Year 2022, Where are we headed

 

 

As the New Year dawns, here are the goals for 2022.

Lego Shows to attend

These are the shows we are planning on attending in 2022.  In all cases we will be showing our MOC and a few we will be vending.

Brick Fest Live (San Jose)  March 26 & 27

Brick Days (Omaha)  April 23 & 24

Bricks by the Bay  Jun 23-26

 

Brick Fest Live (San Diego)  Dates TBD

 

Product Development Road Map

Brick Buddy II 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This really needs to  be done this year and ready for production.  Mostly what is needed to finish is the MP3 section and finalizing the scripting.  This will get added priority this year.

 

Planetary Space Base Expansion

I have some great ideas on how to make this better and bigger. Some of this depends on Brick Buddy II.  I need to continue to build the cliff.  This is largest thing I need to do, but is also the most expensive. 

The two pictures above are renderings of a walker that will roam the cliffs.  I am also working on some construction robots.
 

Train Tools

There are three items here.  These first two are left over from last year.  One I have lots of small displays I acquired years ago.  I want to turn these into billboards for HO train layouts.  They can be loaded with changing displays or a static display.  Also  I have an idea for a battery operated track cleaner.  It would use track power unless the track is too dirty, then it would run on a rechargeable battery. It would also provide real time information back about the track voltage so you could find dead spots via a Bluetooth link and a mobile app.  The final one is to upgrade all of the turnout/signal control units I built 10 years ago and to build a MiWi to Bluetooth interface so I can control the train from a tablet/phone.

 

So we will see if all of this can be done and just how long it will take.

Year 2021 in Review

Another year is done.  Did not get as far as I wanted, but things did get done.

Lego Shows

Bricks By the Bay was fun, even if it was virtual.  Learned a lot that I am now applying to the Planetary Space Base.  Here is hoping that this year will be live and in person.

Nebraska Brick Days was an interesting take on a Lego show.  Different than Bricks By The Bay, but had a lot unique items and a completely different vibe.  First live show I have been to in a while, even though I was just an attendee.  There were a lot more people there than I expected.

Brick Fest (San Diego) was also a lot of fun.  Fairly large crowd, but was just a presentation type show.  Really enjoyed talking with the attendees about what we are doing and how I was inspired to build the Planetary Space base.  I have missed this part of the shows.  That is where the real fun is as a presenter.

Brick Building

Built the NES system, then dropped it on the floor and had to rebuild it.  

 

Continued building on the Planetary Space base.  Started the cliff behind, which is a large undertaking.

 

Train Building

Made good progress on the train layout.  The Grand kids enjoyed watching the limited run on the video chats.  

 

Miscellaneous Building

The Billy Bookcase Hack I did has proved to be very useful. In a small space I have created a maximum  amount of storage space that is easily accessible. And as a plus, it looks good also.  

 

Development Road Map

Brick Buddy 2 is progressing slowly and still needs work.  The bigger issue will be parts availability.  Electronics parts have disappeared from the main stream suppliers and the secondary market can be 10 to 100 times more expensive.  That makes it cost prohibitive to produce right now.

Planetary Space Base made progress enough to continue to show it.

Train Tools did not get anywhere.  I have been working on a new turnout/signal control board.  My original design is rather old at this point and some of the parts are now unavailable.  So with the knowledge of the previous version, I have been working on a design that can be purchased.

On to 2022.

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.