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:

Some stationery spotted in Hong Kong

Think these are new but I can’t be sure since I am honestly slightly out of touch (only slightly cos I do know about all the major new sets…).

Anyways, in case you are going to Hong Kong, you can look out for them in Toysrus (TRU).  Since I didn’t have the chance to check out any other stores, not sure if the little hobby stores would carry stationery too.

LEGO Minifigure Head Sharpener – SKN# 933562 / HKD24.90

Essentials Stationery Set – SKN# 959618 / HKD79.90

Ninjago Essentials Stationery Set – SKN# 959626 / HKD79.90

Drink Bottle – SKN# 959685  / HKD79.90

Ninjago Drink Bottle – SKN# 959693  / HKD79.90

Ok, a few others that I am lazy to add cos I don’t find them very interesting… colour pencils, activity books and the like. You may want to pop by the HK TRU site to see more: LINK

Creating LEGO Stickers

There are quite a number of sticker books around, but in case you want to customise your own LEGO stickers here is a new option:  StickerYou LEGO

Cost is USD $7.49 for 2 pages, and they do ship worldwide and you can have a look at the shipping rates here.  Quality wise, the press release says: “The LEGO stickers from the StickerYou.com website are high quality die-cut stickers that are removable with zero mess left behind. They are water resistant and durable for all kinds of applications.”

Anyway some pics to follow, or you can always check out the StickerYou LEGO site.

Some news round up

I guess most of my fellow AFOLs in Singapore have been busy hunting minifig series 4.  I actually haven’t had time to get any, so that’s a to-do this weekend…

Anyway, taking a break to share some LEGO news that I found interesting.

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1. Picture of latest architecture set Farnsworth House

Toys N Bricks shares a pic of 21009 Farnsworth House taken from the LEGO website.  You can read more from: http://toysnbricks.com/home/21009-official-picture/

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2. Groupon deal: $15 worth of eBay purchase for $7

Toys N Bricks also shared this great deal from Groupon for eBay.  Only valid till end of the month so don’t wait if you want to get some stuff from eBay k?  Before you run off to try and get a few dozen Groupons, take note that it’s limited to 1 per person and 1 per order.  Click here to buy this groupon.

Via: http://toysnbricks.com/home/usa-15-worth-of-ebay-purchases-for-only-7/

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3. Update on charity auction organised by TBB

The Brothers Brick showcases some great donations.  Personally I found these 2 to be the most interesting.  There are many other great creations you can see from here.  Note that shipping is free.

Btw, the ship is 3 metres long!  Do read more from TBB here: http://www.brothers-brick.com/2011/03/28/bricks-helping-japan-update/

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4. LEGO City ideas book

Killyrbf shares info on Sean Kenney’s Cool City.  Looks to have some nice city pics but at only 32 pages, I wonder if it’s worth getting?  Think I’ll hold out till Oct and see if anyone does a book review.  You can read more about the book from Killyrbf’s blog: http://killyrbf.blogspot.com/2011/03/build-me-city.html

The japanese idea book I mentioned previously is great btw.  Thanks to Jonathan who helped to get from Japan. 🙂

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5.  LEGO 3 in 1 Go Glow Light

ToyNews reports on yet another new LEGO licensed product.  Worlds Apart has tied up with TLG to create a 3 in 1 Go Glow Light that consists of a rechargeable night light, torch with colour change disk and an interchangeable Lego Minifigure.  

Those who have kids may be familiar with this product.  I’ve actually handled/played with (?) a Go Glow Light cos my niece and nephew have one.  Think it’s not a bad idea – soft induction to the world of LEGO ‘poison’ for your young one perhaps? 

Drawback tho? Nothing for girls AGAIN.  Geez… I’m sure it doesn’t take a genius to do a pink version with a nice fairy minifig right? (Like the one from the keychain).  Who knows, if TLG provides unique minifigs to Worlds Apart, they’ll even get some cross-over sales from AFOLs who must get hold of those minifigs.  Then again, a wider range is expected next year so there is still hope.

Via: http://www.toynews-online.biz/news/33672/Worlds-Apart-links-with-Lego

Some LEGO News Round-Up

Just thought to do a summary of stuff I’ve gathered from the internet… I’ve been busy all week at work, so didn’t feel like blogging individual posts after reading them. 

• Obama used to play with LEGO as a kid.  As he described: “I used to build some pretty mean LEGO towers when I was a kid”.  You can read more from CNN’s blog here.
• Baby can wear LEGO shoes even if he/she is too young to play with LEGO.  Babygadget reports on the Lego^TM-inspired Kickers shoes project.
• You can watch the LEGO Battles: Ninjago for Nintendo DS – Trailer from BSCkids, who has also reported on the new Nintendo 3DS Game – LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean
• PR Newswire reports on how well TLG is doing in this press release: LEGO Systems Records Over $1.0BN in 2010 U.S. Consumer Sales 
• I also liked the stop motion video that shows GeekDad building The LEGO Tower Bridge
• And of course we can count on Grogall to bring us the latest hi-res pics of new sets, this time for Cars 2 and Alien Conquest’s UFO Abduction sets.  You can find the pics on Brickset for the Cars 2 sets and on EB’s Alien Conquest thread for the UFO Abduction set.

In case you are curious where I get those info/stuff I’ve been blogging about, I actually Google for news related to LEGO.  Out of 20-30 hits, maybe one or two would be considered ‘bloggable’ by me.  But then whether I blog about it immediately or not still depends on how I feel that day, or sometimes I’ll keep them aside as ‘back-up’ posts for quiet news days and days when I’m too busy to write.  

And of course now and then I feel bad about being deliquent and go back to do a summary like what I am doing now. 😛

I also visit various forums (well, mostly EB for the latest news, and I always click on the threads if I happen to see Grogall do a posting, haha), and as you can see from the RSS feeds on the right, there are various sites that I visit/read.  Quite a lot of ‘work’ huh?

What do you think?  Are there stuff I’ve summarised today that you would like me to post immediately?  Give me some feedback k?

More Goodies from Ace & Ryan

Wow, the guys from FBTB dun seem to be sleeping… everytime I check back there are more nicely sorted (and well taken) pictures on the FBTB Flickr Photostream (by sets).  Thanks guys!! 😀

Like this Lightning McQueen made of 325,000 bricks:

Or all these new licensed products, some which look really good! (Ok, I’ve only copied those I find interesting but still quite a lot):

I’ll leave you to browse thru the rest.  Too many details to mention ranging from the glass bottle & globe in the POTC sets to pics of the new Cars range to how the UFO abduction function works, to details of Kingdom’s Mill Village Raid (goats, the windmill mechanism, chickens, etc)…

Brick Products for the Hardcore…

I use the term hardcore cos I actually can’t imagine surrounding myself with bricky products all the time.  Thought of sharing these products as I saw quite a few of the Elecom gadgets while I was in Taiwan (and in Japan of course).  But think the only one I can actually imagine using is the USB hub… perhaps can make a small vignette onto it.  Actually the iPhone 4 casing isn’t too bad as well.  Could be fun to customise some LEGO mosiac/design using 1×1 studs/tiles onto the back.  What do you think?  Would you get them to use in your daily life?  Or are you already using them?

There is also a speaker attachment from Homade, but I’m not sure if it’s compatible with the latest iPhone and iPod models so I decided not to include it.  If you know otherwise let me know k?

Btw Brickify doesn’t work for me.  Anyone here tried and managed to get your images bricked out?  There are loads of other mosiac software of course, but was curious to try after reading TechCrunch’s post here.

SmallWorks BrickCase for iPhone 4

It’s available at US$19.99 from Amazon.com in black, white or clear (and eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping).  You can read more about the case in the gadgeteer’s excellent pictorial review here.

Elecom

Elecom is a Japanese brand and the products can be easily found in Japan and Taiwan.  Saw them pretty often in bookshops, music and gadget stores.  I’ve seen Elecom brick-type earphones, usb hub and calculator, not sure if there are more brick-type products.

Earphones (or brickphones?) (model: EHP-CIN40) is available in black, blue, blue-red, pink, red and white.

Calculator (LE-CA3) is available in black, blue and green.  Dimensions: 14(L): x 6.4(W) x 2.54(H)cm.

USB hub (U2H-BL4B) is available in red, yellow, blue, green, white and black, and are stackable if you ever need to save space, using the studs.  Specs below.

* Max. Transfer Speed：480Mbps(USB2.0 ) * Interface：USB2.0/1.1 * Dimension：W 64 × D 32 × H 15mm * Ports：4 port * Cable : 10cm * Weight：20g

Source: All Elecom products are available from Gadgetshunter. Earphones & USB Hub also available from Geekstuff4u.