Wednesday, December 30, 2015

2015 in Review: It was an awesome year for this AFOL!

As 2015 draws to a close let's all take a look at some of the MOCs I produced in 2015:

 


 2015 was huge for me as an Adult Fan of Lego (AFOL):

1.  My home Lego User Group (LUG) PhLUG had its 1st major exhibit - Brickxhibit 2015 over at Resorts World Manila.

2. I was picked by Lego to do a 6 months stint as a curator for Rebrick. ReBrick is a social bookmarking platform where adult users can share, organize and discuss user-created LEGO content.The content on ReBrick is not LEGO sets you can buy in a shop, but creations made by teenage and adult builders, who use their creativity to build their own models called MOCs (My Own Creation).

3. I was picked to be Rebricker of the Week in November over at  Rebrick.

  


4. I was able to exhibit at the office for the yearly Toy club exhibit.

Blog activity tapered off in the 4th quarter of 2015 as I was swamped with work.  Hopefully I can write more articles in 2016.

Happy New Year everyone!  Thanks for joining me in my Lego journey!  May everyone have a blessed 2016!  Keep on building!

Until then Leg Godt!







Friday, November 6, 2015

I got Rebricked!

What is Rebrick?

Rebrick is an official Lego website found in http://rebrick.lego.com 

ReBrick is a social bookmarking platform where adult users can share, organize and discuss user-created LEGO content.The content on ReBrick is not LEGO sets you can buy in a shop, but creations made by teenage and adult builders, who use their creativity to build their own models called MOCs (My Own Creation).
It is not possible to upload content to the ReBrick. Instead, users can bookmark videos and images from other sites on the web, such as Flickr, YouTube, MOCpages, Brickshelf and similar sites.

Its already awesome to be able to build and play with Lego but it adds an extra dash of awesome when an official Lego site features you. 

So I got featured on Rebrick!


Yay me

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Happy 68th Monthsary Hon!

And how does an AFOL show his love for his girl with a MOC of course


Happy 68 months of being together hon Apple!



Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Review: LEGO City 60065 ATV Patrol

Surprises

Don't we all just love surprises?  Well surprise surprise work actually took a big chunk of my time and I looked and I saw that my last post was in April.  Shame on me.  Sorry fans for neglecting the blog for so long.  Well I'm back with a small blog entry.

Oh my honey sure does know how to get straight to the heart of an AFOL.  I woke up the other day and as I was about to prepare breakfast I saw this on the dining table:

My heart leaped!
 If you live in anywhere in Metro Manila in the Philippines and you are an AFOL then you are familiar with Hobbes and Landes.  That's the bricks-and-mortars store of LAJ the official Lego distributor in the Philippines.  It seems my girl had a surprise for me.

I quickly opened the paper bag and found a love letter and 60065 inside:

Awesome!   Surprise Lego from my sweetheart
This was gonna be a great day!

Let's Build it!
I had work that day so I found some free time near the end of the work day to build this 59-piece set.

There was a time when the reverse of the box showed alternate builds.  Not anymore.

A nice little bunch of Lego stuff.


The parts and minifigs

My girlfriend who I am slowly turning into an AFOL herself picked this set because she said the pieces would come in handy for my MOCs.  That was a great reason to get the set. I shall make an AFOL of her yet!

And indeed the set had nice little pieces that can prove useful in future builds like the money tiles and the printed Police cheese slope.  There were also a lot of clips that can be used for robots and spaceships as well as the sought after tree leaves.
 
A profusion of great pieces including dollar bills and a backpack
The minifigs were one policeman and one bad guy.  The bad guy seems to follow a City template and I've had a few of those already.  The torso of the bad guy had a fang necklace though to  differentiate it with my other City bad guys.

The cop had the nice new mold for the ball cap.  And the nice beige torso that can be used for other minifig themes.

The Tree

The first portion to be built was the tree were the bad guy would be able to hide his back pack full of cash.  Nice and straightforward build for this one.  The brown pieces will prove useful in future builds.  The tree leaf is always welcome.
 



The ATV

For some reason the ATV build seems to be something I've seen before.  When I have time I have to look for an older set that looks familiar to this one. The pieces that make up the ATV are useful for other car builds.  As well as robots and spaceships.
 
The Police cheese piece is printed and not a sticker!  YAY!


The completed build

It's a nice simple build.  And the figs are awesome and useful for other MOCs.  Thanks hon for this little set!  I enjoyed building it!
 

 And as usual at the end of a set build I look forward to the extra pieces available.  This one was well worth it   With the extra handcuffs and trans pieces.
Woohoo extra handcuffs!
 More pictures
Get that snake out of here!

Seriously get that snake out of here!
Woof its good to be back!

Until next time!  Leg Godt!



Saturday, April 25, 2015

Event: PhLUG Brickxhibit2015 / Abrickadabra Lego Convention


Welcome to Brickstories' coverage of the Philippine Lego Users Group's (PhLUG) Brickxhibit2015 and Abrickadabra Lego convention.

Me and my hon Apple decided to break out our twin Lego backpacks for this amazing adventure and matching Lego shirts to boot.

Brickxhibit2015 is ongoing until May 3 and features MOCs (My Own Creations or what adult fans of Lego call their custom kits)  from most of PhLUG's great builders.

Once you've entered Resorts World's Newport Mall you are immediately greeted by a huge "I Love Lego" sign built out of a lot of red bricks.  The letters were made by Revjon Oblea with the bricks coming free from the Lego group itself.

Revjon Oblea made "I Love Lego"


Here's my hon Apple, my sister Richelle and Apple's nephew AJ posing in front of "I Love Lego"

Hon Apple, sis Rich, and AJ


Brickxhibit2015

After that it's a ton of Lego displays made by the talented sub interest groups (SIGs) of PhLUG.

The sigs are composed of (in order of display): PhLUG Mech (which used to be known as PhLUG MOC), Urban Builders, Force Legion, Kingdoms,  Garage, Armored Division, Starfleet and Minifigures.

Also among the displays are works of Team PMS (PhLUG's all-female build team) and a couple of other awesome moccers like Arthur Tanseco (Voltes V) and the Hope Christian Lego robotics team of David Ang.



The F1 diorama of PhLUG Garage SIG

One of my own contributions a P51 Mustang sporting the livery of the Philippine Airforce for PAD

My Lotus F1 car for Phlug Garage




PhLUG Ambassador Randie "Citizen Piper" Protacio giving the tour

My SIG - PhLUG Armored Division

Kids enjoying the PAD display

The awesome Kingdoms diorama which won "Best Diorama" of the convention

More kingdoms!

A slice of Pinoy life in Lego
(shown are mocs by Jergens Correa (angel's burger and Mark gotidoc (sari-sari store))






More pictures and updates later!



Monday, April 13, 2015

Event: Brickxhibit 2015 and Abrickadabra (PhLUG)

If you love Lego prepare for one of the biggest Lego exhibits the PH has ever seen.

Courtesy of the Philippine Lego Users Group (PhLUG), Brickxhibit2015 and Abrickadabra will unfold at Resort's World this April 2015.




Friday, April 10, 2015

Review: Lego 31009 Creator Small Cottage

I'm gonna pick up the pieces and build a Lego house
If things go wrong we can knock it down

- "Lego House", Ed Sheeran


When I was a kid my parents bought me a lot of Lego City houses.  Those sets taught me a lot of the building techniques needed to make great Lego houses.

This Creator set caught my eye with its sliding door and nice mix of colors.  I knew I had to get one.

The great thing about Creator sets they already have 3 different models and instructions for them in the box.

Opening the Box


The box shows the Creator line branding as well as the 3 main models that can be built from the kit.


Just like any big creator box it contains 3 separated instructions booklets for all 3 main models.


Ah a nice bunch of packs... since this is a Creator set the bags are not numbered

Agh I can't find my hair in this mess!?!?!
Now let's get to building this creator set.


The first model:  Small Cottage


It has been a long time since I built a Lego house straight from a boxed set.  This brought back a lot of memories form my childhood when mom and dad bought me a lot of City sets.  Those sets taught me a lot about building structurally sound Lego houses.  And 31009 is no different as it uses a lot of proven building techniques and a few modern ones.

I have my hair piece, skate board and hotdog!  Time to get to building!

Notice the swing out wall that allows you to arrange stuff inside the house
Lego houses in the past used to have one wall missing so that you play with the interiors after the house is built.   A lot of the modern ones use swing out walls as a means to have a complete structure as well as a way to still play with the house interiors.   Seen above is one of the ways by which this is accomplished.



Ahh that awesome sliding door!  It's what made me buy this model

The sliding door above was what actually convinced me to buy this kit.  I was working on some sliding doors for a spaceport moc and I stumbled on 31009.  It's not close to a space station sliding door but I still wanted it haha.


Preparing the section where the roof/second floor will connect
Another building technique here is adding those tiles with studs at either ends as connection points for the roof structure.  The lesser amount of studs let the roof be easily disconnected from the house and once again let you see the house interiors.  The minimal stud count allows for a good grip for the roof so it sits well on the house.




And just like that the first model is done!  Again being a creator set this is just set 1 of 3 that you can build with instructions from the box.

Me and my girlfriend Apple's sigfigs

 It's a nice small cottage.  And that awesome sliding door!



And here we have the completed house with the small pond and lawn.   Also showing up in the picture is nephew BJ's champion racer from the Lego City line.


The Second Model: A small bungalow

Out of the 3 models this is the one I like the least.  This is also the model that felt more like a standard Lego house build.  Take note of the classic technique of splitting the house in half to allow building a house with 4 walls and still be able to play with the interiors.


The technique shown from behind.


Here's a more complete structure of the house's ground floor.  I love the window details and the small fireplace.


The structure form the outside.


Unfortunately I was not able to get a picture of the completed house split in half. The roof section is also created so that you can open the house in the middle.


It is a nice little house when get down to it.    I just prefer the sliding doors cottage and the windmill to this build.
Nice details on the exterior.

Small Cottage 2

Love the hotdog as lamp neck.






Third Model: The Windmills in our mind

After the Small cottage the windmill is my second favorite build from this kit.


I like the fact that the Windmill is on a raised platform.


Well some of these bricks (particularly the glass panels) won't be used







Nature shot!


The windmill opens up to show the distillery inside.

Milk?  Beer?  Your guess is as good as mine.






Some additional shots:


And with the extra bricks a waiting shed popped up. :)


Let's  PPPPAAAAARRRTTTYYYY!


Always remember this technique to make your internals accesible

Woohoo pool party!

From the extra bricks I made a small white shelf

As usual a Creator set never fails to satisfy your building urges.  This was an extremely satisfying set to build especially for people who loves to build Lego houses.  It also provides new builders with a lot of great techniques they can learn from.

If you ever get the chance to acquire 31009 I suggest you go get it.  The sliding doors are awesome!

Thank you for going through one of my longer reviews in recent memory.

Until next time Leg Godt!