Lego Haul - 11/8/17

My name is Paul, and I have a problem.  I can't stop buying Lego's.

The Lego Haul from 11/8/17 

I splurged last month to take advantage of double VIP point last month.  This time around, I had to make sure I got a couple of sets before Lego ran out of stock and retired said products.

I'll be paying for it when the credit card bill comes...

40261 LEGO Thanksgiving Harvest contents (left) and fully assembled (right)

First up, I got the new seasonal sets.  40261 LEGO Thanksgiving Harvest, which isn't so much about sitting down for a meal or turkeys like previous sets.  I like the harvesting and farming theme this time around.  I'll split elements up between the Grocery Store, the Hardware Store, maybe the Pony Farm and Toy Store.  It should be good times.

40262 LEGO Christmas Train Ride contents (left) and fully assembled (right)

 40263 LEGO Christmas Town Square contents (left) and fully assembled (right)

Next, there are 40262 LEGO Christmas Train Ride and  40263 LEGO Christmas Town Square.  It's easy enough to place them, as they perfectly fit in with the Winter Carnival up in the mountains.  I may have to add another 48x48 Extra Large Baseplate to that area to hold all the extra things I'm looking to add there.  I'll play around with some ideas when I unpack all that stuff out to put in the living room for Christmas.

71349 Beetlejuice Fun Pack contents (left) and fully assembled (right)

I also got some Lego Dimensions sets.  My wife and I haven't had much time to play it in the last couple of months.  With school and social engagements, we haven't had much time to sit at home, but with the weather getting colder, we'll definitely be spending more time inside the house.

I orders a 71349 Beetlejuice Fun Pack, and you can never go wrong with Michael Keaton.  While I was putting him together with the game running on my Wii U, he made a joke about being playing Batman.  It was hilarious!!  God bless the best man to ever play Batman.

 71343 The Powerpuff Girls Fun Pack contents (left) and fully assembled (right)

71346 The Powerpuff Girls Team Pack contents (left) and fully assembled (right)

When I was a freshman in college I fell in love with The Powerpuff Girls.  I thought it was an amazing cartoon.  Seeing it and the other cartoons on Cartoon Network was my preferred Friday night entertainment.  I didn't care what my roommate or anyone else thought of it.  It's not like I was cool in high school, why should college have been any different?

I got both 71343 The Powerpuff Girls Fun Pack and 71346 The Powerpuff Girls Team Pack.  Sadly, these sets are based off the NEW PPG cartoon series and not the original.  I would have preferred the original voice actors to the new ones.  Oh well.

21312 Women of NASA contents (left) and fully assembled (right)

I was quite upset that I missed out on the Research Institute.  Lego did not make enough of them to handle the extreme demand for it.  So I sure as hell wasn't going to miss out on 21312 Women of NASA.

It's meant to be a display piece, but I'm thinking about breaking it up and moving the figurines into town to carry our some roles.  Margaret Hamilton would help develop code for drones and satellites.  Nancy G. Roman would design satellites themselves.  Mae Jemison and Sally Ride...  That'd be cool if they had an astronomy lab or major telescope to research what's out there in space.  They could work with Raj from The Big Bang Theory, as he IS an astrophysicist.

40253 LEGO Christmas Build Up contents

Lastly, I got a 40253 LEGO Christmas Build Up free with my order for spending enough money or whatever.  I was curious as to what came with this set.  Since the packaging and manual were labelled "24 in 1"

 40253 LEGO Christmas Build Up manual (left) and some constructed models (right)

This set gives the impression that it's LIKE an advent calendar with a new model to build every day.  It's true, but it's not like a normal Lego Advent Calendar set.  As you can see from the instruction manual, you'd be expected to take models apart to rebuild the next one.  Going through one model at a time, I was only able to make four items.  I plan to sit down one day soon to determine how many of each piece would be needed to assemble EVERY model in the instruction manual.  It's going to bother me when I determine how feasible it'd be to do so.

Now, I'd like to think that I won't be buying any Lego's anytime soon...  But I do have a niece and some nephews to get Christmas presents for.  I've also got a credit card bill to pay...

Meh, I think I can squeeze out a few more sets before Christmas...

Lego Haul - 12/31/16

The last of the Lego Christmas presents finally arrived on New Year's Eve.  My wife and I got a 71203 Portal 2 Level Pack for Lego Dimensions.

71203 Portal 2 Level Pack

I don't have an XBox, so I've never played a Portal game.  It seems fun, but also kind of difficult.  Playing the new level left me scratching my head a couple of times trying to figure out how to complete it.  And it felt like it took forever.  Using the portal gun was tough to figure out until I got the hang of it.  Use Y for a blue portal, A for orange.  Go in orange and come out blue.

Portal 2 Level Pack contents (left) and fully assembled (right)

I haven't attempted the level a second time yet, but I'm sure it'll be much easier when my wife and I team up.  We always work well together.  It's scary how much we can get done when we apply ourselves.

Christmas Haul 2016

Well, Christmas has come and went, and you know what that means.  A massive post about what I got this year.  It's so big that I'm postponing my normally scheduled post until next month.  I got A LOT of sets.  This could take a while...

 The haul for Christmas 2016 and my birthday

First off, we'll start with the gift I got for myself.  60104 Airport Passenger Terminal is great for me to add an airport to my town.  I got a 60022 Cargo Terminal for my birthday two years ago, but I needed a building to go with it.  Although the Airport Passenger Terminal is for hauling people, not goods, it gives me a foundation for building an entire airport.

Contents of 60104 Airport Passenger Terminal

It'll probably end up being as big as my city, as we'll need plenty of room for a couple of runways.  I've got some pen and paper sketches for the layout of the airport, but no virtual model yet.  It's a couple of weeks until I start class again, so I got plenty of time to whip something up.  Expect to see that in late July.

Fully assembled contents of 60104 Airport Passenger Terminal

I got a second set to help with flight operations in town.  60102 Airport VIP Service is around to help more affluent citizens rent a private jet, with limo service to and from the airport.

No one in town is any more important that anyone else.  It's a very egalitarian society.  Sure, some people have a bit more than others, but it's through effort, hard work, and increased responsibilities.  I think I'll stop there before I get any more political.  Lego is supposed to be fun, while politics are not.

60102 Airport VIP Service contents

The employee with this set will work at the airport, while the limo service will not only service people flying on this private jet, but anyone else in town wants to rent it.  It'll belong to the taxi company.  Not that there IS much of a taxi company, but as I usually do, I'll keep my options open for expansion.

 60102 Airport VIP Service fully assembled

I got a few different minifigures.  The Lego Batman movie is due out in February, and Lego released sets related to it here in December.  My wife was able to find a few characters, Catman, March Harriet, and Zodiac Master.  I have no idea who any of them are.  I don't remember them from the campy '60s TV series or any of the films.  I never read the comics.  Where they in there, or are they completely new characters created specifically for this new Lego animated feature flick?  Regardless of their origins, I'm looking forward to the movie.

71017 Lego Batman minifigures, left to right: Catman, March Harriet, and Zodiac Master

I got a couple of others as well.  My wife and I found a Lego-like Goldy Gopher minifigure at the University of Minnesota bookstore.  It's got a couple things that normal Lego minifigs don't have, like elbows and knees.  It works in the Lego System, and it'll just be for decorative purposes, so it's good enough for me.  Especially since it IS Goldy Gopher (he's my hero).

 Goldy Gopher off-brand minifigure contents (left) and fully assembled (right)

The other minifugre is a gingerbread man that was free with my order for the Airport Passenger Terminal.  He's a bit darker in color than the 71002 Series 11 minifigure.  I was hoping this would have come with more pieces to build a gingerbread house for him.  I'm keeping the box to give me ideas to build my own to add to the Winter Carnival for the kids to check out.

5005156 Gingerbread Man

I got a 31051 Lighthouse Point, which I'll be adding to the Marina.  A lighthouse is a great addition to the shoreline, as it will help out those on the water at night see where they are going.  It also came with this cool orca figure who'll reside in the ocean, at a safe distance of course.

 31051 Lighthouse Point contents (left) and fully assembled (right)

I received a 31050 Corner Deli, another Creator set, that'll go into the plaza area.  I've almost got enough small buildings to finish off this section of town.  I know it's another restaurant-type place, but it's not sit down service like the big one I've built.  The Corner Deli will work more like a takeout/fast service eatery.

 31050 Corner Deli contents (left) and fully assembled (right)

My parents got me 60082 Dune Buggy Trailer.  My wife and I had a pretty low-key Christmas with them.  I didn't even ask for any specific set from them, but they did get me a winner here.  I don't have a desert area for running a dune buggy through, but it should be fun off-roading vehicle out near the Lake Shore area.

 60082 Dune Buggy Trailer contents (left) and fully assembled (right)

You still there?  If so, good.  We've still got a ways to go here.  I got a few Lego Dimensions sets, and some containers to store them in.  First, the characters.  My wife and I got 71251 A-Team Fun Pack and 71258 E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial Fun Pack.  The former wasn't really a gift for anyone.  If I remember correctly, I added onto another Lego store online order to get some bonus for spending X number of dollars.  The latter I got at GameStop after Christmas because I had a $5 store credit that had to be spent before the end of the year.

 71251 A-Team Fun Pack contents (left) and fully assembled (right)

 71258 E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial Fun Pack contents (left) and fully assembled (right)

Both sets will open new Year 2 content in the main Lego Dimensions game.  We'll be spending all New Years Day playing that game.  No idea what B.A. Baracus and E.T. can do for us, but I'm going to love hearing the former telling us that he's not "getting on no damn plane".  Also curious to find out who'd be doing his voice, the original Mr. T, or Quinton "Rampage" Jackson.  Both good choices, but if I had to choose, I'd want the classic.

My birthday is a few days after Christmas, and my friends Collin and Lora were kind enough to give me a gift.  I never expect my friends to get me anything.  I just want them to come hang out with me.  They got me 41578 Screeno Mixel and 3920 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey board game.

 41578 Screeno contents (left) and fully assembled (right)

They said I could just use them for miscellaneous bricks to build whatever I want, but I like them.  I've considered getting some Mixels sets since I started putting my town together, but I couldn't figure out what I wanted to do with them.  With all the other animal-like creations I have and my desire to build a park, I'll put Screeno out there with the alligators and tigers and whatnot.  As for the board game, I'll play that with my wife and whatever guests we have over.  Hopefully Collin and Lora one day.

 3920 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey board game contents (left) and fully assembled (right)

That's it.  The end.  I got some gift cards from my wife's family, which I'll be using for more sets.  Probably after visiting Disney World and Martin Luther King Day.  After I start class again.  I've got a few things on my list to procure.  Buying Lego's in a never ending battle that I'm more than prepared to lose.  Bring it on.