What a year – 2015

I want to use a few of the last minutes of 2015 and thank all of my readers. I know, the postings on my blog are rather scarce currently, but I somewhat regularly post on the Facebook page, which has a lot better reach (800+ followers). Still, I want to thank all the fans, readers and commentors on all platforms. This year was really awesome, with many good sets and a lot of joy when building (even if I didn’t achieve as much as I had wanted). Real life was pretty busy as well and from time to time I had longer phases in which I couldn’t build. Still, I am always coming back and enjoy our favorite brick.

Anyway, I wish you all the best for 2016, lot’s of bricks, fun, health and whatever you wish for. Let’s all have the best 2016 possible.

Also, big thanks to TLG for the awesome “thank you cards” and for continued production of LEGO bricks and awesome sets.

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Speedbuild 42043 Mercedes-Benz Arocs 3245

Ok, I finally got my ass up and going and compiled a speedbuild video. The Mercedes-Benz Arocs is a fantastic example for a proper  first try.

I can say, the build was very enjoyable. Lots of interesting techniques and a lot of firsts for LEGO Technic, like a truck with suspension. Apart from that, the Arocs is not only the biggest set ever in terms of parts, but also it has the most wheels as well as new and updated (!) pneumatic pieces, mainly longer cylinders and better inlet ports.

Buildtime: ~6 hours

I hope you like it. If you have suggestions or feedback for me,  please use the comments section here or below the video.

Progress on the Prado

I did some progress on the Toyota Prado by rm8. I did already post some pictures on Facebook showing the first representation of the rear axle made in LDD and the first gearbox version I had built with real bricks. Since I am somewhat on vacation currently, I had some time to take care of the rear axle. I wasn’t yet satisfied by the original design and even rm8 advised me to build it with the newer axle hubs. And so I did. I had already tried to use the hubs that were introduced with 42000, but this still seemed kind of flimsy and unstable, though only digital. So I decided to use the portal hubs from the 8110 – Unimog.

Bricklink order

I am preparing again. This time, I prepare to build Nathanael Kuipers Predator Supercar. It already got so much praise, so I hope the build is as satisfying as I expect. For this, I placed a huge Bricklink order. And after I posted a picture of the box and someone asked about the contents, I thought I’d make a video. Unfortunately, I had some struggles when taking the video, so I had to do 3 takes until it worked. No idea what went wrong. So, the third take worked, but I am not satisfied with the video. I’ll post it anyway. Perhaps it produces some good feedback.

Anyway, I had quite some contents in the package:

Quite some bags, right? Most pieces are really common and often it is nothing new. I needed more tires, so I can have more Supercars built simultaneously. Some liftarms and wheelhubs and springs for the Predator. Here are some highlights:

These are about 1800 round 1×1 plates in transparent light blue. These will accompanie my collection of regular trans-blue plates to become water some time in the future.

Here we have several of the new clutch pieces and gears. Again, some are for the Predator. You can also see the 2L pin with 1L axle in the right bag. I purchased a bulk of these to stock up substantially on these.

These are the new 2L axle with 1L pin. I didn’t have these before and since I need some of these, I purchased some more.

Here we have a bunch of panels. Mostly white, but also some in blue, orange and black. You can also see some hard springs. Again, there are never enough of those somehow.

This is something special. This plate belongs to set 348 – Garage from 1971. This set actually belongs to my brother and is in my “old” Lego brick collection that is still at my parents. In the holes the springloaded doors will be mounted, which are held by the lever to the right. When you push the lever, the doors swing open and the stored car can roll down the ramp. 1971 and there were already such clever playfeatures available. Unfortunately, the lever of the old plate in the collection is broken and thus this doesn’t work anymore. And since my brother is currently rebuilding the vintage stuff, I decided to surprise him with this in addition to the missing arch piece I ordered for his 760 London Bus.

So, that’s it for this order. I have another order incoming, but that will have just a few pieces I was still missing for the Predator. Oh. I nearly forgot the video. Please forgive me not being super enthusiastic. I was already very bugged by having to start over two times. If you have suggestions for me to improve this, please post it in the comments here or below the video.

Digital Lego Books at HumbleBundle

The new Humble Books Bundle just started. For those who are not familiar with Humble Bundle: This started with videogames from Indie-Developers. Everyone can pay what they want. If the buyer pays above a limit or an average price, he gets extra items. Part of the money that is made goes to charity. Best of all, the bundle content is usually available as DRM-free downloads.

It contains several books about LEGO. Even Sariels recent book. For a free to choose price, these are:

• LEGO Adventure Book, Vol. 1: Cars, Castles, Dinosaurs & More!
• LEGO Space: Building the Future
• Incredible LEGO Technic: Card, Trucks, Robots & More!

For $15 or more you get:

• Steampunk LEGO
• The LEGO Neighborhood Book: Build Your Own Town!

The Bundle is named “Brainiac Book Bundle”. But they could have just named it “NoStarch Bundle” as well. In addition to the LEGO books, you get several books about science themes for kids.

The bundle is available for two weeks. After the first week, more books will be added to this bundle. Perhaps more LEGO books.

I know, eBooks are just not the same as real books. But I think it is very practical to have some digital editions. You can easily take them on vacation on a tablet and entertain yourself with it, without having to carry the big and heavy books around. I can only suggest to take this offer. Particularly, because you won’t get these books as cheap as this!

You can get the bundle here: Click

MOC – Robopocalypse begins

Not far into our future, the dazzling technology that runs our world turns against us. Controlled by a childlike—yet massively powerful—artificial intelligence known as Archos, the global network of machines on which our world has grown dependent suddenly becomes an implacable, deadly foe. At Zero Hour—the moment the robots attack—the human race is almost annihilated, but as its scattered remnants regroup, humanity for the first time unites in a determined effort to fight back. This is the oral history of that conflict, told by an international cast of survivors who experienced this long and bloody confrontation with the machines. Brilliantly conceived and amazingly detailed, Robopocalypse is an action-packed epic with chilling implications about the real technology that surrounds us.

Amazon summary

Woohoo – 100 Facebook Page Likes

Congratulations to me, congratulations to me *sing*

Okay enough of this. This came somewhat unexpected. But I reached this big milestone. 100(!) people and pages liked my Facebook page. This is awesome. Thank you all very much for reading, commenting and liking.

To celebrate this a little, I pulled out the big camera and tried to make some good photographs. After that, I really did some editing *yay*

So here it is:

What we have here is of course the 42029 Customized Pickup Truck and it’s slightly smaller version made by Artemy Zotov. The smaller version was a really cool build with only the LDD file as source material. Also I did some minor modifications, but nothing really outstanding. Both models look really cool next to each other and I hope you like it as much as I do.

Again, thank you all for your support. Next milestone: 1000 page likes 😉

Looking back on 2014

It seems, the older I get, the faster the years fly by. Looking back, this year passed in just a moment. This was a year with quite some ups and downs. It’s not like anything really serious has happened, so rest assured. I had various plans, but couldn’t accomplish everything. At some points I was just totally busy with other stuff like work or being a voluntary firefighter. At other periods my other hobby (videogames) took a lot of time.

Accomplishments:

• I bought and built quite a lot sets this year. Among these, many of the major Technic sets and some bigger System sets.
• I built Sheepo’s Mustang.
• I built Crowkillers Phantasm Twin Turbo.
• Built some other smaller MOCs, like the Tumbler above made by ZBLJ.
• Got several bulk supplies in smaller parts for some ideas I have.

Not accomplished:

• Clear my to-build box.
• Finish my C-model for 42009.
• Post-process the video footage I recorded.
• Find a good video processing software and learn how to use it.
• Write reviews for the sets and MOCs I built.
• Expand my building and storage space for better lighting and perhaps some backdrops.

Plans for next year:

• Complete at least some of the reviews and videos.
• Clearing the to-build box.
• Start the long planned system MOC.
• Build some MOCs from other people. The first one will be the 42009 C-model by MrTekneex.
• Probably accomplish my own idea for a 42009 C-model with the above as base.
• Expand my building and storage space for better lighting and perhaps some backdrops.

I wanted to go into a little more detail, but I guess that is not very interesting. So I leave it at that. All in all, it was still a good year. I got some great sets which really suprised me or where just very good value. But also I am a little disappointed about the things I did not accomplish.

Now, a new year is coming. I wish you, my readers and followers, all the best for the next year, a lot of new sets and bricks and of course lots of time for your favorite hobby. I sure have some plans and hope to pull through this year.

Until then, have a good time, a happy new year and a big THANK YOU for reading my blog and following me on Facebook.

Merry Christmas!

I want to wish all my readers and followers a really Merry Christmas. I hope all your wishes come true and that you have some nice holidays and even some time to build with your favorite bricks.

And to not have this post totally boring, here is a little brick-built movie that gave me the chuckles:

Set reviews for 1H15 Technic sets

Sariel, as one of the masters of Technic reviews, has gotten all the sets from the first Technic wave of 2015 for review by TLG. As he promised, he has finished all the reviews for the new sets by today. You can watch them on YouTube, of course.

The playlist also contains older reviews. So if you missed them, you can watch them there.