BrickBuildr

Flickr & Brickworld

2013-05-21T08:46:00.000-04:00

If you haven't heard, Flickr has redesigned their web-site and it seems that many in the LEGO fan community don't approve. Personally, I'm indifferent. Facebook and Google+ also got a redesign, but no one has complained about it. Popular web-sites seem to update their look about every 2-3 years, so Flickr was long over due. Why shouldn't Flickr try to keep up with the times? The functionality hasn't changed -- you can still comment on photos, tag areas with comments right on the photo, the upload limit on free accounts just got better -- and I'm sure they'll make improvements for Pro users to make the additional cost worth it... in time.

In other news, we've booked out tickets to Brickworld. I don't know if we'll display much, considering we have to fly.

The Past Few Months

2013-04-18T09:18:00.001-04:00

I'm not going to go into details what's been going on lately, let's just say the last few months has been stressful since MegaCon.

I have some new store information that I'm hoping to add to the web-site later this week -- the size of the Lille store in France. As well as some new parts showing up on the PaB walls world-wide.

I might have mentioned this before, but lately I've been playing around with Pinterest. I've set up a few LEGO related pin-boards: Random LEGO, LEGO Castle, LEGO Space, and My LEGO MOCs. I use it for inspiration & to show off my works of art... I find it easy to use & the image processing makes a nice collage of photos, that it's got me thinking about redesigning BrickBuildr's layout.

LEGO Chima

2013-02-07T00:42:00.002-05:00

I don't know if you're noticing this, but LEGO Chima seems to be everywhere... And I don't consider this a bad thing.

Despite my cynical nature, I've always thought that if LEGO want to be successful with their non-licensed brands, they need to adopt a different marketing approach -- IP like Star Wars pretty much sells itself, but LEGO IP has always been a problem, like Power Miners, Rock Raiders, Aquanauts, etc. It's not that the sets are less fun, or have less play, but it doesn't resonate with the public at a cultural level -- IP like Star Wars does and will have lasting cultural resonance.

With LEGO Chima, I see bits of the movie Avatar... bits of Thunder Cats... factions based on animalistic traits... there seems to be a deeper story there, but as far as I can tell, the story is a bit weak, but -- and here's where it becomes interesting -- LEGO is releasing a cartoon around the same time they release the sets, to help fill the story void in... to tell the deeper story... and LEGO will release a video game around the same time... and NOT a year or two years later like LEGO Batman (sets released and were out of production by the time the video game was released and became a overnight hit; only disappointing kids because the sets were no longer being produced)... and LEGO Harry Potter and LEGO Indiana Jones suffered from a similar fate.

Now there might be some contractual agreements with licensed IP that the video game and sets couldn't be released at similar times, or production times weren't in sync (see: my cynicism above), but with LEGO Chima, it's interesting to see product release in timed with the animated series & video game release. And it will be interesting to see if it successful or not, with a non-licensed IP.

... I know NinjaGo was a sleeper hit for LEGO last year -- it has Ninja's that haven't been produced by LEGO for many years, so it's no surprise to me -- but to be honest, the NinjaGo line didn't have that cultural resonance with me... be it a deeper story, or something I could relate to.

FOLLOW UP: On one hand, I like to see LEGO succeed with a a non-licensed IP, but on the other hand I'm not too happy with 2013's pricing structure & the news of layoffs at LEGO...

Goodbye, 2012!

2013-01-02T00:51:00.000-05:00

So back in 2009, I wished the LEGO Group "And here's to TLG, may you have the wisdom to make better products and resist the temptation of corporate greed -- that have plagued so many other companies and brought us to the brink of economic ruin in the first place!" -- I added the emphasis.

So "better products" in 2012? I my mind, the clear winner was Friends. The number of licensed products is staggering -- Star Wars, SpongeBob Squarepants, DC Comics/Marvel Comics, Disney Cars 2/Princesses, Lord of the Rings/Hobbit, & Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles. The price-per-piece is growing across the board... It's more noticeable in licensed sets, but compare price-per-piece of a parts bucket from now to about 10 years ago -- I spotted the #10662 LEGO Creative Bucket at the LEGO Imagination Center last weekend, it's $0.0494/pieces, compared to $0.02/piece -- not a terrible deal, but the Basic Bricks and More sets are around $0.16/part now (if it includes a minifig), compared to $0.06/part a few years earlier.

Grab bags are no longer a option at a LEGO store. Damage set discounts are around 10% instead of 20%. Christmas clearance was abysmal; didn't find many sets on sale, just products that LEGO licensed their brand out to, like containers. And the release of this article doesn't help AFOLs; it just drives up after-market prices.

Speaking of which, I've been the admin to Facebook group, called Bricklink Worldwide Buyers and Sellers... I don't mind talking about buying/selling of LEGO talk, just don't like Shoe spam!

But the thought that the LEGO Group "(we) don't closely follow after market activity," is silly. Considering LEGO has decided to re-release sets at the current (after) market value, instead of the original price (see: 3451 @ $50 vs. 10226 @ $100; 10152 @ $75 vs 10155 @ $120)... I have a theory that the only people willing to buy the high-priced LEGO sets will eventually all be market speculators, not fans.

The last few years have been the most profitable years for The LEGO Group, but it's in the process of cutting back on (AFOL) community out-reach. Instead of thanking those that help pushed LEGO into the main-stream, it is cutting back in support.

So with 2013, as far as the hobby is concerned, I think my focus will shift to not put money into TLG's pockets and focus more on building with the parts I have on hand and becoming more organized... I know, an empty New Year's resolution, but I can try. :)

Biosphere

2012-12-22T11:18:00.001-05:00

DSC04259,
originally uploaded by mhuffman.

Megacon is around the corner; that means that GFLUGers will be working on their moonbase modules...

This is a picture of Todd Thuma's Biosphere from last year -- it's a copied design, but it's still very impressive! Very retro 80's. I think of Bio-Dome every time I look at it.

Many Updates!

2012-11-21T01:26:00.000-05:00

So I've been pretty much burned out since Star Wars Celebration VI... I was let go from my job 2 days after after our group (GFLUG) displayed at Star Wars Celebration VI. I had a lot of fun at the event, that turned quickly into figuring out my next life move would be. Fortunately for us, I managed to find a job pretty quickly (as a contractor), with minimal impact to our family.

At the beginning of October, another GFLUG member (Michael Zehr) and I ended up doing a small LEGO display at the Winter Garden Music Festival. Michael's Winter Garden in minifig scale looks wonderful, especially the train station... About that time I started experimenting with the iPhone's new panoramic feature and dabbling with Instagram again.

With the new job, I was a little worried about a vacation we had planned with some friends for later October -- we were going to California, with trips to Legoland and Disneyland. My wife and I really wanted to check out the new Cars Land and we were not disappointed. We were also not disappointed with the Star Wars Miniland at Legoland -- we hadn't seen it since it opened. Oh! and Erika, Joe and I met up with some of the SandLUG peoples down in San Diego -- I was great getting seeing everyone again.

BrickHaven 2012 came and went -- it was a little bit of a bust, but for some GFLUG members, it was a chance to catch up with a few friends from out of town... In a sense, it was doomed from the beginning. On one hand, it had a few exciting things going for it -- it was Legoland Florida's 1st anniversary, Brick-or-Treat, and the park announce it was getting a Star Wars miniland to open up sometime in October. The other hand, it really only gave AFOLs less than a few months to plan for, with uncertainties about details -- part of which I take some responsibility for... more on this later.

Festival of the Masters' theme this year was "The 80s" for the 80th anniversary of LEGO -- there was some great 80's themed models. Some honorable mentions -- Pitfall by Erika Fiorenza, Lite Bright by Sydney MacDonald, Jem and the Holograms vs. The Misfits by Amber & Roger, but I think the one that stole everyone's heart was Q-Bert by Mark Staffa -- and I think Disney releasing the Wreck-It Ralph movie had a lot to do with it.

...I was so burned out, I ended up recycling a MOC from Star Wars Celebration VI: Han in Carbonite Minifig Carrying Case. I'm a little disappointed in myself; FotM is generally where I build something new and something very different.

BrickHaven 2012

2012-09-15T01:53:00.000-04:00

BrickHaven 2012 is an AFOL Weekend Getaway designed for adult LEGO fans andtheir families, to be hosted at Legoland Florida on November 3rd & 4th, 2012. (See the web-site for registration).

The weekend will include:

Discount park tickets Two presentations -- one focused on the park (on Saturday), and one via model builder staff (on Sunday)
A in-park scavenger hunt with prizes
A catered BBQ lunch on Saturday
Limited MOC space if there is enough interest. In a covered area; volunteers to help watch the area whilst fans play in the park.
And other fun activities lined up, that you'll have to be registered to learn about!

http://www.brick-haven.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/266150593496205/

500 People?!?!

2012-09-10T09:20:00.000-04:00

Somehow I missed this, but it looks like BrickBuildr has over 500 people using it's photo service. I know at some point I need to go through and remove users that no longer have Flickr accounts, but I would hope I wouldn't have to remove more than 37 users. :) Anyway, this is a nice milestone.

Star Wars Celebration VI & BrickHaven

2012-08-13T16:45:00.000-04:00

So GFLUG and myself has been busy getting ready for Star Wars Celebration VI coming up Aug. 23-26 here in Orlando, FL. It was a lot of fun last time around, this year is proving to be just as exciting to see what people will build and bring to the event.

One of the ideas I had this time around was to combine the Minifigure Presentation Boxes with Han in Carbonite -- to create a play on the Darth Vader figure storage case I had as a kid. I'm also working on a light-up Mustafar display again (slightly larger). And I'm thinking about building a Wookie tree house from the Star Wars Christmas special, including a Santa Yoda. :)

In other news, I got a call from Legoland FL about doing an AFOL event at Legoland, come fall time. We're calling it BrickHaven; a play on the town Legoland, FL is located in (Winter Haven). Looking at dates, the best one I could come up with is the weekend of Nov. 3 & 4 -- it's short notice, but it's the weekend after Brick-or-Treat and the weekend before Festival of the Masters -- so if anyone is looking for an excuse to take a vacation for a week, that would be a fun filled LEGO week.

Keep an eye on the web-site for updates, I'll be posting them there. I've set up a Facebook Group if anyone is interested. Right now I'm looking for support and feedback, so e-mail me at brickbuildr@gmail.com.

Brickspo 2012

2012-07-27T15:00:00.000-04:00

I want to give a quick shout out to the Saskatchewan Lego Users Group (SLUG), this weekend they will be presenting Brickspo 2012 (on Facebook) at the Western Development Museum - 50 Diefenbaker Drive - in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, located a short drive west of Regina. From what I can tell on-line, this might be their 5th Brickspo. Congrats!

They do have a Flickr Group and a dedicated Flickr User for the group, please check them out. And if you happen to be in the area, check out the event and let me know how it was.

An Interview, A Presentation and An Update

2012-07-26T15:36:00.000-04:00

Over at A Look at LEGO podcast, a friend of mine, Paul Janssen was interviewed about building the Ohio State University horseshoe... I haven't seen it in person yet, but I know it's a monster build. I vaguely remember when he announce to the LUG that he was going to build it, so it was nice to reminisce.

Thinking about monster LEGO buildings reminded me of a presentation that I gave at BrickMagic '10, on Building Commissions. I had uploaded it to BrickBuildr, but under the 'downloads' section, I guess I forgot to add a link -- it's there now.

I should update the presentation a little, there's more information I could add, now that we've completed the Miami Children's Hospital build... updated photos of the model, a small picture gallery of source images, a quick snapshot of architecture drawings we used, etc., to give a rough idea of the process we go through for building a large model. It sounds like a similar process Paul went through to build the horseshoe, but he was a one man builder, whereas we had 4 builders.

On a side note, our LUG is getting ready for Star Wars Celebration VI. Which means I've been a slacker, and only have a few weeks left to build. :) I've started on project if you haven't seen it in my Flickr stream -- I'm a little further along than what's pictured here, but not much...

If you're going to be in town for Star Wars Celebration, give us a shout out.

A Quick Update

2012-07-09T13:58:00.000-04:00

Just a quick update -- I've been working on creating an web service API for BrickBuildr, similar in spirit to the BrickSet web service... It still a work in progress, for now. I've added Elisabeth, NJ store to iPaB; I ended up getting the size of the wall from some pictures on the Brick Update blog. And based on a suggestion, I've changed the way you select a part, when you edit a store's PaB wall -- you should be able to type in a few letters within the drop down boxes, and you narrow down you selections. Try it out and let me know what you think!

If the new way is too annoying, I have the old page saved off...

The European Economy

2012-06-18T12:00:00.000-04:00

On the way into work today, I tuned into the Diane Rehm's show, talking about the Results of the Greek Elections and the Future of the Euro Zone... Long story short, it sounds like Greece is in a real economic mess and threatens to drag all of Europe in. One line of thinking seems to be, that if the central bank bails out Greece, Spain and Italy are next in line in need of bailout. Some policy makers want to make an example of Greece by kicking them out of the Eurozone, but I question if it really solves the problem -- other than threaten Spain and Italy into tightening their belts; and Greece would no longer be a financial burden of the Eurozone.

It's an oversimplification, I know! And not knowing how the European Union/Euro is structured, I don't have a full grasp of the ramifications. That and the European banking system seems like a overly complex house of cards.

It's also interesting to note that the Euro Cup also started this month.. My wife and I managed to catch part of a few matches during lunch this weekend... with nationalistic pride in full swing. The whole economic mess can be completely ignored in the face of a good of soccer match.

But what does this have to do with LEGO? Well, LEGO is a Danish company. For those of you who have ordered BULKLUG, the orders are paid in DKK (Danish Krone), not Euros -- Denmark is outside of the Eurozone. Because of this, it's a little insulated from the growing lack of confidence in the Euro. But it's also interesting how this plays out in the price of LEGO sets across different European nations -- those nations hardest hit by the economy (Spain and Italy) are being charged a lesser amount of Euros compared to those that are more prosperous (Germany) right now.

...Actually, after Denmark lost to Germany yesterday in the Euro Cup, the markup on German LEGO sets doesn't surprise me. :)

Oh, and Nicklas Bendtner is an idiot!

GFLUG: Iron Builder Rules

2012-06-10T22:16:00.001-04:00

This past weekend, our LUG did a Iron Builder event. We had 30 minutes to gather up parts and build a MOC (see the rules), incorporating a 'mystery' piece -- for our event, the mystery elements were clown hair. :)

When I first saw the hair, I thought I'd try to create a flowering bonsai tree. I gathered up a bunch of green plate, brown bricks of various sizes, and Technic pieces. I know time was short and the available pieces for build were limited. I wasn't going for perfection or a refined MOC -- I wanted to build it quickly, with some whimsy, instead of it being meticulously planned out.

I didn't win, but I'm okay with that. :) For me, this was to build something quickly, not over think it, and have fun.

And to be honest, it is a fun contest!

Lynnwood, WA

2012-06-04T13:29:00.000-04:00

Just added the Lynnwood, WA store and new parts to the database today. And fix a problem with some of the RSS feeds.

Bricks on the Brain: Rail

2012-06-01T10:17:00.001-04:00

I've been sitting on this one for awhile... Speaking with Jake McKee, I offered to bring "Bricks on the Brain" back from the dead. The original web-site was written in ColdFusion... a language I'm not familiar with, but I have enough experience with PHP and other programming language, it wasn't hard to figure out how it works. I've decided to tackle a smaller sub web-site called Bricks on the Brain: Rail, that features some of Jake's 9V train creations with instructions. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Over the next few weeks/months, I'll try to bring back Bricks on the Brain (BotB). I need to convert the database, rebuild the page templates, then at some point, add a way to submit new content... seems like an easy task, but I'm cleaning the HTML up in the process, simplifying the data stored, and trying to maintain the integrity of the web-site, whilst looking down the road on how to better integrate it with BrickBuildr.

I have a few problems to consider... There are links (URLs) in the database to locations that are now defunct; which is not surprising considering the nature of the web and the age of BotB. Second, BotB maintained a user list and BrickBuildr has a separate/different user list. I could start over from scratch, but there are some good information already contained in the old BotB database that I don't want to loose... Once I merge the two user lists, I'll need to write some web-pages to add/modify/delete creations from BotB.

228 Web-Sites Added

2012-05-15T17:28:00.001-04:00

I have added about 228 web-sites to BrickBuildr -- look for them under the 'sites' menu on the web-site. I feel this is still the tip of the iceberg in terms of the on-line LEGO Community. This list doesn't include Facebook fan sites and Twitter accounts (which I don't feel inclined to add those at the moment, maybe as additional links down the road), or related Flickr groups... I'm trying to build the web-site/Flickr group relationship in the database -- this will take some time to accomplish.

The biggest challenge to creating a list of web-sites, is how to display information in a useful and easy to access... On one hand, I know our group's GFLUG 'brand' is a nightmare of web-sites where our club disseminates information -- we have information on Twitter, a Facebook fan of GFLUG page, a public/private Facebook groups, a public/private Yahoo Groups, on our main web-site, etc. With some of those web-site have more up-to-date information than others... Now multiply this by about by 50 LEGO clubs world-wide...

On one hand, I like some of the tools social media gives you... but on the other hand, it's made getting information out a chore -- multiple sign-ins, different user interfaces, no fine-grain control on how information is shared between sites, no concept of public/private information within groups...

AN ASIDE: If you haven't seen it, check out the web-site Swooshable. It maps LUGs, LTC, LEGO Events, location of LEGO Stores and theme parks onto a interactive Google map. It's a great resource of information... just needs a little updating.

Thinking down the road, this information is very dynamic; it's constantly changing. A web-site here today is gone tomorrow... Groups change names and directions... Funding and hosting costs are factors... Lost of interest in the hobby... Blogs change hands from Wordpress to Blogger... Thinking about an interface, information needs to be easily updated without too much hassle. "Brands" are no longer one web-site, but a whole string of URLs... calendars, event schedule, photos, discussions both public/private, sharing of documents & layouts... Then thinking about information from another perspective, once a new LEGO product is released, or somebody builds an interesting MOC, it's blasted across 20-30 blogs and personal fan web-site... And getting this information from one web-site to another means more data entry -- this no common language for sharing/exchanging these types of complex data relationships with other web-sites...

I'm over simplifying this, but a few years ago at Brickworld, there was a workshop, asking AFOLs what they think the biggest problems facing the LEGO Community; there was talks of fragmentation, lack of a central source for information... From what I gathered afterwards, people wanted a AFOL version of Facebook, thinking this would help. I thought it was naive.. the real issues is this lack of a common language for sharing multi-dimensional ideas related to our hobby -- be it information about our MOCs (where you can find pictures of it, textual inspiration, where it can be seen/shown, etc.), to LUGs (pictures at events, where our discussion go on, information about us, etc.), to news affecting our community.

...to be continued...

More Updates

2012-05-07T17:26:00.000-04:00

One of my ideas for BrickBuildr is to (down the road) better integrate the web-site with Flickr, Facebook, Google+, and Open ID. I honestly don't want to store any passwords on BrickBuildr; so you'd simply log into one of the partner services, and if BrickBuildr is an authorized web-site, you'll be redirected back as being logged in, with access to your information... Since most of the 'accounts' on BrickBuildr originate from Flickr, Flickr integration is easy enough to do; so as of last Friday, if you sign into the web-site via Flickr (instead of using the 'join' button), you can by-pass reCaptcha...

You'll also noticed on the web-site that I removed the list of 'friends' web-site from the left hand side, and I added a drop down item called 'sites' -- all of that information have been moved there. In it's place, I've added a few images with links to web-sites I enjoy and a few up-coming LEGO (US) conventions.

There are a large number of LEGO fan sites. If you read through my On-Line LEGO Community presentation, you see I only touch the tip of the iceberg. The decision to move the list of web-site it's partly spurred by my desire to expand upon that list. And somehow figure out a way to organize the list... and somehow pull out/highlight some of those web-sites in a better fashion. For right now, the list is crude -- just the web-site name and URL. But that should change over the next few weeks.

Using ReCaptcha with BrickBuildr

2012-04-30T22:50:00.001-04:00

Updating a iPaB wall just became easier. After adding the inventory for Legoland Florida, I got tired of entering the two digit code, very quickly! I figured integrating ReCaptcha into the web-site was long overdue. :)

So please enjoy and let me know if there's any problems.

Incredible Robot Locates (Electronic) Components on Demand

2012-04-27T13:12:00.001-04:00

I LOVE this idea! It's an Incredible Robot Locates (Electronic) Components on Demand. I'm thinking it needs to help me find LEGO parts... and it needs to be slightly bigger. :) It's voice activated (which is a little wacky, almost circa 1983), but versatile enough to find multiple variations of a component.

I hope he open-sources the project. :)

“Little Guys… In Space!”

2012-04-20T16:17:00.000-04:00

Many of you know about LEGO's Cuusoo web-site. On one level, it's a neat way of crowd-sourcing product ideas; separating out the "wants" from a few individuals, from ideas that are potentially in demand. The down-side to it: people's taste are fickle and most of the current ideas proposed are more licensed products (not very many original ideas). But there have been projects that I do support, for instance the Palette Buckets (a similar idea I had many years ago when I was looking to build larger castle structures), the Buket 'o Plate idea (because honestly who has enough plates?), and LEGO Phineas and Ferb ('cause I like the show).

The Minecraft Cuusoo project reaching it's goal of 10K supporters, really didn't surprise me; I've been playing the game and following it on reddit for some time. I see how much of a fan following it has, and one word from Notch can make/break a web-site; so by Notch tweeting the project, I knew there would be no problems hitting that goal. I was a little surprised by the Shaun of the Dead project; other than Simon Pegg mentioning it on Conan, I didn't realize it had a cult following that big. :) Don't get me wrong, I like Simon Pegg and Nick Frost films and TV shows, but wow... that's amazing!

On another topic, our LUG had been approached about doing a large scale model; turns out that finding funding to start building the model has been difficult to secure. One of the ideas I had back in October was to find funding via Kickstarter -- I hope to post more details later if we decide to take this route. But in general, I think this is a great venue for raising money to help fund future LEGO projects -- in theory, I'd hope they be charitable in nature, but I can see helping out the occasional 'starving artist'. But I can also see it help fund art projects that a small group of people couldn't accomplish alone... assuming other people believe in the idea and pledge their support.

If you haven't seen this yet, please check out David Pagano's Kickstarter project, “Little Guys… In Space!”

LEGO Foliage

2012-04-19T17:44:00.003-04:00

So it recently came up on GFLUG's private Facebook group that a 3rd party is making LEGO foliage in fall colors (orange, yellow, burnt-browns, etc.). Personally, I like the idea... And I might purchase some in the future, assuming LEGO doesn't hijack the idea. But thinking a little deeper on the subject, it seems that it's time for an over-haul on LEGO vegetation -- more tree options, shrubs, more leaf options, more vines options, new plants, etc. Minifigs have gotten a lot of attention lately, why not LEGO foliage? :)

We-Brick.com, An AFOL Dating Web-Site

2012-04-01T11:22:00.003-04:00

Looking for that special friend to build with? Looking for that relationship that just snaps together like LEGO bricks? (There's a joke there about 'clutch', but I don't know what that is...). Try we-brick.com! :)

UPDATE: This was an April Fools joke if you didn't catch it. :)

The Stock Room

2012-03-29T10:08:00.003-04:00

So this feature probably shouldn't have taken this long to implement, but I got a request to add the Saarbrücken, Germany store (a 8x6 wall) with a few extra columns to indicate parts the store might have in the back room. After thinking about it, it really wasn't that hard to make that happen. I have gotten some requests in the past to do this for stores that combine similar parts into the same container, but how to solve the problem just didn't "click" until now. *smack head*

Anyway, I'll probably start adding a 'stock room' column(s) to some of the German stores first. If you think your neighborhood store needs a stock room column, let me know.

I've also gotten a few other great suggestions to show some basic PaB statistics, but I'm also pondering a upgrade to the web-site's look-n-feel... I'm hoping to get to both soon.

New Colors & 12 New LEGO Stores

2012-03-13T17:11:00.001-04:00

Just a quick update: I've been asked to add trans-purple and dark purple to the list of available part colors; these colors are turning up on the Copenhagen, Denmark PaB wall. I ended up taking a few minutes to add all the new 2012 colors to the database as well, so now the drop down list of colors are all colors produced in 2011-2012... Granted, some of these color probably will not show up in PaB, but they're there just in case.

According to the newest LEGO Store flyer, there will be some new stores opening up this summer. I took a few moments to also add the 12 new stores to the database.

Remember, e-mail me at brickbuildr@gmail.com if you run across new parts, new colors, or if you find out the dimensions of any undocumented store.