ResIpsaLoquitur

Just following up on my earlier post: looks like the Lego stores/online shop are doing double VIP points at the end of March. So I guess that unless you have a heads up on an upcoming 10% off sale, that'd be the time to buy it. At $180, that'd be about 360 points, or $15 in freebies for you. (You could buy the Halloween Accessory Pack for that amount--it'd give you some nice accents for the House. Just make sure you buy it AFTER you pay for the Haunted House.)

Hmmm, here's a scary thought: what if Young Boba is exclusive to the Advent Calendar?

OK, so I see in that calendar: Minifigures: - Santa Jango - Young Boba - Geonosian Warrior - Phase I Clone Trooper - R5 Series Droid - Scout Trooper Vehicles: - Slave I (EpII) - Obi-Wan's Jedi Starfighter - AT-ST - Republic Gunship - Geonosian Starfighter - Zam's Speeder - Some kind of shuttle...is it an updated verison of this year's Trade Federation ship? - Bespin Twin-Pod Car - At least one other grey ship to the left of the Scout Trooper I can't recognize. So that's 15 out of 24 items that can be identified. I see a few other bits of kibble on there which I can't tell if they're repeats of what I've already listed, or something else. I assume that at least two of the other items will be 1) a Battle Droid (preferably in Geonosis red) and 2) a cheesy weapons rack. If they're going for full-on Episode II, I hope another Super Battle Droid shows up. I think it's a good lineup. I was hoping for a mix of Episode II and III characters and ships, but I think I can live with this...except for the random Scout Trooper and Bespin car. That's what also cheesed me about this year's calendar: it was MOSTLY Episode I, but they threw in a few Hoth characters and one random Rebel trooper. Why not keep it all Episode I themed? Ditch the Rebel Trooper and replace him with either a Naboo pilot or security guard. I guess the Hoth guys made for some wintery-fun, but maybe we could have gotten a red-robed Darth Sidious and a Jawa to round out the Episode I stuff. Oh well. I'll probably still get it...when it goes on clearance, of course.

I keep forgetting to ask this: I made an Advent Calendar which I displayed here last month. Can I just rename it a "Winter Village" Advent Calendar and call it an entry? Thematically, I think it fits, but I'm not sure if it meets your standards or if it's a problem that I've already posted it here. Thanks either way.

Oh yes, it's totally worth it as a display piece. (Sadly, I bought it in November, so the Halloween-utility had long passed.) The hinges allow you to either display it as a standing building, or open so you can see the inside. I have it on a room-divider shelf, so I can personally look at it from both sides while open depending on which side of the divider I'm standing. The only thing I'd recommend is that due to the price, you might want to wait for a month when Lego is doing a sale special. Of course, it's hard to anticipate when these will be. I bought mine over "Brick Friday" weekend, so I got mine for 10% off, and they included a free Pick-a-Brick box and the Winter Sled scene. Plus, I bought it in Delaware, so I didn't have to pay sales tax. Of course, I have no idea when Lego is doing their next low-price special or freebies. February has a free City helicopter with a $35 purchase, so...is that something you want? Or do you want to roll the metaphorical dice and see if there's a better (for you) freebie? Just something to think about. (Too bad there's no more Monster Fighter specials available since the line is done--back in September, they had the Zombie Car which makes a nice accessory to the house.)

Hey, just throwing out there: this set has been turning up for half-price at some Targets in the U.S. (Yes, I posted about this over in Finds/Deals.) Just to warn you, I ALMOST bought a set until I noticed the tape was loose, checked the inside, and found that the minifigs had been swiped. However, I have found intact sets at the clearance price as well. So, get it while it's cheap and save it for next December, I guess!

Thanks. Well, lucky me, I went back to the same Target and found additional SW Advent Calendars also at $24.95. I still need to return my one $34.95 one, but hey, that's a $20 savings for both combined. I also found the 2012 City Calendar at $20. I originally bought it for $27.95, so again, I can effectively get an $8 refund. I checked another Target on the way home and also found SEVERAL Star Wars and City calendars at that price. At this point, I'm playing "How low can you go?" with these sets. They're sitting in the trunk of my car with the receipt. If Target pushes their remaining sets even lower, I'll swap out again. I'm skeptical that they'll go below 50%, though--I'm not sure I've ever seen Lego go lower than that Target. I'm holding out hope, though. Last April, I got the 2011 City Calendar at a store at the West Annapolis Mall for $10 (already marked down to $20, and I had a 50% off coupon or something).

I've been to two Targets in Maryland, United States where I've found the Star Wars Advent Calendars at half price, $24.95 US. They turned up the day after Christmas at $34.95, which is cheaper than the original price, but still high. Yesterday, I finally found them at half price...although I noticed that the tape was loose. Sure enough, I looked inside and found that all the minifigures had been removed... Today, I did find a store that had ONE intact set (I checked inside before I bought it). I bought the set the day after Christmas but haven't opened it, so I'm hoping they'll refund me the difference between the day-after clearance price and the new low price.

I made some more changes here--one of the big ones is adding a yellow streak for some flair. I also added some cheese graters for decoration. I'd like to swap the yellow cheeses for black, but I only have one black cheese slope at the moment, so I'm kind of stuck until I can find a spare in a polybag or something.... Here she is from the back... Your thoughts?

Here's a quick sports car I put together today with my daughter. Most of the parts came from the police car in set 4636...which is a pretty ugly car compared with some of the City-style police cars out there. I admit this isn't perfect, but I'm happy with it based on the parts I had available. The second minifigure is just in there for kicks--there's a small storage spot behind the seat, so I figured why not...a mom and her daughter out for fun. Comments are appreciated! Also--would it look better with grey wheels or the white that are on there now? White tends to look better as a "default" to me, but maybe grey would keep it consistent with the car?

Made some tweaks based on suggestions. Again, I'm limited by what parts that I have (I only have one 1 x 3 blue plate, and it's driving me crazy that it has no twin,...). I tried and tried to get the front grill smoother, but without some kind of specialized part, I think this is as good as it's going to get for now. In the meantime, I replaced the rear windshield with some curvy parts to give it a convertible look. (There's a grey 2 x 2 plate between them.) Also switched out the tires for grey--I think that's a little more consistent with the overall scheme since I have no white anywhere else. Added some 2 x 1 black grills to the front of the curves, mainly to add some stability to the blue sidewalls--there wasn't much holding them on. We'll assume that the grills are stereo speakers. Raised the windshield up so that the driver is looking through it rather than over. Of course, her hands are slightly walled off--I can't quite get her to fold them down due to the studs under the windshield. The little girl will probably go at some point. Her short legs can't quite reach the studs without popping her hair out. Again, comments and thoughts are appreciated.

Gah, I tried. I wasn't happy with it one stud forward, and you're right, it's not perfect where it is now. The problem is that I need one of these pieces in blue to really get it to blend in. You'll notice the red car and white cop car from 3648 Police Chase are in the background--they were our model for the blue car and have that part. Unfortunately, it doesn't even seem to come in blue, so I have to make do with a 2 x 1 brick with 2 holes for technic pins, which I then used to get the SNOT effect for the lights and grill. It'll have to do until I can track down a better part.

Looking good. Can you swap out that red bump for a clip-on stop sign? Not sure how you'd get it to hinge, though.

You know what, I'd like to try this. I just got a Brickmaster set that doesn't appear to have a review, and I could pull out a few other sets to do as well.

A few months ago, we got the Monster Fighters Promotional Pack, which came with a sheet of MF stickers. We hadn't used them until I finally figured out a use for them: I decided to make a movie billboard. I'll admit that this isn't the world's greatest billboard design given what's out there these days. I'm also limited by a lack of color print cartridges and little talent on the computer. I made this first by scanning the sticker sheet, then making a mock-up of the poster in Microsoft Word. I measured out the dimensions of the billboard (it's sixteen 8 x 1 tiles, which comes to about 5 inches by 2 1/2) and then made a mock-up of the text and where the stickers would go. Then I added an IMAX and "G" rating logo. When I printed it (on sticker paper), I deleted the scans of the stickers, since I'd be adding the real ones later. I'll admit that my big goof is that the logo slightly overlays Lord Vampyre. I put down LV first, and then realized that the logo had to go on top of him. Unfortunately, the stickers are pretty well cemented to the larger sticker sheet beneath. Anyway, I'm otherwise happy with how it turned out. I may laminate it later to preserve it long-term--the sticker sheet isn't much more than white paper with an adhesive backing. I'm not sure about having the ghost on there. He's an extra ghost I got from buying a MF polybag on clearance. 3-D billboards are pretty popular here in the U.S.; for example, we have the Chik-Fil-A cows who are made to look as though they're painting the billboards themselves. However, my Ghost isn't doing much there, so I'm not sure if he should be on or not. Here's a closer look at the image without the ghost: Your thoughts?

Another update--here I'm trying it with some fake, scary monster hands grabbing the sides. What do you folks think--do you like it plain, with a ghost, or with the hands?

OK, little tweak...I put one of those adjustable 1 x 2 bricks up top and attached the ghost to that. Now it looks like we have a 3-D effect of a ghost "hovering" over the billboard. If I get the opportunity, maybe I'll try to make a faux giant clawed hand wrapping around the side of the billboard. (I only have two of those white claw pieces to spare--I'd probably need at least three.) Your thoughts?

Ha! I'm in the United States Air Force, and I'm now going to have to start checking our fire trucks to see if they look like 60002. I've never been to MacDill, but if I ever drive by the base fire station where I'm out now, I'll have to see if they match. I don't know if we buy standardized trucks or not. Great looking truck, although I do think it's inexcusable that Lego can't figure out how to get two minifigures in the cab of a six-wide vehicle. I realize that the wheel well blocks would get in the way of those chairs, but it's still annoying.

I'm starting to see lots and lots of these in the stores. So many, that I'm wondering if it won't be easily clearanced at some point. Ironically, I just bought the Fire ATV at the low low price of $2.50 U.S. (down from $5.99). This set is really tempting...that dumpster looks great as a nice, realistic city element.

Heh...did you use a strong flash, or is the Fireman wearing yellow? My initial thought was that from that angle, the fireman looks...naked? (Well, except the glove and the hat.) Maybe turn the angle so we can see his uniform a little better, or zoom in and hold the camera further back so the orange doesn't look so yellow. Cute little diorama otherwise. Maybe you could add some orange 1 x 1 round studs to give the appearance of hot ash on the ground?

I'd like to see some predictions on what will be in the next Advent Calendar. I'd wager it will be Episode II- and III- centric since those rereleases will be this year. I'm going to guess: - One Battle Droid, no weapon. - At least one ridiculous weapon rack. OK, on the serious side, these sets seem to have 8 "army build" minifigures including plus cutsey holiday character. So I'm guessing: - Both a Phase I and II Clone Trooper, or maybe a Clone Pilot - A Geonosian - A Wookiee (PLEASE not another Chewie) - An Imperial Guard - A buzz droid (the last two calendars both had parts to assemble into a droid) - Another Super Battle Droid? - For the Christmas figure, maybe Jango in a red-green scheme? Grievous with red and green sabers? A red Vader? For ships, I'd guess micro versions of a Jedi Starfighter, Jango's Slave I, a Geonosian ship, a Republic Cruiser, a Jedi Interceptor, a Wookiee craft...what else?

I've been slowly using them to build a Death Star floor. I have my Millennium Falcon on a 64 x 64 plate (which still isn't big enough for the Falcon!). The Death Star had a shiny black tiled floor, so the minifigure stands are a close approximation. It still leaves row after row of studs on the floor, but it's something.

Nice! It's amazing how a simple tweak can improve a set so much!

Continuing my self-imposed challenge of "what can I fit on an 8 x 4 plate," I present...a sidewalk acting troupe. You've heard of Shakespeare in the Park? Well, here's Shakespeare on the Sidewalk. I guess our general theme is that some underemployed actors have set up a small stage on the sidewalk and are acting in public for tips. I don't know if this has ever happened in real life, but I did once see a string quartet--tuxedos and all--performing on a sidewalk for change. I figure anything's possible. Here we are performing a scene from Antony and Cleopatra. (I really need to get that new Caesar figure to complete the scene.) You'll note that I've made the stage a combination of tiles and plates. I hate unfinished tiles--believe me, the unfinished sidewalk is driving me crazy--but I felt it necessary to leave a few studded tiles so figures or props could be secured. So as an example, here's Cleopatra secured on the right and a plant on the left, but it looks like a flat stage between them. We're not limited to Shakespeare. For example, our Guild could perform Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, but I get the feeling nobody wants to see it.... Besides, they risk getting arrested for performing without a permit. I'm not 100% satisfied with the "curtains"--it doesn't quite look right (I don't have the 30 degree white brick for the bottom!), and the roof isn't very stable. If anyone has suggestions for what can go in the back (and still leave the front of the stage clear), I'm open to it.

Nice! I really like the at-home, "farmy" feel that this has. Two suggestions: one, why not add a few pine trees? People often go to tree farms at Christmas to shop for their tree, so maybe add a few pine trees of various sizes so customers can be picking one. Maybe put them around the campfire (but not too close--pine sap is flammable!). We bought our tree this year from a lot that had a little fire going--your scene reminds me of that. The tractor's cart could be carrying an additional tree to a customer's car. Two, maybe upgrade the tractor tires to a more modern model. I don't think the old-style, red 4-stud tires look all that great compared to what's available today. Other than that, very charming!