Need to do a better job of keeping this site updated. This build is from the LEGO Club Meeting back in April. It was a Pharaoh's Quest themed build, and Jesse built this cool car for his mummy hunter to drive around in, chasing down pesky bandaged wrapped trouble makers. I like that he kept it clean and simple on this one, and the style of car fits right in with the other Pharaoh's Quest vehicles.
There were no LEGO Club Meetings from November 2010-January 2011, most likely because LEGO Store needing to deal with the insane holiday season. The few times I went in there before X-Mas the store was absolutely packed. We missed registering for the February 2011 meeting, which I believe was World Racers themed, but we made sure not miss out on the March 2011 meeting which was all Star Wars.
I'm not sure why, but like the last Star Wars one, this was centered around building Bounty Hunter ships. Jesse wasted no time cranking out this ship out. A lot of his builds are usually based around a single color, especially gray for his Star Wars ships. This time he challenged himself, and used a mix of red, grey, and black bricks, complimented with a few dark green prefabbed pieces and decals, to come up with this cool looking ship.
It would be an understatement to say that Jesse and I were stoked to find out that this month's LEGO Club Meeting was Star Wars themed. And to think we almost missed out on it. The demand was greater than usual because of it being Star Wars related, and they were offering three meetings instead of the usual two.
I called in early October to book Jesse for one of them, and was told they were all full. I think the LEGO employee heard the disappointment in my voice, because she offered to add us on the final meeting. "Heck yes!", I said, sending imaginary bear hugs down the phone line. Once again the LEGO Store customer service shines through.
Last Saturday we headed down, arriving a few minutes late, to find the store packed full of kids already busy building away. Their task was to pick a Star Wars minifig, grab a cup of Star Wars bricks, and to build both a spaceship and base.
Jesse wasted no time getting busy. He opted not to use the Star Wars bricks they provided, and build his stealthy bounty hunter ship using mostly black bricks and tiles from the various buckets of LEGO they had throughout the store. Unfortunately the camera battery was dead, so I had to use my cell phone, and the picture quality isn't all that great. There were lots of other great ships and bases built by the kids. It's really cool to see the stuff they come up with in such a limited time.
One last note...the shirt this month was by far the best Club Meeting shirt yet. It has a picture of the LEGO Star Wars Hoth Wampa, with the text "Have You Seen Him?" underneath. I wish I could have gotten one.
Every month the LEGO Store has a LEGO Club Meeting. Kids 6-14 years old can attend on a Saturday morning for about an hour before the store opens.
Each month's LEGO Club Meeting is geared around one of the LEGO brands. The children are given LEGO pieces related to the chosen brand, and then asked to build a model of some sort. Once everyone is done building they discuss their models, and the models get put on display in the store for the remainder of the day.
The cost to attend is $25, and includes a t-shirt with a design centered around the month's theme, a bag of basic LEGO bricks, and some other bonuses like coupons, posters, and building tips.
As you can see from Jesse's shirt, and the model he built, September's theme was the recently released Hero Factory. He named his model "Tentacles".
After we were done at the LEGO Store we headed down into Chinook Mall's main foyer to help Dan the Master Builder construct the 8 foot tall LEGO Buzz Lightyear. Jesse wasted no time getting in on the action.
Buzz was getting close to completion. Dan was sitting up on a ladder working on finishing Buzz's upper torso. He had a smaller scale model of Buzz that he using as a reference for building the larger one, at a scale of 1:4. Each stud on the small model was equal to 4 studs on the large one).
Tables were set up in the building area, and each had a couple bins of a specific color of 2x4 bricks. In front of each bin was instructions as to what to build using the bricks in the bin, but I believe they were all basically the same thing: a 4x version of 2x4 brick. Once you were done building a brick you gave it Dan to work into the model.
Jesse and I had a go at building a bunch of bricks, and then I took a break to snap some pics of the other cool models they had set-up in the area including a large Woody, a cowgirl, a couple dioramas, and a great LEGO mosaic for the Calgary Stampede which was build by local AFOL Brickwares.
After building a bunch more bricks, we called it a day. Jesse came back the next day to take his cousins to the LEGO store, and to see the finished Buzz Lightyear. Unfortunately it was no where to be found. We're guessing they packed it up over night, perhaps to ship to be built again at another event. It was a bit of a bummer. I'm not sure why they wouldn't leave it up for a week or two so that the people that took part in building it could have a chance to see it completed.
Other than the disappointment over not getting to see the finished 8 foot tall Buzz Lightyear, I have to say that LEGO sure know how to throw a helluva Grand Opening Celebration. The LEGO Store is a great addition to Calgary, and we look forward to visiting over, and over, and over, and over...
Where does the time go? Two Sunday's ago, Jesse, Julie, and I headed down to Chinook Centre to take part in the last day of the Grand Opening Celebration of the Calgary LEGO Store.
The first 300 people to spend $35 at the LEGO Store on Sunday would receive a limited edition minifigure shirt. 300 seemed like a lot of shirts so we weren't in a mad rush to get there, and we arrived just as the doors were opening. We probably should have arrived a little earlier as there was a decent sized line and we ended up waiting an hour to get into the store.
The LEGO staff was on top of keeping us entertained while we waited. They handed out copies of the latest LEGO Club magazine, and one of the staff would go up and down the line asking LEGO trivia questions. Answer correctly and you would get a commemorative LEGO Duplo brick featuring Buzz Lightyear. Jesse had the answer to a few of his questions, but unfortunately wasn't loud enough to be heard over all the other people yelling out answers.
Finally our time came, and after yelling "LEGO!!!" at the top of our lungs we were allowed into the store. I gotta tell you, even though we had been to the LEGO Store in Seattle a couple years ago, it felt pretty awesome to walk into our very own store. I never thought in a million years we would get one so soon. The place was pretty packed. Jesse grabbed the Atlantis Deep Sea Striker, we each filled a couple of canisters full of bulk LEGO, and then waited in line to pay for our goods.
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Again the LEGO Store was on top of their game, asking customers waiting to pay if they would like to sign up for the LEGO VIP program. Each dollar spent will get you 1 LEGO VIP point. 100 points gets you $5 your next purchase. Of course we signed up. We also had a frequent buyer card from our trip to Seattle with over $100 accumulated on it, and we were a little worried that it would no longer be valid. There was nothing to fear though because the cashier kindly transferred the $100 spent to our new LEGO VIP account, earning us $5 our next purchase. And to top it off they through in one of the commemorative LEGO Duplo bricks that we missed out on earlier. Yeah haw! LEGO rules, and boy do they know how to throw a party.
Then it was off to help build the 8 foot tall LEGO Buzz Lightyear with Dan the Master Builder. But I'll save that story for next time.
