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 :
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.
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.
