zondag 26 juni 2016
vrijdag 24 juni 2016
BeLUG AFOL Billund Trip 2016
Well, we are back from Billund and the trip to Legoland and the accomodations of Lego, so it`s time to have some short words about a fantastic journey.
I deliberatly postponed this a few days, as that way I could gather together the albums of people that had joined the journey. If you do have more pictures and albums that aren`t on this post yet, please drop me a line and I`ll edit them in.
The trip took place from saturday the 18th of june until tuesday the 21st, and 40 members of BeLUG had accumulated enough "points" to join in.
Maybe a bit of information on these points, a system we used to shift through the inscriptions as places were limited. There were 126 people wanting to join, and only 40 spots, so we looked at the level of `club dedication` over the years 2014 and 2015. Participating in Brick Mania`s (either as an exposer, volunteer or whotnot`s) would get you points, and helping out on the events where we participated as a club delegation (FACTS, Brick Tricks, ...) did as well, though at a lower rate.
If any spots would be left open, the "0 points" spots would be filled in by inscribers by sequence of their membership number, so those longest with the club would go first. And we had three such lucky people in the group :-).
So yes, feel free to volunteer on Brick Mania`s even if you don`t expose, before you now it, those few 'shifts' helping out at the entrance or selling the drinking tickets might end you up on a bus to Denmark... after all, all the volunteers that had inscribed, had a spot!
But back to the journey itself. The trip was a lengthy one, taking the better part of a day to get to (and fro) Billund from Belgium at over 800 km, and taking us along four countries (Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany and Denmark).
Nearly this went very sour, as one member had forgotten his ID card at home, and even though the Shengen accords are still in place, Denmark had reinstated the border controls because of the refugee crisis. Luckily, we didn`t have to leave him at the border and with half an hour delay we continued our journey.
After a lengthy ride, we arrived at the Lalandia resort, right next to Legoland, where we stayed in the bungalow parc, and where those that wanted could go swimming in a very impressive waterslide aquaparc.
After dinner, it was time to turn in as on the sunday, Legoland was on the menu.
Built around the Miniland, which is mainly (but not only) focussed on Scandinavia, the parc is full of themed rides. Now, don`t expect gravity defying monster rides here, it`s a parc aimed at children. But that doesn`t mean that people wouldn`t be having a blast feeling young again!
It`s also pretty nice that builds and play area`s for the children are scattered all around the attraction lines for queuing.
That evening we enjoyed another great meal, and then came the activity, The Dirty Brickster. This time we went for a "Deluxe" edition (presents at a value of around 20 - 25 euro, instead of the usual 15 - 20 mark) in the hopes to get some more rarer items into the game, and the rules states no Thank You gifts from recent Brick Mania`s, nor any of the just released City sets, things which are always present in abundance.
The idea of a Dirty Brickster is that everyone walks home with some nice little thingy and feel happy about it, something that was achieved for 95% of the people present.
However, in name of the board I can say we are disappointed that some members didn't follow these ideas. For instance, we had a Jack Stone set in one of the presents, which was used (taped shut box, elements in clipbags, and according to the "winner" even lacked the minifigures), going on BrickLink in that condition for a measly 5 euro. The same goes for some gifts obviously bought in the parc a few hours before, as a Legoland Train was in one parcel, and a baking form (which was under the agreed value) in the other.
We didn't want to start a witch hunt during our stay (to avoid spoiling the mood), but in the future the Dirty Brickster rules will be changed to avoid these situations.
But let`s not dwindle on that to much, because there where a lot of awesome prices in the contest, including a Nanobloks Santa Claus (okay, so that was a joke item attached to a gift full of excellent polybags ;-) ) or a lunchbox filled with Mannschaft figures. Even one of those cool Heroica games made an appearance!
After the game, it was time for bed again, because on monday the special part of the trip was on the menu: visits to the P-Storren (the employee store, where big discounts are handed out. I for one got a Hobbit Dol Guldur Battle set there for 25 euro, and all other sets currently in their range have -50% on them), Billund Moulding Factory, The Lego Ideas House and a presentation about the Lego House project, due to open in autumn 2017.
Now, in those first two, it is not allowed to take pictures, but you can imagine what happened there. As this picture outside shows:
Also check out our club`s Facebook page here, there is a movie of the group coming out with the bags.
After these we got a lunch in Billund itself, and then we moved on to the second part of the day, the Lego Ideas House and the presentation.
The Ideas house, or Lego museum, features the legendary Memory Lane where every set ever made (or almost, the collection isn`t totally complete) is still stocked in box.
The museum itself is filled with old and new sets, has promotional television movies running all the time, and even features pre-Lego toys. Housed in the old house of the Lego founder itself, this is really magnificent sight to behold.
The final part of the tour was a Presentation about the Lego House they are building, explaining the goals, the idea behind the project and the way forward for what is to become known as "The Home of the Brick".
This project is something really great looking, and something I definitly will want to visit in the future.
That evening, we got another excellent dinner (Panos and his team at Pepe`s Cantina did a fantastic job) of beef and then the final event of the trip was to take place.
A 'build the Batman scuba set with one hand' game, which was won by Stefan!
And then it was time for bed because the day after, the return to Belgium was on the menu... as well as another excellent breakfast.
Leaving at 8 in the morning, we all got home between 20.00 and 22.00 depending where you needed to get off, but not without Eric first showing us some magic tricks during one of the bus stops.
A truly fantastic experience, and I want to thank the organisers once again for putting it all together, LEGO for inviting our RLUG, and the group, for being all friendly to each other, guaranteeing we all had a great time!
Also thanks to Mijn Blokje for making the special Event Brick for this trip!
Special thanks have to go to Stefaan Naessens, who organised and guided the whole trip, making sure everything went as smoothly as it could, and to the team of Brick Planet, Eric De Bachere and Steven Apers for joining us with their van, so that all the Lego sets safely arrived from Billund to Belgium.
Now, as you might have noticed, this report isn`t to picture heavy. And that is deliberate, because we have a LOT of picture material to show you, and while I have been picking out some from different participants collections, here they all are:
Some members pooled their pictures together on this Google Drive
People also shared albums on Facebook (apart from the group I linked to before in this report), namely Yuthana, Jean-Michel, and Dennis.
And my own pictures and personal views are on my own personal blog page.
Hope you all enjoyed this little recollection of what was a fantastic trip, and hopefully more of these sorts of things will follow in the future!
Leg Godt!
I deliberatly postponed this a few days, as that way I could gather together the albums of people that had joined the journey. If you do have more pictures and albums that aren`t on this post yet, please drop me a line and I`ll edit them in.
The trip took place from saturday the 18th of june until tuesday the 21st, and 40 members of BeLUG had accumulated enough "points" to join in.
Maybe a bit of information on these points, a system we used to shift through the inscriptions as places were limited. There were 126 people wanting to join, and only 40 spots, so we looked at the level of `club dedication` over the years 2014 and 2015. Participating in Brick Mania`s (either as an exposer, volunteer or whotnot`s) would get you points, and helping out on the events where we participated as a club delegation (FACTS, Brick Tricks, ...) did as well, though at a lower rate.
If any spots would be left open, the "0 points" spots would be filled in by inscribers by sequence of their membership number, so those longest with the club would go first. And we had three such lucky people in the group :-).
So yes, feel free to volunteer on Brick Mania`s even if you don`t expose, before you now it, those few 'shifts' helping out at the entrance or selling the drinking tickets might end you up on a bus to Denmark... after all, all the volunteers that had inscribed, had a spot!
But back to the journey itself. The trip was a lengthy one, taking the better part of a day to get to (and fro) Billund from Belgium at over 800 km, and taking us along four countries (Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany and Denmark).
Nearly this went very sour, as one member had forgotten his ID card at home, and even though the Shengen accords are still in place, Denmark had reinstated the border controls because of the refugee crisis. Luckily, we didn`t have to leave him at the border and with half an hour delay we continued our journey.
After a lengthy ride, we arrived at the Lalandia resort, right next to Legoland, where we stayed in the bungalow parc, and where those that wanted could go swimming in a very impressive waterslide aquaparc.
After dinner, it was time to turn in as on the sunday, Legoland was on the menu.
Built around the Miniland, which is mainly (but not only) focussed on Scandinavia, the parc is full of themed rides. Now, don`t expect gravity defying monster rides here, it`s a parc aimed at children. But that doesn`t mean that people wouldn`t be having a blast feeling young again!
It`s also pretty nice that builds and play area`s for the children are scattered all around the attraction lines for queuing.
That evening we enjoyed another great meal, and then came the activity, The Dirty Brickster. This time we went for a "Deluxe" edition (presents at a value of around 20 - 25 euro, instead of the usual 15 - 20 mark) in the hopes to get some more rarer items into the game, and the rules states no Thank You gifts from recent Brick Mania`s, nor any of the just released City sets, things which are always present in abundance.
The idea of a Dirty Brickster is that everyone walks home with some nice little thingy and feel happy about it, something that was achieved for 95% of the people present.
However, in name of the board I can say we are disappointed that some members didn't follow these ideas. For instance, we had a Jack Stone set in one of the presents, which was used (taped shut box, elements in clipbags, and according to the "winner" even lacked the minifigures), going on BrickLink in that condition for a measly 5 euro. The same goes for some gifts obviously bought in the parc a few hours before, as a Legoland Train was in one parcel, and a baking form (which was under the agreed value) in the other.
We didn't want to start a witch hunt during our stay (to avoid spoiling the mood), but in the future the Dirty Brickster rules will be changed to avoid these situations.
But let`s not dwindle on that to much, because there where a lot of awesome prices in the contest, including a Nanobloks Santa Claus (okay, so that was a joke item attached to a gift full of excellent polybags ;-) ) or a lunchbox filled with Mannschaft figures. Even one of those cool Heroica games made an appearance!
After the game, it was time for bed again, because on monday the special part of the trip was on the menu: visits to the P-Storren (the employee store, where big discounts are handed out. I for one got a Hobbit Dol Guldur Battle set there for 25 euro, and all other sets currently in their range have -50% on them), Billund Moulding Factory, The Lego Ideas House and a presentation about the Lego House project, due to open in autumn 2017.
Now, in those first two, it is not allowed to take pictures, but you can imagine what happened there. As this picture outside shows:
Also check out our club`s Facebook page here, there is a movie of the group coming out with the bags.
After these we got a lunch in Billund itself, and then we moved on to the second part of the day, the Lego Ideas House and the presentation.
The final part of the tour was a Presentation about the Lego House they are building, explaining the goals, the idea behind the project and the way forward for what is to become known as "The Home of the Brick".
This project is something really great looking, and something I definitly will want to visit in the future.
That evening, we got another excellent dinner (Panos and his team at Pepe`s Cantina did a fantastic job) of beef and then the final event of the trip was to take place.
A 'build the Batman scuba set with one hand' game, which was won by Stefan!
And then it was time for bed because the day after, the return to Belgium was on the menu... as well as another excellent breakfast.
A truly fantastic experience, and I want to thank the organisers once again for putting it all together, LEGO for inviting our RLUG, and the group, for being all friendly to each other, guaranteeing we all had a great time!
Also thanks to Mijn Blokje for making the special Event Brick for this trip!
Special thanks have to go to Stefaan Naessens, who organised and guided the whole trip, making sure everything went as smoothly as it could, and to the team of Brick Planet, Eric De Bachere and Steven Apers for joining us with their van, so that all the Lego sets safely arrived from Billund to Belgium.
Now, as you might have noticed, this report isn`t to picture heavy. And that is deliberate, because we have a LOT of picture material to show you, and while I have been picking out some from different participants collections, here they all are:
Some members pooled their pictures together on this Google Drive
People also shared albums on Facebook (apart from the group I linked to before in this report), namely Yuthana, Jean-Michel, and Dennis.
And my own pictures and personal views are on my own personal blog page.
Hope you all enjoyed this little recollection of what was a fantastic trip, and hopefully more of these sorts of things will follow in the future!
Leg Godt!
dinsdag 7 juni 2016
vrijdag 3 juni 2016
BeLUG lid # 440 Inge Engelen & # 418 Wilfried Gubbels
Vandaag in Meet BeLUG een specialleke, met name het
allereerste dubbel interview met een LEGO bouwend koppel.
Today in
Meet BeLUG a bit of a special case, in that we have the first couple`s
interview with a pair of LEGO builders.
En wie mag dat koppel dan wel
zijn? We laten het hen zelf vertellen...
And who
may that couple be? We let them tell
themselves...
Wilfried Gubbels, Synbiote, lidnummer 418 & Inge Engelen, Isendra, lidnummer 440 (ja..ze heeft het niet lang kunnen weerstaan aan de microbes!)
Ik ben lid geworden op een Brick Mania Wetteren 2012 en Inge volgde op Brick Mania Berchem van 't zelfde jaar.
Enkele jaren geleden gelukkig getrouwd met elkaar en met LEGO blokjes!
Wilfried Gubbels, Synbiote, lidnummer 418 & Inge Engelen, Isendra, lidnummer 440 (ja..ze heeft het niet lang kunnen weerstaan aan de microbes!)
Ik ben lid geworden op een Brick Mania Wetteren 2012 en Inge volgde op Brick Mania Berchem van 't zelfde jaar.
Enkele jaren geleden gelukkig getrouwd met elkaar en met LEGO blokjes!
Wilfried
Gubbels, Synbiote, member number 418 & Inge Engelen, Isendra, member number
440 (yes... she hasn`t managed to resist the microbe for long!)
I became a member at Brick Mania Wetteren 2012 and Inge followed at Brick Mania Berchem of the same year.
And since a couple of years we are happily married with each other and LEGO bricks!
Wat is jullie interesse in Lego?
Wat is jullie interesse in Lego?
What are
your intrests in Lego?
Wij verzamelen de modulaire huizen en veelal seizoensgebonden setjes. De Winter Village moet er ook weer elkaar jaar bijkomen.
Wij zijn ook wel echter MOC'ers, want voor de winter village moeten we er elk jaar weer wel iets bij verzinnen.
Maar wat we echt het tofste vinden, is het samen zijn met de andere Leden.
En ja .. als LUG Ambassador zijnde, steekt Wilfried ook hier heel veel tijd in.
We
collect the Modular Buildings and mostly the season bound sets. The Winter Village is a certain addition every
year again.
We both
are true MOC'cers, because for the winter village we have to come up with
something new each year.
But what
we both like the most, is being together with the other members.
And yes,
being LUG Ambassador, this is something Wilfried invests a lot of time into.
Wat zijn jullie favoriete thema`s geweest over de jaren heen?
Wat zijn jullie favoriete thema`s geweest over de jaren heen?
What
have been your favorite theme`s across the years?
Ik ben vooral gevallen voor Star Wars,
maar uit de periode voor men donkeren jaren was het vooral Castle en
Kingdoms... En dat is blijven hangen natuurlijk. Ook kijk ik graag naar
manieren om LEGO te laten bewegen in mijn layouts.(ook al lukt dat niet zo
veel). Star wars heb ik echter met de loop van de jaren opgegeven :).. je kan
niet alles blijven volgen :D
Werkjes van mij kon je al zien als onderdeel van de piraten & castle layouts op verschillende BM's. (Brick Mania's).
Werkjes van mij kon je al zien als onderdeel van de piraten & castle layouts op verschillende BM's. (Brick Mania's).
I fell
for Star Wars mainly, but the period before my dark ages it was mostly Castle
and Kingdoms... And that has stuck of course.
I also love to look at ways to make LEGO move within my layouts (though
not always succesful). I gave that up
for Star Wars though as time goes by, you can`t follow it all :D
Inge is vooral geintereseerd in Technic & alles wat met Disney te maken heeft. Vaak komt er wel een Elves setje bij voor de leuke kleurrijke stukjes.
Ze is nu bezig met het MOC'en in Miniland schaal, en weldra..als ons huis af is...dan zal die ook wel eens als MOC verschijnen.
Inge is vooral geintereseerd in Technic & alles wat met Disney te maken heeft. Vaak komt er wel een Elves setje bij voor de leuke kleurrijke stukjes.
Ze is nu bezig met het MOC'en in Miniland schaal, en weldra..als ons huis af is...dan zal die ook wel eens als MOC verschijnen.
Inge is
mostly intrested in Technic and everything that has to do with Disney. Often an Elves set is bought for the fun and
colourful elements.
At
current, she is busy working on MOC's in Miniland scale, and soon... when our
house is finished... that will appear as a MOC as well.
Heb je recentelijk nog toffe dingen aangeschaft?
Heb je recentelijk nog toffe dingen aangeschaft?
Did you buy nice things in recent times?
De laatste tijd, sinds we aan het verbouwen zijn, komen er wel enkele niet te missen sets bij..die dan weer in een andere doos verdwijnen op zolder :(.. Dus eerlijk gezegd weten we al niet meer wat we recentelijk allemaal aangeschaft hebben.
Maar de scooby doo sets zijn voor mij wel een tof thema geweest. Voor Inge zal het wel een Technic setje zijn geweest (ik gok de Volvo)
De laatste tijd, sinds we aan het verbouwen zijn, komen er wel enkele niet te missen sets bij..die dan weer in een andere doos verdwijnen op zolder :(.. Dus eerlijk gezegd weten we al niet meer wat we recentelijk allemaal aangeschaft hebben.
Maar de scooby doo sets zijn voor mij wel een tof thema geweest. Voor Inge zal het wel een Technic setje zijn geweest (ik gok de Volvo)
Recently,
as we are renovating, we only purchase the `not to miss out on` sets... who
then disappear in a box on the addic :( ... son honestly we can`t say what we
purchased in recent times.
But the
Scooby Doo sets have been a cool theme for me.
I guess with Inge it`ll be a technic set (I think the Volvo).
Waar ben je uitzonderlijk trots op in jullie collectie?
Waar ben je uitzonderlijk trots op in jullie collectie?
Is there
something you're exceptionally proud off in your collections?
Dat ik een 41999 op de kop heb kunnen tikken... Maar eerlijk gezegd, er wordt zoveel gebruikt om MOCs mee te maken, dat er bijna geen set meer heel is.
That I
could get a 41999... but honestly, so much is used to create MOC's that barely
any set is still whole.
Hebben jullie een `Holy Grail` set, en zo ja de welke?
Hebben jullie een `Holy Grail` set, en zo ja de welke?
Do you
have a 'Holy Grail' set, and if so, which one?
Alles wat van de Forest Men of de Wolf Pack zijn voor mij
sets die ik toen ik jong was al graag had willen hebben..maar helaas was ik
toen te jong.
Everything
of the Forest Men and the Wolf Pack are for me sets that I wanted when I was
young... but unfortunatly I was to young back then.
Inge is zo lang nog niet met LEGO bezig.. dus heeft ze er stiekem nog gene..ze kijkt altijd wel naar wat er te komen staat.. en der staat al een aardig verlanglijstje klaar... Minifigures van Disney, en natuurlijk ook het gerucht van een nieuw Disney-kasteel laat haar niet los.
Inge
hasn`t been so long into LEGO... so covertly she doesn`t have one yet... but
she keeps looking to what is about to come out... resulting in a serious
wishlist... Minifigures from Disney, and of course the rumours of the new
Disney Castle keeps her on her toes.
Wat zijn eventuele bouw- of verzamelplannen voor de nabije en verre toekomst?
Wat zijn eventuele bouw- of verzamelplannen voor de nabije en verre toekomst?
Do you
have any build- or collecting goals for the near and far future?
Verder uitbreiden van ons park in
Miniland Scale en ons huisje op schaal nabouwen. Er zullen zich nog wel wat
mogelijkheden voordoen voor iets anders. (zoveel dingen die je wilt bouwen,
maar geen tijd voor hebt).
Keep
expanding our park in Miniland Scale and build our house in scale. I don`t doubt other things will come along as
well (so many things you want to build, but don`t have the time for).
Wat waren jullie eerste Lego sets?
Wat waren jullie eerste Lego sets?
What
where your first Lego sets?
Voor mij moet dit 6086: Black Knight's
Castle zijn. Inge?
Inge: ik denk dat dit de technic set 9398 4x4 Crawler moet zijn
Inge: ik denk dat dit de technic set 9398 4x4 Crawler moet zijn
For me
that must have been the 6086: Black Knight`s Castle. Inge?
Inge: I
think it must have been Technic set 9398 4x4 Crawler.
Heb je een "Dark Ages" gekend en hoe ben je eruit gekomen?
Heb je een "Dark Ages" gekend en hoe ben je eruit gekomen?
Did you
have a Dark Ages and how did you get out of it?
Ja, voor mij hebben deze gelopen tijdens mijn middelbare
schooljaren, gelukkig heeft Inge mij eruit gehaald door de ARC-170 Fighter
(7259) te kopen voor men verjaardag..daarna was er geen houden meer aan.
Yes,
for me those have taken place during my highschool years, luckily it was Inge
who got me out of them by buying the ARC-170 Fighter (7259) for my birthday... after
that, it was no holds barred.
Inge: echte dark ages heb ik niet gehad, toen ik klein was speelde/ "pikte" ik de steentjes van mn broer om er huisjes mee te bouwen en liefst ze groot mogelijk. Maar zelf kreeg ik nooit LEGO als kind. De typische meisjes dingen bv Barbie en poppen waren toen hetgeen waar je mee speelde als meisje. Eerlijk gezegd heeft Wilfried mij meegesleurd in zijn hobby. Een keer samen 's avonds een set gebouwd, moet denk ik de Modular 10224 'Town Hall' geweest zijn in aanloop van onze trouw. (Of de 10218 Pet Shop). De lego-steentjes zijn sindsdien niet meer uit ons huis verdwenen.
Inge: I
never had any real dark ages, when i was little I played / "borrowed"
the bricks from my brother to build houses with them, as large as possible. But I never received Lego myself as a
child. the typical girly things like
Barbie and dolls where then the things you had to play with as a little girl. Honestly, Wilfried dragged me along into his
hobby. One time, we spend an evening
building a set together, I think it was the Modular 10224 "Town Hall"
in the run up to our marriage (or the 10218 Pet Shop). The Lego bricks haven`t disappeared from our
house since then.
Hartelijk bedankt Inge en Wilfried, en veel plezier met de verbouwingen!
Thank you very much Inge and Wilfried, and good
luck with the renovations!Hartelijk bedankt Inge en Wilfried, en veel plezier met de verbouwingen!
woensdag 1 juni 2016
Additional Pictures of Brick Mania Liege 2016
A few days have past now since the convention, and our members have been posting links to their picture albums of our most recent Brick Mania.
For easyness sake, here they all are, so make sure to drop by and enjoy the eye candy!
Raccoontof Facebook album
Bart Moortgat Facebook album
Philippe Goessens GoogleFoto`s
Denis Gillard Flickr album
Christophe Hennes Facebook album
Draven Arrow Facebook album
And my own convention report on this little corner of the internet.
If you know of some more, just let me know and it will be added to the list :-)
Cheerios
The Social Media bloke
For easyness sake, here they all are, so make sure to drop by and enjoy the eye candy!
Raccoontof Facebook album
Bart Moortgat Facebook album
Philippe Goessens GoogleFoto`s
Denis Gillard Flickr album
Christophe Hennes Facebook album
Draven Arrow Facebook album
And my own convention report on this little corner of the internet.
If you know of some more, just let me know and it will be added to the list :-)
Cheerios
The Social Media bloke
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