Brick Rebuild NES Set 71374

 I finally have finished all of my hot projects.  It is time to get back to this. This is the NES of set 71374.

This had been sitting on the corner (big mistake!) of my build table.  Then one day, I hit it with an elbow and the above picture is the result.  There was so much going on, that I decided to leave it where it landed.  This went on for many weeks.

After finishing all of my builds and with Space Port still in its carrying cases, the build table was finally clean.  I finally picked up the pieces and this picture above is what I had.  I actually had to do some disassembly to determine where the pieces went, as the picture below shows.  Fortunately the rotating screen did not get damaged other than a few cosmetic pieces.

After about 20 minutes I got to this point in the picture below, with the help of some coffee.  Again it was a combination of disassembling the dislodge "chunks" and then reassembly on to the main piece.

At this point it is mostly assembled into the rotating screen, the case and the front panel. 

Here is the TV assembled.  Missing two pieces, square brown tile and curved gray tile.  Also two extra pieces, 2X2 black brick and a 1X2 nougat tile.

Searching around the room and every corner I found the square brown tile and the curved gray tile.  I looked though the manual and could not find the 1X2 nougat tile.  This may have fallen down from other parts that I bought over the last year.  Every instance of the 2X2 black brick seemed to be installed as I once again went through the manual.  So again, I assume it fell on the floor at a different time.

 I made some changes to better lock the TV to the stand as shown here. The issues is the bottom of the TV and top of the stand are both socket sides, thus there is no inherent connection.

I moved the 3 1X8 Light Gray plates.  The two on the side now fit into the slots in the stand.  The one in the back is up against the stand.  Those three were part of the set.  I added the 2X6 brick as extra alignment.  Thus the TV cannot slide on the stand, but is not connected to the stand.

This picture shows the changes to the stand.  The 2X4 plate and two 1X6 stacked plates meet up with 2X6 brick I added.  Again there is no connection, this just forces a four sided friction fit.

The next two pictures show the connectors I built. First a rendering blow up.

And the one I built.

 This is how they are placed in the corner at the back.

Then a 2X3 plate and a 1X2 plate are placed on top to lock the TV to the stand. 

This is a minimal connection.  You could put these connectors in the front corners also to provide a better connection.  But doing so means they can be seen.  Since I did not have any parts in the stand color, I went with the back only.  

This will keep the TV from sliding of the stand easily.  Doing this before may have given me an opportunity to catch the TV/stand before it fell of the table top.  So this makes the TV and the stand more of a connected unit, but it will slide across a table.  

Happy Holidays!

Brick Fest LIVE San Diego

I am finally getting to write a description of what it was like at Brick Fest LIVE San Diego, Saturday and Sunday, Nov 20-21.  Thanksgiving and friends delayed me, but fun was had by all at both the Lego show and Thanksgiving.  I have to temper this description with the fact that I had to stay with my display for most of the time. 

It was an interesting two days, given the environment we are now living in.  This was also the first Brick Fest LIVE I have been to.  The building was at the Del Mar Fairgrounds, north of San Diego proper.  There was a lot of open space as the picture shows.  Tickets were sold in time slots, mostly to control the number of people in the building at any one time.

 

 

There was a live show, three times a day.  A Brick Fest Live person warmed the crowd up and then Lego Masters participants  Manny & Nestor and Bryan & Lauren  each did 20 mins Q&A.  The Q&A was separated by a local magician. We were directly across from the stage and the comment on the Web Site that it would loud was very true.  Saw several young children with ear protection.

The crowd was actually very good.  I had attended a one day show in Omaha in July.  The Omaha show was in a smaller building, which made the crowd look larger.  The live show seating area was 80% full for most of the shows.  We had a steady stream of visitors from opening to about 4PM on both days. 

 

One of the highlights of Brick Fest LIVE is the life size models they have.  Here are a few.

They had several build tables.  One was just a collection of basic bricks in all colors.  People would build small MOCs and then several people combined to build a few large ones.  Event staff would come through occasionally and take things apart.  Fairly sure I saw I few smaller MOCs go out the door.  

Then they had one center table with a white castle and four surrounding tables of all white parts.  People would build additions to the castle and place them on the center table.  On Sunday there was an unplanned contest to see who could build the tallest spire.

 

  

The Brick Fest LIVE people had the main store, which was selling new sets.  There were other vendors selling Mini Figures, old Lego Sets and accessories.  The standard baseball hat with brick connectors was very popular.  

The MOC displays were in three areas.  San Diego LUG had several smaller displays and some running trains.  No train layout like you would see at other Lego conventions.  One of the most interesting was a Boy Scout troop that modeled a Boy Scout Summer Camp.  This was a very large display.  My youngest son was there on one day and having been an Eagle Scout and OA member, he noticed that the bathrooms were missing. 

 

This was next to a large Civil War battle scene.

 

 

 

The most interesting display was a pirate ship.  Someone had spent the early days of the pandemic building MOCs and the ship was the main result.  They said they had just been at Brick Fest LIVE Pasadena and were going to Colorado Springs in December.

 

 

 

Here is a collection of MOCs and other large displays.

 

It was a rewarding experience.  I always enjoy talking with people about how I build, the parts I use and what I am trying to model and how.  It is also interesting to receive feedback on whether or not I have acheived the effect I was aiming for.

Finally a short video of what I had there.