Turmoil in the museum

I love the details on the flooring and the idea that all those egyptian themed sets can integrate with with regular city life. 

 By shutter010

Deathstar Pre-order at S$599.90

ToysHunt having pre-order for Star Wars Deathstar at S$599.90 but payment full in cash terms only.

Not sure if other stores also offering this pre-order, will update this post if I find out.

Blogged via iPhone 4

My Modular Town Hall

For today, I’ve engaged the services of Pete, my town photographer to help with the photo taking process:

Yup, that’s Pete, with his latest SLR in the pic above.  So where do we start? Ah… we spot a town map and that gives us a clue about where we are headed to next:

Yep, it’s the Lego Town Hall and heading right up the stairs we spot the receptionist… oh, isn’t she a vision of loveliness…:

 

To our left, the waiting area has seats with the latest trend in indoor landscaping – the asian bamboo.  To our right, it’s the Mayor’s office – an overhead shot shows the key to the city gleaming above the Mayor’s desk.

Another overhead shot shows the layout of the 1st floor. Oh shall go up the stairs and have a look at the 2nd floor?

Ah, we are in luck, a Lego town wedding is in progress! And so that’s where the Mayor & Pete is, officiating the wedding and taking shots of all the special moments respectively.

In the pic of the wedding guests we have… oh dear! It’s the groom’s upset ex-girlfriend in the last row. Hope she’s not here to cause a scene!

Another over head shot to show the 2nd floor layout:

The newly weds proceed on to the Town Hall garden and front steps for some happy shots:

I know, the most important shots! Front and Back views below.

The Lego flag is flying high above the Hall and the golden statue (yanked from the Golden minifig key chain) is that of Sir Archibald Goldiness, the first mayor of this town.

This modification of the town hall from the Town Plan set (10184) took 3 sets, and I still ran out of bricks. So you may have already noticed the liberal use of black bricks for inner and side walls. 

The lack of bricks also explains the used of trans clear panels for the 1st floor, although the concept of opening up the reception area to the garden view wouldn’t be too bad in real life I think?

That’s all, hope you enjoyed the little tour!

Update:

– See my modular corner cinema (also from 10184) pics here.

– See my modular white building pics here. 🙂

2010 City Advent Calendar Review (2824)

SPOILERS ALERT!

DHCP1121 from EB has shared his review of the 2010 City Advent Calendar here: Link.

I really like the minature toys!

TRU Sale Madness

Update at 8 pm:

Just read some crap posting on local Lego forums that made me very angry!!!  I can assure you at least that the sets I bought are not intended for re-sale.

I’m a hardcore collector, same for most of the AFOLs I know.  Of course we check the boxes. Why on earth would we want to buy crushed boxes when we are collectors?  But, I did get crushed boxes at the sale, simply cos I don’t care, I need the bricks.  A typical modular MOC takes at least 3 normal sets to build up.  My Winter Toy Shop MOC using a 16×32 baseplate took 2 sets, plus loads of basic bricks.  My Town Plan MOCs take 3 sets, on 32×32 baseplates plus loads of basic bricks.  Why so many SW sets?  How many Wampas do you need to make a decent Hoth scene? You go and figure. Sheesh.

Anyway no mentioned that we passed out loads of extra boxes out to the people earlier in the day when they asked nicely, including SW, creators, Toy Story etc.  To the ones who came in much later, really sorry but we have been there for hours by the time they had their sleep/ breakfast/ lunch and strolled in looking for bargains.  Don’t forget that we all took leave as well.

I did hear though that some of the people in the q are indeed ebay sellers, but don’t go barking up the wrong tree.

Btw, the bad behaviour I meant was those people who charged in trying to snatch/push/ grab/quarrel into getting sets. The same ones who I later saw had huge loads in the q to pay. 

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Post-mortem at 7 pm:

Finally home after a long and tiring day. 

I got a huge haul. Like HUGE.  Am I happy?  Yeah.  Broke?  Very.  But other than just the haul I had fun meeting with lots of other AFOLs in the morning (hey, we did have to wait for a few hours together so it’s like a gathering and then getting all excited with the pre-sales buzz) and also practice teamwork during the sales.

Also met with quite a few of you who read my blog, and some unexpected readers, so that’s nice too. 🙂 

Next time you see me at some sales, don’t forget to say ‘hi’ ya?

In previous years, I was one of the crowd who came down at lunch and picked at ‘scraps’.  So for those who couldn’t come down earlier, I can understand the pain and frustration.  Been reading the posts from some of the local forums about the group that swiped the sets, etc, etc but hey can u imagine when I went down in the morning (and I typically NEVER wake up before the sun rises), I was one of the late ones?  So imagine how many hours the people in the front of the queue was there.

As you can see from the before and after pics below, not much left by the afternoon. Will there be more stocks tmr? I think yes, but fairly limited.  Probably if you can’t be down early, don’t bother. I was there at 10-ish last year on Saturday and I didn’t stand a chance. First 10 pax grabbed basically all the decent sets. Not sure if they kept more aside this year.  

Btw there were some SW sets (the Bariss one) and Agents (Robo Attack – my fav in the series) topped up mid-afternoon, along with some basic duplo bricks in a yellow tub.  The SW sets were wiped out pretty quick like in 5 min.

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As with previous sales, those who arrived only at 11 am when the TRU sale is supposed to start missed the best of the bargains. By 10 the q to enter the sales went one round. By 11 the q was doubling around itself.

After a hectic morning queuing, waiting, and sometimes jumping (to see the sets available), now have to wait 2 hours to make payment. Imagine the snaking q now inside rather than out!

Anyway once a year for one crazy day.

To those sour over missing the bargains, u could either come earlier or camp overnight. If not, then don’t complain.

No stocks replenishments so no point going down if u missed the morning madness.

Initially blogged via iPhone 4

Lego Architecture set sales again on Amazon.com

News from Toys N Bricks. I can’t rem local (SG) prices to compare cost to buy & ship in vs from local stores tho.

Btw Borderlinx now has 30% off shipping with promo code 730317, so shipping should be cheaper than the S$71.25 I spent shipping in all 6 sets a while ago (see post here).

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Amazon.com is having LEGO Architecture sets on sale again. As usual, receive FREE Super Saver Shipping on purchases above $25. Thanks to forum member brickz for the heads up.

• LEGO 21005 Fallingwater $69.95 (reg.$99.99)
• LEGO 21004 Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum $32.76 (reg.$39.99)
• LEGO 21002 Empire State Building $17.1 (reg.$19.99)
• LEGO 21003 Seeatle Space Needle $17.1 (reg.$19.99)
• LEGO 21001 John Hancock Center $17.89 (reg.$19.99)

North America Minifig Series 2 Barcodes (8684)

Update: Grogall has done up wonderfully formatted pdf version in single page of the barcodes for both Europe & USA:  PDF  <– great version to use if your part of the world has both sets.

Now just waiting for the sets to be released in my part of the world!

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SavaTheAggie said “cos he’s a nice guy”. I believe him… and while I don’t need the codes since SG gets the Europe version, here they are for all you North American visitors.

Have fun and happy hunting. 🙂