Another Way to Stay Engaged with Bricks - "Beyond the Brick"

Back in September 2018, I wrote about my favorite Brick podcast called “The Bricks King Podcast.” You can read my post about it here. I found the podcast to be a great way to keep up with my LEGO addiction while doing other things like driving or chores around the house. In my search to find even more, I looked for video options. And let me say, thank goodness for the invention of on demand content. YAY! Sites like YouTube are full of folks who post videos about their LEGO addictions, review sets, and provide information about the hobby. My favorite Brick inspired channel on YouTube thus far has been Beyond the Brick. Apparently many others are fans too as they have many hundreds of thousands of subscribers.

“Beyond the Brick” was started as an audio only podcast by LEGO fan Joshua Hanlon in November 2011 as his “About” page states. He has long since moved to YouTube and now runs this channel as a full time job. If you go to his videos page, you’ll see that he is releasing new content just about every day. Having watched some of Josh’s earlier videos you can see that he’s come a long way since his early days. His interviewing skills have gotten better and he’s done a better job editing videos as well (in my opinion). You can tell that he is getting good at interviewing LEGO fans who can often be introverts who don’t like to talk to audiences on camera.

“Beyond the Brick” is different from many brick content type channels on YouTube or other platforms as Josh travels. He videos at LEGO conventions sometimes giving multi-hour long tours of a convention in case you couldn’t make it (like Brick Fair 2018 in VA) or sometimes spending a few minutes at a notable build this this recent video of a huge recreation of a bell tower in Florence, Italy. He’s been to BrickLink HQ to get an inside look at how the operation is run and has a full tour of the LEGO House in Denmark on his channel as well. He’s interviewed countless LEGO fans, LEGO company designers, LEGO Ideas designers, and many others. He’s shown us through LEGO theme parks around the world to include Japan and Denmark. Do I need to continue? If you’re a fan of the LEGO brick and you can’t find content that “Beyond the Brick” has released that you like, then you need to question whether you are actually a fan of LEGO or not.

I’m not endorsed by anyone or getting paid to say nice things so don’t worry about me leading you astray. “Beyond the Brick” has done a great job and I hope they continue to put out stellar content for many years to come. Thanks “Beyond the Brick” and keep up the great work!

Update - 15 Jan 2019

Beyond the Brick posted an interview of its founders Joshua and John Hanlon. It was done at the Skærbæk Fan Weekend 2018 in Denmark. You can see the view on YouTube here. They talk about how they got started, how they make money, and where they plan to go in the future. It’s a great interview if you’re interested in the inner workings of their YouTube channel.

Set Review - #10268-1 - Vestas Wind Turbine - Creator Expert

In 2008, LEGO worked with Vestas to build a wind turbine set to be released to employees of Vestas. Of course that created an opportunity and the set is now currently going for almost $400 on the secondary market sites. If you were like me and you weren’t able to get #4999-1, you’re in luck as the re-release of the Vestas Wind Turbine (#10268-1) happened on 24 November 2018. Or as the LEGO Designer video says, there is now a “Vestas for the rest of us.”

The 826 piece set retails for $199.99 in the US which works out to $0.242 per piece. Yikes! It’s high, but it also includes a 32x32 stud baseplate and Power Functions gear. So is it really not that bad? Maybe. Let’s take a look at the set.

Here’s what the box looks like. The front shows the set, the back shows the functionality. It also highlights the fact that the tree pieces are made from the sustainable plastic similar to #40320-1.

The contents are 12 parts bags, a wrapped instruction booklet and a 32x32 stud base plate. The parts bags are not numbered so you just open them all and start building versus opening bag one to build a specific part. With 826 pieces this method was manageable. I knew that some of the bigger pieces weren’t needed right away so I didn’t have to open them all at once.

The instruction booklet is part instruction booklet and part propaganda campaign. LEGO gets a chance to boast about their program to go green and to talk about how great wind turbines are for the world. Not only does the front of the booklet contain a few pages of details, but throughout the build there are little tidbits here and there that talk about wind turbines.

I think what the LEGO Group is doing is great in terms of becoming more sustainable, but I didn’t need all of the information in the instruction booklet to tell me that. I’ve read articles on it and have seen news videos about the program. I don’t want to have to spend money on a set and pay for instruction booklet pages for something that I could just click a link to online.

The build starts with the Vestas maintenance vehicle, the 2 workers, and their equipment. The truck looks more like an ambulance than a maintenance vehicle. The back even has a place to stick their equipment which could also be used for a stretcher. Page 8 of the instructions shows a pick up truck and a small SUV next to a wind turbine tower. I would have preferred a pickup versus the bulky ambulance.

Next up is the house at the base of the wind turbine. I’m not sure what to make of the house. None of the pictures of wind turbines in the instruction booklet shows a house nearby and I have never seen one in the US or in Europe. I understand the concept of trying to show that we can use wind energy to power our houses, but I’m not sure if the house fits. The house has a mailbox, a small patio with 2 chairs and a table, a small cot (not really a bed), and some simple random appliances. The house build doesn’t do anything for me. I would have preferred a transport truck to carry blades or some sort of equipment used to install or maintain the turbine.

The bottom of the tower contains a small park which is not realistic. Have you ever seen a park bench at the bottom of a wind turbine tower? Enough complaining. The green BURPs are a nice touch and will be great for future MOCs needing green settings. The door on the back leads to… nowhere, but I get what they’re trying to do. It works as you see some of the pictures in the instruction booklet where there’s a door at the bottom.

Okay, so I’ve been pretty negative so far, but I will say that the building of the turbine was much better and made up for what I didn’t like about the building and the vehicle. So 5 positive things to make up for my negativism:
1 - There are zero stickers in this set. YAY! All of the parts with logos are all printed.
2 - Having recently built the Technic #42083-1 Bugatti Chiron, I was a fan of using System pieces to detail a Technic set. This set is mostly System, but it has Technic pieces to make it function. I’m a big fan of the combination of the two. I know the Creator Expert carnival sets use this as well and it would be cool to have more of the same in the LEGO world.
3 - The set is expensive, but having the Power Functions stuff included makes worth it in my opinion. Instead of having to build the set without it all, you can just install it at once. The set is not ideal for building and then easily putting in Power Functions equipment later. Some of the train sets that I own are good at designing it so you can easily add Power Functions. For this set, you might as well re-build the whole turbine, tower, and house.
4 - The tallest set out there is the #21309-1 NASA Apollo Saturn V set. This set is the second largest and it is a big one. I don’t have a photo shoot area (as you have seen) so trying to get a picture of this one was tough. I think between the movement with the Power Functions and the sheer size, this set will be a great addition to some of the LUG displays out there. I’m looking forward to seeing pictures and videos of this one being used in large City scene displays.
5 - The turbine can spin about the tower portion as the wind changes. So not only do the blades turn, but you can rotate the turbine itself. There are Power Functions wires inside so it doesn’t spin forever, but you can spin it about 180 degrees in either direction. Also, the blades can be inserted in a separate Technic pin to change their angle. This mimics how changes in conditions require changes to the blade directions of an actual turbine. Two simple things, but they really add to the set in my opinion.

I fit the entire blade section into one picture and then put a foot long ruler next to one of the blades.
The diameter of the blades is 28 inches (72 cm) so each one is about 14 inches. The tower is 26 inches (67 cm) so almost 40 inches total to the top of the blade.

Overall was it worth it? The wind turbine is great, but the rest of the set is lacking in my opinion. I picked this one up during double VIP points, I used EBates to get 2.5% back, and I got a free #40292-1 set along with it so it wasn’t a complete waste. Will this one go on sale? Hard to say. I’d like to see it on Amazon.com for 20% off, but there’s no telling what LEGO will do with the sales of this set. Should you get it? I think it depends on what you plan to do with it. Like I said, it would be great in a large City display, but on it’s own it is a tough sell.

What are your thoughts?

Set Review - #75952-1 - Newt's Case of Magical Creatures - Fantastic Beasts - The Wizarding World

Full disclosure, I have not seen the Fantastic Beasts 2 movie that was released back in November 2018 at the time of drafting this post. With that being said, I have seen the first Fantastic Beasts movie and I thought it was good. I was wondering how they would work a spin-off in and they did it. Kind of like Star Wars in that as long as you have some of the same plot details, you can make a movie about anything and make money on it. Enough blabbing…

Set number 75952-1 - Newt’s Case of Magical Creatures was released on 24 August 2018 in the US. It retails for $49.99 and with 694 pieces, it works out to be $0.072 per piece. I waited and got it 20% off on Amazon.com so even better. As of today (30 December 2018), it’s still 20% off there so if you were looking to pick this one up at a discount, now is your chance. Onto the review…

Here is the box. The front shows the case opened up with all of the creatures and minifigures. The back shows the play features. You can also see the damage that the box took during shipping on the back. Thanks Amazon.com! I guess that’s what I get… 20% off, but a banged up box.

The contents of the set are four numbered bags, 2 instruction booklets that were jammed into the box, and a small sticker sheet. There is also a wing in a separate bag. I’m not a big enough fan of the movie to know all of the names of the different beasts. I looked it up and it is a Thunderbird wing. When I first opened the package, I was worried because only one wing was on its own. The other wing is in bag one. I’m not sure why one is in bag one and one is separate. So don’t panic if you can’t find the other wing loose in the box.

Bag one builds the Thunderbird (white and gold winged creature), the Occamy (bluish/purple creature that looks like a bird and a snake), and the Niffler (tiny duck billed platypus type creature). The 2 minifigures are Newt Scamander and Tina Goldstein. Newt has his wand and is holding a Bowtruckle (I’m not going to try and explain this one… just Google it). Tina has her wand and the tea pot used to hold the Occamy (again, Google it or just watch the movie if you haven’t seen it).

The second bag includes the Erumpent (the big rhino looking creature) along with the minifigures for Jacob Kowalski and Queenie Goldstein. Jacob comes with a hair piece and a helmet and is holding an umbrella. Queenie has her wand.

The third bag starts the case. I will have to go back and watch the movie as I will be honest and say that I’m not sure how accurately the case is being portrayed as compared to the movie version.

The fourth bag completes the case. Here are pictures of the case opened and then closed. If anything, it captures an item from the movie, but also gives you opportunities to do your own thing. Much like the LEGO Ideas Pop-Up Book, there are many different things you could do with this case besides representing the Fantastic Beasts movie.

Here’s a final picture of everything from a top down view. Not the greatest of pictures, but it shows all that you get. From a play standpoint, it captures a lot of the characters from the movie along with a key piece of the movie. From a parts standpoint, there are some good parts that could be used in other MOCs, but nothing too out of the ordinary. The build wasn’t too challenging and really didn’t have any different techniques that stood out to me. The sticker sheet was small so that made the build slightly better as I wasn’t putting stickers on after every other instruction page. Overall, unless you’re a big fan of the movie, I wouldn’t rush out to buy this one. I wouldn’t have purchased it without the 20% off sale at Amazon.com.

What are your thoughts on this one?

Set Review - #21315-1 - Pop-Up Book - LEGO Ideas

For those of you that have been into or at least have followed the LEGO Ideas series, #21315-1, Pop-Up Book is the 23rd in the series. Has it been that many already? It was released on 2 November 2018 in the US with a retail price of $69.99. It contains 859 pieces which works out to be $0.081 each. Not too bad in terms of price per piece and if you’re willing to wait until the end of it’s shelf life, it may go one sale at some of the retailers. Onto my review…

The front of the box shows the book along with some smaller pictures of the options for what can pop-up. The back shows some better details of the two pop-up options inside that can be placed inside the book.

This set contains six bags of bricks. Bag one contains a piece separator. It also contains the 2 large brown 8x16 tiles with one having the title “ONCE UPON A BRICK” printed on it. I was super thankful that I didn’t have to apply that as a sticker and that the set contains no stickers at all. YAY! The instruction booklet starts off with some introductory pages. The first two are about the sets creators (Jason Alleman and Grant Davis) otherwise known as JK Brickworks for Jason and Grant has a Flickr page showing his work. The second two pages are about the set’s designers from the LEGO Company. You can see their YouTube video here. The final few pages give a history of pop-up books and the stories portrayed in this set. After you read it in English, you can switch to French and Spanish.

The first bag starts the build of the book’s cover. This bag is almost all parts colored what I call forest green, but Brickset calls “Earth green.” Either way, I’m a big fan of this color and even if you don’t end up liking this set, you’ll at least have a whole bunch of really great parts to build other things with out of this set in the Earth green color.

The second bag completes the cover.

The third bag really turns the set into a pop-up book. The first picture (top left) shows the addition of the “pages” in what Brickset calls “Brick Yellow,” but I think is more of a light tan. You can also see the start of “Little Red Riding Hood” with Grandma’s bed on the right and a table with a pink tea pot and mug on the left. The second picture (top right) shows the front cover which has the 8x16 brown tile with the printed “ONCE UPON A BRICK” pop-up book title. It also has the names of the designers in 1x6 brown tiles underneath. How cool is that to have the LEGO Company printing parts that have your name on them and then having them sell a set with your name on it worldwide? Awesome!

The next two pictures (bottom left and right) show the detailing on the spine of the book and then the back cover. The back matches the front only the 8x16 tile is not printed.

Bag 3 includes the Grandma and Big Bad Wolf minifigures, but I’ll cover them next.

The fourth bag finishes up the “Little Red Riding Hood” scene. This bag includes Red with her bag of goodies to bring to Grandma. The pop up portion itself includes the house with a door that you can open. One could argue that there isn’t a ton of detail here, but I think between the original designers and LEGO designers, they got it right. It’s got a good amount of detail to portray the story, but it’s not over the top to the point where it loses functionality. You have to take the minifigures out to close the book, but the rest of the parts can remain when you close it.

The minifigures are great. The wolf with the tattered outfit that he stole from Grandma is very creative. I like that the wolf also has her glasses on. I never understood how Red didn’t immediately realize that it was a wolf. I guess you can tell the story how you want after you build it. Maybe it’s not a wolf, but a storm trooper or Emmet joins Red for some cookies.

The fifth bag starts on “Jack and the Beanstalk.” It includes a microscale build of the village with clouds on top. There’s a windmill and some tiny houses. A piece that probably isn’t new, but was new to me was the cheese sloped size roof tile used on the windmill and two of the houses. I think it’s a good addition to the LEGO parts catalog. This bag also includes the Giant and a microfigure of Jack. The set comes with 2 microfigures of Jack so just in case you lose one or if Jack and his twin want to go hang out with the Giant.

The sixth bag finishes up “Jack and the Beanstalk” with the actual beanstalk and the castle at the top. The functionality here is very creative with the use of Technic parts to make the beanstalk expand as you open up the book.

What struck me when building this set is that LEGO has left it open for builders. The title on the front cover does not say “Little Red Riding Hood” and “Jack and the Beanstalk.” It’s an open ended title. What’s been provided is a cover with a building space. The functionality for the pop-up portion of the book has been shown and there are studs on the top and bottom of the pages that you can use to insert your own stories. A quick Google search brings up results from a whole bunch of builders who have made pop up castles, pirates, and scenes from movies. At the writing of this post, LEGO Ideas is running a contest to see what kind of design you can come up with for the pop-up book. It’s definitely worth checking out some of the contest entries just to see how creative some people are when it comes to building.

Overall, this set is a win. I was a big fan. It’s a great build with a lot of great pieces and it opens up a new building technique to explore. If the price is too steep, wait a few months and keep checking on Amazon.com, Walmart, and other retailer sites to see if they have it for a discount.

Happy building!

Merry Christmas 2018!

Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate the holiday! I hope Santa brought you all the bricks you asked for.

This picture was taken at the store Cora in France (you can see more about LEGO and Cora here). It’s a brick built version of Santa that’s pretty tall. The store didn’t have a sign about it saying who built it or how many bricks it is made of, but I thought it would make a great post for Christmas day.

So at this store it’s Joyeux Noël! Where I live, it’s Fröhliche Weihnachten!

Either way, happy building!

Set Review - #10263-1 - Winter Village Fire Station - Creator Expert

The 2018 Winter Village set was released on 2 October 2018. It’s a fire station and adds to the line of sets that started back in 2009. This is the 10th set in the line. This year, the set is 1,166 pieces and retails at $99.99 in the US. This puts it at $0.086 per piece which is pretty decent. It’s slightly less than last year’s set ($0.089 and keep in mind that the set includes a light brick which is probably more expensive to put together).

You can see my review of the 2017 set Winter Village Train Station here.

Here is the box. Like many sets, the front shows the whole set while the back shows some of the set features.

The set contents are 3 sets of bags, the two instruction booklets in a bag with the sticker sheet, and a piece separator (in the first set of bags).

The first set of bags builds what I will call the accessories. It includes a bench with a lamp post, a Christmas tree with some gifts, an ice skating rink, the fire truck, and a sled. The Christmas tree design is one that I have not seen before. It’s better than just throwing in a one piece molded tree, but I think it misses out on some of the realism of branches that can be created using LEGO bricks. The ice rink includes a hockey player with a hockey stick on the ice. The skating area is rather small and it includes a fireman statue. The fire truck does not have a ton of detail, but it fits into the theme of vehicles used in previous Winter Village sets. This bag includes 2 fire fighters. There is a female and a male and they each come with a hair piece and a helmet. And don’t forget the fire dog! In my opinion, the stickers on the fire truck were a pain. I always find it challenging to put a sticker on a 1x2 tile or on the 1x2 cheese slope. I find it hard to get the sticker exactly centered on the tile part. I’d rather have bigger stickers on bigger pieces and printed small tiles or cheese slopes. Finally the sled includes some gifts and there is a baby minifigure with a gift on his/her shirt to ride on it. The set shows a girl minifigure along with the sled.

The second set of bags completes the first floor of the fire station. As you can see, the front includes a fire hydrant and a snowman. The main doors on the first floor open in to allow the fire truck to drive in or out. There are stairs leading up to the second floor that have some white pieces attached to show the poor shoveling job that was done. Like the rest of the Winter Village theme, the back is not completed (something for you to do on your own). The truck is longer than the building itself. The back does show you some of the items in storage to include another helmet, an ax and a pick, fire extinguishers, and a clock. This set of parts bags includes a saxophone playing minifigure to… I’m not sure how he fits in.

The third set of bags completes the build and adds the second floor and roof. It also includes another fire fighter. From the front, you can see the station is covered in some Christmas decorations of greenery with red. The tower above the fire pole slide area has a pretty cool design on the front and right sides. The building also has some snow along the edges. Looking inside you can see a small kitchenette with a coffee maker, stove top, and sink to help cook the hot dogs you can have with your coffee. There’s an old school red phone to get calls and a radio installed into the wall. A fold up bed is attached to the wall (the bed uses a sticker for the pillow and sheets… really?). Under the bed is a play area and a dog bone for the fire dog. The living quarters also include a table with 2 chairs.

The top of the building has a flag (with stickers to attach) and a slot for you to attach the light brick. The light brick really only lights up the front two windows and in my mind doesn’t do much for the set.

Here’s a view of the final product. I got it during double VIP points so I got some benefit, but it was not on sale. These sets typically go on sale only at the end of their shelf life so you’ll have to wait at least 2 years on this one if you want to get it on sale. Overall, I think this set fits into the Winter Village line very well. We’ve had a toy shop, a bakery, a post office, and others and a fire station is a great addition. This set has a lot of play built in and the accessories go well with the rest of the theme.

If you’ve been sucked in like me to this theme, definitely pick this set up. Wait for double VIP points or for when there is a cool free set for buying a specific amount. At $99.99, this set should put you at the right place to get whatever set is being offered.

Happy building!

LEGO Brand Store Review - Cologne, Germany (Köln, Deutschland)

I recently had the opportunity to visit the LEGO Brand Store in Cologne, Germany. Most US LEGO Brand stores I have been to are in malls. This one is in a pedestrian only shopping area. Here’s a picture of the outside.

The front window highlighted a bunch of the new sets out there. From left to right there’s the Vestas Wind Turbine (#10268-1), the James Bond™ Aston Martin DB5 (#10262-1), the Technic Bugatti Chiron (#42083-1), Voltron (#21311-1), and finally the Pop Up Book (#21315-1). I found it interesting that the sets are all some of the larger new ones with only one selling for less than $100. Two of them are from the Ideas line and then two are from the Creator Expert line. These are sets geared towards an older audience. It’s interesting that they are not highlighting Star Wars or other sets geared towards kids since I visited in December 2018 (right before Christmas).

The inside looks like many of the LEGO Brand stores that I have entered in the states. We were greeted by a store worker (speaking German) who gave us a December 2018 store calendar and a LEGO comic book. He asked if my little guy wanted a copy (at least I think that’s what he said) and I responded that he was too little (in English). And you could see that he felt bad for spending that time talking to us in German when we had no idea what he was saying. Poor guy.

The store seemed well stocked and I didn’t see a whole lot of differences in sets being offered in the US. There were a few that I know aren’t on Shop @ Home, but not being near a LEGO Brand store in the US, I don’t know if maybe those sets are being offered at stores only. They were:

-#40251-1: Mini Piggy Bank - a freebie with purchase in the US during the July 2017 season, but available in Europe (according to Brickset) since 26 October 2018 for €14.99.
-#40222-1: Christmas Build-Up - a freebie with purchase in the US back in October 2016, but available in Europe since 3 October 2018 for €9.99.
-#5005156-1: Gingerbread Man - Brickset said you could get it in the US with a purchase in December 2016 and at LEGO Brand stores in the US for 2017 and again they are selling it in Europe and have been since 3 October 2018 for €4.99.

I also looked to see if there were sets available that are no longer available in the US. My only comparison is Shop @ Home. Sets may still be available at US LEGO brand stores or at other retailers like Walmart or Amazon.com. While I didn’t capture everyone of them, there were a few that stood out to me…

-#10253-1: Big Ben - This set just recently went out of stock after a sale on Shop @ Home in the US. It was readily available for €219.99 (compared to $249.99 in the US). At the going Euro to Dollar rate at the time of this posting it works out to almost exactly the same price. Since that price includes Value Added Tax (VAT) and buying it in the US, the price does not include sales tax, it is actually better to get it in Germany (unless you picked it up on sale during the Brick Friday sales)
-#10259-1: Winter Village Station - This set shows out of stock at Shop @ Home in the US as well, but was readily available in Cologne

The pick-a-brick wall had a lot of options. The pricing was €9.99 for the smaller container and €17.99 for the larger container.

Lastly, LEGO Brand Stores often have builds in them. This store included a fan build and a LEGO designer build. The fan build was placed in one of the glass covered boxes around most stores. Most of the boxes in this store had LEGO set builds in them, but one had this fan build of a Christmas scene in a town.

The other build in this store was actually out of Duplo. It was a steam train engine and it was big enough for most younger kiddos to poke their heads into. To get some of the detail like the number on the front, they used System bricks. I think it’s always cool to see some of the bigger sized builds.

So there you have it… not a lot of difference between US LEGO Brand stores. No major sets on sale that aren’t available in the US or weren’t available at some point. And while I didn’t do comparisons on all of the prices, if you factor in sales tax in the US and the exchange rate the pricing isn’t completely awful. If you find yourself in a German LEGO Brand store, pop in for a look!

Happy Building!

Set Review - #42083-1 - Bugatti Chiron - Technic - PART 2

If you missed Part 1, you can see it here. If you want to see what a real Bugatti Chiron looks like or what the factory looks like, you can see that here. If you want to see more about the set, keep reading…

Instruction Book 2 is 322 pages long. It starts off with the set of bags numbered 7 in build box 3. This section of the build is labeled rear body work and deck lid. With Book 1 being the internals, Book 2 focuses on the externals. The bags numbered 7 include the construction of the rear spoiler and then a lot of the body for the back to include the portion around the engine and part of the top of the passenger compartment. Number 8 completes a lot of the detail in the rear to include the cool looking brake lights. There are also a number of stickers that go here. I am not a fan of stickers, but I realize LEGO has to do a price balance between printed pieces and sticker sheets. The cost of the sticker sheet probably helped save a few dollars on an already expensive set. I’m not the best at sticker placement, but it looks okay.

Bags 9 and 10 are labeled the seats and interior on page 108 and start off box four. The seats are Technic built with some System pieces for added detail. As the build went on, I realized that there were more and more System pieces used. I’m not a good builder/designer to begin with, but I’m impressed at the ability to combine the 2 types of pieces into one set and to have it go seamlessly like they did. Bag 9 is the seats and some more of the outer paneling. Bag 10 is the dashboard, steering wheel, glove compartment, and a bunch more stickers.

Bags 11 and 12 start on page 200. This section is labeled front body, lights, and horseshoe grill. Bag 11 is mainly the doors, but there are a few details to build up the front of the car. Bag 12 is the details on the front to include the front hood (and storage area), the bumper, the grill design, and the lights. There are a lot of System pieces used in the front to include the bumper and lights. The detailing is pretty impressive between the Technic and System pieces. It still has the Technic look without windows and with the various spots for pin attachments, but it still captures the sleek look of the actual car.

Bag 13 finishes everything up with the final details, the key to raise and lower the spoiler, and much like the Porsche (#42056-1) a handbag to stick in the trunk. It completes a few details to include a lot of the long, thin tubes that help create some of the contours on the car. The instructions for bag 13 also include the wheels and rims. The rims have a 1x1 round tile with the Bugatti logo on them and thankfully that was not a sticker. You even get an extra one (not sure what I’ll do with it).

The end of the instructions give you a link to go to and put in the code on the 1x4 tile that identifies your car. Similar to #42056-1, they have some free content. I have yet to go and see what it is, but #42056-1 had some cool graphics, a certificate of ownership, and some high resolution photos of the vehicle as well. If I ever have my own brick cave someday, maybe I’ll have to print a few of these up.

Here’s a top view of the car and then a view of the front with the hood open and the bag sitting next to it. The bag is made of all System pieces versus the Technic style bag of #42056-1.

Here is a good look at the front to include the horseshoe grill and the lights. Also a view inside the car by the driver’s seat. With my smartphone and poor lighting, you can’t see all the details, but you can see the main details: steering wheel, dashboard with various dials, paddle shifters, and shifter.

Finally, here’s the back. After seeing the real car, I think the designers did a great job getting it accurate. The first picture is with the spoiler down and the second is with it up and the key still in. The key goes into a small hole behind the driver’s side rear tire. I have yet to be able to do it without peering in to try and find it. The design is impressive as it locks in the up position as well.

So the final verdict… I had a blast building it. The design is sleek and very sturdy. It’s very impressive. Unfortunately it is very expensive! I used a gift certificate, but even with that it was still high. I hit a double VIP point day so that helped some, but yikes. LEGO keeps testing the boundaries on price and it’ll be interesting to see where they finally break their fan base. While it’s a great set and I hope LEGO continues this series, I would like to see the price go back to under $300 similar to #42056-1.

What are your thoughts on this one? Too expensive? Priced right for the build?

Happy building!

The Bugatti Chiron in the Wild...

In case you didn’t see my last post, I’m in the process of building the LEGO Technic #42083-1 Bugatti Chiron. With that being said, I was walking down the street last week and a car caught my eye. It looked very familiar to a Bugatti Chiron, but I figured it couldn’t be. Most people don’t just park their $2.5M+ car right there on the street. I had to go over and take a look.

Okay, maybe I should be a little more specific. If you’ve read the blog, you know that my non-Lego job has taken me to Germany so I had to shut down sales. Living in Europe, my family has done some traveling and recently we took a couple days to go to the Alsace region of France. While there, we stopped in Strasbourg for the Christmas Market (if you’re an American and you celebrate Christmas and you have never been to a true European Christmas Market, they are pretty cool). Strasbourg happens to be near Molsheim, France (about 20 minutes away) and Molsheim is where the Bugatti factory is located.

Back to the car… no it wasn’t just sitting there. It was in a glass enclosed case and there was a security guard outside as well. None the less, it was still the real deal. I never thought I would see a Bugatti Chiron up close and personal or at least as close as the glass would let me. I talked to our host at the B&B we stayed at and he said Bugatti factory tours are only available for car buyers and friends of workers. Good luck getting to see inside the factory.

Back to the car… Next to the car was a sign.

The sign is in French on the left, German in the middle, and English on the right. In case you can’t read the picture I posted, it reads:

“We are proud of our company roots in Molsheim, about 25 km away from Strasbourg,
where our headquarters are still today.

In 1909 Ettore Bugatti founded our company here in Alsace, and to this day Bugatti
represents the pinnacle of the automotive world.

Like the Strasbourg Christmas market we combine tradition with a clear vision.

All qualities and know-how of our company accumulated in 110 years of our existence are
contained in each and every one of the only 500 BUGATTI CHIRON going to be built..”

The sign then gives some of the stats on the vehicle.

Engine:
-8 Litre 16-Cylinder-engine
-4 turbochargers with Bugatti 2-stage turbocharging

Power:
1,500 HP (6,700 U/min)

Torque:
1,600 Nm (2,000 - 6,000 U/min)

Acceleration:
0 - 100km/h 2.4 sec (that’s roughly 0 to 60 mph)
0 - 400 km/h 32.6 sec (that’s roughly 0 to ~250 mph)

Vmax:
420 hm/h (electronically limited) (or around 260 mph)

Enough blabbing, here are a few more pics of the car. The front was white and the back was a navy blue or darker blue type color. The blue color looks similar to the blue of the LEGO version.

So I wouldn’t be interested in this vehicle if it weren’t for the LEGO version. I’m not a gear head, but I’m a huge fan now that I have a LEGO version and was super excited to actually see one of these.

But that’s not all…

If you purchased the set you saw this picture in the instruction manual.

It’s a picture of the actual car and the LEGO version with an offset in front of the Château St. Jean in Molsheim, France.

On our drive home from the Strasbourg area, I was conversing with my Non-LEGO Spouse (NLS) and talking about Bugatti and how the plant was nearby somewhere. Using the power of the internet she looked it up and told me it was about 2 minutes away. So we came upon a traffic circle, I went straight instead of turning and…

Tah-dah! Okay, we had to take a few passes to get the picture just so, but thankfully it was a Sunday and there wasn’t a lot of traffic. So there’s the full building. Just no cars in front.

Here’s a sign near the Château.

We figured the factory had to be close by and sure enough it was. We hit a traffic circle and took a different exit and saw the factory. It’s not very big although if you’re only building 500 of a vehicle and you probably take your time building it, you don’t need a big facility. We didn’t take pictures of the signs in French telling us it was private property and to not trespass. We just took our pictures and turned around. My NLS questioned why the workers didn’t have better cars. My guess is the employee discount doesn’t take much off the $2.5M price tag.

Hope you enjoyed some additional info on the Bugatti Chiron. I don’t think I’ve seen a set review or LEGO blog yet that showed pictures of the actual car or the factory. I’ll claim to be the first to include pictures of both in a LEGO review.

Happy building!

Set Review - #42083-1 - Bugatti Chiron - TECHNIC - PART 1

My guess is most people who are into LEGO and reading this blog are not able to throw down $2.5 million for a Bugatti Chiron, but thankfully LEGO came to our rescue and built a much cheaper version. Following the 2016 release of the Porsche 911 GT3 RS on the LEGO Technic line, LEGO released the Bugatti Chiron on 2 June 2018. Retail price in the US is $349.99 or $0.097 per piece. Opportunities for sales were limited on the Porsche. It just retired and I saw it on Amazon.com for 20% off for less than a day. Using VIP points to get a discount is one of the best ways to pay less for this set at this point. While it’s not $2.5M, $350 is kind of hefty for the LEGO world.

This set came with a lot of fanfare from LEGO. The lead up to its release included a number of teaser videos and trailers along with a countdown clock. After it was finally released, the videos didn’t stop. Here are a few you might want to check out if you didn’t get to see them:

LEGO builds a full scale Bugatti Chiron

LEGO shows off the build and its functions

Kicking off the review, the Bugatti Chiron is shipped in its own box inside of a box when you order it from Shop @ Home. While this method is probably more costly, I like that when you spend a bit of money, they take the time to make sure your set arrives in good condition. From the label on the box, my version was manufactured in October 2018 in Mexico. I ordered it during the double VIP points weekend in October 2018 so not bad timing for LEGO’s supply chain.

The set box itself is very flashy with a front view of the car on the top of the box and a back few of the car on the bottom with a few detailed pictures on the bottom as well.

Similar to the Porsche 911 GT3 RS (#42056-1), When you open the box up, there are parts boxes. Unlike the Porsche set, this one has the boxes and instruction booklet creating a picture of the car. Props to the designers on this one. There are 6 parts boxes, 2 instruction booklets, and a sticker sheet. Each box is numbered. The instruction books show what box of parts you are on based on what page you are on. It does not list what parts bag set you are on though so if you’re like me and you build in spurts, you have to search for where you left off. Book 1 is 305 pages long. It includes some snazzy pictures of the LEGO design and of the actual car model. It also mentions that there is a podcast you can listen to while building the set. I did not do that so if anyone else did, let me know what you thought of it.

Book 1, box 1 starts off with page 21 that says you will be building the engine and gearbox first. pages 22 and 23 show where you’ll be when finished with that section and there is a picture of what I presume is an engine and gearbox in the background. I won’t go too much into the details of the build other than to say when you’re used to building the LEGO System pieces and the last Technic build you did was over 2 years ago, it is a bit of a challenge (for me). I’ve definitely had to take my time as I’m not used to looking at instructions with the various Technic pieces.

Below are pictures of where you are at the end of each build. So all of the bags numbered 1, then numbered 2, and so on.

Here are bag sets 3 and 4. Number 3 finishes off the engine in the back of the car. It’s a very impressive design job too! They fit a lot in a small space. Number 4 starts on the front of the car to include the steering column.

On page 138 is labeled “The Marriage Process.” The book mentions that this is the way that the actual Chiron is built in that the front and back are assembled and then they join the two together. This section starts with set of bags number 4, the marriage process actually happens in number 6. Bags labeled #5 finish up the front of the car and some of the frame. I included my build and the picture on pages 140 and 141 of the set designer (Aurélien Rouffiange) merging the 2 sections of the build. Hopefully I built mine correctly.

I spent 5 posts on the Porsche (#42056-1) and I thought it was a bit much. My goal for this one is to give a quick overview instead of making you go through 5 pages of how great the build was.

With book one being complete, I figured it was a good time to post where I’m at. So far, I’m very impressed by the Bugatti Chiron. LEGO raised the bar with the Porsche 911 GT3 RS and they did it again with the Chiron. The box design and layout are impressive, the details inside the instruction book about the car and the set are cool, having the option to listen to a podcast about the project is an added bonus, and in general the build is very impressive in terms of functionality and matching what the actual car is like. While I had a gift card and purchased during a double VIP point period, at this point I say that it was a good purchase. It has definitely been worth my time and the funds I spent.

Stay turned for part 2…