Affiliate disclosure: I sometimes use vendor & product links that can pay me a small monetary commission if you click them and/or make a purchase. Learn more about this. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Saturday, March 29, 2014

Behind the scenes: Mall construction update #8


My mall is nowhere near large enough to warrant a full-on food court, but this little first floor cafe is one of three small vendors of edibles currently in the plan.

Two more videos for the weekend


Today I have two more LEGO reviews for y'all, one of a new/current set and one from an earlier, but still moderately recent series.

Friday, March 28, 2014

LEGO World City 4513 Grand Central Station set review!


I love most train-related stuff, so when I saw a chance to get this decent-sized LEGO train station set I was quick to pounce on it.  Have a look!

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Three MORE videos, for tomorrow!


These reviews won't be publicized on YouTube until tomorrow, but you blog viewers get rewarded with early access!

Three new video reviews today!


Alright!  More LEGO set reviews for y'all to check out!  Two of these are new to my collection, and one is my very first re-do, taking me back to my first System set experience on YouTube!

100,000 approaches...

As I type this post, the JANGBRiCKS YouTube channel is just hours away from blasting through the 100,000 subscriber mark.  One hundred thousand is one large, round number, and it's customary to celebrate large, round numbers.  There are then a number of customary ways to celebrate large, round numbers, but I'm not going to follow any of them. I'm going to do something very, very different.  I'm simply going to work, harder.

Over a very short period of time, nearly a hundred thousand folks like you have said said they want to see videos from me, so I will simply oblige.  During "slow" periods like we're in right now, with very few new products coming to market, I will double my efforts to buy and review interesting sets I've missed in recent years, in addition to investing in more of the true classics from decades ago to help preserve their legacy.

All the while, I will continue to build and share MOCs as quickly as reasonably possible, building up my main LEGO city (of which I will publish tours more frequently), in addition to opening up two entirely new large displays.

You all want more?  I'm gonna give you all much more!  Here we go!!

Monday, March 24, 2014

Behind the scenes: Mall construction update #7


Another day, another lil' shop.  This one's a phone store, inspired by the long-defunct Cingular brand!

Friday, March 21, 2014

Happy Flashback Friday!


Two old LEGO set reviews today, one town-related and one from outer space!

PS:  It's not Benny!

Behind the scenes: Mall construction update #6


Another day, another picture of another shop I put together last week :) This is the LEGO equivalent of a "Hot Topic" style store.  In this wonky world, folks going for the dark or counter-culture style gravitate towards medieval clothing styles!  Hey, why not?

By the time of this post, every store slot on the first floor has been built and populated with patrons, and I've begun filling in the center walking space while also experimenting with signage space.  I'm still 3 to 4 evenings worth of work away from moving on to the second floor, which is already planned out!

Three new videos today!


Today I got back into the swing of normal video uploads after taking a bit of a break to just focus on my mall in my spare time.  I even threw in something completely different from the norm.

In other news, this week I ordered up 21 more sets to share with y'all across the remainder of this slow period before the next huge product release season begins.  This stacks on top of the dozen or so classic space sets I've built behind the scenes and queued up to review!

Monday, March 17, 2014

Behind the scenes: Mall construction update #5-1.5


Oops.  I messed up and skipped a pic!  Above is the mall video game store, which was actually finished a couple days before the LEGO store!

As for where I'm at in real time (remember these update postings are all intentionally delayed quite a bit), I now have just 2 more little squares of space to populate before it'll be time to move on to the second floor!

Saturday, March 15, 2014

Behind the scenes: Mall construction update #4


This is the part where a lot of readers trip over themselves on the way to the comment box to proclaim, "MY idea! You used MY idea that I invented, that I gave you!" :)  No, the idea of making a LEGO store out of LEGO pieces is not original to any blog reader or YouTube viewer.  People have been doing it since the very first LEGO store (1992!), and I first decided to have one in my town last Summer after realizing my expanded layout had enough room for a mall.

As always, everything's a work in progress, I've got way more planned than any post, photo, or video will ever show, nothing is done until it's done, and the next update will be posted the next time there's an update to post :D  Another three mall shops are already complete, with work on more underway!

Tenkai Knights Titan Vilius review


The Tenkai Knights TV show has turned out way better than expected so far, keeping my interest up, so I picked up another set to check out & share with y'all.

Happy mega-flashback Friday!


You know what day it is!  For this Flashback Friday I've pulled out the stops with not one, not two... but four classic set reviews!

To sweeten the deal even further, how about a bonus Bricklink haul?

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Behind the scenes: Let there be light!


As Americans go I was a pretty early adopter of compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) in the range of 2002 or so.  I loved their electrical efficiency and low heat output, and I use them to this day in my studio.  Everywhere else, though, I now use LEDs, including my LEGO city room!  With a little over 120 watts of actual electricity in use (equivalent to two run-of-the-mill old incandescent bulbs), high-quality LED floodlights light the entire city with lumens to spare!  The bonus pic below of hospital staff & patrons was taken on an ordinary cel phone late at night.  LEDs still cost a small fortune up front, but they pay for themselves very quickly in total energy savings, plus you generally don't need to replace them for many years!


Behind the scenes: Mall construction update #3


I've never seen a clothes-oriented mall department store that doesn't have a womens' negligee department, so I added one to my little LEGO world, next to the smallest set of minifig-compatible two-way escalators I could come up with.  Immature comments will not be tolerated for a second, so please keep it clean.  Everything is a work in progress as always.  Everything.

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Behind the scenes: Mall construction update #2

(click to enlarge)

Here's yet another outdated picture from early on in the construction of my LEGO shopping mall MOC.  Every single thing is an entirely unfinished work in progress and will continue to be so until the full mall is revealed in its entirety, and beyond!  In this picture you can see the makings of a jewelry shop and 1/4th of one of the department stores, with a women's clothing department and makeup & perfume counter.  Friends figures make great headless manikins (and will be left in exactly that form), which is great since I didn't have any other use for them until now!

Three more sections have been built since this photo was taken, so stay tuned for the next posting!

PS:  Still not accepting suggestions for this mall :)  General planning for the stores was completed months ago and this thing is going to be 100% my design!

Friday, March 7, 2014

Behind the scenes: Mall building begins!


Construction of another large structure for my LEGO city is officially underway!  I'm taking a new tact with this one, going full-bore with building right from the outset rather than patiently planning everything out ahead of time.  It's going to be a very pure and wholesome, traditional, free-form LEGO building experience that I think I'll enjoy every much.

Due to the limited forethought, there will definitely be mistakes and regrets along the way, but I'm ready for all of that and I'm embracing it right now!  In conjunction with the different process, this time I'm also going to respectfully decline suggestions from the outset.  I'm going to build what I'm going to build, how I build it, period!  I'm also intentionally delaying the release of photos of the work in progress.  The one above is from the beginning of the week, and I've already done two more which you'll see over the coming week :)

LEGO Classic Space 6970 Beta 1 Command Base review!


It's Flashback Friday time and this go around I take us to 1980 with another space base set.  I'm really addicted to these first-generation LEGO space sets, so until I've gotten through all of them, expect to see many more :)