Brave New Lego World: day MDCCLXXVIII: 10248 Ferrari F40

Day 1778, 28/12/2017:

Considering I have a scale model Ferrari F-40, it was a no-brainer I’d be getting the Lego version. Of course attempting to build this when there was a move-out date from my unit  around the corner meant there was a risk that it would take some time to be built. Turns out that time was 527 days (18th August, 2015 ~ 26th January, 2017). It’s what happens when you move into a significantly smaller place (with no place for Lego), get engaged, married then move into a new house. But it got completed:

It’s just a shame that when I got the box, it came like this:

As far as I could tell, it wasn’t due to the delivery, but more the box manufacturing. Nothing was missing or broken, but not exactly Ferrari quality (but at least it wasn’t on fire).

The instructions first have you setting up the chassis:

2 pedals?? Is this the automatic version of the Ferrari F-40??

The bottom of the seats and handbrake installed:

The dash and the steering wheel get installed next. Note the Ferrari badge on the steering wheel:

The back of the cabin and rest of the seats:

Windscreen and roof installed:

Note that the windscreen doesnt actually connect to the roof:

Five months later…

New location, and new doors!

On the inside they even replicate the cable door handle of the original:

I’m impressed with how they replicate the F40’s side NACA ducts:

One year later…

Something something getting married; something something new place. Anyway, found time to sit down and complete the Ferrari F-40 in the new Lego room:

With the shell of the car mostly done, the instructions sets you onto creating the 2.9 L twin-turbocharged Tipo F120A V8 engine and transmission:

I like how the designers replicated the exhaust manifold:

Yee-haw Emmet indeed:

This build has it’s fair share of pieces I havent seen before, including the exhaust tips in the first engine picture. a flat L-shape piece:

This circular flat piece with just a single stud in the centre:

And it’s cousin the circular flat piece with a single hole in the centre:

One heat exchanger (the finned 2×4 block top and bottom centre) has already been installed.

The manifold is an interesting design that I don’t think quite works. As can be seen, the two sides of the manifold need to join side-by-side, but we’re dealing with two bottom ends:

It just so happens that the two sides are just 2 studs wide:

Just however. When you connect them up, you can see that the top half is pinching together, leaving the manifold not exactly flat and gapless:

Full points for creativity though.

And below is the Lego Ferrari F-40 twin turbo engine, complete with exhaust system:

You can see one of the ‘turbos’ represented by the dark grey 1×1 round stud sticking out of the side towards the back end:

With the engine complete, it’s time to marry it to the ‘lightweight’ chassis:

The pole to keep the rear bonnet up:

The rear bonnet nearly complete:

The rear bonnet has an interesting way in replicating the roundish shape of the rear window. The gap around the window is filled by an angled red section that is slotted in sidewards. It clips in as can be seen by the light grey clip in the lower right, and the pole it clips onto at the bottom of the hole of the gap:

Adding some of the little touches:

The rear with completed wing:

Wilbur, or allegedly Pomeranian mix sits in to watch a classic being made:

The final section is the front, where some interesting SNOT choices are seen:

The headlights are attached to the yellow handle bars to give it the angle needed:

Pop-up headlights go next:

Only the bonnet left:

The bonnet itself:

To get the curves of the inlets, the pieces are on their sides. To attach them, there’s a pole under the bonnet that the sideward pieces clip onto:

Pretty clever.

The rims have different designs on either side, with one side allowing you to install the special star fascia of the Ferrari F-40 (not shown in the photo below):

And with the set complete, the glamour shots:

There was a surprisingly large number of left over pieces after I was done:

Brave New Lego World: day MDCCIX: And We’re Back

Day 1709, 08/10/2017:

Soooo, it’s been a while (some might say it’s been years) since the last update/post, but things have managed to settle down enough that I can get back to covering my Lego City city dream.

Since my last blog post, I’ve:

• moved out of my unit and in with my (then) GF
• gotten engaged, then married
• bought (a year ago) and moved into a house
• gotten a puppy
• bought more Lego

OK so one of those isn’t that surprising… One of the great things about my new place is that there’s more room for the Lego City city 😀 I’ll go into more details about the room and my plans for it in another post, but here’s a pic of how it looked soon after moving in:

Admittedly it looks less like a Lego room and more like a Lego storage room, but that’ll change soon 🙂

Brave New Lego World: day CXCIV: 5610 Builder + 5611 Public Works + 7246 Mini Digger GET!

Day 194, 26/08/2013:

I was looking over my backlog of Lego sets that are no longer available at stores that I’d like to buy, and decided to get several smaller, cheaper sets. Considering the developing nature of my Lego City city, I figured the following sets would be good to have around as I built the city. The 2008 5610 Builder should ensure buildings get built properly:

Lego City 5610 Builder

Nothing much to it but would look great at a construction site or on the side of the road working “hard” like real council workers.

Lego City 5610 Builder- back

Rare shot of the builder doing something.

I’ve already planned the placement for the shop front from the 2010 7848 Toys R Us City Truck set and wanted to have a large dumpster to the side. I was going to make one when I stumbled upon the 2008 5611 Public Works set:

Lego City 5611 Public Works

Admittedly, the dumpsters quite small and bright orange but I can easily put this somewhere else (like a park or a camping area) and just design my own one! \o/ And the back shows the guy takin’ out the trash (aw yeah):

Lego City 5611 Public Works- back

And of course, can’t go digging stuff without the classic 2005 7246 Mini Digger:

Lego City 7246 Mini Digger

This has to be the oldest set I have (2005) and was released as the first Lego City sets back in 2005. With 2015 around the corner, it won’t be long before Lego City celebrates it’s 10th-year anniversary! Whilst I already have several construction sets from 2012, this was a different design and thought it would be nice to add to the collection.

Lego City 7246 Mini Digger- back

The box designs from 2005 haven’t really changed much, though it is missing Mr “Hey!” on the back.

Brave New Lego World: day CLXXXVI: 60013 Coast Guard Helicopter + 60023 City Starter-set GET!

Day 186, 18/08/2013:

My local Big W was having a sale on Lego, so a quick trip there netted me the 2013 60013 Coast Guard Helicopter:

Lego City 60013 Coast Guard Helicopter

This is somewhat similar to the 60010 Fire Helicopter released earlier in the year in that they both have a retractable winch, though obviously, the 60013 set comes with something water-themed (wind sail) as opposed to fire-themed (burning refuelling station).

Lego City 60013 Coast Guard Helicopter- back

This set also marks my first shark, and a white one at that!

The other set I picked up is quite applicable to my Lego City city, though kinda noobie: it’s the 60023 Lego City Starter Set:

Lego City 60023 Lego City Starter Set

As the name implies it’s something to get kids started off with -it includes a break separator tool- so it wasnt really something awesome. I figured I could use with some more emergency vehicles and mini-figs (especially the kid). Furthermore, Lego kinda skimps on the amount of jewels they give you with sets, so more jewels is more good 😀

Lego City 60023 Lego City Starter Set- back

Brave New Lego World: day CLXXXIII: 8401 City Mini-figure Collection + 8402 Sports Car + 30017 Police Boat GET!

Day 183, 15/08/2013:

Decided to clear up some of the backlog of older sets with a trip to BrickLink.com which netted me a few smaller but very city-esque sets:

Lego City 8402 Sports Car

The 2009 8402 Sports Car set is a simple set, but thought it’d be nice to have something in the city that resembled everyday life, as opposed to something from civil services or that clashes with said civil services. Plus it comes with a tree! 😀 And an emergency phone with an actual handset! :O Thankfully the car design is different from others already in my city, adding a bit of variety.

Lego City 8402 Sports Car- back

Clearly license plates in Lego City are unnecessary, though with such a small population, I guess everyone should know each other 😛

Lego City 8401 City Mini-figure Collection

I got the 2009 City Mini-figure Collection set because I wanted to boost the number of minifigs in my Lego City city, and felt the collectible minifigs you can get are a bit too ‘costumed’. Plus you can’t go wrong with a boombox.

Lego City 8401 City Mini-figure Collection- back

I also got the 2012 30017 Police Boat polybag:

30017 Police Boat polybag

Considering how many polybags there are, and that they rare get released here (apparently they’re often given away for free in Europe/UK -.-) this could be an expensive sub-collection Especially considering they dont have many pieces and are basic in construction. But the smaller sets will help make the city seem less sparse and more active 🙂

30017 Police Boat polybag- back

Brave New Lego World: day CLXXVIII: 60014 Coast Guard Patrol + 60021 Cargo Heliplane GET!

Day 178, 10/08/2013:

Myer had another sale in the week, this time a 10AUD off for every 50AUD spent (an effective 20% discount). Not exactly the best discount considering you could only get a maximum 20% off if you managed to get the totals to be a multiple of 50AUD. After some number-jumbling I figured I’d go with the following:

Lego City 60014 Coast Guard Patrol

I quite like the 2013 60014 Lego City Coast Guard Patrol set, as it includes quite a few neat touches, including (more than one) shark, a small light house, a helicopter, a submersible and a doomed boat. Granted it’s priced in the upper pricing tier (99.99AUD), discounted it’s pretty packed I think.

Lego City 60014 Coast Guard Patrol- back

Im looking forward to making the 60021 2013 Lego City Cargo Heliplane as the Osprey-inspired design’s quite unique, for planes as well as for Lego:

Lego City 60021 Cargo Heliplane

But considering my airport’s already full, I’m not quite sure where it’s going to go, despite it’s VTOL capabilities

Lego City 60021 Cargo Heliplane- back

Brave New Lego World: day CLXXI: 60011 Surfer Rescue GET!

Day 171, 03/08/2013:

The 2013 60011 Surfer Rescue was a purchase that I hadn’t intended to make, but the novelty of finding it at Woolies whilst going the groceries meant it went straight in the basket, even if it’s at full retail price (9.99AUD).

Lego City 60011 Surfer Rescue

I remember having a few pirate sets as a kid, including the odd shark or two… of course I no longer have them, so it was nice to have a shark again. Otherwise this sets pretty basic and nothing really impressive (though I like how the rescuer has a helmet and sunnies on at the same time. Talk about a super cool dude :P).

Lego City 60011 Surfer Rescue- back

 

Brave New Lego World: day CLXII: 60026 Town Square + 3365 Moon Buggy + 40078 Hot Dog Stand GET!

Day 162, 25/07/2013:

The new 2013 60026 Town Square is a perfect fit for my Lego City city and couldn’t wait to get it. However, when it was finally available at the start of the month I was disappointed to find out it was  Big W exclusive. Not that the prices at Big W are expensive; quite the contrary. It’s just Big W doesn’t often do sales with Lego, and the opening price was only 5AUD less than what shop.lego.com was selling it for (124.99AUD vs. 129.99AUD). Considering I would get free shipping from shop.lego.com for an order of 150AUD+ and they have quite a few exclusive items, I figured I’d get the 60026 from lego directly.

As per usual it arrived from Lego in a timely manner and in excellent condition:

Lego City 60026 Town Square

Which is surprising for such a large box. I guess if I was paying Lego’s expensive shipping it’d be worth it 😛 The box is in Lego’s new large size, which is smaller than the previous large sets.

Lego City 60026 Town Square- back

I figured I’d also get the last 2011 Lego City space set on my list, which is the small & cheap 3365 Moon Buggy:

Lego City 3365 Moon Buggy

Ironically, this small box didn’t arrive in excellent condition But it’s not exactly an impressive set so :p

Lego City 3365 Moon Buggy- back

This month’s “freebie” (you do have to spend at least 100AUD…) from shop.lego.com is the cool 40078 Hot Dog Stand! 😀

40078 Hot Dog Stand polybag

The detail in this small set is quite impressive: the cart opens up at one end to (allegedly) take out more hotdogs; there’s both ketchup and mustard dispensers; the cart has handles and has a griller. Plus it comes with a blue coloured bike and two minifigs, so overall I think it’s a pretty cool freebie 🙂 Can easily have him operating at the beach or in the forest area of my city!

40078 Hot Dog Stand polybag- back

Brave New Lego World: day CXL: 7498 Police Station + 60015 Coast Guard Plane GET!

Day 140, 3/07/2013:

Since the time I got back into Lego – late October last year- all the larger Lego City sets (sets that cost over 100AUD; usually between 130AUD and 150AUD) have been discounted to 100AUD or less… all except the 2011 7498 Police Station that is. I always thought it was strange that even newer sets like the 2012 4204 The Mine or the 2013 60004 Fire Station were being greatly discounted yet the older 7498 hadn’t; maybe 7498 was selling well at full retail price? And then of course when it’s finally on sale, both Myer and Target decide to discount it to under 100AUD! Unfortunately Myer was late in discounting 7498 so I ended up ordering it from Target online for 99AUD (RRP is 149.99AUD), and having it delivered (free!) to my local Target to pick up at a later date, so no Myer One points for me 😦

I’ve ordered from Target before (bought the Target exclusive 4205 Off-Road Command Centre at the start of the year) and the delivery was excellent: (very) large box meant I had received my Lego set dent free. So when I ordered the 7498 and the new 60015 Coast Guard Plane, I felt confident that they’d arrive in much the same condition as the 4205 (though I did realise 7498 is significantly larger…).

Unfortunately I was mistaken: the 7498 has quite a visible dent in the centre, causing noticable creases 😦

Lego City 7498 Police Station

The 60015 was placed on top of 7498, and obviously something was then stacked on top of the box they were in, resulting in the crease But I guess I still ended up getting the sets at pretty nicely discounted.

Lego City 7498 Police Station- back

Not surprisingly the back is crease-free -.- The back gives an excellent overview of what you can do with the set; love how the cell toilet is actually a hidden exit and that the cell doors can be opened and closed by a single sliding mechanism.

I was surprised that Target decided to sell the newly released 60015 Coast Guard Plane at a discounted price of 47AUD (RRP on shop.lego.com is 59.99AUD) but whatever! It was a no brainer to get 😛

Lego City 60015 Coast Guard Plane

Whilst the shape of the box is fine, there was something stuck to the front (tape?) and it’s been ripped off rather poorly Nooo my OCD!! This seaplane becomes the second seaplane I’ve obtained (already have the 2010 3178 Seaplane), and the boat my god-knows-how-many-now-th; pretty sure what little water space in the city cannot possibly accommodate all my boats…

Lego City 60015 Coast Guard Plane- back

I’d still love to modify my city so that the water sections were actually water, but for now I think that’s beyond the abilities of the cheap IKEA tables I’m currently using 😛 And once more I’m reminded why I prefer to purchase my Lego sets in person: I can make sure I get sets that haven’t been sat on/crushed/kicked about/etc.

Brave New Lego World: day CXXXVI: 4430 Fire Transporter GET!

Day 136, 29/06/2013:

Toys R Us Australia was “nice” enough to have a “sale” (read: not much of a sale), they were also nice enough to discount their Lego sets, including the exclusive 2012 4430 Fire Transporter. Whilst they were taking $20 off the price, they had the set listed at 10AUD more than the RRP (RRP is 89.99AUD), so it’s only really a 10AUD discount -.-. Considering I was going to purchase this from shop.lego.com, I figured a discount is still a discount and went ahead and (begrudgingly) bought it:

Lego City 4430 Fire Transporter

I believe this is the last exclusive TRU set I had to purchase, at least up until this point that is. Considering what little savings I got from TRU, I’m thinking next time I should just order it from shop.lego.com and gain more VIP points as well as free shipping :S Best not to let TRU have my money 😉

Lego City 4430 Fire Transporter- back

Brave New Lego World: day CXXVII: 10233 Horizon Express GET!

Day 127, 20/06/2013:

In the past I’ve mentioned that I’m sticking to only the Lego City sets, only to then purchase sets from Creator or limited series like Winter Village sets. I think it’s gotten to the point where I should be saying that I primarily purchase Lego City sets, as Myer just started selling a set at such an attractive price that I couldn’t pass it up: the 2013 10233 Horizon Express:

Expert Creator 10233 Horizon Express

Whilst the Horizon Express has been available overseas and at shop.lego.com, It had only just come out at Myer in Australia today (along with two other tempting sets). It was the combination of this train being compatible with the current Lego train tracks, and the awesome price that I caved in, but only one set. I realise some people bought 2 of the bloody things so they could have a double-ended complete train, but I couldn’t justify the price, never mind that I’d need to have train stations 6-freakin-carriages long :S Gonna be hard enough as it is with 3 carriages >_<

Either way, Myer was doing a 20% discount with the Horizon Express, plus an additional 10% off for being a Myer One member, and with the $20 gift card I had earned from buying most of my Lego at Myer, I managed to get the price down from 159.99AUD to 91AUD 😀

Expert Creator 10233 Horizon Express- back

This train brings back memories of the classic/awesome 1994/5 PC game Transport Tycoon, specifically in reference to the second fastest electric train you could get: the “T.I.M.” Unfortunately, considering my plans for the (overhead) railway system in my Lego City city are for significantly way down the line, it’s going to be ages until I start making this 😦 It’ll be around about that time that I’ll also put some money down for all the sets needed to make this sucker nuclear electrical and remote-controlled 😀

Brave New Lego World: day CXXV: 850791LEGO Minifigure Birthday Set GET!

Day 125, 18/06/2013:

Another day of browsing through the back catalogue of Lego sets, another random set I didn’t know existed and I. must. have. now! Specifically, I came across the 2013 LEGO Minifigure Birthday Set on shop.lego.com:

Lego 850791 LEGO Minifigure Birthday Set

I mostly got it for the clown minifig, his accessories (omg a horn! And cake!!) than using it specifically for a birthday; my birthday isn’t anytime soon, but I guess that doesn’t stop me from buying myself a gift ^_^

Lego 850791 LEGO Minifigure Birthday Set- back

However, I did buy a second box because the friend at work that got me back into Lego is having his birthday soon, and thought this was an apt (and inexpensive ;P) gift 🙂

Brave New Lego World: day CXII: 40054 Summer Scene + 30167 LEGO® Marvel Super Heroes Iron Man™ Drone GET!

Day 112, 5/06/2013:

The remainder of my shop.lego.com order arrived in a small box, given there wasn’t much to the order apart from the large Pick A Brick purchase. Only one item was needed to push the order above 150AUD and receive free shipping, and it was the newly released 2013 40054 Summer Scene polybag:

40054 Summer Scene polybag

The OCD in me was disappointed to see a large scratch  just above red flag on the front, ruining the seascape ;(

I’m actually getting worried that I have too many things to add to the beach area as it’s not very wide/big. I might be forced to create another beach on table 4…

40054 Summer Scene polybag- back

The only other item in the package was the 30167 LEGO® Marvel Super Heroes Iron Man Drone polybag:

30167 LEGO® Marvel Super Heroes Iron Man Drone polybag

Iron Man’s presence in my Lego City city will be either comical or a doing a super hero style thing (ie: chasing after or stopping criminals on the run), or perhaps both 😛 Though I like the idea of seeing Iron Man at the beach (especially if he’s got the speedo legs on xD).

I’m not particularly fond of the transparent blue pieces, as it makes it look like Iron Man  has a height issue and doesn’t like touching things with his bare hands…

30167 LEGO® Marvel Super Heroes Iron Man Drone polybag- back

But hey, a free Lego polybag is free Lego!

Brave New Lego World: day CXI: 2nd Pick-A-Brick Order GET!

Day 111, 04/06/2013:

I put in another shop.lego.com purchase last week, though this order was different from my other ones in that it’s mostly pieces instead of sets. I once again set an order cost for over 150AUD to get the free shipping, and the first half -and the main cost- of the order arrived:

What do we have here aye? 😀

I had finally gotten around to digitally designing all the extras I need for the Lego City city (at least on tables 1 and 2), ranging from more footpaths, driveways, custom airport front+back areas and fleshing out the water area. Whilst I was unable to order the large baseplates I needed (I’ll be sourcing them from BrickLink instead/if I can), I managed to get all the pieces I needed from shop.lego.com… Over 900 individual pieces:

Why it’s Lego! Lots and lots of Lego! \o/

Thankfully, the pieces didn’t arrive in just a plastic bag like my first PAB order did; was a little worried I’d get a busted bag with hardly any pieces left in it…

Much like Lego.com‘s packaging, the box is pretty sturdy, though in this case it doesn’t need to protect an inner box. The other items in my order (that shipped separately) were 2 of the new 2013 40054 Summer Scene and a free Ironman figurine + drone (“LEGO® Marvel Super Heroes Iron Man™ Drone”).

Aaand inside is their usual PAB bag, but this one’s (for once) chockablock full o’ wonderfully new, fresh Lego (straight from Strykow, Poland apparently .___.):

Approximately 900 pieces of Lego!!

I’m just hoping that I didn’t miss any bricks when I spent 4+ hours individually adding each Lego brick type to the PAB website… otherwise I’m just gonna have to buy more Lego ;P

I’ll be adding in the new sections bit by bit later on, and also showing a comparison between the digital design and the final reality. The city’s finally starting to look more like a cohesive mega-set instead of lots of sets just placed haphazardly around the tables 😀

Brave New Lego World: day CIV: 40025 New York Taxi + 40026 Statue of Liberty GET!

Day 104, 28/05/2013:

I keep telling myself to not check out places like Brickset, eBay or even retail stores like John Lewis or Myer if I know I’m not supposed to spend money because it’s almost guaranteed that I’ll find something I’ll want to buy. So colour me not surprised when I found something I had to get whilst perusing eBay for baseplates for the town: the 2012 Creator 40025 New York Taxi and 40026 Statue of Liberty.

Creator 40025 New York Taxi polybag

Creator 40026 Statue of Liberty polybag

I wanted the taxi more than the Statue of Liberty given the car is technically to scale and can easily fit into the city; the statue’s gonna be hard to place without looking odd however. Judging by the picture of the taxi, I’m not even sure you can fit a passenger to taxi about, never mind the driver him/herself…

Creator 40025 New York Taxi polybag- back

Creator 40026 Statue of Liberty polybag- back

As it always goes, this was only offered in the US, and only at specific retail stores for a short period of time. I sometimes wonder if Lego actually wants to sell some of their sets, otherwise why would they create a reseller marketplace that they gain little from?

Brave New Lego World: day XCVII: 3300014 2012 Christmas Set GET!

Day 97, 21/05/2013:

Whilst I’ve told myself that I’ll stick to the Lego City universe (to prevent myself from going broke and Lego-ing myself out of my own home :S), but I’ve allowed an exception for the seasonal sets that Lego does, as they meld in with Lego City quite well. I already have such seasonal sets like the 2012 10229 Winter Village Cottage and the 2010 10216 Winter Village Bakery (can’t wait to make them! :D).

So when I was browsing the seasonal sets and saw the 2012 limited edition 3300014 2012 Christmas set, I had to buy it. It fits in perfectly with the previously mentioned Christmas sets and includes an awesome minifig with a whip.

3300014 2012 Christmas Set (limited edition)

I was surprised I didn’t hear about this given it came out late 2012 but understood why when I looked it up: it was a promotional free gift for online shop.lego.com orders over 99USD during the Black Friday weekend. Being an Aussie, Black Friday means nothing, and even if it did I doubt we’d hear about it from Lego Australia…

3300014 2012 Christmas Set (limited edition)- back

When it finally arrived I was even more surprised at how perfect it arrived: usually online deliveries turn up with some sort of shipping damage; this one was in perfect condition 😀

Brave New Lego World: day LXXII: 60009 Helicopter Arrest + 40052 Springtime Scene + 850449 Minifig Accessory Pack GET!

Day 72, 26/04/2013:

Despite being sent out at the same time as the Pick A Brick order, the sets I ordered from shop.lego.com arrived two days later. I have not been able to find any retailer in Australia that sells the 2013 60009 Helicopter Arrest, so I decided to purchase this directly from Lego in order to get the free* shipping (*free for orders of 150+AUD). Edit: Toys R Us AU (and USA) have an exclusive on this set:

Lego City 60009 Helicopter Arrest

Lego City 60009 Helicopter Arrest- back

Considering the order hadn’t reached 150AUD yet (this set costs 79.99AUD), I also ordered the totally radical 21.99AUD 2012 850449 Lego Minifigure Accessory Pack duuude:

850449 Minifigure Accessory Pack

850449 Minifigure Accessory Pack- back

There should be some space around the beach to place this set (hopefully).

Still short of 150AUD, I also ordered the newly released 2013 12.99AUD 40052 Springtime Scene:

40052 Springtime Scene polybag

40052 Springtime Scene polybag- back

This set should fit in around the forest police sets/area on table 3 (assuming that doesn’t change). Lego was also doing a deal where I could get the 40049 Mini Soptwith Camel if I bought something from the Creator series, so in order to get, I purchased the 9.99AUD 626 Large Green Baseplate:

40049 Mini Sopwith Camel polybag

626 Large Green Baseplate

Figured I’d need a large green baseplate eventually and thought I might as well get it now whilst its purchase served an immediate purpose.

40049 Mini Sopwith Camel polybag- back

Granted the mini Sopwith Camel won’t really fit in with other airplanes due to scale, I reckon I can get it in somewhere without it sticking out like a sore thumb.

Brave New Lego World: day LXX: Lego City Footpath DESIGN!

Day 70, 24/04/2013:

Even though the road baseplates have a 6-stud wide footpath space on either side, I didn’t really consider them to be a footpath, given they were the same colour as the road, and also at the same level. It was only after seeing how a proper footpath could be done at this site a few weeks ago that I got serious about it and decided to focus some time on it. Whilst I could have taken the easy route and done the same sort of footpath as on the site (by using lots of 6×8 medium stone grey plates), I thought I’d try to come up with something more like a footpath you’d see out in the real world. I started by checking out various footpath designs pulled from an Google image search, then designing something with the Lego Digital Designer program:

Lego footpath ideas

I tried quite a few variations of a design where there was an obvious divider between the sections to try an emulate the gaps in footpaths like in this photo but couldn’t get it to look right. Then I tried to break up the monotonous gray with different coloured edges, but that didn’t also quite work. So I then tried to add a grass strip like in  this photo, which I thought worked. I tried putting various types of plants on it to maybe create this organic fence between the road and footpath, but probably won’t do it (for starters, plants/trees are expensive to purchase). The final design I’ve gone with is this:

Final footpath design

It has a 2-stud wide strip of ‘grass’ close to the road, separated by a 1-stud wide  medium stone gray ‘curb’, then a 3-stud wide medium stone gray footpath for people to walk on. Considering the footpath is only 6 studs wide, things are much narrower than reality is. By making the sections 8 studs long, it means I need a perfect 4 sections to cover one road baseplate (which are 32×32 studs in size), and by offsetting their placement by 4 studs, I can have them connect and hold adjacent baseplates in place :).

Probably what really kicked off this whole endeavour was Lego’s free* shipping promotion which goes from the 9th of April until the 31st of August (*free if you spend more than $150 T_T). I figured I would start with getting enough pieces to cover both sides of the road that goes down table 1, which would be 4 32×32 sections; a total of 128 pieces. This only came to 28.80AUD so I purchased some additional Lego items, pushing the order to 153.76AUD. Yes these items are full retail prices and I could get them cheaper elsewhere but Lego’s packaging is usually really good and I needed the order to hit 150+AUD 😛 Plus I got some bonus items with the order too (mini sopwith camel plane and a Lego Chima poster)!

The footpath pieces -and only the footpath pieces- arrived today (less than a week after ordering!):

Footpath pieces GET!

The other sets were sent in a separate box, whereas this came in just a parcel bag.

It was only when I was adding the pieces to the road plates that I realised that I hadn’t taken into consideration driveways @_@

Footpath in front of the garage

I’ll have to work out what driveways and how the footpaths join with them later; most likely do it at the same time I come up with a way to have the footpaths go around a corner. Not that I’m in a rush considering Lego’s free shipping goes until September! 😀

Brave New Lego World: day LXIX: 4438 Robbers’ Hideout GET!

Day 69, 23/04/2013:

The 2012 4438 Robbers’ Hideout is one of those sets I have never seen in Australian stores, most likely because it’s been quite some time since I visited Toys R Us. Turns out this set is a TRU exclusive in the US, which usually translates to a TRU AU exclusive as well. However, TRU rarely have a sale (nevermind a Lego one) and I’d rather not pay full retail price for it (it’s on their site for 84.99AUD) So I eventually decided to bite the bullet and just go to BrickLink and purchase it there; whilst I would save about 50% there (got it for about 44AUD), most of that saving disappeared in shipping costs 😦 Oh well, the downfalls of buying Lego overseas… But at least I wasn’t buying it at Australian RRP from Toys Rnt Cheap! \^o^/

Lego City 4438 Robbers’ Hideout

I’ve been having difficulties placing this set somewhere on the table, as I reckon this set should be hidden away; what’s the point of a hideout if it’s in plain sight from the road? However the design of the hideout building makes it difficult to squirrel in some corner (has a front entrance, garage entry on the left and an open back).

Lego City 4438 Robbers’ Hideout- back

I guess I’ll eventually figure out where to put this set; it’s most definitely on table 3, which I won’t start on until probably next year some time.

Brave New Lego World: day LXVIII: 30196 Ferrari Pit Crew GET!

Day 68, 22/04/2013:

I decided to go and get this polybag from eBay as I couldn’t be bothered participating in the Twitter-based competition that Shell, Coles and Lego were doing to obtain it. Given how unique the minifigs and their accessories are, I felt they were worth the $10 I paid for them:

30196 Ferrari Pit Crew polybag

Granted the polybag arrived quite crinkled, but as long as the pieces aren’t damaged I’m fine with it!

30196 Ferrari Pit Crew polybag- back