LEGO Life Master Build project begins

With the overdue LEGO Boost project approaching completion I've finally spilled out that bin & bag of parts that were sent to me by the LEGO Life team a couple months ago (feels like a few weeks).  It's my first time really looking at exactly what I have to work with, and the situation is about as dire as I expected.  This is a real hodge-podge of parts from which it will be very difficult to build anything that doesn't look like a unicorn ate a rainbow & then promptly threw up.

• Video: LEGO Life Master Build project -- The Parts!

I mean seriously, what a mess, and what a challenge!  The coin-operated supermarket rodeo ride that legit Master Builder Mark Roe came up with was amazing, but I wish I could have seen how many parts he didn't use.  I don't think I can dip into this huge pile and make one small thing, even if I should, at least not at first.

Thanks to the fact that YouTube is not real life, though, I can tell you that I've already used up the vast majority of these parts in fulfilling this challenge.  I did, indeed, go with multiple builds, and I'm a bit ashamed of that.  I think I'm going to show what I did (soon, another video), then take it all apart and try again.  I feel like I need to do better.

First reveal of my LEGO Boost MOC project

Some months ago, LEGO sent me a couple early production samples of their newest robotics system, Boost, and let me go to town with them.  I told them I wouldn't review the thing, but would instead focus on an original robot or gadget of my own design, form & function to be determined.  Here's the very first video footage of what I came up with:

• Video: LEGO Boost tank-bot self-driving test! 🤖

To learn more about Boost, check out the official site and Brickset's first impressions. Having used the system extensively before and after its release, I can confirm that most of the full reviews on the 'web & YouTube were using the pre-production beta software (whether they made this clear like they were supposed to or not).  I can also happily report that many of the early reported issues of extremely limited device compatibility, glitches, and crashes have been addressed and the product that consumers can actually buy seems very stable.

Boost is an introductory robotics education platform aimed at kids as young as 7, a market that's generally not fully ready for something like Mindstorms.  Most Boost building is brick-based, with limited Technic parts usage as required for gears & axles & such.  The strictly tablet-borne programming interface (you supply the tablet) is mostly drag & drop and uses no words, just symbols and very deliberate and thorough tutorials that guide the first-time user through discovery and initial inspiration.  The core electronic component that you put batteries in & build upon has little to no "intelligence" within it.  Instead, your programs are actually run on your tablet, with only raw motor & sensor data being transmitted back & forth to your 'bot.

I'll show my little autonomous tank-bot in detail soon, but the basic concept is that it's sweeping the distance-sensing unit from the kit left & right to look for obstacles.  When it gets too close to something, it makes a decision, and turns to avoid a collision.  I used some of my own parts like narrow tank treads to keep the form factor as small as reasonably possible.  The code I'm currently running is pretty simple, though the amount of experimentation, hair-tearing & re-scoping I did along the way was a bit disproportionate.  Boost seems absolutely fantastic for its target audience, but if you try to extract much in the way of precision or multi-tasking from it, you will quickly encounter quite a number of... quirks.

Your programs are interpreted in real time, which introduces a non-trivial amount of latency, and the sense/interpret/command loop can be slow enough that you can watch it with your bare eyes.  You can create callable functions that can accept arguments, but they can't seem to return any information, and all variables are "local" -- inaccessible outside of the function where they're created.  The system is inconsistent about waiting for tasks to complete before moving to the next command.  All three motors (two in the main hub brick and one separate) are "encoded" so they can report their output shaft position (sort of), but they almost always over- or under-shoot when asked to turn to a specific orientation.  There's also play in the internal gearboxes and the position sensors sometimes hang a bit between degree ticks, taking up to several seconds to decide whether to round up or down.  Oh, and the thing won't drive straight.  It just won't.  It'll go a little to the left or a little to the right, and it's especially bad at low speed. My tank-bot's program tries to make some pretty drastic brute force corrections, depending upon which way it remembers most recently turning.  Even that's not enough, though.

Given the many limitations of this simplistic system designed for young kids, I'm actually quite happy with how well it works, even though I grew a lot more gray hair getting it to this point than I would have ever imagined.  I'll show the details of the physical design of the tank-bot in a future post, and probably demonstrate some of the code that survived the countless re-writes.

Latest LEGO City update solves so much

There's been lots of New Jang City work over the past week since I recovered from my sick time, and the latest big batch of changes really cascades the benefits of my west side expansion across the entire layout.  I've moved a lot of rail (both gauges) and an entire street, with positive effects from end to end on both current items and my future plans.  It's all gelling!

• Video: LEGO City update - So much resolved! Sept. 28 2017

Bona fide certified!

This past week I was able to go through a Google-administered online training course and examination to become officially "YouTube Certified" in the art & science of "Content Ownership."  This alone doesn't mean much of anything for the JANGBRiCKS channel, but the process educated me on some of the back-end workings of the YouTube automated copyright protection system.  It also puts an invisible flag on my account that effectively raises YouTube's trust in me, a major step towards gaining access to tools that'll facilitate better protection of my own content in the digital copyright landscape.

Unfortunately nothing in this process translated into any new video content for your entertainment, but there will be more on that front soon!

A bit of a slow-down

Hey all, I just wanted to post a bit of an update on the recent reduction in my upload rate.  About a week ago I gave myself some time for a much-needed reprieve from the 7 day/week work schedule, to be a little more present around the house, catch up with friends, and play some video games.  Then, a few days ago I fell a bit ill with something that has kind of knocked me off my feet and ruined my focus in waves.  Right now I'm spending a lot of time resting so that I can get back to full strength.  I've tried working on some builds from the couch, but found my brain to be too scrambled to do things right.  So, I'm going to wait this one out.

Don't worry, I'll be back in business soon :)


[Update: Turns out it was a potentially more serious bit of illness than I originally thought.  Yikes.  Good thing I rested and my immune system was able to take care of things.]

LEGO Creator Winter Village Station review 10259

I might not have gotten the UCS Falcon, but here's another set that was released in stores today, and I think it's quite nice!  It costs 1/10th as much and comes with just two fewer minifigures :)

• Video: LEGO Creator Winter Village Station review! 10259

The best thing that could have happened to me today?

If you haven't heard by now, today was the launch of the biggest & biggest-deal LEGO set of all time, the second UCS Millennium Falcon.  It was also another frustrating day for countless fans who experienced outages & errors on Shop at Home (as on every. single. major release day) and ludicrous shortages at brick & mortar locations.  I encountered exceptionally bad traffic on my way to my nearest LEGO Store this morning, arriving 1.5 hours after I departed, just in time to see one of the $800 sets rolling out to the parking lot with its new owner (who had staked out the store since a little after 5am).  Before it, I would soon learn, had departed only two others.   To reinforce the arithmetic, I've just accounted for a total of three UCS Millennium Falcons leaving this site.

Three.  Also known as "a few."  That is the total number of sellable copies of the single largest & most-anticipated toy that were available at this brand storefront of the largest toy brand in the entire world.  You might think I have a run-down, forsaken LEGO brand store in a particularly poor retail location.  However, in the parking lot right outside was a Maserati, a Bentley, and more Teslas, Benzes & Bimmers than I cared to count.  Also, from what I've since heard, there were other LEGO stores that received the identical allocation of "a few."  The largest numbers I've heard of so far were in the mid-teens.

Nearly three hours after I left my house, I had returned, disappointed, but pondering whether to venture back out the following day per the store manager's suggestion that additional stock might arrive overnight.  Once again I considered the long drive and how early I'd need to embark.  I mapped out an updated best-case schedule in my mind with at least 4 hours of near-zero productivity just to buy the thing and put up a quick "look I got it, I'm going to build it, it's as big as you know it is, please be patient" video.  Then would come an estimated 2 days for building, publishing the time-lapse build, and prepping the studio for the review.  A proper review would take at least another full day to create.

After all of the dust settled, I would then need to figure out what to do with the completed monstrosity.  I have no place to display it.  I have no interest in re-arranging any major part of my house to create a space to display it.  I personally have little interest in owning this thing. Meanwhile, sponsored media outlets received the product a week ago and some have already completed their builds.  What am I doing?!  This is madness!  I'm pressuring myself to spend nearly $900 USD (tax is a thing) on one single LEGO set, that I don't personally want, to then spend a further 3-4 days building & filming it (with no time for anything else), to publish a review video that will provide little to no value to potential buyers (who've already bought it or at least tried), and be left with a huge burden of an object I don't know what to do with.

No!

I'm confident it would be a huge waste to proceed, probably the dumbest decision I'd have made with respect to any hobby ever, and certainly a bad choice for you viewers.  The amount of original content I can create with that outrageous sum of money and/or that shocking number of hours makes the option of toiling to publish one of 30 or 40 UCS Falcon YouTube reviews (all showing the exact same things) seem... inadvisable.

Of course not everyone will agree, but my decision is not up for debate.  I will not be returning to the LEGO store tomorrow.  Will I ever buy the mega-Falcon?  I won't rule it out 100%, but I'm looking forward to doing a lot of better things with my money & time before I even begin to consider it again.

Talk about a blessing in disguise.

LEGO Star Wars The Last Jedi & TFA minifigs so far!

A quick look at the sequel trilogy minifigs & droids that have accumulated up to this point, as well as a comparison between the TFA & TLJ collections as things currently stand.  Expect a lot more to come for the latter, and not much more for the former.

• Video: LEGO Star Wars The Last Jedi & TFA minifigs so far!

LEGO Dimensions Wave 9 set preview

Yet another different agency processing some of LEGO's promotions has sent over a box of stuff, this time the as-yet unreleased final wave of Dimensions boxed sets.  No word yet on the Lord Vortech release.

• Video - LEGO Dimensions in-hand preview: Teen Titans GO! Powerpuff Girls & Beetlejuice

Mega Construx Halo Arctic Jackrabbit Assault review

Mega's Halo-related releases have slowed a bit recently, but this is a nice figure pack with a good small vehicle from Halo Wars 2.

• Video: Mega Construx Halo Arctic Jackrabbit Assault review