and also began customizing the train yard. The water front also returned.

We stayed busy this spring, with another show in Wendover from May 15th through the 17th. This was our first ULUG sponsored show, and we were privileged to be able to set up and display our layout at West Wendover High School. This was also our first show with all custom Lego tables, and much to our delight, it was well attended–especially for our first attempt at our very own show.

Many of us stayed at Spencer’s home during this time, where we held a barbecue and club members built and sorted Lego well into the night. Ryan and Brian both enjoyed celebrating birthdays together on the 16th.

And we just keep growing! Each show is better than the last, and you’re sure for a treat at this weekend’s Fest.

ULUG will be displaying a LEGO train and city layout in the West Valley City Family Fitness Center during this year’s West Fest. The West Fest goes from June 26-29, but we will only be there on the 27^th and 28^th (Friday and Saturday). The Fitness Center is on 5415 W 3100 S in West Valley. You can see it on Google Maps here.

More details to come, stay tuned!

The Hostlers Model Railroad Festival 2008 will be held this weekend (February 29, March 1st&2nd) at the Ogden Union Station. We will have a display set up upstairs in the “Old Timers Room.” It is free to get in to see our LEGO layout, but the rest of the show will cost $5 to get in. We will have a huge layout, come check it out

• Where: Ogden Union Staion, Old Timers’ Room (Mapquest link)
• When: February 29, 4 PM to 9 PM; March 1, 9:30 AM to 6 PM; March 2, 10 AM to 4 PM
• Cost: LEGO layout is free, rest of show $5, kids 12 and under are free.

. . . because we rock at advertising for them. Our crowd today was the second largest we’ve ever had–second only to last year’s Scout Jamborall in Ogden, where the crowd was four people deep! We took questions and informed our spectators about our hobby, sold “Lego” candy, and during the few minutes Reed had me man the sales table, I sold two shirts and a magnet with our club’s logo on them (which means Reed must have sold a lot himself!). And nearly everyone who talked to us wanted to know the same thing: where we got our Lego. LEGO, we directed them to you. Give us something!

Nah, just kidding, LEGO. Our reward is you staying in business and continuing to produce such excellent sets as the upcoming 10185 Green Grocer. (Ha! I knew I’d be able to sneak that in somewhere!)

Anyway, my report on the show will come on Monday, complete with pictures. But for now, I’ve got some cleaning up to do. Have a lovely Saturday night!

Quote of the day:

“If I were running one of them other displays, I’d be pissed that the Lego group has all the people.” — A spectator, aside to his friend