Mariann Asanuma

I don't know if anyone has seen this yet or not. But Joe Meno of BrickJournal pointed this out to me and I thought I'd pass it along. The LEGO Model Shop in Enfield, Connecticut has created a LEGO Buzz Lightyear model. More pictures can be seen here I also wrote more about it on my blog if you are interested. Enjoy!

How exciting! I've been to Japan a number of times, I even lived there for 3 months, so I might be able to give you some advice. First of all have fun! Okay, now for the real advice: Carry a phrase book -- even if you can't pronounce Japanese too well, you can always show them the phrase you are trying to say. In general, Japanese people are very friendly. Use the subways and trains. Taking a taxi is pretty expensive. The trains and subway systems are much cheaper and depending on where you are going the station names are in both Japanese and English. Tokyo, Osaka, and Hiroshima I've found are pretty easy to get around. Also, depending if you are planning to travel to more than one city, you might want to look into what is called a Japan Railpass. They are special tickets available only to tourists that allow you to ride any JR (Japan Rail) Train (the largest train company), including most of the Shinkansen (Bullet Trains). You can buy them for 1, 2, or 3 weeks (I think) and you can travel for that length of time all over. Depending on how much traveling you are going to do (especially if you are going to more than on city), this is a cheaper alternative to buying the tickets for each trip. In the way of food. I recommend going to the smaller eating places or ramen noodle places. You could go to McDonald's or KFC, but they are expensive and what's the point of being in a foreign country if you don't eat their food? A lot of the eating places have pictures or even plastic models of fake food in the window so you know what they sell with the price right next to it. Even if you can't speak or read Japanese, you can always point. Also another place to get pretty good, cheap food (if that's what you want) is in the convenience stores. I know, you have visions of a bad hot dog. But actually Japanese convenience stores usually have really good food that is good for take-away. Oh, and another place is the bread shops or "pan-ya." Japanese bread shops have a lot of interesting breads that are similar to meat-pies that are usually pretty cheap and still really good. As a side note to the food, one thing I would really recommend is Japanese dessert and candies. Especially Japanese chocolate and any desserts that are "melon" flavor. Ever since my first visit to Japan when I was 13 I've loved melon flavored drinks, candy, etc. I don't drink, but if you are familiar with "Midori" liqueur, its the same flavor. Don't let the fact that it is usually colored bright green throw you off. It's really good, trust me. Do research, either online or get a book that recommends places to go in the city (or cities) you are going. If you are on a budget, you can even find info on cheap places to visit. Many of the shrines and temples are usually only a few hundred yen (the equivalence of a few US dollars) so you can see many historical places very inexpensively. As for LEGO in Japan, I've never been to the "Brick Click" (I think that's the name) LEGO stores, but I have gotten a few LEGO things there before. When I buy LEGO or LEGO related things in Japan, I make sure it isn't something I could just buy at home. I have found a few things that are exclusive to Japan (and sometimes Europe) that were never available in the states set wise (like the Kabaya sets). I also have a book and a day planner that were only available in Japan. I know that right now there are a couple of Japanese only LEGO books out. If you print a picture of the book, or get the ISBN number, you can take that to a Japanese bookstore and ask them if they have it. Also, to save space when bringing LEGO home in the suitcase, I usually open the box and flatten it, and roll up the LEGO bags. (Pretty obvious, but sometimes people don't). Another fun place to go shopping is "Hyaku-en" stores (100 yen stores). Everything is just 100 yen, but unlike American dollar stores, the items are really nice and good quality. A lot of the department stores are usually expensive, so I usually would just window shop there and buy what I wanted cheaper places. I can't think of anything else off the top of my head, but if I do I'll mention it. Again, have fun! I'd love to hear how your trip goes. (As a side note I do have to admit that I'm half-Japanese and speak and read some of the language. So getting around for me is easier than your average non-Japanese speaker. But in the larger cities this its still pretty easy to get around.)

I don't know if this is the right forum. If it isn't, please relocate it. I was looking up info on the LEGO Indy 2 Video Game and I found a I hadn't seen anyone posting this.I put it on my blog too. It looks pretty cute. The only thing I'm not happy about is the lack of a PS2 version of Indy 2 or LEGO Rock Band. I just might have to get a PS3 now.

Oh, that's right! There were two Stefans that came and a Bernd. We made a joke that it sounded like a law firm. I have a really, really bad memory for names. Sorry for the mix-up.

Man, it looks like you guys had a cool time! I do kind of envy all the goodies you got! When I saw this photo, I just had to remark about it. I know him! Bernd (at least I think that's how to spell his name ), the Model Builder. He and the other Bernd came and worked over at LEGOLAND California with my Model Shop crew when we were building Miniland Florida a few years ago. They built a six foot tall Vehicle Assembly Building for the Kennedy Space Center area. Sadly, the models are no longer in California. They can now be seen in Denmark. Also, a copy of the area is at LEGOLAND Windsor in England. He's a great guy, and I enjoyed the month that I was able to work with him.

Hello and welcome to the real world. LEGO certainly bridges languages and barriers.

According to Brothers Brick its At least in Japan.

If you were made of LEGO would you want to get LEGO for Christmas?

The ladder piece has been around for a very long time (1980). As for the lamps, its just my guess, but I think that they are the Sandy Cheeks dome pieces.

I've made several pins. But lots of people make LEGO jewelery you can see some here

My favorite things to build are Miniland Scale and Mosaic models.

This Darth Vader was part if a series done by different artists for Star Wars 30th anniversary. They had them on display at the Star Wars Celebration IV on 2007. You can see them here. It was pretty interesting to see these in real life.

I like that one!

You forgot Mermaids.

I did get it at TRU. I know that they overprice the sets, but I saw it and really liked the alien so I decided to get it anyways.

Thanks! Oh I forgot to mention this in my review. I heard from someone who shall remain unnamed that the Squidman alien was actually based off of series of Youtube videos: , , and Apparently the maker of the videos is a LEGO set designer and created the Squidman. Strange, but true.

Well, this is my first review, so let me know what you think. Set info: Name:Squidman Escape Set: 5969 Theme: Space Police (III) Year: 2009 Pieces: 42 Minifigs: 2 Price: $6.99 USD Here's a picture of the front of the box. And here's the back Here's the bags of parts Here's all the parts Random page pic The Minifigs I find it interesting that the Squidman has a decorated back since he has a cape hiding it (Sorry for the not great photo) The ship, I rarely put the stickers on my models, so you see it plain Here's what the stickers look like The back of the instructions has a parts list I really like this picture in the back Here's the extra parts As soon as I saw the alien head, I thought it would look better like this I just need to perfect the connection Overall, the set is okay. Mainly I just wanted the alien. The vehicle is kind of boring, especially without the stickers. But I generally don't use the stickers because then I can't use the part for something else. After seeing several of the sets at Toys "R" Us, I'm not too impressed with the vehicles, but I really like the aliens.

Nice review! It made me smile. I'm still unwilling to buy one of these, hoping the price will go down.

mania 3, great job! The pictures are great. I liked the review so much I blogged about it.

Last year I built Jing Jing, one of the Beijing Olympic Mascots. The model took me a few days to build, but the morning after I finished it, I found it like this: Luckily it wasn't quite as bad as it looked and I was able to reassemble it in less than an hour.

Thanks Lego12 and everyone else for liking my model.

You're welcome.

Ships masts are called Masts The easiest way to find them is go in the buy LEGO section, click on the parts section, and then click on Boat. You should end up with this page. Hope that helps.

Sadly, its too far from me But the building events are fun and I've known Dan (the Master Model Builder) for years. He's a great guy! Hope whoever gets to go has fun.

Okay. I don't know what the rules in Billund are, even though I do have a friend there. Maybe I'll have to ask him about that.