On Saturday September 27, 2008, members of NELUG participated in a fund raising event entitled "Mito Walk and Family Fun Day" for the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation. The event was held at LEGO Systems, Inc. headquarters in Enfield, CT, and featured a 5K Walk, LEGO raffle, a skateboard demonstration, LEGO displays, a free build area, and a huge floor mural. NELUG helped by providing three displays; a moonbase, a large castle complex, and an exhibition of several city MOCs. The center of the moonbase display featured Spacely Towers by Teddy Welsh. Two modules (a Sponge-Bob themed Sandy's Greenhouse and a Classic Spaceport) and a moon monorail train were built by Jonathan Dallas, a Robot Museum module showcasing the likes of the Silent Running drones, B9 robot from LIS, Robbie the Robot, Rosie & Uniblab from the Jetsons and Oliver Wendal Jones' Banana PC Jr 6000 from Bloom County was done by Dave Gwon, three modules (Crystal Hotel, Moonbase Cafe Corner, and Market Street Moonbase) created for BrickFair 2008 were displayed by Mike Ripley, and connector modules in classic space and Blacktron colors were built by Linda Dallas. The castle display highlighted a large castle layout by Matt Mann, a castle and dragon scene by Dave Eaton, and a model of the Jabberwock by Jason Wolfson. Dave Gwon also provided two city MOCs, Bill Bourn had a robotics demonstration for the kids, and Steve Doerner provided extra hands to help with setup and tear down. Several NELUG members also walked in the 5K Walk that followed a somewhat damp, swampy and mosquito ridden path around the LEGO complex. A Channel 40 (ABC) news team was present for the grand finale, which featured a ring of people lying on the floor around the giant floor mural featuring the word 'Hope' adorned with - LEGO! As a result of everyone's hard work, over $38,000 was raised. And as a special treat for NELUG, we were given a tour of the new work spaces for the Master Builders in Enfield. It was great to hang out with Erik Varszegi, Dan Steiniger and Steve Witt, and to be invited to participate in the event! To see all the pictures taken at the event, please visit the event picture area in our Media Gallery.

NELUG Participated in the Boston Children's Museum grand reopening gala, entitiled "LEGO of Your Inhibitions," that was used as a fund raising event to show off their recent $47 million rennovation. The black tie event was well attend, providing patrons with a variety of displays, music and food spread across three of its six floors.

NELUG was nestled on the third floor, not far away from numerous 2x3 brick-inspired cakes. Our display was a big hit, the largest affirmation of which came in the form of disappointed patrons when they realized our display was not a permanent exhibit. It was a great night and we had a blast!

We'd like to thank the BCM of the opportunity and to member Jonathan Dallas for putting us all in touch. For more pictures, visit our gallery.

Millyard Project Progresses as Completion Nears

Members of NELUG gathered at the SEE Science Center in Manchester, NH to participate in the latest building event, Phase VIII, held on Nov. 11-12, 2006.  Building concentrated on the completion of several buildings that were partially done either during the last Phase or in the interim at The LEGO Company in Enfield, CT.  Building focused on completion of the old Courthouse, the Cigar Factory, more canal buildings, an entrance to the Millyard where workers would enter and leave from, various rides and amusements for the Pine Island Park, machinery for the Jefferson Building (done as a cut-out to see the inside of one of the mills), and lots of carriages and horse drawn wagons.

The Millyard exhibit, a scale replica of the mill buildings along the Merrimack River and adjacent parts of Manchester, NH around 1900, is a 22’x95’ permanent display built entirely out of LEGO bricks.  “The Deck”, as the exhibit where the LEGO buildings are placed is called, has come a long way since we first began working on this project over 2 years ago.  Most of the space on the deck now has something on it, and with the trains running and it fully painted we are ready for a final surge of activity to complete the project.  Two new additions to the exhibit are a platform where visitors can get up higher to get a better view of the display, and a wide screen TV to see the camera display from the train as it travels through the Millyard.  All of this is in preparation for the official dedication on Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2006.  We’re almost done, but we have so much left to do!

By invitation of the Middlebury, Vermont Chamber of Commerce, NELUG put on a great show July 22nd and 23rd at Vermont Brick Blast 2006.

View the event gallery here.

NELUG members from all over converged on Middlebury, Vermont for the town's first Vermont Brick Blast event.

Despite rainy weather, the spirit of the crowd visiting Vermont Brick Blast 2006 was not dampened. Children and adults of all ages came in waves to marvel at the creations of NELUG members, as well as to participate in BrikWars games, robotics demonstrations, and building and MOC contests sponsored by the Middlebury Chamber of Commerce.

Brick Blast 2006 gave the club a chance to totally let loose, with an expanded train layout, a moonbase layout, MOCs of all shapes and sizes, as well as a work-in-progress automated model of a working quarry.

MOCs on display by NELUG ranged from the well-detailed Jabberwocky by Jason Wolfson, to the club's beautifully done giant mosaic of the Boston skyline.

As usual, the train layout was a big hit, with a nicely done residential area at one end, leading up to the towering buildings of the city on the other end. In between the two was a newly added river section, with several types of bridges spanning the water, allowing both rail and automotive traffic to cross. Adjacent to the city was a busy, work-filled rail yard, with trains of many shapes, sizes, and eras filling the sidings. Running the length of the layout, with the city in the background, was NELUG's famous carnival section, filled with spinning, twirling, and tilting rides that lit up the eyes of visitors young and old. Traffic between the carnival and the city was handled by monorail, which in addition to the layout's four independent train loops, provided transportation to minifigs far and wide.

The Millyard Phase III, went off without a hitch! Read more to see a couple of pictures and to watch time lapse photography of the building sessions.