kraai Posted June 26, 2018 Posted June 26, 2018 (edited) Hello, and thank you for having me. My name is Willi, I live in Johannesburg and a member of The South African LEGO User Group. AFOL for five years, strong focus on Technic and GBC modules, husband, father of twins, audiophile, Wordpress developer, stoner, Apple fanboy and Kawasaki ER6 rider. Looking forward to spending some time with you. Edited June 26, 2018 by kraai Quote
Littleworlds Posted June 26, 2018 Posted June 26, 2018 Hello kraai! Welcome to Eurobricks! See you around Quote
Holodoc Posted June 29, 2018 Posted June 29, 2018 Hi Willi and welcome to Eurobricks! Nice to have a member from a completely underrepresented continent around! What is it like living in Johannesburg and being an AFOL? Is it hard to get sets/bricks and what about prices? GBC modules - I always wanted to build one my own. I have finished Akiyuki's ball factory, but that's it. Did you ever build one your own?. See you around the boards! Quote
kraai Posted July 2, 2018 Author Posted July 2, 2018 Hey Holodoc, thanks for the warm welcome, and the interest in Lego in South Africa. It's a challenge sometimes, specifically getting parts for MOC builds. We have about a dozen or so serious Bricklink store, but no real Technic specialists. Also, our postal system is reaaaalllly bad, so I have to ship stuff twice, one from within Europe to a postbox / consolidation service in England, and then from England to Johannesburg. This makes the hobby even more pricy (I just paid $80 to ship $250 in Lego, from six Bricklink stores, which still excludes duties and customs stuff). Our first Lego certified store is opening later this month about 20km from where I live, so yay, we have that to look forward to. We struggle to get exclusives and VIP points, and also we don't have access to shop.lego.com (they refuse to even ship to my postbox in England). Set prices are pretty much in line with overseas, I guess. A series 18 Minifigure cost R60, or €3,70 (not sure what they cost there), the 42083 Bugatti Chiron cost R6000 (€375) vs €370 on lego.com. A brickhead costs R370 (€23) vs €23 online. However, the cheapest 75192 Millenium Falcon will cost you €1000 minimum - a lot more than in Europe. We have four LUGs in South Africa, I'm part of the South African LEGO User Group. We have around 80 AFOL members, most of which are contributing, exhibiting members. In a year, we will exhibit 4 to 5 times across South Africa, but mainly Johannesburg and Pretoria where most of our members are. We got RLUG status last year, making us the first recognised LUG in Africa as far as we can tell. Although we are based in Johannesburg, we have members from across the country. Our sister LUG, CapeLUG, is based in Cape Town. The other two are jhbLUG (also Johannesburg based) and BuffLUG (after Buffalo City, is based in East London). I so want to build the ball factory, but I'd have to spend a fortune on parts and I'm not sure how well it would perform under pressure. Also, I built a few Akiyuki models and while they're great to look at, they're not always reliable to run for an entire weekend at an exhibition. I've built a few of my own models, but most of my 'display' models are reliable models designed by Maico Arts. I did build Akiyuki's Six Head (surprisingly reliable for exhibitions, still have it) and the Strain Wave Generator (not as reliable, stripped for parts), you can them and some of I've built at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcuWe_XMSMfC8aqcdYsJ0ig, as well as a bridge which I designed at https://www.facebook.com/groups/LEGO.Technic/permalink/2144356355636386/ (you may need to apply to join the group, the video quality isn't that great, so I did not put it on YouTube). We are exhibiting the GBC as a LUG in August, I will share photos and videos after the event. Quote
Holodoc Posted July 3, 2018 Posted July 3, 2018 Hi kraai! Thank you very much for your answers about the AFOL situation in South Africa! That was really an interesting read and often we people in Europe forget about the rest of the world struggling to induldge in their LEGO passion. Congratulations on being the first rLUG in Africa! Will you be able then to take part in the LUGBULK program? That would make it a lot easier to get parts. Looking forward to your photos in August! Quote
kraai Posted July 3, 2018 Author Posted July 3, 2018 Evening Holodoc. Hope you're enjoying the football. How incredible was that equaliser?! Yes, we have LUGBULK, already had an order shipped last year. Our order for this year is in and we await the invoice and shipping for this year. I'd give it all up for a better / cheaper way of getting parts from Bricklink. Are you part of a LUG in Germany? Quote
Holodoc Posted July 4, 2018 Posted July 4, 2018 I'm not really interested in football. I support the teams who play well, with creativity and ideas - and that was definitely not Germany this WC. So I started to support the Belgian team now. (I would also have gone for Switzerland - a lot of Swiss team members are playing in our local football team Borussia Mönchengladbach - but Switzerland is (WS wise) also history now.) I am also member at 1000steine.de - the big German LUG. Quote
kraai Posted July 4, 2018 Author Posted July 4, 2018 Proud Germany supporter here! It was amazing to win the World Cup 4 years ago, and even better to get a set of minifigs! Where can I see some of your work? Your Lion House looks incredible! Can you introduce me to somebody in your LUG who builds GBC modules? I'd like to connect with someone experienced who can give me some pointers of where to go, considering getting parts here isn't cheap. A large Bricklink order is coming in tomorrow, allowing me to finally finish JK Brickworks' Useless Box, quite keen to make it look pretty (Technic/ Mindstorm part already done). Quote
Holodoc Posted July 5, 2018 Posted July 5, 2018 Do you have a special relation to Germany? Ancestors...? Yep, the "Mannschaft" was really nice to have, they are still behind my desk on display! So what team are you going with now while the Germans are out? I don't know anyone at 1000steine who builds GBC personally, but still I can ask over there for help. What do you need? E-mail adresses? Or shall I ask on their website? Then it might be easier if you asked yourself - if you are familiar with German of course... But then again: You can also ask and look here! Quote
kraai Posted July 6, 2018 Author Posted July 6, 2018 My family name (Badenhorst) has German roots, so I guess that's where it came from. Also, the South African football team is literally one of the worst teams in the world. No sense of pride in them I'm afraid. I was hoping for a personal introduction to someone who can mentor me in where to go with GBC, but it's not a trainsmash. Like everyone else, I will learn via Youtube. Quote
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