Donut Break

Decided to try one of the chocolate flavors from Mister Donut. Ugh. Big mistake. It tasted like chocolate colored bread. Good thing I only got a single; I was a hair's breadth away from buying an 8-pack.

Go-nuts donuts is getting kinda disappointing too. Over the past year, I've seen them fare pretty badly against Krispy Kreme. They went low... way too low. They somehow managed to raise prices, drop quality, and dilute their menu with frivolities. Poor Go-nuts!

Unfortunately, this leaves Krispy Kreme as the last donut shop standing. Unfortunate because they're the most expensive; unfortunate because Go-nuts was a lot cheaper than them, with almost the same quality. That was a year ago though; today I welcome our new overlords.

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.