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.

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.

Dolluck???? What are you talking about,Seb?!?!?!?!?!?

So…no sooner does my son Sebastian discover (and I re-discover) the joy of Lego a little over a year ago, he goes on youtube to watch various vids about them. Stop motion movies, Lego set reviews, home movies, you name it…he watches it; and whatever he watches, he usually builds it so he can have his own out of the plethora of bryxx that we have.

I’m sometimes in the room with him when he’s watching these vids. Some are rather hilarious, some are rather….hmmm- interesting and some are just “zzzz”.

Suffice to say, I am a child of the 70’s myself. The only science fiction/space TV programs that I was exposed to was “The Twilight Zone”, “Star Trek”, “Battle Star Galactica” and “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century”.

My son is talking AND building gibberish.

Fast forward to about a month ago, Sebastian announces to me that he’s going to build his very own “Dolluck”.
“A what????”, I ask. “A Dolluck, Dad”. I’m shaking my head as I’m tidying up the kitchen and thinking that he’s having fun with his old man and just making words up, but he’s never been one to do that, so…I just shrug my shoulders and tell him to “have a nice time with building your ‘Dolluck’ “…and yes, it’s pronounced the way it’s spelled, just in case y’all were wondering.

"Dalek...my darling"

Sure enough, my boy returns in about 30 minutes with what appears to be a steampunk version of a vacuum cleaner and what I would imagine…the perfect mate for “Rosie the robot” from the Jetsons – which happens to be another program I used to watch in regards to space, though I wasn’t sure if the “Dolluck” was male or female due to its ambiguity.

“Look at my ‘Dolluck’ , Dad…whatd’ya think?” And like the Dad that I should be, I respond with “Oh….that’s a pretty good “‘Dolluck’ , dude.” Of course in my mind, I have not the slightest clue of what he just showed  me, but like I said….he’s built stuff from youtube before and he’d done a great representation of the things he’s seen, so I wasn’t about to question it, plus – he was quite proud of it and that’s all that matters.

Mystery solved.

Later that night as I walk into the bedroom where Seb is on my PC watching youtube right before I prep him for his evening shower, I hear a somewhat familiar theme song. “Bubba”, (my nickname for him), how on earth do you know of this show???? I don’t even know this show”. I was just familiar with the theme song since it was sampled in a song called “Doctorin’ the Tardis” by The Timelords which received heavy FM radio airplay on our alternative-rock station KROQ in the late 80’s. The song also mimicked Gary Glitter’s “Rock and Roll-Part 2”

“Dad, this is where the ‘Dolluck’ came from”. I peer into the monitor…low and behold I see the words “Dr. Who: Dalek” plain as day. Needless to say…I was dumbfounded, flabbergasted and any multi-syllable words of “duh” that you can think of. I can barely make out the good Dr. if he was in a line up and if you asked me to single him out….let alone a Dalek. I never watched the show, I just knew of the theme song as mentioned above.

Yes, the pieces are mix & match colorwise due to not having the particular parts in certain colors, but dang…my boy did a great microscale of the Dalek, thanks to him finding a video on how to build one out of Lego.

EXTERMINATE!

My own parasite.

The beginning of this past week was quite gut-wrenching for me…literally. I was struck with what I believe to be food poisoning. Of course, I’m no doctor but I had more than just “Montezuma’s Revenge” going on inside me to rule out that a few trips to the porcelain god and I’m rid of whatever was ailing me.

In addition to numerous trips to the oval chair, I was struck with body aches and pain. It was work just to get dressed and walk Sebastian to school just down a couple of  a hundred paces or so and back. Luckily, I had bottles of the Kirkland brand (found at Costco) of vitamin water to consume which helped considerably due to the fact that it’s loaded w/electrolytes to replenish what I have lost.

The Culprit?

I’m not 100% certain, but my hunch was the flour tortilla that was in my son’s bean and cheese burrito from this place down the street from us. He was struck w/some kind of bug earlier last week but he didn’t have all the other symptoms like I had. But I ate his burrito that was left over from a couple of days prior as a late night snack, a few hours later…I would rise from bed and begin several trips to the head the entire morning which put me in a zombie state due to the lack of sleep I got. Didn’t even get to finish my daily AM cup of Sumatran Reserve to make matters worse.

The day was a complete loss as I laid in bed all day and trying to keep cool while SoCal was enduring a record-breaking heat wave. It was something like 112°F in my area. I mustered up the strength to go retrieve my son from school and dragged my butt home again only to strip and drop back to bed.

I’m not cooking…no way, no how.

I should mention that I’m Mr. Mom since my son was born 8 years ago, but under the circumstances last week, there was a better chance of Jimmy Hoffa being found vs. me behind the stove. My wife works full time so I don’t expect her to pitch in and cook but she offered to pick up some Carl’s Jr burgers. I opted for the Big Carl which is basically a McDonald’s Big Mac on steroids. I knew something was a miss when it took me 3 times longer to finish my fast food grub, not to mention…the continuing trips to the head. Soon after that, I got myself to bed.

Facing the inevitable.

I got my "E" ticket.

Morning came and so did my first trip to the “john” but I ran out of “tp”. So, into the hall closet I go, but *sniff* *sniff*, what in the world is my wife cooking so early in the morning, wait…onions, Oh geez….no, french onion soup. I immediately headed back to the toilet thanks to the first aroma of the day which did NOT agree w/my stomach and I was slowly realizing that I had the “urge to purge”.

Yep, it’s been awhile since I’ve done that without the aid of alcohol, but after that little episode, suddenly…I felt alot better. Cleaned myself up and got Sebastian ready for another day of school and dropped him off. The next item on my agenda…a nice hot bath while listening to a homemade comp of some indie rock on my MP3 player, just what the doctor ordered. After the tub, I towel dried off and laid back in bed w/the fan on as we were battling a second day of high temps. Also continued the regimen of the vitamin water. Out with the bad and in with the good.

Recovery.

As I awoke from my nap I realized that I slept most of the day and it was once again time to pick up Seb from school but I felt replenished and ready to make the short trek on the hot pavement and back again. I assisted my boy with his homework and took it easy as I was waiting for my wife to return home from work.

Made dinner, cleaned up the kitchen, watched a movie and got Seb ready for his shower and then bed with me almost immediately behind him to settle in for what ended up being the first night of solid sleep since this whole ordeal. I’m giving the burritos from down the street, a break for at least a month or so…just in case. 😉

Lego MOC: Space Police Sentinel concept…..or is it?

SP sentinel in "flight".

Plenty of light-gray bryxx.

Since my son was the age of 4, he’s acquired a great assortment of Legos. The Star Wars theme was the brunt of it….hmmm go figure. But other themes included; Indiana Jones,Power Miners, Atlantis-to name a few.

But these sets have all since been dismantled in their entirety and have found their way into either some 6 qt. “Sterilite” bins, an official “Lego” sorting cabinet or have “passed” through my 2-year old Shih-tzu….S’mores, which is another post in its entirety, so stay tuned for that. LOL.

Basically, I have amassed the following colors that have made their way into the 6-qt bins that I mentioned above:

• Black
• Dark-grey
• Light gray
• White
• Red

Several months back, way before I decided to create this Lego blog, I was digging through the light-gray bin of bryxx and was just placing pieces together…or what I refer to it as… “fartin’ around”. I mean…that’s the way I address it when Sebastian asks me what I’m doing when I’m putting Legos together w/no particular plan in mind. I’m just simply assembling pieces to/with other pieces….farting  around.

So after 20 minutes or so of “farting around”, I came up with what I posted above. At first glance- it’s a ship, but that’s the beauty of Lego…it can be whatever I want it to be, but for now….let’s just call it a ship-a “sentinel” to be exact.

"Honey....you've shrunk my cruiser!"

This is considered a “micro-scale” build which means that it’s too micro to fit a minifigure in it. In order for me to fit a minifigure to pilot this thing, I would have to build it at least 4 times the size of its current design (oh geez, another project???)….but then with a pilot inside of it, it would cease to be a sentinel.

But what exactly is it????

On my earlier MOC Space Police Jail Cell post, I did mention my Lego Genre of choice is indeed…the Space Police. Not sure if sales of  the current wave of Space Police sitting on the toy shelves will dictate that we see a third wave of this 3rd go-around of the Space Police…but I will continue to build all things related to them after the genre goes the way of the doh-doh. After all, there are some breath-taking MOC’s (courtesy of Peter Reid aka “Legoloverman”) of the very 1st Lego Space theme that were based on the sets back in the late 1970’s.

As far as my MOC…it is a concept of a Space Police sentinel droid which consists of 19 pieces total. It’s a concept for now due to the fact that it could be used for the infamous “Black Hole” gang if I alter the colors and maybe a very few finishing details, but to make the droid go from concept to an official SP sentinel, I would have to change the colors to its common white with black elements with red & blue sirens affixed.

Most of my concepts will be in (but not limited to) the light-gray, dark gray or black since I have a vast array of different pieces in those colors kept in the bins mentioned above.

I got a couple more MOC’s to showcase which were created  around the same time as the sentinel, so keep an eye out for those as well.

Brick On!

Lego Collectibe Minifigures: Series 3 Pre-liminary list.

Series 3...ETA: January,2011.

The Spartan is HOT!!!!

After checking out the forum’s on bricklink.com, there’s alot of talk about how series 2 of the Lego collectible minifigs have been found more easily, possibly because Lego created more than series 1; and now they can be found at Target. To be honest, I haven’t been searching for them since I have my entire collection of the different sixteen minifigs myself. My hunt lasted less than 24 hours and that was including the usual 6 hours of sleep.
It was news to me to read that w/the additional extra vendors, people have been having better chances at finding them….except for the Spartan minifig, which I can validate, due to the fact that I myself went through almost 2 freshly opened cases (60 minifigs in ea. case)before I found my first Spartan.

No more codes.

I came across the following link
w/a proposed list of 15 out of 16 minifigs and as you can see, they should be available for sale in January, 2011.
It should be very interesting to hunt and to become touchy/feely w/the packages when the time comes to determine which figure is in the bag since Lego will NOT be providing the barcodes like they did in Series 1 & 2.

I myself will be searching for the Ferrari Driver while Sebastian will be looking for the Mummy to accompany his Zombie (series 1) and his Vampire and Witch (series 2).

PAB for 8.31.10

A 50/50 bar in Lego

Here’s my PAB haul while my son and I visited The Lego Store @ Downtown Disney-Anaheim, Ca -while lookin’ for those collectible minifigs from Series 2.

I found another blog in regards to PAB and followed the trick of utilizing the empty space of the PAB lid…

...even the lid got it's fill.

Now from the previous pics, it does appear that you only see 2 different types of pieces that I filled the cup with.

A yellow stow-away at the very bottom.

I was truly surprised to see that lil’ yellow piece mixed in my cup. He must’ve been scooped up along w/the orange pcs. Welcome aboard buddy.

The Three Amigos.

Here’s the PAB breakdown this time around:

• 230 white round corner 2×2 bryxx
• 1 Tr.Yellow plate
• 102 Tr. Orange cheese slices

Grand total of 333 pcs.

Method to my madness.

Now you may be thinking…”What a lousy haul”, true….but, I’ve never seen the round corner bryxx of ANY color of ANY size at The Lego Store EVER. I was needing to purchase a rather large amount of the very ones that I just found but I thought I would have to go through bricklink to find a seller w/a rather large amount. I plan on using them for creating letters. Here’s an example of what I’m talking about.

The above example was created by a flickr member that goes by the name of  “Scruffy Mynxbane”

Now clearly, it didn’t take 230 round corner pcs to “create” the sign but I wanted to take the idea and use it in bigger projects in the future. I figure 230 bryxx is a good start or it may be a fraction of what I really need. It all depends on the projects; and as y’all saw in the group shot above, they make great columns.

Price Comparison:PAB vs.bricklink.com

I’m gonna try to make it a point to always provide a price comparison in regards to cost effectiveness for this and future PAB posts. My last PAB harvest was a tad over 1¢ but less than 2¢ per piece which is excellent depending on the pieces that I happen to pick up. Let’s see how I did this time:

• The Lego Store: PAB

$7.99 (small PAB cup)/333 total pcs = 0.02399 or 2¢ per piece.

Now before I reveal the price comparison for bricklink.com, I have to explain the following so you’ll fully understand where my mind was at the time I purchased these 230 round corner bricks in a rather large amount. Take a deep breath…..we’re goin’ in.

For those not familiar w/the bricklink.com “Items for sale” screen, it’s broken-down by the piece you’re interested in. So in my case….

1. I’m interested in the White Brick, Round Corner 2 x 2 Macaroni.
2. I’m interested in a seller who is ONLY located in the USA. (I prefer a seller w/no minimum purchase or the lowest minimum purchase price possible)
3. I’m interested in a seller w/no less than 230 pieces (to match w/what I was able to cram in the cup)

"Let's take a look"

Here’s a link to the bricklink screen. Let’s see if y’all can figure out which seller would’ve met my criteria. (Queue Jeopardy bonus round music.)

Did your answer match mine????

The seller that would’ve met my criteria is….
is…..
is…..

(drumroll)

…

…

…”Dad’s AFOL Supplies” who lists 3 options to buy and all options are sold in quantities of 2. Now, I would have to choose the middle option since I’m after more than 100 but less than 250.

• bricklink.com

So let’s recap. 230 pieces (to match my PAB purchase), divided by the quantity of 2 in each bag =115 bags or let’s just say 115.

115 x $.0809 (middle option price) =$9.3035 or $9.30

The Bottom Line.

I am the Lego Master!!!!!

It appears that I made the right choice. Even w/Ca. state tax of 8.75% (Orange County, Ca) it was STILL less than the bricklink.com site ($8.69-to be exact). Not to mention the cost of shipping just the 230 round corner bryxx from the seller to me.

So basically, I got a some of those rounded corner pieces, the 102 Tr. Orange “cheese slices” and the Tr.Yellow “stow-away” as a bonus….oh yeah; and the nifty little PAB cup that I like to use as extra storage for my other bryxx.

Now mind you, I was at The Lego Store about 45 mins. prior to hittin’ the PAB section,by playing Sherlock Holmes w/the barcodes where I was trying to obtain all 16 different series 2 minifigs and my eyes were worn out from straining to read all those lines w/different thickness. Truth be known, I was worn out and did not give it my 100% in cramming more bryxx into the cup, but that’s the purpose of my bringing this info to y’all, with every PAB post. The more ya cram in those cups and utilize the gaps, the more cost-effective it is.The more money ya save, the more ya have to spend on bryxx.

I wanna end this post w/a big thanks to y’all that take the time to read my posts. The last few have ended up to be rather lengthy and hopefully, the topic that I try to write about…comes across somewhat clear.For those that soldier through the entire post….a huge THANX. 🙂

As I mentioned in earlier posts, videos will be accompanying this blog relatively soon. I just purchased a firewire cable and now I gotta shoot some video of some non-related Lego stuff just to get acquainted w/the idea of shootin’ myself on vid and posting them on youtube. (Gasp!)

Until my next post,

Brick On!

The 2nd Sixteen: A minifigure hunt.

15 of 16 represented. Do you know who's missing?

As I mentioned before in a previous post, I was not going to be the one with my cheese left out in the wind….for those not familiar w/the “Ferris Bueller” term, it means left behind.

I am talking about my son and I being able to find and purchase the Lego collectible minifigures : Series 2.

In my “zombie” post, I mentioned how difficult it was to locate that particular minifig and what great lengths that I had to do to locate it. Driving here and there in Orange County,Ca and making special trips to a toy/sports collectible “swap meet” and to be continually let down when I wasn’t able to find this 1.5 inch tall (or short) piece o’ Lego plastic. Not to mention the same look of disappointment on my son’s face on a repeated basis. All he wanted was a zombie and after paying 5x the original price, I was able to locate one.

Which brings me to…

….yesterday (8/31), when I called my local Lego store and asked when exactly they were to receive the second series of the Minifig collectibles and the gal mentioned to me that they started selling them earlier when they opened. My heart was racing and my head was spinning w/visions of hope and then disappointment. I asked w/a timid tone if they still have anymore, she said yes and that they’ll be selling them tomorrow as well, which made it sound like that I better get my butt in there and purchase before I “miss the boat” AGAIN.

It’s crucial that I mentioned the date that I called because I was told in a phone call that I made 2 weeks prior that The Lego Store was expecting them sometime in September. I just wanted to have the most current and exact info when these things hit to improve my chances of scoring these 16 since I totally blew the opportunity to search and buy the 1st sixteen.

I break the news to my boy.

Sebastian (age 8 ) was in the room on my PC viewing Lego stop-motion UFO films on youtube when I told him about the news. His little face lit up like Christmas, Easter and his birthday all fell on the same day.

I should mention this time around that the “flavor of the month” was the Dracula minifig. That’s all he’s been talking about, I guess to keep his lonely zombie minifig company. He also mentioned some interest in the witch too. I’m beginning to see a theme here.

Just so y’all know and just like the Series 1 release, these minifigs are packed in a shiny foil showcasing the minifigs in front w/them in some “action” poses as if they were gonna bust out of the packages themselves. Series 1 packaging was yellow while series 2 was in blue.

But those clever marketing peeps at TLG (The Lego Group) came up w/the idea of making the whole packaging, a complete guessing game. There were no distinguishable marks on the packaging w/the exception of the barcode that rests to the right of the package which is not to be confused w/the barcode on the left of the package which is the item’s SKU.

So in our case, if we were looking for “Dracula”, we would have no way of knowing unless we either bought all the packages w/the 16 different codes or had access to a “cheat sheet” that provided the codes for the corresponding minifig. To quote Ted Stryker from Airplane…”What a pisser”.

This is when I opted to purchase all 16 different packages (@ $1.99 ea.) Sebastian was more than thrilled and to be honest, I had my eye on a couple of these minifigs.

And away we go.

We hop in my Honda Fit and take to the afternoon streets of Anaheim, Ca…Lego Store bound w/me at the wheel and obeying the speed limits w/an additional 5 mph of whatever’s posted on the sign, which is how I drive anyway…but I really wanted to just get there so I would not miss the opportunity of finding these things.

Traffic wasn’t that bad considering the time of day that it was. We made it to the Downtown Disney lot in about 10 mins. w/Queen’s “Another one Bites the Dust” blarin’ on the radio. Man….I hope that was not some kind of omen.

Not-so slim pickin’s.

Sure enough, we walk into The Lego Store and we head straight for the cashier counter and asked the gal if we can look through a carton of minifigs. That was the easy part.

My casessss !!!!!!!

Y’all remember in Lord of the Rings when Gollum had possession of the one ring? That was me or so it felt like that, since I had a carton all to myself. I start glaring at the packages and immediately find all the different barcodes and place them in one pile while I have the “duplicates” in another making sure that I don’t place the dupes back in the same box. It got somewhat nerve-racking however when I have other peeps w/their proverbial hands in the cookie jar, the noise of the shopping traffic echoing throughout the store and keeping tabs on my son with his whereabouts at all times.

Well, about 30-40 mins….yep, you read right, 30 or 40 minutes of scrutinizing dozens of barcodes which consisted about 2 dozen thick lines, thin lines and all line sizes in between, I somehow managed to yield 15 different packages. Yep…..I was missing one. Because of the mystery packing, I wouldn’t know which one ’till I got home to open them all.

Barcode help.

If you noticed the first pic above, I was missing the “Spartan” which he was called based on a youtube video showcasing the entire Series 2 line-up. Suddenly, the 2 or so minifigs that I wanted, were not as important than the Spartan that I was lacking…how sad-eh?

But I’m not worried for the simple fact that I have my resources in finding out the barcode for the missing Spartan in my new collection. I went to bricklink.com and hit up the folks on the message board. Such a knowledgeable group….I got my answer within the hour of posting in a form of a link that provided the “cheat sheet” which listed the codes for all 16 minifigs found here.

Lego store???? 10AM???? We are so there.

This is my son’s last full week of summer so I allow him to sleep in….BUT NOT TODAY. “Get up dude, let’s get some Lucky Charms in ya and get in the shower.” I follow suit and we head out once again to the streets of Anahiem….this time in the AM with my little barcode that I printed out earlier in the morning thanks to the info on brickset.com. Ain’t no way I can lose out on gettin’ my hands on that Spartan now.

We pull up to the somewhat unoccupied lot and we both walk to the Lego store in a fast pace, which is funny considering that I’m in soo much pain from my workout on the Wii Fit from the previous day, especially my legs. AAAArrrrrghhhhh.

We walk in the store just minutes after opening and the only soul I see, is the store greeter in her yellow smock welcoming us as we head straight back to the rear counter. “This looks good Bubba” (my son’s nick-name that I gave him), I have my little cut-out of the barcode at the ready…now, all I need is a case to go through but not just any case.

I need a fresh case.

I was just here in the afternoon prior and I didn’t wanna look through the same cases that I went through again since I know they were full of all the duplicates of the original 15 that I already purchased.

As we approached the counter, we saw two clerks that were pre-occupied w/other stuff and one girl at the register assisting a woman that was with 2 small kids lookin’ through….yep, a case of minifigs, but I wasn’t sure if she was goin’ through the same case from yesterday or even worse…a fresh case.

I was standing in line for at least 5 minutes but it seemed like an eternity when I was witnessing the Mom going through all the bags gettin’ touchy/feely w/the packages. apparently, she knew she was looking for but she was using her hands to caress and grope the package (husband is a lucky man-LOL) much like the blind trying to read someone’s face to get a “look” at’em. I apologize if I offended any blind peeps reading this. 😉

This mom was taking her time….and honestly, I could not blame her. She’d buy a couple of packages here so her kids could open’em up to find out what they had, then she’d buy a few more to open more up, then she’d repeat this process over and over, all the while….I hear her mention that she’s looking for “The Sombrero guy”. I’m not sure if her “technique” payed off or not because she said that she was gonna purchase a few more but go through the  entire box and make her final decision after she was done molesting all the packages (good grief).

The moment of truth.

Finally, the gal behind the counter that was assisting “Mrs.McFeely” asked what she could do for me. I asked her if the case (pointing at the Mom) was yesterday’s case. The gal said no, it’s a fresh case and without further communication, she brandishes a whole new unopened case w/her trusty utility knife, cuts the opening and slides the bountiful harvest towards me.

The anxiety is starting to kick in much like yesterday’s visit. I mentioned to the gal that I was gonna slide these towards the opposite side of “McFeely” so I don’t block the sales counter and let commerce take its place, also I didn’t want to run the risk of “McFeely” gettin’ her hands all over “my” packages and screwing up my sorting process. Sounds pathetic…don’t it. LOL

What do I find?

So here I am, on my side of the counter w/Sebastian within eye and ear range and I quickly pick up packages and compare’em to the cut-out of my printed barcode which ended up being the exact same size as the barcodes on the packages themselves which makes comparing both codes a snap.

There was a cute girl (which I’ll dub as “cutie”) who was another Lego employee that was witnessing what I was doing. Picking up packages every 3 seconds and making quick judgements of the barcodes based on my cut-out. She knew I was looking for something and I happen to share w/her why I was goin’ through all of malarkey.

There are 60 packages in one carton and I was about 5 away from goin’ through the enitre box and I was telling Sebastian that I am not having any luck w/finding the Spartan code. Cutie then takes out another box and cuts it open and swings it to me and says to leave her the other packages that I took out and that she’ll put’em away while I look through the fresh box. She’s a good egg I tell ya. If ya didn’t notice, not one Spartan code was in the first box that I looked through. This was getting tense.

The pressure is building, pardon the pun.

As I’m just beginning to go through the 2nd box, I hear another customer askin’ for the minifigures. Cutie responds by telling the guy that as soon as I’m done w/the case, he can look through it. Oh man, Cutie was such a big help but I was thinking that if a manager would’ve heard that, he would’ve made it so I would have to share the carton w/the other customer, which I would totally understand but I’m thankful it didn’t because about 8 more packages that I have not gone through in the second carton, behold…

I FOUND THE CODE.

Eyes, don't fail me now.

Yep, I was in shock and disbelief and had to compare the cut-out to the package a few times just to make sure. Sebastian was all excited and Cutie was happy for me too. I went ahead and told Sebastian to hold the package while I attempted to place all the packages back into the carton. Cutie said that she’ll take care of it and began to ring me up. I thanked Cutie repeatedly and she wished Sebastian and I a very good remainder of the day.

I’m not outta the woods yet y’all. The cynical side started to creep in my head. What if the code was wrong. Then the mystical side….What if “McFeely” used some magic and stuck me w/a duplicate Ringmaster minfig instead (my least favorite). The suspense was building w/every mile closer to home.

THIS IS SPARTA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh what a feeling it is to be on inside looking out than the outside looking in which is where I found myself w/series 1. I beat the aftermarket system by only doing my research and having luck and some help from a certain “cutie”. We were discussing about the series 3 minifigs and how the Lego online community already has a  list out of what’s to be included.

I also mentioned to her  that one of the minifigs is a Ferrari F1 driver, but the  source that spilled the list is the same source that mentioned that there will be NO distinguishable barcodes on the packaging and no cheat sheets made available. Even though Europe get’s the minfigs a few months ahead of time, the barcodes won’t do any good since they differ from the U.S. market.

Sebastian already mentioned upon learning of the series 3 list, that he wants the Alien minifig. Guess that means I’ll be molesting a few packages myself at the Lego store come next January.