BrickBuildr

Train Display

2016-04-09T10:33:00.001-04:00

Brick or Treat

2015-09-21T13:30:00.001-04:00

Andy's Creeper

2015-04-17T08:24:00.001-04:00

Here's a video of Andy Milluzzi's Creeper bot from Orlando Maker Faire a few months ago... I would have shared it earlier, but I keep forgetting to. :(

New Web Host

2014-12-14T14:13:00.003-05:00

I'm transferring BrickBuildr to a new web host today. Shouldn't take longer than a few hours, so please hold off on updating the Pick-a-Brick wall until I'm finished. We should be back on-line soon. :)

Globe at Legoland FL

2014-07-04T10:24:00.001-04:00

Just a quick video that I took last weekend at Legoland, FL. Enjoy!

iPaB Parts Data

2014-03-12T05:30:00.000-04:00

I was adding a new part to the database this morning, when I did something catastrophic -- the part name don't show up correctly. I'll be spending the next few days correcting this error, as well as find a way to make the process of adding a new part less tedious.

Stay tuned... I'll post updates as I make progress.

Quick Update

2013-12-28T16:02:00.001-05:00

Heading into 2014, it's never a dull moment... I've been procrastinating on a project that I need to finish by mid January -- OrangeLUG will be participating in The Art of Warner Bros. Cartoons Exhibition display at Orange County Regional History Museum. As you can see, I'm working on a mosaic. :)

I'm using the Photobricks app for my iPhone. I love and hate it; I have few different shades of orange and red that I'd love to incorporate into the mosaic, but the application has a limited pallet, but beyond that, it's been a wonderful!

I've also recently spoke with Bryan Bonahoom about getting the website ready for Brickworld Chicago registration. I have been working on updating the web-site with a fresh look for the new year -- hopefully it looks better on mobile and tablet devices. I still have more work to do... some pages haven't been converted to the new look yet.

I have a few updates to BrickBuildr as well, in terms of new parts selection & wall dimensions for some stores; I should get to that in the next day or so...

Ok, back to building.

The Wal-Mart Side Effect, part 2: Winning a Fight, but Losing the War

2013-11-17T11:56:00.002-05:00

So I didn't intend to write a blog follow up to The Wal-Mart Side Effect, part 1 just yet, but this is related...

Here's something I think is funny... so I'm on eBay this morning, and one of the new features is displaying items similar to what I've searched for in the past... when I see the following mixed in with the results:

What I suspect, with LEGO outsourcing many things to China, China is fulfilling the quota of parts, but making a few extra on the side, in the process -- I doubt there's any agreement in place to what the machinery does after the quota is fulfilled -- so minifigures are being sold to different distributors and repackaged.

I also suspect, LEGO Retail is waging a war with BrickLink sellers -- seeing the amount of money being spent on after market LEGO -- LBR is using this to justify reducing discounts and many policy changes -- damaged sets use to be on discount at 20%, now it's 10%; opened & returned sets use to go into grab bags, to which many LUG used to help bulk up collections; etc. But honestly, I think LEGO is losing the war -- the amount of money they're losing through discounts to North Americans vs. outsourcing to China, has got to be comparing a trickle of water to a tsunami.

You can't use the quality argument for not buying any of the above -- I suspect the makers of the above make the same quality of parts for LEGO. Unless I do a side-by-side comparison, would there be any differences? If it's minor, would it matter in a large fan display, considering if I bought some of the above at 50% of LEGO's price or better? I makes you think if TLG & LBR has their priorities a little backwards.

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it

2013-11-12T08:16:00.000-05:00

I don't know if you've had the same feeling as I had, looking at the new LEGO Movie sets coming out... I keep thinking Timmy & the Time Cruisers. It's not that Time Cruisers was a bad line, it just felt like there was no real deeper story, than a few drunk designers got together one night over a few too many drinks with some spare parts from different themes and said "I know how we can save the company some money; we'll just take these excess parts from all these different themes and combine them in ways, like this guy Timmy is traveling through time."

We may never know the truth why this theme idea was put into production, but it remains a part of our fan checkered heritage.

The new LEGO Movie sets seemed like a very controlled PR experiment, releasing a new image every so often when the buzz about the movie (or new sets) has cooled off. They look interesting; like Time Cruisers, they make good parts sets -- but nothing screams why I should buy any of them, except maybe one or two.

I also found that LEGO making Junior sets again feels like a blast from the past as well. Fans use to complain about the juniorization of sets with Town Jr. and yet, here we are again... I wonder if it'll be just like 1998 and we'll hear the same reasons why their price per part is so high when compared to other sets.

Minecon 2013

2013-11-03T20:40:00.004-05:00

Went to Minecon this past weekend, and built a LEGO Steve! :)

Quick Part Update

2013-10-16T23:11:00.001-04:00

For those of you unaware, the Orlando PaB (the one closest to me) changes stock daily; and any new parts that show up to the wall get snatched up very quickly. I knew that the olive green cheese wedges had made it to some of the stores nation-wide, but by the time us local fans find out about them being at the store, more times than I care to count, they're all sold out. We did manage to find some at Legoland and the new 1x1 round tile piece -- needless to say, I spent too much money that day.

Anyway, coming back from our Seattle trip, we found chess wedges and a few other new parts. I've just added them to the web-site -- 2x2 jumper plate, and the 2x2 round brick with grill. I've also wrote a quick script to be in the position to add parts to the web-site sooner, so hopefully I'll be able to respond faster to additions.

BrickCon 2013: Thoughts

2013-10-12T10:18:00.000-04:00

My wife and I decided that we'd attend BrickCon this year -- it's been one convention that has been running a long time, that we have not attended yet. From what I understand, next year will be it's 13th years. We have heard from friends that it's one of the nicest cons to go to, but honestly, each con we've been to has it's own different flavor, and I really think it depends on what you like in a con (ie. size, quality/quantity of MOCs, venue, city traffic, local food, etc.). Each having it's own pros and cons... to make a really bad pun.

We didn't bring a MOC with us; we were planning to take in a little bit of the sites/city since we've never been to Seattle before. We also wanted to enjoy a con without the hassle of trying to ship a MOC across country. And we also wanted to get to know some new people and make new friends. All of which we got an opportunity to do.

The creations themselves were impressive, although I've seen a few of them on-line before. And from what I overheard, a few had been at BrickCon in years past -- no matter, we hadn't seen them in person before & they're still impressive. My favorite was Rivendell and the castle area; which was front stage as you walked in & rightly so. Being a castle guy, it made me proud. The only problem with the area, it was hard to find time to look at the details of Rivendell, because there were constantly film crews hovering around it -- before and after the public. Here's my quick video... It looks a little strange... I don't know if it's video from the iPhone or if YouTube processed it funkily:

What I found surprising/interesting about the con, was the lack of large 9v train displays. Rivendell has as much details in it as a large 9v train display would have in the Mid-West, the difference is, large train displays are the product of a LUG with many members, Rivendell from what I understand was a creation by 2 people.

All-in-all, I've enjoyed the con and really enjoyed the keynote speakers. I'm hoping a video will be posted of both speakers soon. I've been waiting for fan reaction to the changes LEGO has implemented this year -- to which I'm a little surprised there hasn't been more public outrage at cons -- but Hillel Cooperman did a wonderful job of summing up my feelings... a little bit to Kevin Hinkle's dismay.

The Wal-Mart Side-Effect, part 1

2013-08-30T21:12:00.001-04:00

Just got back from a trip up north to visit family. And ended up hitting a few different stores looking for clearance LEGO. Happened upon a Wal-Mart, that still had Hobbit sets on sale. Picked up a #79002 Attack of Wargs -- I've been wanting the set, but didn't like the price at $50, but I like it better at $35. Back at the hotel, we opened up the sets to pack for our flight home, only to discovered the contents was from a completely DIFFERENT LEGO set. Needless to say I was angry. Long story short, we managed to exchange the set at a different Wal-Mart, that still had the set for sale at full price.

This is the 2nd time this has happened to us, where we've purchased a LEGO set, opened it up only to discovered it's been repacked with incorrect parts (baseball cards the first time), then had to return it. And we're not the only people to have this problem... I suspect it's more wide-spread.

I suspect the Collectible Minifigs and Star Wars collector's market is a major contributor to this problem. Talking with my cousin, he mentioned that at that the flea market he goes to on the weekend, he's started to see more and more LEGO for sale... even a few booths dedicated to just selling LEGO -- this didn't surprise me, considering I saw the same effect at a small flea market in NC. The greater problem I'm seeing is that AFOLs are getting caught between TLG's new policies (mostly aimed at AFOLs since we represent a consumer face that LEGO Retail interfaces with) and the profiteers (those that have no interest in the LEGO hobby, whatsoever, but who are willing to do anything to make a quick buck off LEGO products; even if it means stealing it).

One of the allures of a LEGO conventions was buying LEGO at a discount, this helped AFOLs afford to build the awe inspiring creations. The side-effect is that it attracted the soccer-moms and the profiteers. With no discount this year at LEGO conventions in North America, I suspect sales have noticeably declined as a result. Many of us, who save up money for these events to buy sets we've waited months to buy at a decent price, where our money would go further, I suspect Christmas this year will seem more like Grinchmas.

To many AFOLs, this isn't new news, but it's made many fans angry and wondering what to do. And as fans, we've made ourselves out to be easy targets -- our rabid fandom (tho awe inspiring when we display our creations at conventions), appear greedy, whiney, entitlement-fueled, and unprofessional in front of the LEGO decision makers. From the fan perspective, many of the new policies seem short-sighted and greedy, and some policies impact us personally -- TLG has no plans to have a AFOL display area at Festival of the Masters this year, so you won't be seeing me there this year.

I wonder about the bigger picture... With profits up at the company, are the rate of product returns? How about product theft? Is TLG just looking at BrickLink prices on aftermarket items (that policy changes are a by-product of corporate greed, in response to rabid fandom), or it is the Wal-Mart side-effect?

To be continued...

Changes

2013-08-04T10:46:00.002-04:00

Just a heads up, now that the move to the new server is complete, I'll be making some changes to web site to make it more mobile device friendly. The changes will probably take a few days, so I apologise in advance if the web-site appears broken.

There's a few changes I need to implement over the next few weeks, each requiring time and planning. Here's some of the changes on my TO DO list:

Redesign the web-site to be more clean looking and mobile friendly.
Changes to the database to allow for user profile integration with Facebook, Google, OpenID, etc.
Write code to manage your profile.
Allow for updating a stores PaB via a spreadsheet.
Create an API to update PaB information, to allow integration with other applications/web-sites.

That's only the ones I can talk about for now. :)

Switching Servers

2013-07-28T00:36:00.003-04:00

My hosting provider had a sector go bad on the server's hard drive. So I apologize for if the web-site has been unreachable, or if it looked like it was dead. We have been moved over to the new server as of yesterday or today, but it looks like there's still some issues with the web-site, if you view anything but the front page.

I'll work with my hosting provider and get it fixed a quickly as posible. Hopefully within the next 24 hours. Good news is, once BrickBuildr is moved over to the new server, it should be faster.

Again, I'm very sorry for the inconvenience.

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.