Loveland BrickBuilder Expo – The First!

A Brick Expo in Loveland, Colorado! Certainly. With the enthusiasm of John Metcalf and a dozen CoWLUG members, behold the first annual BrickBuilder Expo. Held in conjunction with the NoCo Mini Maker Faire, now in its second year, the emphasis for all is on making things. For the LEGO part, team builds for the public are a huge highlight (below.)

Build Contest

For the AFOL among us, chatting about LEGO elements, colors and build techniques is on the agenda for the afternoon. (Imagine, Stefano & Ryan below.)

Color Discussions

And of course there has to be a gathering of creations for all to see and share. (Dan’s Steampunk Dragonfly & Mech Diorama below.)

Dan
Dan's Mechs

Newer members to CoWLUG, Doug (left) Joe (right) and Kieran (not pictured), collaborate on a fantastic build loaded with details. And cute goats! Joe is also the organizer for the event, connecting members to the Expo, making sure all activities run smoothly. Thanks Joe!

Doug & Joe
Doug, Joe & Keiran Collab

Closer details of Joe’s spaceships (below.)

Joe's Ships

Being in the same space as the NoCo Mini Maker Faire, makes for some great interaction – among mechs and droids, mechs and kids.

Droid in Love
Fans
Imagine's Table
Mech in Progress

That’s Imagine’s giant anime mech by the way, alongside his floating Bank of the Prophet from Bioshock Infinite (below.)

Maker Faire 2014

Speaking of the Maker Faire – there’s all that too! Giant robots breathing fire, human foosball, cardboard cities, air cannons, swords – did I mention giant robots?!

Displays cover all themes, as shown by Collin’s Star Wars mash up (below.)

Eric
Jake

Jake covered dungeon/castle, island & spaceship themes (below.)
Jeff always does some amazing things with Bionicle (below.)

Jeff's Bionicle
Jim's Park
John's Micro Loveland
Lego Movie Sub & Ryan's Work

Jim’s button pushing crazy carnival rides are a super hit with all ages and do not dissapoint.
John, the Brickbuilder instigator and new CoWLUG member, presents Loveland in micro scale. It’s a lovely tribute to the town of the same name.
The LEGO Movie submarine, executed in brick by Imagine, is a hit among new LEGO fans, and sidles up along Ryan’s Tardis (which does NOT open) and spaceships of the real and imagined sort.

Ryan's Store & Ships

There’s a record store by Ryan (which you should go support on LEGO Ideas if you haven’t already,) Modulex built items (also LEGO if you didn’t know,) and headphones entirely out of LEGO – all built by Ryan too!

Ryan's Color Chart

Reference materials? You say you want a chart of LEGO colors? Well we have that too! Or at least Ryan does. If you can’t see it in person, check out his Brick Colorstream Flickr page for the most excellent and up to date reference on LEGO colors.
What? No trains? Of course not! Where there is LEGO, there are bound to be trains somewhere. Stefanos has his modern train station running a train provided by another newer member, Chris (below.) I might also add that if you scroll back up to Jeff’s Bionicle, you will see a very clever Bionicle train too. Did you miss it? Well, go back up and look.

Stefanos & Christopher Station & Train