Set Review - Porsche 911 GT3 RS - #42056 - Technic - Part 5

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4

I finished!  WOOHOO!  Let me tell you, it was a great build.  It took me about 3 weeks too.  Some days I put more time in then others and some days I wasn't able to build at all.  I'm glad to have a space where I can leave things out right now.  Onto the finale!

Here's the box for #4, the construction before the build starts, and the start of the instruction booklet.  

Box 4 comes with 4 parts bags.

The build starts with the driver's side in the front with the bumper, turn signals, headlights, body around the wheel, and door.  

Finalizing the door is next to include the driver's side mirror and the door handle.

Next up is the rear of the car.  You complete the engine cover and distinctive tail fin.  I show one picture with the trunk open and one with it closed.

To the left is the build at step 847.  It's pretty much done.  I'm not sure what the flexible, rubber like pieces are called, but they are added in to help create some of the curves.  You can see a bunch by the hood, around the windshield, and then running to the back.  

After you finish the back, you keep rotating the car and move around to complete the passenger side door, wheel cover, and headlight.  

The next step is to add the rims and wheels.  The wheels come in a separate box.  They are inside the box and the rims are on the top of the box.

Here are some final pictures...

At the back of the instruction booklet, it says you get get a free gift by entering your vehicle code at LEGO.com/technic.  Well that's not true.  You need to go to http://www.lego.com/en-us/technic/codebreaker.  If you're wondering what it is, you get a digital certificate that says you have a set and then a bunch of high resolution photos that can be used as wallpaper for your phone or computer (or printed I guess).  They are pretty sharp and hey, it's something else that you get for buying the set.  

Also if you go to the LEGO.com/technic web site, they have a bunch of promo videos along with a video about them packaging the set in one of their factories.  Again, nothing fancy, but interesting to see where your set came from.  

Final words... if you've read this far and through all 5 parts, then thank you.  Please leave feedback or email me with your thoughts... should I make these much shorter and to the point or is it better to see all of the details?  Anyways, back to the set...  If you can't tell, I think this set is awesome!  The build was incredible, the final set design is sleek, and to be honest, I have never build a LEGO® set like this.  I'm really impressed with how this turned out from the start with packaging and design to the finish in having the final product.  Well done LEGO®!!!!!

Set Review - Porsche 911 GT3 RS - #42056 - Technic - Part 4

View Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 5

Before I start this one, just a quick note.  For those of you who follow the blog, I recently moved from NM to FL.  My FL home is slightly bigger and my NLS agreed to designate some space for building activities.  I purchased 2 metal shelves for storage and placed a wood board on top for building.  Now I have a standing desk where I can build at.  Also you'll note that some pictures are at night with a light on and some are during the day.  I don't have a light box yet.  I'm working on it.  So I apologize up front that the pictures aren't all the same.

Box 3 of this set is assembling more of the body to include the rear, the hood and the roof.  This one starts in the instruction booklet at #532.  Before we start, here is box 3 with a picture of the hood on the box and in the instructions.  I also included the build at the end of box 2.

Next up are the contents.  It only has 4 bags of parts and it uses some of the parts from the bag included in box 1.

Some pictures of the build...  First off is some work on the back of the vehicle.

Next up is more work on the back.  The break light and turn signals are there along with the bumper and a GT3RS sticker.

The top of the car is shown with the back here.  

Another view of the back just so you can see more detail.  This one is of the passenger side in the back. 

Here's a view from the front so you can see the hood.  Still need a lot more detail here, but I think that'll all be in the next box.

A top shot of the whole set at the end of box 3.

Back to building!!!!!

Bricks for Bricks Campaign - Starting 1 September 2016

Bricks for Bricks is finally set up in Florida!  Thanks for being patient during the move and transition.  Besides having to move everything, it takes a lot of paperwork to start up a business so I'm glad to finally be in action.

Now that we're setup, it's time to put the focus back on giving back.  Our last campaign generated $125 for Pencils of Promise.  I've tried to focus the campaigns and sales events on supporting kids and learning since LEGO® products are geared towards kids (okay and some towards us "kids at heart" too).  For the next campaign I've decided to focus on kids again and to find something in Florida as it's the new home of the business.  In searching around, I found the Studer Family Children's Hospital at Sacred Heart in Pensacola, Florida.  Listed as #1 on their Christmas Wish list are "LEGO® Sets/LEGO® Friends."  

Starting 1 September 2016, 15% of the profits from the Bricks for Bricks store and our Brick Classifieds store will benefit the Children's Hospital.  We will put those funds towards buying some new sets to donate to the hospital.  This campaign will end on 16 December 2016 so we can get the sets to them in time.  

Thanks for reading and for your interest in helping out!

Oh and if you've read this far, the Bricks for Bricks store will offer free shipping on minifig orders over $30.  Just input the code "BforB" at checkout.

Set Review - Porsche 911 GT3 RS - #42056 - Technic - Part 3

View Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 4 - Part 5

If you can't tell, I'm taking my time putting this set together.  To be fair, if I sat down to crank it out, it would take a day or two non-stop.  So let's get right to it...

Box 2 is the body of the car.  The instruction book talks about how during the building of an actual 911 GT3 RS, they have a stage where the "drivetrain is connected to the body of the car."  This section starts at instruction number 324.

Box 2 contains 9 parts bags which are shown here.  

Here's the build at instruction 349.  This is the body at the front of the car.

Here is instruction step number 403 with the front together and then the start of the driver's side.

Here's #454.  Front and sides are done and working on the back.  You can see some of the red pins that are not pressed in all the way throughout the model.  While building I was wondering what they were for, but they ended up being the way to attached the body to the drivetrain.  There were a few steps where all you had to do was just push in red pins.  

#483... almost done with this section.

Here is the final of this section with the body attached to the drive train.  The seats and roll bar are in place now.  

Just another shot from the front.  Okay, enough already... time to get back to building more.  Happy building!

Set Review - Series 16 Minifigures - #71013

I thought they were supposed to be out on 1 September, but I was totally wrong.  I'm not sure of the exact release date, but I checked the LEGO® Shop at Home web site one day and "tah-dah," they were sold out. What?  I kept checking back and happened to catch them available during a double VIP point weekend.  I ordered a bunch and it was a good thing because they are sold out again as of the time of this post.  I haven't checked to see availability at other retailers, but typically they sell quick at places like Target and Walmart.  Has anyone had any luck?

Onto the minifigures...  So these are $3.99 like past collectible minifigures and there are 16 as opposed to the Disney minifigures where there were 18.  

Here are the first four.  The ice queen looks pretty mean and is in line with some other past mean female minifigs to include Maleficient and Spider Lady.  I assume she is shooting ice out of her hands, but I can't be sure.  I've seen two names for the next one.  One is Arabian Knight and the other is Desert Warrior.  I'm not sure which is right, but his weapon is about as tall as he is.  Next up is the cyborg.  I like the blue hair piece.  It looks like you could put it on Wyldstyle if you wanted to switch her hairdo around.  The last in this row is labeled on brickset as "imp."  He looks like he'd fit right in with the series 14 Halloween themed minifigures.  

Spooky boy is the male version of the Series 12 Spooky girl.  The hiker has some new features that I haven't seen before.  He has a compass and map which both are new and a backpack that is different from the past standard minifigure backpack (I'm a fan of this character).  Next up is the wildlife photographer.  She has a camera and most importantly she comes with a small penguin.  This follows the theme of minifigures with various animals such as the skunk with the animal control officer.  The final one in this row is the kickboxer.  I like the option to put her hair on or her helmet and then there's a brick included to hold her helmet when she's not wearing it.  

Two comments on these four.  First off is the kid in the penguin outfit.  I think it's great!  Some of the most popular Collectible Minifigures have been minifigures in animal outfits like the shark man or piggy guy.  This minifigure is interesting because it comes with ice skates and a base plate.  With the ice skates you can't put the minifigure on the base plate so not sure why it's there other than that's what they always do.  Second comment about these four is the Dog Show Judge.  I found the size of the dog interesting.  In my review of the Fountain, you can see the size of most pets in the LEGO® brand.  This dog doesn't quite fit in based on its size.  Or maybe the one in the Fountain is too big?  There's a cat in this minifigure and it's about the same size as this dog.  So what's the right size next to a minifigure?

The acoustic guitar is an awesome addition to the minifigure repertoire.  We can add it to the saxophone and a few others that have appeared.  I think the banana guy will be another winner along with hot dog guy.  The sunglasses are a nice touch.  Finally, the last minifigure I show is the babysitter with a baby minifigure.  The baby minifigure was added to the LEGO® wold in the recent City People Pack.  I'm surprised it showed up again so quickly, but am glad to see it.  It's like you're getting two minifigures in one pack.  Bonus!  

Overall I think LEGO® did another great job with the design of these minifigures.  In terms of the numbers of each they product, I'd prefer even numbers of all so I wouldn't get a lot of some and only a few of others.  In the end LEGO® just wants to make money so they won.  If you're good at feeling through bags, then keep at it.  I'm not so good at it so I'll keep buying a bunch and selling the rest.  What were your thoughts on series 16?

Set Review - Porsche 911 GT3 RS - #42056 - Technic - Part 2

Part 1 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5

In case you missed it, I purchased the LEGO® Technic Porsche 911 GT3 RS (#42056).  In my last post, I showed the awesome packaging design.  Now it's time to get into the build.  

Box 1 is the largest parts box in the set.  It contains 11 parts bags.  One of them is some of the orange outer covering pieces to the car that isn't used in the instructions for box one (so if you purchased one of these, don't open that bag right away).  This set doesn't include a piece separator like many of the brick based sets do, but if you're like me, you have a bunch of extras to use if required.  Also, the instruction booklet gives a brief explanation of what you'll be building along with a picture of the engine on the box.

The picture above is all of the open parts packs.  To be honest I haven't built a Technic set in probably over 20 years.  Even then the last one was much smaller.  This one is monstrous and it was an adjustment for me to not be looking for bricks or plates.  Instead it was looking for pins, axles, or how many pin holes a part has.  I'm not saying it was a bad thing... it was just something I'm not used to when building.

Here it is at step 92.  For those of you keeping track, box 1 has 323 steps.  You can see the start of the transmission, the floor of the seating area and lots of gears.  

Here's instruction #203 (above).  Whew!  I'm starting to work on the front end to include where the front wheels go as well as the steering mechanics.  If you're really sharp you can pick out the building error that I made and didn't catch until the end (whoops!).  Also, they may be hard to pick out in this picture, but there are some stickers in this set.  There is one on what will be the dashboard and the Porsche logo is on the steering wheel.  I'm not a fan of stickers, but these seems to fit in okay.  The stickers aren't huge and are pretty easy to apply.

The steering column is in process here.  If you've built the set, you can see where my mistake came in.  

Not too much to point out in this picture other than if you can see where there passenger sits, there is a white 1x4 tile.  Each set has its own printed identification tag on it.  I had heard about this prior to getting the set and I assumed it was a sticker, but was shocked to see it was a printed tile.  Definitely an awesome touch to the set!

All for attachments for the wheels are in along with the axles for the wheels.  

Finally we get to the end of box one and 323 steps later.  It's been a great build so far.  I didn't keep track, but I probably spent about 8 hours on the build (not all at once)  As mentioned, I'm not as familiar with Technic builds so it's been a real challenge for me.  I have made a number of mistakes by either building too fast or mistaking where a part was supposed to go.  I had a number of instances occur where I had to figure out how to tear it apart to make the fix without tearing the entire set apart from scratch.  

My opinion so far... Wow!  I'm impressed to see the number of details and the functionality.  The steering column, shocks on the wheels, transmission, engine with pistons... it's all pretty impressive.  I'm excited to get into the next box and to make this set become a final reality.  Stay tuned for more.  

Set Review - Porsche 911 GT3 RS - #42056 - Technic - Part 1

Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5

Dear LEGO® Company,
     I saw a number of blog postings online about the Technic Porsche 911 GT3 RS.  I was intrigued and then after seeing the set designer video I think I was sold.  But the $299.99 price scared me away some.  I wasn't sure that I was ready to pay that much for a set.  After seeing it at one of your stores, I was sold.  Thankfully I had a bunch of VIP points and got a nice discount.

Opening this set was pretty exciting.  After seeing the care that was taken to package it up I took the plunge and carefully opened the box.  The Porsche set was smartly placed inside the box with extra padding on the side to make sure it didn't shift around during shipping.  The top of the box looks very dignified.  The sleek picture of the car, the Porsche logo and then some of the standard LEGO® set info like that it contains 2,704 pieces.  Let me tell you, my NLS is a communications designer and even she was impressed.  Trust me, that means a lot coming from her.   

After opening the box, once again I was blown away.  It wasn't plastic bags thrown into a box with an instruction booklet packed in.  Your designers really took the time to place together a high class product.  Numbered boxes, an instruction booklet that contains history of the actual vehicle and the LEGO® vehicle design, and the impressive layout of the rims in the box.  All very well done!

I opened the large box that FedEx dropped off and found another box as well as set 40220 - London Bus.  The other box and packaging material smashed the London Bus set up quite a bit.  Please train your team better on packaging.  The second box impressed me.  Given the price of the set, seeing the separate packaging and warning to not use a razor to dive into the box showed that you understand folks pay a lot for this set.

The details on the box for this set are also incredible.  I won't spoil it for others with tons of pictures, but the sides of the box have the different sides of the vehicle.  The inside of the box top has a timeline of Porsche designs.  In my non-designer opinion, this packaging rivals Apple's product packaging.  Who did you hire to do this work?

The contents are like no other set I have built.  The elements are in numbered containers with pictures of the set on them.  They look like mini-sets on their own.  There are stickers again which I am not a fan of, but at least it is not a ton of them. The 856 steps in the instruction booklet that looks nicer than my manual to my car (granted I don't drive a Porsche... maybe those are nicer).  The rims are displayed in the box they come in and then the wheels are inside the box with the rims on the outside.  All I can say is that I am super excited to get building on this set.  It's been nothing but amazing so far and I haven't even opened any bags of parts.  Well done LEGO®!!!!

Bricks for Bricks August 2016 Update

Just a quick update to let everyone know where I'm yet.  As I've posted previously, the store closed in order for me to move from NM to FL.  Have I moved?  Yes.  Unfortunately I had to shut down my NM business and I need to start a new business in FL.  Part one of the process is that my main employer has to agree to my business venture.  They want to make sure there is no conflict of interest between what I'm doing and my main job (there isn't, but the approval process is taking a while).  After that is done, I need to work with FL to start the business up again.  If anyone has ever done this, you'll know that it's not easy.  The government doesn't make it easy to set up a business.  There are multiple agencies you need to contact to get various approvals.  There are tax documents, approvals to use your doing business as name, registering with your county, etc.  I apologize to anyone who has an interest in purchasing something from the store, but has to wait.  A few items have been favorited on my Brick Classifieds store... don't worry it will open up again.  Thanks for your patience!  If there is something you are interested in, please contact me and I can take it down and hold it until the store is open again.  

There are a few items I'd like to buy personally that haven't been easy.  The Technic Porsche 911 GT3 RS (#42056) is on my list, but it seems to always be out of stock.  Over the weekend I saw it available briefly, but I failed to make the purchase right away.  I have a number of VIP points that will help to cut down on the price so that will be a bonus.  Now I just need to actually place the order.  Also, Series 16 Collectible Minifigures are out.  They are sold out as well.  

Is there anything else I should post on the blog or that I should add to the store when it opens up?  Post in the comments or send me an email with your thoughts.  

UPDATE: 15 hours after I wrote this post, I checked LEGO® Shop at Home and the Technic Porsche 911 GT3 RS (#42056) was listed as in stock.  I dumped all of the VIP points that I have been saving for quite some time on it to get a sweet discount.  The order has been placed and I'm looking forward to the shipment arriving and writing up a set review for it.  SWEET!!!!  My NLS gets questions from friends about her tolerance for the excessive amount of LEGO® in the house.  The usual response is that it could be wrose and I coudl be into sport cars or something more expensive.  What happens when I buy a sport car made of LEGO®?

Store Review - LEGO® Brand Store - Tysons Corner Center - McLean, VA

I was in the Washington DC area this past weekend with my family and with some downtime decided to stop at a nearby mall (mainly for the air conditioning on a hot day).  As it turns out this mall had one of my favorite stores in it.  The LEGO® brand store in the Tysons Corner Center happened to be open while we were there so of course I hadto check it out.  In walking around the mall it seemed that the bags you saw people carrying most were either Victoria's Secret or yellow with a red 2x4 brick on it.  We followed the bags and ended up at the store.  It was busy.  Lots of kids all over the place building in the various free build areas and running around excited to see all the sets.  A store worker was near the entrance to greet people.  I'm not sure they appointed the right person as this worker was rather quiet and didn't give a smile.  We got "have you been to a LEGO® store before?" and "your kid's outfit is cute."  Great.  Whatever.  I wasn't there to chat with the employees.

The store seemed to be pretty well stocked with all of the different themes.  I didn't inspect each and every one, but I didn't see holes on the shelves either.  One of the items on display in the front of the store was the new Creator Expert - Big Ben #10253.    

As my NLS (non-LEGO® Spouse) commented, it looked beautiful.  I've seen the pictures and designer video, but seeing it up close and personal was pretty cool.  They did an amazing job with the design.  Here's the box on the shelf.

Another set that I finally got to see in person was the LEGO® Technic Porsche 911 GT3 RS (#42056).  First off, it looks incredible and very sleek!  Secondly, it is definitely a lot bigger than I expected.  The picture I took is pretty bad because it's behind glass so you get a reflection and some of the paint on the window, but it's still an impressive model.  The set was on the shelf, but the box was listed as "for display only."  I didn't pick it up to see if it was just the box or the actual set.  My guess is that if you wanted it you had to request it from the workers.  I didn't ask to see if they had them in stock or if you had to order them.

Other things to note about the store... Collectible Minifigures Series 16 releases on 1 August 2016 (I believe), but they were on sale at the store.  I saw at least one AFOL trying to feel through the bags to get the ones he was looking for.  Also, it was a good mix of people buying different items.  Lots of families with kids walking out with smaller bags including Angry Birds sets and Friends.  We also saw someone walk out with a Tower Bridge (#10214).

Did I make a purchase?  Yes!  My NLS did let me or maybe I pressed ahead without asking before she could say no.  Either way, I am a big fan of the Pick-a-Brick wall in the back of every LEGO® brand store that I have been in.  They have 2 size cups that you can pick from and fill as you want.  I picked the larger cup that cost $16.95 in Virginia after tax.  They had a range of parts in different colors and sizes.  I tend to stick to the smaller pieces so you can fit more in and I pick the colors that are not as prevalent.  I have yet to open my container, but I was impressed that the store worker used packaging tape to make sure my container didn't explode so that was good (I'm sure it's from experience and having to clean up messes in the store).  My cup is below:

My favorite by far is the sand green parts that were available.  They had 1x1 bricks and 1x2 plates.  That's not a common color that I tend to see often so I was glad to grab a few.

---

Update (August 9 2016):
2 pictures below of the bricks I picked up from the Pick-a-Brick Wall.  I didn't merge them together, but hopefully you can see where the pictures match up.  You'll notice I went for most of the smaller pieces to try and fit more pieces into the container.  In the end I counted 753 pieces from the container.  With the Virginia tax the final came out to be about $0.02 per piece.  I can't complain about that.

---

My favorite by far is the sand green parts that were available.  They had 1x1 bricks and 1x2 plates.  That's not a common color that I tend to see often so I was glad to grab a few.

I called it a review so I should give my opinion.  Should you go to this store?  Or any LEGO® brand store?  The selection is great and the additional benefits are useful such as the Pick-a-Brick wall and minifigure creation station.  Plus you get store workers who understand LEGO® and can help you get sets you don't have if they aren't in stock.  They also have some of the harder to find sets that aren't typically in your average retail store.  Finally you can get and use VIP points for your purchases.  The downsides... you don't get the discounts that you can find at places like Target, Walmart, or Amazon.com.  Everything is at the full retail price.  So should you go, I recommend going if you're looking for a harder to find set or price is not your main driver.  The Pick-a-Brick wall is useful if you stack the cup right too.  It's a fairly decent way to get pieces.  Once I open up the cup I purchased, I'll give an update to this post with the number of pieces I got and the different types.  

Do I wish I had a LEGO® brand store closer?  Yes!  Maybe it's better that I don't when it comes to my credit card bill.  What are your thoughts of the LEGO® brand stores?

10 Tips for Moving your LEGO® Collection/Business

As I mentioned on my post back on 25 May, Bricks for Bricks is moving.  I'm not at the point where this business is my full time employment so the other job that I have decided to move me.  Thankfully, the move came with movers that packed and shipped for me.  That makes life a lot easier, but still creates some challenges.  Today I'll be sharing what I learned through the process.  Oh and by the way, yes I did make it in one piece.  I have not opened up my stash yet, but it all appears to be there.

Okay, so maybe 5 or so of these boxes do not have LEGO® in them.  

1.  Make sure you have a good inventory
Part of having a moving company haul your stuff from one place to another is that if anything goes missing, you have to prove it's missing.  Having an inventory of what you have is important for tracking.  For the business side, I already had a list of the items I had to include minifigures and unopened sets so that was easy.  For the personal collection side, not so much.  I decided to take the risk on loose bricks (business or personal) and no inventory them so that make it a bit easier.  If you are a Bricklink seller, then you might already have an inventory of your bricks and this won't be an issue.

2.  Take pictures
Another step to proving you own it is taking pictures.  This is what I did with a lot of the sets in my personal collection.  For some of the smaller sets, I just took a picture of the large box they were all in, but for some of the larger sets I took pictures of the set separately or in the case of modular buildings, pictures of each floor.  For the business side, I took pictures of the conditions of the unopened sets that I am selling.  The last thing I want is a damaged modular building or Star Wars set.  If the packers or movers destroyed an unopened box and I have a picture showing that it was good before it was packed, I should be able to claim it with the moving company.

3.  Use boxes from LEGO® where you can
Some sets are oddly sized and movers come with specific sized boxes that may not line up.  I placed some of the larger boxed sets that I had in some boxes that I had saved from the LEGO® company.  This made packing easy.  For those that have never had movers come in and pack their stuff, you are supposed to let them pack everything.  That means you can't use your own packing material and tape boxes shut and then claim damages after they are shipped.  I placed sets in the boxes I had and then let the movers tape them shut.

4.  Bag up loose and sorted bricks ahead of time
When the packers showed up at my house they just start opening drawers and putting stuff in boxes.  I can't imagine what would have happened if they had to sort through my loose bricks that are separated by type and color.  I took the time ahead of the packers arriving to dump my sorted bricks into plastic bags.  The bad part is that I need to replace them in all of the drawers that I had, but the good news is that I don't have to re-sort all of my bricks.

5.  Transport anything yourself that you just can't bare to lose
If you have a set, piece, minifigure, MOC, or whatever the case may be and you don't want to lose it, transport it yourself.  During this move I decided to let the movers take everything.  In a past move, I had an unopened Emerald Night set that I decided to transport on my own.  During this move I decided to let the movers take everything.  What would you want to transport yourself?  Do you have an unopened Ultimate Collector's Millennium Falcon (#10179)?

6.  2 Gallon plastic sealable bags are your friend
If you want to keep your built sets partially assembled or at least keep the parts together the 2 gallon bags are great.  I was able to put floors of the modular buildings that I have in them and also some of the other larger sets that I have.  I highly recommend getting a bunch to help you pack.

Some bagged up modulars...

7.  Be prepared for ridicule
Why do you have all of these LEGOs®?  Another box marked LEGO®, huh?  YOU play with LEGO® still?  I think they are just jealous.  People knew I had a big collection, but when it was all put together and in boxes it looks much bigger.  

8.  Know where to get rid of cardboard boxes
Please recycle if it is an option in your area.  With that being said, you need to either put some out for your weekly collection and space it out for pick ups or you need to find a place to bring them all.  I was lucky to have a place in my new area that had bins for cardboard collection.  It has worked out great to dump all of my boxes and get them out of my house (to make room for LEGO® sets of course).

9.  Have a plan before you unpack
I have a large stash of LEGO® sets, bricks, and pieces.  While it's exciting to open everything up, it's not a good idea to just open them up and stash them wherever.  Put some time in planning ahead of time as to where you will put everything.  If you have a NLS (non-LEGO® spouse), make sure he/she is on board with your plan ahead of time.  Hopefully you moved to a bigger place that allows you to have your own brick cave.  I sadly do not have a cave in my new place, but I was allotted some space.  I hope to have my own cave someday.

10. Get ready to build
If you were like me and had to take lots of things apart, you can enjoy putting them all back together again.  And if you're like me and enjoy building, you're actually looking forward to it.  

Good luck!