Beach House - part three

Here's a photo review of LEGO set 4996: Beach House from the Creator line. This is the third and last official mode of the set.

It's a nice, two story american-style house. In terms of overall appearance, it's the least imposing of the three builds, but I find it very charming.

The rear roof opens up to show the interior. You can see that the second floor is pretty small... I can't say that it's minifig scale anymore.

Unlike the first mode, you can't take off the top floor. If you peer in through the roof, you can see some sort of oven and a coffee machine! Nice accessorizing, too bad you can't see it so easily. I like this mode the best despite it's flaws.

Overall, this set is pretty good. No minifigs, but you can easily get those elsewhere. Like the other sets of the Creator line, it's best for those who'd want to build and rebuild their Lego.

Beach House - part two

Here's a photo review of LEGO set 4996: Beach House from the Creator line. As I mentioned previously, there are three ways to build this set. Here's the second way: a high-rise apartment. It's three stories high, but kinda narrow. There's a lot of dead space on the baseplate (and a lot of extra pieces leftover after building as well).

It's in Lego "scale". A minifig can just fit on the balconly, but if I were him I'd feel bad living in such a cramped apartment.
There's some sort of picnic table outside, but it still seems anemic compared to the stuff in the first mode.
In this mode, the back is open. I hear this is standard in most lego play-houses.

It has some decent furniture, (more than the first mode, at least). There's some brick built sofas and chairs, an office set, and a mailbox.

It's interesting just because it's a pretty tall set, but I'd say it's overall less interesting than the first mode. Stay tuned for the last mode.

Beach House - part one

Here's a photo review of LEGO set 4996: Beach House from the Creator line. Pat got this a couple of weeks ago, just because she really likes houses. We got it for at Rustan's Shang, for 3000php, although online the MSRP at shop.lego is $30.

Since it's a Creator set, there are three different ways to build this set... this euro-style house is just the first mode.

I put in a minifig just to have a focus, although it's not part of the set. The house seems just a little small for him.

This set is pretty well accessorized, with doors, windows, flowers and all that.

You can remove the entire 2nd floor easily to play with the first floor. Nice stairs and fireplace, but no furniture.

The second floor skylight opens up too, if you want to put your guys there.

Not a lot to see inside though, compared to the detailing on the outside.

The yard has some more nice stuff for minifigs to interact with. Odd that they didn't put one in the set.

All in all it's a very nice set. And it's just the first mode! Stay tuned for the other two.

Carrier has arrived

My long-awaited shipment of boardgames have arrived! Yay! I really have to thank Po and his cousin for facilitating this.

I got Carcassone, Blue Moon City, and San Juan since these all seem like games that are enjoyable with two players, but can also accomodate more. The shipment also had Puerto Rico and Settlers of Catan for Ed, Puerto Rico, Power Grid, and Blue Moon City for Arnold, and Puerto Rico for Ruben. The guys at work are already getting significant play out of Arnold's Blue Moon City... man, I need to find time to play with these.

Thunder Fury

Here's a photo review of LEGO set 7702: Thunder Fury, from the Exo-Force line. Got this at the mid-year sale for 600 php.

The set is 197 pieces, fully disassembled. The sword stands out as too large and un-Lego-like, but the others are standard parts.

These connectors form the joints in this set...

They form a ratcheting hinge and swivel that gives really good articulation.

Stick a few together, add more pieces for armor, and you have a nice robot leg capable of good poses.

The body is formed by a mess of bricks and technic pins. Note the light brick in the middle, with a battery, LED, and attached optical cable.

The arm-cannon is brick-built (unlike the sword).

Put it all together and you get Thunder Fury! It's pretty good!

Say hello to my little friend!

The mid-year sale

Just a week after Pat's birthday, Landes held their mid-year LEGO sale. We went to Libis to look for their warehouse/office, tucked away somewhere in Bagumbayan. Going in, my expectation was that maybe we could get a small discount on the stuff that was available in the malls.

It was... not what we were expecting. The selection was kinda small. They didn't have any Creator or Castle sets available; too bad, since that was what Pat was really looking for. On the other hand, the discounts were huge. The stuff on sale was at around 40% to 60% off.

We got a largish box of plain bricks for Pat and a Duplo set for Tesla. We were almost ready to pay when the salesman talked us into looking at their Exo-force boxes (which apparently they had a surplus on). I'm glad we did! Exo-force is Lego's anime/mecha line, and at first glance it just looks like a random robot toy. I can confirm the Lego heritage though; see the mech in the above pic? It's built from 177 pieces. It has pretty good articulation too, using some interesting Lego joints. I'll be the first to admit it's an impulse buy, but man, color me impressed.

Impressed enough to come back on the second day with more money, and get another box of exo-force! These things are really nice, and 60% off didn't hurt either. I'd like to get back with a more in depth photo review, if I can make an opportunity to take pics.

Beware of geeks bearing gifts

I got Pat a bunch of LEGO sets for her birthday. Decided to start her off with relatively small stuff. You know how usually you think of LEGO as coming in ginormous boxes that cost a ton? Well okay, actually that's still true. However, I made the amazing discovery that LEGO is actually pretty fairly priced when you look at the medium sets. I was able to get Pat two decently sized boxes, when I thought that I would only be able to afford one.

The first set I bought was 4939: Cool Cars. It has a lot of parts, 206 in all. Since this is Creator, the parts are very generic; you can use all of the parts in entirely different designs, not just the 3 given on the box. The parts are pretty small, there are a lot of 1x1 and 1x2 tiles. There are very few actual bricks; it's mostly planks, with slopes, smoothers, some grilles, hinges and a windshield for effect.

The finished models are all pretty cool, if you don't mind the fact that they're proud to have studs visible all over the body. I really appreciate the instructions for three builds; I wouldn't say the desgins are amazing, but they're still a lot more creative then I would be able to come up with myself. The only drawback is really that it can't fit minifigs; this won't matter if this is your only set, but if you have a lot of minifigs you might feel that the given designs are out of place. All in all, it's a lot of product for just under 1k Php, so it's a pretty good starter for a grown-up.

The other set I got for Pat was 7040: Dwarven Mine Defender. This is from the Castle line, which means minifigs ahoy! Included are two Orc and one Dwarf minifig; they look pretty neat, with printed torsos and textured helmets. Also included is one orcish sword and a bulky orc banner. The minifigs are great fun, but you do pay for them; the siege machine is kinda small and straightforward to build.

There's only 86 parts, and that counts the minifig components. On the other hand, the parts are a lot bigger, so there's more mass per brick (when compared to Creator sets). Some of the parts are also kinda specialized; there's a one-piece catapult and scoop, and the spinning circular siege blades are pretty much always going to be circular blades. Overall, this set is fun, but at the same price as 4939, it's not so great on value. In hindsight, I would have saved up for a bigger Castle set.