LEGO Convention Comes to Silicon Valley

Go ahead, LEGOLAND, be jealous

Silicon Valley is known for its computer science brains and technology but this weekend, it's playing host to another, lower tech kind of engineering convention.

Artists from around the globeare in Fremont this weekend for the first-ever Northern California LEGO convention, Bricks by the Bay, where grown-up are encouraged to show off their toys. The theme is "The Brick Artistic," and as the event's Web site explains, "It's a celebration of LEGO hobby and the brick as an artistic medium."

The final creations of these artists' hard work aren't your run-of-the-mill multi-colored block houses and unrecognizable creations we built as kids. (OK, maybe that was just some of us). Structures scheduled for display include a 10-foot-long LEGO model of the Bay Bridge East Span and replicas of U.S. battleships and submarines.

Event organizers warn the artists that they can't guarantee the safety of the finished works or of the parts used to build the masterpieces. Safety ropes will surround the structures but curious kids will, no doubt, see them as playgrounds.

Tickets to display at the convention run $50. The works will be set up for a public exhibition on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tickets for that portion of the convention are $5.

Photo fromKarlong Chan, via Flickr

Jessica Greene still has a pillowcase full of LEGOs stashed somewhere at her parents' house.

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