Small Cottage

Everyone would love to have a nice lake cabin up here in Minnesota, but we can't all afford a luxurious Seaside Cottage.  Some people only have enough to buy a Small Cottage by the lake.  It's so sad...

No it's not.  Even having a little tiny place near the shore still means you're loaded.  Regular folks like me don't have the money for that.  And yes, even if I stopped buying Lego's.  You have to be making six figures to get a place like this.

The Small Cottage by the lake

Even though this guy has a small place, he's got a nice yard.  The lake doesn't encroach on his property as much as some of the other places out there.  Plenty of room to play backyard games like bags or built a nice firepit to roast marshmallows.  I haven't bothered with any of that yet, but someday, perhaps...

Interior shots of the Small House

There isn't much room inside.  There's just enough for a chair, table, and lamp.  Maybe I should put a radio or a bed inside.  Outside, there is a table for setting out the food.  It's a quaint little place that provides a great avenue to get away from it all and disconnect from the outside world.

Who goes out to the lake to do a grindy thingy?  The rails are garbage.

Sets used: 31009

Lego Haul - 6/10/16

I was traveling for work last week, but that doesn't mean I can't go buy Lego's after I'm off the clock.

Lego Haul for 6/10/16

I placed an order on Lego's website before I left on my trip.  I got Lego Marvel Avengers for Wii U and a 60119 Ferry.  Since I spent over $75, I also got a free 40221 Fountain.  I also got a deal for a Legoland ticket, but since I don't like in California or Florida, it's a worthless piece of paper.

60119 Ferry contents

I'm not sure what I'll do with the Ferry, since there isn't another port to move the cars to.  It's not like my Lego city is Seattle or San Francisco or whatever.  But I did want something commercial, something larger, to be in the ocean besides fishing boats, personal watercraft, and the police.  The boat looks like it can hold about 3 cars, which is nice.

Car and Ferry captain (left) and 60119 Ferry fully assembled (right)

My original goal with my Lego order was to get Lego Marvel Avengers, as my wife and I have been enjoying all of the Lego games we've bought for Wii U so far.  I added the Ferry to get to $75, so I could get the free 40221 Fountain.  I love getting the bonus sets for spending extra bucks on Lego.  It didn't cost me much, as I used all $65 I had in store credit for my order.  I got everything for $16.

The fountain will go into the park area I'm still working on developing.  Stay tuned for more details.

40221 Fountain contents (left) and fully assembled (right)

Even though I has Lego's waiting for me at home when I returned from my business trip, I couldn't go on the road and not buy any Lego's.  As I mentioned before, my wife and I enjoy all the Lego games we have right now.  So very much fun.  For my wife's birthday, I grabbed the 71206 Scooby-Doo Team Pack.  We put him to go use right away, unlocking a number of achievements in Lego Dimensions.  Shaggy isn't quite as useful, but the Mystery Machine and Scooby snack will be utilized frequently.

71206 Scooby-Doo Team Pack contents (left) and fully assembled (right)

I got a Lego catalog for Summer 2016 before I went on my business trip, but I start class again Monday, so it may be a while before I buy more bricks.  There is some new stuff I have to get my hands on.  I just hope I have enough time to go get, build, and write about them.

Full Lego haul assembled

Lego Dimensions cost analysis

Before we begin here, let's get a couple of things out of the way.  First, I'm postponing my usual scheduled post about one of my Lego city buildings, as I've been fairly busy lately with traveling and social commitments.

Second, if you are no planning to buy Lego Dimensions for a game console, then you can buy whatever Lego sets you want.  I'm just trying to help you save money if you ensure that you can access all the game content available.

First, let's start with the minimum purchase to get entry into all the worlds.  There are 14 areas of the game to explorer beyond the storyline set of levels.  You get access to DC Comics, Lord of the Rings, and the LEGO movie with the starter pack, so you only need 11 more sets.

Pro tip: keep an eye on the ads from your local newspaper or online.  Starter Packs with the game disc, base, Gandalf, Wyldstyle, Batman, and the Batmobile, will run you $80-90 at MSRP, but you can luck out to save a few bucks.  My wife and I lucked out and got the Wii U Starter Pack for less than $33 thanks to a Target sale and the reported price on their website.

After you have the Starter Pack, let's look at the worlds where you only have one set available to get access.  Jurassic World, Portal 2, Scooby-Doo, Midway Arcade, and The Wizard of Oz, Only give you one option, so let's pick those up:

• 71235 Midway Arcade Level Pack
• 71203 Portal 2 Level Pack
• 71205 Jurassic World Team Pack
• 71206 Scooby-Doo! Team Pack
• 71221 Wicked Witch Fun Pack

Level Packs are $29.99, Team Packs are $24.99, and Fun Packs are $11.99.  With these first five purchases, You're already on the hook for $121.95.  I'm not including the Starter Pack in the total financial commitment totals because, of course, if you don't have the Starter Pack and you're just buying Lego's, then you don't need this guide.

We now have access to eight worlds.  There are six more to go, so we'll start looking at minimum purchases.  We can do this with Fun Packs, so we'll calculate our new total now.  $121.95 + (6 * 11.99) = $193.89.

The next question we much ask ourselves is which fun packs to buy.  There are 43 unique character abilities, so we'll look at those characters with unique abilities or have multiple abilities.  I won't got into the details, but here's who I recommend:

• Back to the Future: 71230 Doc Brown Fun Pack (Drone, Fix-It, Hacking, Tech nology)
• The Simpsons: 71227 Krusty the Clown Fun Pack (Growth, Hazard Cleaner)
• Ninjago: 71234 Sensei Wu Fun Pack (Pole Vault, Spinjitzu)
• Legends of Chima: 71222 Laval Fun Pack (CHI, Laser Deflector, Sonar Smash)
• Doctor Who: 71238 Cyberman Fun Pack (X-Ray Vision)
• Ghostbusters: 71241 Slimer Fun Pack (Hazard Protection, Mini Access)

With these six additional Fun Packs, I get to use 37 abilities.  I'm still missing Atlantis, Big Transform, Drill, Freeze Breath, Rainbow LEGO Objects, and Suspend Ghost).  In these instances, I'd use the in-game Hire a Hero function to bring in someone to take care of these tasks.

Please note, I have not taken any vehicle abilities into account yet.  While I was compiling my numbers, I discovered the first Batmobile upgrade will give you the ability to Sonar Smash, which scratches out one reason to get Laval.  I don't know what other upgrades will take care of missing skillsets, but I'll keep you up to date as I progress down the line here.

If you wish to follow my path and you discover something I haven't, please leave a comment below and I'll verify that.  I've already bought the Wicked Witch and Doc Brown, so I can get into 5 of the 14 worlds now.  I'm keeping my eyes open for deals on additional game content packs.  Once I finish up my list, I'll let you know how much I ended up spending and what further abilities I gain with all the vehicles.

Start saving up, kiddos.  You're going to need about $300 to get everything in every Lego Dimension.

Seaside Cottage

The second piece in my series of Lake Shore posts cover the Seaside Cottage.  Lego calls it a Seaside House, but cottage sounds a little more intimate.

The Seaside Cottage

As I stated before, I was going to put some of these shoreline houses on the ocean before I decided to develop a lake shore area.  I'm tempted to take this set back to the ocean, as it is a SEAside house.

Left and right views of the Seaside Cottage

Right now, I have this set on a blue baseplate.  Now that Lego no longer sells blue baseplates, I'm thinking about moving this and all my other lake shore buildings onto sand baseplates, freeing up the blue ones for the ocean.  Of course, I'd have to pay $8 a piece for the new baseplates, but I'd only have to buy four or five of them, so it's not that bad.  But then I'd have to build upon the baseplate to put some water on it, maybe raise the buildings a bit...  I dunno.  I'd have to sit down and play with it to figure out what to do here.

Rear view of the Seaside Cottage

Sets used: 7346

Lego Haul - 5/14/16

Another day, another dollar...  To spend on Lego's of course.

My wife and I went to run some errands again this morning.  Groceries, Target, get myself a haircut.  You know, the usual.  And anytime we leave the house, we have to try to get some more Lego sets.

The Lego haul from 5/14/16

First, we visited Target to pick up some miscellaneous things.  We wandered over to the toy section, and again found Series 15 minifigures.  Since we were not in any rush, we started going through them to find Shark Suit Guy.  It's a good thing we did, as we found him on the second package we grabbed.  There were some debate if it was really him or not, but I felt the jagged teeth for the top part of his suit and his fin arms.  It might have taken us over three months, but we finally finished the set.

I then went to get a haircut, and afterwards, we headed into GameStop to find some Animal Crossing cards.  The sale associate told us that they were having a sale on all Lego Dimension products.  All Fun, Level, and Team Packs were 40% off, so we grabbed a 71230 Doc Brown Fun Pack.

71230 Doc Brown Fun Pack contents

We picked Doc Brown because he had four abilities that we'd need at some point, plus it'd allow us to go to the Back to the Future world.

I keep hoping Lego comes up with more Back to the Future sets.  I already have the DeLorean, but there is so much more they could do with it.  The clock tower, Cafe '80s, the train, any one of a number of Tannen minifigures...  They're sitting on a gold mine.

Shark Suit Guy, the time traveling train, and Doc Brown

I am planning to get more Lego Dimensions add-on sets in the coming weeks and months.  I'll be writing a cost analysis report for the entire series of Lego Dimensions products, in case you're interested in getting a few of them for yourself.  Yay MBA degree knowledge!!

Lego Haul - 5/8/15

This past weekend, my wife and I were on the clock with a number of appointments and time sensitive activities.  It was quite stressful running around town, but I'm glad we did it.

On Sunday, we went to the Minneapolis Wizard World Comic Con to meet the cast of Grimm.  My wife got me hooked on that show a few years ago, so we had to get our picture taken with the actors who play Captain Sean Renard, Juliette Silverton/Eve, and Nick Burkhardt.  It was pretty cool to see all of them in person.  We didn't get much of a chance to talk to them, and we would have like to see a few others, like the guys who play Monroe and Sgt. Wu.

But you're not here to read about meeting the actors from my favorite science fiction and fantasy television shows.  You wanna know what Lego sets I bought.  Fine, I'll tell you.

The Lego haul from 5/8/16

After Comic Con, we went to the downtown Target in Minneapolis to pick up some household items and a Lego Dimensions Fun Pack.  Through our first few days of playing Lego Dimensions, we learned that it was quite similar to Lego Marvel Super Heroes, but with a few key differences.  We needed to either hire characters in-game to address certain tasks or get the actual physical characters so we can play as them.  When you buy the physical minifigures, you can also unlock additional worlds.

We decided to open Pandora's box and get the 71221 Lego Dimensions Wicked Witch Fun Pack.  Even if you don't have Lego Dimensions, I recommend getting some fun packs.  You can play with the minifigures, use the extra pieces to build something, and maybe even finish out a collection of minifigures.  The Wicked Witch seemed like an obvious place to start, since there is no Wizard of Oz Lego sets, so I wouldn't be doubled up on Wicked Witches.  She also has the power to blow up silver items in-game, like some storage tanks we came across in the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant.

The Wicked Witch Fun Pack also has a Flying Monkey that can be used as a vehicle.  Not sure how that's going to help, especially since the instructions didn't tell me how to put it together.  You get those in-game.  I'd post a picture of the contents of this set, but for some reason Google wants to rotate it 90 degrees clockwise.

71221 Lego Dimensions Wicked Witch Fun Pack

As is always the case when we go to Target, we have to see what they have for Lego sets.  We finally found more Lego Series 15 minifigures.  I needed 7 more to finish the set, and we got six of them.  We found the Queen, the Astronaut, the Jewel Thief, the Janitor, the Flying Warrior, and the Faun (or as I like to call him, Goat Boy).  I just need a Shark Suit Guy to finish off the collection.

The Wicked Witch Fun Pack and Series 15 Minifigures

Although I felt pretty run down after everything we did this weekend, it was well worth it.  It always is when you get new Lego sets.

Lego Haul - 5/2/16

My wife and I took Monday off of work to run some errands.  We visited Paisley Park to check out the makeshift memorial to Prince.  We saw the movie Keanu, starting Key and Peele.  And we did some shopping at the Mall of America and Target.

The Lego haul from 5/2/16

Lego officially released the new Disney minifigures on the 1st, so we had to get them.  My wife is a huge Disney fan, so it's safe to say that she wanted the minifigures more than I did.  We were so excited to open them all up that I didn't even bother to take pictures of my haul before we started rifling through all the contents.

Our first purchase from the Lego store was fairly successful, as we got 15 of the 18 minifigures.  We had 2 extra Donald Ducks and 1 extra Genie of the Lamp, and we were missing Captain Hook, Aladdin, Daisy Duck.  I burned through most of my Lego gift card to get them, as I had been saving it for a special occasion like this.

The Lego Disney Minifigures

After the movie, we went back to the Lego store again and were able to find the three minifigures we needed to complete the set.  My wife decided to keep one Donald for herself and set it on her desk at work.  I'll probably give the other extra Donald and the extra Genie to my nephew at Christmas.

At Target, we bought a Lego Dimensions starter pack for Nintendo Wii U.  Target had them on sale for half off, so we had to get one.  My wife and I have had lots of fun playing Lego Marvel Super Heroes, and we nearly completed all the tasks in that game.  She's been itching to get a Lego Marvel Avengers, but since Dimensions was cheaper (especially after I was able to get it at only $32.49, plus a 5% discount as a Target Red Card holder), we got it.

Lego Dimensions launch pad, fully assembled.

Our day off was a massive success.  We should do that more often.  Just take a day off during the work week to go and have some fun.  I highly recommend that you do it as well.  You don't even have to buy Lego's, but if you don't, why even bother taking the day off to begin with?