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DelVaLUG’s first public exhibit, at
the NBC10 Technology & Lifestyles Expo, was a
great success. The annual Expo (#4) is organized by a local TV station and
features a wide variety of vendors, nonprofits and schools – Comcast, HP,
Motorola; user’s groups for Mac, PC, PDA, radio; the FIRST robotics competition.
Despite some initial concerns on my part, DelVaLUG fit right in. We still don’t
know how our existence was known to the organizers; but we’ve been invited
back for next year.
The event ran 10:00-17:00 on Saturday 30 October and 10:00-16:00 Sunday
(Halloween); six hours on one’s feet is strenuous, urgh. Most of the club
attended: Jim, Maelee, Tim, Joe (all the way from SC), myself; and on Sunday,
Jeff. (See our LUGNET page for the membership list.) We wore our new
lime-green club t-shirts for uniformity; plus our BrickFest badges (minus the
BrickFest brick). We handed out flyers describing DelVaLUG and LEGO fandom in
general, Creator-themed sticker sheets and book covers, and back issues of the
Shop at Home catalog.
Our display area was 10- by 20-feet, containing 6 tables (x4 2x6 provided, x2
3x3 card tables). (It was initially 10x10, and we’ve been allocated 10x40 for
2005.) A walkway-moat separated the tables from the blue curtained fence, and a
pair of nifty club banners hung from the blue and yellow backdrop.
Security was excellent: on Saturday evening, the exhibitors were hustled out by
17:15, and the Center locked down by the on-site guards.
Most of the fittings (card tables, banners, freebies) and MOCs were provided by
the Foulds (the club’s de facto leaders -- kudos to them for pulling this
together). We had three weeks’ notice to create Halloween-themed MOCs, beyond
whatever stock models we could bring. The left pair of tables hosted a
Halloween Town encircled by Jim’s Halloween Train. One card table held
Halloween sculptures (ghosts, bat, black cat, pumpkins) plus an NBC10 logo; the
second had various ships and a mustering of Jim’s micro-mechs. The right
table-pair was a landing field encircled by a second track. (First batch of
photos on Brickshelf. More
to come.)
Aside from the pumpkins, Blacksmith Shop, and Santa Fe Super Chief, most
everything was a MOC. We had to explain repeatedly that, yes, LEGO makes
trains; eventually we pulled out a spare section of track to demonstrate.
(Should’ve had the wheel-truck and motor, too.) Plus the usual: How long to
build, How many bricks, Ever been to LEGO Land?
We may have recruited several new members, adults who admitted to being
builders, or avowed an interest in returning to it. I myself found some
relevant opportunities to promote Philcon and its LEGO
sub-track. We were all impressed by the Future City
exhibit, a color-coordinated model seaside urbanscape built of recycled
materials. The Mac Outfitters pavilion was selling
iPod Minis in a lime green color that matched
our shirts; we considered taking a photo.
On Saturday, one attendee told us he had a big bag of bricks at home, and on
Sunday zoomed past to deliver it. Wow. Just -- free brick. Cleaning house,
but looking for a good home for them, maybe? The bag contained a large number
of excellent pieces; they’re now in the club’s K8 stock. Thank you, Random Toy
Benefactor!
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