Jun 16

VLOG 1 A Week in the life of an AFOL Dad with Kids. Harry Potter, Lockdown, end of Home Schooling

Welcome to the VLOG, this is the first episode. In this video we’ll look behind the scenes of a LEGO Youtuber and what the kids get up to. This naturally includes LEGO building (1989 Batman Batmobile, Harry Potter, 4X4 X-treme Off-Roader), Harry Potter movies, and Harry Potter role play in the garden.

We’ll briefly touch upon London Calling Live streaming with London Bridge Bricks, a bit of Monkey Kid and London AFOLs virtual monthly meet while during lockdown. May even through in a little gardening at the end.

London AFOLs Homepage
https://londonafols.uk/

London Bridge Bricks Stream
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBc078_yPG4

Solo Brick Builder – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_7xvtCIH6hH99yj4Vcyu5g

SaraStarBricks – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcTHHuxGain6f8nZzxv_xNg

Brick’n It
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQANCN_ElgPVy-g5i1oJK4g

Generic Stud
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-Pa8PfXKoJbyYcdy0PmKuQ

Time codes to the Video:

0:00 Introduction
1:07 4×4 Extreme Off Roaders / London Calling with London Bridge Bricks
1:55 Harry Potter Films and LEGO
3:10 LEGO 1989 Batmobile
3:50 Homeschooling LEGO projects
5:41 Wizarding in the back garden.
6:45 Homeschooling … at an end?!
7:18 London AFOLs online
8:32 Veggie garden and fruit trees
10:43 What did you like? Finishing up.

Transcript from the Show

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Now you get away and stop filming! Bang!

G’day Everyone, Matt Elder of Family Bricks here and welcome to VLOG number 1. I thought I’d give this a try, I’ve been inspired by a few other people who have been doing it lately and so here we are. We are going to try to do it in one sort of takes and it won’t be as slick and polished as some of the other videos on the channel.

So, I guess the thing is what can you expect? Just want to look at some more I guess behind the scenes or maybe just day to day bits and pieces we are doing in and around LEGO and things like that. So, you might find this is a little all over the place in terms of background and scenery. In the car just waiting for the kids so can go and pick them up.

Today is Friday. Its actually started to rain which is good as then I am less worried about the vegetables, fruit trees and things and having to water them because it has been quite dry. Funnily enough in England, the last little bit it has been raining.

Tonight, I’m on the stream with London Bridge Bricks and just trying to decide what it is I am actually going to build. Whether I’m going to do a Statue of Liberty or I’ve also got a Power Up functions 4×4 which I’ve been meaning to do for a while, to see what we do with that one.

Now in terms of VLOG, let me know if you like it, don’t like it , what you’d like to see more content of, or what is of interest to you guys out there.

4×4 Extreme Off Roaders / London Calling with London Bridge Bricks

So, Friday night and we just had the London calling, which is the stream with London Bridge bricks, and I was working on the 4×4 extreme buggy. Got through the first bag. I think most things are in a good spot and working. Which will be good. Can’t really tell. Its got motors there until you’ve finished it and put it together.

Nice numbered bags there. Still got the Batmobile to finish, been doing that with the kids. So basically, just got to put the wheels on that. London Bridge Bricks got to 501 subscribers, which is cool. Also had on there Solo Brick Builder, SaraStarBricks, Generic Stud and Brick’n It.

And looks like SaraStarBricks has set up a discord server. That is going to be great to chat to everyone in between and find out who else is streaming.

Harry Potter Films and LEGO

No sound here as don’t want the music to get me pinged on YouTube.

Hogwarts. Its great the kids are starting to get into Harry Potter just as LEGO are ramping up another wave of Harry Potter goodness and releasing some sets and they are able to get into it , build it and play it out as well.

Hogwarts witchcraft and wizardry.

Ok, which set do we have here. Hogwarts Astronomy Tower. And what part do you think is going to be the best? Maybe that, or that, or that or that or that.

Should we get building? Yep.

Who’s that? Hegweed.

And what is he? A bird or you could call him a snowy owl.

Harry Potter and who was that again? I can’t remember. I can’t remember either. I’ll tell you at the end of the build.

So that’s why you were screaming your head off. That’s why I was screaming.

Can I go and show mummy?

I’m trying to shut it up, will you? [Arghhhhhhhh …. annoying noise]

LEGO 1989 Batmobile

Building [grunt] Batmobile, bag 23 out of 24 and putting the hubcaps on, which were these tiny wheels is very tricky to do. Might need somebody’s help. Where are you mummy?

I’m Joker…. Ahhhhhh. Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Now you get away and stop filming! Bang!

Homeschooling LEGO Projects

During homeschooling, there has been a project to do monuments and famous places around London and things, and you had to build them. So, we’ve done a Tudor House, then we had St Pauls’ cathedral, and HMS Belfast and then finally rebricked Buckingham Palace.

Usually with these the kids would get set the assignment in the morning to build one of these, usually they are thinking cardboard or something like that, just little arts and crafts. Just being LEGO, we just go through and do it with these, and that was of course in amongst all there other schooling and math’s and reading and everything they had to do each day so. And then have it submitted by the end of the day so its been good but its been challenging, so glad when it is all done.

The Belfast I’ve actually put instructions up online for that and there should be a video for it. And St Paul’s Cathedral at some stage I want to do much the same but I really wasn’t happy with the way some of the windows in the side got done, so that just felt a little under cooked. Even the front façade, I want to go through and rejig that.

Monkey Kid

What did you just watch? Monkey King … kid. The Monkey kid got the staff and defeated the giant person in the end. Not exactly defeated him. It as very good.

Wizarding in the back garden.

Expelliuma. [cry] Can somebody make my arms. Armolock. Leglock.

Not you can’t dodge it, that isn’t a spell in Hogwarts.

I pointed my wand at you. It’s a disarm charm.

Did I forget to mention we are doing expelliumus and Leglock?

Expelliuma

Oh, that is cool.

Another Harry Potter film and really getting into the mythology.

Yeah! Both kids are back in school. School …. Is in for 3 weeks. For anyone who is out there homeschooling, you know exactly what it is that I am talking about. Been an interesting time having them at home schooling. At least now getting a much better idea of what they actually do during there school days and I think too with ours, we’ve identified possibly a few blind spots that they had and been able to address that. But I guess the idea of home schooling them for 6 months and sailing around the world has just gone out the window cause, yeah, it’s a tough gig.

London AFOLs online

Later tonight have London AFOLs online and around the video you’ll be able to see what makes a great meet where we did an interview with the founder Richard Selby, because it really is really good. I guess because London has such a large population, you’ve got some incredibly talented builders.

There is another link to Caz Mockett, who has some of her stuff being on display at the LEGO house in Billund. Which I believe has just recently reopened. And then too also have another interview with Neil Marsden who is an amazing digital LEGO and some of the stuff that he does. So, have that tonight and hopefully that will be all good.

Set up for the London AFOL virtual meeting and have a Taj Mahal set that I can raid for parts and just be building and use for other ideas. So, we just had our monthly London AFOL meeting, which this month’s theme was habitats with minifigs. Never been huge into minifigs. So, I just decided to do a polar bear type one.

So, he is there and got a fish and looking into the water somewhat in a little cave there, with little icicles and things at the top. So that was a great meetup and everyone was doing some really cool stuff.

So, I think I’ll call this “The Week that was Tuesdays” – the 4 Ts, taking after something from college days.

Veggie garden and fruit trees

Beginning of lockdown started a veggie garden. So, this is all grown from little plants in the last little bit. So, we’ve got spinach, broad beans, lettuce and some cauliflower, and a few others over here that we put in. They don’t seem to be doing as well, tomatoes been challenging. Think we started off with 15 and down to about 3. Don’t’ know whether it is the soil or whatever, not really a green thumb.

Wild Strawberry, broad bean, garlic and some other normal strawberry plants, that you can see the birds have been into as well. And some blueberry plants. Same deal planted them a couple of months ago when they were little tiny, and they are all getting up there.

And a pear tree that we planted a couple of years ago. Looks like it has got some pears, actually quite a number that look like they are coming through. And a plum tree we planted a couple of years ago, so it looks like we will get a few off there. Looks like this will be the first season they come through.

And a little tiny peach tree we planted at the beginning of lockdown. Looks like we’ll get some peaches off it which is really surprising. So, must be doing well.

Another type of plum tree we planted at the beginning of lockdown, and pretty much all the green from about here upwards, has all grown in the last couple of months, 10-12 weeks.

And a small little cherry tree we also put in at the beginning of lockdown, 10 -12 weeks ago. Sort of see from about here up it has all shot up. That is all new shoots in the last little bit so hopefully also doing well too.

And some apples coming through on the apple tree which we believe these trees are about 80-90 years old. When this use to be an orchard before it was subdivided. The thing you notice about these in particular is they are really, really sour. I think that is because of the modern palette, particularly in the 1980s, they went through and made apples super sweet. Whereas these ones are not so sweet and think that our palettes have adapted to it so it’s all relative.

What did you like? Finishing up.

Let me know what you thought of this. What bits did you like, what bits didn’t you like, things you’d like to see more of? The channel itself we have always said is LEGO and lifestyle but given lockdown, we haven’t been able to focus on lifestyle, in the last 3 months. And certainly, we noticed that once lockdown first started, a lot of the videos about theme parks and like that dropped off a cliff. So hopefully as things start to open back up, we’ll be able to get back into that kind of content.

So, anybody who is new and has never seen that before.

So, hope you had a great week and if you did enjoy this video, hit that like button and hopefully we can get to 20 likes on this video.

For those that haven’t seen some of the lifestyle type content we do, here is a link to LEGOLAND Windsor and you go through the whole park in about 3 minutes with a bit of commentary. Otherwise here are some other videos you might be interested in.

Until next time when we talk about all things LEGO and lifestyle.


Jun 10

How to Make a LEGO HMS Belfast Microscale Warship: FREE Tutorial, Instructions & Brief History


In this video we will show you how to make this LEGO HMS Belfast Microscale Town-class light cruiser Warship that was involved in World War 2 D-Day landings. It is currently a tourist museum moored on the Thames River, in the heart of London, England. This is a My Own Creation, MOC, we have designed and built. If you do happen to make this model, or some variation, be sure to post a link below, or on social media (links towards the bottom below), we’d love to see them.

FREE Instructions Download PDF
https://www.mattelder.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/MOC-LEGO-HMS-Belfast-Microscale-Warship-Instructions-Family-Bricks-Matt-Elder-01.pdf

HMS Belfast Wikipedia Page
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Belfast

Time codes to the Video:
0:00 Introduction
0:36 LEGO Parts Required for the Build
0:50 Step by Step build of HMS Belfast
2:29 Starting the deck build
4:14 – 3 Sections of the Museum
4:52 Sample Instructions & Parts / Inventory List

Transcript from the Show

G’day Everyone, Matt Elder of Family bricks here and in this video we will show you how to make this LEGO HMS Belfast Microscale Town-class light cruiser Warship that was involved in World War 2 D-Day landings. It is currently a tourist museum moored on the Thames River, in the heart of London, England. This is a My Own Creation, MOC, we have designed and built. We have also provided a link to a PDF on our website mattelder.com with FREE instructions you can download to build along with.

This is a Family Bricks video. Be sure to hit that like button, share or if you want to be super awesome,  subscribe! Click the bell and select “All”, to be notified of new videos as they are uploaded.

LEGO Parts Required for the Build

Here just showing all the parts needed to build this ship. Most of the parts are pretty standard and nothing too fancy. The white pieces can be any colour. The blue pieces could just as easily be grey. I’ve just used them as a bit of a water line simulation on the hull.

Step by Step build of HMS Belfast

We start off with these 2x2x2/3s 2 sided stud pieces. This will allow us to build the hull in a SNOT technique. These are then doubled up and mirrored to do each side of the hull. They will be floating for a little bit but this will allow for an economical and strong part usage.

We join these together with white 1×6 and 1×8 plates. Again the white can be any colour as it won’t be visible in the final model. Mirroring onto the other side so that the 2x2x2/3 pieces line up. Now just a matter of placing curves, tiles and some more plates.

Thanks to a couple of members of the London AFOLs registered lego users group for some pointers around the SNOT, studs not on top, in the hull. It’s a great LUG group and check out my interview with the founder Richard Selby here as to what he tries to do to keep it a great group.

With the HMS Belfast, it is called a “town” class as it is from a group of ships named after towns in the United Kingdom. It was originally commission in 1939 and in November of that year, hit a German mine and took another 2 years undergoing extensive repairs. In June of 1944, she supported the D-Day landings firing upon the German artillery battery at Ver-sur-Mer while troops were landing.

In this next step, you put a couple of 1×1 plates into the 1×4 slopes just to fill in that little gap.

HMS Belfast saw combat in 1950-1952 during the Korean War and more modernization between 1956 and 1959, before entering into reserve in 1963. In 1967 efforts were started to preserve her from being scraped.

Starting the deck build

Now we join the 2 mirrored halves of the hull together. These are then held in place by a 2×16 plate. If you wanted additional clutch, you could easily include more of those 2x2x2/3 pieces in the hull in the gaps that currently exist – but it isn’t necessary.

From here we can build up the deck in layers or slices.

From 1966 to 1970 the ship served as an accommodation ship while the Imperial War Museum became interested in preserving her as a 6-inch turret, which were disappearing fast at the time. In 1967 when the Gambia was too far gone, Belfast became the most economical and practical to save. However the government decided in 1971 against preservation and she was reduced to disposal to be scrapped. 

A private trust was formed in 1971 with those who had served on her becoming pivotal in her preservation. In the meantime, the ship was being stripped of removable equipment while the trust put together a proposal. In October 1971, HMS Belfast was towed to London where a hole had been dredged for her in the river bed Thames in her current position, right near London’s Iconic Tower Bridge (really must build that LEGO model one day).

In 1978 the Trust was merged into the Imperial War Museum. The ship has been drydocked twice as part of the ships long term preservation. Once in 1982 and again 1999 when she was towed to Portsmouth. There were tentative plans for another dry docking in 2020 but sure that is up in the air now.

The current paint camouflage scheme is known as Admiralty Disruptive Camouflage, which she had worn from 1942 to 1944. There was some debate about this as it doesn’t match her retrofit configuration in 1956 to 1959.

3 Sections of the Museum

As a museum, it is divided into 3 sections. One is “Life on Board the ship” with an emphasis on the experience of serving at sea. The next is the “inner workings” which is below the waterline focusing on the mechanical and engineering aspects of the ship. The last is “Action Stations” about the ships weapons, command and fire power.

And there is our microscale LEGO HMS Belfast all completed, and sailing away.

Most of the information in this commentary has come from the HMS Belfast Wikipedia page so do check that out for further information.

We hope this has given you some insight into the ship and one of central London’s iconic landmarks.

Here is a quick flick through of the instructions you’ll find on our website www.mattelder.com

Sample Instructions & Parts / Inventory List

Towards the back is a parts list / inventory showing exactly the parts needed.

This is a Family Bricks video. Be sure to hit that like button, share or if you want to be super awesome,  subscribe! Click the bell and select “All”, to be notified of new videos as they are uploaded.

If you do happen to make this model, or some variation, be sure to post a link below, or on social media (links in the description below), we’d love to see them.

These are some of our other models.

If you’d like to check out some of our other custom MOC builds, be sure to check out our LEGO Scenario range. Alternatively here are some other videos you might enjoy. If you did get something out of this video, hit that thumbs up. We’d love to get 20 thumbs up, really does inspire us to continue building FREE instructions like this. That’s all from us here at Family Bricks. Thanks for watching and until next time when we talk about all things LEGO and lifestyle.

Jun 08

LEGO International Space Station 21321 Review 66% – What is it missing? Time lapse Speed build

In this video we review the LEGO International Space Station set 21321 ISS. There is also a speed build and commentary. We also have a 1 page review summary showing how we arrived at the final score of 66 out of 100 for this set.

What is the element that is really missing from the set that could make it that much better? How much wide appeal does the set have?

Set Number: 21321
Released: 2020
Theme: LEGO Ideas / Space
Price – £64.99GBP, $69.99USD , €69.99EUR
Pieces – 864
Price Per Piece – 7.5p, 8.1c
Build time – 1hr+

Review Score – 66%
Build Experience – 6.5
Value for Money – 7.5
Playability – 4.0
Displayability – 8.5
Target Market: Space Geeks & Ideas Fans

Pros: Good value & close approximation to real ISS
Cons: Fragile with limited playability – 10 pages of LEGO Ideas at expense of ISS Information

Summary: A great display piece for space enthusiasts.

Time code to video:
0:00 Introduction
0:34 General Information and set contents
2:30 Build and “swooshability”
5:30 Build Experience & playability
6:54 Instruction book & LEGO Ideas “Issue”
9:12 Box Art
10:30 Time lapse speed build of LEGO International Space Station
12:23 Spare Parts
12:47 1 Page Review Summary Page

SpaceX Video
https://youtu.be/DoYu8BpHZ2I

JKBrickworks Orrey
https://youtu.be/y7RF0vfGQms

Transcript from the Show

G’day Everyone, Matt Elder of Family Bricks and in this video we are going to review the LEGO Ideas International Space Station Set Number 21321. We will also have a time lapse speed build showing how it is built.

Here is the 1 page review summary. This video will go into the detail behind it and at the end of the video, we explain how we arrived at the scores and comments.

So in t-minus 3,2,1 … blast off.

This is a Family Bricks video. Be sure to hit that like button, share or if you want to be super awesome,  subscribe! Click the bell and select “All”, to be notified of new videos as they are uploaded.

General Information and Set Contents

So here we have the LEGO Ideas International Space station set 21321 retails for about £65 or $69US Dollars or 69 Euros. So that means it will give you a price to part ratio of about 7.5pence or 8.1 cents, both in American and Euros. So for that it is obviously reasonable value , obviously dealing with some printed pieces and a lot of small type pieces. There are a couple of technic bits in there, so seems to be of a reasonable value.

It’s a decent sort of size. You’ve got it being about 50 cm or 20inches across by 30cm or 12 inches in that direction. There is a fair amount of detail on this, with different solar panels, different antenna , you know a grabbing arm here, stand here. There are some really nice white nano figs that have some prints on them to look like astronauts.

Then you’ve got little, satellite, docking module, like a SpaceX type Dragon, and then you’ve even got a little, old style shuttle. Which even in the back has 3 different booster engines and even has that slight little angle like they really have. The underside has 2×2 inverted. The only weird thing about this, is that it doesn’t actually clip into the actual set. It just sort of rests in there and you don’t really know .

Its got a really nice International Space Station print on it, there as a display piece. That is the really nice thing about this set, everything is prints and there is no stickers in here what so ever which is probably a good thing cause by the time you went through and applied all those there, you’d probably drive yourself crazy.

The arms themselves also rotate all the way around, so quite good there. Then you can have them at whatever angle you prefer. Same with the other side. Obviously there you are starting to see the inverted studs so less of a display on that angel.

Build and “swooshability”

You do actually build it on the stand and start with the stand. And you can actually lift it up and take it off. You know, you can do your swooshability [swoosh noise]. If you really wanted to and it does sit nicely back on there. And it is solid enough you can grab it by the legs there, and that feels pretty secure although the little bits and pieces at the bottom will come off relatively easy as they are just held on by studs and jumpers.

Now if we turn it around, we can check out what is happening on the back there. Just go there. You can see you’ve got more details from this side. I guess when you look from this side, it isn’t really designed to be seen from this side, I mean apart from the orange you’ve got the orange there. With these flag pieces here you can see there are no prints on the back. If I was to take one off, you’ve actually got prints on the other side. So I do find if they have of made a print on the reverse side, that would have been quite good. Or even really, dare I say it, even if you just wanted to have some stickers or something there as at least with some of the other bits, you can at least turn around and move.

So if you wanted to display it from this side, flip those up and at that angle, it would be nice not having to take that all the way off to display it. I mean you’ve got all those details in there on the solar panels and then these big blue blank bits, it doesn’t look as nice.

As you probably saw, these radiator panels can turn, they have a swivel on a hinge. And this little satellite here, can also just pop off, and float into space. Or if you are trying to do a docking maneuver or anything like that, they can also go in there.

So just going back around til what we’ll call the front side. And underneath you can see you’ve got these white flags, which in this case are actually blank on both sides. So just rotate those back up there.

So you do have the ability for some of these dishes that are on hinge joints, and a little grabber arm here that you can move around. And these also move around and rotate on their pivots as well. Its good you’ve got a couple of these little nano figs as you can have them out , out and about doing their little space walks, repairs or whatever you might want them to.

Same sort of deal with the shuttle itself as well. Can have that and have a bit of a swooshing going on. If it needs to dock or do whatever maneuvers it wants, It can do that as well. And of course the kids being the kids, the first thing they wanted to do, was go and put some rocket firing missiles on to it [missiles fire off and make bang noises]. But we might just take those off and put them back there.

Check around the video and you’ll be able to see the kids review and how they were playing with it and interacting with it.

Build Experience & playability

Otherwise as a general build experience it was pretty solid. There wasn’t anything to tricky and takes about an hour or so to be able to do. It can get a little repetitive and tedious as you do make quite a number of these satellite type things or variations of that slightly. And then you have to go through and make 8 of these solar panel type things.

Which when I did it with the kids, we each did it so we ended up with 3 each, give or take. But I could see that if you were doing that by yourself, you’d really want to get into some sort of system. Or when you get to bag 6 in the instructions and it says you’ve got to do it 8 times to get towards the very end its like … urgh [groan].

So in terms of playability there are some aspects where you are able to play a little bit but it does get pretty fragile so we found when the kids are playing with it, things are falling off pretty easily. And even when you picking it up and taking it off the stand and things, if you are not putting it down and grabbing it from the right part , it does fall of quite easily . So that said, it is probably more a display piece in and off itself.

It has a significant presence, it has a good size, colors work well, you’ve got this nice little blue with the hints of the orange coming through and the white, grey and the stand works really well. Obviously you’ve got the printed pieces there and the other little bits and pieces in terms of paraphernalia in terms of the shuttle and some of the satellites.

As we’ve already mentioned you get a couple of these printed nano figs , there is 2 there and you actually do get a spare one . There is no real minifigs but there is no real need for it, given what it is and the size and scale.

Instruction Book & LEGO Ideas “Issue”

So just having a look at the instruction book and much the same as the box art. Generic sort of stuff for LEGO, Going on about the international space station, couple images there. Just going into the history, the fact it is the 15 nations and about some of the research doing in space. And some of the experiments they do up there you can’t actually do on earth. So it is good you can get that sort of information .

Then next up it starts to go on about the fan designer who came through and did this. And then goes through his many attempts to get through the LEGO ideas and how it was rejected twice, and how he kept on refining it and then coming back. Then they wanted to do the 10th anniversary of the LEGO Ideas and putting it forward, and then the fan vote pulling it through so it could be an actually made set.

Which is great to get that sort of history there but then it just goes on more, another 2 pages on LEGO Ideas, , more stuff on LEGO Ideas, more stuff on LEGO Ideas, before you start getting the building. And then in the back as well, you have another 2 pages on the LEGO Ideas . So effectively there is about 9 and a half pages just prompting the LEGO Ideas, which I can kinda get.

The thing that was annoying was that you only have these 2 pages , which is a little bit of generic information but doesn’t actually explain all the different parts , doesn’t have a blueprint or anything like that to explain what all the different parts are that you are building. Beyond the actual solar panels, we didn’t know what a lot of this sort stuff is. You had to go and do like a Google search and you can find all sorts of blueprints that tell you all sorts of different things.

We didn’t even know that these things here were the radiators for it. And you know they could have done a little something to explain the other bits and pieces in there. The fact then, they had 9.5 pages going on about the LEGO Ideas and everything like that, there is a real missed opportunity where they could have had that information in there.

So you get a better connection with what it is that you are building otherwise its like I know there are some solar panels and ….. yeah, that’s it. So again, just think that was a missed opportunity.

Otherwise the instructions themselves are a pretty standard sort of thing for LEGO. There wasn’t really anything too complicated in there. Its just more getting through some of the repetitive and tedious detail. Oh actually, a tenth page on LEGO Ideas.

Box Art

So here just checking out the box art. Its got a nice picture of the LEGO version with a realistic earth in the background there. Space Shuttle. Showing that it is a LEGO Ideas set number 29. And just some specs from the LEGO sizes itself. And then being a 15 member country, all the different flags that are funding the international space station.

Flipping over to the back, again we just see another nice little shot of it there all set up. And a few little pull out details that it has there, the grabbing arm, space shuttle coming into dock, and then just a top down view of it there. And then international space station 20 years that it has been going.

I guess the other things with this is you generally think of space and you’ve had all the NASA sets and you somehow think it is NASA. But being the international space station, it isn’t actually NASA , it’s a 15 member county.

Just checking out some other details. On one edge of the box there, it is just showing some 1 to 1 of one of the printed pieces, and then just some, the space station, the shuttle, the nano fig, space capsule and the satellite.

And the spine there, just another composite shoot. Box with just some generic  details and another shot just down the side. So overall a nice box design and just showing what it is an in context.

Time lapse speed build of LEGO International Space Station

And now into the time lapse of the actual build itself. The box opens up in a clam shell type way, and you’ve got 6 bags and the instructions. The kids enjoyed having a look at some of the space photos and some of the other sets in the range. Quickly checking out what each bag builds, and then onto the actual build itself.

Start off with one of the satellites and build the actual space shuttle itself as well. The space shuttle itself is actually quite a good build , particularly considering there aren’t that many pieces. Its bizarre to think that with the retiring of the space shuttle program 9 years ago, they grow up and never see a space shuttle launch or have any real idea of that.

They have seen the space shuttle prototype Enterprise on the USS Intrepid in New York harbor and Atlantis in Cape Canaveral. So now done the stand and starting to build out the main corridor for this space station itself.

And with that, onto bag 4 pretty quickly. So now building out a few nodes and I think some laboratories. Having to try to reference some diagrams off the internet to know what is what. Both sides do this by building off a long technic axel and threading the pieces onto it.

Now next up we build the radiators with the white pieces. Any excess or waste heat on the ISS needs to be gotten rid of. Pure water in these pipes would quickly freeze, so they add in ammonia which has a lower freezing temperature and prevents the water from freezing. Its amazing all these little things they have to think of and prepare for.

Next onto bag 6 and making the 8 racks of solar panels. It was good to have us all working on these at the same time. Once that is done, the solar panels move into position and then they are putt into the right places. The space shuttle comes along, and some astronauts. A few other accessories and I think we are good.

Another look at our final LEGO model build of the International Space Station.

Spare Parts

Here are the spare parts that came in the set. Being a set with a lot of little parts, you’d expect there to be a fair number of parts. Its great you get another one of these printed nano figs, so there are 3 of those altogether.

Otherwise a pretty standard selection. You’ve got a ski pole in pearl gold which is quite nice and a couple of roller skates in the black and light bluish grey. And a little 1×1 round printed piece there.

1 Page Review Summary Page

And now onto our review summary of the international space station. You can see it was released in 2020, the set number there , cost, 864 pieces and the price per piece being around 7.5pence or 8.1 cents (both in American and Euros). Build time is about an hour plus.

For the build experience we gave it a 6.5. It’s a pretty solid build but it does get repetitive and tedious , particularly with that last bag with solar panels and a lot of the little satellite type constructions.

Value for money we gave a 7.5. Its reasonably good value at 7.5p and 8.1c price per part ratio, but they are smaller pieces and parts. We did feel though that with 10 pages or so on LEGO Ideas, and not much going into the actual space station itself, there was a real missed opportunity there to learn about the space station and become more invested in the set, and understand exactly what it was that you were building.

I didn’t really learn anything new about the space station and quite the contrary, had to go to Google and start looking through some results there to start learning anything new.

For playability , we gave the set a 4.0. Its quite fragile and not a great deal you can do with it.

For displayability we gave it an 8.5. It displays great from one side but that is the issue. As a display piece, when you flip it over to the other side, it doesn’t really display well, you’ve got to fiddle around with it to get it into a good display orientation.

Looking at the target market, we’d say it is mostly for space geeks and Ideas Fans

The pros with this set is that it is good value and a close approximation to the real international space station.

The cons as we’ve mentioned previously is that it is fragile with limited playability and you get 10 pages of LEGO Ideas advertising at the expense of any real, quality ISS information.

The overall summary is that it is a great display piece for space enthusiasts.

In terms of buy recommendation, in terms of a “day 1, must have”, ranging all the way through to a “Kragle it” because you can’t stand it, we put it somewhere between a purchase where it is on sale or only for really die hard fans of space and Ideas.

So taking an average of the 4 scores we have up there, we can up with an overall rating of a 66%.

It’s a solid set but you are looking at a subset of a space demographic, largely those that want something for display.

Here is a SpaceX Falcon Heavy video we did. Links around the video. This was a fan design we put together and the kids are really into space. We’ve also done this Orrey by JKBrickworks, again links around the video. With both sets the kids have been able to engage and learn, and felt gotten great value out of it.

We were hoping for something similar with this international space station set but feel it was disappointing and something that will collect dust on the shelf.

What do you think? Are we being too harsh or feel comments are on the money, let us know in the comments below.

This is a Family Bricks video. Be sure to hit that like button, share or if you want to be super awesome,  subscribe! Click the bell and select “All”, to be notified of new videos as they are uploaded.

Close Out

You might like to see the kids review and play through of this LEGO International Space Station and you can click here to do so. Here is the Falcon Heavy review. Alternatively here are some other videos you might be interested in.

That’s all from us here at Family Bricks. Thanks very much for watching and please do hit that thumbs up if you’ve enjoyed the video. Until next time when we talk about all things LEGO and Lifestyle.


Jun 05

Kevin Hinkle: Streaming, Retro Gaming. Why don’t they bring back classic LEGO Space, Pirates: Part 2

This is part 2 of our interview with Kevin Hinkle aka MrHinkleDraws. Kevin use to work for LEGO for 12 years in stores, corporate / marketing and as the community manager for North and South America. Kevin is now pursing Art and Graphic design that he formally trained in.

This part of the interview will focus more on social media, particularly streaming, Kevin’s interest in LEGO as a building product, along with some of his cool MOCs he has created. Of course we’ll finish off with why they don’t bring back classic Space, Pirates, Castle, Trains, Monorails etc.

You don’t necessarily need to have watched part 1 but it is here:

The first part of the interview focused more on Kevin’s career the day after he left LEGO and building up his Graphic and Illustration business.

Time codes to interview.
0:00 Social Media & Streaming – Doodle Stream – Bricksmith78 – Philadelphia Brick Fest – Entering the world of streaming
3:23 First Stream
3:59 Online vs in person – new area of the community
5:03 Origin of the podcast – Forever Sorting and 2019 Resolution to stream
7:13 The origin of “Backlog building” on every Friday during 2019
8:33 Launch of Doodle Stream and only stream in 2020
10:03 Evolution of Doodle Stream, themes and multiplayer version
11:03 Return of LEGO Brick Building stream due to popular demand
12:38 Challenges of Home Schooling
14:18 24 Hour Streams and earning your stripes
17:03 Boxed Coffee to keep you going
18:18 What are your hobbies outside of LEGO and Drawing? Retro Gaming… particularly Nintendo
20:23 Earthbound – all time favorite game
22:34 Favorite Super Mario Game
23:53 Custom Super Mario MOC “Series”
27:23 Long Term Streaming Goals and limitations
28:13 Angry Video Game Nerd
29:58 Favorite LEGO Set and double speed play back
31:04 Favourite Theme?
31:34 Theme glad that it is gone
33:03 Like Technic or Not
33:28 MOC that you are proud of
36:38 Talking about MOCs… or not
38:53 How big a space for LEGO & LEGO Room Tour (EP1)
41:03 Kevin Who? Playlist
42:45 Galidor
42:59 Estimate Number of LEGO Pieces
44:00 Theme you wish they would bring back
44:17 LEGO Super Mario and Zelda
46:46 Favourite build of the last year
47:29 Favourite LEGO Resource
51:11 “IP Locked pieces”, what that is & weirdness
55:26 Set you wish you bought but never did
57:02 Any AFOL groups you are a part of
57:51 Why are you into LEGO?
1:01:43 Contact Details
1:03:06 Big Goals for the Year
1:04:59 Why don’t they bring back Space, Pirates, Castle, Trains, Monorail?
1:06:47 LEGO Focusing on the new, not the old
1:08:23 Its turned into a joke
1:09:48 You could change topics every couple of seconds

Partial Transcript from the Show

1:05:03

Just one question that which , I remember seeing somewhere one of the questions you get a lot , or use to as the LEGO rep was “when are they going to bring back space, pirates, castles and monorail?”

Yes, all the time

You had an interesting answer in particular for trains and the monorail that part of it is because the older people who have it, the cost of them maintaining the sets are quite high , or turning it over when it breaks. I didn’t quite understand that answer so particularly with monorail and trains.

Oh, I don’t even know. I’m trying to remember what I may have said back then.

I had like a really good prepared answers for things and over time you know, they all start to mix together. I mean that the reality is that over time a lot of people from the community have a lot of demands. Is should say and a lot of those demands focus on bring back x,y or z.

Bring back the Café Corner – huge one. Bring back Monorail – huge one. Bring back classic fill in the blank. So it would be classic space, classic pirate, classic castle and there is this ongoing mentality of bring back this, bring back that.

And LEGO itself doesn’t really like to focus too much on reguriating the same thing over and over again. They really try to chase what is new. Not necessarily saying that is the right thing or the wrong thing , that is just what they do. Its like “what is the new innovation?” “what is the new play mechanic?” whats the new this? Whats the new that?

Every now and then you’ll get a product designer or a graphic designer that is keenly aware of the communities interests and nostalgia and their the ones that hide in the interesting homages in the sets that people are like “that is so cool that LEGO put a like a nod to Bionicle in this set”, or they . That is usually a very specific product designer or a very specific graphic designer that knows the fans will like this when I do this.

The company as the big engine, they are not necessarily really ever interested in “what can we bring back?”. Its always “what new thing can we bring to market?” And so they get very turned off when they hear “bring back anything”. You can put anything in there. A lot of marketing executives will immediately stop listening to you when you are like “bring back…” whatever.

Its a lot about, in the marketing corporate world how you phrase things. I’ve been in meetings where I literally say the same thing but use a lot more flowery language and it gets a whole different response. Its like I could say “That’s a stupid idea” and everyone thinks I’m rude. Or I could say “I don’t believe that is the best strategy for that proposal” and I’m a genius.

Its like it’s the same thing but you know, monorail in particular, its also kinda difficult cause I feel like half the people that ask about it aren’t even serious. Its kinda almost evolved into a joke. So like some of the people say it just to see what kind of a response they will get from whoever LEGO rep they ask.

And some of them have even admitted that. They go like “I don’t even care I just wanted to see what you were going to say. And its like, that isn’t very constructive. And I mean I’ve had those side conversations with people where I’m like “that’s not very constructive. Think about all the people in the audience who are genuinely confused as to why you keep asking every time I’m out here”.

But yeah I’m trying to think of what I would have even said about. I’ll go back and have a look as I think it was on an M and R stream that you did. Oh maybe. That was like what 2 years ago now maybe on the podcast Bricks and bits.

I mean that is, there is something in the equation about cost of upkeep of 9 volt trains. I don’t remember what I said. I’m sure it was really well articulated and right on the money. But I don’t remember.

Its just one of those things. I think it was more cause of the way the question got asked and gave an answer but then they chopped to something else. It may be, that happens a lot.

Over my time, it’s a huge deal when someone is like “We’ve got the LEGO guy, hit him with everything” so you could change topics every couple of seconds [fingers clicking] and you are like “what are we doing”. Your PR brain is like, “hold on, we’ve got to readjust to what messaging is next, what messaging is next?”.

Rapid fire. The community will test your PR skills every day of the week.

Kevin Hinkle Links

Home Page https://www.kevinahinkle.com/
Mr Hinkle Draws Patreon https://www.patreon.com/MrHinkleDraws
Instagram Personal https://www.instagram.com/mrkevinhinkle
Art https://www.instagram.com/mrhinkledraws/
Twitter https://twitter.com/MrHinkleDraws
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/MrHinkleDraws/
Twitch https://www.twitch.tv/MrHinkleDraws
Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuCmBtG9SqYtnIFljb9IGWw
Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinhink/collections/72157693082330240/
Etsy Store https://www.etsy.com/Shop/MrHinkleDraws

Kevin Hinkle LEGO Room Tour
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ST1wvwT7M8
Kevin Who Playlist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTIcu3JSyj4&list=PLTyrZuG_ZgWXrvQ7uE0GnnO2H7d7Bzp-e

New Elementary
http://www.newelementary.com/

Tuesday Night – Brick Building
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpaLweY6uWk&list=PLTyrZuG_ZgWUCSnS4RgIYlsS0TtXyNGbp
Friday Morning – Doodle Stream
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6e_vyrwYb3k&list=PLTyrZuG_ZgWUbUiLrqppn26C0HfvAtFk7

21,430 Piece Mario
https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-26443/xiaowang/mario/

Bricks in the Middle Comic
https://bricksinthemiddle.com/
https://www.instagram.com/bitmcomics/

#interview #LEGO #kevinhinkle #legoart #legobricks #legoman #legolife #legobuilder #legocreations #legoinstragram #legofan #legocommunity #legofun #legomania #legostagram #legovideo #legoquickreview #mrhinkledraws #art #mrkevinhinkle #legoise #legoize #legominifigure #legominifigs #sigfig #afol #artcommissions #toyartistry #legome #minifigure

May 31

LEGO SpaceX Falcon Heavy Kids Review & Time lapse Speed Build Space Rocket for Kids

In this video the kids review a LEGO SpaceX Falcon Heavy Rocket MOC*. We look at how the SpaceX Falcon Heavy works with stage 1 and stage 2. We also have a time lapse speed build and talk about some of the things to be mindful of during the build. We also cover a few limitations within the build.

This is great for getting kids interested in SpaceX and STEM, as they have something hands on and interactive. So strap yourself in and gods speed.

We got this My Own Creation, MOC, from the LEGO ideas website by Eiffleman:
https://ideas.lego.com/projects/80b37347-6083-4878-978f-fbf7d962a42b

*MOC = My Own Creation

Time codes for the video:
0:00 Introduction
0:35 Where we got the SpaceX Falcon Heavy Instructions from
1:25 Breakage from General Handling
2:09 Kids Introduction on SpaceX Falcon Heavy – Stage 1
4:15 Stage 2, Satellites and payloads
5:18 Parts from our own collection and critical parts
6:18 Time lapse speed build
7:17 Creating stickers yourself
7:40 Critical Building steps and considerations … make sure you get it right
8:50 Kids explaining reusable rockets

Transcript from the Show

Welcome to our video of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy Rocket. This was a tricky build.

In this video we will cover how the SpaceX Falcon Heavy works, which was great for getting the kids to understand and peak their interest in it . We will review the model and talk about breakage. There will also be a timelapse speed build where we will point out some things to be mindful of during the build.

So strap yourself in and god speed.

This is a Family Bricks video. Be sure to hit that like button, share or if you want to be super awesome,  subscribe! Click the bell and select “All”, to be notified of new videos as they are uploaded.

Where We Got the SpaceX Falcon Heavy Instructions from

We got this My Own Creation, MOC, from the LEGO ideas website and will include a link around the video.
https://ideas.lego.com/projects/80b37347-6083-4878-978f-fbf7d962a42b

This is a fan designer who has put the idea forward to be a real set and included instructions if you click on the updates. If you scroll down you’ll see they are from the most recent to older with decals and the pieces you need. Showing it there relative to the Saturn V. And a couple of different payloads you can have. Whether it is traditional satelittle  or the promotional Tesla car that got sent up into space.

It is a great build of medium difficultly and really meant as a display piece as it is quite fragile. I get that if it was to become a LEGO set, they would undoubtedly address this issue but there was a bit of breakage with the kids handling which was a real shame.

Breakage from General Handling

Then  [breakage] … ok, that wasn’t mean to happen. Don’t worry everyone.

These parts are fragile [booster falls off the table].

Its not very fragile unless you play rough with it.

[satellite drops onto table and smashes to pieces] . And this is fragile

And that comes back down to earth [booster falls over and smashes]

Not sure why everything keeps breaking. The reason we think it [blade hinge falls off] keeps breaking is cause it is fragile.

Whoa… that was a close one.

Kids Introduction on SpaceX Falcon Heavy – Stage 1

Hello everyone and today we are going to be talking about the SpaceX Falcon Heavy. This is a rocket that will go into space, then it will land back on earth safely, if it doesn’t explode and they will reuse it again, and again, and again, and again.

The first part that I want to show you is the boosters. The boosters can come off. Yeah. Not easily.

So, this is the set. Let’s try the satellite in.

These are the mini things in. Stage 1 is boosters coming off. So, it will be flying, next the boosters will split up. They be … duuuuh. Oh, that was stage 2 just popping off. So, then they should make a firm landing.

Those 2 parts are coming into earths atmosphere, so you know what that means, they will finally engage their landing units. So, they should land on pad 1 and 2. Oh my gosh, I don’t know why that keeps happening. It won’t let me put it in the proper landing mode. These boosters land back down. Only the main booster is going. This is the main booster. But when it is flying, it will be like that.

Stage 2, Satellites and Payloads

And then, comes stage 2. Stage 2 is important, if the rocket explodes, which it shouldn’t, before stage 2 then the car won’t go into the moon. So, when it splits up, it should look like that. So then, when it flies around, and it lands. Not the real one though, the LEGO one, yeah, when it flies around, then lands on the moon, then the car will be released.

Is this the bit that goes up to space. No that’s the satellite. What does the satellite do? It just goes up and then communicates with phones and then sends the emails and addresses, call and things to the other person’s phones.

Parts from our own collection and critical parts

We largely built the SpaceX Falcon Heavy from pieces within our collection. So ideally everything exposed would be in white with a few black pieces for the base of the rocket and the Hinge Plate 3 x 12 with Angled Side Extensions and Tapered Ends.

At the time, the Cylinder Half 2 x 4 x 5 with 1 x 2 Cutout pieces were really hard to come by and had to order from LEGO.com directly (as you need about 34 of these). That was a long painful process with many calls to LEGO customer service. I have noticed now however, seems much easier to get 34 of those pieces all from one seller, so maybe have had more sets released with the piece recently.

For the instructions, we basically just printed off the page from the LEGO ideas website.

There actually aren’t a great deal of pieces to make it up, but there are some less common ones such as Cylinder Half 3 x 6 x 10 with 1 x 2 Cutout and the 32 length Technic axle, which you do need 3 of. You need one for each booster helps out with the structural integrity of the booster – so wouldn’t really recommend trying to leave it out or skip over it.

Time lapse speed build

And now onto the time lapse speed build.

The base of all 3 boosters are the same so we were able to build one each, which might get a little tedious with just one person. You can see that it is built around that 32 Technic Axle which helps compress the pieces together with anchor points throughout the length. Even then, the pieces can’t easily shear apart.

Most of the black and grey rings should be white but again, just dealing with the pieces we had available in our collection at the time.

The center booster is obviously the one that is a little different as it has second stage and payload.

You also have to cut a length of 192mm tubing (part 85526) to get 86mm pieces which help bind the 3 boosters together, in addition to the technic pins. I know some LEGO purists are going to freak out cutting that piece but again, probably wouldn’t recommend skipping it. Hence you can see the scissors and ruler in shot here.

Then onto the satellite and red Tesla car payloads – so you can choose which one you want to use.

Creating stickers yourself

For the stickers, we got some Transparent Ink Jet adhesive film that you can stick into a regular home colour ink jet printer. Around the video should be a link to one of these. Just printed the stickers from the graphics that were included on the LEGO ideas website. We may have had to scale them slightly to get the right size.

So, for anyone who hates applying stickers, having to make your own might be a step too far.

Critical Building steps and considerations … make sure you get it right

One thing we did want to point out about this build is you really have to pay attention to the rotation of the pieces at the bottom of the boosters. If you don’t, you’ll end up having the technic pin hole connections underneath the long black plate hinge plates.

This means you won’t be able to connect the 3 boosters together. It isn’t a simple job just to rotate them 45 degrees, so really watch for this when building.

We also found the black blade hinge plates at the bottom generally aren’t strong enough to support the weight of the boosters, to simulate them landing back on earth following a launch.

It might seem that we are being overly critical and appreciate it is a fan design, and not a full blown LEGO designed and tested product. It is a great build but if going to the time and effort to put together, we want you to know some of the issues so don’t get frustrated by it. Or if you decide to try to do your own designs, what are going to be some of the considerations in putting it together.

We do appreciate the time and effort that went into the fan design and its great Eiffleman has included all the information to be able to build it yourself.

As you can see from the kids explanations, it was great for them to have something hands on and engage with so they could understand the different stages and the significance of reusable rockets returning to earth.

Kids explaining reusable rockets

As you may know, rockets are never used again, once they are used once. But this one is a special type of rocket. They are going to use it lots of times, like a space shuttle. If you’ve never heard of the space shuttle, watch a video on space shuttles. This is not a space shuttle, note that in mind. This is the SpaceX Falcon Heavy Rocket.

Rockets, usually rockets are only used once and costs lots of money but this rocket can save money cause it is different to all the others. How? It lands on earth as I said safely.

Did you know 1 or 2 space shuttles, they exploded and guess what happened? Bits fell down, did you know that? They exploded! Exploded I said.

This is a Family Bricks video. Be sure to hit that like button, share or if you want to be super awesome,  subscribe! Click the bell and select “All”, to be notified of new videos as they are uploaded.

Thanks very much for watching. Maybe you’d like to check out the kids talking about the Statute of Liberty…. Or a blooper reel … or a LEGO Simpson’s House playthrough … or a LEGO Dots Pineapple Pencil Holder Hands on Review. These and other videos you’ll find on our Family Bricks YouTube channel that can be found at www.youtube.com/c/familybricks.

Until next time when we talk about all things LEGO and Lifestyle.

https://www.mattelder.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/MOC-Cup-Cake-Stand-Ying-Yang-Style-Instructions-02.pdf

May 28

LEGO Technic Lamborghini Sián FKP 37 (42115) Reaction – How to Get for a Good Price?! Review

In this video we react to the new LEGO Technic Lamborghini Sián FKP 37 (set 42115) that has just been revealed. We also look at historically when is the best time to purchase this car as it is a really pricey set. We also cover facts about the real car that have translated into LEGO, it is the first Lamborghini Electric hybrid and what does the “Sian” name actually mean?

Not a petrol head but always loved Lamborghinis since I was a little kid. Porsches and Ferraris never did it for me, but those low to the ground sleek lines of the Lamborghini contouch just always awesome. So naturally excited for this one. We’ve been teased over last few weeks, a wheel a couple of weeks ago and teaser trailer yesterday.

Fun Facts about the real car:
– First Lamborghini Electric Hybrid Car
– Only 63 will be made commemorating 1963 when Lamborghini first made a supercar
– Sian means lightning , so slight variation from the bull names they usually go with. But goes along with the fact it is their first electric hybrid
– FKP 37 are the initials related to late Volkswagen Group chairman Ferdinand Piëch who bought Lamborghini into the VW brand in the 1990s, 37 was his birth year of 1937
– Originally a tractor company
– Frosted glass on the top
– press a button and unfrosts
– No two will be alike – so one customer orders in one colour, no one else can order in that colour … wonder who will get the red and black variations
– Green is actually traditional Lamborghini colour
– Air vents are 3D printed – first time for this
– Power for the electric motor is stored in a supercapacitor unit instead of conventional lithium ion batteries.
– 3 times the power and lighter weight

Check out Business Wars podcast which goes over Lamborghini vs Ferrrari https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ferrari-vs-lamborghini-the-gauntlet-1/id1335814741?i=1000434944942

Release date June 1, 2020 VIP, August 1st, general public
Set 42115 3696 pieces Price US 379.99 UK £349.99 €379.99
1:8 Scale

More Information: https://www.brothers-brick.com/2020/05/28/lego-technic-lamborghini-sian-supercar-officially-unveiled-news/

Timecode for the Video:

0:00 Introduction
0:17 Lamborghini Sian FKP37 Trailer Reveal
3:10 LEGO Instagram Official Images and Car Fun Facts .. the number 63
4:00 Why Sian?!
4:35 Wheel Detail
4:45 Rearview spoiler
5:15 Car Build
6:17 Price History of LEGO Supercars
7:35 Why you shouldn’t buy the LEGO Bugatti at the moment
8:05 What is FKP37?
8:19 Lamborghini started as a tractor company
8:35 Conclusion and Summary

#legolamborghini #lamborghini #lego #legotechnic #legoleaks #legoleaks2020 #legolambo #legotechnics #legolamborghinisian #lamborghinisian #legosupercars #supercars #lamborghinisianfkp37 #legosupercars #review #LEGO #legoart #legobricks #legoman #legolife #legobuilder #legocreations #legoinstragram #legofan #legocommunity #legofun #legomania #legovideo #legoquickreview

May 25

LEGO Yoda 2002 7194 Ultimate Collectors Series UCS – How hard is it to build? Speed Build Review

In this video we are going to review and time lapse build this LEGO Yoda UCS Ultimate Collector Series UCS set 7194 from 2002. It has 1,075 pieces but the vast majority of those are bricks. It’s like having your own little Yoda in a similar style to brick builds that you would find a a LEGOLAND themepark, and there aren’t too many sets like this.

How does it stand up today, what is it like, how hard is it to build, how can I get one? We will look at all these questions.

Time codes for the video:
0:06 Introduction
2:56 Instructions
5:08 Pre-sorting bricks into bowls
5:25 Time-lapse build
6:33 Head construction
7:21 Ear Construction
7:40 Final thoughts on the construction
7:52 Tips on How to Get A hold of one vs Rebricking on Bricklink
8:35 2002 Yoda vs 2019 Yoda
9:00 Building Mandalorian Baby Yoda from 2019 Yoda set
9:20 What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments below

2019 Baby Yoda aka “The Child” Alternative Build 75255 instructions mentioned in the video:
https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-38952/Allouryuen/the-child-aka-baby-yoda/

Transcript from the show

Hmmm … Build or Build not! There is no try. <groan>

Introduction

G’day Everyone, Matt Elder of Family Bricks and in today’s video we are going to review and time lapse build this LEGO Yoda UCS Ultimate Collector Series set 7194 from 2002. It has 1,075 pieces but the vast majority of those are bricks. It’s like having your own little Yoda in a similar style to brick builds that you would find a a LEGOLAND themepark, and there aren’t too many sets like this.

This is a Family Bricks video. Be sure to hit that like button, share or if you want to be super awesome,  subscribe! Click the bell and select “All”, to be notified of new videos as they are uploaded.

Overview

So this is more just a straight up and down brick build. You mainly just build it in layers as you go straight up. There isn’t that much movement in here or play features. There is a couple little things that you can do. Like you can turn the head a little bit. Its motion gets stop by this little necklace through there. If you lift it all the way up you can turn it around and stop it from getting caught in there.

I mean that little necklace thing seems a bit weird. I don’t remember it from the original trilogy set of films but maybe I’m not remembering it correctly. You do also have these eyes that can move a little bit up and down given the way they sit on these technic pieces. But again not a great deal that you can do with them. You can have them cross eyed or wonky or something. But otherwise just looks straight forward.

The head sits on one of those rotating 4×4 type bricks. And that is what gives it that motion there. And that chain is attached in at the back.

Most of it is in this tan or sand green, occasionally do get some of these other reds and browns. Most of it is built straight up. You do get some occasionally some studs to the side for the fingers. Otherwise it’s a big chunky sort of a build.

Just as you are going around you get a bit of a sense of those Jedi robes and sort of flowing. Then in the back you get a special LEGO piece. Coming back around to the front , mainly just detail and the flow there. Unlike the 2019 version of Yoda where you get the studs being in all different directions, this one just comes all the way straight up. You’ve got to keep in mind this was done, whats it now, getting on 20 years ago.

So you had a few less pieces and different ways and styles of building back them.

Then if we have a look up through the middle of him, have a look in here, you can sort of see that it is actually quite hollow. Just holding onto it with one hand, and hopefully don’t really drop it or anything like that. There is no sort of technic inner construction or like that. You have a few of these 1×16 beams at the very beginning to help support it but otherwise pretty hollow straight up to the head.

Instructions

Also pretty lucky when we picked it up we managed to get the original set of instructions. So interesting to see the different art styles and the way they were doing instructions and packaging back then. So you have a picture of Yoda himself but then in the background you’ve got a photographic image of part of the X-wing and Luke when he is on Degobah. Obviously when you are first seeing this character.

So you come to here and it shows you basically a layering system but you can just make out in the background there, you’ve got the rear engine of the X-wing all the way through. There instructions are a little bit of a challenge, don’t know how well it is showing up but these are different types of brown and these are meant to be the same types of brown as well where as this one is showing it as really red so don’t know if it is a printing thing or it has faded over time. These are all showing up as red whereas they should be more these sorts of browns. Particularly in the initial set up, that can make it pretty challenging to do.

You really need to pay attention to where the master grid lines are and also really need to be paying attention to if there is any difference between tiles and the actual bricks as well. You can sort of see in that place you have 3 tiles and you’ve got the one brick that goes there. So really staying on top and focusing on what you are doing.

It just so hard with these types of instructions as you can’t really tell 3 dimensionally when you start building up the next layers where things are and double checking the positions and alignments. It becomes really tricky. So we will take a bit of a flick through and might speed it up.

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You start off by building the body itself until you get to the top , and then in the next bit you do the head separately. The ears are separate as well.

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That is doing one of the ears, then the other ear and just slotting it straight in. Always interesting with older instructions seeing what current sets where also available at the time. You’ve got an early version of R2-D2 and C3PO and you can see they are quite hollow. Darth Vader, Blockage Runner, and another head sculptural type bust of Darth Maul which we also have one of those. So check around the video and you might see a link to a build of that.

Pre-sorting bricks into bowls

As always with second hand sets, try to sort into as many bowls as possible so you can easily find pieces when you are building. One of those sharpening the saw type ideas. Spend a little bit of time upfront and you’ll save yourself a lot of time down the line.

Time-lapse Speed Build

Starting off with the base tiles/plate layer and bricks on top of that it’s a little bit of a challenge. It feels a little bit like open season as pieces can kinda go wherever as opposed to once you get a couple of layers going, you get a general sense of which way the pieces are moving and forming as you are going up each layer.

Previously rebricked a Statute of Liberty from around this time period. Click on the link around the video to see how that one worked out.

Even though that was a much bigger set, that one was much easier, cause you are mainly only dealing with one colour. Where as here you are dealing with multiple colours in terms of the tans, the reds, the browns and the sand greens all at once.

As you saw earlier in the video, the instructions are just layer by layer. So best way I’ve found to approach these is to look at your major gird lines and keep looking at where pieces align relative to those grid lines.

In each step pull out all the pieces that you need which the instructions tell you. If there is a mixture of plates and bricks in a step, pay attention to which is which. Whenever I’m getting something wrong, its usually when I’m getting plates and bricks mixed up and not paying supper attention to the grid guidelines. Through the magic of editing, you don’t get to see where I make mistakes.

Head Construction

Now onto the head construction. Due to the layering way you build this, if you do make a mistake, its actually really quite difficult to figure out where it is as you don’t see it in 3D. You just see this slice at a time. So you don’t get a really good sense of how one layer relates to another.

I find then to go back and fix your mistakes the easiest way is to go back and take 2 or 3 layers off back to where you are pretty confident it is correct and its usually all on the same plane. As you can see, the head construction is quite hollow as well.

This was also quite challenging to build due to the way the jumpers and the way holes were left to give the sense of wrinkles and age, and the way that Yoda’s head is that wrinkly. As you get to the top and start closing in that open gap, it does feel quite satisfying. Its brick building a sphere with all sorts of wrinkles and holes and plates and bricks.

Ear Construction

 Each ear is then built separately. After the complexity of the body and the head, its nice to have a quick simple little build like the ears. The ears connect into the head through Technic pins. The head itself simply connects onto the 4×4 spinning disc plate. Pretty simple isn’t it Yoda.

Final Thoughts on the Construction

This brick built sculptural statues from the early 2000s are always challenging builds. So if that’s your sort of thing and you like the aesthetic of this brick style build with studs usually all going in the same direction, then definitely check it out and try the build.

Tips on How to Get A hold of one

In terms of trying to get ahold of one, ebay is going to be your best bet. People will ask crazy money for these sorts of things so you do need to be a bit patient. Instructions and the box I would consider essential unless you are a completist as you can get the instructions off LEGO.com or some other digital format.

Rebricking vs Bricklink

I did look at parting the set out on bricklink but did find if you don’t have a lot of tan and sand greens in particular, its actually quite expensive and getting to that point where trying to get a good deal second hand is actually a better alternative.

I’ve seen that some consider this to be a UCS Ultimate Collectors Set series, so if you are trying to be a completist, it is going to be one of those ones which is going to be a challenge to get your hands on.

2002 Yoda vs 2019 Yoda

If you are just looking for a Yoda statute, then maybe consider the 2019 version. As at time of recording this video, it is still available and occasionally you can pick it up on sale. Just be aware that the 2019 version is the prequel type Yoda, he has a little bit of greying hair and there are some other subtle differences, but his eyes are a lot more posable. And he does come with a light sabre as opposed to a cane in this version.

Building Mandalorian Baby Yoda from 2019 Yoda set

I have seen online where someone has taken the 2019 version and rejigged it just within the set to make it into a baby Yoda. Given the Mandalorian is quite hot at the moment, that might be something that sways you one way or the other. Note however the person who produced those instructions is charging about £15 or $20 US dollars for the instructions.

So what do you think? Are you up for the challenge of this old school Yoda from the early 2000s or do you prefer the new one and that is more your aesthetic? Let us know in the comments below.

This is a Family Bricks video. Be sure to hit that like button, share or if you want to be super awesome,  subscribe! Click the bell and select “All”, to be notified of new videos as they are uploaded.

You might be wondering, where can I see that early 2000s Statute of Liberty build, click here for the video. Alternatively, here are some other videos you might be interested in.

That’s all from us here at Family Bricks. Thanks very much for watching. Until next time when we talk about all things LEGO and Lifestyle.


May 20

Sailor Moon LEGOIZED Time lapse Marker Sketch – What would Sailor Moon look like in LEGO Form?

In this time lapse marker sketch video, we take a still frame from Sailor Moon and LEGOIZE it. A trend at the moment on the internet to take this Sailor Moon image and do it in our own art style. I offer a quick commentary and a few thoughts that went into producing this quick marker sketch.

This is the first time I’ve ever done one of these screencap redraw type challenges.

#sailormoonchallenge #sailormoon #sailormoonREDRAW #screencapedraw #redraw #fanart #quicksketch #markersketch #timelapse #timelapsevideo #legotimelapse #legoise #legoize #legominifigure #legominifigs #legominifigures #legominifigure #LEGO #legoart #legobricks #legoman #legolife #legobuilder #legocreations #legoinstragram #legofan #legocommunity #legofun #legomania

May 16

Kevin Hinkle Life After LEGO: Illustration & Design Freelance – Whats Next for MrHinkleDraws: Part 1

In this video interview Kevin Hinkle aka MrHinkleDraws talks about life after LEGO, where he had spent 12 years working as community manager for North and South America, in the marketing department and starting off as a stockist boy and working himself up to store manager.

Kevin has gone back to his first love of Illustration and Design that he has a fine art degree in (Kevin designed the Beyond the Brick and Brickfest logos, among many others). Kevin offers tips on how to draw and render minifigures.

We discuss Kevin’s artistic influences, his comics (including Bricks in the Middle) and his design work. How did Kevin end up designing the Beyond the Brick Logo. He talks about his work being swiped and his most popular piece. Kevin also discusses his patreon page and his most effective marketing tool.

He talks about what it was like having a year to get prepared to be fired, the seeds he planted and how those are bearing fruit now. Do you really matter to the company you work for?

This is the first part of a 2 part episode. Part 2 can be found here

Time codes to interview.

0:00 Introduction

0:12 Background with the LEGO Group (TLG)

0:55 Being let go from the LEGO Group and spending a year getting ready to potentially loose your job

2:40 Making preparations for the next job and planting seeds in 2017

3:22 Background in Fine Arts, Graphic Design and Illustration

4:44 Short list of companies would want to work at and be excited by

5:30 Launching own art business is a backup plan

6:40 “After spending 12 years of my life, do I want to start over at another company”?

7:18 Do you really matter to companies and self discovery

9:00 Becoming Unemployable, having to provide for a family and the motivation it provides, and flexibility

11:25 Having a strong work ethic, working lots of hours

11:55 How Kevin got into art and illustration

12:40 Impact of cartoons

13:20 Doodling while in meetings, actually means that Kevin is listening

14:25 High School was a Fine Arts Academy

15:40 Artistic Influences – Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon, and fan art

16:50 Bricks in the Middle cartoon strip

17:30 Superman Red Sun – favorite story and comic book of all time

19:00 Making comics about work environments – “Minimum Wage”

20:30 Comic about LEGO AFOL Fandom – Bricks in the Middle

22:49 Some ideas that can’t go into the comic

24:00 Ways to collect ideas for the comic … but not offending people

24:50 Making fun of the comic ala Deadpool and breaking the 4th wall … especially on the merchandise… the ultimate compliment

26:20 Art getting swiped – “Vitruvian Man” … evolution to Technic version that got paid for

29:43 Professional Artists getting swiped and artists using social media followings to report those copyright breaches

30:30 What was the plan beyond Art School

31:30 From Stock boy to Assistant Manager at LEGO store

33:00 Initial Freelance Jobs – Luxury ski resort butler … a sweet 1st freelance job

36:15 Moving across the country for jobs with LEGO

37:25 Why didn’t you get the art roles within LEGO?

39:15 LEGO Universe, most expensive investment ever for LEGO – wanting to be head of a sinking ship

39:55 Pursing Traditional 2D studies in college … at the expense of 3D… not listening to teachers

42:00 What to do post LEGO. Designing Beyond the Brick Logo

43:45 Beyond the Brick shining a big, bright light on the LEGO community

44:45 Origin of the “Beyond the Brick” name

47:50 Proof of concept of being able to do brand design, brainstorming

50:00 At Brickworld / Brick fair and people wearing a lot of things Kevin has designed

52:18 Kevin Hinkle and his patreon page – support your favourite creators. Most favourite support level and what happens when you cancel your subscription. Most effective marketing tool

59:03 Tips on How to Draw Minifigures

1:03:15 Sneak peak at some upcoming Minifigure Sketches

1:04:00 Marvel and DC Artists drawing minifigures … and not getting it right

1:05:40 Clicking out of drawing minifigures

1:06:17 LEGO Artists / Illustrators

1:07:40 Tips on How to Render Minifigures

1:09:48 Illustration(s) that has gotten a great response

1:13:00 Bob Hoskins Super Mario Bros Movie sticker

1:15:00 Design, commissions, wait list, no marketing and the LEGO community

1:19:20 Drawing of someone’s SigFig … for free and/or “exposure bucks”

1:23:00 Average wait time for jobs and working schedule

1:24:10 Thinking about your own art projects past client work

1:25:10 Oil Painting, water colours and water color tattoos

1:27:18 Kevin Hinkle’s how to get in touch and contact details

Kevin Hinkle Links
Home Page https://www.kevinahinkle.com/
Mr Hinkle Draws Patreon https://www.patreon.com/MrHinkleDraws
Instagram Personal https://www.instagram.com/mrkevinhinkle
Art https://www.instagram.com/mrhinkledraws/
witter https://twitter.com/MrHinkleDraws
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/MrHinkleDraws/
Twitch https://www.twitch.tv/MrHinkleDraws
Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuCmBtG9SqYtnIFljb9IGWw
Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinhink/collections/72157693082330240/
Etsy Store https://www.etsy.com/Shop/MrHinkleDraws

Bricks in the Middle Comic
https://bricksinthemiddle.com/
https://www.instagram.com/bitmcomics/

Other LEGO Artists:
Dan Veesenmeyer http://dansartwork.com/
Greg Hyland http://www.lethargiclad.com/
Paul Lee https://twitter.com/polywen

May 12

Orrery Review – Is it any good? Earth Moon Sun by JK Brickworks – For Kids Science Project

In this video we review the Orrery made by JK Brickworks of the Earth, Sun and Moon. FREE Instructions for this have been made available by Jason Allemann in the link below. We’ll cover off some of the gearing, key parts and slightly modifications we’ve had to make to get it working from the limited parts selection we have in our collection. This was done for one of our kids school projects and was a huge hit.

FREE Instructions from JKBrickworks on How to make / build this LEGO Orrery of Sun, Moon and Earth are at: https://jkbrickworks.com/earth-moon-and-sun-orrery/

Video Timecodes:
0:00 Introduction
0:39 Overview
2:00 Approximate Earth and orbiting rotations
3:14 Hand crank and instructions (tip for building)
3:57 How do the gears work?
5:32 Modifications – adding a motor and structure
6:57 Modifications – cosmetic if you don’t have all the right pieces, ground connectors and making it all one unit higher
8:15 Uncommon parts in the build

Excerpt from Show Notes:

G’day Everyone, Matt Elder of Family Bricks and in today’s video we are going to review this LEGO Orrery of the Sun, moon and earth by Jason Allemann Instructions for this are freely available from JKBrickworks. We’ll cover off some of the gearing, key parts and slightly modifications we’ve had to make to get it working from the limited parts selection we have in our collection. This was done for one of our kids school projects and was a huge hit.

Overall was great to put together an if this is your thing, and /or the kids have a science project in the ballpark, definitely recommend giving it a go. It really helps kids to visualize and understand different orbits and what rotates around what. Also helps for kids to learn key rotation times, like the earth going around the sun in 365.25 days. Of course, anything in LEGO seems far more engaging and tactile, so really hit its mark as a learning objective.

Instructions are pretty spot on if you get out the pieces for each step as you go. While the hand crank is fun for the first couple of turns, you really do need some sort of motor setup to get full value and appreciation out of it. Really recommend making sure you have all the main gears as modifying it on the fly can get tricky depending upon what you are missing.

Great to put it together and really enjoyed it! Having quality instructions like the ones provide really makes a difference. Jason has a huge variety of moving / kinetic instruction models on his website, some free, some you need to pay a token amount for. There are a number of his I would like to build in the future, maybe the actual working safe. What catches your eye, what should we build next?

That’s all from us here at Family Bricks. If you are wondering if I’ve ever made my own moving/kinetic works, be sure to check out my LEGO Scenario standard such as this Star Wars one. Otherwise here are some other videos

#review #LEGO #orrery #legoart #legobricks #legoman #legolife #legobuilder #legocreations #legoinstragram #legofan #legocommunity #legofun #legomania #legostagram #kidsplay #kidsplaying #kidsplaytime #keepingkidsbusy #funwithkids #homewithkids #boredkids #legovideo #legoquickreview #solarsystem #astronomy #mechanicalmodel