Lego Haul - 12/4/17

I finally broke down and spend some of my Lego store credit on various bricks to continue construction on several of my buildings.  I ended up using $20 to get these pieces, and I'll tell you how they are going to be used now.

 

The Lego haul from 12/4/17

• The blue 2x6 and 2x8 plates will build up the last layers of my hospital's walls.
• The green 1x4 and 1x6 plates will fill in the gaps in the plates surrounding my Trevi Fountaion, which will be the centerpiece of my Plaza.
• Most of the white plates and both of the 2x4 pink bricks are for display fixtures in the Bakery
• All of the brick yellow plates are for the roof to the Pony Farm office
• The two 1x4, two 2x10, and the 1x1x1 corner bricks are finishing the Police Station walls
• The 6x8 dark grey stone plates build up the walkway for the top level of the Watch Tower.  So are the 8 1x1x1 black corner plates, as they will be used to secure the staircases between levels.
• The 1x3 and 1x6 bricks are for the display shower in the Plumber Shop.
• The brown 2x4 brick is for the Cargo Terminal.

I think that covers everything.  I should upload a second picture of this image with labels on everything.  Then change my bulleted list to a numbered one.  I think I will...  When I get a chance to do so.

Lego Haul - 11/27/16

My wife and I just came back from California, so we needed to run to Target to pick up some household supplies.  Every time we go to Target, we have to stroll by the Lego aisle to see what they've got on the shelf.  This time, they had some 30474 Reindeer sets on the end cap.  We though it'd be a great addition to the Santa Claus and Elves' Workshop sets I got earlier this month.

30474 Reindeer purchased at Target

30474 Reindeer contents (left) and fully assembled (right)

After I got the Reindeer assembled, I went downstairs to check the mail.  I found my online Pick-A-Brick order inside the box, so I ran upstairs and double-checked the order to ensure everything was here.  I got all my bricks.

Contents of my online Pick-A-Brick order from Lego's website

I only paid a few bucks for shipping, as I used VIP store credit for the bricks themselves.  These pieces are for completing or progressing with several buildings, as detailed below.

• Grandstand:  Two medium stone grey plate 2x2 angle pieces will hold speakers for pumping out the jams being performed on stage.
• Grocery Store: Three yellow green 1x1 bricks with the orange juice decals will go into the dairy case in the store.  Orange juice should always be refrigerated.
• Marina Office: The dark stone grey 16x16 plate finished off the floor for this building, so it is now complete.
• Winter Village: I don't remember what I was going to do with the white 1x2 plate with a single knob.  The note I had on my list didn't specify WHAT building in the Winter Village this was meant for.  I'll figure it out.
• Hospital: I got a blue 1x6 flat tile and a clear 1x6x5 wall element for the window between the observation and operating rooms.  The two blue 2x4 plates will help me finish up the walls on top.
• Pony Farm: All of the brick yellow pieces pictured above are for building the office at the Pony Farm.  Like the horse barn mentioned in my previous post, I need to make this building a bit larger to fit everyone and everything comfortably.
• Pyramid nightclub: The yellow 1x3 plate allowed me to finish up the inside wall at the Pyramid nightclub, in the area around the DJ booth.
• Watch Tower: Not sure why I ordered six dark stone grey 4x8 plates, as I only needed four to complete the third floor inside the Watch Tower.  It will remain a mystery.

I also got a dark stone grey 1x4 brick for some purpose that I did not document.  I'll also have to track down the cause of this acquisition.  Plenty of bricks to keep me busy until Christmas here.  Should be lots of fun.

Lego Haul - 11/15/16

I went out to BrickLink again to get some more Lego pieces.  This time around, I visited a new vendor and got some parts for my Watch Tower and Hospital.

The Lego Haul from 11/15/16

The dark stone grey 6x8 plates and the black staircase are for the Watch Tower.  I nearly have the floor for the third level complete.  I need 4 more staircases and about a dozen dark stone grey 6x8 plates to finish that building off.  I'm aiming to get that finished up in the coming months so I can get the blog post written up this winter.

The 2x12 blue plate and white door 1x6x6 Freestyle are for the Hospital.  That building is barely closer to completion, but I've got an order of bricks on their way from Lego right now with more Hospital parts.  Stay tuned, folks...

Lego Haul - 10/3/16

I used some more of my PayPal money I got from mailing a guitar for my friends to buy a few more Lego pieces from April's Paradise of Bricks.

Bricks I got from April's Paradise

Quick tip if you decide to sell you bricks individually on BrickLink: Start your store name with the letter A.  Or better yet, a number, even if your name is Zack.  Searches for bricks will list the stores in alphabetical order, and if someone has to scroll through the list of stores to find yours, they probably won't buy from you.

Of course, this would be easier if they had more effective search filters, like by country or by new or used.  But I'm getting off topic here.  Back to the Lego bricks themselves...

Here's what I got and how I'll use them:

• 3 Dark Blue Grey 4x8 plates - These will help me complete the floors in my Watch Tower.
• 2 Black window 1x4x3 - I put these windows on the top floor of the barracks, where the marines chill out and rest when they are not on duty.  The windows allowed me complete the building, which is nice.
• 2 Blue panel 1x2x2 - I was able to finish off one of the two port-a-potties at the Construction Site.  I just need two more to complete the other one, and this building will also be complete.
• 1 White Panel 2x2x1 Corner - I just needed one more to complete the fried chicken display portion in the grocery store's meat department.  Jay only had the one, but April had my back.
• 1 Blue round 1x1 brick - OK, this is not for any of my buildings in my Lego city.  The Gamer Kid in the Midway Arcade Level Pack came with a red round 1x1 brick.  He drinks Coke.  I drink Pepsi, which is a far superior cola.  I swapped out the pieces, so now he's more like me.
• 1 Dark Gray 6x8 plate - I was going to use this in my Watch Tower as well, but like a doof, I missed the part where it didn't say "dark BLUE gray".  Whoops.  I'm sure I can find a use for this piece somewhere.

 I still have about $15 in my PayPal account to use for brick purchases on BrickLink.  I'm also sitting on $10 in Lego store credit, and I'm thinking about using that before I go to BrickLink again.  Once I get pieces from Lego, I'll go back to BrickLink for those harder to find pieces.

Lego Haul - 9/28/16

A few weeks ago, I helped a friend mail a guitar to some dude in Indiana.  My friend paid me back by sending me money over PayPal, so I thought the best way to put that money to use was to go on BrickLink and order some Lego bricks.

The Lego haul from 9/28

I ordered them from Jay and ADOPT-A-BRICK.  Jay is a good guy with excellent prices.  Among the bricks I got from him (and their uses):

• Black 2x4 plate - This is the base for a flat screen television to sit in the doctor's lounge at the Hospital
• 2 Blue 2x8 plates - These were used for finishing up the walls at the Hospital
• 6 Dark Blue Grey 4x8 plates and 2 Dark Blue Grey 6x8 plates - Used to build the floors inside the Watch Tower
• Dark Blue Grey 8x8 plate - I put this outside the Marina Office to build the dock outside the building
• 2 Light Blue Grey 2x2 corner tiles - They completed the meat department display area in the Grocery Store
• Trans-Clear Door 1x4x6 and White Door Frame 1x4x6 - I needed these to finish putting the dairy case display in the Grocery Store
• White Panel 2x2x2 Corner - This went into the meat department display.  I forget what's going to be held in there.  I think it's for the fried chicken...
• 2 Yellow Cone 1x1 - These are a part of the entryway to the Pyramid nightclub
• 2 Yellow 1x1 plate with a clip - I put these inside the Firehouse at the Forest Police and Fire Stations 

I didn't get much this time around, and definitely not enough to finish of any buildings, but every little bit helps.

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.

Lego Haul - 4/8/16

Last weekend, I went onto my favorite secondary market for Lego pieces, Bricklink, and bought some bricks from one of my favorite vendors, ADOPT_A_BRICK.

This was my third time ordering from Jay, who is in Florida.  He's got a great selection, good prices, and fast service.  I highly recommend checking him out first when you're looking to buy bricks from people on Bricklink.

The Lego Haul from ADOPT_A_BRICK on Bricklink, which arrived on 4/8/16.

I got a good variety of pieces for several buildings, so I'll run down the list of what goes where here:

• Barracks: The window panes will do into the windows on the second floor.  I still don't have a frame to put them in, but those frames are the last pieces I need to complete this building.
• Grandstand: 4 for the 5 black 2x2 plates with a single stud are for microphone stands.  This will allow a couple of the guitar players to sing backup vocals in the band.
• Greenhouse: The round plate with the 4 studs and the corner plates finish up a couple of items outside the Hardware Store.  I'll be writing more about this next week.
• Grocery Store: The medium blue 1x1x2/3 roof tiles are the lids to some milk cartons sitting in the dairy case in the corner of the store.
• Hospital: The blue 2x8 and 2x10 plates will complete the last layer for the walls to this building.  I still need a good number of 2x8's, but I'm making progress.
• Laser Tag Arena: The Technic 1x10 brick (with the holes in the side) completed an obstacle on the second floor, while the 6x12 plate with studs around the outside is in the briefing room, where the officials review the rules with those who will be participating in laser tag.
• Marina Office: The dark stone grey 8x8 plate is to build the dock outside the office.
• Pyramid Nightclub: The yellow 6x10 plate is the overhang to the entrance into the nightclub.
• TV Studio: The last black 2x2 plate with a single stud will be the base of the camera in the studio broadcasting the news broadcast.
• Watch Tower: The dark stone grey 4x8 plates are for the floors in the Watch Tower.  I've nearly got one floor completely done, I just need one more of these pieces to finish it off.
• Winter Cottage: The white 2x2 plate with a single stud is the base for the broom held by the snowmen outside of the cottage.

Most of these pieces are for buildings I have not yet completed, but I'm much closer than I was before, and all for less than $13.  Bricklink and its vendors are so good to me, it's scary.

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 - 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 - 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.