Hampton Roads LEGO User Group

Next Meeting:

18 MAY 1pm-3pm.

ODU Innovation Research Park #2 

1st floor conference room

4211 Monarch Way #116, Norfolk

We normally we meet on the 2nd Sunday of each month, but in May we make an exception for Mother's Day. Plan to be at the ODU location for the next few meetings.  The exterior door may be locked, so please knock or wave to us through the window and we'll let you in!

Also, please note that we have some members who have health concerns and vulnerabilities.  If you are sick, please consider wearing a mask or staying home this month.

Upcoming Events:

PLAYTIME: Toys and Art, 12 April – 23 August 2025, Charles H. Taylor Visual Arts Center, 4205 Victoria Boulevard, Hampton VA

BrickUniverse Raleigh, 28-29 June 2025, Raleigh Convention Center, 500 S Salisbury St Raleigh, NC

Recent Events:

In the last few months, our members supported:

BrickFair Fredericksburg 

Hampton ComiCon

Brick-by-Brick LEGO Shipbuilding with the Hampton Roads Naval Museum 

BrickUniverse Augusta County VA

Winter Village Display,  Hampton Public Library

"Traveling Bricks" exhibit at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture

Warbirds at the Beach at the Military Aviation Museum

Model Train Show at Chesapeake Central Library,

STEAM event at the Hampton Public Library

NBG Butterfly Festival, Honeybee Festival, and Mushroom Festival

Several members also hit the road for BrickUniverse in Raleigh and Richmond, and BrickRodeo in Texas.

Our City/Town collaborative build, Hardlug Hollow, made its final appearance at the big annual convention, BrickFair in Chantilly, Virginia, August 3rd and 4th along with lots of other cool builds from the club.  

See our photos on FaceBook.

BrickFair Fredericksburg 2024 was a resounding success, especially our introduction of Hardlug Hollow in all its bright, shining glory.  Thanks to everyone who contributed in this enormous city, airport, and railroad display, and with the utility work which went into making sure it had a functional power grid!

Here are some other things we've built recently:

Come meet us:

If you're interested in joining us, just come to one of our meetings.  (Details are at the top of this page.)

Membership in HaRdLUG is driven by participation.  We'd love to meet you!

What We've Done Lately:

HaRdLUG has been active in southeast Virginia since 2002, and are constantly displayed our creations at events and venues throughout the region and beyond!  Previously, our members supported:

• BrickFair Virginia in Chantilly and Fredericksburg

• BrickUniverse in Raleigh, Richmond, and Augusta County, Virginia

• Winter Village Display at  Hampton Public Library

• "Traveling Bricks" exhibit at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture in Rickmond

• Warbirds at the Beach at the Military Aviation Museum

• BrickFest Live in Hampton

• Model Train Show at Chesapeake Central Library

• STEAM event at Hampton Public Library

• BrickRodeo in Texas

• Garden of Tomorrow architectural models at Norfolk Botanical Garden

• Butterfly, Honeybee, and Mushroom Festivals at Norfolk Botanical Garden.

• Tidewater Comicon

• Celebration of the NASA Artemis mission at Norfolk's Slover Library.  With thx

• Brick-by-Brick LEGO Shipbuilding in partnership with Hampton Roads Naval Museum

• Virginia Zoo

• Norfolk Patriotic Festival

• Riverside Hospital

• Virginia Aquarium in Virginia Beach

• Army Transportation Museum in Yorktown

• Children's Museum of Virginia in Portsmouth

• Mariners Museum, Newport News

• Virginia Living Museum in Newport News

• Southside Harley Davidson, Virginia Beach

• Old Cape Henry Lighthouse

• Various Model Train Shows

• FantaSci in Chesapeake, and other celebrations of geekdom

See the latest sets, build a minifigure, or fill up a box of parts from the Pick-A-Brick wall at our local Lego Store at Virginia Beach Town Center. 

Also, our local used brick store, Brickin Bad, has recently expanded.  Check out their vintage sets and fill a bag at their bulk tables.

And a LEGO FACTORY is under construction near Richmond, VA!  Their Visitor Center (in the big yellow bricks) is now open at 1400 Meadowville Rd, Chester, VA

Want To Be A Better Builder?  

There are a lot of great ways to up your brick-building game.  The best one is to just start building.  The key to doing anything well is being willing do it poorly, over and over, until you get better.  Your first new creations you make might not look like some of the impressive builds you've seen online, but keep on building and you'll learn and get better each time. 

• Assembling official LEGO sets from instructions, especially the ones with higher age ranges on the box, is one great way to introduce yourself to building techniques and some of the new parts available.   

• Tips&Bricks is a prolific creator of infographics to share techniques from some of the latest creations by amazing builders throughout the AFOL community.

• Former LEGO set designer Tiago Catarino shares instructions and video tutorials for his creations (as well as doing set reviews and such on his YouTube channel).

• Jason Allemann makes LEGO move, in all sorts of ways.  And he has a website, JK Brickworks, full of instructions and videos.  He's also turned a couple of his ideas into official sets through LEGO Ideas.

• At Towering Brick Creations, Deepak Shenoy (Deep Shen) has several great articles on building techniques (and the math behind them, if you're into that sort of thing) that he uses in large architectural builds.  Also, he does some great mosaics.  Check out his Instagram feed, or read the feature on him at The Brothers Brick.

• Just want to know more about all things LEGO?  Read a LEGO fan media site like bricknerd.com, with hundreds of articles spanning a huge range of subjects.

• Tom Alperin wrote a book about LEGO and architecture, but he is probably known equally well in the community for freely sharing ideas (and labels) for LEGO organization.

• Come to a HaRdLUG meeting!  We love to share ideas.  If we aren't an expert in what you want to learn, we might know someone who is!

 "Do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are HaRd." - John F. Kennedy