I've moved my LEGO blog to my own site. No reason, really. I just wanted a change:
http://www.kintailscape.com/lego/

I ended up buying the Dwarves' Mine from a WAMALUG member because I've been wanting it for ages and he had a good price for it. I had fun putting it together today (Christmas) to be sure all the parts were there. It was a really fast build (an hour and a half or so). I think I spent more time playing with the parts while building than I did actually building. LOL

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I love the variety of dwarf beards. I love the mining system with the carts and the buckets. And I love all the minifigs- so many dwarves, orcs, and a troll. So great! This is a fun set to built and to play with :-) So many moving parts.

Now that I've got an elf and a dwarf... well... LOTR goodness, here I come!

And because I was on a Pirate kick, I put together another Pirate set I bought from WalMart long ago on sale: Loot Island. I liked the variety of minifigs and elements in there. You've got the pirate and the marine and the alligator and the shipwrecked guy all in one.

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I ended up buying the Imperial Flagship. I've been wanting it for more than a year and there was a special deal where you got extra LEGO Rewards points if you bought at the beginning of December. So I broke down and bought it. I blame my love of Horatio Hornblower :-) It took me about 6 hours of leisurely building to put it together (including checking e-mail, eating dinner, etc. So probably more like 5).

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I loved all the little touches- the canons, the uniforms, the pirate with a hook for a hand, the galley, the pipe organ, the retractable anchor, the rigging... but my favorite part was definitely the cut carrot! Great detail!

My lovely friend elle311 found the Target Bullseye gift card and gave this to me for the holidays! Thanks so much! It was fun to put together :-)

( More photos )

Sometimes I have the most unbelievable luck. I entered the BrickPOP Greed is Good drawing for a complete set of minifigs and they arrived yesterday! That means no worrying or searching or anything, and I get to enjoy the whole set earlier than most people as well. The minifigs arrived Monday and I immediately assembled the ones that got disassembled during shipping:


Because I'm an honest fangirl, I had most been looking forward to the elven warrior, and I was not disappointed by him. I love his uniform, bow, and shield. And he's perfect and blond. LOL But I was pleasantly surprised and really impressed by the tiny details of almost all of the others. The skirt of the hula dancer is indeed cloth, the back of the Indian headdress actually shows minifig hair, the snowboarding girl has zippered pockets, and the tennis player shows just a bit of yellow skin between her skirt and socks.

I loved the fisherman, loved the accessories (oh boombox and microphone, where were you last BrickFair when the theme was music?), love the goggles on the helmets, and love the different faces.

But my favorite was actually one I thought was kind of stupid and pointless: the gorilla. A gorilla with a banana? Are they kidding? Why would I want that? It didn't take me long to realize it's not actually a gorilla; it's a man in a gorilla suit. That's right. Down the back there is a zipper for the costume. The head is beautifully crafted in smooth, curving gorilla features. But that comes off to reveal a minifig head underneath of a man sweating from the heat of being in the costume. It absolutely made me laugh and appreciate these designers even more. There isn't just detail--there are multiple levels of detail!

Fisherman- LOVE this guy. Great beard, great orange overalls. The fishing rod with fish is probablymy favorite accessory of them all.

Old Explorer Guy- What are we calling him? I don't know (honestly, I haven't read many reviews) but I like him. I probably would have liked him better if the goggles matched his trousers or backpack, but that's my only complaint. Great moustache and wrinkle lines.

Indian Chief- The multi-colored spear and the headdress totally make this for me. I don't particularly love the legs because the pattern looks weird unless he's standing up straight. But the pros outweigh the con.

Samurai Warrior- Finally I have a katana-like blade and I can start working on that Highlander: the series barge/dojo MOC I've been dreaming of for the past 10 years! LOL Really, though, the armour is fantastic and his torso without the armour on is just as lovely.

Snowboarding Girl- She has a great outfit. Love the grey glove choice. And the snowflakes on her snowboard totally make this one for me. I like that she's a girl, too. I know that's been said elsewhere, but I'll chime in officially and agree. And who doesn't need more purple LEGO in their lifes?

Cyborg- I must admit he came to me with his helmet on, so I didn't think to take a look at first. I like his face, but it wasn't until I was removing his helmet that I noticed how much I LOVE the helmet. The design is fantastic... is this new? I haven't bought a space set since classic space when I was a little girl, so maybe all helmets are like this now. But this one's much more dome-like with a front piece (breather?) and the visor won't go up and down because of the way it's sculpted in the front and the back. This thing is awesome. Love his arm. Love his gun (I love your phasers, BrickForge, but this one's got color-changing laser capabilities). Yeah. I thought I wasn't going to like this one much, but he's ending up as one of my faves now as well.

Sumo Wrestler- Awww. I love how LEGO can make minifigs (standard in size) seem fat. The hair is great (could totally combine that with Samurai Warrior outfit for some interesting MOCs). And who doesn't love those little trophies. I have big (well, small, actually) microscale plans for mine.

Mummy- Hasn't won me over yet. I like the green under the bandages. But the arms are only partially printed on so it looks strange to me when viewed from the front. Same goes for the feet. And the dark red scorpion is okay, but didn't impress me much.

Elven Warrior- Yeah. I love him. Different colors of green, the details, the boots, the shield, the bow & arrow, the hair with the pointy ears (I was wondering how they'd do those, and it SO works). I definitely love this guy. Wish I had a hundred.

Tennis Player- Great hair, nice torso, but she totally needs short sleeves. I like her legs a lot. The yellow is a lot brighter in the picture, but I love the effort nonetheless. Yay for skirt and socks. And the tennis racket is fantastic.

Race Driver- I don't have any of the old Octan sets, so I can't compare. But I like that his helmet (with a great pattern on the top) is his his accessory so he has a helmet and hair as well. Great hair to go with his charming smile. They attempted to make the OC and the TAN look as though they're on different pieces of fabric but the C runs over the line a little and ruins the realistic effect. Otherwise, it's a great design.

Gorilla- As I said before, I thought this one would be my least favorite, but it's actually adorable, impressive, and humorous. The gorilla costume idea was so clever. Makes me want to do a Trading Places New Year's Eve train MOC right now.

Alien- Yeah... he's green and purple and he has a long tongue. I don't know what to say about him. He's just as he looks. And I'm pretty sure the Cyborg could take him in a fight.

Hula Dancer- Skirt is great. And I'm not sure how her bikini is staying on because there's no back or neck strap. Her hair makes you forget about the reality/physics of the thing. Her hair is AMAZING! I love the style, and there's a flower in it to match her lei! I wasn't expecting that. Happy surprise!

Rapper- The baseball cap with the minifig head on it is awesome. The curved brim and the top and back--so perfect!The microphone is wonderful to have. The boombox is fantastic; the grid on the speakers have a great texture. And the torso is perfect. But the cap is my favorite... and the pants. Oohhh the pants with the belt that clearly doesn't work because you can totally see this man's boxer shorts. hahaha. Again, great level of detail. Hilarious.

Baseball player- You'd need plenty for a team and an opposing team. But he's also got a fantastic baseball cap that I love. Also, he's a little pudgy in the front, which amuses me. Not sure I get the choice of team name. The baseball bat is fabulous with the multiple colors and the ribbed grip. Beautiful.

Thank you so much, BrickPOP; you're the best! Getting to see all these up close and personal has been fantastic and I can't wait to come up with MOCs using them :-)

For my just_the_things December project, I thought I'd put together all my LEGO sets which hadn't yet been assembled.

I haven't been much into collecting the special collectable minifigs, because the cost and effort of tracking every single one down isn't worth it for me. But I've bought some randomly and I've bought the ones I know I have uses for in MOCs off BrickLink. I got this box on Friday:


And in the spirit of December, I put 'em together, of course:


I really just wanted the three collectable Series 2 minifigs, but the little fireman city set was at such a low price and I didn't have a few of the tools he came with. So I couldn't resist. I found it interesting that the little set came with so few bricks to begin with but they threw in 5 extra pieces. I'm not complaining. Free LEGO is free LEGO!

I adore the mime. He's as cute as I'd guessed. And the vampire's cape is so of the awesome. And I can't wait to do a little Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz scene with the witch. Yay!

Check back throughout the month as I try to assemble everything I haven't already assembled... and I try to handle the holidays on top of it. Hmm. I think I'm in WAY over my head this time.

This was my... I think 5th time at a LEGO Convention, but only my second time as a participant. It was lots of fun though different from last year.

A List of all my MOCs
All my photos at BrickShelf (when moderated)
No videos online yet
( My write-up and photos )

Here's a list of all my MOCs from BrickFair 2010:

( List & Photos under here! )

This is a scene from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince where Harry goes to the Room of Requirement (i.e. the lost and found room) to hide his potions textbook. This one was a lot of fun. I got to go through my LEGO and put a lot of random stuff in there. Lots of elements aren't permanent, so every time I add them in, they are in slightly different locations. Each building/dressing of the room is completely unique :-)

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