What's your LEGO 'status' today?

Switchfoot55

New main site article about this set and an official statement from LEGO. At least regarding the aforementioned rangefinder. 

Switchfoot55

Just saw the two Plasma "Donation" Centers in my area are running New Patient specials right now where you can earn up to $950 in your first month of donations. I may have just found an untapped source for LEGO spending. 

Lo1sJess

@Switchfoot55 there is a definite need for plasma donors so good of you to be willing funds but…..still a little cringy🙃  Not saying I wouldn’t consider it if I weren’t barred from donating anything due to the cancers

Switchfoot55

Sorry, should have been more specific. I've donated plasma in the past. Not likely something I'd look to as a source of income in my present life. It had just come up in conversation with a friend today and I was shocked by how much they give. I swear I remember getting like $20 a donation back in college. 

Lo1sJess

There is a great need so I’m not surprised at the compensation.  I used to donate blood regular and was on the marrow registry but between the cancers and medications my fluids, parts and pieces aren’t usable.

$950 would be pretty good for a lot of people so a win win.  How often can you donate plasma?  

Diamondback_Six

Y'all are stronger than I am, between a natural pre-aversion to needles that was only amplified by both strong defensive reflexes combined with a conditioned IMMEDIATE violent reaction to *any* sharps being pointed in my direction as part of my training in my Executive Protection days... seriously, there was a time when just pulling out the needle for a blood draw as part of my physical would send me into reflexive (as in, "bypass all conscious thought" immediate response like when your knee's tapped with a rubber mallet) drawstroke, made "safe" by my having previously unstrapped my holster and set it on the other side of the room with my coat.

Good on y'all who CAN step up to answer the call there.

WesterBricks

My father was the universal donor blood type (O negative) so he routinely donated "double red" donations (just what it sounds like) for the greater good.  I didn't inherit his fortitude, and just typing about it is making me woozy.

Today's status is "aw yeah".  I recently bought a bulk lot that contained 97% of #21325 Medieval Blacksmith. I was able to source many missing parts from my collection, and the remainder was available FROM ONE BRICKLINK STORE, in New condition, at a reasonable cost.  It was amazing, normally my bulk lot gems need several orders to be complete.

MaffyD

I have donated blood for about 20 years, off and on. Try to do it about 3 times a year now, and I'm nearly at 40 donations (in February). Helps out the NHS and it's not like they can just make some.

Lego status: Trying to work out how to sort my office and display my favourites. It's getting stupid messy at the moment. Why did I get more Lego for Christmas again? :-)

Lo1sJess

Great job!

A preferred problem to have😁

Speedman29

Well I made it to January 13th before caving and buying LEGO! Had a couple of duplicate sets for Christmas, so after Mrs Speedy returned them, I had present credit to spend. Was working in East London and not far from Bluewater store, so nipped in. No CMFs left at all and only three F&F Speed Champions GT-R left, so I grabbed it and the last Miles Morales bricksketch on the shelf that was discounted to under £10

Switchfoot55

Plasma can be donated up to twice a week with at least 48 hours in between donations. I'm unsure what the standard payment is. But my guess is it's still relatively high. 

I've done my best to donate blood as often as I can over the years. Thankfully, the process has never caused me issues. I can certainly appreciate why it would for some!

mr_benn

Today's status: setting the children to work building a Minecraft set for the upcoming Toy Fair!  You know it's a Lego house when you say 'you can play with your Sylvanians after you've finished doing your Lego!'

bookmum

@mr_benn I always describe Fabuland as "like Sylvanian Families but made out of Lego".
Your kids need some Fabuland - obviously !!

khmellymel

£220 threshold for the new Houses GWP!  Can't swing that 😭. Will have to be satisfied with just the lunar new year ones, how terrible. 

The_Rancor

mr_benn said:

Today's status: setting the children to work building a Minecraft set for the upcoming Toy Fair!  You know it's a Lego house when you say 'you can play with your Lego after you've finished doing your Lego!'

Corrected it ;)

Brickfan50

I'm trying to survive January. It has been raining every day for fifteen days now, sometimes all day. I don't have a car and to do groceries I have to take the bike. You don't want to know how many times I got soaked in the last 2 weeks...

As much as I try not to let it affect me, it still makes me a little depressed.
One of the things that keeps me going though is making MOCs! And reading :-)

Diamondback_Six

Welcome to Seattle, @Brickfan50 . :P 

Switchfoot55

@Diamondback_Six, I read the comment and assumed he was in Seattle as well for a moment based on the description alone. However, I knew Brickfan to be from the Netherlands as well from the BSSS. Maybe there is comfort knowing one is not alone with said weather?

I certainly don't miss that element of Western WA. 

WesterBricks

Disassembled my Cafe Corner for sale.  I was legitimately concerned about separating all of those 2008 Reddish Brown bricks.  No casualties, thankfully!

Switchfoot55

^You just warmed them up with some nice micro fractures for the future buyer/reassembler! 

Phoenixio

WesterBricks said:

Disassembled my Cafe Corner for sale.  I was legitimately concerned about separating all of those 2008 Reddish Brown bricks.  No casualties, thankfully!

It's super difficult to find and you sell it?!  The blasphemy!

(You'll be able to buy so many sets with this profit...  And here I am dreaming of the day I find one :'( )

WesterBricks

Phoenixio said:
It's super difficult to find and you sell it?!  The blasphemy!

Milestone wedding anniversary this year, I want to do something nice for the wife, and decided to sell a couple of high value sets instead of a kidney. Green Grocer is also up for sale, but it wasn't as hairy to disassemble.

Switchfoot55

I've heard brick-built kidneys function nearly as well and the parts are easily found on BL. Maybe just sell the real one after all?

Modeltrainman

Working on BDP stuff. Winter Waterfall.

Lo1sJess

@Modeltrainman nice scene.  What are the arches for in the base?

Modeltrainman

Lo1sJess said:

@Modeltrainman nice scene.  What are the arches for in the base?

An optional MILS standard build thing for cables.

pxchris

A picture is worth a thousand words.

560Heliport

pxchris said:

A picture is worth a thousand words.

It's getting late, and you've got a lot of building to do. Better get busy! :)

WesterBricks

Umbridge hair for a Green Grocer minifigure is absurdly expensive, but it still beats $45 for the whole TWN072 minifigure, I had the rest of her parts in my collection.

pxchris

Tragedy has stricken!

I was fully prepared for this eventually though. A BL order has already been placed for replacements. It's just sad to see just beautiful pieces all broken to bits. I hope this is the worst of it!

560Heliport

^ Battle damage! ;)

Lo1sJess

@pxchris awful.  Maybe you could use the pieces as wreckage in your layouts.

gratefulnat

pxchris said:

Tragedy has stricken!

I was fully prepared for this eventually though. A BL order has already been placed for replacements. It's just sad to see just beautiful pieces all broken to bits. I hope this is the worst of it!

I am speechless, that is just terrible.

I sent you a pm.

pxchris

Sadly, it's just kind of to be expected with sets from this era! LEGO really messed up those browns so bad in the early 2010s. I had broken parts on both Brickbeard's Bounty #6243 (from 2009) and on The Brick Bounty #70413 (from 2015). The LEGO Movie sets (from 2014) seem especially bad in my personal experience - I had a number of problems with MetalBeard's Sea Cow and all of the Old West sets. I've also had a number of broken brown pieces from my Lord of the Rings/Hobbit sets. I'm actually completely petrified to do anything much with those sets for fear of parts breaking.

So, I want to make it 1000% clear that I don't think it's at all @gratefulnat 's fault at all. He did an absolutely amazing packing job with the set!!

Diamondback_Six

If I was working with sets from that era, I'd be tempted to give those brown parts a preemptive light coating of clear cyanoacrylate. Hopefully the superglue would soak into any pores and help bond the piece together better.

Yeah yeah, I know, "KRAGLE! THE HORROR!" but in this case I'm not talking using it to join multiple parts together, only to shore up a single structurally compromised part at a time before assembling them the normal way after the superglue cures.

Switchfoot55

I swear the "old" reddish brown will break just by looking at them! 

I finally got around to sorting a bunch of parts I had ordered from PaB and BL a couple of months back. Included were 50 or so Reddish Brown 1x1 bricks from a BL order. I found several that were cracked along the bottom. Part of me wanted to reach back out to the seller (I likely would have if I had inspected them better when they first arrived), but again associated it more with the poor quality control than the quality of the seller. I'm sure I could reach out to LEGO CS and discuss some replacements if needed. 


Related to the above sorting, I was happy to see my plant element collection grow. I have a lot of aims to include some better trees in my WV layout in the coming years as well as general foliage around the town. In reviewing pictures of some of my most admired WV layouts, that is one element I feel really takes things to the next level. And, with @evancelt 's recent lesson on trees, I feel at least slightly more prepared to give it all a go.

(Also found several "Caroler" heads that I had forgotten I bought. Looks like the Christmas choir will be expanding!

Diamondback_Six

As an alternate, Tamiya liquid plastic cement, the kind that comes in a glass bottle with a brush applicator rather than the gel-in-a-tube of most toluene-based model glues, might work carefully applied to cracks or breaks too.

pxchris

Thanks for the suggestions @Diamondback_Six! I might pick up a bottle of the Tamiya liquid plastic cement you suggested and see if it'll work for me! 

gratefulnat

Thanks for your kind words @pxchris

Built a few castle sets this summer before getting #10305 Lions Castle. I swear the brown parts, even the older gold 1x1 studs, just disintegrated... below shattered parts from #7188, #7189, #10193, and #10223 (as well as from count Dooku's Sailor #7752)

I am petrified of taking apart the Sea Cow, and petrified of rebuilding #10236 UCS Ewok Village and #75059 UCS Sandcrawler, let alone all the LOTR sets etc.

It's just awful...

Lo1sJess

@gratefulnat that picture is sad and cringy!

pxchris

Yikes!!
Pictures like that just about want to make a grown man cry!

Lo1sJess

I have some ships from that era for my son that are disassembled - this had made me even more reluctant to do anything with the pieces.  Unfortunately, the come pieces are mixed in and I have been coming across cracks and breaks somewhat regularly.  I think I will not disassemble any used in the WV layout, just leave those bits together.

Diamondback_Six

pxchris said:

Thanks for the suggestions @Diamondback_Six! I might pick up a bottle of the Tamiya liquid plastic cement you suggested and see if it'll work for me! 

One note: use SPARINGLY, it actively melts and rejoins the plastic. I suggest applying inside the brick where it won't be seen and let capillary action do the work, or treat one side of the break before pressing together. 

Venunder

Is that a USA problem? 
I have never had any parts break,
without a lot of force being applied to them.

pxchris

Venunder said:

Is that a USA problem? 
I have never had any parts break,
without a lot of force being applied to them.

No, absolutely not. It's a worldwide problem that TLG themselves have even admitted to and addressed. There are hundreds/thousands of reports from people all over about the issue. It had to do (if I'm remembering the specifics correctly) with the pigment mix in reddish brown, dark brown, and dark red ABS. The issues are most prevalent from sets around 2008-2016 from my experience, but TLG didn't come out officially with their fix until 2018.

If you haven't experienced it yourself yet, count yourself lucky!

560Heliport

I've had some brown pieces break- not a lot overall, but more than all other colors combined. A few dark red also. 
My UCS Slave I has been built since I got it. I'm a little afraid to take it apart!

Diamondback_Six

IIRC, pigment would make sense with how plastic is made--certain pigment pellets have chemical formulas that strengthen or weaken the plastic, transparent ones being most fragile.
https://polymer-additives.specialchem.com/selection-guide/pigments-for-plastics

https://finescale.com/videos/online-extras/2019/10/on-the-bench-how-model-kits-are-made (polystyrene vs ABS but same principles)

Speedman29

Went for a walk round the local nature reserve this morning with Miss Speedy and her friend. Went via the local coffee shop, the route out the back of the car park takes you under the Motorway, where the supports are decorated by local artists....

.... thought this was right up @pxchris Street!

pxchris

That is awesome!! Metroliner, river rafters, and Captain Red Beard!!! That's some A class artwork.

560Heliport

And #6057 Sea Serpent far upper left!