Day 3 of Brick 2014

After two successful show days and the AFOLCON day, the weekend is here !

Pictures will followm, but the display seems to be getting good comments.

Some totally brilliant creations, which has definitely set my mind racing....

Eve of AFOLCON / Brick2014

Well its finally here, the main event in London.  Sitting in hotel bar @ Canning Town.  Everything is packed into 4 large suitcases - ready to go...

Some of my MOCs on display are:

• Victorian Terraced House
• Various Computers
• BURPs/LURPs
• Intercity 125 x3
• Modular Platforms (on ideas)
• Simple Decoupler (on ideas)

plus others

So if you planning a visit over the next few days, pop over and say hi !

Pictures & updates will follow...

Modular Platform Design

Exciting news !

My designs for a Modular Platforms have been accepted onto the Lego Ideas programme.

If you like it, check out the Ideas page at https://ideas.lego.com/projects/79917

Brick 2014

Have you got your tickets yet ?

With a little over 4 weeks to go, Brick 2014 is coming to London's Excel Centre.

http://www.brick2014.com/

I will be there displaying some of my varied creations, so pop over and say "hi"...

Lego spares on eBay

I was casually skimming through the UK lego items on eBay today, when I happened upon a Buy It Now auction.  The item was a green 1 x 4 Tile (see pic)

 The lot was just for one of these and the price, wait for it, I said wait.....

£1.98

Although there is free p&p...

Now I'm not going to give this seller any free publicity, so I won't name them, but come on guy, isn't that a little steep ?

A little research, shows the following:

The official online Lego Pick-A-Brick is 0.13
BrickOwl                                            0.08
BrickLink                                           0.02

Now that's quite a price difference....

Buyer beware, indeed.

Art of the Brick - London

On Tuesday 30th September, I paid a visit to the Art of the Brick exhibition that has reached London on its world tour.

Luckily for me, I went on a schoolday afternoon which meant that it was pretty much empty and I could get as close as I wanted to the displays.

Simple Decoupler - Update

Just a quick thank you to those who are supporting the Simple Decoupler on Lego Ideas, it has crashed through the 50 barrier, so not far to go now !!

Highways Agency Gritter

Back in 2012, I built a couple of vehicles based on the Highways Agency Gritter and Traffic Officer vehicle.

With rumours about TLG 2015 releases, I am seeing a little more interest in the Gritter design.

So I have released the LDD File and PDF Instructions (20Mb download).

Below is the inventory for the 244 pieces, which shouldn't be too expensive to BL.

Senet - The Game of Passing

Besides Lego, I have been fascinated by spaceflight and ancient Egypt. This post will deal with the latter. I have been fortunate over the years to visit many sites and see treasures from that period and the thing that gets me is how life hasn't really changed over 5000 years.

Take for example Senet, a board game from as far back as 3500BC, predating the Pharaohs. Think about its mechanics, its skill to play, its chance factors and you can see this is quite an advanced game. It is also simple to construct, some sand, a few sticks and about 14 stones/pebbles and you can play. Over the years more ornate versions were built, much like high-end chess sets today, now its time for my version.....

Like the ones you can see in museums, I have built it in a similar style. The play area sits on top of a long rectangular box, which contains a drawer for the pieces. I have added some decoration to give it a more "Egyptian" feel and built in a couple of hidden spaces.




More pictures over the fold

Keyring Souvenirs from my PAB 2013 tour

Before I started my PAB Tour 2013 I had decided to get a memento of my trip, by buying a Lego Keyring from each store.  Finally, I got round to building the display (you can't rush these things....)

Simple Decoupler - Now on Ideas !

After some recent interest in the MKIII decoupler, it made me think should I put it on Ideas ?

Would it stand on its own, or should I group it with other track items or lighting ?

If you look at what TLG has said over the years, that automated controls/lights and other stuff which would turn our train layouts into proper model railways is not going to happen.  If you look at the interview with the designers of the 2014 trains in issue 15 of Railbricks magazine, you'll see the reasons why.

So alone it is.

I have no misconceptions that this very easy design could match the great models this program has produced (Ghostbusters, Exo Suit etc..)  That's not the point, I'm glad they changed its name to Ideas, because this is one that fits the definition.

Throw in a railroad minifig and you've got an Ideas Polybag !

So if you've built one, going to build one or just like the concept, please take a minute to register your support for the Simple Decoupler on the Ideas website.

thanks
CB

A Great Big BURP

I recently acquired set 6766 - Rapid River Village, which besides including cloth teepees also has 3 LURPs (Little Ugly Rock Piece) and 5 BURPs (Big Ugly Rock Piece).  Now I don't mind these, as they do serve as a replacement for creating large rocky scenes, even if they are a bit of cheat.

So I thought, let's show a little love to these often despised pieces and after a little thought, using only 1x2 bricks I came up with these :

PaB Crawl 2013 - Conclusion

Was it worth it ?
As I'm writing this some four and half months later, I would have to say yes. It was a lot of fun.

Would you do this again ?
Probably, I mean they have a new one in the Metro Centre, Gateshead now.

Would you do anything different ?
Other than adjusting the route for new store(s), probably not. You could probably include more stores into the days, making it quicker, but that was never the idea, its not a race - that would be something different though...

What advice would you give to someone who wants to give it a go ?

• Plan in advance, its an absolute must, if only for taking advantage of cheaper rail/accommodation rates.
• Be mindful of the time of year you go. Colder months mean more clothes like coats to get in the way.
• Do it during the week (M-F) to avoid engineering works on transport links.
• Use bases, I used two Manchester & London, that way you don't have to hump everything around all the time.
• Factor in enough time, I was making notes of stock as well as packing, so I didn't want to rush.  Also, trains have been known to run a little late, so give yourself a little extra.
• Check when the stores are actually open (Glasgow shuts at 6pm except Thursdays, London Westfield on the other hand is open till 10pm)
• Try and avoid weekends, they'll be busier and Sundays have limited opening times.
• Wear comfortable shoes/trainers, you'll be walking a lot.
• Take baggies to transfer your swag from the tubs making for easier case packing. Plus you'll get a 75p discount for reusing them.
• Don't forget your VIP card...

Anything you wouldn't do again ?
Stock taking - that got real old real fast.
Take an Android tablet, the cutdown apps of websites don't quite measure up to their fully functional counterparts, so I'd take a proper laptop instead.

Any favourite memories from this trip ?
The ever changing and in some cases, spectacular scenery from the various trains.
Thunder and lightning at Manchester.
Warm and sunny in Glasgow.
The friendliness and professionalism of the Lego store staff.



I would like to thank the following:

East Midlands Trains
Northern Rail
First TransPennine Express
Virgin Trains
Arriva Trains Wales
First Great Western
First Capital Connect
Southeastern
London Midland


Except for delays caused by a large thunder storm, all trains ran to time.


Gardens Hotel, Manchester
Imperial Hotel, London
Holiday Inn, Milton Keynes

Pleasant stays at all three locations.


Finally, all the hard working, friendly and professional staff at all twelve Lego retail stores.

PaB Crawl - Swag List

So over the 5 days, I picked up 34 Large Cups and 3 Small, recycling as I went, getting the 75p discount on as many tubs as I could.

From this I got 78 different pieces in 27 colors (see breakdown below) for a total of 18,307 bricks/pieces.






Most of it will come in handy for upcoming MOCs but a percentage was just filler for the cups.

Here's a couple of summary pics, the full list can be found on my Flickr set

PaB Crawl - Day 5 (Part 2)

After a relatively short train journey I had arrived at sunny MK. Time for the final walk from the station to my final destination.

The MK store being the oldest is also the smallest of the dozen, with the PaB wall near the front window, rather than the back wall. Also due to lack of floorspace, the usual wall has large plastic bowls with a mixture of two or three different pieces inside. Again, the layout doesn't leave any room for the small shelf behind the tills for packing. By this stage of course that didn't matter, as I was only going to get one large tub here.

PaB Crawl - Day 5

I can't believe it, the last day has arrived the last two stores to do. It seemed like a distant memory, enjoying the warm sun in Glasgow. Still enough sentiment, off to Watford...

My case was now pretty full, so dragging this became a pain in the backside, not that I'm complaining it was my choice. Still at least the walk from the station was fairly level.

I was getting to the point that "enough is enough", a kind of shopping centre fatigue if you will, things looked all too similar.

Back to Watford Jct for the final leg to Milton Keynes.