Wednesday, July 29, 2020

PLOG 69: Forever Sorting 2

My PLOG continues during this time of pandemic and protests...


Believe it or not, the people at The Lego Group (TLG) continued their inside joke with a tile for the movie "Forever Sorting 2" as part of the Joke Manor set in 2017.


I've made great progress with the Lego sorting and organizing this week. I'm down to just half of the 21 ice cream buckets full of bulk storage that I started with a couple of days ago.


I grabbed a ziplock bag to put in the weird pieces I was finding; it turns out I had more old Tyco and Mega Blocks (and other weird brands) mixed in than I had realized. It's not too bad considering how much Lego I have, but it's still way more than I had expected to find in there. 


I wanted to share out a tip, since I keep finding small pieces stuck inside of larger Lego pieces. They end up jammed in there from being stored together and the regular Lego tool can't get them out because of the angle and such. For that reason, I have been keeping a flame piece handy; it's got a small enough extension with the flame to get in and catch the inside of a stuck tile. Then I can get the smaller piece out.


That's it for today. I have to get back to sorting, after all. I'd like to have all of the sorting done before my summer vacation officially comes to an end.

Be safe out there and I'll be safe at home!

PLOG 68: 150,000 Deaths

My PLOG continues during this time of pandemic and protests...

from The New York Times

The US death count has reached 150,000.

It's so sad and tragic to think how much of this could have been prevented.

That's all for today.

Be safe out there and I'll be safe at home.

Monday, July 27, 2020

PLOG 67: Forever Sorting Lego

My PLOG continues during this time of pandemic and protests...

Lego made an inside joke years ago by including a fake movie poster as a sticker for the Palace Cinema modular building set, with the movie called "Forever Sorting." That concept seems to now be the story of my life.


I am forever sorting my Lego collection, but by "forever" I mostly mean procrastinating and not getting the job done.

Here's part of my history with Lego. When I had a house with a huge living room area, I had a plan to make the most amazing Lego City ever. I had combined my Lego collection with 2 others that I had acquired over the years and the parts had all been put in plastic tubs. When I went to sort them, I went with the amateur decision of sorting by color.

I actually had my entire Lego collection at the time sorted by color, but guess what? I couldn't build with that system. For me, I realized I needed to take the more time consuming option of reorganizing my Lego pieces by type. This realization came about mostly because of my frustration of looking into a plastic bin of all black parts and not being able to find what I needed.

With moving multiple times, and having to store my Lego collection for several years, I just didn't get the sorting job done. My awesome Lego City never became the reality that I wanted it to be. I kept collecting the modulars over the years; I also bought a bunch more sets either because I thought I could modify them into modulars or just because I liked them (super hero stuff and awesome vehicles).

Now I have even more plastic bins. Some of my sets, such as vehicles are stored in large plastic bags inside of bins. Other sets are just in little shoe box size bins. I also have a more recent addition to my collection - gallon ice cream buckets. Please don't think of me as a hoarder, but I have kept my plastic ice cream buckets from the last few years and cleaned them out and used them to organize stuff.


Now I can proudly say, inside of giant plastic bins waiting to be organized, that I have 21 gallon ice cream buckets worth of Lego to finish sorting. Something that motivated me to recently start sorting again was deciding to sort twice. First, I'm sorting into 6 major categories: plates, bricks, tiles, slopes, minifig stuff, and other. I've been doing this during the last couple of days while watching TV.


Then, I will sort them out into the individual bins (such as 1x2 plates, 1x4 plates, 1x6 plates, etc.). That step will be easier than my original method because they will already be together by type. Even though this system may seem like more work, it makes the organizing less intimidating. It's also nice to just sit and sort while watching movies or the news.

I wonder how long it'll take to sort the 21 ice cream buckets worth of blocks into my main collection. I guess we will find out... eventually.

Be safe out there and I'll be safe at home!

Sunday, July 26, 2020

PLOG 66: Lego Collectible Minifigure Series 16 Review

My PLOG continues during this time of pandemic and protests...

Lego put out their Collectible Minifigure (CMF) Series 16 as a celebration of "10 Years of Lego Minifigures" 2010-2020. I think it's great. Here's the entire set, which I was able to add to my collection today (thanks to an Amazon seller offering a complete set of all 16 minifigures). That seller is doing the work of angels since these items are sold as blind bags in which you normally have no idea which figure you'll get and thus you end up buying more than you need and getting duplicates.

Thank you Amazon (and Amazon Prime for 1-day shipping). If you're looking for a complete set of any series, you can try searching online (but they get more expensive the longer they have been retired). You can also purchase them individually from 3rd party websites such as Bricklink and BrickOwl.


Here's the mini-poster with all 16 figures in Series 16:


The back of the mini-poster shows how to put them together and celebrates the 10-year anniversary of the CMF line.


Of the 16 figures, I divided them into tiers. Tier 3 is my least favorite, with the more generic looking ones. What is there to say about there? It looks like Lego ripped off a Power Ranger. There's a raven knight with a cool shield. Random martial arts boy, random viking, and random female athlete.


My Tier 2 selections are an upgrade from Tier 3, with more interesting items and hair and such. The llama girl is so weird that many Lego YouTubers have wondered where to put her in their cities. The pirate girl has a great hat with hair attached; I got an extra sword in my pack. The pajama girl with her bunny-bear would have been in my Tier 1, but they put yellow printing on her torso (which means I can't use it for a flesh-colored figure). I really like the girl jamming with the cool hair and hat combo. The pea in the pod actually has an awesome shirt-torso print under the costume.


My chosen Tier 1 figures are by far some of the best ever released. The swimmer is there because of the turtle. The space girl has an awesome hat piece with hair, as well as the most accessories by far. The iron boy is super cool. The green Lego man is great. Piñata boy really needs a better torso, but the hat and piñata make up for it.


And my favorite minifigure of this series is the 80s rock musician, with his awesome hair, torso print (which says "Tour" on the back of the jacket), and special musical instrument.


Overall I would recommend the series if you're able to get them all at once like I did, or if you can buy them knowing which one you're going to get. I wouldn't want to get them randomly though.

Be safe out there and I'll be safe at home!


Saturday, July 25, 2020

PLOG 65: 145,000 Deaths

My PLOG continues during this time of pandemic and protests...

I've been trying to escape into video games and Lego, but the news and numbers are impossible to ignore. In the US we are now at more than 145,000 deaths (probably at 146,000 by the end of today), with more than 4.1 million people infected right now. There are so many people who need help and the government seems ambivalent; instead of passing stimulus directly to the people, the US Congress continues to stall and are about to let the unemployment pandemic benefits expire.




The first major hurricane of this season is about to hit Texas. The combination of the pandemic and a hurricane means really bad news; storm season has heated up with lots of dangerous possibilities. People who may be in quarantine and self-lockdown are now going to need to potentially evacuate and get help from the community. And if the hurricanes don't get them, then the coming tornadoes might.

As for the protests, it sounds like Trump's administration is going to take its act from Portland (with the hired private security forces) to more cities. The plan seems to be to intimidate the protestors with these illegal grab and snatch operations.

Meanwhile I've got teacher work/prep to do, but I also have some Lego sets and some Minecraft goals. Oh, and I have some ice cream. I think this would be a good time to cook up some jambalaya and have some ice cream. The stress eating continues. The night time anxiety and difficulty falling asleep continues.

Be safe out there and I'll be safe at home!

Friday, July 24, 2020

PLOG 64: Lego Jack's Beach Buggy Review

My PLOG continues during this time of pandemic and protests...

Here's another short review to help me catch up for falling behind on the blog the last 2 days.

The Lego Group (TLG) recently announced the end of the Hidden Side series, which has had 2 waves (1 in 2019 and 1 in 2020). It was short-lived, but really interesting. They used lots of bright colors and the theme's story seemed to focus on a group of kids who were like Ghostbusters, finding and revealing people who were possessed by what I assume are evil spirits or ghosts of some kind.

I like the hats and hairs and interesting clothing for the minifigs in the series. They also had interesting locations and vehicles, like a school and a school bus, that I wish we would have gotten normal versions of instead of the monster versions in this series.

In honor of the end of the series, I give you a quick review of a Hidden Side set called Jack's Beach Buggy. Here's the set:









My thoughts:

THE GOOD:
*Fantastic hat/hair pieces and outfits for the minifigs.
*Fun, interesting colors.
*Extra stickers!
*Interesting use of rubber bands for the buggy suspension system.
*It would be easy to convert into a regular beach buggy (with no Hidden Side stuff).

THE BAD:
*Goodbye Hidden Side.
*Awkward free-standing Octan gas tank.

That's it for today. Be safe out there and I'll be safe at home!

PLOG 63: Lego Captain Marvel Polypag Review

My PLOG continues during this time of pandemic and protests...

It finally happened; I fell behind on my personal log by 2 days. Here's a short and simple one to make up for it.

When I put together a grocery delivery order, I noticed that they had the Captain Marvel polybag with Nick Fury in it so I got it delivered with my groceries. What a great deal!

Here's the set:







My thoughts:

THE GOOD:
*The set comes with the blue version of Captain Marvel's outfit, which (other than this largely distributed polybag) is rare.
*1990s Nick freakin' Fury!
*The VHS tape is a printed 1x2 tile!

THE BAD:
*Were you really in need of a yellow phone booth in your Lego City?

That's it for now. Be safe out there and I'll be safe at home!