What will you get if you go to the USA?

Seems like I will be going to the USA soon for a business trip, and I was wondering what people would buy if they have the chance to go to a Lego store there (or is able to have some online shopping shipped to the hotel)?  Apart from the polybags, I’m not sure if the biggish boxes are worth the trouble of lugging back if I get 20% off all year round anyway (hey, I’m predicting a heavy enough luggage from all the clothes and shoes shopping there…)?

To be honest the latest modular Cinema set was my 1st choice until I realised that it’s finally in Singapore this week. I’ve gotten all the earlier exclusives so those are out too… since I really don’t want to come back and then wanna tear my hair out from not buy set XXXXX, suggestions would be greatly appreciated! An advance thanks! 🙂

 

Hello…

Wow, has been a while since I last posted.  The usual stuff happened, in the struggle with work-life balance, work has taken an upper hand and with less personal time available, I’ve simply re-prioritised where I want to/can spend my time on. So LEGO blogging now takes a back seat to actually trawling for latest news, playing with LEGO, or visiting LEGOLAND for the matter.

Some other changes to my LEGO habits since I realised that simply no longer have time to spare… I only buy those sets that I really like (and I try not to buy too many multiples, tho I still do), which still adds up to a heck of a lot of sets (what, like just all the Super Heroes sets, Lone Rangers, Monster Fighters, Modulars, UCS, etc, plus whichever SW, City, Creators & Friends sets that I fancy). As some of the local AFOLs have mentioned on the local forums (hey, I still read some of the forums now and then, and I can definitely track  links to my websites…), I can probably be termed as “semi-retired”. But I suspect that this semi-retired AFOL probably still spends a heck more on LEGO sets every month than most of the active AFOLs.

Anyway, I’ve started a few Pinterest boards and just thought to share. See, while I think I won’t have time with wordy posts, and blogging really needs a bit of time for prepping, Pinterest really takes the pain away. I just click “pin” and choose which board I want to add the pin to. Half the time (ok, more like 90%) I don’t even bother to edit the original comments. And with the Pinterest app being available on my iPhone (and iPad & Android), I can even add pins while queueing for my takeaway economy rice and kopi (local coffee) to eat at my desk (yes, work has been THAT busy).

So I now have 7 Pinterest boards, some with some LEGO-related pins but you can decide which ones you wanna browse thru. Flickr and the usual AFOL sites still have way more cool creations and latest news regarding LEGO so didn’t see the point of creating a Pinterest board just for LEGO. If you are a long-time Pinterest user, can you tell me why I can hardly find any of the latest jaw dropping creations on Pinterest?

My Pinterest boards are:

1. Dreamy homes I can live in… (think of it as a mood board for my future IDs, and includes some LEGO related ideas for my next home)
2. Random beauty (stuff that touch my soul… errr… really? Just whatever takes my fancy lar)
3. Useless info graphics you never knew you needed (those nuggets of info, all packaged in a nice info graphic…)
4. Random home stuff (anything else that’s home related but can’t fit in the ‘mood board’, and includes some LEGO related products)
5. Stupid funny stuff (can be stupid, or funny, or both)
6. Christmas decor ideas (never too early to start planning, ha)
7. So true quotes (yeah, that sort of quotes. Words of wisdom)

Some of them are quite sparsely pinned, but hey considering that I just started Pinterest and managed to accumulate over 400 pins so far, the overall stats is pretty darn impressive, if I say so myself.

So yeah, if you are interested do head on over to Pinterest to have a look. Click on the links or find me by searching under “People”, and type “amodularlife”. Simple ya? 🙂

Preview of my boards:

My new Ninjago money bank

Finally got one. Popped by the Toysrus near my office and got a ‘ninja’ for home. Side-by-side with my megafig for scale comparison:

If you are curious, the legs are fixed and can’t be moved to ‘sitting position, and the hood cannot be removed.  The coin slot is near the top just at the back of the ‘head’, and the cover (to retrieve coins) is at the bottom of one of the legs.  Here’s the selection at the TRU that I visited:

This is a bit late for the Singapore National Day…

But still… if you are interested to watch the Singapore national pledge spelt out in LEGO stop motion video (as well as take in some sights from around Singapore), enjoy:

And this quirky video that pokes fun of our tissue paper “chopeing” habits made me smile too.

Singaporeans are not the most demonstrative bunch of people around, so I found it really heartwarming to watch the efforts of those who were willing to put in the time and effort to produce these videos.

For all fellow Singaporeans, enjoy the long weekend.

P.S. For those strategising for the upcoming annual TRU LEGO clearance, have fun. I’ll be entertained reading the online comments and probably watching videos of the 1st rush in after the event. 🙂

To go or not go see some LEGO in Hong Kong?

Not much of a dilemma if it’s in some store that I can pop by at my convenience.  But going to the 14th Hong Kong Ani-com 香港動漫電玩節, or ACG 2012 is another story.

香港樂高迷用戶組- Hong Kong LEGO Users Group (HKLUG) have been postings such interesting pics and information from the ACG that I am sorely tempted… then again, I understand that ACG is so crowded that there is a good chance I may not even get to the booth if I go.  Gosh, I really hate queues.

Of course, I have limited time in Hong Kong and other interests like COS, Maud Frizon, H&M, Homeless and Goods of Desire are on my must-dos.  😦

Just peeved at the delay

As excited as I was to FINALLY get the 10224 Town Hall set, I am just as peeved that it took more than 3 months for AFOLs in Singapore to finally get the official release (parallel imports were brought in by some retailers).  Seriously, 3 whole months?  That’s like one entire season.  Not to mention the latest LOTR sets. They won’t be in Singapore for another few months. Grrr…

So apart from the sky high prices we face (Town Hall retails at S$379.90, equivalent to US$296), there is this unbearable delay that we face too. Sucks to be an AFOL in Singapore right?

I do hope that with LEGOLAND Malaysia opening later this year, Asia fans get their sets earlier. It’ll be so ridiculous if the LEGOLAND store doesn’t get new sets along with the US/worldwide release dates.

Update on 10 June: Ok, we got 4207 City Garage, 9448 Samurai Mech and the new Mining series in June over in Singapore too.  We are not THAT left behind.  And my Jabba’s Palace & Gungan Sub sets are happily sitting in the LEGO room being admired (such lovely minifigs!).  So I feel slightly less miffed that we are months behind others for the exclusive sets.  I really really hope that we get the gorgeous 10228 Haunted House in time for Halloween tho. Methinks my town needs some spooky inhabitants.

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