Germany's Wiblingen Monastery - In Brick Form

I recently was able to stop at the Wiblingen Monastery in Ulm-Wiblingen, Germany. It’s about halfway between the cities of Stuttgart and Munich. According to Google, it’s a “Baroque Benedictine monastery, founded in 1093 & expanded in 1714, featuring a rococo library.” We stopped in and saw the cool library and toured the museum. Unexpectedly, we ventured into one of the rooms and saw some LEGO bricks. WOOHOO!!! And here’s what we saw…

Here’s a picture of the actual building. One of the first things you notice is the two towers in the brick version that aren’t in the actual building. The brick builders decided to add on the towers that were never completed in their version. Other than that, it looks like they were pretty accurate in building their version.

Source: https://www.kloster-wiblingen.de/en/home#impression-images-22

So the details (based on a fact sheet placed near the build in English and a few other languages)…
-Built by Burkhard Siemoneit and Stephan Schumann
-It took ~2 years to build (mostly weekend time)
-It contains over 800,00 bricks
-It weighs around 350 kg or over 770 lbs
-It is 3.5 m (11.48 ft) long by 2.6 m (8.53 ft) wide
-The towers are 1.8 m (5.91 ft) high
-It was estimated to cost over 40,000€ or ~$43,600
-The build was finished on 20 July 2017

Here is a scaled down version of the build.

I’ve included a number of pictures for a few reasons. First, you can get some closer views of the details of the build. Second, you can see some of the fun Easter Eggs they threw into the build.

A wedding being held outside

A minifigure walking on the roof, Superman and Superwoman.

Batman climbing up (or down) the side of the tower

A few minifigure “statues”

Some storks on the roof and if you look closely, some burglars in the background on the roof.

Bart Simpson on the roof of the tower.

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Nearby to the monastery was a giant festival scene. It was chuck full of details with food trucks, a band, bakers making a cake, and a bunch of vendors. I included just a few pictures for your viewing pleasure.

As an American, I think we need to have more giant displays at random locations like I have seen in Europe. I’m a huge fan of seeing these displays and I can’t wait to see more. If you know of any I should check out, let me know. In the meantime, happy building!

Have You Ever Purchased Your Bricks at Smyths?

Many Americans looking at LEGO fan media sites may have heard of a store called Smyths before and have never actually seen one. It is usually mentioned on some of the European sites. Well for those of you who are curious here’s a short peek into the store.

First, a quick overview… Smyths is a toy store located in the UK, Italy, Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. While they have a physical presence, they also have an online presence too. You can order to have it shipped to your house with free shipping starting at 29€ or you can order online and pick up in the store.

The short story… it felt like a Toys R Us store back in the US before they closed only the words were not in English and there wasn’t a giraffe.

Let’s focus on the important part… or parts… or bricks…

The store I went into had one side of an entire aisle (maybe 75 feet long) full of LEGO sets. They appeared to have most of the themes too and the sets they did have were well stocked. They did not have the very large sets like the #75192-1: Millennium Falcon, but their online store lists the stock at each store. That way you can see where they have sets and go to another store to get what you want.

Some specific things that caught my eye:
-They did not have the latest collectible minifigures (the DC Super Heroes series). They still had Disney Series 2 and Series 19 and both were still at full retail of 3,99€
-They had the #42056-1: Porsche 911 GT3 RS from the Technic line still. This has been retired in Europe for over a year. I’m tempted to go back and get it as a set to hang onto to sell later since it has been retired in the US for a while now.
-#21046-1: Empire State Building was on sale for 69,99€. The regular retail price is 99.99€ according to Brickset so that’s pretty good. The regular retail in the US is $129.99 so the sale price works out to be around $77 with the currency conversion. That’s not too bad.

Overall, I’m not an expert on LEGO set pricing in Europe or Germany so I don’t know if the prices were on par with LEGO or higher or lower. I know Toys R Us used to raise prices on LEGO to above what you could get at Shop @ Home or in a LEGO Brand Store. If any Europeans are reading this, let me know what you think on pricing at Smyths.

My closest Brand Store is about 30 minutes away and this Smyths is about 25 minutes away in the opposite direction. I don’t have a pull to hit one over the other, but I do have to pay to park to visit the closest Brand Store. Also I still buy most of my bricks on sale from Amazon.com or through Shop @ Home so unless I find great deals on the local economy, it isn’t worth it with the exchange rate between the dollar and the euro.

Where I live in Germany, they do have Walmart/Target type big box stores, but their LEGO set selection isn’t very large. From the last time I was in the US, I recall that Walmart and Target have boosted their LEGO set offerings as Toys R Us went away. Smyths definitely seems like a decent option if you don’t live near a Brand Store and don’t want to shop online. I’ll have to pay attention more to see what their sales are like or if they ever have special offers.

In the meantime, happy building!

(and no, I was not paid to build this post or to advertise for the store… especially since my blog is written towards American LEGO fans and most Americans don’t have a Smyth’s nearby to visit)

Bricks in Heidelberg, Germany

I recently was in Heidelberg, Germany for their Christmas Market and we happened to pass by Galeria Kaufhof on the Hauptstrasse (main street). This brick built Santa greeted us as we walked by. There was no Brand Store inside and they didn’t have a sign about this model, but it was fun to see as we walked by. Enjoy!

LEGO® Exhibition Visit - Kloster Machern, Bernkastel-Kues, Germany - Part 2

Here’s the second part of my visit to the LEGO® Exhibition in Bernkastel-Kues, Germany. If you missed the first part, you can see it here.

Star Wars did not have a big representation at this show, but there was a hangar of ships on display. Next to it was what looked like Lego Digital Designer and the build of the MOC on a computer screen.

Some nostalgia for you… here is a large 12V train set up with some of the old LEGO sets. It might not be some of the massively detailed train displays you see LUGs set up, but it was still cool to see the 12V trains chugging around the track.

I don’t know if this is a MOC of an actual train station or not, but I thought it was very impressive. I like how the designer incorporated the CITY base plates in the front. There’s a lot of action going on with a tow truck getting a car, construction on the tracks, and a painter at work near the pizza truck.

Next to the train station were a few trains. I would have preferred to see them going around a big display, but I’ll take whatever I can get.

The picture next to it is of a large church with some great lighting behind translucent colored bricks. This would have been cool to see with the lights off.

Next up is a large country western scene with a mid-1800s US-like Army and some Natives about to harass them. The scene was very detailed with the desert scene on the outside of a pretty detailed fort. I took the picture as the builder was showing off the inside of one of the buildings. If I spoke German, I would have more to say about this, but I don’t so just enjoy the pictures.

Not to be outdone, nearby was another country western scene. This one included a train, settlers with horses and wagons, the Confederate Army fighting the Union Army, cattle herders, a steam ship, and some Natives harassing some settlers and their wagon train. This scene was another one where it was hard to know where to look first. I can’t image how long it took to set up each and every single minifigure here. Very impressive!

This display was one of my favorite at the show. I apologize for loading all of my pictures that I took of this one, but as a fan of modular buildings I thought this Venice scene was awesome. The use of different colors helps the buildings to really stand out and the pieces used really create some cool details. I think about some of the pieces that I have and how I often don’t know what to do with them and then I look at buildings like these and realize how I could use them to make some very striking details on buildings.

See if you can pick out some of the pieces used to create details. I really like the scorpions and the Star Wars Battle Droid legs for detail. I also like how the one building uses the ball joints. Awesome work!

Here are 2 more buildings. One appears to be maybe an Asian restaurant while the other appears to be a LEGO® Brand Store.

While a lot of the builders were adults and many were from a LUG, there were also a few teens there displaying some items. I didn’t get pictures of them all, but this group stood out to me. They had a number of mechanical devices to include the amusement park below. They also had a rubik’s cube solver, a machine that held a pen to make some cool drawings, and a few other machines. Here’s a picture of their amusement park.

These may have been the best part of the show. The creativity here is astonishing. They took existing sets and built them using what I can only assume was with parts they had on hand or could get to easily. They had #21303-1: WALL-E build out of various pieces and then the two sets pictured below. The first was #71043-1: Hogwart’s Castle. I first looked at it and was like, that’s a cool looking castle. Then I was like, wait! That’s a real set only with different pieces. How cool is that? That’s some impressive work, but it was probably substantially cheaper than buying the actual set. Next up was #21315-1: Pop-Up Book. They took the design, used the pieces on hand, and added in I <3 U as the item that popped up.

My inability to speak German hit me here as I couldn’t ask questions, but bravo to the person or people who built these. They did an awesome job and did something I have never seen done before. They definitely get my best in show award.

Congrats if you made it this far and thanks for checking it out. I hope to get to more shows in Germany before I depart.

In the meantime, happy building!

LEGO® Exhibition - Kloster Machern, Bernkastel-Kues, Germany - Part 1

I found out about a LEGO® Exhibition in Germany from 1-3 November 2019 and decided to go check it out. It was located in Bernkastel-Kues which is along the Mosel River. We picked a good day to go as the drive there let us see some great fall colors in the trees and it wasn’t pouring rain like it has done a lot this fall in Europe. The exhibition was located in Kloster Machern which used to be a monastery. Now it is a museum and with some eateries and an event room. This place was just outside of Bernkastel-Kues and it was tucked into the valley along the river. There were some great views and if the exhibition was disappointing at least we got to see a cool part of Germany.

Here’s a picture from the parking lot of the monastery.

A few closer shots of the outside of the building.

Here is the sign… Google Translate tells me that “ausstellung” translates to “exhibition.” The cost was 10 Euros to get my family in and the show ran across a 3-day weekend. Our ticket would let us back in all weekend, but we just went for one day.

Upon entering, there were a number of tables of vendors selling sets, loose bricks, and other brick related paraphernalia. The first build we ran into was this tall building and its miniature replica. The building is an office building in Neunkirchen, Germany. It was an impressive MOC, but I didn’t get to enjoy it much as there were no barriers and my little guy really wanted to play with all of the cars on the roads surrounding the building.

Lauter Steine EV. was there in full force. This is the same LUG that displays at the Gartenschau in Kaiserslautern, Germany.

There was a big Christmas themed display with a lot of the Winter Village sets and the Winter Village train looping around the scene. It was a good use of the sets along with some other minifigures and parts. There were some creative scenes and and a few hidden minifigures like Storm Troopers. A bigger sized Uni-Kitty stood guard over the display.

There were a lot of castles on display. Here are just a few.

A Fabuland display and then a bunch of different items to include some space sets, a rocket launch, some vehicles, and some imaginative MOCs.

This is a MOC of Castle Pfalzgrafenstein. It was a castle built in the 14th century to collect duties on the Rhine River in Germany (according to the sign posted nearby). I thought this was pretty cool because I took a short trip on the Rhine River with my family this past summer and we saw the actual castle. A picture I took is shown so you can see the real thing. I think the builder did a good job at replicating the actual building.

Here is an amazing MOC of the Reichstag building in Berlin. For those in the US or anywhere else not familiar, this building is like the US Capitol. It’s where the German Parliament meets. I think the MOC is incredible. They really captured the details well. The sign nearby said the model took 4 years to make and contains around 450,000 bricks.

A large castle scene…

Here is a replica of an old building near Bernkastel-Kues in Morbach (a few minutes to the southeast of Bernkastel-Kues). I’m not sure if the building still exists today or not, but It’s cool how they show a picture of what it looked like.

Props to you if you look down this far. I’ll post part 2 shortly.

Store Review - LEGO® Brand Store - Saarbrücken, Germany

I wasn’t planning on it, but I had the opportunity to stop in a Brand Store in Saarbrücken, Germany during the Triple Force Friday sales event 2019 (4 to 6 October). The store front was full of some of the most recent new sets. With the focus on Star Wars, I’ll start there. The first picture I took included the new LEGO Boost Droid Commander (#75253-1), Kylo Ren’s Shuttle (#75256-1), another Millennium Falcon (#75257-1), and Yoda (#75255-1). They had all of the other new sets available as well. I didn’t look around at the sale sets to see what was available (sorry).

Additionally, they had the UCS Imperial Star Destroyer (#75252-1) assembled in the front window. Wow is it a big set! I was not the only one in the window taking pictures of the set. Still not sure if it is worth my money or not, but it’s definitely a cool display piece.

Additionally in the front window was the new Winter Village Gingerbread House (#10267-1). It was cool to see it up close and personal. I think I’ll be picking the set up at some point, but I’m not sure when.

Also on display was the new Disney Train and Station (#71044-1). Inside the store they had the Disney Castle built (#71040-1).

The LEGO Ideas Tree House (#21318-1) was on display in the front in the summer version. Inside the store they had it built in the fall version with the other set of leaves. It was neat to see how it looks with both versions if leaves.

LEGO Ideas Central Perk (#21319-1) from the TV show Friends was on display in two places. There was one in the front window and one inside the store. The one inside the store was a little easier to see and get pictures of so you get the picture here.

The Technic Land Rover (#42110-1) was available for sale and they had a built set that they were letting people touch and pick up. Props to LEGO for allowing that!

The Pick-a-Brick wall or “Suche & Baue” wall was in the back. According to Google Translate, this works out to be “Search and Build.” The wall was one of the better ones I’ve seen. There were a lot of pieces that I wanted to get, but I decided against it. There were numerous “gold” colored pieces, some different flower pieces I have never seen before, some colors that are not always out there, and a few cool pieces that would look great on MOCs for buildings. Bravo to LEGO for stocking this wall well!

I thought this display was cool. Two Statues of Liberty in different formats. The Brick Headz version (#40367-1) and the Architecture version (#21042-1). It’s cool to see the different sizes and versions next to each other. Behind it is the Architecture Trafalgar Square (#21045-1).

Most stores have some none standard builds that are usually larger in size. This one was no exception with a large Chewbacca holding a crossbow and then a Pirate Captain with a hook arm and a parrot sitting on his arm.

Overall, I was impressed with this store. They had everything in stock from what I could tell and a large amount of sets on display for viewing. There were numerous build stations for kids to play with in the store to see things before you buy. The workers were all very helpful with one dressed up as Princess Leia for Triple Force Friday. I talked to one who spoke German, French, and English and the one who rang up my purchase spoke English as well.

I purchased the LEGO® Brand Store (#40305-1) which is only available in Brand Stores. It was 24.99€ as compared to $24.99 in the US. The price I paid was roughly $27.37 with the exchange rate so the total varies since the VAT (value added tax) is factored in and the sales tax in the US varies by location. The last place I lived in the states had an 8.5% sales tax rate so it would have been $27.11… although we didn’t have a Brand Store. I’ll do a review of the set at a later date.

So if you’re in western Germany or eastern France and you’re looking for a LEGO® Brand Store, I highly recommend this one.

Happy building!

German Bricks - Zusammengebaut.com

If you’re like me and you keep up with LEGO via fan websites, then you are probably familiar with some of the big names out there like Brickset.com, The BrickBlogger, The Brothers Brick, The Brick Fan, and others. These are all fan sites from the US or UK, but what about elsewhere? Recently I stumbled across a YouTube channel called “Assembled.” The channel is run by Germans based in Hamburg (northern Germany) and all of the videos are in English. What sets the channel apart from others? Well for one, Hamburg, Germany is about a 3 hour drive from Billund, Denmark. Assembled has a lot of content from Billund. For example, they were at LEGO Fan Media days 2019 and got to do interviews with set designers on some of the new sets that have been showing up (to include many with Jamie Berard). Here are a few:

Interview with LEGO Creator Expert Design Lead Jamie Berard at LEGO House: Presentation of the LEGO Creator Expert 10267 Gingerbread House | LEGO Fan Media Days 2019

Interview with LEGO Ideas Design Lead Samuel Johnson, Head of Marketing Monica Pedersen and Designer Cesar Carvalhosa Soares at LEGO House: Presentation of the LEGO Ideas Tree House 21318

LEGO Star Wars Boost Droid Commander 75253: Interview with LEGO Designer Steve Geist at LEGO House | LEGO Fan Media Days 2019

They even have some interviews with LEGO CEO Niels B. Christiansen.

February 2019

March 2018

From the YouTube page, I found their website/blog titled Zusammengebaut.com. Using the handy translate function on Google Chrome, it turns out that it translates to “Assembled.” I rely on the translate function to get me through so don’t feel bad if you do the same thing…

You can check out the About page here. It explains what they are and who they are. Andres Lehmann is the face of the YouTube channel and if you check out their videos you’ll see him in a few with the Beyond the Brick crew. They list another five team members and provide some information on them as well.

With a base in Germany, they present some more localized news. The most recent being a stop to the “Rebuild the World” kickoff in Berlin.

So if you’re an American or from the English speaking world, here’s a good chance to see what is going on in another part of the LEGO fan world. Definitely take the time to check out their site.

Happy building!

LEGO Brand Store Review - Cologne, Germany (Köln, Deutschland)

I recently had the opportunity to visit the LEGO Brand Store in Cologne, Germany. Most US LEGO Brand stores I have been to are in malls. This one is in a pedestrian only shopping area. Here’s a picture of the outside.

The front window highlighted a bunch of the new sets out there. From left to right there’s the Vestas Wind Turbine (#10268-1), the James Bond™ Aston Martin DB5 (#10262-1), the Technic Bugatti Chiron (#42083-1), Voltron (#21311-1), and finally the Pop Up Book (#21315-1). I found it interesting that the sets are all some of the larger new ones with only one selling for less than $100. Two of them are from the Ideas line and then two are from the Creator Expert line. These are sets geared towards an older audience. It’s interesting that they are not highlighting Star Wars or other sets geared towards kids since I visited in December 2018 (right before Christmas).

The inside looks like many of the LEGO Brand stores that I have entered in the states. We were greeted by a store worker (speaking German) who gave us a December 2018 store calendar and a LEGO comic book. He asked if my little guy wanted a copy (at least I think that’s what he said) and I responded that he was too little (in English). And you could see that he felt bad for spending that time talking to us in German when we had no idea what he was saying. Poor guy.

The store seemed well stocked and I didn’t see a whole lot of differences in sets being offered in the US. There were a few that I know aren’t on Shop @ Home, but not being near a LEGO Brand store in the US, I don’t know if maybe those sets are being offered at stores only. They were:

-#40251-1: Mini Piggy Bank - a freebie with purchase in the US during the July 2017 season, but available in Europe (according to Brickset) since 26 October 2018 for €14.99.
-#40222-1: Christmas Build-Up - a freebie with purchase in the US back in October 2016, but available in Europe since 3 October 2018 for €9.99.
-#5005156-1: Gingerbread Man - Brickset said you could get it in the US with a purchase in December 2016 and at LEGO Brand stores in the US for 2017 and again they are selling it in Europe and have been since 3 October 2018 for €4.99.

I also looked to see if there were sets available that are no longer available in the US. My only comparison is Shop @ Home. Sets may still be available at US LEGO brand stores or at other retailers like Walmart or Amazon.com. While I didn’t capture everyone of them, there were a few that stood out to me…

-#10253-1: Big Ben - This set just recently went out of stock after a sale on Shop @ Home in the US. It was readily available for €219.99 (compared to $249.99 in the US). At the going Euro to Dollar rate at the time of this posting it works out to almost exactly the same price. Since that price includes Value Added Tax (VAT) and buying it in the US, the price does not include sales tax, it is actually better to get it in Germany (unless you picked it up on sale during the Brick Friday sales)
-#10259-1: Winter Village Station - This set shows out of stock at Shop @ Home in the US as well, but was readily available in Cologne

The pick-a-brick wall had a lot of options. The pricing was €9.99 for the smaller container and €17.99 for the larger container.

Lastly, LEGO Brand Stores often have builds in them. This store included a fan build and a LEGO designer build. The fan build was placed in one of the glass covered boxes around most stores. Most of the boxes in this store had LEGO set builds in them, but one had this fan build of a Christmas scene in a town.

The other build in this store was actually out of Duplo. It was a steam train engine and it was big enough for most younger kiddos to poke their heads into. To get some of the detail like the number on the front, they used System bricks. I think it’s always cool to see some of the bigger sized builds.

So there you have it… not a lot of difference between US LEGO Brand stores. No major sets on sale that aren’t available in the US or weren’t available at some point. And while I didn’t do comparisons on all of the prices, if you factor in sales tax in the US and the exchange rate the pricing isn’t completely awful. If you find yourself in a German LEGO Brand store, pop in for a look!

Happy Building!

A Visit to Gartenschau Kaiserslautern and the Awesome LEGO Display (Summer 2018)

As an American AFOL living in Europe, I had to store some of my collection back in the USA and I have relied on reading fan sites and listening to the Bricks King podcast to stay in tune with the hobby.  My NLS and I decided to take our kiddos to a park and I ended up hitting the jackpot.  The Gartenschau (Google Translate says it means "garden show”) Kaiserslautern is what my kids refer to as the dinosaur park.  It has lots of great garden areas surrounded by large sculptures of dinosaurs.  It also has a lot of playground equipment for kids and a bunch of other things to do.  Here is the link to the site if you want more info (it's in German, but Google Chrome asks if I want to translate it).

As we walked into the park, we saw a sign advertising a LEGO display so we went into the building where it was located.  And then I started to drool...  Wow!  It is advertised as creations and builds from builders from Germany and Luxembourg and boy is it ever.  There were glass cases stacked with MOCs and sets from LEGO.  Then there were huge display areas with some giant creations.  At the end was a kid play area with LEGO System bricks, DUPLO, and some large toddler friendly rubberized LEGO bricks.  To top it off, there was a LEGO store with some sets on sale (that wasn't open when I was there).  The display is on site until the garden closes at the end of October 2018 (not sure it comes back regularly or not).  If you're in the area, definitely check it out.  If not, here are a few pictures of what is there.  The lighting is not super great for pictures so my phone didn't capture the best shots for a website (sorry).  

You'll notice in the one case on the top left there is a brick build sign that says Lauter Steine EV.  This is a LUG in the local Kaiserslautern area that is connected to a LUG in Luxembourg (per LEGO's web site).  

A few more display cases... I won't show them all, but you get the idea.  

There were also a few MOCs of existing buildings.  This first one is of St. Michael's Basilica in Mondsee, Austria.  Here's a link to an Austrian web site with a picture of it.  As an AFOL, I wish they had more info about the builder, some of the techniques used to build it, total brick count, etc.  You know, all those geeky AFOL things that we're into.  I realize the display is meant for non-AFOLs so it's all good.

I'm not an expert of the area yet, but I'll find out where these buildings are and post some actual pictures or links.

The Statue of Liberty at around 6 feet tall.  I left the case next to it so you could get an idea of the size.  I also threw a picture in of the train case next to it just because I'm a big LEGO train fan.

Ok... I was not expecting to round the corner and see this on display.  WOW!!!!!  The Cologne Cathedral looks phenomenal.  If you believe the Wiki page I found, it took 2 years and 900,000 bricks to build.  Another site I saw said it was more like 500,000  If anyone can find other references, please let me know.  I could spend a whole post talking about this build, but I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.  If you want to see more, definitely Google it.  There are tons of additional photos and some videos if you want to see more detail and close ups (with better lighting).

The display also includes a few dioramas. Here’s a picture of the pod racing scene from Star Wars episode one..

This picture doesn’t do it justice, but here’s the fight scene from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi on the moon of Endor.

This picture doesn’t capture the whole scene either, but here is a LEGO Space display.

And of course, they have a giant LEGO city. Here are only a few pictures of the many I took. It’s quite an impressive scene with a farm area, a fairground, a train, a giant town square, construction, and plenty of buildings ranging from MOCs to some of the modular buildings from the Creator Expert line.

I’m hoping they do this setup again next year because it’s awesome! Thanks to my new neighbors in Europe for putting this together!