@rachelh
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Hi Dale!
I live in Elmhurst, IL and I joined the Steel City LUG a few years ago because my fiance’ Ben lives in Pittsburgh. Maybe we can form a Chicago annex:)Whereabouts do you live? Do you plan to display at Brickworld?
Are we sure this isn’t a scam…?
I attended the one in Chicago. You can see my posts about it. What kind of scam are you imagining? It certainly doesnt feature real LEGO bricks, and I question whether they have 1 million bricks on-site, but other than that it’s fine. It’s just an event that involves hauling a bunch of knockoff bricks and LEGO-themed furniture from city to city and then taking over a bar or other facility forna weekend. Kind of like a the way museums build travelling exhibits and send them around the country, but it only lasts a weekend. The Chicago event was in a location several miles away from downtown, in an area with cheaper real estate. Maybe that’s what they are doing in Pittsburgh too. There wasn’t much press about the event but there were a lot of people attending somI assume the organizers know a lot more about social media and pop-up events than they do about LEGO.
Ah. Now I get it. Thank you @randomdan and @zaximillion for furthering my education.
I’m intrigued but having trouble following. Wondering if you can post a pic or list the part numbers?
Transitioning from bars to studs is pretty easy with Technic bricks with the bars threaded through pins
I’m adding some comments to share my best guess at Brick Bar’s expectations of the LUG in exchange for the free tix:
Their emails to me referred to my “followers” and told me to send a list of the “winners” to be added to a “media list.” Sounds like they expected me to do a giveaway on a blog. I’m not sure they understand that LUGs are small groups without a lot of reach. I only heard about it Friday so I posted it to a public makerspace forum and didn’t get any takers.
We could post something to the Steel City LUG public forum and Facebook page to help on that end. And if it’s not too late, offer a pair of tickets on some public forum beyond the private LUG membership. However, I wouldn’t go out of your way to lend the credibility of the LUG to the event because the bricks are awful and it’s really just a date night for non-AFOLs.
Beyond that, if y’all show up and put your back into it with a few of the build contests (likely Pittsburgh-themed and 90’s themed) you will raise the general calibre of the event and give them something to post as PR for their future events. If you post some pics to social media, even better. And if you buy drinks or food they’ll come out ahead even on folks who skipped the cover charge.
I don’t think the organizers know much at all about LUGs or traditional LEGO conventions, or media relations associated with LEGO in general. For one thing, they made a big fuss in pre-press communication about a ping ping table made of bricks, and any self-respecting LEGO artist would have made it self-supporting, but no, this is a bunch of fake LEGO covering a makeshift ping pong table.
They seem to know something about pop-up bars and events. Despite the lack of traditional press, they did fill the event with lots of folks in their 20s and 30s and created photo ops to help people fill their Instagram feeds. I had a lot of fun because everything was just a little different from traditional LEGO events and it was interesting to see things from a fresh angle.
Pics of ping pong table (in use as a building surface the whole time I was there) attached. One is a close-up of the edge of the table.
Chicago theme contest winner: car with yellow parking boot.
Selfie with Tiana and her I (heart) Chicago + Sears Tower build. Tiana was the only contestant who built up instead of all mosaic style. I helped her find black bricks and contributed the white antennae.
To be clear, I found it amusing only because it was startling to see “uncensored” LEGO and it was the first time it occurred to me that someone must be monitoring free build activities at conventions to nip this in the bud. Please do not send dick pics, LEGO or otherwise.
Resized pics from Brick Bar. Will post more representative pics later. I cannot tell a lie, the Hulk build totally cracked me up.
I attended the Chicago Brick Bar event today (thanks Josh for the heads up about it.) Ben and I had a debate about whether all sessions were for age 21+ or just the evening sessions. I’m attaching pics that would indicate we’re looking at 21+ all day.
As for the 1 million bricks, I believe I spotted one genuine LEGO part (a 1×1 round tile with eyeball printed pattern). The rest of the bricks were no name bricks, not even mega blocks. That said, I had a blast. It was really enjoyable to mingle in an adults-only crowd of non-AFOLs. The adults really brought a fresh wonderment to it that is hard to put into words, and it was nice to be able to help them get up to speed on even simple things like how to refer to the different bricks by name.
Also, what they lacked in skill, they made up for in attitude. We had a 15-minute building contest on the theme of Chicago starting with a 48-stud baseplate (referred to by the MC as the squares you can find in boxes around the room), and there were some fun entries. The winner made a car with a yellow boot. Chicago is known for extreme corruption among towing companies and the boot is a much-hated icon.
Will post more pics later. Hope that gives you the flavor.
