Research Lab

The Research Lab was inspired by two things.  First, my old workplace in Fargo where we design and manufacture electronic components, and second, putting all small spaceship models from Star Wars Advent Calendars to use.  So I thought to put the two together and make a place where they build drones.

Lots happening at the Research Lab today

Yes, evil, horrible drones.  They weren't going to be used to kill people or fire missiles.  Not for government intrusion or Amazon package delivery either.  The hope was that the drones would supplement the Space program.  They aren't all drones, necessarily.  Some of them will be used as satellites to orbit the world or possibly even other planets in the solar system.

But as I developed the lab, Space kinda fell by the wayside.  It's not my fault.  I've got Ice Planet 2002, Blacktron, M-Tron, Space Police,.and a few other sets from Space series that I just don't know what to do with.  I consider my Lego town is contemporary, not futuristic (despite the medieval knights and the pirates).  I'm not planning to get a modern space program either.  Either way, it becomes a question of what to do with them and where to put them.

The hardware engineer (left) and mechanical engineer (right) working on more designs

A software engineer writing code for the robots

I bought Star Wars Advent Calendars for myself to get the minifigures.  Chewy, Yoda, Han, R2 units...  I needed something to do with the mini ship models, so why not build a lab around that?

A large assortment of  the bigger drones/satellites

A big pile of the smaller drones.  Some assembly required

Well, I bought too many.  There's only enough room for four workbenches, as they'll need room to move drones in and out of the lab.  I considered building a warehouse next door, but even that wouldn't give us enough room to store everything.

Oh well, it's a good problem to have, I suppose.  Better for all the engineers and technicians to have a glut of work as opposed to not enough.

Technicians working on making adjustments on the equipment, while Tony and a mechanic discuss adjustments.

A droid lubricating a drone, and a businessman checking on the progress of one of the satellites 

One fun thing I experienced was trying to assemble an assortment of tools for everyone to use in the lab.  Wrenches, hammers, welding torches, binoculars, brooms, crowbars.  I think the lab is using more tools that any other location in town.  I've got enough for one full pegboard to store tools, and the second one in progress.  Another influence from working from Deere.  A place for everything, and everything has its place.  5S for the win.

Tools used at the research lab

Plenty of computer components for testing and monitoring the new drones for performance metrics.

Droids and people working in the lab

Sets used: 4347, 5762, 6910, 7958, 8028, 8805, 8831, 8833, 9348, 9490, 9509, 9675, 9676, 9677, 9678, 9679, 30053, 30057, 30167, 30241, 30244, 30300, 31001, 31013, 40049, 71002, 71004, 75006

IKEA Furniture

When I moved to the Twin Cities, I needed some new furniture for my apartment,  Stuff that would work great for building and displaying my Lego's.  So, I went to the adult (not Adult, you sicko) Lego store, better know as IKEA.  I found three great pieces to help me out, and I'd like to talk some more about them here.

HEMNES Coffee Table

I never had a coffee table growing up.  I would always sit on the floor to put my Lego's together.  I'm not as young as I used to be.  Sitting on the floor for a good 15-20 minutes can cause my portions of my leg to fall asleep.  With a coffee table, I can raise my building surface to knee level and sit on the couch (though, I still sit on the floor when I'm at the coffee table)

Counting my medium stone gray 2x4 bricks

My coffee table is pretty cluttered up with junk and stuff, but I can always manage to clear enough room to dump out all the pieces to the set I'm working on.  I never bother sorting them, so it can take me a bit longer for assembly.  I don't really have anywhere to be, so it'd nice when I can take my time.

My completed Racing Garage (left) and Christmas 2013 haul (right)

When I first started taking pictures of my Lego's for my blog and social media profiles (Facebook/Twitter/Tumblr), I'd set them up on the coffee table.  My wife has taught me a little about photography, especially to post things on blogs, so I go to the dining table now.  But my trusty HEMNES coffee table will always be there for me to put everything together before the photo shoots.

EXPEDIT Shelving Unit

Items on top of my EXPEDIT shelf

The EXPEDIT shelving unit is excellent for displaying items with a 32x32 baseplate, plus a few things in front of those buildings.  Knick-knacky things, like vehicles, minifigures, and decorative items.  Each spot is about 13" square in front and 15" deep, so I've got all kinds of real estate for  a few items

One compartment in the EXPEDIT containing a log cabin, some airport accessories, a bag of pieces, and a minifigure

IKEA no longer offers EXPEDIT in their stores or online.  They replaced this line with the KALLAX.  It's nearly as good, but the KALLAX only comes in 4x4 compartments, where EXPEDIT was 5x5.  Good thing I got EXPEDIT with its 25 compartments, even though I'm not even using them all right now for Lego's.

Look at all those Lego's...

BESTÅ Shelving Unit

BESTÅ's are great for sets with 48x48 baseplates, which measure 15" on each side.  Although the shelf is not deep enough to fit the entire baseplate on, there's still plenty of room on the sides for extra things to sit on.  You could even fit an item with 2 32x32 baseplates side by side, with no problem whatsoever.

BESTÅ is best for the bigger stuff

Although IKEA still carries the BESTÅ line, they no longer offer the unit I have.  Mine is 2 columns and 5 rows of shelves (10 total), and the shelves have much more clearance at 15" tall.  You could probably buy a couple of this BESTÅ and stack them upon each other.  That could work

I think this will fit on the shelf...

All IKEA furniture comes with simple to follow assembly instructions, much like you'd find in a new Lego set.  It's all pictures, and they show what to add in each step.  It's EXACTLY putting Lego's together.  But be careful, these things are huge and could possibly kill you, which I think would be worse than stepping on Lego pieces on the floor.

Laser Tag Arena, Disco Gal, bus and taxi on top, Forest Police and Fire Stations and Mountain Hut below

Restaurant

As a part of the Lego City I was creating, I needed a place for everyone to grab a nice meal, hang out with some friends, and relax after a hard day of work.  What better place to do it at than a restaurant?

Front view of the Restaurant

Side and rear views of the restaurant

There were a few major internal elements I wanted to incorporate into my design.  A couple of outdoor tables with umbrellas for a patio, a bar with some stools for people to grab a drink, a hostess to help people find a table, a larger table for big groups of diners, and a kitchen with all the amenities.

Restaurant hostess and a grumpy business man at the bar.

The kitchen was easy to design, as I took elements from 6350 Pizza to Go to block it off from the dining area.  I placed its refrigerator in the corner.  I also used some of the roof pieces for a patio umbrella, the entryway, and the sink.

Chefs working in the kitchen

For the tables, I could only fit three inside, but I did get two out on the patio.  I put the bigger table in-between the two smaller ones.  It sits 8, where the smaller ones only have enough room for four.

Marines out for lunch at the big table

Family dinner at a smaller table

A couple of friends out for a drink on the patio

I have plenty of food stuff to serve everyone who comes in.  Drumsticks, pizza, croissants, carrots, bananas, fish, apples, clams, pie.  Almost too much food, as I have little room to actually store it in the Restaurant.  I've moved some of it to my Grocery Store, which will help this out the inventory.

Lego food

I've got plenty of Lego cups for beverages, but not enough of any one type and color to have a "standard" for the restaurant.  If I got enough of one kind, I could divvy up all the others to additional locations.

Lego cups

I've also got a lot of people to who could work at the restaurant, but I don't know where to put them all.  Among the guys potentially out of work include a couple of pizza guys, Taco Tuesday Man, and a couple of Diner Waitresses.

71007 Pizza Delivery Man and 71004 Taco Tuesday Man

The pizza delivery guy and truck from 6350 Pizza to Go

Two 71002 Diner Waitresses

Sets used: 6350, 71000, 71002, 71004, 71007

Lego Haul - 4/3/15

My parents were in town this past weekend, and they wanted to do some shopping at the Mall of America.  Who am I to say "NO" to that?  Oh darn, there's a Lego store there, I guess I might as well get some more bricks...

This time around, I got a small cup of bricks.  I meant to grab a Large cup, but I'm glad I got a Small Cup, because it turned out that was plenty of bricks for my needs.  I grabbed white and green 2x4 bricks to continue building up my Grocery Store.  I also filled the gaps in the cup with 2x2 orange tiles, black 1x1 nose cones, and black 2x2 round slide shoes.

 Small cup of Lego bricks and its contents

The 2x4 bricks gave me enough to finish the walls of my grocery store, though I still need a few more to properly integrate the yellow platform into the back wall.  Now that I've put most of it together, I can play with the internal layout on my physical model before I put it in the digital design.  I've already came up with an assembly for a dairy case.  Now I just need some for fruits and vegetables and bread.

Current construction of the Grocery Store

I noticed something on the Pick a Brick wall as I was moving along it.  They have these new Pick a Model kits, where for $4.99, you grab a kit and follow the instructions to get the pieces needed to make said model.  To make it even easier, the bins with the needed parts are marked to indicate which model(s) the pieces are needed for.

Pick a Model kits on the wall

I think they're clever.  They can help people get some ideas on what to build for their collections.  I'm looking forward to see what they come up with.  Some of the Monthly Mini Model Build items are kinda cool, and there are a couple I'd like to get my hands on (but can't because I'm 34, which doesn't fall between the ages of 5 and 12).

Lego Haul - 4/2/15

If a man buys a single Lego brick, is it still considered a haul?  I would say so.

I grabbed another 10699 Sand Baseplate while picking up a few things at Target today.  I plan on using it as the floor for my Grocery Store.

10699 Sand Baseplate

As I mentioned before, sand replaced blue as the second baseplate color (they still have green ones) this year.  I plan on picking up a few more as the year progresses, as I think they work better with buildings that have warm colors (red, orange, yellow, and maybe even green) for their primary brick color.  Since blue aren't available anymore, I'll remove some of those from my buildings, like the Medical Research Lab, so I can use the blue baseplates for buildings on a waterfront (either in town or out at the lake).

For now, this sand baseplate will be used for the Grocery Store.  I wanted it so I could start messing around with a physical model as I'm trying to develop my digital model.

Preliminary physical model for the Grocery Store

I'll continue the color theme that came in 10684 Supermarket Suitcase.  I'll put the meat department in the back, where the 8827 Butcher is standing.  The cool yellow platform at the back of the store will go there as well.  Other sections, like produce, bakery, and dairy, are yet to be determined, but you can kind of see where I'm going with this.

I still need white and green 2x4 bricks, plus some white 2x4 plates and green 1x4 plates to put the walls together.  Once I've got all that constructed, I'll focus on the inner workings.