Michigan LEGO® Users Group

Attendees:

Layout:

• Peter Guenther
• "Purple" Dave Laswell
• Chris Leach
• Sandy Leach

Overall Picture Galleries:

Show Report:

MichLUG made its second appearance at the Michigan FIRST LEGO League State Championship Tournament; because only four adult club members were going to participate, Peter and Chris planned a small, 6-table 10' x 7.5' layout.

Purple Dave arrived around 3:15, found out where exactly to set up, and began to unload. Chris, Sandy, and kids arrived within a half hour; Peter got there shortly after 4. We were again in the back of Hall A, so it was easy to get in and set up. We got the tables bolted together in short order, then flipped them as a whole and corrected some dips--though not all, we realized the next day. With only 6 blocks on the layout (and 5 in the end with Peter deciding to eliminate a street and bring his Chinese restaurant to fill in), everything went together quickly. PD used Rock Financial Showplace-provided tables and tablecloth for his Millenium Falcon and BioniWars display; this year we decided to include him inside the train layout barriers, because last year we didn't have any stanchions around his stuff and it was, as he called it, an ulcer-inducing experience. In fact, this year FLL and the Rock Financial Showplace provided us with their barriers, which were extendable poles with fabric hanging down; they set up easily and looked very nice, so we used those around everything. They were a clear indication of who was inside the layout and who was out, and I didn't see any kids trying to slip under (unlike our chains). However, they were tempting to lean on and would get progressively closer to the layout until reset.

Chris left for bowling and Peter left for a school event around 5:30; PD left about a half hour later.

The next morning Peter arrived shortly before 7:15, which was when the hall was to open for teams. Some teams were already in when he got there, but the layout was in good order. He dumped the club's loose brick onto the kids' play table; this year we used an old FLL competition table, which had high sides and held the brick in admirably... for the most part. It worked much better than the two tables pushed together last year, anyhow. The play table was a big hit and had a half-dozen plus kids around it most of the time; some kids believed they could keep whatever they built, so we did experience some shrinkage of the brick collection.

PD's BioniWars materials were a huge hit, although reactions ranged from the ignorant ("Hey! That's what's-his-name! Who works for the fat dude!") to the far-too-knowledgeable ("That's a Battle Droid Commander, like OOM-9 who commanded the entire invasion of Naboo..."). Equally gratifying was the fan recognition of some of PD's Batman characters on the town/train layout, including Firefly who is almost never correctly identified at other shows. Peter's Steak-and-Shake was a hit, with people recognizing it even without signage. Chris' 1001 Woodward was also familiar to a lot of attendees, although perhaps an equal number misidentified it as the twin towers. The layout was very well attended, with a half-dozen to two dozen viewers most of the morning and early afternoon.

At one point, several youths from one of the teams, the Allen Park Solar Spartans, came by with a trunk. They were Halo fans, obvious from the homemade helmets three of them carried. In the trunk were three impressive, life-size models of Halo weapons:

By 3:45, almost all the attendees were in the seating area for awards, so we decided to begin tearing down. When most of the layout was apart, Peter went over to shoo the few remaining young children from the play table; rather than being upset that it was time to stop playing, to his surprise they wanted to help clean up. It might not have been the most efficient method of cleanup, but with four or five small pairs of hands helping the table was clear in almost no time. By 4:25 everything was ready to load... unfortunately, awards didn't even for a few more minutes and then it was the better part of an hour before the crowd cleared enough for RFS to allow us to drive our vehicles in to load up. By 5:30, though, we were all loaded and on our way to the traditional Big Boy wrap-up dinner.