Lego Haul - 3/13/16

Last weekend, my wife and I went to the happiest place on earth.  And we went to Disney World.

Disney World is massive.  So many parks, so many rides, and so many stores trying to sell you stuff. 

The haul from the Lego Store at Disney Springs last weekend

We went to Disney Springs, which is a nice outdoor shopping center, to visit the Lego Store there.  It was pretty nice.  Comparable to the one at the Mall of America up here in the Twin Cities.  Perhaps even a little bit bigger.  The way ALL Lego stores should be.

40202 Lego Easter Chick contents

We were finally able to get our hands on some Series 15 minifigures.  They came out last month, but we've never been able to find any in our local Lego Store.  They restock the shelves every Monday morning, but when we visit on the weekends, they are already sold out.  It seems like they are really throttling the availability, because in the past they've had bins full of minifigures to wade through to find them all, but now it's like they only have one or two boxes worth out at a time.

We were able to find nine out of the sixteen in relatively short order.  It's much easier to feel the bags up to find specific minifigs this time around, because each one has more unique pieces than normal.  I got a Farmer, Tribal Woman, Animal Control Officer, Ballerina, Frightening Knight, Wresting Champion, Clumsy Guy, Kendo Fighter, and Laser Mech.  The Animal Control Officer is the best since it came with a skunk, or as my wife and I like to call it, a fart squirrel.

Complete haul from the Disney Springs Lego store.

In addition to the great selection of Lego sets, they had some really nice Lego dioramas and statues in and around the store.  They were of course depictions of Disney intellectual property, but they were done very well.  I especially liked Hulk, because it absolutely brilliant.  Totally how I would have built it.  It was also one of the few Marvel properties anywhere at Disney World.  Marvel had a deal with University Studios in Orlando before Disney bought it, so Disney can't do anything while University Studios has rides based on the comics and movies.  Lame.

Clockwise, from top left: Hulk holding me prisoner, Snow White and Dopey, the Dwarfs working in the mine, and the dragon and knight from Sleeping Beauty

It was a great trip.  I can't wait to go back...  To the Lego store...  Duh.

It's double VIP points this month.  Why, what did you expect?

Late October 2015 hauls

I've bought a lot of Lego sets and bricks lately, but haven't had a chance to sit down and write about them until now.  I had a paper to write for class, a Gopher football game to be disappointed by, a Jim Gaffigan show to attend (so freakin' hilarious), and work.  I finally got the chance to put finish everything together this weekend.

I bought a sand baseplate at Target, but since that's only one piece, I don't need to get into that (just yet).  I also ran to the Lego store on October 25th to grab a 10249 Winter Toy Shop and some yellow and sand 2x4 bricks.

Lego Haul from 10/25/15

The Winter Toy Shop will go with the rest of my Christmas-themed sets.  I have the Winter Village Cottage from 2012, the Winter Village Market from 2013, Santa's Workshop from 2014, so this makes me 4-for-4 for the exclusive seasonal sets.  Not that I'm keeping score or anything.  Seriously, I'm not, because I'm not trying to collect every single set out there.  I don't have that much money to spend on Lego's, geez...

10249 Winter Toy Shop (left) and 40138 Holiday Train, a large and a small Pick-A-Brick cop (right)

Obviously, the Winter Toy Shop and Christmas Train will go to the Mountain Village area outside of my Lego city.  My scheduled posts for November, December, and January will go into detail as to its progress, so stay tuned.

Pick-A-Brick cup contents

The Pick-A-Brick contents were almost entirely 2x4 bricks.  Yellow for my Pyramid nightclub, sand for my Tech Startup (for which The Big Bang Theory set will be used as the basis).  More on this later.

10249 Winter Toy Shop contents

The Winter Toy Shop is a bit redundant when paired with Santa's Workshop.  Two toy assembly sets is a bit overkill, even if one of those is also a retail facility.  I'd like to put them on a single baseplate, but that would be too crammed for a 32x32 area.  I'll place the two buildings side-by-side.

10249 Winter Toy Shop fully assembled

The Holiday Train is purely decorative.  I don't think I'll actually use it in my mountain village.  I'll put it on the shelf when Christmas rolls around every year.

40138 Holiday Train contents (right) and fully assembled

Now, let's get to the fun part: Online Pick-A-Brick.  I cashed in $10 of store credit to get various pieces to continue construction of several buildings.  These pieces went to the Grocery Store, Pyramid nightclub, Islanders luau, and Watch Tower.

Pick-A-Brick online order contents

Many of the white, gray, and green pieces built the meat department in the Grocery Store.  I'm built the layout of the Grocery Store around this counter.  I'll work on the next phase of construction soon, with another Online Pick-A-Brick order in late November or early December.

The meat department at the Grocery Store

The 2x4 yellow bricks I got at the Lego store allowed me to finish building the inner portion of the top of the Pyramid.  1x6 yellow bricks from the online order completed the inner wall for the bottom portion.  Now that walls are complete, I can figure out some the internal layout for a DJ booth, a bar, and a storage area inside the wall of the lower portion.  I still need 755 2x2 slope pieces, which I figure will take three large Pick-A-Brick cups to finish off the external sloping sides.

Top (left) and bottom (right) portions of the Pyramid nightclub.

I forgot to order four 1x4 white bricks for the picnic tables at the Islanders luau.  Otherwise, this complete.

Current progress of the Islanders luau

My online Pick-A-Brick order also had a couple of 2x4 medium stone grey plates to close up a gap next to the Watch Tower door.  I move the door up by one-third of a brick to close up a gap between the door and the arch above it, which created a gap at the bottom.  A 2x12 plate with four 2x4 plates (two on each side) took care of that, so there's no physical security breach anymore.

The gap in the Watch Tower doorway is no more

The sand baseplate I got at Target?  The 2x4 sand bricks from my Lego run on the 25th?  Remember those?  They and the Big Bang Theory set will be my Tech Startup Firm.  Not sure what to do with the whole crew, as you don't need that many people to manage the websites of all the Lego businesses and government entities.  Since they are biologists, I'll probably put Bernadette and Amy to work in the Medical Research Lab.  Penny and the guys should be able to run the IT web infrastructure for everyone, but even five people many be too many.  We'll see once I get the rest of the building laid out and assembled.

Tech Startup Firm enjoying dinner while discussing their clients

Lego Haul - 9/19/15

My wife and I went to the Lego store yesterday morning, and we're still not finding any Series 14 minifigures.  There were plenty of Series 13, and they were cheap.  Only 98 cents a piece.  Maybe we have to wait six months before we can find them.  Since we didn't find what we were looking for, I decided to grab more bricks for my Pyramid nightclub.

A large and a small cup of Lego bricks

I managed to get 161 yellow 2x4 bricks and 167 yellow roof tile 2x2.  I also grabbed a few other pieces, which I'll get to later.

Contents of the Pick-A-Brick cups (left), neatly stacked (right)

I went a little overboard with trying to put all the pieces together so they'd fit in the cups.  As you can see below, I cut my finger.  I didn't notice it at first.  The red marks on the yellow bricks clued me in.  Totally worth it.

No pain, no gain

I also grabbed a few bricks to finish off the Alligator model.  I'm still missing a yellowish green 2x2 plate for the body, but I'll probably get that through online Pick-A-Brick.

A nearly completed Alligator Pick-A-Brick model

With the bricks I've purchased, I was able to two levels of the exterior, and start on the third.  Although I have plenty of bricks to keep building up, stability of those bricks becomes and issue, so I'm holding off on construction until I get more 1x4 and 1x6 bricks for the inner wall.  I still need about 755 roof tiles and 175 2x4 bricks for the main body.  Filling the cups as I did this time around will take care of the bricks, and then probably two large cups of just roof tiles for the rest.  I hope to find the thinner bricks on the wall at some point before I finish this thing off.

The Pyramid nightclub construction progress, with the alligator enjoying the party.

Lego Haul - 8/1/15

I've been slacking with my Legoing lately.  My scheduled post for July were kind of half-assed, and I didn't buy a thing all month.  I had a bunch of other stuff going on that took priority, so I had to put my Lego's away.

August is a new month, and I'm back on the wagon.  This month brought new sets to stores, which I just have to have...  Sadly, I could not find them.  Big Bang Theory, Scooby-Doo...  All sold out.  Not what I was expecting, since they weren't SUPPOSED to be on sale until the 1st, but...  Whatever.  I bought some stuff, so we're good to go for now.

The Lego haul from 8/1/15

I did find some much needed 2x6 medium stone gray bricks so I could finish the walls of my Watch Tower.

Contents of my small cup refill

I got more than I needed to to finish off the wall, but it doesn't hurt to have a few extras, ready and waiting to be used for the next building.  Especially since it looked like that was my plan in the first place.  I don't know why I was holding onto extra medium stone grey bricks for the Watch Tower, but oh well.

Current progress on the Watch Tower (left) and with extra bricks (right)

The Watch Tower is far from complete though.  I have all the bricks. but I still need more dark stone gray plates to finish off the second and third floors.  It's going to cost me another $35 or so to finish it up, but I can never find those pieces on the wall at my Lego store.  I've got enough saved up in store credit to pull the trigger, but I want to find a better deal.

With my purchase, I got a free Pirate set to commemorate that line of products and how it's changes over the last 25+ years.  It's pretty nice, to have a newer looking shark with more detailed eyes, some more gold, and a fancy little palm tree.  It's very nice.

Contents and fully assembled Pirate retrospective set

I also got 76039 Ant-Man The Final Battle.  My wife and I enjoyed the movie, which we had low expectations for after all the drama Marvel ran into with production.  Paul Rudd was pretty good as Scott Lang, the new Ant-Man.

Contents and fully assembled 76039 Ant-Man The Final Battle

The final item in this acquisition is 31036 Changing Seasons.  Unlike most Creator sets that come with increasingly complex building instructions, this set came with 3 booklets, one each for summer, fall, and winter.

Contents of 31036 Changing Seasons

With autumn on the horizon, I followed the fall instructions to put the house together.  I'd like to assemble the other two as well, but I'll have to verify I have sufficient bricks to do so.  I know I don't have all of them in the exact colors in the instructions, I should have all the shapes.  I'm not concerned if the color varies or not, but I'd really like to put the winter house together for the Winter Village, and the summer house to sit beside the Family House and Apple Tree House.

Fully assembled fall scene from 31036 Changing Seasons (left) and leftover pieces (right)

I'll get back into my regular buying Lego habits as the winter progresses.  I'll be debating what to get, as I'll leave some items on the list for my family to get as Christmas gifts.  But there are new minifigures due out in September, plus some holiday-themed sets that have yet to be revealed.  I just hope I have enough money to get them all.

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 - 3/14/15

I made a Lego run this morning to see if I could get a Painting Easter Eggs set and possibly a 3-pack of minifigures.  After those two strikes, I stepped up to the Pick-A-Brick wall to see if I could find some medium stone grey 2x6 bricks to make further process on my Watch Tower.  I nearly struck out there, but then I found a whole bin of medium azur 2x4 bricks, which I need for my Plumbers shop.

Today's Lego haul

I filled an entire Large cup of those medium azur 2x4 bricks.  There are plenty of YouTube videos and other websites out there on how to fill up a Large cup of 2x4 bricks to maximize your yield.  I follow this pattern (from top to bottom):

2x2 cube

3, 4, 5, 5, 6, 5, 5, 4, 3

2, 4, 5, 5, 6, 5, 5, 4, 2

2, 4, 5, 5, 5, 5, 4, 2

3, 4, 5, 5, 5, 4, 3

3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 3

The layers of 2x4 bricks for a Large cup

This results in 145 bricks.  Some people are able to get more in there, but I don't push my luck.  If I tried to put more in a Large cup, it'd get all bent out of shape and start cracking up the sides.

145 bricks

I also picked up a new sand 32x32 baseplate.  It'll be great for building the beach area.  Sand replaced blue as a baseplate, and I plan on picking a few up for some of my already completed buildings.  I just wish they didn't cost an extra $3 now.  Good thing I bought so many before the first of the year.  And the extra large medium stone gray 48x48 baseplates are still $15.

The sand 32x32 baseplate

The Lego store was also giving away a free Bionicle Hero Pack with every purchase.  It was nothing special.  Literally.  It contained two masks, four arm thingies, a sticker sheet, a poster, and a short promotional booklet.  A part of me was thinking, "why even bother?"  Lego brought back it's Bionicle line, but it never appealed to me.  I won't be buying any, as I have no need for robotics figurines in my town.

Contents and assembled product of  the Bionicle Hero Pack

Both sides of the Bionicle poster included in the Hero Pack