Holodoc

Welcome back my fellow eventee!

Nice work, BrickPoor! The comic reminds me of my work yesterday...

Ever thought of clicking on these?

Same here! Thank you very much!

This is the story of our event 2008 in Billund. Well, not all of the story, but part 1 (as it´s getting late and all you curious people are waiting for this) I was the last one of the 13 eventees to arrive at the Legoland village on thursday, 29th, so please have a look at (all the) other "reviews" of our event if you want to read something about thursday before 7 o´clock p.m.. Directly after my arrival (and the dinner) we started our first challenge and it would not be the last, but more on that later on. TT arranged a special "find a set"-challenge on a given area, where we had to find a previously hidden set. No problem for an AFOL you might think (and at first we did so, too ), but take in mind we had to browse an approx. 2 squarekilometers wide area (200 x 100 m) and the set was rather small (Indiana Jones Jungle Duel) and camouflaged (silver)! So no wonder we were searching rather long. Fortunately TT gave us some hints about the location, but even that didn´t really help. To cut a long story short, finally Morten managed to find the set and the rest had to realize that they were passing by that set at least twice without having noticed it at all. The excitement even got stronger when all eventees were asked inside again to have the extras be handed out. And what we got! 1) Promo Set 7910 2) The winner of the Impulse set challenge Khorne made a copy of his city bum for all of us. 3) PaulC made a copy of his stunning Indiana Jones jeep (the Brickmasters exclusive 20004) rebuild (OK, with missing parts, but our brandnew ambassador is taking care about that). 4) We were the first AFOLS to get a set of the all new space line "Space Hotties", that will surely hit the shelves of your local toy stores as well in the nearest future. And believe me: When it´s called "Hotties", it MEANS Hotties! 5) Best of all: Rare bricks and Minifigs! All the SW-UCS-MF crew had come together to be part of a special polybag. Bricks that have never made into an official set together with rare ones, that are part of just one set so far and so on. Our eyes got wider and wider! Sorry, no trans rare pieces, though. It was hard to calm down again, but we finally managed it with our favourite drinks (sorry, AFOLs only) and a lot of conversation about this and that. (Captain Green Hair almost disqualified for the 8150 contest) Friday Meeting at the main entrance at 10 o´clock and storming the local PaB. No - patience, it will not open until 12 o´clock. OK, let´s head for the miniland first. In comparison to the Legoland Germany (these are the only two I visited so far) the Billund one is larger, has a better surrounding (trees and little hills) but is in a poorer condition concearning the bricks. You can easily see that a lot of builings were made some years ago, spider webs and sometimes a dusty cover were indicators for that. For my taste there were too may red bricks used, but, hey, its Scandinavia there, isn´t it? I don´t have a proof for that, but I think there is more motion in the miniland Billund than there was in Günzburg. I especially like all the watergates working and having the ships go up and down. Meanwhile it was 12 o´clock and I went back to the shop. You´ll never guess who already was there browsing the shop: Copmike! What a disapointment to realize that the sets were overprized (compared to Germany) and the ridiculous way of selling bricks at the PaB (if you buy more than 100g, you will pay thrice the price for each 100 gram :angry: ) is not stopped. *Hello? Wake up! What kind of business modell is that?!* But there was still the extra market that will open one hour later. Disapointment no. 2! Uninteresting sets just 10% off? No way. On Saturday I saw the hobby train set 10183 for 700 DKR. Reduced from 770 DKR. That was on clearance sale in S@H for 49,99€! They had a lot of sets opened and had the bricks dispersed all over 20 bigger boxes where one could sit down and grab the bricks one likes though. You had to fill a big blue bucket for this. That limited my interest - until LasseD went to fill his bucket and had some space left. Thanks again, Lasse! I managed to find some nice parts. At half past 1 we left the park to visit the official Lego museum. Jan Beyer, the AFOL coordinator (if I may call him that way ) accompanied us through the tour that had a lot of new and old news for us. I think we all were excited about the older sets placed all around the tour in the first part. The vault was amazing and the upcoming sets of 2009 were EDIT by Administrator: *SNIPPED on behalf of TLC* Unfortunately we were not allowed to make photos of these sets. I wished everyone around here would have had the chance to see themselves. Well, then there was the wooden part of TLC's history, but that part luckily didn´t last long and we went straight to the exhibition hall, were they had put up all sets of 2008, including the sets that did not have been released so far. Again, no photos, but we were allowed to play with the sets and look for the cool functions that come with it. What a delight! Most of us were staring at the SW and agents sets, I moved on to the Creator sets. The ferry is so great! The mechanism used to open the front and lower the platform is very very clever! I already wrote about the new white Creator Convertible. I´m still amazed about the doors. They´re closing very smoothly. Whenever I tried a similar mechanism it got stucked. The upcoming bigger Technic set is a bit disappointing when compared to last years bulldozer: It´s the 8295 telescopic handler. Nothing really special. The 8297 Off-roader might even be better although it has fewer pieces. The coast guard sets look very, very good. Too bad they are not being released until September (in Germany). Another set on my "to-buy-list": Castle advent calendar! We could not see inside, but I had a look at the parts list on the side. Definitely promising! After that we headed back to Legoland village where some more challenges took place. First everyone had to proof his eyes for different Lego colours. Find 3 small light blueish gray Lego pieces in a bucket of about 1000 old gray bricks. Do that as fast as possible! Most impressive: Morten_sonne as Mr. 5 seconds! He, KimT and Copmike managed to get 3 Lego banners for that. The next challenge was the 8150 secret: Stack the boxes. Highest tower after 20 seconds wins! Sounded easy, but someone finished with the heights of 1 lying box! But that was for warming up only. Like all of us feared the upcoming challenge was a "build in the bag"! The Racer set 8150 had to be build in its bag. Too difficult for not to be mentioned members who had difficulties even in opening the box! Some others surrendered opening the plastic bag accidently (so they said). But what is worse than being the first one to finish and having it NOT build correctly? KimTeresting you think? Oh yes! My luck, because I finshed third and the rewards were terrific! LasseD who was the first to finish the bagbuild correctly got the Space Skull set and I was handed out the Space Justice set. Woooha! And thanks to Jan Beyer who sponsored the rewards! Oh, may I point out that some members still are not finished with the bag build! But 8150 was not finished yet neither. We headed over to the minigolf area, where the cars had to perform a long distance run. Which car went farest was to win a smaller prize again. And finally there was a minigolf challenge itself. Too bad LasseD and I weren´t allowed to win another prize, otherwise we would have cleared the place of all sets. Finally Ras managed to be first in a final round that went down the wire. But then again HE was one of the hosts of this challenge and generously passed the Indiana Jones Jungle Cutter set over to Bricklord who was second. The second day ended with the usual drinks very early in the morning of Saturday. Stay tuned for day no. 3 and the grand finale!

That´s my brick washing device. It cleans dusty bricks easily and doesn´t waste too much water and detergents like normal washing machines do. Nice to see you all had fun with that. First I did not find out how to keep peeron updated if you just buy bricks at a PaB for example. Now I know, but this is even more time consuming. This is how my Excel sheet looks like: (More stupid: I started with a Word-file and then switched to Excel. It allows to use more different colours. The file is 6.6 MB right now.) There are three more (TRU buy 3 pay 2) wanting to be sold at ebay's.

Thank you Staudie and IS for this interview. First of all I have to say that the interview took place before our event this year. So I have to relativize my answer: Last years event was great, but this year was awesome! Meeting all of you guys again was pure excitement and fun. These definitely were the best days of 2008! Thanks again Copmike, Ras and TT for organizing all that cool stuff! Yep, this takes a lot of time. I forgot to mention that I used to be worse in my childhood days: With the lack of computers I drawed every single part on a paper to keep track of the quantity I had. Unfortunately I lost the 'catalog' somwhere, somehow. Your upcoming job as ambassador! Ah, about that sigfig confusion: I still don´t know why there has to be a sigfig when there is an avatar? This is the reason why I have an avatar - the Lego Holodoc and something completely different in my signature.

It´s on display right now! Lego store in Centro, Oberhausen.

Brilliant work! I love it when a set is used for a completely different building. Way to go, julencin!

Somehow I expected MAERSK blue. But nice anyway!

Why? No, not right now - but later on.

Finally I got my copies of GreenGrocer and TownPlan in the Lego shop Oberhausen yesterday. Town plan was reduced (134,99 €) , so with a 10% discount due to displaying my post office there I all in all payed 246 €! That makes 1722 Danish Kroners! Too sad the coast guard sets will not be released in Germany until September.

Because I´m at work right now * sshhh - don´t tell anyone * I´ll start off with a pic of all the eventees, just to have you curious people calm down a bit: back row (from left to right) Christian, KimT, Ras74, Copmike, LasseD, Bricklord middle row: Mr. (I forgot the name ), he´s a Legoland builder, Starwars4J, TT, Morten_sonne, Xwingyoda, Snefroe, Capt. Green Hair front row: Me I will add a bigger pic of that and the story of the four best days in 2008 later this afternoon... You´re not going to browse my BS-folder right now, are you? OK, one more pic from the vault: Patience ON! EDIT: I just found out: Number of views on the eventees pic (see above): 17 Number of views on the ladies: 41

We were able to see that set in Billund. It IS very cleverly made! I was very surprised that the doors close very smoothly. They don´t get stuck before they close and after that you cannot see a slightest gap. Cool. The roof of that convertible can be stored in its back. Have we ever seen that before? Wow again! Can´t say anything about the allternative models, though.

Because of certain circumstances I´d like to say Happy (belayed) birthday! I bet there are more members to follow... I hope you've had a wonderful day like we all had in Billund.

Another nice one, Stauder and IS! The speech bubbles work fine, it´s a nice addition to the pics. Klaus Dieter would have been my suggestion to interview next , so thank you for doing it.

Ladies and Gents, it´s time for our final showdown. But before we start with the ultimate No. 1, let me say thank you to all the attendees. It has been a wonderful challenge and I sure had a lot of fun taking part in it. Special thanks go to "the one and only" Copmike (11 still the best ) and to Captain Green Hair as "special guest star" . Thanks to all the commentators who made us not feel all alone here. My personal No.1: The countdown is nearly over now, but the best is yet to come! See you soon in Billund!

Thanks again for your kind comments. I believe this is the beginning of a post-office contest.

So you are making up your own challenge?

Yes, BUT it´s still NOT available!

Does your job have anything to do with cloth/painting/fabric? Your work looks very professional! Thank you for yopur special offer at BL! Fabric capes ON!

Holy cow! Now I know the price difference between Denmark and Germany. Evene WITH discount this is far more what I would pay here. Patience ON!

Great review 5150 Lego! The new camera was well worth it. You´ve got everything well done. I´m looking forward to your next review. Same here. Maybe in two days I can see it in real.

Ok, nice work so far. Now we step up to something academic. I´ll only say: Binary ON! Got it?