Set Review - #60326-1: Picnic in the Park - CITY

I don’t often purchase or review CITY sets, but every once in a while a set comes out that interests me. Set #60326-1: Picnic in the Park was released on 2 January 2022 in the US. It contains 147 pieces to include the first LEGO squirrels. I don’t know why I was so interested in LEGO squirrels, but I thought they would make a good addition to a future LEGO City scene I hope to work on some day. This set retails for $19.99 which works out to $0.136 per piece. I think this is a bit high, but I did find it on sale (after purchasing it… go figure).

Like most sets, the front of the box shows the full set while the back shows some of the play features to include two bike helmets so two of the minifigures can use the bike and cart.

The contents are two numbered parts bags and an instruction booklet for each bag. The set also contains a sticker sheet with one sticker.

The first bag builds a bicycle with a cart behind it. The cart is almost as large as the bicycle, but given the scale of LEGO parts, it works. Next is a small cart for a maintenance worker in the park. The cart has space for one minifigure to ride in it, has clips for tools, and space in the back to carry a load. The vehicle comes with two tools, a shovel and pitch fork and then some plants..

There are two minifigures in this bag. One is an adult female and the other is an adult male. The female is the bicycle rider and comes with two helmets (one for the minifigure in bag two). The male minifigure has what could be a uniform on. His face has some wrinkles which makes me assume they meant for him to be an older minifigure.

The second bag builds a small picnic area. It has a tree and then a picnic table. The tree is simply built, but comes with some greenery pieces great for future MOCs so no complaints there. You get the acorns in this bag. They are 1x1 round printed tiles. You can attach them to the tree or have them on the ground. The two squirrels are in this bag. One is brown and one is black. I placed them both on the picnic table, but you can see the brown one in the box behind the set (poor placement on my part). They have a spot to slide on a stud on the bottom so you can set them wherever.

There is one minifigure in this bag. It’s a younger male minifigure who can ride in the cart from bag one. You also get two beverage holders and a 2x2 tile printed to be a pizza box. I don’t normally take a pizza on a picnic in the park, but I guess you could.

Here are the three minifigures. I’m not sure if they have new outfits or not, but they are a decent addition to a CITY scene.

Overall, not a bad set considering the age range and theme. It’s a bit overpriced, but watch for sales. The addition of squirrels is fun and I hope to see LEGO continue to add more animals into the future. I’m not sure how many CITY sets I’ll be building in the future, but it was a fun change of pace from the usual sets I build.

Happy building!

Set Review - #60253-1: Ice Cream Truck - CITY

I’m not sure when the first one was, but LEGO CITY has done a few food trucks over the years. The last one I can recall is #60150-1: Pizza Van. That was from 2016. #60253-1: Ice Cream truck was released on 2 January 2020 in the US. It retails for $19.99 and contains 200 pieces. That works out to roughly $0.10/piece. I purchased mine locally for just under $17.

The box is your standard set up with the full set on the front and some play features on the back. This set is meant for the 5+ age range and it shows in the build. Onto the review…

This set contains two parts bags (both numbered), two instruction booklets, a sticker sheet, and two 2x16 light gray plates.

Bag 1 starts building the truck. The back comes with a few cones and some ice cream. The back side of the truck has hinges so it can open up for playability. Not much else here… it’s a pretty simple build.

There are two minifigures. A female figure who is the truck operator and then a male minifigure who is on a skateboard. The skateboarder comes with a purple skateboard, a blue helmet which can be switched for a black hair piece. It also comes with a black hair piece.

Bag 2 wraps up the build. The other side of the back has a sliding window for the minifigure to serve out of. It also adds the cab and all of the decorations. There are a lot of stickers to include the menu, some signage, and the face on the ice cream bar on top. I failed on the sticker for the ice cream bar as I centered it. If you zoom in, you can see there is a gap between the brown part and the brown drip on the sticker. I should have placed it in line with the brown. Not a big deal, but lesson learned I guess.

Overall, not a bad set. It fits in well with a city scene and adds some different vehicles besides the usual fire and police activity in LEGO CITY. The build is very simple, but to be expected for the 5+ range. My little guy tried to play with it, but the ice bar on top fell off easily and the front cab does not remain on well. Not a big deal for an AFOL thought. I’m glad I found it on sale and recommend waiting for a sale if you’re looking to pick this set up.

Happy building!

Set Review - #60262-1: Passenger Airplane - CITY

The LEGO CITY theme is back with another passenger airplane. This one is #60262-1: Passenger Airplane. It was released on 24 August 2020 in the US for $99.99. It contains 669 pieces and has 9 minifigures. This works out to $0.149 per piece. I picked it up locally on sale for about $72.

The last CITY passenger plane came out back in 2016. You can see my review of #60104-1: Passenger Terminal here. It had 694 pieces and 6 minifigures, but retailed for the same price. Like this set, it contained an aircraft, a small terminal, some ground crew gear, and the minifigures.

Onto the review…

The front shows the full set with the minifigures in action. It also shows the length of the aircraft (54 cm/21.2 in). The back gives the play features like usual.

The set contains 9 parts bags. 7 of the bags are numbered and 2 are un-numbered with large pieces inside. It also includes the large wing which has been pretty standard in CITY sets. The instructions and stickers are in a plastic wrapping. There are 4 instructions booklets and a small sticker sheet.

Bag 1 builds a 4-stud wide red sports car. It comes with the minifigure Poppy Starr. This minifigure is from a LEGO CITY TV show that I didn’t even know existed. I’m not sure if this set or car is seen on the show or not. Anyone?

The build of the car isn’t anything special, but it’s designed to fit in the aircraft as you’ll see later.

The second bag builds an airport vehicle. This vehicle can tow various equipment to include stairs (built later) and the lift to transport the car to the aircraft. While there’s nothing special about the vehicle, it seems to be in line with the small vehicles you see driving around any airport in the world towing various pieces of equipment or baggage trains. You can easily create your own additional pieces of equipment to tow around and attach to this vehicle.

The trailer isn’t too hard to build, but I question if a 6 year old could do it as the box states. Maybe with some help they could? The design does hold the car built in the last bag and can “lift” it up. There is no mechanism to move the car into the aircraft, but I guess that’s something you can build on your own as most 6 year olds aren’t concerned about that.

Two minifigures in this bag. One is an airport worker with a hard hat and ear protection. The other is a passenger with a Hawaiian shirt on. He has a large piece of luggage which is different from the standard LEGO briefcase I’m used to seeing. This one looks like it could be a roller bag or something… just no wheels.

Bag 3 builds the small terminal. I’m not sure why it is included in this set. I understand that the set is designed for playability, but to me I’d rather see the terminal as a separate set. The aircraft set could be focused on the plane itself and some ground crew. Then the terminal set could be a bit larger with some more detail. This terminal has a small baggage claim, a vending machine, and a check in desk all crammed onto an 8x16 plate.

The facility uses roller coaster track as the roof. I like the concept, but it seems like a cop out to not putting any effort into making a curved roof. Easy for a 6 year old to install I guess. There’s also a small control tower with a radar dish attached. Like many CITY sets, the minifigure has to jump or climb to the top, but it gets the job done I guess.

Four minifigures in this bag. A female with a black bag sporting a guitar shirt, a male wearing a carrier to carry a baby and holding a bottle, the baby, and then an airport worker with a coffee mug. I love the baby carrier concept. Bonus points to the designer who came up with that piece!

Bag 4 starts to build the fuselage. Not a lot of details yet and like past CITY passenger planes, it uses a lot of BURPs to achieve the shape. One area I appreciate is the cockpit. Besides the printed slopes for controls, they added in a steering column which moves. It is just a bucket handle on a droid arm, but still a nice detail.

This bag has two minifigures to include a female pilot with some cool shades and a male flight attendant.

Bag 5 adds the standard wing piece along with some seating and details on the wings to include the winglets on the tips of the wings and the farings to hold the engines on. I’ve seen a few complaints about not enough seating, but I think the inside is large enough to make changes to as required. Add in your own additional seats if you don’t like how it looks. It is just LEGO after all.

The sixth bag adds in the windows in the cabin, a small bathroom on board, and starts to build the cargo compartment. The horizontal elevator on the tail is also added.

Bag seven finishes the build with BURP pieces to complete the top of the cabin, a BURP tail with a printed logo, a cargo door that rotates up and has a small latch to hold it down, and the engines. The engines are not a single piece, but instead are multiple cylinders attached together with around piece with a sticker on it for the fan blades. I’m indifferent on the design. Not sure if it is better or worse than previous jet engines. Besides the aircraft, you get the steps to get on and off the aircraft. No hand rails though so watch out.

Nine minifigures in total which isn’t’ bad. It’s a good selection with some good accessories. I would have liked a co-pilot for the second seat in the cockpit, but we’ll take what we get.

Here’s the full set. If you ask me, it’s in line with all previous CITY passenger plane sets. Lots of playability, some fun details, and good minifigures. While the piece count went down slightly, the price remained the same. If you can find it on sale like I did, even better. This is probably not a great set for adults unless you want pieces or you have a CITY airport (or like me, plans to build one). A good set for kiddos. My little guy absconded the vehicles and both of my kiddos enjoyed flying the plane around.

What are your thoughts on this one? If you’re an adult and hate the CITY plane designs, I recommend you check out the YouTube channel Big Planes. The builder here makes some incredible MOCs of actual aircraft and doesn’t use BURPs.

Happy building!

Visiting an Open LEGO® Display in 2020 - Gartenschau - Kaiserslautern, Germany

The Gartenschau in Kaiserslautern was closed in early 2020 as COVID-19 first hit Germany. Thankfully, it re-opened and I finally was able to get there to see the updated LEGO® display. So we donned our masks and went in…

Before moving on, here are the links to the previous visits I’ve had to the Gartenschau:
2018, 2019 (part 1), 2019 (part 2)

Here’s the welcome sign. It says die große LEGO® ausstellung (the large LEGO® display) and it is hosted by Lauter Steine E.V. If you live locally, I believe it closes on 31 October and then re-opens in April.

The start of the display had a few cases with some MOCs. Some of the minifigures had masks added to them.

Next up, a large MOC of a 2x4 red brick. Then there was another case with a few MOCs and some sets.

In that case (shown above) were a few MOCs designed by Daniel Krentz. He was the designer of the #375 LEGO Classic Yellow Castle (shown below). Daniel passed away in 2016. There were a few MOCs from Daniel in the case purchased during a Fairy Bricks fundraiser.

The first picture looks like a Native American totem pole only out of bricks and in various build styles.

Next is a case with some train MOCs and some Formula 1 race car MOCs. The bottom has the VW Bus set with some VW MOC. Further down is a space shuttle.

There was no sign next to this one, but it looks like a recreation of the Forbidden City in Beijing, China. It’s a very impressive build!

I apologize for the reflection and lighting. The displays have plexiglass in front of them (smart move) and the lighting is not meant for cameras.

This MOC has been there previously and is a western US scene from the 1800s or so. I like the use of the wallpaper background incorporated with the brick background.

I wasn’t as big of a Castle fan as a kid so I’m not sure if these next pictures are sets or MOCs, but they are in the Castle theme.

I didn’t see a sign next to this one, but perhaps this is a MOC of an actual castle in Germany? The German flag is on top of the main structure so maybe.

This MOC was there last year and it’s a build of the electricity plant of the city of Kaiserslautern in 1894. I like the hot air balloon to mix things up a bit from the industrial look. I’m also a fan of the tall smoke stack they build. I’m curious if it is brick only or if there is a supporting structure inside.

Here’s an impressive build of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany. If you look closely, you an see some fun details like Santa Claus.

Here is another Berlin landmark. The Reichstag where the German Parliament meets. I saw this build at a show last year. The new addition this time is the park nearby with the LEGO logo in brick flower form.

Here is a MOC of the Fruchthalle in Kaiserslautern. It’s a music venue for performances. The MOC is built from ~80,000 bricks. It took about a year to build and was built in 2016. I’ll let you read the description in German in the picture below.

I’m not sure if this MOC is new or just hasn’t been displayed in the past few years, but I found it to be the most impressive one there this year. The Frankfurt train station. First picture is the sign on the display letting you know what it is.

Here’s the full display… or at least most of it. I like how they added in the mirrors so you could see the trains. I didn’t get any close ups of the trains, but they had a mix of sets (the Disney train) and a few MOC trains.

A few more pictures of the station. I think the main building is impressive. The curve they were able to recreate in brick is really impressive.

Added into the scene were many of the modular buildings. I didn’t see the Cafe Corner or Green Grocer, but they have the City Hall and a few of the less recent buildings.

Nearby were a few buildings that are re-creations of actual buildings in the Frankfurt area.

I don’t know if this is of an actual train station or not. If you zoom in on the sign, Reiichelsheim (Odenwald) is an actual place. Not sure if they just wanted the sign on the station or not.

The large recreation of the brick fence behind the train station is cool!

I saw these MOCs of Venetian buildings last fall. You can see a few more pictures of them here.

A Ninjago scene.

The city scene has remained a constant over the past few years, but every year they make some changes and throw in some new things. Like last year, they have a fair, a rural area with farms, a European style city center walking area, and a more downtown/urban area. This year included more lights to include LEDs in the modular buildings, a subway type train route (the trains weren’t running while we were there), and a new train station to name a few.

I’m trying out a new (to me) web feature. You should be able to click an arrow or swipe on your phone/tablet to advance through the city scene pictures. Let me know in the comments if it doesn’t work.

I believe this scene was there in previous years. It’s a European style town/city next to hill/mountain. I’m going to guess Bavaria… maybe? The detailing on this one is very impressive and I like the colors too.

An imperial ship from the Pirate’s theme and then some recreations from JK Brickworks.

Some brick built birds which appear to be pretty close to scale. They are designed by Felix Jaensch. You can see his work here on Flickr.

The Dom…

Here’s the Cologne Cathedral again. It’s been there every year that I have visited and I still find it to be an incredible MOC.

Here’s the room dedicated to the space themes (should be able to click through the pictures). There are Ice Planet, M-Tron, Futuron, a large MOC of a ship, and some MOCs in the various space theme styles. This room is awesome! It makes me want to build some MOCs to add to them. I was a huge M-Tron fan and still have my sets.

Here are some architecture themed sets and MOCs. The Statue of Liberty (#21042-1), a MOC of Christ the Redeemer (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), a version of the Taj Mahal, and a few churches.

Various MOCs on display.

Star Wars™ sets have to make an appearance. Here are a few of the UCS sets on display.

A tall brick skyscraper. The top is lit up with LEDs.

Here is the logo for SteinHelden.de. This is a store located on site and they have an online store (only ships within Germany). It loosely translates to “brick heroes” and the business is set up to employ the disabled. A number of the workers are in wheel chairs or have other disabilities. It’s a cool concept!

Here is a microscale representation of the city of Kaiserslautern. Specifically it is the Rathaus (City Hall) and the Pfaltztheater.

A larger scale version of the Burj Khalifa.

A large scene of ancient Egypt.

The western US circa 1800s.

Last display case with some modified sets to include some Ideas sets, the James Bond Car, and some Harry Potter sets. There are also some fighter jet and biplane MOCs on the bottom row.

Another awesome display this year. So glad I was able to visit despite all of the COVID-19 closures. Thanks to the team who puts this amazing exhibit on! Hope you enjoyed my picture tour.

Happy building!

What's on the Front of Your LEGO® Set?

I recently reviewed #60233-1: Donut Shop Opening and I commented that the box did not include the set name when I originally posted the review. I found that to be quite odd as the name of the set is always on the front.

Fast forward a few weeks and I received a shipment from Amazon.com in the US which included #75957-1: The Knight Bus. The box came with a sticker on the left side with the usual information I always see on sets. If you look at the second picture I posted, you can see what it normally looks like. It took me a bit to put it together, but the one on the left was not produced in LEGO’s North America factory. Apparently US sets have all of the information while sets in Europe do not have the name and piece count. Like the #60233-1: Donut Shop Opening set I purchased from Smyth’s in Germany, the set I received from Amazon.com was made elsewhere (Europe or Asia), a sticker was added to meet the US rules, and it was sold at Amazon.com. That must be how LEGO is trying to fix its supply chain with the Mexico factory shut down due to COVID-19.

I have a few sets here that I purchased at Smyth’s in Germany. I wanted to do a check to see if they all were like that. First off, some architecture Skyline sets…

For comparison, here are two versions below. The North America versions have the piece count and let you know that it is a building toy. Which if you’ve seen the first LEGO® Movie, you know that it is not a toy. It is “actually a highly sophisticated inter-locking brick system.”

Here’s #75276-1: StormtrooperTM Helmet purchased from Smyth’s in Germany. In looking it up, the North America version has the piece count and the abbreviation in Spanish. Then it says it is a “Building Set” in English, French, and Spanish.

One last one… this one was also purchased from Smyth’s in Germany and it is #10254-1: Winter Village Train. It looks very similar to the North America packaging per what I could see on Brickset.com. The North America version says “Ages/edades” above the 12+. This set picture has pieces abbreviated in English, German, Spanish, and… I’m not sure what “db” is. Anyone? The North America version just says “pcs/pzs.

So there you go… If you’re in the US, pay attention to any new sets you get to see what the packaging is like. Your set may have traveled a lot farther than you’d think. I haven’t done a deep dive of the instructions or any of the other markings. Has anyone else noticed any differences?

Happy building!

Set Review - #60233-1: Donut Shop Opening - CITY

This review was a few weeks in the making as I had my helpers build this set with me. They don’t have the interest in cranking out a larger set and they want to play with everything as it is built (which is fine). So here is #60233-1: Donut Shop Opening. It was released on 2 August 2019 in the US. It contains 790 pieces and retails for $89.99. This works out to $0.114 per piece. A little steep… especially for a CITY set. I picked it up at Smyth’s here in Germany for around $55. So if you can be patient and wait for a better price, it’s worth it to wait to score a better price.

The box is pretty big for a CITY set. The front gives a picture of the assembled set, the set number, and the age range. The set was purchased in Germany and it does not have the standard US LEGO set markings like we are used to in the States. It just lists the age range and set number, but not piece count or set name.. It also highlights the police minifigure known as “Duke Detain.” I had never heard the name before, but the set is not meant for old people like me. The back shows some play features of the set.

The set contains eight numbered parts bags, a parts bag with some larger parts that is not numbered, and the instructions and stickers come sealed in plastic.

There are six instruction booklets and numerous stickers on a sheet. As mentioned, they come wrapped up so they were in good shape when I took them out of the box.

The first bag builds a police motorcycle with handcuffs and a paddle to direct traffic. Unlike the motorcycles I grew up with, this one requires some assembly versus being a one piece item. It also contains a few stickers.

I will say that I was horrible as a kid at applying stickers to sets and I’m still not that great at it. My 6 year old really wanted to put the stickers on so I agreed. I still have some of the sets from when I was a kid that have lopsided stickers on them. Well my kiddo showed me how it is done and they actually are pretty straight, mostly centered, and are probably placed better than I could ever do it. So after this part of the build, I sat back and watched.

Also in this bag is a taxi. The build of the car is very simple and there’s a 2x8 space for two minifigures in the car (driver and passenger). No ability to put bags or anything else in though.

My 6 year old asked why LEGO always has you assemble the minifigures first. I don’t know. Does anyone? Three minifigures in this bag. They include the taxi driver, “Duke Detain,” and your standard LEGO criminal minifigure. Duke has sun glasses and then eyes on the other side of his head. He also comes with a helmet for riding his motorcycle. The criminal comes with a standard issue crowbar.

The second bag builds a news van with two crew members. The van has some nice play features with a spot to place a minifigure by four different slope brick screens and you can raise the satellite dish on the back of the van. The roof raises up so you can easily access the bag. The two minifigures are a female news reporter with a microphone and a male camera operator. The camera is quite large and barely fits into the van with both minifigures inside. There is a storage box on the side of the van where you can store the microphone.

Bag three builds a small toy shop. It has minimal detail and is not fully walled, but it is a CITY set and is meant for play versus display. The opportunity is there to turn it into a much larger and fuller shop. This build is full of stickers and most of the front is just the clear plastic windows and doors, but it has some fun details. There is a small brick built train, a minifigure hat with a propeller, a bear, a net, and a guitar as options in the toy store. Two minifigures in this build. One is a female store worker and the other is a boy with a skate board.

The build includes a sticker sign to advertise a sale, a green bin to place the net in, and two brick balloons on top of the building. It’s all very simple, but could easily be incorporated into a larger scene and expanded upon.

Bags four and five build the CITY Coffee shop and the associated bike coffee cart. Bag four builds the two minifigures, the cart, and starts the Coffee shop. Bag five completes the shop. The shop is small, but has a decent number of details to include the use of textured 1x2 bricks, a dark blue Technic wheel cover piece (I’m sure there is a technical term), and some sticker signage.

Outside the shop is a small ATM which comes with some 1x2 cash tiles. On top is a small Technic build where you can tip over the donut once you install it into place. We have not tried it out yet as my 2 year old has absconded all of the vehicles to drive around and particularly enjoys the crane and donut it can raise up.

Something not often seen are errors in the instructions. We actually found two in this section. My 6 year old caught one and I caught the other.

My kiddo built the assembly as it shows, but didn’t check the number of pieces on the top. When she went to install it on the shop, it was one brick short as shown. The next page shows the correct height of bricks and uses for of the textured 1x2s as listed. You just have to figure that out because the instructions don’t do it for you. Not a major problem… more of an annoyance.

My kiddo caught this one that happened earlier in the build. It says there is only one gray slope brick, but the picture on the bottom shows two. The set comes with two and we went with two as well. Maybe someone at LEGO had trouble counting?

Bags six, seven, and eight build the truck, crane, and donut. Bag six builds the truck part with the cab and minifigure. There isn’t anything too special about this other than the front includes the fairly new triangle tiles which allow for a fun design that is not all at 90 degree angles. The minifigure comes with a coffee mug which I guess you need to drive a big truck.

Bags seven and eight build the trailer, crane, and donut. The trailer includes some supports that rotate out and fold down to stabilize the truck when you move the crane around. There are also some tools to attach the donut with and then the build to hold the donut. The crane part is fairly simple to assemble, but my six year old had me do it. You use a few Technic pieces and attach some bricks and then you can spin a piece to have it rotate up or down. The arm of the crane moves in and out, but there is nothing to stop it from coming all the way out. This isn’t a big problem as it can easily be placed back in. The crane comes with a brick chain versus having string and a hook. This works pretty well for the donut.

The crane has become my 2 year old’s new favorite thing to play with and he enjoys that he can lift, lower, and swing around something with the crane like he sees at construction sites nearby where we live.

The donut is a simple build for an adult, but my 6 year old had a bit of trouble lining it all up and following the SNOT build. Nothing she couldn’t tackle with a bit of help. Glad to see the pink side of the donut has printed sprinkles versus stickers. I’m also a fan of the use of SNOT to get both sides of the donut. It definitely makes it seem more realistic.

Overall, this set has a lot you can do with it and includes some great play features. While it could easily be integrated into a CITY scene, it doesn’t need to be as there is a lot you can do just within this set. The build isn’t anything special, but that is expected for a 6+ CITY set. The price is too much in my opinion. I recommend waiting for a sale on this set versus getting it at full retail. I found a good one in Germany and hopefully the same can be done in the US as well. This set will be a year old soon and I’m sure retailers will want it off their shelves.

My 6 year old had trouble with some of the build, but she was able to do most of it by herself. It was a good opportunity to build together. My 2 year old took anything we finished with wheels once we were done and tested it out to make sure it would fit with all of his other vehicles.

I’m not a MOC builder, but I enjoy trying to take simple CITY sets and making them better. I think this one has a lot of potential to improve on the buildings. Now I just need to get my brick collection back…

What are your thoughts on this set?

Happy building!

10 Reasons to Attend Brickworld Virtual 2020

Full confession… I have never attended a LEGO fan convention before. I have been to a few shows where people display their MOCs, but that’s about it.

I heard about Brickworld Virtual 2020 that was held back in April after the fact and was excited to see it would be held again in May. I registered online and “attended” my first fan convention on 16 May 2020.

A bit of history… Brickworld was started by Bryan Bonahoom and Adam Reed Tucker with its first show back in 2007. Since then it has grown to Brickworld Chicago convention/expo and then expos in Milwaukee, Ft. Wayne, outside of Detroit, and Indianapolis. It was recently purchased by Mark Larson who had the misfortune of buying it during a global pandemic.

Not willing to give up, Mark has put together a virtual convention. You buy a ticket ahead of time and at the time of the convention, you log into your account and can join various ZOOM rooms to see presentations, MOCs, and interact with other fans.

Before I get into my list, if you missed out you can still attend virtual shows on 27 June 2020, 31 October 2020, and 12 December 2020. So you didn’t miss out if this sounds cool.

If you need more persuasion, keep reading…

1. Interact with your fellow fans of LEGO in real time.

I don’t live near an English speaking LUG and I don’t have any friends who are AFOLs. My brick interactions are with my kids, with my Non-LEGO Spouse (NLS) who tolerates my obsession, and one sided interactions with Recognized LEGO Fan Media (RLFM). This show was a great opportunity to interact with fans like me and as far as I know, COVID is not transmitted over the internet.

Not going to lie… I was super pumped to be a fan after the “convention.” It’s great to see I’m not the only fan out there.

2. Minimal cost compared to attending Brickworld Chicago in person.

My ticket to attend was $9. Granted that didn’t include my internet service provider fee, but I pay that regardless so I don’t think it counts.

If I were to go to Brickworld Chicago, I’d have to fly the ~4,300 miles to Chicago, figure out lodging, transportation, food, and be 7 hours off of my normal time. Instead I hooked my NLS’s laptop up to the TV, entertained my kiddos for a bit, had dinner, got my kiddos to bed, and logged back in for more brick fun without spending any funds I wouldn’t have spent on a normal Saturday evening. No complaints from me there.

As a joke, the Brickworld website says parking is $50 per tire. I thankfully parked offsite and avoided that fee.

3. Participate in presentations by various experts in the LEGO fan world.

There were 10 presentations by various experts. The May show included the following:
-Fractals and Functions and Knots, Oh my! with Brian Hirt from LOLUG
-LEGO Vines with Barbara Hoel from WisLUG
-Homeschooling with LEGO bricks with Maddie Jones from VirtuaLUG
-Building LEGO Domes with Peter Strege from EuroBricks
-LEGO® – Community Q&A with Jan Beyer, Community Manager from the LEGO Company
-Train Community Roundtable led by Nate Flood from LOLUG
-LEGO® – My Life in LEGO Bricks with Sam Johnson from the LEGO Company
-Medieval Roofs by David Gregory from IndyLUG
-LEGO® – Build a Tower with Your Bricks by Bo Stjerne Thomsen from LEGO Chair of Learning
-Flexible Surfaces with Barbara Hoel from WisLUG

I wanted to attend most of these, but wanted to see other things too so I missed out on a bunch. My NLS home schools my oldest kiddo (even before COVID) so she attended the homeschooling presentation and got a few ideas for things to do in the future with school. You can see my LEGO based home school day here. I also caught the end of the Community Q&A and the full LEGO® – My Life in LEGO Bricks presentation, but I’ll mention them later. Some good info was shared by many. Thank you to those who presented!

4. See amazing fan built creations in real-time and interact with their designers

Modular City - Peter Strege

-If you missed the May 2020 Brickworld Virtual, you should check out his Flickr stream. It is here on Flickr. He makes some amazing MOCs to include some impressive building MOCs with cool domes and eye catching color schemes. Definitely take a look!

Bricks in the Middle - Kevin Hinkle

-I missed this one…

Great Ball Contraption (GBC) - Bob Luzenski

-More on this one later…

Star Wars® Creations - Carey Warren/Kevin Wagner

-I couldn’t find the display online that I saw to post a link to, but it was an impressive Tatooine display with the Cantina and creatures outside. I didn’t get to ask any questions because there was an excited young fan peppering the builder with questions. It’s all good. Great work and thanks for displaying!

Harry Potter® Creations - Eric Krans

-I found a clip of Eric’s display online. Go to the 2:45 mark if you don’t want to watch the whole thing to see the Harry Potter display. It’s pretty impressive and includes a lot of moving parts… some of which aren’t shown on the linked video. Thanks for displaying Eric!

Guilds of Historica - Eurobricks

-I didn’t spend too much time in this room, but the people involved in the Guilds of Historica forums in Eurobricks shared some of their builds. They had a schedule over the convention of who shared over which time block. I spent about 10 minutes watching a builder show his stuff. If you want to see more, you can check them out on Eurobricks here or on Flickr here.

Smurfs / Futurama - Kevin Lauer / Matt DeLanoy

-I did not see the Futurama display, but I did see the Smurfs display being shown by Kevin Lauer. I found an older post talking about it on the Brother’s Brick here. I’m not sure how much has changed since this older post, but it was cool to see. I spent most of the time watching it trying to explain to my 6 year old what Smurfs were…

Dragon Bricks & Activities - Alysa Kirkpatrick & Mark Haase

-I didn’t make it to this room…

Art and Mosaics - Abbie and EJ Bocan - AbbieDabbles

-I briefly checked into this room, but they were talking about some custom minifigures that they were selling. I didn’t spend much time here.

Still Life Creations / Blacklight Creations - Barbara Hoel

-I got to spend a few minutes in Barbara’s room when she was showing a blacklight creation. For those of you not familiar with Barbara’s work, you can see her Flickr page here. The display she showed was actually shown by the Beyond the Brick team back in November 2019. You can see that video here on YouTube. I wanted to ask a few questions, but my kiddos were ready to move on at that point. Barbara, I’ll bug you some other time…

Brick 101 - David Pickett

-I didn’t catch this one…

There was one other room and I’m not sure which one on the list it was. The individual was showing off a center build while explaining how to build various things. My kiddos were around when I went into the room and they didn’t find it interesting so we moved on. I would have liked to have watched for a bit to see if I could learn any good building techniques.

5. Hear from and ask questions to members of the LEGO Company

I think the LEGO Company has done a great job getting its employees out and about to interact with the fan community. With the pandemic, they’ve been doing lots of live streams and interviews with the RLFM teams around the globe so we get to hear about the company straight from the source. Brickworld Virtual had multiple LEGO Company employees present, but I only caught part of one session and then a full session of another. The first one I watched was of Jan Beyer.

Jan is listed as the Manager of AFOL Network Events (such as Brickworld). I unfortunately missed his talk, but I caught the end of the Q&A session.

Question one was related to regional releases and why items can’t be purchased everywhere. The response was that sometimes LEGO can’t get the product license everywhere and sometimes retailers in some locations don’t want those products. He did mention that LEGO was working to get rid of regional exclusives as we have seen recently with the Chinese New Year sets.

Question two was related to regional exclusivity and the LEGO® House sets. Why could they only be released in Denmark, the UK and Ireland? The answer was with the packaging. It was not built for worldwide releases as the plan was to only sell them at the LEGO® House in Denmark. I own all three sets and could not tell you what is different on the packaging, but there you have it. Jan mentioned LEGO is looking to correct this in the future.

The next talk I saw was called “My Life in LEGO® Bricks” and was given by Sam Johnson. If you’re not familiar with Sam, he’s currently a designer on the Ideas team and has worked on City, Jurassic Park,

Legends of Chima, Nexo Knights, and Harry Potter. The picture is a few years old as it is from when the Dr. Who set came out in 2015, but it’s the same person.

His talk was about how LEGO goes from concept to actual sets. He used NEXO Knights and described how it was created, showed some concept art, explained the processes used, showed some initial models, and then showed some of the prototypes that eventually became one of the final models. I found the talk pretty interesting as it was cool to see how they go from idea to a final model.

There were a bunch of questions about Q&A. I asked if they were seeing any design delays due to having to work at home. He said he didn’t think so as they are used to connecting through digital means and future sets seem to be on track. He also mentioned that designers who like to build with physical bricks versus the digital design programs they have can go into HQ to get the bricks they need to build at home. Not a bad deal if you ask me.

Two others that stuck out to me:
-He said something to the effect of the LEGO Ideas Playable LEGO Piano is coming soon and it is awesome.
-While he was not involved with the Bricklink AFOL Designer Program he said it was a great program and LEGO did not see it as a competitor to the LEGO Ideas platform. I see that as good news. We can hope it picks up again someday.

6. Interact with LEGO Masters contestants

I checked into this room to see it quite busy. At the time there were around 45 people. The hosts were from a Bricks and Minifigs store. Contestants that I saw at the time were Boone, Jessie, and Emmanuel. At the time I checked in a number of younger viewers were asking questions to the contestants. There was a decent line in the chat to ask questions and I didn’t have a burning question so I left, but I was glad to see them taking the time to encourage younger fans.

7. Talk to vendors about their LEGO based products and maybe score some deals

I didn’t sign up to attend with the hopes of buying things so I didn’t visit any of the vendors present, but there were quite a few listed who were selling their items. Had I been looking for something, it definitely would have been a good opportunity to hit up some vendors.

In addition to the vendors, Brickworld was selling its own swag. I bought the convention printed 1x8 brick for $3.50 (including shipping). I’ll add a picture of it to this post once I get it. They also had some shirts for sale which looked pretty cool, but I did not buy.

8. Show off your own MOCs to the Beyond the Brick hosts

Joshua & John Hanlon from the YouTube.com channel Beyond Beyond the Brick led a session called “You Show Us!” This was your opportunity to present what you were working on to the hosts. Both times I checked in, it was just Joshua. He was building one of the BrickLink AFOL Designer Program sets while talking with people. The first time I checked in, someone was showing him pictures of some original Star Wars helmets he had built. The second time, a younger builder was doing his best to show a build he was working on.

I put a few questions into the chat window for Joshua (lesson learned… I put “Josh” in the chat… sorry!) and he got to them when he was done chatting with the kid in front of me. I asked if Beyond the Brick had any plans to change at all and if they plan to continue the live stream format they have been using during the COVID-19 period. The answers were they plan to stick with the format they have for now and they plan to continue with live streams.

9. GBC!!!!!!

If you have never seen a LEGO Great Ball Contraption (GBC) in action, you are missing out. There are some very talented builders out there who have figured out the mechanics to move balls through various features and they are very creative. I found a few videos of parts of what I saw on YouTube here and here. My kiddos and I watched the GBC for a bit and we saw it with the room lights on and then when the lights were off and it was lit by glow in the dark balls and LED lights. It was very cool!

10. Play interactive an interactive robotic game online.

I’m aware that most LEGO Conventions have games you can play and while many of them are hard to do over the internet, the Super Robo Rally by Steve Hassenplug is not a problem. I am definitely not an expert with this game, but basically he has a game board with robots on it and users have to program brick built robots through a series of turns to win the game against competitors. Beyond that I won’t try to explain it because I would probably get it wrong. Definitely a fun opportunity if this is something you are into. Just be sure to sign up for one of the slots ahead of time.

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Bravo if you’ve made it this far… I realize the virtual experience doesn’t compare to meeting in person, but given the situation, I applaud the Brickworld team for executing the idea and moving out with it. They had a tech support room you could join with questions and many of the rooms had moderators or the exhibitor spoke up every now and then to explain how they wanted to run things.

Did you attend Brickworld Virtual in April or May 2020? What were your thoughts?

In the meantime, happy building!

German LEGO Fans get Some Sweet Discounts on Amazon.de

One of my most popular posts is a conglomeration of various ways to save money buying new LEGO sets. You can see the post here. The post is focused on buying LEGO sets in the US, but what about outside of the US?

If you are new to my site, I am temporarily living in Germany for a few years as my non-LEGO job moved me here. With that, I’ve been able to see bricks across Europe. I have also been able to see some of the LEGO set deals here in Germany. I checked out Amazon.de recently (February 2020) to see what they had and here are some of the highlights

#21045-1: Trafalgar Square - Architecture
Currently 52,99€ versus the 79,99€ German retail price (34% off).
At the current exchange rate, that puts it at $57.87 versus the $79,99 retail price in the US.

#60233-1: Donut Shop Opening - CITY
Currently 54,90€ versus the 79,99€ German retail price (31% off).
At the current exchange rate, its $59.95 versus the $89.99 US retail price.

#75253-1: Droid Commander - Boost
Currently 139,00€ vs the 199,00€ German retail price (31% off).
$151.80 at the current exchange rate versus the US retail price of $199.99.

#42083-1: Bugatti Chiron - Technic
Currently 265,97€ versus the German retail price of 369,99€ (28% off).
That’s $290.46 at the current exchange rate versus the US retail price of $349.99.

And finally…
#42110-1: Land Rover Defender
Currently 139,00€ versus the German retail price of 179,00€ (23% off).
In US dollars that’s $151.80 versus $199.99 US retail price.

Why am I highlighting these? Well if you do a comparison of what’s on sale in the US, you won’t see any of these listed today. It’s interesting that these are on sale in Germany, but not elsewhere. Perhaps sales of these items are lower in Germany? Maybe Amazon.de has a lot of inventory to get rid of? It’s very interesting to see the differences and very tempting to dip in and take advantage of some of these sales I can’t get in the US.

What are your thoughts?

Happy building!

Set Review - #60234-1: People Pack - Fun Fair - CITY

This is the fourth year LEGO has released a People Pack for the CITY theme. We started with #60134-1: Fun at the Park, then #60153-1: Fun at the Beach, and then #60202-1: Outdoor Adventures. Next up is this set, #60234-1: Fun Fair. It has 183 pieces and 14 minifigures. It retails in the US for $39.99 which works out to be $0.219/piece or $2.85/minifigure. The release date was 2 Aug 19, but I waited for it to hit 20% off on Amazon.com. If you wait further, the discount should increase. #60202-1: Outdoor Adventures is around 30% off at the time of this post and the previous sets have done the same on Amazon.com close to retirement.

Onto the review…

It has the standard box layout with the front showing the full set and the back showing some play features.

The set contains 2 parts bags and an instruction manual. It feels light to me. A quick comparison:

Fun Fair - 183 pieces - 14 minifigures
Outdoor Adventure - 164 pieces - 15 minifigures
Fun at the Beach - 169 pieces - 15 minifigures
Fun in the Park - 157 pieces - 15 minifigures

You’re getting more pieces, but one fewer minifigure. A lot of the pieces are small so I’m not sure if you’re really gaining more with the additional pieces. I wonder if it was a conscious decision to do this or just how the set got designed?

Here is what the first bag builds:

-A ring toss game where minifigures can attempt to throw rings onto a duck The table with the ducks spins. I like the little duck part and I think they could go well in a pond type scene.
-A game where you have to hit a target with a shooter to get it to fall down. There are 3 plates connected with Technic pins that have a 2x2 round tile with a target print on them. The minifigure can then use a shooter similar to those found on Star Wars sets to try and knock them down. The shooter will actually knock them down, you just have to keep track of the 1x1 round plate.
-A clown on stilts.
-A face painting station with a small table filled with 1x1 tiles for the different colors. of paint.

The minifigures include (top to bottom and left to right):
-A boy minifigure with a propeller cap (awesome!) and Benny the Spaceman shirt.
-A female minifigure with a pink shirt and white pants, but nothing too out of the ordinary.
-A male minifigure with a dark blue and red striped plaid shirt and green-ish colored pants (not sure of the official color name).
-A mullet touting man with goatee and rock-n-roll tank top. Spot on for some of the county fairs I have been to around the US.
-A minifigure on stilts with a giant purple top hat and holding a balloon animal to give away.
-A face painter with some paint spots on her overalls. The set showed up with 2 brushes.
-A girl who looks excited to have a tiger design painted on her face.
-Another girl. We let her hold the purple teddy bear that I guess she won as a prize.

Overall the first bag has a good variety of minifigures which can be used in a fair scene or elsewhere in your CITY.

Bag 2 has 6 minifigures and 5 have food. One is playing a game of strength where you hit the spot with a hammer to drive up the part. In this case, a Technic piece drives up a 1x2 brick with rail attached up a larger rail to hit the bell. The only other build is the bike for selling ice cream. It’s a cool build, but a bit big. The minifigure needs a step ladder to get into the ice cream case. Not sure how to scale it back down to make it more to scale though.

The remainder of the minifigures includes (left to right, top to bottom):
-A female minifigure who is the ice cream vendor. Her hair is attached to her hat and I don’t recall ever seeing that shirt before.
-A male minifigure in a jacket holding a giant hot dog.
-A female minifigure in a jacket with a shirt underneath
-An older male minifigure in a workout suit with gray receding hair who bought some ice cream
-An older female in a purple workout suit with a coffee cup. I like that she has glasses and white hair.
-A younger male with a popsicle. This one is blue versus the standard green one I have seen in other sets.

Here are all of the parts of the set. I like the theme and I think they go well with some of the existing Creator Expert sets (Carousel, Roller Coaster, etc.) and some of the Creator 3-in-1 sets as well. I like some of the non-standard minifigures and the builds are pretty creative with the moving parts. If you’re going to pick this set up, I definitely recommend getting it on sale. I think $39.99 retail in the US is too high. It’s around 20% off now and will probably move to closer to 30% next year when it is getting ready to retire.

What are your thoughts?

Happy building!

Set Review - #60223-1: Harvester Transport - LEGO CITY

Another LEGO CITY set to take a look at. LEGO has done a farm theme within CITY in the past. A quick search in Brickset found that there was a farm subtheme in 2009. I found it on Brickset here. This set does not seem to be a part of a larger subtheme. Instead, it is more of a one off like the Snow Groomer.

#60223-1: Harvester Transport was released in the US on 1 Jan 19. It contains 358 pieces and retails for $29.99 in the US. That brings it to $0.084 per piece. I picked it up on Amazon.com for 20% off or $23.99.

Here’s the box. It’s the standard presentation with the front showing the full set and the back showing some play features.

The contents are 4 parts bags, 2 instruction booklets, and a small sticker sheet. Besides the instructions being jammed in, I found bags 1 and 3 stuck together by a piece of tape. I’ve never seen this before and I’m not quite sure why it’s like that. Someone within LEGO Quality Control needs to investigate this one. I don’t know how a piece of tape would even get inside of a package like this.

Before I continue with the review, I will note that the box says that this set is for ages 5+. At the time I purchased this set, I had a newly turned 5 year-old kiddo so I had some help. I had help building and a photographer to take pictures of what we built.

Bag one builds the truck that pulls the trailer that carries the harvester. The truck isn’t anything too out of the ordinary. I like the use of the shield plates on the front to help create the front bumper. Bag one comes with a minifigure to drive the truck. He has sun glasses and like many LEGO CITY trucks, a coffee mug.

The second bag completes the trailer that hooks to the truck. The build is fairly simple although my 5 year-old had trouble with anything that needed to clip on and had trouble installing any 1x1 plates or tiles. On the other hand, the wheels were not an issue and they got properly tested to ensure they spun appropriately prior to moving on.

The third bag starts the harvester and has a farmer minifigure and scarecrow. The scarecrow looks more like a scarecrow that would be in a farmer’s field then some of the full up minifigure scarecrows of the past LEGO has made. The build for the harvester starts the main body of the vehicle in this bag.

The fourth and final bag finishes the harvester. It has a fun design for the shoot to deposit the grain into a truck (not sure of the technical term here). The arm rotates back and forth as well as up and down. The rotating pieces in the front that would cut the plant are hooked in using Technic pins. That portion can rotate up and down and the outer blades also fold up. The whole front assembly can be removed and installed on the truck for transport. The cab top comes off so the driver can get in. My 5 year-old required a lot of help to put this together. Also, Dad is a perfectionist when it comes to stickers so I was the sticker placer. My 1 year-old ended up playing with the harvester for a bit. It actually held up pretty well. The only challenge was that he held it by the cab and the cab kept coming off. Other than that it’s pretty solid and 5+ seems like a good age range (with some help from a parent or another adult).

Below is a final picture of the set with the harvester stored on the trailer for transport. Overall it is a fun build. Nothing too overly challenging, but a few Technic parts that can be challenging for a younger kid. The set has a lot of moving parts and pieces which are good for play. It also opens up the possibility of building more (a field to harvest, a farm, a barn, etc.). Being able to get the set on sale was an added bonus. I’d recommend this set to any LEGO CITY fan. Even if you don’t have a farm scene, it is a vehicle that can fit on a road or highway you’re building. Definitely pick it up on sale if you’re going to get it.

Happy building!