Author: Lawrie George

  • BrickCan 2019

    BrickCan 2019

    BrickCan is a premier Lego fan event in Vancouver Canada, that I got the chance to attend this year and participate in the GBC layout.

    For this event, I got to participate in GBC Loop with my 9 Lego GBC Mini Golf modules and my Lego GBC Hoecken module along with 6 other builders with a total of 56 modules.

    Due to venue constraints, the event ran in 2-hour blocks with us putting on 3 shows a day over 2 days.

    There was a bunch of neat giveaways at the event including a limited edition Bobba Fet minifigure, loose brick, and merchandise from Brewski Boyz.

    I was lucky enough to win “Best GBC module” as well a beer bottle memento for my Lego GBC Mini Golf module.

    Video

    Video of the GBC Layout, shot by Great Ball Pit.

  • Syosset Library – Sycon Presents: Bricks Rock 2019

    Syosset Library – Sycon Presents: Bricks Rock 2019

    Syosset Library – Sycon Presents: Bricks Rock 2019 was a 2-day Lego fan event put on by Syosset Public Library and ILUGNY.

    My role as GBC Coordinator was running a 40ft display of GBC modules, that had a mix of my own GBC modules and LUG built modules.

    The LUG also had a massive train layout, lots of great MOCS, and ran speed building competitions throughout the weekend, you can read more about that here ilugny.org/2019/05/02/sy-con-presents-bricks-rock-2019-recap/.

    The Table Layout was a “Square” shape consisting of eight 60×30″ tables and one 30×30″ table, with my Tower Crane acting as a bridge to complete the loop.

    The layout used 20 Train controllers, 24 Lego GBC Fence sections as well as most of my other Lego GBC Equipment.

    We also ran a “Kids GBC” area with a table lowered to just 12″ off the ground, so that younger children could see the modules better.

    All the modules in the “Kids” area were required to have Instructions available and many other modules had them as well.

    Video

    Video of the GBC Layout.

  • Lego GBC Brickworld Ball Pump in Red and Blue and UV Adapter

    Lego GBC Brickworld Ball Pump in Red and Blue and UV Adapter

    Lego GBC Brickworld Ball Pump is a reliable ball pump module designed by Brian Alano.

    I have blue and red builds of this module and use them regularly at shows due to their reliability.

    The module is highly extensible and I use variations of it in several of my other modules.

    Night Lighting

    The modules are setup for night running as well.

    They use my custom Lego UV/Led lights, with the UV shining on the balls and the Lego light passing through a trans-green/yellow brick to color the module.

    Videos

    Videos of these modules in operation.

    Modules

    Builds and revisions to this module

    Original

    Pieces Cost Difficulty
    300+ $$ Medium

    This module was designed by Brian Alano.

    The instructions can be found at http://www.greatballcontraption.com/wiki/GBC_Ball_Pump.

    Parts List (Bricklink XML): BW-Ball-Pump_v1.xml

    My Variations

    Pieces Cost Difficulty
    300+ each $$ Medium

    Minor changes.

    • Changed color.
    • Changed output ramp.
    Pieces Cost Difficulty
    350+ $$ Medium

    Lego GBC Lapras themed version.

    UV Soak Adapater

    Pieces Cost Difficulty
    40+ $ Easy

    An adapter for night running GBC where you need to charge balls using UV light.

    This adapter sits directly on any Brickworld ball pump and will charge a ball for 3 seconds before moving it to the next module.

    BrickWorld Ball Pump UV LED Adapter Instructions.

    See link for more information on night lighting Night Lighting.

  • Lego GBC Balls Comparison

    Lego GBC Balls Comparison

    Lego GBC Balls are a quintessential part of Lego Great Ball Contraption, without them, it would just be a bunch of strange contraptions.

    As such I’ve recently done a comparison of Lego, non-Lego and UV balls and written my results up on the GBC Balls page.

  • Maker Faire NY 2019

    Maker Faire NY 2019

    ILUGNY joined over 750 other makers this past weekend at New York Maker Faire.

    I took a smaller 20ft GBC layout, once again using my Lego GBC EV3 Truck to complete the loop.

    The Table Layout was an “L” shape and due to the tables only being 2ft deep my Lego GBC Super Tower Battle could only fit on the corner. The shooter was surrounded with other smaller modules to add some mechanism variety to the show. This show also had no Stanchions which resulted in the modules getting pushed back a lot by over-eager arms.
    Still, it was a fun event and loads of people enjoyed our layout.

    Here is ILUGNY’s recap of the event https://www.ilugny.org/2018/09/26/maker-faire-2018-recap/