Lego PAB Haul for 5/06/11.

First, an update on my life and this blog.

Time once again to share the info for my latest PAB haul that took place a few weeks ago. A FEW WEEKS AGO ?????????? Yep,  shocking isn’t it? I can barely remember why I bought these bryxx in the first place. “So why the delay?” ,you may be asking. Well folks….after all the praying (…yes, I’m spiritual) and at least 20 different positions that I applied for in the past 5 months at the same company….I finally landed a job at the place where I wanted to work the most. Let’s just say “they” are another 4-letter word company based in Europe and the name rhymes with “Idea”. 😉

It’s taken me all this time to get adjusted to the concept of working again after being unemployed for the past 9 years while still being a full-time Dad and still adjusting to my new residence. Since the last post, I’ve also teamed w/a friend from my past and we have begun to undertake the steps in planning a Lego website. The site’s name has already been decided and will be disclosed in a future post. Before I get to the PAB contents, I should also point out that I have shot a few concept videos that feature me and some MOC’s. These will NEVER see the light of day for a couple of reasons.

1. They suck. LOL. Seriously though, during playback…it was like listening to a key-note speaker who had the fear of speaking to large crowds. Ironically, I don’t have a problem with speaking to a large crowd in front of a real-time audience, but on video….a different story. I can’t explain it, but the plan is to talk more into the camera so I’ll be desensitized to the whole idea. The lighting and video editing were real raw also, but those are issues that I am addressing or should I say – was addressing right before I became employed again.
2. A Virus took hold of my Mom’s MAC and lost all the data (which was hardly much) that was on it, which included the videos that I speak of. I wasn’t worried about losing them since they were not to be viewed by anyone anyway.

In addition with spending time with my son, I’m doing a lot of juggling as far as time is concerned, but the good news is that a new job equates to more $$$ to purchase more Legos, which I haven’t done since…

My latest PAB haul.

If any of you are still sticking around and anticipating some bitchin’ looking PAB bounties as these posts go by…..my apologies to y’all. As I’m staring at the pic to the right, I can now fully recall why I picked up these pieces in the first place. Actually, it was the 6×4 white plates that I was only after. The other pieces were to fill the voids of the PAB cup itself, but as usual…will prove themselves to be useful in future MOC’s. Here’s the breakdown of the “booty”

• (363) 1×1 Translucent red tiles
• (54) 4×6 white plates
• (10) 1×1 Translucent red plates (mixed in with the tile pieces)

The purpose of purchasing the 4×6 plates is to help finish a fully functioning rotating table (rotable) to display featured MOC’s, minifigs or other Lego models of interest. The concept videos that I mentioned earlier in this post had some great footage of the “rotable” in action and the end result was rather close to what I was trying to execute in the first place, with the exception of some “lighting” issues, but all in all…I was somewhat happy on how it all turned out.

Here’s how I filled the PAB cup this time around. Take a look at the pic above to the right. I layed (2) 4×6’s adjacent to their longer sides, then I turned both plates to one side and laid another (2) plates adjacent to their longer sides and repeated that particular process, which gave it an overlapping effect. Next, I placed (2) 4×6 plates on top of each other and laid them in a perimeter that surrounded the multi-stacked overlapping 6×8 plates (two 4×6 plates joined together by their longer sides become a 6×8 plate). After I could not place anymore white plates in the cup, I filled all the empty spaces with the red 1×1 pieces – both plates and tiles, which yielded me the 427 pieces in total.

Price per piece for this PAB haul.

Before Orange County, Ca state tax, the price per piece came to $0.0187119….or near $.02 a piece. And as usual, here’s the group shot of the PAB contents this time around:

From left to right: The 4×6 plates are stacked in groups of 5, the (10) 1×1 Tr. red plates are in “Space Invader” form and finally, the 363 Tr. red  tiles are in rows of (10). I’m hoping it won’t be too long before my next entry, since I’m doing more test video shots and I have to start planning on creating the future sites logo out of Lego. Until next time…..BRICK ON!!!!!!! I know I will be.

Fergie earns my respect in Lego outfit.

Ladies and gentlemen, the time has come for me to make an “about-face” on yet another music performer who I would not consider giving the time of day to watch perform…let alone, of what she wore.Yes…I’m talking about Fergie.

Why me no likey?????

To be honest, I can’t think of a good reason to explain why Fergie rubs me the wrong way, but I’d bet there are a few males that would loooove to have her rub…..Oops, NEVERMIND! I got to remember to stay on topic here.

So let me think… “Why do I have a problem with Fergie”?
She’s not ugly, but looks are all not that important to me anyway, in a general sense. She knows how to shake her “lady lumps”, but then again….I enjoy watching Tori Amos just sitting at the piano while tickling the ivory’s. Fergie can sing, from only the small evidence of songs that I happen to catch on pop FM radio, which I don’t really listen to. Although I’m not too fond of the studio version for The Black Eyed Peas “My Humps” where she repeats the song title excessively, I absolutely bump the Lil’ Jon remix of the same song where you don’t hear Fergie talk over, she in fact….SINGS! But then, she sounds beautiful on “Don’t Lie”. a ballad from a previous BEP album.

Just as there was never a reason for me  not to accept her as an entertainer/person, there was just as much reason to accept her as well. I just could not see it. Kinda chickesh!t, isn’t it? After all…who the hell am I?

I’m a Lego “newbie” that’s also a “newbie” in blogging…

…that just happens to have egg on his face, pulling the foot outta my mouth so I can eat crow….talk about multi-tasking. I’m also the guy that heard about Fergie showing up in a Lego dress at her recent appearance to Nickelodeon’s Kid’s Choice Awards that took place this past weekend.

I’m also the guy that spent about 5 minutes registering myself on gather.com to spend another 5 minutes on replying to the post about the Fergie dress being a “hit or a miss”. A funny thing happened while I was typing text to put my perspective on the topic….I found myself being open-minded about Fergie.

 

But I didn’t stop there…

Nope, I’ve decided to address it here on my blog. As I’m researching the info for this very post, I was discussing the whole Fergie Lego dress with my Brother who just happened to mention that Fergie’s Black Eyed Pea counterpart…. will.i.am, had sported some Lego of his own at the American Music Awards back in Nov. of 2010.

When I saw the above pic, my mind got to thinking, which led me to speculate about Fergie’s mindset on the whole Lego dress altogether. Let me stress again that I was just speculating the following sentences.

Was Fergie impressed with will.i.am’s Lego accessories so much that she wanted to take it up a notch and be in a total lego ensemble? I (slightly) only know of their music because mainstream/hip-hop is not one of my strengths in music knowledge, let alone if will.i.am has some type of fond memories of the bryxx that I’ve known and come to love…again,  just in a recent couple of years. And what of Fergie? Does she have some of the same memories of Lego just like her band mate? Probably, probably not…I don’t know these people.

Did not only Fergie like the idea of a Lego dress, would she seek out a designer for the said dress, be caught in it in public, photographed and yes….PERFORMING in the very same dress, no matter what the fashion consequences, if any????

I don’t care who you are….that takes guts and character. Something that I like in my celebrities.

Am I to ever think negatively of the Fergalicious performer again?

Subtle Lego part variations.

Part# 3747a (upper-left), part# 3747b (lower-right)

You can file this post under “Lego lessons” just like my previous entry, because this Lego “newbie” keeps discovering new things in the wonderful world of Lego.

As the title suggests, I’m talking about some of the subtle differences in the molds that The Lego Group creates at the factory and how in fact, they can make all the difference in the world when it comes to creating (your) MOC’s.

The pic above shows 2 relatively similar pieces, but if you look closely…you can see the differences in the mold where there are connections between the studs on the lower-right piece and no connections on the upper-left.  “Mold A” started to appear in sets as early as 1980, while “Mold B” appeared with the change in 2004. For the record, I had Mold B in my inventory for some unspecified time. It came from any of the various sets that are now taken apart and placed in their respective bins categorized by color. I  received Mold A from a bricklink order just days ago, which is to be used in my current project. My design calls for 16 of these pieces. At first, I wasn’t too thrilled that the shop only had 1 piece in their entire store’s inventory, but it was a blessing…I’ll explain later.

In regards to the piece itself, I honestly could not understand why an additional mold was created. If one was to place another piece over the entire surface, it would not make any difference in regards to the pieces locking together, nor would there be a difference in placing a round studded piece smack dab in the middle of the 4 “open” studs. So why on Earth did  TLG create another slope piece similar to the original but with the extra plastic???

I’m not 100% certain of this, but I suspect that the connections on Mold B have something to do with the thickness of the edge shown in the oval. Mold A is thicker so it did not need the connections between the studs like Mold B.

It was in fact, the difference in the edge’s thickness between Molds A & B, where I was happy to learn that the bricklink store only had the 1 brick, because Mold B would have suited my project better now that I realized the differences between the 2 molds. As I write this, I’m waiting for another bricklink.com merchant to invoice me for the remaining 15 pieces of part #374b, ship them and finally add them to my project where I can at that point,  call it done.

One thing is certain however; the next time that I see 2 different part #’s…I’ll be sure to examine both of them thoroughly so I don’t order the wrong piece(s) for future projects.

Taking the bite out of Lego construction discrepencies.

Well, this has been an interesting week for me in learning about the dynamics of building with Lego and I’m sure I’ll have plenty more to blog about on the subject in the future. But for now, I’ll just share what I discovered recently.

I am near completion of  working on a project that will aid in showcasing some MOC’s to be shot on video so I can feature them here and on youtube. Yes….I know, I did mention a while back that I will be featuring video “how-to-build” of my MOC’s. Life just keeps getting in the way, but I’m just about near the point of making this whole video thing, a reality. I’m just waiting on parts for the complete assembly of my project which started to arrive yesterday as a matter of fact and I should be getting the rest in the next few days.

The gears are grinding…literally.

A grinding halt....almost.

I should point out that this is my first ever MOC that involves the use of gears and bushings and that I could not wait to develop a project where I would be able utilize these pieces. Since I was a child in the single digit age, I was always fascinated with gears, sprockets, cogs and pulleys, thanks to the board game – Mousetrap. I enjoyed watching things in motion and how they affect their neighboring parts.

The functionality of this project, relies solely on gears and how they mesh together. So one could imagine my disappointment when I was experiencing grinding and locking while the gears were in motion only after almost 1 revolution. I wasn’t sure why my project was being hampered with this problem, but then again….since I’m new to the whole Lego gears universe, I could not begin where to start troubleshooting.  After about an hour or so of getting nowhere, I decided to take a break and come to a stopping point before my own gears between my ears started to smoke, grind and come to a halt of its own.

The next morning after a good night’s sleep, I am blessed with a reassurance that I will not only solve my “gears” problem on that day,  but I will solve it in about an hour or at least an hour after my morning ritualistic cup of Sumatran Reserve. I kept telling myself that the problem was already solved and the project was just waiting for me to execute the correction.

After careful re-examining the problem area, specifically the gear that rests vertical, I begin to  remove some of the  bryxx that exposes the axle that it’s connected to. I notice a slight lift of the axle itself. It’s not very noticeable to the naked and untrained eye, but I happen to be very anal retentive and see it plain as day.

Somehow, I was remembering visions of  the bryxx that are “salt & peppered” in all my Lego bins that feature bite marks, thanks to my now 8 year old son. I started to rummage through any given bin and found a brick that would best describe what I’m about to show.

Tasty brick....needs salt.

Hopefully, by this photo, you can see the bite mark that rests towards the left of the pic on top portion of the bottom Lego plate. (Click on photo for a slightly larger pic).  As you can see, the bite mark left an imperfection on the plate itself which created a “lip” of some sort and it prevents the top plate to properly snap to the bottom plate, creatiing a rift or a raise to the top plate. Notice that the gap between the 2 plates is larger toward the left vs. the right side??? Properly locked bryxx illustrate a clean and even hairline gap from one side to the other which is clearly missing in the above photo. It wasn’t these 2 plates that were featured in my project but you can start to get the idea that any bryxx that were resting on the slightly askewed top plate, would indeed affect any and all adjoining pieces that were supported by this plate to begin with.

That’s what essentially caused the lift of the axle that was connected to the gear that laid vertical. Great! Woo-freaking-Hoo! But now the question is……..which piece has the imperfection?

The search for block.

Yep, time to get up and walk around to wake my legs up because I’ve been sitting “indian-style” for nearly 30 minutes while playing Sherlock Holmes in figuring out the culprit to my grinding gear problem. Since I’m up, another cup of joe wouldn’t be bad either. Ok….back to work. It’s at this time that I start meticulously eyeballing literally every piece of brick on the main section of my project and start looking for imperfections which only took about a minute or so. The faulty piece was resting toward the bottom of the main section, so with my trusty brick separator, I begin to deconstruct the main body and making my way to affected brick to swap it out with a newer conditioned piece.

Problem solved and a lesson learned.

After reconnecting the last piece of the main body, I test the gears by giving the crank arm that the axle is connected to, a few turns and what-d’ya-know…the sound of gears meshing and spinning continuously with no grinding is achieved. One step forward the completion of this project and a lesson gained of checking each proposed piece to be used in upcoming projects for bite marks and other imperfections, before going into any MOC from here on out. This Lego “newbie” is forever grateful of this and the upcoming lessons that I will learn in working with these wonderful bryxx.

The Lego Store Grand Opening: Costa Mesa, Ca

The Lego Store - South Coast Plaza

I can’t even recall the last time I ever stepped foot into this particular shopping mall; and on top of that…I can’t remember what store I even visited when I did step foot at the South Coast Plaza, maybe…the Swatch store, LOL….not kidding. I’m not the shopping mall type of guy, which is a major contrast to my youth when I would frequent shopping malls all over SoCal with my Mom and that was to hit the coin-operated video arcades. Yes, before Xbox and Playstations, we Gen-X’ers had to leave our dwellings and visit stores that housed video games that gave you 3 men for a quarter.

Well, I may be visiting this mall more frequently due to the opening of The Lego Store that quietly took place last Wednesday, but they advertised their official grand opening this past Friday, Sat. and Sunday with a lot of fanfare.

"Sorry bro, kids only".

“Let’s build a Yoda”!!!!!

The mall and The Lego Store worked together to have a building event that took place at the closest center court that was adjacent to the grand opening itself. Lego brought in an expert builder to orchestrate the event in which kids were able to sign up and assist in building the support structure underneath where a 3′ Yoda stood.

Afterwards, the kids were given a certificate of achievement for participating in the event. I didn’t have my 8-year-old with me when I was at the grand opening but I asked the gal who was issuing the certificates  if I could have one for collectible purposes and she asked if I wanted it blank. I then asked her if she could put my son’s name on it even though he was not there to take part in the event. She was nice and obliged me,  plus… I thought he would appreciate the  sentiment.

Onto the store.

Well, not quite. As my Mom, brother and I turned the corner and walked  about 30 yards heading towards the anchor store (which was Sears), we saw the yellow glow of the store entrance with the red cube adorned with the Lego logo. We were getting ready to make our way into the entrance when we saw a couple of Lego employee’s at the doorway stating that there is a line to get into the store and they directed us towards yet another employee who served as a placeholder for the unsuspecting store attendees.

So here we are, standing at the end of what seemed to be a very slow-moving line. This just about took the wind out of my sails…so to speak. I mean, I was surprised to see such a large crowd to get into a store dedicated to Lego’s. This was after all on a Saturday when we went. In disbelief, I asked the employee if it was like this the day before, he stated that the reason they had a line like the one we were in was due to the fact that they had all the attendees IN the store AT THE SAME TIME. He said that people were packed like sardines, rubbing elbows and all the descriptions you can name in describing a crowded situation.

"No cut-sies!"

So that explains the velvet rope. It also demonstrates just how much Lego is becoming more popular as the years go by. I got re-acquainted with the world of Lego almost a couple of years ago, so I missed all the hoopla of the grand opening for the Lego Store at Downtown Disney in Anaheim, back in January of 2001,  which was not far from the Costa Mesa location. Never in my childhood would I have dreamed that I could build my favorite Disney movies out of Lego or Star Wars for that matter, thanks to the licensing power that The Lego Group has amassed over the years. Not to mention the DVD movies or how could I forget….a theme park.

And what about all the photo albums on Flickr and other photo sharing websites that showcase all the various types of  Lego genres from the young and the young-at-heart Lego builders. After hours and ogling Flickr accounts, my son and I were hooked. Ok, I now fully understand why we had to wait 45 minutes to gain entry for The Lego Store. Besides, it was a whole decade before Orange County, Ca received its 2nd Lego Store.

How many pieces am I?

 

 

 

It’s raffle time.

Yesssss!!!!!!!!!! We made it in. It was crowded so you could not run yourself ragged and sucking up the newness of the store, but we were finally inside. Another way of celebrating the grand opening, was a raffle by guessing how many bryxx made up the most famous Mandalorian ever in the Star Wars universe. The prize is a $50 gift card to be used at any Lego Store location. I had made my guess based on the amount of Lego that it took to create this guy, but Boba Fett looked a little bit smaller in girth compared to the Firefighter at the Toys R Us store in Cerritos, Ca.

I chose a smaller amount, filled out the form, made my guesstimate and dropped the slip in the box. Truth be known, it was another reason for my attending the event. $50 in store credit will be very welcomed since my son has more than shared his interest in the up-coming brand new genre of  the “Alien Conquest” building sets that are due to hit retail in July.

DO NOT ADJUST YOUR MONITORS!

The Pick-A-Brick section.

When we were back in line waiting to be the next ones to walk through the entrance, we could barely see the contents of the store itself, however, what was prominent to me was the PAB display that was way in back of the store; and what appears to be a well-lit PAB display which is how my eyes caught it…all the way from the front of the store. Not sure if this is exclusive to the Costa Mesa location, but I’ve never seen lit bins at both the Downtown Disney or Ontario Mills locations. I just thought it made a great pic.

And of course, what would a trip to the Lego Store be without leaving with a cup full of Legos. I got my money’s worth and then some. For full details of my score, read here.

Something for Jr.

My son wasn’t able to join us for the festivities and frankly, he would not have done well with all the waiting in line and the crowds in the store but I didn’t want to leave there empty-handed since I had a great score at the PAB section. Plus, I had $5 in VIP points to use up….so why not?  He also had $20 coming to him from his Aunt from up North. What to get him was a no-brainer. The boy wants collectible minifigures. The problem is, I don’t know which ones and for those that are not “in the know”, they are all sealed in the same packaging with no hint to what lies inside.

In order to find out which minifigs are in the package, one needs to feel around the packaging for specific accessories that pertain to the figure that you’re looking for. I wasn’t about to deal with that noise like I did when I found Series 2, if you guys remember that, not on that day.

His Uncle picked him up a Lego coin bank and I got him a Ninjago Spinjitsu Minifigure. There were about 3 different types of  Spinjitsu’s and because of my collective nature, I grabbed the figure that was the least available hanging on the pegs. It was a black Ninja and its name  happened to share my son’s middle name: Cole, which I didn’t notice until I got home to take it out of the bag. Awesome! All in all, it was a great day had by all. I for one am glad that there are now 2 different locations in somewhat a close proximity to each other.

Lego PAB Haul for 3-12-11

Hey guys! It’s been a while since my last post. A lot going on in my personal life and things are starting to slow down around here. One of the issues was including a move from my old residence to a new one. I don’t want to get into all the details in the risk of dis interesting y’all….so let’s get to the subject at hand.

I was able to make it to the grand opening of the Costa Mesa, Ca. location of the new Lego Store at the South Coast Plaza, which I will fully disclose all the details of that trip in the next blog after this very one.

After waiting in line for about 45 mins….yep-you read right, A LINE, I was able to mosey on through the melee of the crowd to make my way to the rear of the store where the newly stocked bins with vibrant colored Lego awaited me.

Fill'er up.

The “wanted” list.

Had no idea of what was to be found in the bins since this was to be my 1st grand opening of any Lego Store, but my “wanted” list was rather simple-meaning that I only wanted white bryxx and some clear ones as well, which is usually found in the bins of any given Lego Store. One of my pet peeves of the PAB section is that there are different bins with duplicate bryxx found; and not just one type of brick, several.

I was thinking with this being a brand new store, the PAB section would have had a different brick in a different bin. This wasn’t the case, but I must say that the bin display was rather unique in terms of presentation. All the bins were cleverly filled with almost every spectrum of the Lego rainbow,not to mention that most of the bryxx were 2×4, 2×6 in size and they were individually lit. One could see them if they were even passing by the entrance to the store from the wing of the shopping mall.

Soon after being entranced by the brightly lit bins, I began to scan for white bryxx. Just a few days ago, I happen to start yet on another project. A Lego sorting bin. If you guys recall on my last PAB for 8-31-10, I picked up quite a few of the white round-corner 2×2 bryxx. Well, I finally found the best use for those pieces and it was a mere accident how I discovered to utilize them. All I needed was some key white bryxx to “fill the gaps”…literally.

The Four Horsemen.

Here’s the booty in detail.

Ok, so this is my what….3rd post on the whole PAB thing? I like sharing with you guys what I pick up and just how much I pick up to fully illustrate that with a some time and patience, you can score big savings at the PAB section at any Lego Store you visit.

The pic to the right shows what I chose to fill the larger sized PAB cups with. ($14.99 before Orange County, Ca tax) From top to bottom w/their quantities in parenthesis:

• 1x2x5 white brick (52)
• 1×10 white brick (36)
• 2×6 white brick (4)
• 1×1 trans-clear plate (554)

I started locking the 1×10 bryxx in groups of 8 which took up the middle portion of the cup. Next was the 1x2x5’s and I stacked those about 3 high and those went around the perimeter inside the cup. Next were the 2×6’s and I could only fit 4 of those in the center due to the first 3 sets of bryxx occupying the space below.

Finally, I filled every gap of the white bryxx with the trans-clear pieces by pouring a small amount into the gaps, shake the cup around to make the trans-clear pieces settled to the bottom and repeated that process until the cup was filled to the brim. That’s how I wound up with 554 pieces of the clear, bringing a grand total of  646 bryxx in all. $14.99 / 646 = $.023 cents (or more than 2 but less than 3 cents per piece of Lego).

Price Comparison: Lego PAB vs. Bricklink.com

Ok, on my last PAB post, I did mention that I was going to demonstrate the price difference in picking up the same bricks at the 2 different venues. I’m sorry to report that it was too involved in including the price breakdown for finding a single merchant on bricklink that had all 4 of the types of bryxx that I found collectively at the PAB, but I assure you that I got a way better deal in buying these particular bryxx at just a little over $.02/piece vs bricklink.com, plus….I acquired a larger size PAB cup in the process.

What I will show you in the following links are the prices on the average of the bryxx and what they are selling for at bricklink.com. If you’re not familiar with bricklink.com’s site, I ask you to focus on the 2nd column from your right and to address the “new” brick column, since that’s the condition that I purchased the bryxx in Costa Mesa.

• 1x2x5 white brick – Avg. price @ $.16 /pc x 52 pcs picked = $8.32
• 1×10 white brick – Avg. price @ $.25 / pc x 36 =$9.00
• 2×6 white brick – Avg.price @ $.16/ pc x 4 = $.64
• 1×1 trans-clear plate – Avg.price @ $.05 / pc x 554 = $27.70

Total of the Avg. prices on bricklink.com: $45.66. Please note that this price does NOT include the shipping and handling charges that would have been added by the prospective seller and given by the weight of this potential order, they could have tacked on another six bucks or so for prep and shipment of said order, which brings the potential grand total to roughly $52.00.

It looks like I did give you some type of breakdown of the bricklink.com prices after all, but again… those were prices based on the averages of  bricklink.com as a collective vs. the  same pieces that I purchased at The Lego Store, but it does not show the exact amount that I could have spent if I was to find all 4 different types of bryxx from the same seller on bricklink.com  due to them selling any of the 4 bryxx above or below the avg. price for each item listed above.

Group Shot.

The intent of this visit to the PAB bins was to pick up the white bryxx to see how they would work with my Lego sorting bin project. The clear ones are going to be utilized (if you can believe) another project that would include ways of creating letters of the alphabet.

I’m seeing a trend here where I do find what I’m looking for at the PAB, but when I need to finish topping off the cup, I start brainstorming then and there and end up filling the cup w/pieces that I had no intention of getting upon my arrival. That was the case with the clear pieces on this last visit.

New and Improved MOC Space Police Jail Cell.

Room for improvement????

I may have been a little premature in releasing pics of the MOC Space Police Jail Cell that I posted several months back. As a matter of fact and after looking at before and after pics….I KNOW I WAS!. What was I thinking? I may have just learned a good lesson of creating something and letting loose the creative and detailed monster that I know that dwells inside of me, instead of just releasing something just for the sake of releasing something. Deep down in my sub-conscience, I wasn’t that proud of what I posted now that I look back at the whole thing.

I’ve heard, er…rather read what the talented MOC’ers whose work that I admire have said; and yes…I’m paraphrasing….”Give it your absolute best effort” or something like “If you think there’s room for improvement, then it’s NOT done.” Well, from those thoughts to my mind and hands, I’ve come up with a design that I’m proud to exhibit

More SNOT is always good.

The roof, the roof, the roof in on…..Heh heh.

Yeah, after a couple of designs and seeing which pieces would go where AND 3 purchases from different bricklink shops, I’m very happy with the end result as seen above. The only thing that remained from the previous design, was the housing for the antenna that rests dead center. I did have another design in mind but I felt that it lacked the WOW factor and even though it was more in detail than the previous effort, it was nowhere near enough of what I could have done with the ample room on the roof.

Bird's eye view.

I tackled with the aspect of designing the roof in 2 different objectives. To cover the studs and to give the overall appearance of the roof a little more “oomph”, because there was so much detail on the sides of the cell block and it seems like I just ran out of creative juices when it came to the roof. Yep, Lego Building 101 is in full effect. After putting the finishing touches on the roof, it almost resembles a parasite with 4 “tentacles” that have a grip on the entire cell block which was not the intent of the design but the whole concept grew on me.

The other improvements.

Out with the old gauge-in blue insert and in with the new interface.

In addition to the enhanced roof and since I was buying more bryxx anyway, I’ve decided to do more improvements to the cell as a whole. The original photo featured some light bley (blue-grey) pieces on the side that rested between the 2 observation windows on each side. After much consideration, I wanted a more streamlined look so, I switched out the lighter bley pieces with the darker bley pieces with some slight moderation to the features already in place, shown in the photo to the right.

This pic also shows the addition of more pieces to add height to the roof which aided in hiding the former studs on top, which was one of the main objectives to this remodel. I really don’t see anymore I could do with the cell, but this time – I am more than happy with what I’ve got here.

Dog vs. Lego

"The Minifigures are the tastiest"

Ladies and gentlemen, meet S’mores. My pure-bred 3-year-old male Shih-tzu. I named him S’mores due to his puppy coat consisting of  the 3 colors that you would find in the campfire snack.  White, tan and dark brown- which had faded into an ash after a few trips to the groomers. Such a great dog for our 1300+ sq.ft. condo. He’s got a great temperament, loves kids, strangers. He loves to play and fetch. Hardly barks-which was the selling point for me when we chose him over another shih-tzu pup that whined and barked a lot. He only barks when he hears noises-you know, the ones when someone’s at the door.

The only issue with S’mores is that….he’s a chewer.  This is my second dog ever and first one as an adult so I took precautions when I got him as a pup. We picked up the “Shih-tzus for Dummies” book and started getting all the info on this breed so we knew what to expect. It did mention the chew factor, but I think S’mores is beyond the curve that the authors wrote about.

No matter what the chew toy was made of; hard rubber, cloth and anything else suitable for his small teeth…he obliterated by not only chewing up and making big pieces out of little pieces, but he’d consume the little pieces as well, which led to some interesting and decorative “leavings” on the puppy pad.

Bonus activities included hacking and coughing and the “ejecting” of the material that didn’t agree with his tummy. After realizing that I’d had enough of his hijinks with chew toys, I came to the decision of stop buying them. BIG MISTAKE. Damn dog turned his attention on our expensive furniture and gnawed on corners of our artsy coffee table. And if he became tired of the table, he shifted over to the remodeled base boards that I installed during our living room makeover. SERENITY NOW!!!!!

I wanted to kill him right then and there but no…Instead, I went to one of the bigger pet retail places and explained to them my situation. They suggested the “chews” that get smaller as the dog chews them and then, can be ingested.

Score: S'mores 1, Jawson 0

The last and (hopefully) final casualty.

The pic to your right is clear evidence of the serious chewing power that S’mores is capable of. For those that aren’t sure what you’re looking at, it’s the underside of a minfigure torso and minifigure head. I took off one weekend and came back to what looked like remnants of one my Lego Minifigs: Jawson. Do I have to mention the irony here?

Luckily when I purchased the entire second wave of the Space Police collection throughout the earlier part of the year, I was graced with 2 Jawson’s, so I’m not that much upset. But another drawback of this dog is that he is sneaky. He doesn’t dare do the things he knows that he’ll get punished for when I’m home, but if I’m gone…it’s a friggin’ free for all…sneaky bastard. You can best believe that I’ll always those chewables for S’mores to prevent unwanted chewing of Lego, furniture and who knows what else may my dog fancy at the time.

After reading the above, I’m sure y’all are just thinking why I make sure that I don’t leave ANY Lego for the dog to get a hold of. I am the father of an 8 year old and he’s constantly aware of what S’mores is capable of doing. I make sure that all Lego stays in his room but for those with children AND Lego….easier said then done. 😉

"...and I thought I had teeth".

My Lego….Rat’s nest??????

A bowl with no name.

How many times have you come home and placed your keys, phone, wallet or etc…, somewhere and when you go to leave your home….you can’t find them? This used to be the case with me several years ago.

Thanks to the biology of our human bodies, I’ve been in a rush to get home and make use of the facilities because of something that I ate, didn’t agree with my innards. Of course that means that I frantically unlock my door, toss my keys wherever and take care of my business while re-enacting the toilet scene from “Trainspotting” when Renton was no longer constipated and had to use the “worst toilet in Scotland”

Great! After everything was settled and my abdomen could return to Defcon 5, all was right with the world, until I would have to leave my home and play one of my other favorite indoor sports….”Dude, where are my keys?”

Frantically looking for anything, leading to desperation….is not good, period. You now become late > hurried > unfocused > aggravated > aggressive > angry > a schmuck. Do people want to be around schmucks? I know I don’t.

A movie about love, music and home organization

The remedy.

Flashback to the early-mid ’90s when I saw the movie “Singles” for the first time. I specifically remember a scene where Kyra Sedgwick’s character walks in her unit and tosses her keys in what appears to be some type of bowl w/marbles in it. I couldn’t get an accurate description of the bowl due to the scene only lasting a second or so, but my sub-conscience picked up on it and it actually distracted me for a few seconds of what immediately followed in the film.

Within a day or so, I too had a bowl with marbles in it to now hold my keys and wallet when I walk in the door. Remember, this is the early mid ’90s so I did not have a mobile phone at the time to add to the bowl. Placement of the bowl was a non-issue. It was to be somewhere relatively near the door where I would place  my goods when I walked in and grabbed the goods when I was walking out. The “schmuck factor” was considerably lower due to the bowl…but not eliminated. 😀

The bowl unlike the one pictured, was made out of  glass used for baking which the mouth  measured about 1 foot long in circumference and I filled it with some random marbles packaged in a fishnet sack that you would find at Toys “R” Us.  Now the other issue that I had to address was what to call the bowl. To be honest and in reality, I was the ONLY person that I knew of that had a bowl like this, so no one could help me with properly naming the said bowl.

Henceforth, the bowl shall now be known as…

For NO specific reason, I dubbed it “The Rat’s Nest”. I figured rats gathered things and kept them somewhere and that’s pretty much what the bowl did, it helped me to keep my things… gathered. Yes!!!!! Problem solved. The glass and marble combo started at my bachelor pad in Long Beach, Ca and went with me at its current location here in Anaheim, Ca. which is now a family home. But when we were remodeling our home-circa 2004, the bowl had to undergo some minor changes as well to fit in with the rest of the decor.

My wife and I were stuck on the stainless steel idea while using primary colors….you know, red, yellow and blue. So I went ahead and swapped the bowl for a stainless steel one and proceeded to find some primary colored marbles. The marble phase did not pan out due to the fact that… 1.) I couldn’t find a rather large quantity of primary colored marbles and 2.) I was not going to invest in buying several dozen Chinese Checker board games to meet my marble criteria even though I’m sure Toys “R” Us would’ve appreciated it.

I’ve lost my marbles.

Ok, so the marble idea petered out. What could I possibly use to fill the bowl that would be not so costly as well as be available in primary colors????

Suddenly, I was overcome with the notion of using something that I had forgotten entirely about from my youth…The Lego Brick. But where could I find such a large quantity that would be enough to fill my Rat’s Nest?  I got my answer through ebay in the shape of 350 red pieces of various sized bryxx and plates which came to the cost of $16 or so, shipping included.

I should also mention that the primary color idea was also short-lived right after I received the package of the red Lego’s. The new color scheme was to include “earthy” tones like tan, olive green and sand green to name a few but we kept the stainless steel concept nonetheless. This will no doubt mean that I will change the bryxx in the bowl once again in the near future. *Sigh*

A recent revelation.

When it came time to blog about the Lego featured “Rat’s Nest”, my mind got to thinking about researching the term “Rat’s Nest” and if in fact, that’s what the proper name of the bowl where one keep’s their gatherings. So I googled the term and found this one of several entries:

“The slang term “rat’s nest” is used to describe a particularly messy or disordered environment, referencing the habits of many species of rat. The term can also be used metaphorically, to describe a messy situation, as in “a rat’s nest of problems was uncovered when the company was audited.” As a general rule, this term is used in a deprecating way, under the assumption that most people prefer a state of general cleanliness to a mess.”

“Rats are famous for having messy nests because they build their nests from a wide assortment of items, and they tend to hoard objects of interest or curiosity. A rat’s nest might include scraps of paper and textiles, twigs, grasses, and leaves, but it will also hold things like pens, metal, and any other objects which a rat might find intriguing. As young rats are raised in the nest, they soil it until they reach an age where they can strike out on their own, rendering the nest spectacularly messy.”

“Humans and rats have been living close to each other for centuries, so it is perhaps not surprising that a messy human’s living space or office would be compared to a rat’s nest. The implication is that the space is totally chaotic and filled with a wide assemblage of hoarded objects, stored in no particular order and for no apparent reason. A rat’s nest might also have various food items squirreled away, causing a distinctive odor to hang over the space.”

“Some people prefer messy environments, and in fact some would argue that although their spaces look messy, they have a very particular and set order, even if it is understood only by the occupant. Much like the rats they are likened to, people who inhabit or work in rat’s nests may actually have a very sound logic which governs the arrangement and contents of their space, although more clean-minded people might have trouble comprehending it.”

So there you have an idea as to why I’m inclined to label the bowl as something else. For the record, I hate to be dis-organized. Cluttered room = cluttered mind and I for one cannot function when I’m faced with chaos and disorder, particularly in my dwelling.

If anyone out there actually knows the correct name for this type of  bowl, I would like to hear from you.

Brickd.com : Another site dedicated in showing Lego MOC’s.

It never ceases to amaze me just how many different MOC sites that are out there. I literally just discovered this site as an advertisement on Facebook of all places. The above piece was created by an artist called “rongYIREN”

The site features all sorts of creations. Spaceships, Mechs, Castles, Dioramas & etc with the artist’s name in a hyperlink that warps you to their respective Flickr accounts to show their entire photo stream. Simple yet….brilliant. For me,Brickd.com is just another tool to utilize in gathering ideas from other Lego artists to use in my own future MOC’s.