@bengood921
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Some of you may remember that last year there was a Willy Wonka themed event in Glasgow that was an unqualified disaster, drawing comparisons to the Fyre Festival and similar failures. I’m pretty sure it came up here in the context of whether or not we should keep doing BrickFest.
At the time, the news articles could only report using the information they had, and although we got the gist of it, I remember them to be very short on specifics. This week, however, I discovered that the event has its own Wikipedia entry, and it’s not short. For those who find these kinds of stories to be endlessly fascinating (although I do feel guilty about it, because people do suffer when these things occur), it’s definitely worth reading.
The story clearly got a lot of press, because there’s a parody video that aired on Jimmy Kimmel, in which they got the actor (now an adult) who played Charlie Bucket in the 2005 movie to play the Wonka character. I’m not gonna post a link to that, but it’s easy to find on YT if you do a search for it, and I was pretty amused.
>> @bengood921, Can I leave with @knb112? I plan to be there around 10:30AM.
Yes, although I don’t know how I’ll get payment to you then if you don’t return later. I might just try to get there by 10:30.
>> I think I know who would rent this bounce house …
This made me el-oh-el. I was a little disappointed though when I realized that the ladder with the guy hosing down the building is just decoration – I thought at first that it was a slide that we could slide down.
PS – I went and looked at Tim’s post, he didn’t actually attach photos, they’re links to Flickr pages, and the pic you see is a preview. Even then, I’ve found this site to be fussy about it, I’ve had Flickr links not work at all, which I have presumed is because the photo the link goes to is too big for this site.
>> what’s your secret for uploading multiple pictures at once? Every time I try, it errors out and either only posts the first one or simply doesn’t post.
This site doesn’t like large files. Are you resizing the pics to 1500 or 1200 pixels wide? Using that method, I can usually post three at a time.
I’m running behind, but I’ll probably be there around 1:15. I’ll have a bag of stuff for turmeric, but I didn’t actually get any rovers built – I couldn’t get them to work out in Studio the way I wanted, and I couldn’t find all the wheels parts I needed. But I’ll still hang out while other people do their Febrovery photos. Also, I will be arriving hungry.
Registration for this event is now open. If you think you’re going to want to reserve a room at the HI, I would do it now.
I’ve assumed it’s the powdered stuff, but you should definitely get a root, we can make magic potion or something with it. Get some eye of newt, too.
I admittedly had made some assumptions here: I assumed that, like everything that goes on a spice rack, turmeric is super duper cheap, and that we wouldn’t need much, and therefore Walter wouldn’t have any trouble supplying it. But I can pick some up at Giant Eagle before Saturday if need be @whiteside
@whitesidewjw You haven’t told us what time you want us to show up.
Welcome, Alek. International Lego Day is a good one. I’m not sure if we’ve scheduled our Q1 meeting yet, or chosen a location for it.
I created a Flickr gallery of photos about turmeric and Lego. (The fact that not everybody spells turmeric correctly has made it a lot more difficult for me to remember which way is correct, since I don’t cook.) Currently it’s five photos.
I suggested to Walter (by email, so I wasn’t publicly putting him on the spot, since I could think of reasons why he might say no) that we bring along trans-clear parts and give them the turmeric treatment at his house. He replied:
I’m all for it. That’s an awesome idea. I know a few turmeric tricks.
Feel free to post it to the thread. I wonder if there are any other color change methods.
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I’ve got a bag of trans-clear parts labeled “parts for turmeric”. I’ve known about it for at least ten years, but I’ve never done it.
I know I saw somebody tint their parts greenish once, but I don’t remember what they used, we’ll have to see if I have the Flickr photos faved.
I plan to be there on the 11th. At some point you’ll have to let us know what time to show up.
At Q4, we (me n Frost n Walter) talked more about taking Febrovery photos at the meetup at Walter’s house. I had not planned on doing Febrovery this year, and I don’t think I’ll have time to come up with much, but I came up with an alternate plan: I’m going to convert the flying vehicles that I built for Erie into rovers, by adding wheels.
I’ve been working on it in Studio, and of course it’s been more difficult than I’d anticipated, for all kinds of reasons. But as of right now, I expect that I will have four rovers, good for three photos (two rovers are small and identical) for Febrovery, and I’m pretty psyched. I don’t know if Frost plans to bring his construction paper landscapes to Walter’s house.
I still need to post pics from my last trip to Walter’s house, which was this past March. There was a definite difference of opinion regarding interpretation of the build.
>> Yay, I win! What is my prize?
Let’s see, what did I post when I announced the contest? Ah, here it is:
“Your prize is the glory of winning and being able to trash talk everybody who guessed wrong.”
Let the trash talking begin! Also, you get to drive the trolley.
My parts still haven’t arrived, even though it’s coming up on a month since they supposedly shipped. I submitted the parts request the first week of November.
My Tic Tac Toe set came in the mail last Friday. My other set that I ordered with it (since it required a “purchase”) shipped around the same time and arrived the next day. That set had been listed as back-ordered to February, so the question of whether or not I would have still gotten a Tic Tac Toe set if they’d actually waited until February to send the other set will have to remain a mystery.
I assembled the set this evening. Except for the astronauts, the set is quite possibly the least interesting one I’ve ever built. In my Google search (see below), I found the Jay’s Brick Blog article on the set, where they describe the helmet-visor combination as “odd”, so it’s not just Tim @timf I’ve already removed them.
My parts (including the 16×16 plate) came in a single resealable plastic bag, which obviously isn’t how they usually do it, and I can’t remember if I’ve ever seen that happen before. In fact, you can see it in the second photo of the Jay’s article. Also, the Jay’s article talks about how the cover of the instructions doubles as the cover of the box, but mine arrived with the instructions inside, and the yellow box cover exposed (also seen in the second photo). I don’t know how typical that is either, and I don’t know if I should read anything into that.
In step 11 of the set, they add a gem piece and a white tile on a gray roller skate. I’m not sure what that’s about, and not surprisingly, a Google search did not help. At first I thought maybe it was for some kind of tic tac toe scoring tradition that I’m unaware of, but now I’m thinking it’s decoration, representing a domed building? gem? and a rover in microscale. If so, that’s some of the lamest decorating I’ve ever seen, and I’m giving Lego an F for that one. The Jay’s article is saying rover and gem.
The cameraman does a nice job of slowly panning over the builds. It’s great for the builds you’re interested in, although less so for those you’re not.
Early on, the video gets to David Koudys’s large classic space build. I have been familiar with it on Flickr for years and years, but I have never seen it in person or talked to David in any way. At the 10:30 mark, one Tim Freshly can be seen having a conversation with Koudys in the background.
Tim’s display shows up at 1:03:39, and gets about 15 seconds of screen time.
I’m still less than halfway through the video. If there’s any more updates, I’ll edit this post, rather than creating a new one.
It has occurred to me that the contest was supposed to have ended awhile ago. The parts did not actually ship until November 25, and they still have not arrived. They should show up before the end of the week. There is no tracking information given.
The actual number of parts submitted for replacement is: 1114
The winner of the contest is Frost. Pam’s guess was only 19 farther away than Frost’s.
If I can get the photos edited to a suitable size for this website, I’ll post them here.
In a curious quirk of the Lego website, the order page lists the total number of parts as 1112. So I thought there was an error, but I checked the individual quantities for each part, and Lego got them all correct, and they’re all there. And I checked that those numbers really add up to 1114, and they do. So who knows what’s going on there.
This video was posted. I have not watched it yet, so I don’t know when Tim’s stuff shows up. It is not a BTB vid, and I am not familiar with the YT userid of the creator.
A day or two after I got my original code, I was back on the page, and it would have let me redeem points for a second set. I hesitated because then I’d have to place two orders in order to redeem them both, and I was having trouble coming up with one order. And a day or two after that, it was sold out (and instead of saying the number of points to redeem, it said $19.99, which was crossed out).
To get my creamsicle set, I ended up ordering my Christmas present early, with the idea that it would just sit here until late December, but it’s back-ordered until February (although in the past, I’ve had back-ordered stuff show up way way earlier than what they’d originally said). They have not gone ahead and sent the bonus set separately, so we’ll see if they have a system in place that holds one for me until my order is sent.
I did not catch that there’s no air tanks before Mike K pointed it out. Fortunately, air tanks are not particularly expensive on BL. Even the orange ones are cheap, they used them for the divers in a bunch of City underwater sets recently.
>> I already know I have an addiction to buying lego. Especially Lego Minifigures. Did you really need to package my purchase in a pill bottle BrickLink seller???
That is bizarre. They are wasting space in the package, and I don’t see how a container like that is offering much protection – the minifig is just gonna bonk around in there the entire trip. Maybe if the delivery truck accidentally drives into a river, your minifig will float gently to safety.
>> Real things sometimes cost less than the LEGO version. Here is a good example:
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>> This looks like a case of “if we list it as free, people won’t be committed; if we list it for a ‘steal’ of a price, we’ll only get serious inquiries.”This is an apples and oranges comparison to me: my Lego piano was bought new, and this piano is used. I think more likely it’s a case of “this piano is in crap condition”, although I am aware that piano prices have plunged in the past 25 years.
I worked as a piano salesman for Trombino’s in the late 90’s, and we had people coming in every week trying to sell us their old piano, and they always expected it to be super valuable, when in fact it was not, and they were always disappointed that we had zero interest. The first thing we asked was when was the last time it had been tuned; if it hasn’t been tuned in twenty years, it isn’t worth much. We didn’t even look at them, and I think I saw them take just one in trade in the year I was there (and I don’t know how that got set up).
Also, we told new piano buyers to not put it in direct sunlight, or over a heat vent, or even against an outside wall, so the photo and the phrase “sun-weathered on one side” is setting off serious alarm bells.
>> So is it that there also another one at Dulles on the dates you mentioned?
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>> Does anyone go to the Fredericksburg one?The Chantilly one will show up on the website eventually, presumably once the contract with the venue is signed.
The Chantilly one is the big one, and has been running since 2008. Off the top of my head, the LUG had eleven members in our display area in 2024.
The Fredericksburg one is smaller and is an hour farther away by car. To my knowledge, the only person in the group who has gone to it is me, in 2023. I am registered for 2025 and there is a thread for it:
>> Not entirely sure if getting the (hopefully valid) promo code essentially reserves the reward or what. I guess I’ll find out once I get around to trying to redeem the the promo code I received.
I was wondering that also. Earlier I got in, but then it was a 404 error, and some other weird pages where it only partially loaded. Eventually I got in, found the creamsicle set, and when I clicked ‘Redeem’, it took me back to the waiting room. Eventually though, without me doing anything, the waiting room sent me to the page for the set, so I also got a code. I had enough points for two of them, so I was debating, but Lego decided for me by limiting me to one.
I did not realize (or expect) that I would need to redeem it with a purchase, and I had not planned on ordering from lego-dot-com anytime soon, so I was still looking to see what I might want to buy when Mike K’s post came in. So I haven’t actually tried to redeem the code yet.
It looks like a bunch of other GWP’s and deals became available at midnight as well, so I’m doubtful that the orange astronauts are alone to blame for the traffic jam.
>> It appears this is an Insiders Reward available for redemption with 2400 Insiders points. Goes live 11/29.
Which is right now, and for the past several minutes, I have not been able to get onto lego-dot-com. I’ve been placed in a “waiting room” due to “high demand”, which refreshes automatically every 20 seconds. At first I wondered if the site had been hacked, but I’m wondering if this explains it. Everybody’s trying to get their orange astronauts before they sell out.
