Oh look, I'm talking about lenticular cheese slope mosaics again. These mosaics are hard to design, hard to make, and also quite hard on the pocket book. That's because filling up a huge baseplate with cheese slopes really adds up, and when each one costs ten cents but you need thousands... yeah, not cheap. But what if you only had to fill out a smaller section, like say a 16x16 plate? Would anybody be interested in a collaborative lenticular mosaic design? People would only have to make sma
Every year, Lego has a promotion in October for double VIP points on purchases from the Lego Store and online and such. This year is no different... except instead of lasting for the full month, it's only lasting the first FOUR days. So I guess they felt they were too generous with their promotion earlier, so they had to reaaaaaally cut down the timeframe for it. (I guess losing 10% to crazy AFOLs who spend like crazy all month must've hurt their sales too much?) Plus, now it doesn't coinside
I just came across a new method for connection Bionicle 2015 masks to 2x2 round bricks. The new style of Bionicle masks that came out this year had an odd connection that allowed for them to be flipped off the head as part of an action feature, but this made their connection point rather loose. The heads were less than ideal to squeeze them on, and while you could fit them on technic axle or rod holes, they were often weak or loose. This new method uses a 2x2 round bricls, which slides in
Summer sets are out, so it was time for a visit to the local Lego Store to check out their new sets. Bionicle was there in force. The shelves weren't completely empty, but they were getting picked through. I talked with one of the employees, and he said that while Bionicle isn't the best seller, it's still moving. It'll be interesting to see how Bionicle G2 did compared to Hero factory, but suffice to say that it's moderately popular. They had Scooby Doo sets, but only some of the cheaper on
The funny thing is I didn't go to the event at all! In fact, the entire time I was in my office at work because, y'know, weekend shift and all. So these are the two SDCC Exclusives I was able to get ahold of. Sam Wilson Captain America was actually a win from Lego's Twitter raffle, which was very cool! (Like yeah, I tried reporting more on that for a reason.) I wasn't the only winner... I think they gave out 10 each of the figs and the masks over Twitter, but still a little mind boggling th
But Ant-Man was a good movie. Some great action, some decent characters. Pacing felt a little off near the middle, but the finale was solid. But it played it high with the humor, which I really appreciate. A lot of LOL moments, especially with his "crew". But quite a few deaths in this one too, and although a lot weren't a huge focus, there were a few that were emotional. Still, would see again. Probably will see again. Still, some of the swarm scenes with the ants creeped me out. I'm not a
So the other day I finally got my copy of 75917 Raptor Rampage (otherwise known as the Chris Pratt V3 parts pack) in the mail. I had ordered it for double VIP points in June, but it was backordered, so it took three weeks to get here. Full disclosure, I haven't seen the film, and don't feel inspired to see it in theaters either. I just assume that the raptors chase and eat people. And Owen takes them on friendly motorcycle rides. The figs are... decent. Owen's okay, pretty much like a cros
So I guess the other day was "Massive Earthquake awareness in the Pacific Northwest Day" due to an article posted by the NewYorker detailing the chances and consequences of a massive 9.0+ quake in the region. I knew most of the science behind it, but I didn't quite realize how woefully unprepared we are. Like, best estimates, we won't get electricity back for three weeks, running water for two months! Come on, my life it totally online, I don't know how I'd manage that! (I mean, I've done extend
The other day I ordered the 75091 Flash Speeder Star Wars set. I was planning to pick it up anyway, but I decided to wait until the Star Wars collectible poster promo, so I got that too. The set was actually pretty delightful, and I'm glad I made the purchase. Although, honestly, I don't remember this vehicle from the movie very much, but it's green, so yay! First off, the figs. I may or may not have wanted this set primarily for the medium nougat not-super-frowny head of the Naboo Security
I'll just preface this in saying that I have no heat tolerance. So, I spent all of last summer in an apartment with no Air Conditioning and it was terrible. I decided to get ahead of the curve and got an (expensive) portable AC unit a few months ago. But its loud and is constantly filling up with water that needs to be changed every 40 minutes when its on, but as needy as it was, it did provide cool air for a bit. But it's been in the upper 90s here this week, and then the bloody interior fa
So for the past 10 weeks I have been partaking in the Reverse Engineering Contest IV on Flickr. It's been my first real Flickr contest, and it's been interesting to interact with a different community of builders. Anyway, the idea was the host would post some small, convoluted Lego design and we would have to show how it was built. Lots of odd dimensions, from 1/2 plates to 1/4 plates to mind-numbing 1/8 plates. Not a lot of room for technic, mostly system. But it's been fun. There would be two
I finally managed to track down some Collectible Minifigures: Simpsons Series Two, and got the only one that I really wanted: Bartman. Even then I don't care much for the fig itself, since I have a generally negative view of the Simpson figs. However, he does come with a slingshot accessory, which is the first time Lego had produced one. (Although they've been printed on torsos before, my self fig torso has one printed on it.) (I'm also annoyed that, while the Lego Hobbit game gave Ori the Dwarf
He was actually a far more interesting character than I thought the trailers made him out to be. The movie was good overall. A lot of cameo or guest appearances. Except for one that I was hoping for... But, of course, the most critical part of the movie must come under some scrutiny, and that is... how well do the Lego sets fit in with it? Spoilers beware: Anyway, good movie, glad I saw it. Based on first impressions, not necessarily my favorite Marvel movie (that might go to W
The Kanoka discs in set form glow in the dark, but was that ever canon-ized? I found I sudddenly need to know this but have never considered the idea before. I guess.
After reading about the contest this morning, I took some time on my lunch break to wander around downtown Portland and look for some interesting faces in thing. And I dusted off my old twitter account... which I haven't used for three years. (I mean, I could use FB but I'm a little unsure of how to get it tagged in, and I'm not on instagram, so Twitter it is!) I posted a couple of shots, including an interesting angle from a boat, a ladder, some markings on a tree, an interesting bit of broke
And it's Mystery on Keli-Nui. It's the story that I entered for the Epics Mystery contest that I got few comments on, so I'm going to try again to get few to no comments! And I realize that I'm totally copying Spirit as he's reposting his epic from that same contest (which was a pretty good one and deservingly placed higher than mine) but I was totally contemplating reposting this at the beginning of the month, so I'm not entirely copying him. Actually, it has to do more with finishing repo
Click for Review TL/DR, it's a great set, lots of rare pieces, go buy it now. NOW! Unless you already have it. I mean, you could always buy a second one, but let's not go crazy here.
This past weekend at Bricks Cascade, the collaborative Gali Masters Mosaic finally came together. (A little last minute too, with the ones being sent in arriving just in the nick of time and another one requiring some last minute updates.) I haven't got pictures for everything else yet, but time to present this mosaic in its full glory! And it wouldn't be a BZPower mosaic without a group pict of all the builders. (Yes, ALL of them, even the ones that weren't physically there.) From lef
He doesn't know he's the most powerful firedrake in the north. Also, that Smaug set is totally worth the $70 I spent on it. Great figs, a good amount of pieces for that price (some good ones at it) and the dragon itself is quite amazing, especially the wings. Gosh, could you imagine if we have to pay $130 for it, that would be a total rip.
I actually did very well at Cascade this year, probably even better than my first year there where I won a bunch of stuff. This time I've won larger stuff!! And now I'm going to brag and provide a list. Won the large Friends shopping mall as a giveaway. Got two free mixels in as Mixels Match game (take two Mixels and build a non-Mixel thing... but use all the pieces.) Got the technic snowmobile in a Technic Game (where you build a non-technic thing, or at least not one that's on the box. I was
You know the new Lego Elves theme is aimed towards girls because when the main character gets lost... she asks for directions! Ba dump dump chshshshshshshsh! (Wonder how many people will be offended by this. I mean I don't think it's offensive but it's about a gender stereotype and people seem to get easily offended by stuff like that.) In other news, I have 5 of the 12 baseplates completed for the mosaic, plus one extra in case somebody else doesn't get theirs in on time. (I hope it would
I dunno how common place they are, but I've been listening to the band Jimmy Eat World lately. Also, their band name. I mean, I originally had their album back in 2001, which was I guess their breakout album? (And I had it on CD! For those too young to remember, that's how we used to store our music... which was a step up from cassettes, which were a step from records, ext... okay really CDs aren't that old of a technology.) But while I was a fan of their music then, I wasn't really following
(Click for Review) Somewhat surprisingly, this is my first EVER Bionicle review posted on the BZPower front page. My first review was Ben 10, right after the higher staff had all claimed the Bionicle Stars sets in 2010, so I never got a chance to review em back then, and I got disincluded from reviewing the first Gen 2 wave this year. But I managed to sneak one in. Coolio. Eh, it's a lengthy review for what boils down to an exclusive mask. But hey, another chance to post black light photos o
I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I have this ongoing project of rewriting a bunch of my stories that I lost when my laptop was stolen years ago. It’s crazy, since it’s been 7-8 years since that incident, and I still have a backlog of stories I want to redo. But I’m also revisiting them, updating them, improving them, ext, so it’s a lengthy process. Add to the fact that I don’t exactly have a ton of free time anymore to write, but I get inspired in short spurts, and make a little progress h
Animorphs-vs-Red-Skull-1 This is for a collaboration at BricksCascade. Basically, I had Animorph figs and I wanted to show them off, so I forced them into this set. I've had a couple ideas of how to incorporate the figs into some battle scene, and it's tricky. The characters are rarely in battle as humans, because they usually morph into animals. But even if I made minifig-scale brick build animals (or somehow used animal molds) I wouldn't have a need for the actual figs. So how wou
