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.

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.

MOC Space Police Cell Block

BREAKIN’ THE LAW….BREAKIN’ THE LAWWWW!!!!!!

At this time last year, my son and I had just completed collecting and building all of the first wave of the Lego Space Police genre. It was the genre that re-introduced me to the world of  Lego after a 20+ year hiatus, so I was constantly checking the TLG (The Lego Group) website at Lego.com for anything that had to do w/the Space Police.

As a marketing tool, TLG was in fact releasing some short vids (a few minutes long each) showing crimes being committed in space by some nefarious aliens known as “The Black Hole Gang” and how the Space Police were gonna handle the situation. I was filled w/awe at viewing all of the buildings and scenery that were put together for these vids. One of these builds was the Space Police HQ, created by David Pagano of Queens, NY. David is also the creator of the vids for Lego. For more impressive creations by David, check out his Flickr account.

I’m a sucker for detail and this SPHQ was flowing with it, but I was wondering when this set was gonna grace the Space Police section via a playset, on the Lego’s website. So naturally, I was awaiting anything new that pertained to the Space Police.

Right around Christmas time last year, I discovered 2 new Space Police sets that were being released around the following new year. This was major news for my son and I because it meant that more sets are sure to follow. unfortunately…

I’m rather impatient

….and I decided to do something that I’ve never done before even when I was playin’ w/Lego’s when I was younger; and that was to build my own Lego set from the ground up, particularily…a Space Police HQ designed by myself. All that time I was going to use the Space Police HQ featured on the Space Police vids as a starting point and something to keep me motivated on what may be a humongous task.

Another means of motivation was to periodically check the Lego photo albums via Flickr. Every single time I view these albums…my brain just goes into some overload of ideas that were in those albums. There are alot of very talented builders out there and I’m hoping some day, to be able to build some wild stuff like they have.

Another trip to the Lego Store

So, with all these ideas in my head and with motivation in toe, I head out to The Lego store (Downtown Disney-Anaheim, Ca) to see what the good ol’ PAB section had to offer. I was in shock to find these plates in one of the bins, I grabbed a bunch or should I say, whatever I could’ve crammed in the $14.99 priced cup which ended up being about 33 plates. I grabbed some other types of bryxx that I rendered useful and got the heck outta Dodge.

And now…for the groundbreaking, er…groundbuilding.

16 X 16 base build

Never before that day did I ever have the chance to have so many of these plates to play with. Actually, now that I think about it, I’ve NEVER had a single set that utilized these pieces. So I started to line’em up this way or that way, heck….I even stacked all 33 plates loosely just to see how high these plates would’ve reached. I knew ahead of time NOT to press’em together. It would’ve been a real chore taking’em apart w/the brick separator, let alone your fingertips and/or nails. Then I decided to put’em all adjacent to each other in a 16×16 base pattern and at that point, the ideas for the number of doors and other details of the cell block were starting to emerge.

Other ideas came from the current Lego City: Police Head Quarters still sittin’ in the shelves in retail. But as I got to thinking, I have four 8×8 plates resting as one 16×16. I should use each plate as a single jail cell but combine them all into one jail cell block….which meant 4 jail cell doors were needed. Luckily I had some purchased during an earlier visit to another Lego store. (Ontario, Ca.)

I still need more bryxx.

The Lego Store is great and all but it goes without saying that I leave there empty-handed more so than I leave w/what I’m looking for. It was at this time that I discovered Bricklink.com and the vast array of stores owned by Lego collectors, builders and merchants. After spending alot of hours by looking at a collective of all the different bricks that were available for purchase, I was awestruck again by the different types of bricks that I never knew that even existed, which pushed that creative and idea envelope alot further. Thanks to bricklink, my first custom build of this type was starting to take shape. The only difficult aspect of the build, was waiting patiently for the parts from several different stores to get to my hot little hands. Luckily for me, my transactions w/all my sellers were very smooth indeed.

Let’s have some features.

Front profile of cell block.

Here we have a pic of the cell block featuring 2 cell doors w/red and green indicators to show that the doors are either locked or not. What ya see on this side is exactly like the otherside, w/the exception of the camera being on the right and the cell block power transmitter on the left. On the rooftop of each cell, rests an occupancy indicator to alert the cell block officer of which cell is empty or occupied. In the center, rests the power supply for the lasers separating the adjacent cells inside the whole cell block.

View of cell block transmitter.

The light in the center resting between the 2 observatory windows, is the power transmitter for the entire cell block. I should state that obviously none of the “lights” that are featured on my build actually light, you’ll just have to use your imagination. ;). With that said, imagine that the red light is on and that the entire cell block is powered and running efficiently, otherwise …it’s just one giant pile o’ bryxx funded by the taxes of the local human and alien citizens of the sector within.

Inmate observatory windows.

Yep, we here at the forthcoming  Space Police HQ like to keep a close eye on our inmates. You’ve seen the damage of what a single certain imprisoned human doctor by the name of Hannibal Lecter can do, these freaks deserve no less privacy. Video camera is constantly streaming live footage of the goings-on in the vicinity of the cell block.

A not-so happy couple.

Maybe we’ll let’em out one day when they can learn to stop emitting their personal toxic waste in public and into the designated alien waste disposal units set up throughout the sector.Is this considered species profiling????

1.21 Jiggawatts of power.

I saved my favorite feature of this cell block for last. I wanted to show something to simulate lasers in my cell to demonstrate that this is NO jail cell on Earth. Fortunately for them at Space Police HQ, they watched enough “Back to the Future” to learn about harnessing the energy for simple incarceration instead of the physics of time travel. One should see the section of the training video aptly titled “Alien vs. The ‘Lectric Cage. DO NOT EAT WHILE WATCHING!

The next step for the cell is to actually deconstruct the entire build and to film the actual rebuild from scratch and to post the vid here on my blog. The vid will include a full inventory of parts and their respective part #’s. I plan on doing this w/all MOC’s that I show here and this will be an ongoing feature on my blog. It’s just another way to share ideas w/other Lego enthusiasts

Until then,

Brick On!