Usually, I restrain myself to a single Pick-A-Brick cup a month. The pieces that I’m buying are often speculative, so even one cup is a bit of an indulgence. This month, I’ve been building Arcology modules and finding myself woefully low on basic bricks. It helps too, that the wall has had a lot of great elements in it lately, enough to send me back for more.
Category Archives: General
The Arcology Project
As I explore the Lego world, poring over images of conventions, I am constantly impressed with the size and quality of collaborative builds. Recently, our PortLUG Lego Ambassador suggested that we might want to do more group builds and grow our presence at conventions. I started floating some ideas in my head and building prototypes until I settled on a standard that I dubbed ‘Arcology.’
Drafting
Every month I go to a PortLUG meeting. There are usually impressive and inspiring MOCs to see and assorted business and gossip to pass around. The highlight for me is almost always the festival of sorting and treachery that is the draft.
LUG Life
It has been about a year since I came out of my dark age and started to get back into building Lego. I was going through a big transition at the time, quitting my job and becoming a stay at home dad, and I was feeling isolated. Discovering the online Lego communities was great, but what I really wanted to do was meet other adults that had a passion for Lego, so I joined a my local LUG.
An Urgent Message
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-bEGspWpb4]
Like many AFOLs, I’m waiting with bated breath for the arrival of the Exo Suit!
July Cup
Yesterday was hot, so my son and I took a pilgrimage to the Lego store to participate in the monthly model build for kids. I say pilgrimage, since it takes three buses and about an hour and a half to get there from our house, but we’re used to the bus and so the trip can actually be a bit of a fun adventure. As it turned out, all of our connections were quick and the air-conditioned buses were much better than the 98 degree heat outside.
June Cup
Last weekend I decided to have a little ‘me’ time and took off for a trip to the local Lego store. It had been a while since I’d updated the store’s entry on wallofbricks.com, and I am ever curious about what treasures the wall might hold for me.
Old Lego
Like so many AFOLs, I grew up playing with Lego. I remember poring over catalogs, long before there was an internet, in hopes of seeing new sets. Sadly, my childhood Lego is most likely lost to me, given up in my teens and passed through my siblings. On a trip to visit my in-laws recently, my brother-in-law gave me his dirty box of childhood bricks. Oh, what treasures might await me.
Two More Bags
It seems like I can’t get out of Guardian Games without buying a bag of used Lego lately. My last couple bags have been pretty great and very different in character. One of the great things about buying used Lego like this is that you never know what the bin will contain. Some days it’s just a bunch of battered old play-worn tripe. A week later it will be rife with great stuff. Continue reading Two More Bags
May Cup
At the May PortLUG meeting, we drafted the Cinderella’s Carriage set. It was a big draft and I walked away with 64 medium blue curved slopes. When I got home and started trying to use these beautiful new elements, I realized that I didn’t have more than a handful of other medium blue bricks. Sigh. A lesson learned about drafting: when pulling an awesome inspiration piece, make sure to grab useful supporting bricks too. This brings me to last weekend’s trip to the Lego store. I filled a small PaB cup with handfuls of interesting bricks, including a helping of 1×2 medium blue bricks. I grabbed more travis bricks (the ones with studs on all four sides) and few other things that might come in handy. 
In all, I fit 425 small pieces in my cup, for a price per piece of just over 2 cents. Not a bad haul.