The presence of the Saskatchewan Lego Users Group (SLUG) has been growing in the Energy City. The province-wide group hosted an exhibition displaying a number of unique, colourful creative displays, on Nov 26. The group held the event displaying its assorted projects at the Leisure Centre, with an event entitled Brickery, the first of its kind.
Brickery displayed the breadth of the kinds of creations that can be crafted from Lego bricks. Everything from scenes of the north pole and cityscapes to depictions of superheroes—such as the X-Men—pulled straight out of comic books were on display. Some of the displays put the Lego pieces involved to innovative uses, to create things that were often wacky and unorthodox. Many of the larger displays had striking animated portions, like flowing water crafted from blue Lego pieces.
The event featured creations by 12 members, three of whom reside in Estevan. The exhibits brought in a steady number of interested guests, young and old, to marvel at the creativity of SLUG’s members. Local members Jillian and Chris Ursu and Waylon Klix were pleased with the turnout, with over 375 guests visiting over the course of the day.
“There are a lot of people here saying, ‘This is so neat.’ Guests here span a number of ages, and everyone has things they like to build,” said Jillian. “There are varied builds here. Some take just 20 minutes to build, some take hours.”
Along with displays, there were also events for the entertainment of guests, such as a jousting-style event in which mounted Lego-characters were set up with miniature Lego-weapons to “charge” at one another, along a pair of electronic rails. Another popular event was the wacky racers, which entailed races of wheeled Lego creations down a ramp to see which ones would finish first—or finish intact.
While many of the projects on display were the work of individual members, some of the more intricate displays—such as the north pole scene, the city block scene and an enchanted fantasy scene depicting a magical forest—were the product of the collaboration of sometimes up to five members for one project.
Jillian Ursu noted there is a push within the group to utilize Lego to create more dioramas and mockups, rather than sticking rigidly to the rules and only using pieces in set, and strictly following instructions.
One member of the group who does just that with his projects is Jillian’s husband, Chris Ursu. Chris said that he began with SLUG on the recommendation of a friend from high school and university, Adam Dodge, one of his fellow founding members of the group.
Chris’ projects cover several areas of interest, with superhero-themed displays, and a nativity scene set in a Lego-crafted shoebox, an homage to the shoeboxes packed and donated in Operation Christmas Child, to vehicles and even miniature pump jacks reminiscent of the rural industrial scenes outside of Estevan.
“I really enjoy the Lego Marvel Super Heroes theme,” said Chris. “I wish that it had existed when I was a kid.”
He usually has several projects on the go at once, and noted that it’s difficult to measure exactly how long one project takes because of how busy he is on those projects, and the different size, style and level of detail that varies from project to project.
“My 1950s-era Chevrolet COE took me a few months, working on and off, while my pump jacks took a couple of days,” he noted.
“We want to start being more innovative with how we use pieces more often, pushing boundaries, thinking outside the box,” Jillian Urus said. “Some of our builders are more comfortable with that, building things like motorized snakes.”
Although a person needs to be 18 or over to be a member of SLUG, Jillian noted there are contests that encourage minors to build projects for prizes at their events, and that many of the contributions from the younger contestants are just as interesting to look at as the member projects on display.
Brickery was the next step SLUG started out displaying its works at the annual Kinettes Club Craft Carnival as a smaller display. Chris noted that there has been never before been an event the size of Brickery in the southeast. Because of that, he didn’t know what to expect last weekend. He noted that he considers last weekend’s show to be a similar success to other larger prior SLUG events in other parts of Saskatchewan.
“It was a natural progression for us (to create our own event). We needed more room,” said Chris. “We were a bit nervous about organizing an event ourselves, but the other members of SLUG are awesome and really came through.”
Moving forward, Chris said plans for Brickery 2017 are already in the works and that he already has two new projects on the go: a moon landing scene and a 1910 Locomobile Racer.
He added, “SLUG will be a part of the model railroad shows in Saskatoon, Moose Jaw, Regina, and Prince Albert throughout 2017, (as well as) Brickspo, in July at the Western Development Museum in Moose Jaw.”
