LEGO Haunted House 10228 Set Review

I can’t let October pass by without reviewing the largest Halloween themed set ever. At $180 USD and 2064 parts it is hefty in both parts and price point. Yes its expensive, but with all the sand green goodness that comes in the set, I’m willing to forgive LEGO for it.

As I’ve mentioned previously I’ve wanted a Haunted House model since I was a little girl and even though I could easily create my own, this one is very satisfying as a set.

I have to admit, I get bored with a lot of smaller sets now a days. There’s nothing wrong with them per se, its just that after building models that are several feet long, I look at very few of the sets as more than just parts packs that haven’t been broken up yet. Okay, I’m not that bad, but I do have a tendency to only build the set once and then part it and any multiples of the same set I get.

So, onto the review –

Here’s what all the parts look like in their packages. Not that exciting, but its fun to go from this to a completed set.

There are two #1 bags and 3 instruction books.

The first step is naturally to build all the figures.

The the next step is to build all the furniture:

You will probably notice that I won’t have any stickers on my model, I normally don’t use the stickers. Although I am very tempted with this set, as they are pretty cool.

The #2 bags is where we start the actual building.

Now with all large builds I normally sort the parts out before I start to build. It makes it a lot more orderly to build and although it takes time at the start, it saves time in the end.
And this way you can see how much of each part there are

Here’s what it looks like after all of the #2 bags are used

Here’s what it looks like after #3

And here’s midway through #4

Here’s the mostly finished model, with only the roof top and gate to be built.

Somehow I didn’t take a picture of the model finished, but trust me, it looks like the one on the box

The model took me about 4 and a half hours (build time will vary depending on person and circumstances).

My take on the model — AWESOME!!! It was a great build and it has some excellent parts, so much so that I’m really, really tempted to get a second one. My only criticism is that it needs more ghosts, but I can fix that.

It is a definite must buy for any LEGO, Halloween, or Haunted House enthusiast!

Holy Micro Batman!

After I built my Mini Modulars building set I naturally wanted to have it on display. So I cleared off a few of my older models on top of my LEGO supply drawers and set it up there. I decided to leave my 2006 LEGO Batman San Diego Comic Con exclusive (which has apparently gotten very expensive!) up there since there was room. What I didn’t notice until just a few days ago was how perfect the placment was!

LEGO Design Challenge 2011

Who doesn’t want to design for LEGO? Well, here’s your chance. LEGO has a new contest to create a LEGO “Postage Stamp” for the Late Holiday Catalog!

LEGO is asking consumers ages 6 + to design a LEGO themed postage stamp to be featured in the Late Holiday Catalogue .

For each country there will be 50 finalists selected to receive a copy of 10222. 25 will be for ages 6-14 and 25 will be from ages 15 & up. From the 50 finalists, 1 grand prize winner will be selected per country. In addition to a copy of 10222 – Winter Village Post Office, grand prize winners will have their stamp design featured on the late holiday catalog for their country along with a professionally designed and framed LEGO mosaic of their design.

Where: The US/UK/Germany. These are the only countries that mail a late holiday catalogue

When: We will be accepting entries for the contest September 1-30 and selecting the finalists & winners for each country the first week of October.

How: Consumers must simply visit shop.LEGO.com/Design-Challenge (Germany: shop.LEGO.com/Designwettbewerb) to download the official entry form. They or their parent/guardian must complete the form and email it along with their stamp design to the email address designated for their country. No purchase is required and there will be no physical entries collected.

This sounds like a great opportunity to flex your creative muscles! Good luck.

LEGO Buy More on Chuck Video

My friend and fellow SandLUG member Kevin Smith is a big Chuck (the TV Show) fan. He is such a big fan that he created a LEGO version of the Buy More and brought it to Comic Con last year to show the creators of the show.

Not only did he get it signed, but he also created a second one that he later gave to the producers. Now this is where it gets really cool, the model he gave them can be seen in the Chuck Panel for Comic Con video!

You don’t have to watch very long if you are not a Chuck fan, but you can clearly see the model in the background and you can see one of the Nerd Herd cars on the desk.

Congrats Kevin!

Winter Village Post Office

In the newly released second edition of the LEGO Collector Book there is a small picture of the new Winter Village building set to be released later this year. The picture isn’t the greatest, but it gives us a glimpse of what is to come

There is also a pic of the new Volkswagon T1 Camper Van

And there is mention, but no picture — other than a picture of a minifig saying there is no picture — of the Pirates of the Caribbean Black Pearl.

Thanks to Astra of Eurobricks for posting the pictures.

10218 Pet Shop

This one seems to have come out of nowhere. I hadn’t heard anything about this model and apparently its already starting to show up in LEGO Stores around the US.

There is very little information at this time. According to Toysnbricks.com it retails for $149.99 USD.

From the pictures, it definitely looks like a winner. My wallet has already been stretched thin this year, but I just might have to get my hands on this one. And thanks for Tazmandvl1 for sharing these pictures.

BrickWorld 2010 Recap

BrickWorld, what can I say? It was cool, crazy, and a whirlwind of LEGO goodness.

I took about a billion pictures (okay maybe just 600).

Adam Tucker kicked it up a notch by creating a working “wooden” roller coaster.

One of the most enjoyable new challenges was the boat race.

Mike Tighe’s “Fire Boat” although not the fastest, was certainly the most memorable.

Nannen Zhang and Tyler Clites’ Containment Diorama stole the show with its presentation.

It was great finally meeting some of my internet friends from all over the world in person. I met people from Canada, Europe and even Australia. Some of us have been online friends for years, but we had never met face to face.

I really enjoyed Pepa Quin’s Futurama layout, but then I am a big Futurama fan.

I got an exclusive scope from Kyle of BrickForge — new prototypes that should be available within a few months

I have to say the new Centaur body is my favorite.

I’ve got much more to share that will most likely be in several posts. I’m totally exhausted, drained, and still riding the BrickWorld buzz. BrickWorld was everything I thought it would be and more. To check out all my photos of the event go to my Flickr Photostream.

LEGO A Love Story — Book Review

Now I normally don’t review books on this blog, but then this is no ordinary book.

When I met Jonathan Bender at BrickCon in 2008 and he said he was writing a book about LEGO I thought it was a pretty interesting idea. He even did a mini interview with me amidst the hustle and bustle that is BrickCon and all I remember thinking after it was over was “I might be mentioned in the book.”

Jonathan was nice enough to send me a copy of the book and I received it a few days before the official release date. For me reading this book was very different than it would be for someone not already inducted into the world of LEGO fans. 90% of the people he mentions are friends, former coworkers and colleagues of mine. Reading this book was like peaking over Jonathan’s shoulder over the year or so that he spent researching the LEGO conventions, LEGO company, and the AFOL (Adult Fan of LEGO) community as he went from a relative newbie to hobnobbing with Master Model Builders. And seeing the LEGO world through his eyes was interesting.

Like most AFOLs Jonathan had a “Dark Age” — the time period when you stop playing with LEGO as a child and then rediscover the little plastic bricks as a hobby when you are an adult. I never had a Dark Age, being one of a rare few who have played with LEGO continually my entire life. So seeing what it felt like for Jonathan to be embarrassed about purchasing LEGO sets and wondering nervously what people will think about him when they see it as his hobby was a novel (pardon the pun) experience.

Even with all my knowledge (some have called it encyclopedic) of LEGO, both the product and the company, I learned quite a lot I didn’t know. Of course I never really did “research” on LEGO per se, I’ve just acquired it over time. Of the various travels and meetings Jonathan went on the only thing I haven’t done yet is travel to Denmark itself. That is still an as yet unfulfilled dream of mine.

I am mentioned in the book, in fact there are a whole 4 pages that mention me (pgs 247-250 if you’re interested) and there is an obscure reference to this very blog involving the Castle Advent calendar. I only know that he’s talking about me in the book because he emailed a complaint about the daily posts of each mini set while I was doing them.

So, what do I think of the book? A definite read, for both you and your non-understanding non-LEGO friends and family. This isn’t really written as an information book, but more as one man’s journey to reclaim a piece of his childhood and redefine him as person. He didn’t really go into this project planning on turning into a LEGO fan, but he sure came out of it as one. Seeing what LEGO can do through his eyes might open up your friends and family to better understanding why we do what we do.

Bricks by the Bay Day 1 Recap

Hi guys, I’m back! Well in the virtual world that is, I’m actually hundreds of miles away from home up at Bricks by the Bay in Freemont, California. I would have posted sooner but with so much to do and lack of sleep for the past week or so it just didn’t end up working out.

I will be posting about my big commission soon, but I felt that as I am actually at a LEGO convention, I should talk about that in this post.

So, where to begin? After a long, but fun late night drive up with my friend and fellow SandLUG (San Diego LEGO Users Group) member Tiffeny Nervig we arrived at the Freemont Marriott where Bricks by the Bay is being held. First we set up our models. Mine were relatively simple, even if my LEGO Batman Video Game mosaic did end up breaking into multiple pieces. Tiffeny’s very impressive Booty Bay had a little more work.

It was brought in three sections, with a table to display it on, along with all my models, and all our other stuff in her very small Honda Fit. Now with all the LEGO we bought at the “ding and dent” sale on Friday night, I’m not sure how we are going to get it all into the car and back home.

There were several panel discussions and round table presentations going on, but I ended up checking out all the cool MOCs (My Own Creations) that people had made and meeting new friends and some internet friends for the first time.

One of the cool things at any LEGO event is the new LEGO sets that LEGO brings to display. This year LEGO didn’t disappoint, giving us our first look at a couple of the new LEGO Toy Story 3 sets

Finally seeing Rex and Hamm in person, and actually getting to hold them was really cool. I’m really looking forward to these sets when they come out.

One of the cool new vendors and friends I met at this convention was Ann Bartling of ToyRobott.

After much chatting, picture taking and vendor shopping we all went to the Valley Fair Mall to go LEGO shopping.

For those of you who have never been to a LEGO convention a “ding and dent” sale is a special shopping night held only for full attendees of a LEGO convention. Not only does the LEGO store give you a discount on everything in the store for the entire weekend (up to 20% depending on how much you spend), but they also have dented or other wise damaged LEGO product available for 30-50% off! And its not just the little stuff people, the Grand Carousel, the Death Star, and even the new Grand Emporium (which is what I managed to snag) were all 50% off!

I got a rather impressive hull, the Emporium, several Star Wars sets and a Miniturus Game for 50% off, plus a Fire Brigade for 20% off when it was all said and done. It was a pretty eventful day that didn’t end till around 1:30 am. I hadn’t planned on spending so much, but as it will soon be my birthday, I figured it was just an early present to myself.

I will add more pictures and more goings on in the next post. You can also see my entire photo set on Flickr.com There is also a very cool audio and picture slide show at cnet.com

Adventures of Clutch Powers Movie Review

With the excitement of going to the World Premiere of Adventures of Clutch Powers on Saturday I realized today that I didn’t actually review the movie (can you say duh? ).

Well as you can probably guess from the above picture, that although Clutch Powers and his team are based in LEGO City (the Theme that is) that end up in a Castle era world. Although I won’t give everything away, I may be giving some of it away so . . .

**** Warning!!!! Spoiler Alert!!!!! *****
In other words, if you want to be totally surprised when you watch the movie, wait until after you have seen it to read further.

The movie spans four LEGO Themes — Power Miners, City, Space Police, and Castle. Now although this seems like a strange mix, and even I found that the storyline was a bit of a stretch, considering that the movie is basically a 90 minute LEGO commercial for all non-licensed LEGO themes it works (well not completely). I counted about 40 or so actual sets throughout the movie.

The movie opens with Clutch “I work alone” Powers down in a mine driving the Thunder Driller (at least I think its that set). He drills into a new area of the cave and happens to find a whole bunch of “power crystals.” While trying to grasp one he runs into what else? A Rock Monster, naturally. After a bit of a scuffle (where you see another Power Miners set get destroyed) with the Rock Monster he happens to escape and get a crystal.

Clutch returns to headquarters, after driving through what seems like the whole city. All of the modular buildings except the newest Grand Emporium are in LEGO City along with the Grand Carousel and the newer Town Plan. There is at least two Creator houses that the protagonist zips by more than once in the film.

On getting at headquarters Clutch finds out that his boss (I forget his name) decides he needs a team. Although none of them want to work together, they decide they have to. Then they get a distress call from the Space Police prison.

You’re probably asking yourself “What?” at this point. I know I was. Not a very smooth transition of story. My theory is that the when they wrote the script, they figured that since all of the LEGO sets exist at the same time on the toy shelves, they can all exist at the same time in the movie. Yeah, sure, that works.

Anyhow, back to the movie.

So they fly (using the Galactic Enforcer ship) that was “created” by their resident scientist Artie to the Space Prison. Upon arriving and finding no one about they get attacked by the evil wizard Mallock the Malign one of three prisoners (the other two are seen as shadowy cloaked figures behind the wizard). Mallock and his cohorts steal their ship, while destroying the two other ships on the landing pad (two more Space Police sets, big surprise). But since it is a LEGO world the team just builds a new ship.

They figure out that Mallock has headed to the medieval planet of Ashlar. This is where I again asked myself “What?” Why would an evil wizard who has magic powers in a “modern” world decide to go back to a medieval planet? Even after watching the whole movie, I was still asking myself this question. The movie definitely is not very big on well thought out story lines.

Once Clutch and his team arrive they find out that they have to help the crown prince fight Mallock and his skeleton army. Without making this review too much longer, they end up wining the war and recapturing Mallock to take him back to the Space Police prison. They learn the valuable lesson, after much squabbling throughout the whole movie, that they need to work together and “build on each other” to get the job done. The movie ends with the team getting yet another mission. Can you say sequels?

All in all the 90 minutes was a little long for me. I loved the cute characters, but the story was just a tad too strung out and slow in the middle. I can see Power Miners and City going together, and maybe even Space Police, but throwing in Castle (especially as the whole second half of the movie) was just a little much, and not in a good way.

6-10 year-olds will like it. The obvious plot holes, the unlikelihood of the story, and the randomness of it all will make perfect sense to them. I enjoyed seeing, but I can’t say that I would buy the DVD.

**** Spoiler Alert Ends ****

I now return you to your regularly scheduled blog post.