whataslacker, Author at whataslacker about bricks

LEGO Vidiyo Theme Review

Forgive this review I am trying to recreate it as I had an issue with posting it originally a month ago and am trying to remember all the finer points I made in it back then as the draft did not save. Basically, it boils done to the fact that the sets are way over priced for the amount of pieces you get in them.

You get only 70-80 some pieces in a $20 dollar set. The sets are comprised of a bunch a specialized parts that are reminiscent of the early 2000s when LEGO was getting crazy with all those special parts for Jack Stone and other themes. Most of these new parts won’t be usable in MOCs and are pretty much just huge Pods (also a points part in the LEGO system).

When I first saw this piece I really could not see anyone ever using it for anything other than these DJ houses. Surprisingly some AFOLs have been using them as spaceship cockpits.

Other ideas I came up with were microscale bio-domes or green houses. What ideas can you come up with for the clear plastic covers from the Vidiyo sets?

The handle. This one I was sure no one could find another use for as there are NO in system connections (LEGO missed an opportunity to add studs on these like the did with the Dots bracelets.) I have recently seen a MOC or two that has indeed used these to my surprise.

A little more System connections found. It will hold 16 of the beat bits tiles and a minifigure. But that is pointless because the figure requires its stand (see the bottom images) to play with it in the app. So I guess you could house a bunch of loose tiles in there instead.

This piece could have been brick built. Why make a new piece when you already have the parts to make this?

Mario brought us a lot of rounded corners. Just some more. This is probably the most useful part in the lot.

The larger domes are cool and snap right onto the white clips. But what else are we going to use those clips for?

The minifigures are fun as minifigures should be. Their cost is $5 which is what we pay for the CMF figures. They are now in a box so it makes it way to hard to find the ones you want. If I get one more stupid Ice cream dude I am going to scream. Yes, I know these are trading toys, but seriously do you know anyone that actually trades them? I don’t. If you know where I can trade them let me know.

The only way to get some of these figures and their fun accessories is to buy the overpriced big sets and that sucks.

I bought a few and at this point I am just going to wait until they hit clearance for any more.

Green Army Guys

I got a set of the classic green army men from Brick Mini during Bricks LA and have to say they are pretty darn cool.

They work on a LEGO stud or minifig hand so your sigfig can sit around and play with them.

You get eight standing (all in different poses) and three tank parts (the dude coming up out of the tank and two tank hatches, one opened and one closed).

LEGO VIDIYO Review

I wasn’t going to buy into these, but I kind of liked the figures to some degree. But the sets so far are way overpriced for what you get.

Right now there are four sets and 12 blind box figures. The sets all average around 70 pieces and retail for $20. At close to $.30 a piece that is (as I have said) a bit overpriced.

I guess we are paying for all those unnecessary new part molds. It feels like we have stepped back in time to when LEGO was making specialized parts left and right. The problem with these are they don’t really fit into the system in any way other than as the boxes they are.

Too many specialized parts like these will become a pile of unused parts in my LEGO room.

Seriously though why give us something like this when they could have designed this around the Dots bands?

Less specialized parts have promise but not much. At least they work better inside the system.

As I said, I also picked up some of the figures. They at least come with a few parts plus the tiles for the app.

I only picked up four and got one duplicate. With not being able to feel these I think they may be the downfall of this theme. I don’t want more than one of each figure. I don’t need all the tiles as I have already tired of the app.

Not a fan of the music on the app. Plus you have to have your figs with you to play with it (bad idea if you’re outside as you may wind up losing them). And who wants to have these AR videos of the inside of their house out there for the world to see? Not me.

You can’t share the videos outside the app not even with a screen capture app. Which is great for kid’s safety but takes some of the fun out of it for AFOLs.

Guess I will wait for these to hit clearance before I buy any more. Or buy them on BrickLink.

Awesome Star Trek Next Gen MOCs

This dude (Chen Wang) in Hong Kong has been spending most of his time during quarantine making some very cool Star Trek: The Next Generation LEGO MOCs.

His initial plan seemed to have been to one from every episode. He has a long road ahead of him and most likely “real” life will get in the way at some point. But for now enjoy what he has brought to us thus far.

He is using LDD and then rendering the images in RenderMan. He could just use Studio to both build and render but that is neither here nor there.

The majority of the builds cannot be built IRL due to colors for certain part not existing. I hope he gets back to making these but there hasn’t been a new update in the past few months.

I originally found him thanks to TrekMovie.com and just had to share them. I will probably attempt to recreate some of these in actual bricks making the necessary changes to do a real life build.

Sometimes Weird Parts Just Work

I given a small bag of “lego” pieces from a colleague of my sister. It was mostly non-LEGO, but I can still use it for my kids club when/if it starts back up.

In it were a bunch on weird masks that I had to look closely at to make sure they were LEGO. They were. These weird pieces are from the heyday of weird LEGO parts and hail from the NHL hockey sets.

I played around with them and made a totem pole of sorts. Then revamped it a couple of times. Now I think I want the rest of the face masks.

I wound up using the above MOCs in the daily brick limit challenge on Instagram this past January. It was fun and the first challenge that I participated in for each day of the event.

These masks could be fun in other rock builds. Maybe challenge it as a seed part some time.

GoggleWorks Building 6

Digital renders of building six at the GoggleWorks.

I decided to play with the animation renders in Studio.

Reference photos for the project.

Chess Anyone?

I had seen the Brick Mini chess sets around Instagram and Facebook, but had only thought of getting them in passing.

Then at Bricks LA’s virtual con I got to see a presentation of their products and decided to bite the bullet and place my order (the attendee’s discount didn’t hurt either). I got a chess set (seen in this review), a set of the nano soldiers, and a couple meeples (I will discuss the others in another post).

For the chess pieces you can take your pick from a number of LEGO color matched options. I went with the classic black and white.

You buy each side separately. So a full set will cost $18, but doing so allows you more creative options with the color schemes. Each side is comprised of two sets of four pawns, a rook, a knight, a queen, and a king. You wind up with an extra king and queen for each side.

You have to build your own board or buy a starter board from them (the parts will be official LEGO pieces).

You will need 64 1×1 plates in two colors. 32 of each color and an 8×8 plate.

The pieces are all designed so that a minifigure can hold each one.

These are really kind of fun. Whether you want a little something for your own desk or want to add a touch of Queen’s Gambit to your city’s park, I think you’ll like these.

Available at BrickMini.com.

Dots Series 3

I have been underwhelmed by the Dots lines, but especially in the bands (aka bracelets).

First off, I know many have already states this, but we need more basic colors. Seriously, boys like to wear these too. Besides that, not all girls feel the need to have everything in pinks and pastels.

In series three we see these same issues once again. The only reason I even picked up a pack and set of the new bands were for the special pieces. But I think LEGO knows that’s what is selling these.

The double molded stars and diamonds are pretty neat. And the transparent piece goes all the way through so they could potentially be back lit.

I just wish they had done these in reverse. Pink and purple round diamonds and opal and dark blue square stars. I would find night time stars so much more valuable than these dark pink ones.

I also bought a pack with the new bands. This round they are a single line of studs and you get two of two different colors in the packs.

Remove a Plate Surrounded by Other Plates

Sometimes in the middle of a build you realize you placed a piece wrong and you need to remove it.

In the case of a plate that is surrounded by other plates this gets a little tricky. Say we need to remove this green 1×2 plate.

If the plates are snug against the build plate, there is nothing you can do but remove the other plates around it to get to the one you need to reach.

Even with that gap in the surface that a separator will fit in to, the plate behind it will not allow the separator down far enough to remove the plate in question.

If for some reason you have not pushed the plate the whole way down and there is a gap, you may be able to wiggle the other end of the separator into the gap to remove the plate.

In most instances this is not the case. Removing the plates around it is the only way to access the one you need to remove.

Should the plate you need to remove be in the middle of a much larger build you would need to remove enough plates so that the brick separator would be able to go flush against the bottom plate and the width of the plate you would be removing.

The brick separator is basically 10×2 studs but if there are other plates or bricks against what you are trying to remove they will stop the plate from tilting enough to be removed.

Separating Two Plates

The brick separator is a handy tool to have in your tool box (or in this case brick box). It helps you separate bricks that are stuck together.

Sometimes you will need to have two on hand. As is the case when you have two plates that are stuck together. You just can’t get a handhold on the bottom plate to pull it apart. Especially if the plates are of the exact same size.

Put one separator on the top and one on the bottom like this.

Then squeeze them together until you see a small gap between the plates.

To save your fingernails remove one of the separators and pry the two pieces apart.

Then you have safely separated the two parts without damage to the brick or yourself.