Posts Tagged lego

LEGO, Star Wars and The Biggest Loser Update

Posted by Matt Kendrick on Friday, 8 January, 2010

8017 - LEGO Star Wars Darth Vader's TIE Fighter

What?

I’m sure you’re wondering how in the world, could these things all come together. Sit back, I promise you it will make sense shorty. I had a hard time deciding what to do my post on night. So I thought I would write about some of the things I’ve been playing around with. I am a man of many hobbies. The cold weather makes for a perfect time to play with some of my toys.

For my birthday, Heather’s parents got me my first Star Wars LEGO set ever! The Star Wars Darth Vader’s TIE Fighter LEGO Set. Tonight we ripped open the box and put it together. Page by page, Heather and I took turns picking parts and putting the set together. We felt gitty, like little kids. Unlike other LEGO sets that I’m use to, it has many unique pieces. Being of a dark side (it’s Darth Vader, we’re talking about) most of the pieces are black, dark gray and light gray. We found some interesting surprises.

“You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out!”

You'll Shoot Your Eye Out!Well for one. We didn’t know that it can shoot stuff. On the page where you assemble the firing mechanisms it has a warning label. Heather bet me to saying “You’ll shoot your eye out!” As you can see I had to post the picture from the instructions. I think it’s pretty self explanatory. Another surprise was the fact there is a place to store Darth Vader’s light saber. Well it wasn’t too much of a surprise for me. I saw it on the box. New lesson learned. If ya wanta be surprised when putting LEGOs together, don’t look at the box first.

Final thoughts.

After the 200+ piece assembly was complete we flew it around a few times. However it kinda came apart when we were seating mini-figure Darth Vader. I could see someone who plays with it a lot would get kinda frustrated. However I’m not going to say it’s just a model. It’s a toy too! To some, it’s a collectible. After Vader was seated we rebuilt the bottom of the TIE fighter and proceeded another test fire of the lasers. Long, long ago… Ok, I better stop here. I can see the non-Star Wars fans started to leave the blog now. Moving on to the The Biggest Loser Update!

The Biggest Loser Update

As you know. We’re working to better ourselves. Tonight I had my second session with Jillian and my on screen counterpart. We worked through another 7 minute warm-up. We only did 2 circuits tonight. It was about 20 minutes. The game introduced another move to my training. The wood chopping exercise. You make a swinging motion with Wii-mote like you’re chopping wood. I was pretty good at that one. I also had to do lunges as well. I did feel the burn, as some people say. I’m just glad for three things, one there are breath and water breaks. Two, there is a cool down stage after-wards. Three during the circuits there are mini-breaks, shake off periods. Not to mention the after-effects of making it through the program. The weight loss!

I noticed something else about the game feedback. As you’re doing the exercises it will reward you with points. It’s like instant gratification for doing the task correctly. I haven’t completed an official second weigh in. Not sure how I can force it to do a weigh in. But I jumped on Wii Fit and it said I gain .7 pound. I try to keep in mind that two things can cause results like this. One, generally people vary anywhere between 1 to 2 pounds day to day. Second I could be building muscle. Let’s hope more for number two. I could use all the extra muscle I can get. Well I guess that’s enough for tonight. I’ll keep you posted on how things are going! Thanks for all the support and comment love from the last few posts!

Lego Advent Calendar 2009 – Dec. 19th – 24th

Posted by Matt Kendrick on Wednesday, 23 December, 2009

Here’s the final batch of mini-figs/mini-kits of the 2009 Lego City Advent calendar! Heather and I have enjoyed this set very much. We will be buying next year’s Lego Advent Calendar as soon as it’s available. We love how each day plays off previous days.

One day you may get one piece that doesn’t make sense. Then the following day it’s clear why you did. In this last set you’ll notice a guy with an ax and a orange vest. When we first got him him, he didn’t look too happy. Until the following day he received his chainsaw! Why did he need a chainsaw? To cut down the Christmas Tree of course! Just in time for Santa to arrive on Christmas Eve.

Till next year! Happy Holidays!

Lego Advent Calendar 2009 – Dec. 13th – 18th

Lego Advent Calendar Dec. 7th – 12th 2009

Lego Advent Calendar Dec. 1st – 6th 2009

day19 day20 day21 day22 day23 day24

Lego Advent Calendar 2009 – Dec. 13th – 18th

Posted by Matt Kendrick on Sunday, 20 December, 2009

Here’s the third batch of mini-figs/mini-kits of the 2009 Lego City Advent calendar! Please be advised the following images may contain spoilers. I apologize to anyone who may have not received their calendar yet or have not kept it up to date. Hope you enjoy!

Lego Advent Calendar Dec. 7th – 12th 2009

Lego Advent Calendar Dec. 1st – 6th 2009

Day 13 Day 14 Day 15 Day 16 Day 17 Day 18

Lego Advent Calendar 2009 – Dec. 7th – 12th

Posted by Matt Kendrick on Sunday, 13 December, 2009

Here’s the second batch of mini-figs/mini-kits of the 2009 Lego City Advent calendar! Please be advised the following images may contain spoilers. I apologize to anyone who may have not received their calendar yet or have not kept it up to date. Hope you enjoy!

Lego Advent Calendar Dec. 1st – 6th 2009

Day 7 Day 8 Day 9 Day 10 Day 11 Day 12

Lego DesignByMe: Cousin Eddie’s RV

Posted by Matt Kendrick on Wednesday, 9 December, 2009

Eddie's RVI’m a big fan of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. We watch that movie at least once, every holiday season. One of my favorite parts of the movie is the scene where Clark finally gets the Christmas lights working. The whole family is gathered out on the front lawn and lined up. Clark is hugging everyone and nearly crying. Snuck in, at the end of the line is his redneck brother in-law’s family, The Johnson’s. Clark completely unaware of their presence, hugs Eddie (the brother in-law) and goes into shock.

Eddie introduces the family and has the dog “Snots” run out of the RV. There it is the RV. The Johnson Family RV. Not sure of the year, make and model. I wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t something built by Wagon Queen. The infamous fictional maker of the Family Truckster used in the first vacation movie. But it makes me laugh every-time I see it. The RV is featured several times in the film. You gotta love Eddie’s explanation of the how he got the RV.

Clark: So, when did you get the tenament on wheels?
Eddie: Oh, that uh, that there’s an RV. Yeah, yeah, I borrowed it off a buddy of mine. He took my house, I took the RV. It’s a good looking vehicle, ain’t it?
Clark: Yeah, it looks so nice parked in the driveway.
[Raises class to his mouth]
Eddie: Yeah, it sure does. But, don’t you go falling in love with it now, because, we’re taking it with us when we leave here next month.
[Clark nearly chokes on his drink]

I’ve decided in honor of the 20th anniversary of the film, that I would try to recreate Eddie’s RV in Lego blocks. Using the DesignByMe software provided by Lego, I did just that! I didn’t go into huge detail. But I tried to stick as closely to the color scheme as possible. You can check out how my project turned out. I also have attached a link to where you can download the DesignByMe project file. I’ve also uploaded it to my Lego profile. However it is still pending approval from Lego at this time. Happy Holidays

Download: DesignByMe - Eddie's RV (106)

IMDB Quotes: Christmas Vacation

Online Lego Resources

Posted by Matt Kendrick on Monday, 7 December, 2009

As you can tell from previous posts, I’m a fan of Lego. I may not build often. But I enjoy reading about new sets. I can’t go to the store without checking out the Lego section in the toy area. I guess you could say I’m a big kid. I thought I would take a moment to share some of the online resources I’ve found for Lego.

http://www.brickset.com

Brickset.com is a great way to find information and reviews about Lego sets. They have a huge database of sets, pictures, reviews and information. They also have some interesting statistical reports of Lego sets. When researching about new kits I turn to here to see what the buzz is all about. When you sign up for an account, you can track which sets you own.

http://www.worldbricks.com

Lost instructions to sets you had years ago? Are you nearing the point of rebuying a set to replace the instructions? Well before you head over to eBay check out worldbricks.com. This site contains a huge archive of high quality instructions of thousands of sets. I first found this site when I was looking for instructions of old sets I had as a kid. It’s also a great way to see what you can build with your existing pieces. Not sure exactly why Lego hasn’t been doing this all along.

http://www.brothers-brick.com/

To help keep up with the latest news about Lego I turn to Brother’s Brick Blog. These guys are always on top of the latest Lego news. They report everything from interesting custom builds to brick conventions. Also comments are always welcome. Seems to be a good community tied with the site as well.

http://designbyme.lego.com

Lego has an awesome tool for designing your own sets. You can download their tool and use a preset set of blocks. Most of the basic and some rare blocks are included. Once you’re happy with your creation, you can upload it to your Lego online profile. Having a profile allows you to share your set. It also enables you to purchase your own sets with a custom box. This application was previously named Lego Designer. But now it’s called DesignByMe. The best part is it’s free! Where was this, when I was a kid?

So there ya have it. These are some of my favorite Online Lego Resources!

Lego Advent Calendar 2009 – Dec. 1st – 6th

Posted by Matt Kendrick on Sunday, 6 December, 2009

Here’s the first batch of mini-figs/mini-kits of the 2009 Lego City Advent calendar! Please be advised the following images may contain spoilers. I apologize to anyone who may have not received their calendar yet or have not kept it up to date. Hope you enjoy!

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6

Lego Christmas Traditions

Posted by Matt Kendrick on Saturday, 21 November, 2009

Last year my wife Heather and I started a new tradition. We bought some Lego pull back cars to play on the kitchen floor at my grandmother’s house. My brother also got in on the action. The three of us sat in the living room floor at first and assembled our kits. We kept taunting each other as to who was going to win the first race. You would have thought we were all three and four years old (we’re in our 20s and 30s).

We completed our kits. Now it was time to prove who had the fastest cars. We lined them all up near the stove and let them fly into the dinning room. Then someone crashed and gave us another idea. We then lined up on opposite sides of the room and proceeded to crash into them into each other. Parts went everywhere.

Everyone dashed to get their parts back and rebuilt their cars. For hours we built and rebuilt our cars, crash after crash. We even got to where we would swap parts for custom builds. Each build lead to a new name for the car.

This year we decided to repeat this event with new cars. We found them under the Lego Racers: Power Racers Series (gallery below). Ordered them all from Amazon. We also ordered a Lego City Advent calendar to help count down to race/crash day, I mean Christmas! Each day you build a new holiday themed City mini-model. As we build them we’ll post up pictures if we can.

LEGOs for the Holidays

Posted by Matt Kendrick on Friday, 2 October, 2009


Special edition holiday Lego kits are starting to pop-up. The Brothers Brick Blog featured Lego’s new Winter Toy Shop kit. Kit #10199 features a mini-fig scaled winter wonderland toy shop with victorian style architecture. Inside the shop is filled with toys and tools. The building extras, include a town Christmas tree, snow man, gas lights and different mini-figures to complete the scene. The kit also includes rare/hard to find bricks such as the tan tiles, light fx, and 1×2x3x windows. I think it would look perfect under the tree with a Lego holiday train.

Lego Fans, If you’re looking for a neat way to count down the holidays then Lego has the solution! 2009 Lego Advent Calendars are available for City and Pirates themes. As with regular advent calendars, each day between December 1st – 24th you revel a treat. The treats in this case are Lego mini-kits! You can check out all the stuff mentioned in today’s article from the links below.

Winter Toy Shop
http://shop.lego.com/ByTheme/Product.aspx?p=10199

City Theme Advent Calendar
http://shop.lego.com/Product/?p=7687

Pirates Theme Advent Calendar
http://shop.lego.com/product/?p=6299

Lego: Indiana Jones

Posted by Matt Kendrick on Friday, 1 May, 2009

Lego Logo

Well it’s a official this week. My wife Heather, has beat Lego Indiana Jones on the Wii! Lego studs/coins rained from the sky and there was a lot of cheering. Well I didn’t get to witness this. But she said it was great. I’ve gotten to play a little myself. I didn’t think I would enjoy it as much as Lego Batman, but I do.

In the game you can relive all of the first three movies. Just as every other Lego game there are over a 100 characters you can unlock and use. Most characters have special abilities/attributes. For example Indy is afraid of snakes and will not go near them. In scenes where snakes are present you must switch off with a different character. What’s even more interesting is how every now and then you’ll unlock a Lego Star Wars character.

Not to mention you can also run around and smash stuff. Never know what your going to find. Objects, hidden passages etc. Also a good way to collect studs. You’ll need as many studs as you can find to earn the “True Adventurer” status.

There is one frustrating thing about the game. For example if you get to a point where you need a tool and don’t have it. You will need to go back and find it. Chances are you’re going to be looking for it. But that’s not a bad thing. It wouldn’t be fun if you could just produce the object you need out of your butt (ex. The Sims, rockets…).

As you play you can collect objects to unlock things. I like this model, because it gives the game a little extra replay value. However one piece of advice we pass on about Lego Indiana Jones is play through the game and have fun. Then you can go back and unlock stuff. Heather has completely unlocked every character, mini-kit, postal box, etc. Sure it may take twice as long, but its twice as fun. Have a little extra fun and play with a friend!

So whats next? Not sure but my wife rocks the house at video games.

 

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