Delightful December

Sadly, I didn´t manage to post the calendar in day 1 but at least I still managed to post it. As December is well known for Christmas, I have decided to decorate the calendar using this elf. Out of the package, it came with one teddy bear and a present. It contains a hair feature with ears to make them bigger and shorter legs. Though in the calendar I added one more teddy and a figure which is fishing.
Merry Christmas!

Lego Tram (set 8404) review

To celebrate the arrival of Santa, I am going to post my second review since this blog has been made. As I haven´t seen the 8404 set a lot, I have decided to review it to give you more information about the set. Now there has also been another similar railway product: the "Lego City Town Square", set 60097 also contains the kind of transport but instead, in orange.  Coming back to the 8404, the tram is 32 cm long, 8 cm longer than the green bus which is also a component of the same set.

Personally, I think that it was a marvellous idea to add this creation to the market and really admire the way it was built. I especially like the front and back windscreens and how they were incorporated to the model using simple pieces which look good overall. The weight factor didn´t show anything surprising compared to my other creations and most pieces seem to be standard and easy to find. Considering the structure it has it is compact except the roof which was probably designed to be removed easily and to generate an easier playing environment.

Cabin junction:

I have dedicated a whole section to this as I want to talk about all the benefits and disadvantages to the system. I have never really had any problem with it and shows to be very stable. One good point about it is that there are no flexibility limits except the pieces themselves. That makes it good for extreme manoeuvring or simply sharp turns on the lego train tracks. I think that there is nothing negative about this aspect though next time they could try to create the attachment with more simple pieces.

Wheels:

The wheels are also one of those things which are not that common but they function in perfection and smoothly. They do make some noise but I understand that the plastic can´t be silent.

Summing things up this was a great creation by the lego group and I give it a 4.7/5. With only a couple of mistakes, this build is one of my favourites in my collection.

Now that I have reviewed this interesting model here is a MOC using some of its pieces and becoming a totally new transport. I hope this gives you ideas for your own!

Yes!, it is a homemade lego cable car. As You can see I used the front and back windscreens of the tram for this creation and helped myself with the structure of one of the cabins. I was the main author of the cabin but then I needed help for the system in which my dad produced the movement. This is also related to christmas as it was done in those dates and includes the christmas tree to cheer up the photo!

THE COMPARISON!

To finish this post I have decided to show you the two trams face to face. Which one do you think is the best? What rating do you give each? Share on the comments below your favourite!

Click here to check out the video about the model

Click here to check out the photo better

VS

Lego machine guns

SCAR-H

MINI-UZI

M-4 CARBINE and BUSHMASTER ACR

AK-47 and UMP.45

Calmly, I have had time to develop and produce some guns to add some action to my lego area and today I have decided to show you some of my combinations. 

To be honest, I don`t really know much about guns, I simply enjoy making them so maybe I haven`t labelled them the most accurately but at least they are close enough, and most important for me; they look quite good. But a big part of the achievement was them being minifigure size which makes them much more playful and practical. In the other hand I think I should look better for a black piece instead of a grey one, at the back of some of the guns.

Well, to start of with this ´project` I first discovered how easily I could do the AK-47, and then it was all much easier. The only thing I had to do was combine them with other simple pieces and observe the final result. Still, there is a lot to experiment and see if I can do an even better production.

SIG550 assault rifle

CUBING#1

Today I am going to start this new series in my blog so I can also show you my other hobbies, and vary from just lego MOC posts which is what I normally do. Here I have got a video of one of my best times on the 2x2x2 (the oficial smallest rubik´s cube there is):

If you don`t yet know how to solve the frustrating 3 layer 3D puzzle click here to see the tutorial in which I learnt from.

Lego Table Tennis

side view

Starting a new school year, table tennis has become a popular sport. For this reason, I have decided to create a quite simple table tennis table with two matching t-shirt female players. Considering the time and number of pieces it requires, it could be a good model for you to try at home and upgrade it to complex positions and results.

top view

Here are some piece number information:
Table: 21 bricks
Minifigures: 9 bricks
Total: 30 bricks
So, as a conclusion, with nothing but 30 bricks you can build this fun MOC set to have fun and play with!

Overloaded October

This month, I have also displayed the calendar above to help you through the month.

But as I have had lots of new minifigures recently I decided to create an exclusive monthly character edition with not just October related figures, but totally different.

Minifigure hunter

 My dad´s ability on LEGO based subjects can be prodigious. Recently, we have had very cool minifigures on the market and with Mr Correia those minifigures are guaranteed to be ours. Already five times in a row he has succeeded to encounter the wanted minifigure and every time faster. If he continues practicing and developing this rare talent, we are to find someone with potential.

Here is an exclusive single question interview I asked him:

Is it fun to go minifigure hunting?

"No!"

Here we have a photo of his lego profile

Lego ferrari f1

 FERRARI F1

I was getting out of ideas for a blog post so I decided to get the smartphone and start to take photos to my lego sets. But as I found this car, I got to it and started editting it creating this image.
This ferrari I own from lego speed champions is a set completed with the ferrari truck. The logos and how well it has been designed (even with the help of stickers) can clearly represent this iconic car.
Review:

the original photo

I am quite impressed and excited about this new set by the fact of how well the car was done. This updated version of the ´Lego SPORTS` has certainly improved and I really enjoy playing with it and having it in display.
I also tried to build a speed champions porsche though I haven´t got any spare long car bases and that would have to make me destroy the F1 or the lego city rally car which also has that common feature.
So I dedicated lego ´building time` to make other things or instead bigger cars.
Overall, I think this car could get a 4.5/5 on my scale.
It is just perfect, though if the use of stickers could be reduced it would be the best it could possibly be. (Even though being quite impossible as the minifigure size scale must include them to assure a magnificient result).

Have an amazing August!!!

Summer is intense and temperature can turn high in some places. Ideal to swim, go to the beach and have a nice fresh icecream.

Delorean DMC-12 (2015 Jan) adapted version

This MOC was created in a different place than usual. Instead of my playing room this model was literaly built on my own bed. My strategy to build lego cars is to start of with its base, and start building ´up` until you only have to add the big covering plates on the roof and front or some last details. As I did it in a big scale I had enough space to do functioning doors and an opening at the back.
Now, a problem with the car is that in my range of bricks, I didn´t find the correct sized wheels for it so since then it was maintained in the same state until eventually it was destroyed.
Creativity is certainly essential but internet also helped me with this vehicle-lots of learnt techniques were used here.

LEGO Dinosaur (2016 version)

Using ´Hero Factory´ and that kind of style pieces I managed to create a dinosaur. It is over 3-5 times bigger than a custom minifigure and this hybrid in between a pterodactyl and a type of t-rex has lots of features. By looking at the image during some time you might have noticed that the head has been made with two feet built together. Even though it is not essential, I was lucky to have this set which contained these flexible and shiny sharp jaws . They didn´t just help me with the feet but as I had one or two spare I also decided to give the predator a horn to make it rare.
Though what I´ve been talking about is the just last step because the base and the covering are also important.

Have a joyful July!

We are now in the summer season and going to the beach is turning into a daily routine. A great time to go on holiday and refresh your mind though it would be practical to maintain it up to date:

LEGO ambulance (June 2010)

This MOC would be corresponding to a Lego creator or classic model as it isn´t minifigure size. But in this case my dad (the author) managed to add more details like the red cross, which could have to be done with a sticker in a compatible-with-minifigure vehicle.
Though if you analyse it carefully it seems to fit in well with lego figures, the only doubt is if it would look the same with creations suitable for figures together. Maybe, as this is a classic version, I could try to build a modern one and add more details on the wheels or perhaps the side mirrors to a different shape. These look well with this creation but they wouldn´t suit a modern ambulance because they´re mostly for trucks and normal car ones would be better.

POLICE 4x4 (2016)

front view

 When I am in the mood of playing around with my lego I normaly build minifigure sized vehicles to use in a game. It is just a police suv because the only piece I had was this one (in the picture) with a sticker saying police but this model could be a Land Rover Discovery, a Land Rover Sport or probably a Volvo XC90. Inside the space is for one minifigure though it has a kind of storage place where you can fit a suit case or a weapon. Unfortunately I couldn´t find a totally transparent front window so I had to put a blue one.
In these pictures the driver is actually a Star Wars Naboo starfighter pilot but I thought it would look cool with this particular figure.

engine view/front view

Even having these nice suv effects this MOC uses  most of the same structure and techniques or maybe it simply has other details such as the engine-easy but very impactful to the design.


Down in the last picture you can see the base of the car. This is different to the normal structure but also very simple and efficient.

lower view

LEGO beyblade (2015)

This post is going to be focusing on one of the most popular ´spinning tops`: Beyblades.
I have had the idea to build 3 beyblades and a launcher and prepare an ultimate experiment to test them to their limits.

Galaxy Pegasis: According to my tests (without the launcher) it has been the most succesful and actually one of the most simple compared to a big bang pegasis. The only way of being beated is if the other two team up. His secret could simply be its balance as it shows the highest average of finishing in the spining posture.

Ray Unicornio: In my tests it has shown to be at the level of the big bang surprisingly. Its structure ables him to have more speed but with his lack of stamina the things aren´t that good.

Big Bang Pegasis: In my opinion, in real life, big bang is better than galaxy. But these measurements have proved me wrong. Though by analysing this case carefully, the major reason to this must be its weight and the energy it needs to actually do its best.

Still, these beyblades aren´t the best I´ve done. My uncle and me worked on better models that reached rare times of one minute!

P.S. Sorry I didn´t do the calendar this month. I was out in a trip and I totally forgot about it :(

LONDON bus (November 2012)

 This was my dad´s "work" but it deserves to be in my blog. It has been chosen as an original and fun MOC so I am going to write a post about it.
This is a 1980 LONDON bus. As usual it is two floors tall and of course it is red. It´s not so difficult to do as it is not minifigure size too. But in our case we still had it complicated to do the windows correctly. (You can see we used the lego airplane windows from the set 3182).
It would also be a bit better if we had thinner wheels to match the width of the bus but that was the same problem in the Jeep willys - http://brickblogdversion.blogspot.com.es/2016/03/holiday-version-jeep-willys.html - so I guess it would be useful to have it.
Now, I am looking forward to building the Harry Potter knight bus as a MOC but I think it also requires the thin wheels!

LEGO power functions gun (2016)

It took me some time to approach this. That day I really wanted to try to do something cool but rare with these electrical functions so first I had the idea to create a simple minifig size automatic shooter. It worked well but it wasn´t enough for me. I believed that I could turn that system into a real sized automatic gun. In this picture I used the switch the other way around to build the trigger. For the battery I replaced it from the place that you hold the gun which stands out to be the correct size. Finally, the motor was put below where the rear sight would be.
The problem with it is that it can´t achieve very long distances because it is made for minifigure shooters or guns as the system is the mini blaster or ´multi` blaster.
In the future I could try other types of weapons such as mini guns or other bigger models which suit the blaster design and function better.

LEGO piano (old version) 2013

If you look further down in my blog you will see that I had done another piano in 2015 which was obviously better than this one. Here, the notes are larger and don´t look very well. Even though it wasn´t my idea, in the recent piano MOC I used the white pieces that you can see in the right hand side of the image. Then I covered half of those 2x1s in half to make them look like the piano keys in the right size compared to the minifigure. I gathered that technique in the internet and used the pieces I had to create a similar model. This also has other benefits such as making the amount of notes of the piano seem more realistic. For example, as a piano has 88 notes, using this style of this model wouldn´t be very efficient (it only contains 9 notes) while the other would (which has over 20). Back to this one, the minifigure is actually a prisoner, I believe I had no other choice before because I had a much smaller range of LEGO bricks. The cool thing about it is that it has a music sheet and instead of being a vertical piano it is a grand piano. I guess I might do one this summer.

More than LEGO

You could be asking yourself what do I do when I am not using my lego. Well, I´ve got a clear answer for that. Even though I also like drawing, this post is going to be focusing on cubing. I like to solve rubiks cubes!
But what has it got related to LEGO?
It´s quite simple really. With my dad`s help, we will try to create an EV3 rubiks cube solver. My dad is thinking of using the same system of the record holder robot in LEGO but I am not convinced that there are pieces that fit the design.
However, first (as we are not professional programers), our plan is to use instructions for our first try so that then we would have the simple idea how it works. Check out this video below.
 This is currrently the fastest LEGO cube solver called `cubestormer3 (CS3)´.
Before the record was done by cubestorrmer2 (CS2) solving it in over 5 seconds when I can only do it in 40!

 Still, because of that, I won the speech competiton, (an event held each year in my school).

Oh, and this is the cup and my cubes

Last year I did it on LEGO but sadly I did not win the final.

AUDI supercar (September 2013)

Two months before I built "My MUM´s car" (a creation that you will find further in my blog) I built this modern AUDI. Looking at the techniques used in this model makes me think it was my dad who did it for example, the front lights were built horizontaly, a feature that I probably didn´t use at the time. But surprisingly it was me, the creator.
 A major advantage of this MOC is that it is minifigure size (kind of) and has opening doors and other functioning parts.
The front clearly looks like an AUDI though I doubt other bits didn´t look as good.

DOORS:
You can also spot that the doors are very simple, and fortunately look well with the model. Perhaps because the rest of the car is simple too.
Summing things up, I think that the simplicity and quality that was achieved in this model is in my "MOC top 3".

Mother´s MAY!

In my case May is one of the most busy months including mother´s day, sports day and other events. The ones I´ve mentioned are represented in the title and the calendar; the cheerleaders for sports day.

Here is the monthly calendar:

Sail boat November 2013

This is one of the best MOCs I did though my dad helped me with it, especially in the sail part. We did use some non-lego strings and sails because we didn´t really have much variety of lego those days, but enough to build a decent boat. In this creation I quite remember the difficulty of creating good figures. I enjoyed trying to use the legos I had to create characters suitable for the sail boat. Regardless of being small in this picture and not that clear you can guess that there are 2 minifigs on the boat.
The one at the back is commanding the ship - I tried to make him look like an old experienced sailor.

The one at the front is a younger man wearing nice sunglasses and a cool hair style. The ´younger´ lego figure is also wearing a life jacket which makes the sailor seem professional because he is not wearing one - he is probably very confident.

You might have noticed the kind of bumpers on the side of the boat. They are to avoid the boat from hitting when it is close to the port. Sadly, I don´t remember what bricks were used.

Finally, I put a flag at the back. In real boats it´s supposed to be of a country, but I only have single coloured and flags designed for racing sets.

My MUM´s car (December 2013)

In 2013, the passion for lego gave me the inspiration to  do a birthday present to my mum made out of lego!
I think that finally I did add wheels on, though in this particular photo (the 2nd picture) it doesn´t. I believe that in those ages, I was very focused on getting the interior of the car right. But for the age I had ( 8) I´d say I did a good job on the outside too.

                                                               

On the first photo you can see the version of my ´lego mum´ and the car with wheels.

On the first picture I´ve also added a couple of extras. I guess it was suposed to be an AUDI of some kind.

Modern supercar Aston Martin (November 2015)

 FRONT VIEW

To create this sports car, I used a variety of different techniques. Though what was really very helpful was that I used the base and other ideas that also appear in the creator speedster. I don´t have the set but I went on internet to check the instructins out. As the title says, this is an Aston Martin. Even though the headlights aren´t the same I just decided to do a different version than normal Aston Martins. The same with the exhaust tubes, I made it seem faster with six!

BACK VIEW  

One of the issues is that minifigures don´t fit in terms of  hight. For this reason this car would be in the theme of design more than to play with. But I believe the car has many benefits too.

THE ART OF THE BRICK exhibition

THE ART OF THE BRICK, one of the top ten ´must see global expositions` contains sculputures that Nathan Sawaya, a certified professional from lego has done in his artist career. After reaching many other places, the exposition has finally arrived to Barcelona. It is here from March 17th to June 12th so if you lego fans live close by, don´t waste your chance!

Different to most other lego expositions, instead of big cities with minifigures this one (as the name says) shows a more artistic aspect of lego. Normally each sculpture is the same colour too, though some can reach 80 000 bricks - the dinosaur. At the end you´ve also got a ´playroom´which extends to the lego shop with Nathan Sawaya stuff and lego official products.

I was quite excited and proud with the fact of seeing things that I had already seen before and, at the same time, of other surprising sculptures which you can see below:

LEGO real sized electric guitar 2014

The guitar wasn´t very resistant due to it´s structure: I went building upwards. It is also because of the pieces used, I am quite sure that it would be better with technic bricks because of the way they join together. The details were added 100% by the depth of the bricks, probably the only creation I built with these characteristics.

LEGOLAND (Germany) 2010

Here are some photos of one of the best trips we had: legoland. As you see in the picture above there is a minifigure sized football pitch.





The airport has realistic planes and the airport itself.

Venice!