Vancouver Lego Club

LEGO Castle Adventure at Science World – starts Feb 16, 2012

Platypus — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 00:14:33 +0000

A new LEGO exhibit has opened at Science World this weekend and will be running for the next few months. See below post for more info.

Members of the VLC will be taking part in the “After Dark” event this friday Feb. 24th (for adults) as entertainers. We will be holding speed builds and other contest and giving out LEGO prizes, of course!

For more info about Science World After Dark

—————————————————————————————-

LEGO Castle Adventure @ Science World

A hands-on exhibition that provides an extraordinary opportunity for both little and big kids to discover the world of castle-building. Explore the LEGO Kingdom’s royal castle, sit in their majesties’ LEGO thrones, admire a LEGO suit of armour, dress up, joust, even test out a catapult! Click here for further details on the Science World website.

Hear ye, hear ye! Come one, come all to Science World and experience LEGO® Castle Adventure, a hands-on exhibition that provides an extraordinary opportunity for kids (including big ones!) to discover the world of castle-building using one of the greatest building materials of all time: LEGO® bricks.

Explore the LEGO Kingdom’s royal castle, sit in their majesties’ LEGO thrones, and admire a LEGO suit of armour. After that, tour the castle grounds and learn about day-to-day castle life. You’ll be able to dress up as princes, princesses, knights or dragons; climb a lookout tower; and don suspender-style horses to “joust” with foam-rubber lances.

And that’s not all! You can even test out castle defences with . . . a catapult! That’s right. By using a computer simulation program and a model catapult, you’ll be able to virtually build and test castle walls and learn through trial and error the most durable ways to protect a fortress.

At LEGO Castle Adventure, builders of all ages and skill levels will construct castles, learn about real-world fortresses, and discover castle-building secrets. Visitors will have the chance to explore various themes, including:

The importance of planning in constructing successful castles
Which part of a castle is built for which purpose
What it takes to build and run a castle
Inspiring real-life castles

Toronto teens send a Lego minifig into space

chump — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 04:21:01 +0000

Two weeks ago, Ho and Muhammad launched a homemade balloon carrying a Lego passenger and four cameras. It fell back down to Earth 97 minutes later with astonishing footage from an estimated 24 kilometres above sea level, three times the typical cruising altitude of a commercial aircraft.

What a cool story with an amazing video to show the voyage of this Lego minifig 24 kilometer journey into space via a weather balloon. Check out the whole story for youself at the Toronto Star website by clicking on the photo below.

Lego Minecraft is happening!

chump — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 19:01:13 +0000

I didn’t think I would be posting this so soon, but hey the rendered image that VLC member Michael Thomas made of a Minecraft block that sparked the interest for Lego Minecraft sets has been given the green light. Way to go!

Minecraft™ LEGO CUUSOO Project Passes LEGO Review

2012/01/24

Happy New Year! Since the Minecraft™ project reached 10,000 supporters on LEGO CUUSOO, many of you have been eagerly awaiting our update. Until now, the project has been in the LEGO Review—a stage before product development begins where a LEGO Jury evaluates the idea’s feasibility as a product and makes a decision.

We’re happy to announce that the Minecraft project on LEGO CUUSOO has passed the LEGO review and we are now developing a concept that celebrates the best aspects of building with the LEGO system and in Minecraft and we can’t wait to show it to you—but we aren’t ready just yet. These things take time, so we appreciate your patience. More details are to come.

The LEGO CUUSOO Team

Member MOC’s: Michael Thomas’s Settlers of Catan

chump — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 03:49:07 +0000

I intend to highlight some of the VLC member’s MOCs (in no particular order), the first MOC is one that made the Brother’s Brick Top 10 List for 2011, Michael Thomas’s Lego Settler’s of Catan.

When one first sees these images, one has trouble distinguishing that it is not real. This model was created in SR3D and then PoVRay to render into a near photorealistic image.

To our surprise, he had ordered the pieces off of Bricklink to make a real life version of it which can be seen here. Combining his love of boardgaming and Lego allowed him to bring it to life. The total cost, as you may well have guessed, exceeded the cost of purchasing the actual game.

Obviously the cards and the dice are not made from official Lego.

You can find out more about this MOC or ask questions of the builder, Michael, in our forums or see more photos in his Flickr photostream.

In one of his photostreams, you will also realize that Michael is responsible for the image that sparked the Minecraft Cuusoo project.

It’s (somewhat) official! It’s Oakridge Mall

chump — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 17:37:00 +0000

A VLC member noticed on the Oakridge mall website this link which seems to indicate it will be in the West Galleria somewhere, but no lease is signed, according to the Vancouver Sun article below. Spring of 2012 can’t come soon enough.

p.s. And yes, Melody, it excites us too!

Original source Vancouver Sun Jan 11th, 2011

The final pieces of a business deal that will allow Danish toy maker The Lego Group to open its first British Columbia store this April are snap-ping into place.

“We’re thrilled,” said Katrina Perkins, marketing director at Vancouver’s Oakridge Centre, the pending location for the famed Lego brand.

“[Lego] has a wide universal appeal to a lot of people. Kids love it, but there are a lot of adults who love it as well,” Perkins said.

The toy company, now 80 years old, has a growing presence in Canada, with stores in Calgary and Toronto.

Perkins said the Oakridge store is expected to be about 2,000 square feet and located close to a children’s play space.

“The store is very dynamic. It’s inter-active. There is a lot of fun stuff happening in there,” she said.

A spokeswoman with The Lego Group declined to comment on the company’s move into British Columbia, noting a formal lease agreement has yet to be signed.

Lego has seen continued growth over the past five years, with double-digit growth rates in sales, according to its corporate website.

Future plans outlined on the site include further expansion into the U.S. market, the world’s largest market for toys, and Eastern Europe.

China, Mexico, Brazil and India are also identified as countries with key growth potential for the toy company.

Perkins said Oakridge’s youthful demographics and central location likely played a strong role in attracting the company to Vancouver.

Families make up about 50 per cent of Oakridge shoppers, with the balance averaging between 25 and 55 years.

She added: “We’re always trying to bring in the latest and greatest retail concepts to our shopper in Vancouver. If we can bring in a retailer of a calibre like Lego, we’re thrilled to be able to do so.”

dahansen@vancouversun.com

Twitter.com/darahhansen

LEGO Brand Retail coming to Vancouver in 2012

chump — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 07:37:49 +0000

Courtesy of Brickset.com:

Looks like Canada is about to get its fourth LEGO store, this time in Vancouver, British Columbia.

The ‘Jobs at LEGO’ website has just posted a vacancy for the job of ‘Store Manager’ in Vancouver, which is usual for the first official announcement of a new store.

You can read all the details of the job at the link below …

http://jobsatlego.com/ca/vancouver/retail/store-manager-vancouver-jobs

If you think you meet the requirements, and decide to apply, then good luck, and let us know how you get on!

Vancouver Lego Club at Trains 2011- Nov 12th to 13th, 2011

chump — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 23:15:50 +0000

The Vancouver Lego Club has been invited once again to participate at Trains 2011. So that means that we’ll have a whole 9 – eight foot tables setup displaying Lego brick built trains and all the wonderful scenery to go around it!

Come on down and check our display out. Please feel free to come up to us and say hi.

Details on Trains 2011 can be found below or at the Trains 2011 website

Trains is held in Greater Vancouver (BC) and is British Columbia’s premier model railroading exhibition.

This annual show, in its 29th year, serves as an exhibition of the great hobby of model railroading, bringing together those with experience and those who are just becoming interested. We welcome all – whether you have a model railroad empire of your own, a train set or are just hoping to see some cool models.

Located at the Cameron Recreation Centre | 9523 Cameron Street Burnaby, near Lougheed Mall.

2011 Public Show Hours

Trains will be held on November 12th, and 13th. (Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 4pm.) Please note ticket sales are cut-off at 3.30pm both days. All guests must exit the hall at 4pm.

2011 Entrance Fare

Fares may be paid with cash only. An entrance fare entitles an individual to the public display areas of the Trains show, and to enter the hourly door prize. An entrance fare is good only for the day it is purchased.

Senior (60+) $4
Adult (16-59) $8
Youth (6-15) $4
Child (0-5) Free!
Family $20 (Maximum 2 Adults, 3 Youth)
Uniformed Youth Groups Free!
NMRA Member $4
Two-Day Registration $20 Includes clinics, tours, contests, earlier openings, and more! See below for more information.

Entrance Discounts! Check your local paper for our ad for an admission discount, or sign up for our e-mail reminder service (below) to receive a discounted admission price!

LEGO Exhibit at the Port Moody Station Museum

Platypus — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 19:16:38 +0000

The Port Moody Station Museum is currently hosting a Train and Town LEGO® Display. See some picture of this event on our photos page or visit the museum before August 31st to see it in the Brick.

Website Updates

Michael — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 06:19:14 +0000

Hello. I have been working hard to update the website with some recent content. I felt like we actually needed a new post to get some activity going on the site. I just wanted to post a quick changset of updates I have made:
+ Added Events page populated with the past years events
+ Added the Photos page populated with a few galleries (More images needed! Please upload them!)
+ Updated About Us page with current 2011 Club Officer Positions
+ Added Members page populated with modified content from old site. Added myself to the list
+ Added Local avatar support. Users can supply their own avatar now.
* Modified styling and code for gallery plugin to better suit our needs

There are also some ongoing updates and discussions about the website going on in the forum in this thread (VLC Members only). Check it out and add your feedback!

Babies need building blocks, not TV, research finds

Platypus — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 08:56:03 +0000

The Vancouver Sun ran a story suggesting that building Blocks play a key role in the mental development of Babies and Children. Many in the LEGO® Community have suspected the same for a long time and are happy to see the research backing the idea that building toys promote mental growth. To see the article click here .