Lego Haul - 4/26/16

I just got the other half of my Lego order in the mail Tuesday.  These are the pieces I selected from the online Pick-A-Brick.  I ordered just enough bricks to bring my order up to $75 bucks, but I got a nice assortment of bricks to help me finish off a few buildings.

The bricks I got from Lego's online Pick-A-Brick

As I did with my previous haul of bricks, I'll run down the list of the buildings I will be using them for.

• Grocery Store: The white 2x12 plates and 2x4 plates are for the final layer of bricks for the store's walls.  The white 1x3 and 2x3 plates are for the dairy case, where the milk and orange juice is stored.  The green 1x6 plates filled in a gap in the back wall where the meat department is.  The brown 3x4 boxes will hold fruits and vegetables in the produce section.  With these pieces, I'm done with the building itself and most of the interior.  I just need to organize the bakery area and put in a shelf for processed products, like cereal and chips and such.
• Hardware Store: The 2 red and 1 brown buckets are for inventory, but I'm not sure where I want to put them yet.  I'm on the fence between putting them inside or outside.  The white 1x6 and 1x8 plates are for assembling a backboard for a basketball hoop.
• Hospital: The blue 2x4 plates will go to finish building the walls.  I just need more 2x6 and 2x8 plates to finish it off.
• Islanders: The three white 1x4 bricks are for the picnic tables.  This building is now complete.
• Marina Office: The dark stone grey 8x8 plate is another piece for the dock outside the Marina Office.  I still need 5 more to finish it off, then people can start renting boats to take out on the ocean.
• Pyramid Nightclub: The yellow 1x8 plate and 1x2x2 corner plate are for the walls inside the nightclub.  I built the DJ booth into the wall, so I used these plates to level things out.  I still need a 1x3 plate to finish it off.
• Watch Tower: The dark stone grey 4x8 and 6x8 plates are for the floors in the Watch Tower.  With the former, I finished off the second floor.
• Winter Cottage: The white 4x8 plate was the last one I needed to finish covering the yard with snow, so the kids can play outside.

I need some more parts from Lego's online Pick-A-Brick.  I didn't order a door for the Grocery Store's dairy case, because I mistakenly thought I had one already.  I really need to verify what I need before I order parts online, but oh well.  I had fun regardless while putting my parts together.

Islanders

One of the first challenges I was faced with when designing my Lego town was figuring out what to do with my early '90s Islanders sets.  In the Legoland universe, they were a subset of Pirates, and a few of the sets intersected with seeking bounty and booty.  But with all the Pirates joining the Marines in my world, what could I do with the natives?

The Islanders' performance center

I thought about where I could put it and what kind of climate my city would be in.  I came up with a subtropical zone, like maybe southern California.  It'd be nice to go to Cali, because then I could put my wintry sets in the mountains surrounding Lake Tahoe.  Then the Islanders could be at the beach or next to the shore.

Status of the king overlooking the land (left) and the actual king on his throne (right)

 

Of course, the next question becomes what do they do in town?  I thought a Polynesian-type luau/cookout/dance show.  Show their athletic abilities, provide a non-sports entertainment option, give the residents a chance to learn about other cultures.  Spending my teenage years overseas I saw some of these types of displays, but I should have done more to learn about my hosts.

 

The Islanders performers consist of spearmen, a hula girl, and even a flamespinner.

I wish I could come up with something like this for my other late '80s to mid '90s Lego's.  I have no idea what to do with all my Space sets.  They're all too futuristic to fit into the mold I've built for my town.  It's much easier to yank Lego people forward into the present then to try to pull them back from the past.  Maybe when I complete more of my city, I can open up my green tote with all the items I'm not using right now to come up with my next big idea.

Sets used: 6236, 6246, 6262, 71002

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 - 3/10/15

This past weekend, I went on BrickLink, a great site for the secondary market of Lego bricks and sets.  I could write a whole post on why it's so awesome (and I will).  It has a much bigger selection of pieces than Lego's Pick-A-Brick wall for lower prices (if you don't mind used bricks).

I'm at a point where I'm going to make better progress on my buildings going to resellers than I will buying directly from Lego.  I bought from two vendors, Brick Art and 1 2 Many Bricks.  Between the two, I spent $27 on nearly $35 worth of pieces, some of which I can't get from Lego at this time.

The first order was mostly blue 2x6 and 2x8 plates for my Hospital.  The little black clips are for holding tools at the Research Lab, the blue door frames are for the portable toilets at the Construction Site, the stairs and 1x8 Technic brick will be in the Laser Tag Arena, the gray set of bars will complete the jail cell in the Police Station, the brown plates are bases for tiki torches at the Islanders performance area, and the white plate is for a whiteboard (location to be determined).

Bricks ordered from Brick Art

The second order was the better of my two scores, IMO.  I got 16 8x8 dark stone grey plates, which cost $1.10 each from Lego, only ran me 41 cents each used.  Half of them are for my Watch Tower, while the other half are for the Marina Office.  The other dark stone grey plates and the black stairs are also for completing the Watch Tower.  The Blue 2x6 plates are for the Hospital, the black plate is for a television at the bar in the Restaurant, the black fences are for the Laser Tag Arena, and the two white pedestals are for tables on sale at the Hardware Store and Greenhouse.

Bricks ordered from 1 2 Many Bricks

If I had bought these bricks, they would have cost me $28.50 PLUS shipping.  The BrickLink orders were less than $27 for everything, including the shipping.  It's like I got free pieces out of the deal.  The black fences, the stairs, the white pedestals, the blue door frames...  It was all a bonus.

You can wait for things to happen, or you can MAKE them happen.  I could have waited a lifetime to buy these parts from Lego.  I don't have that kind of time.  I need to finish up my Lego city now.

Lego Haul - 2/7/15

Last month, I finally broke down and decided to use my Lego VIP points to order some bricks.  I had 900 points, which is worth $45 worth of store credit.  I spent $35 on the online Pick A Brick to get pieces I needed to complete various buildings in my city.

Online Pick A Brick elements I purchased

Online Pick A Brick is not cheap.  Larger bricks, like 2x6 and 2x8, can cost 50 cents a piece, while large plates, measuring 6x16 and 8x8 can cost a buck or two.

As you can see, I got a lot of gray and brown bricks.  They never show up on the wall in the MOA Lego Store.  The wall there goes through so many brighter colored bricks that there just isn't any room for the things I want.  If I had been lucky enough to find all these bricks on the wall, I could have fit them all in a Large cup with plenty of room for more bricks.

The bricks I ordered helped me put 13 buildings together: Auto Repair Shop, City Services, Grandstand, the Police Dock at the marina, Research Lab, Restaurant, TV Studio, Barracks, Delivery Services, Greenhouse, Stables, Watch Tower, and Pony Farm.

30312 Demolition Driller bag and assembled contents

I spent $35 on the online Pick A Brick so I could get a 30312 Demolition Driller free with purchase.  It's a great addition to my Construction Site and City Services buildings.  It can drill holes in roads before they can be patched up, or on a construction site for setting up electrical wiring (I don't know, I never worked in construction).

I made the order on February 7th and got the Demolition Driller a week later, on the 14th.  The assortment of bricks didn't come until the 27th, since they were shipped from Poland.  The anticipation of the Pick A Brick portion of my order killed me, but I had so much fun putting all my bricks in place.  Especially the Watch Tower, since I completed a whole floor and started the next one below it.

The variety of the online Pick A Brick was lacking, so once I build up more VIP points, and when Lego expands their selection of pieces, I'll put the trigger on more bricks.  Stay tuned, sports fans.