Re-Doing The Parts Storage...Again!

 This week, I've embarked on yet the latest episode of "How to Corral and Consolidate My Growing Stash of LEGO".

Prior to today, my brick operations have resided in the downstairs study, sharing the space with my music 'studio' and office.  With the limited room, I was forced to stash boxes and bins of LEGO anywhere I could find a space.

Most of it lived in the closet. Some of it occupied a space underneath a wide credenza. More under the desk. Even the space under a couch was utilized to store shallow plastic boxes - one behind another.

Very inefficient when it came to trying to find parts and pieces. Way too much time and energy was spent bending, crawling, and moving stuff out of the way to find parts for a project.

So, the other morning I decided enough was enough.

In my basement, I have several 2-foot by four-foot, six-foot tall heavy duty shelf units on castors.

These were acquired a couple of years ago when the local Tuesday Morning store closed its doors and sold off all of their store fixtures.

I bought four of these units at $25 each! Whadda steal.

One of these units has been a storage area for toys that the grandkiddos no longer play with, so "Why not re-purpose this for LEGO use?", says I.

After re-locating the toys, I began lugging all of my boxes and tubs of bricks down the lengthy flight of stairs to the Basement La-BOR-atory, where my model rocket building and woodworking activities take place.

This particular shelf unit has three lower shelves, above which is mounted a 4' x 4' pegboard wall.

I found that a 3 foot bookshelf fits nicely in the upper space along with a couple of large plastic parts bins which I recently picked up cheap at local garage sales.

There is a foot wide space on the uppermost shelf that will serve nicely as a work-table for sorting parts and staging builds.

At the bottom of the unit, two shelves are reserved for larger boxes and totes that hold bulk parts and large plates. Behind these are boxes containing the instruction books for sets.

Finally, the very top of the shelf unit holds boxes of parts in colors that I rarely use.

There's even a bin for my collection of SNOT!

                                                                                EEeeeeeeeeew !!

An overhead clip-on lamp, stool, and waste bin completes the space.

With this new parts system I hope to be able to embark on builds in a much quicker manner, since everything is close at hand and much easier to locate, and reach.

No doubt, in another year or two, I'll more than likely be re-doing the whole thing again, but for now....

....it's 'brick-clickin' time !!

C-3P0 - Bag 1, Getting 2/3 Of A Leg Up....

Tonight, I embarked on the build of one of our favorite droids of the Star Wars universe - C-3PO.

After tearing open bag #1 (of 11), I was surprised to find parts that weren't for the model's display base, as is usually the case with the majority of LEGO sets.

Instead, things went right away into the construction of one of the character's legs.  

Or should I say, two-thirds of a leg, along with a foot and some extra pieces that will attach the latter to the display base. 

The build was very straight forward, with the core of the leg structure being built from stacked 1x2 SNOT pieces, two bricks high, with studs on either one or three sides.  This was then covered with various detail parts, mostly in gold, consisting of standard tiles, slopes, and curved slopes.

Here's a pic:

I am also very impressed with the instruction book, particularly with the initial pages showing photos of the actual C-3P0 character accompanied by a descriptive write-up, and a 'Meet The Designer' page.

This is definitely going to be a fun project which will yield a finely rendered model of the iconic droid.

More to come...

A New Star Wars Set To Assemble...

I just received this cool set for as a Father's Day gift.

I will be starting work on this one tonight.  Of course, our droid friend will be receiving the LED-lit 'eye' treatment.

Stay tuned for the build thread..... 

Recently Opened In Castle Rock, CO !!!

 How cool is this?!!!

A B&MF store exactly 1.7 miles from the doorstep of my home!

Needless to say, I will be a very regular customer.

I stopped in briefly the other day to check it out.

A sixty-nine-year-old 'Kid in the Candy Store' !

A Big-Set Bulid

 A couple of weeks ago, my wife was a bit bored and wanted something to do in the evenings. 

She asked if I had any LEGO sets that we could work on together.  

I didn't have any new ones but remembered that there was an unfinished set on a shelf in the basement.

This is the LEGO Ideas Voltron set #21311.

It actually belongs to my seven year old grandson.  He and I had started building it a year and a half ago, but he totally lost interest in it. The set has been languishing on a shelf ever since. We had only gone as far as assembling the two 'Lion' sections composing the mech's lower legs and feet.

So, I pulled the set out so that the missus and I could finish it up over several evenings, one parts bag per session.

It was quite a relaxing, enjoyable activity for us to share together.

Here are the pics of the finished build:

Cheers!

Back To The Imperial Light Cruiser

 

Over the past few months I've taken a considerable hiatus from any LEGO related activity.

This has all changed, as yesterday I came across the box containing the unfinished wiring project on the Star Wars Imperial Light Cruiser that I started quite awhile back.

It's high time to get that completed.

Time to stock up on Mountain Dew, flip on the shop lights, and fire up the soldering iron.

Stay tuned ...

Yes, It's Not LEGO!

 Every time I happen to acquire a new stash of used LEGO via yard sales, estate sales, etc., the collection invariably includes a certain quantity of 'Not-LEGO' items.

This is usually in the form of the many and varied knock-off versions of LEGO- like elements, as well as random objects and toys not related to brick-building. Think 'President Business' relic collection in "The LEGO Movie".

The recently acquired super-stash was no exception.

As I was cleaning, sorting and doing inventory on all those parts, I ran across a good number of such items.

Most were very easy to differentiate from LEGO.  Any brick with plain surfaces or random indentations atop the studs are a dead giveaway. The vast majority of the real stuff has the LEGO logo on each stud.  Other easy-to-discern indicators are elements that have a slightly different shape or hole configuration compared to the real thing. Surface reflection and color differences are another easy identifier. 

Of course, elements from Mega-Bloks and Knex often have their own logos molded on to them.

Some of the stud-less knock-off parts that have no manufacturer's mark often have a 1 or 2 digit number on them, another give-away, as many similar LEGO parts have 'LEGO' and a 4 to 5 digit part number stamped somewhere on them.

So, what am I going to do with this box of off-parts?

Being a stout LEGO purist, none of these 'fakes' will ever be mixed into any of my MOCs or sets.

Promise.

Against my better judgement, I will, however, hold on to them.  Much of it can be utilized to build up display bases only for real-LEGO MOCs and Mini-figs. 

Here are a couple of Mega-Blok bases from the recent stash that would work splendidly for that:

Another use I came up with is to employ them as support fixtures for display cabinet LED lighting.

I could even talk myself into building small projects out of the knock-off elements, keeping them, of course, in a land far away from the real LEGO.  

Since I have the darn things, I might as well use them.

Cheers!