Why I Oughta...

On one of my trips to Tokyo, I brought back a couple of sets of Nanoblocks for the kids including this one that is an "Optical Fiber LED+ Kaminarimon" that features 420 pieces.  Nanoblocks are like Legos, but much smaller.  Like...really tiny.  That tiny-ness is a key product attribute making the sets - when fully built - taking a much smaller footprint than a Lego set.  But, that tiny-ness also makes these decidedly NOT FOR KIDS.  Or at least...not for my kids. This thing lingered on my desk for a couple of months because the kids couldn't make it work - their hands couldn't make the tiny parts work for them.  So, I decided to take over the project and get it started. This set is Kaminarimon - which Wikipedia tells us - is a very special site in Tokyo . On the scale of difficulty, this one measures 3 out of 5. It has an LED base that is powered by a pair of AA batteries or by plugging in a USB cable and that lights up the base panel that you see below.

At the Elkhorn Flea Market up in Wisconsin, I came across this American Bricks Building Set of red and brown bricks.  They're Lego-like, but they made their appearance twenty years prior to Legos making an appearance in America.  This Google Arts & Culture page is really awesome .  It is from "The Strong National Museum of Play" in Rochester, New York.  Details from there : The Halsam toy company of Chicago offered the first sets of American Bricks construction sets made of wood in the 1940s. The interlocking stud and socket system that held the bricks together was similar to the blocks in LEGO sets that arrived in the United States in the 1960s. The American Brick pieces were grooved on the outer face to resemble the texture of bricks. I think that the vendor wanted $30 for a few bags of them, so they weren't cheap.  And because of the price, it was easy to invoke my collecting mantra and pass on them.  Say it with me: It is enough to enjoy the existen

Just posting this here to mark the beginning of our Lego Disney Cinderella Castle build for the Summer.  Or what is officially called "Disney Castle Playset - By Lego" .  This is page three and, while we actually got to this spot about a week ago, I'm just getting around to posting now.  So, once we complete it, let's add seven days to the tracking.  Also, Step 3 is where we already ran into trouble.  Why?  Because why wouldn't a seven year old who has this Castle set in her bedroom for seven months open up bag one and tinker around.  The only problem?  When we sat down to do it together, we had to scavenge together parts from bag one that were littered across the various bins.  In some cases, we swapped in wrong color bricks.  Or two smaller bricks to make up the composite of a larger, spec'd one.  We're getting it done and I figure since most of this is the substructure/undercarriage, the colors don't matter so much because they'll be buried

I had to look closely to be sure this sea dragon in one of the lakes/ponds at Disney Springs was, indeed, made out of Lego bricks, but after a closer inspection, I can confirm that it is, indeed, legit Legos.  I have no idea if they build these big installations from ONLY bricks (meaning all the way to the middle) or if there is some form they use and apply bricks to the exteriors?  Do you Lego folks know?   Seems some folks use Duplos?  Or, as you'd guess, other structures . I love how this Lego sea serpent/Loch Ness Monster is reminiscent of the topiary version from the Magic Kingdom  and we always stop at the Lego store at Disney Springs.  Despite having that HUGE World of Disney store just a little bit further down the way, the LEGO store is always my kids favorite stop and where they typically put their (very limited) spending power.

In what seems like the past few months, the pace of adoption of Legos has increased rapidly in our house.  We went from having a tub of Duplos that the girls would occasionally build something with to full-on regular Lego sets in an instant.   You can see some of the Lego-related posts here on the blog. The Bird - who is younger - has mostly been spending her time with Lego Juniors.  They're a bit easier to build but she still gets to work with 'regular Legos' like her big sister and leave the Duplos to her brother the Beef. The Babe on the other hand has a total unquenchable thirst for all things Lego.  It started with a few Lego Elves sets.  Then she got a few Disney princess sets (including some for Christmas) and the Millennium Falcon (Squee!) and it just exploded.  (note:  she hasn't built the Falcon yet because she wants to 'wait until her new room is ready so her sister and brother don't wreck it'...)  She's built Ecto 1 and 2 from Ghost

The Babe scored this little bonus pack that includes The Mini Batwing from the Lego Batman movie as the VIP Club 'free' gift along with a recent Lego purchase.  I say 'free' in quotes because while it *is* free, that's because we bought the sets directly from the Lego store, which gives us VIP points and little free sets like this.  They don't, however, have the best prices.  You can go on Target and compare prices on just about any recent set and see that Target has it a few bucks cheaper.  But...you don't get the points and the little things like this.  So, since the kids are so young and it seems like we're just entering our Lego years, I've decided to play the long-game and go with the VIP points program.   See this brickvesting post for some details .  (btw...brickvesting?  Like investing in Legos???  Seriously?  Maybe that's how I can convince Nat to let us buy more!   Honey....we're investing in our future!! ) The Babe seems to be

For the second year in a row, we participated in Reddit's Disney Gift Exchange with the girls being the 'intended audience' of the gifts being sent and received.   Here's my post from last year's exchange where we gave away some Peter Pan and Wendy gear to a Redditor .   I'll post the details of what we 'gave' at some point, but here's the details on what we were sent.  I posted the full note here on RedditGifts, so you can see the full story .  Our "Santa" was super thoughtful and asked a bunch of questions.  Turns out, they were in couple in Kansas who are Disney fans (just like us) but don't have kids, so they loved (so they said!) being paired up with our girls.   The day the box arrived, we let the girls open it.  And on top was a sweet little note from their pal Mickey: And under the little tote bag was this bounty!   Ermahgerd ! Tons of stuff for both girls.  They were in heaven! And some pins f

I'm a sucker for Disney stuff.  And with our two girls getting into Legos and being totally addicted to anything in a 'blind bag', there might not be something that is more addictive in our house than these Lego Disney Mini Figures.   There's a set of 18 different Disney characters in what I think everyone is presuming is the first edition of multiple editions that came out earlier this year. We've been picking up blind bags here and there, but I also went on eBay and bought a dozen bags.  The girls have begun to go through them, but we're no where near the full set.  No Ariel so far.  And like three Captain Hook's?!?! But, we did get Ursula that you can see down below.  She's pretty great! The whole Disney Vinylmation thing ran it's own course and we stopped buying them, but these feel different.  With a Mini Figure display in the works, these seem like something that the girls can get after.  If a second edition/season comes out (which

 Over the weekend, I took the girls to see the  Lego Train Show out at Cantigny which is put on by the Northern Illinois Lego Train Club .    As you can see from the shots here, it was pretty awesome. Who knew that (first!) Lego trains and (second!) that a club for them even existed? The show took over the biggest room at the Cantigny Visitor's Center and had two big main loops set up.  There were a few guys behind the setup that were members of the club and had built this whole thing.  It was impressive in scope but also really neat with various details.  They had set up little towns/sections like Paris and Springfield. And I'd be lying if I told you that I haven't given a lot of thought about trying to figure out a way to incorporate these Lego Trains into our existing O-Gauge Lionel setup.  Thinking we need to give these a try, right?  Besides the trains, just the idea of the buildings/town structures via Legos seems to be a good gateway, right? The Babe is jus

The girls are really into 'blind bags'.  You know...those toys that come in little packages and are part of a series but you don't know which one you'll get until you open it.  Between Shopkins ( which I've talked about here ) and My Little Pony, they like to open the little bags and get surprised.  Kind of like toddler gambling or toddler toy roulette. Recently, we were at the Toy Store in Elmhurst and they spotted these Simpson mini figure Lego blindbags .  The Bird got Hans Moleman.  The Babe got Groundskeeper Willie. They've quickly fallen out of grace in favor of ponies and unicorns with both girls.  Too bad for them.  Good for me I guess, as they're now adorning my desk. I was saying "Boo-urns....".