On a personal note…

Some local fans ask if I’m still collecting.  The answer is yes, but I’ve slowed down. I suppose that having a room full of LEGO sets does give a different perspective than when the sets were scattered in different rooms.

Do I open the sets I have to play? Yeah I do. But the usual considerations apply – do I have time, do I have space, should I be hunting down my dream sofa instead, or how about just chillaxing and doing nothing (always tempting after a tough week at work)?

I’ve recently had a block of time for some ‘play’ tho, and thought to share the WIP with you regular readers.  Been meaning to modify the Friends sets into modular buildings for my modular street/shelves for a while. These 4 Friends sets (3061 City Park Cafe, 3187 Butterfly Beauty Shop, 3188 Heartlake Vet and 3315 Olivia’s House) were modified in less than a day, all in all.  Not yet done as you can see from the missing tiles. And I really need more white and beige bricks. Otherwise it has been quite fun to play with LEGO and I can confirm that I am still an AFOL at heart. (Plus I think City Park Cafe is such a great set…)

As for blogging, I honestly don’t think I will go back to actively posting about LEGO news, new sets and interesting MOCs daily.  I actually still Google pretty regularly for updates/LEGO-related news, but instead spending the next 30 min to 1 hour blogging about it, I then move on to other activities.  Partly it’s cos with my current job, I have less free time to blog, partly it’s cos I have a new blog about home decor and mostly it’s just pure fatigue from having to keep up with the latest LEGO news. Plus there are tonnes (ok, I exaggerate, a handful, just refer to their RSS on the right bar) of websites that gives the latest news about sets and sales anyway.  I realize that it’s starting to sound like a farewell note… but it’s not. I’ll still post stuff that I find interesting and that I think few other sites would post.

And… Umm… I struggle to come up with a punchy conclusion to my rambling post. But there is nothing really. I just felt like posting my WIP. =P

 

Annual passes to LEGOLAND Malaysia

I got mine… have you?  Figured even if I just use the tickets twice, it’s worth getting the annual pass.

The tickets have been on sale in Singapore at SISTIC for some time now (read: AsiaOne news).  I had to wait for the Lady Gaga concern queues to disappear 1st though.  According to this NST report, 7,000 annual passes have been sold with Singaporeans accounting for 35% of sales.

Do hope the new LEGOLAND will be fun!  At least, bring in exclusives earlier so that we don’t have to wait MONTHS for them to arrive in Singapore… worried about pricing tho, cos the LEGO set prices are even more exorbitant in Malaysia than in Singapore.

LINK to LEGOLAND Malaysia: http://www.legoland.com.my/

 

Should I continue getting Architecture sets?

I got all of the 1st wave, and some of the 2nd.  But I have to admit that I’ve kinda fallen behind.  Been wondering if I should get the entire collection just so I don’t regret it down the road when… when I figure that I finally like the sets I guess.  I mean, after renovating my place and learning more about architecture, I can see how a standalone display of all the Architecture sets encased in a block of specially constructed glass shelves would look pretty great. Kinda cool in a geeky way not that I know how I will actually be able to afford a house with the space or even to construct a display like what I envision…

Decisions, decisions…

Anyways, Toys N Bricks reports two new Architecture sets:

• LEGO Vila Savoy Paris 21014 (MSRP: $69.99 USD)
• LEGO Eames House 21015 (MSRP: $59.99 USD)

Which is making me seriously consider getting the entire range (I am a completist, really).

You have to read this post to understand why: Lego® Replicas Of Eames, Corbusier and Michelle Kaufmann Homes

My current display shelf

Am taking a break from sprucing up my place, so decided to snap a pic of my display shelf and blog about it.  The display in the study room gets a fair bit of interest from visiting friends who are seeing the modular buildings for the 1st time.

Am looking forward to modifying some sets into modular standards when I have time, probably around Pet Shop i.e. 26 cm height rather than the usual 35-36 cm tho.  Need to figure out how to fit the new Town Hall on the shelf when I finally get it… perhaps move the Market Street upstairs and modify the Town Hall’s clock tower?  My taller shelf is only 45 cm unfortunately, so the new 50 cm model simply can’t fit.  Perhaps once the bottom shelf is completely full, I’ll get a custom acrylic case to encase it.

Oki, back to sprucing up my place…

How do you keep your LEGO collection?

Despite my hubby’s best efforts to tidy up my LEGO room (thanks dear!!), it’s still hard to get some sort of system in place, especially since new sets keep coming in… So how exactly are other collectors maintaining their MISB collection, short of getting a compactus shelving system in place? (Ya, after much consideration, I honestly think I may consider getting compactus shelves in my next LEGO room… seems like the most space efficient method really.)

Anyway, I did promise some time back that I’ll share pics of my LEGO room when it’s ready.  It isn’t exactly ready, but consider it a WIP update… I’m suitably embarrassed enough that I’ve apply some BW/blurring effects… This is what the room looked like before the LEGO were moved in: see pics HERE.

And this is what it looks like now, which is actually a VAST improvement from just after moving in when sets were just haphazardly stacked all over the floor…

Shelving currently consists of 4 large wire racks (H1200xD450xW1800mm)… and more LEGO sets stacked behind some of the shelves (mostly the huge collectors series that are in protective cardboard boxes).  I think the various sized cardboard boxes consists of Ebay & Bricklink purchases, loose bricks, keychains and small impulse sets.

Ideas anyone?  Or pics/links to actual systems/storage that have proven to work?

I suppose the eventual goal is to have a system in place for future acquisitions, yet have a decent space in the centre for playing… or to make a huge-ass (yeah!!) LEGO town.

I’ve got a lovely new home…

… that has been awfully distracting.  I realise it’s been some time since I blogged but if you have noticed from the sidebar, loads of stuff on my other renovation blog.  If you haven’t… a little sneak peek here:

That’s the study… if you are interested to see more, here are the rest of the rooms:

• Living room
• Dining room
• Kitchen
• Utility area
• Guest toilet
• Study room
• Balcony
• Stairs
• Master bedroom
• Master bedroom toilet
• Second bedroom
• 2BR toilet
• LEGO room (in its empty state – looks like a storeroom now, oops)

And finally, my place featured on my IDs’ website: Sense of contemplation and purification

My LEGO room and modular collection isn’t fully unpacked, if you are wondering at the lack of LEGO around the apartment.

P.S. Y’know… the lack of leaked pics about 2012 sets is quite surprising… did I miss anything?

My future LEGO room and display shelves

I think I promised some updates on my reno – or rather, the LEGO room since this is a LEGO blog.  so here’s the 3D sketches that shows the study, where I intend to display my modular buildings collection (instead of books, yeah… ) and my LEGO room (I’m a lucky gal!).

Renovations are on-going, and I expect to take some time to unpack the mountain of boxes… so it’ll be a few more months before I’ll be ready to unveil my LEGO room to the world, not to mention getting around to finally opening and building a few hundred MISB sets…

For those who are interested to see more, I’ve shared 3D sketches of the rest of my new place in my other reno blog:

• 3D Sketches – Level 1
• 3D Sketches – Level 2