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my purchase came in today ?

I had so much fun interviewing Jamie Berard about Creator Expert and the Modular Building Series earlier this year. It's rare to get an opportunity to get inside the minds of the creative genius designers at LEGO, so I thought you might enjoy some selected highlights from the interview. The interview was split into the following two parts: Highlights from: ɪɴᴛᴇʀᴠɪᴇᴡ: Modular Building Series with Jamie Berard In this interview, we discussed how Downtown Diner, and Parisian Restauraunt represented two major turning points in the series... Jamie Berard: "Some people would say there are two stages of the modular, with #10243 Parisian Restaurant starting the second expression because we put more detail inside the building and focused a bit more on storytelling. As we approached the 10 year mark, we needed to be careful that we didn’t stay on auto-pilot, where it becomes too familiar and people can just predict the next one." I surprised that one of the earlier sets wasn't very well received initially: Jamie Berard: "I remember when we did the #10197 Fire Brigade. That one was not very well received in that people were horrified that it was too American; ... They said that the flag is hideous, although that I appreciate that and agree... Then they said it only has two floors, and everybody knows the modular have three floors. They had already defined in their mind what it should be." We also got a chance to talk about how Creator Expert helped bring Teal back... Jamie Berard: "We considered Medium Azure and some other blues. All of these complement the Dark Pink color we wanted to use for the convertible in this set. ... we thought this set was a nice way to bring teal back, and bring it back with a quantity of bricks. We also talked about storytelling (ex: money laundering), and highlights his two favorite sets in the series! Link to full interview. Highlights from: ɪɴᴛᴇʀᴠɪᴇᴡ: LEGO Creator Expert with Jamie Berard Since my passion is LEGO Architecture, we talked at length about the large Architecture models (like Big Ben) in the Creator Expert series. I asked how they pick which buildings to create as sets: Jamie Berard: "It is harder for us to accomplish contemporary, clean architecture in a large model, because of our target audience is adults. ... If you try to re-create any of the well-known architecture that is too minimalist ... in a LEGO version it comes across a bit naïve ... On the flip side, there’s a lot of great classic architecture that you can imagine in LEGO and know it’s gonna be great. I’d say anything “old world” looks great in LEGO because we have a lot of opportunities for details, texture, implying different stonework or materials." I was surprised to hear that they struggle to wrap there heads around what deserves the "Creator Expert" label. Jamie Berard: "But how do you perceive what makes it Expert? This is an internal question we are trying to resolve…" We also learned which building in the Creator Expert was most challenging to get right, and might have still been a bit disappointing in the end. It was fun hearing how much enthusiasm he has about his work, something you may have already noticed when watching his Designer Videos. Link to full interview. Sincerely, ---tom P.S. For practical reasons, these were just a few of my favorite excerpts from the full interviews at brickarchitect.com website. I hope you enjoyed the stories behind these great LEGO sets!

Placed one pre-order at the Lego store today.

ULTRAMAN vs BALTAN by Klyph R'ha Ben Sun

Rock Tortoise by Ralf Langer

Rebel Pilot by Koen

Benny - Jedi In Training by justin_m_winn

Baroque Cathedral by bricksandtiles

Looks pretty damn legit to me.

Found a couple of these little guys burrried under the kylos and sons of garmadon.

The epitome of set placement in a shopping cart! My mind is at ease.

I’m not much of a collector, and while I do have a few display sets out, most of them were pulled from bulk lots and are really just waiting until I get motivated enough to sell them. Anyway, this arrived today.

Boy people are hard to please! I get some of the critiques but man, what else can they do. They seem to be hopefully heading down a path where they'll release a few more castle sets to put a Hogwarts together (need a Gryffindor Tower set) in more of a minifig scale. This is an awesome display model though. I'm amazed they didn't price it at $499, I think it sells easily with that many pieces (I get there are a lot of small ones). I'm excited because it also looks fun to build! Few repetitive sections and I'm sure tons of creative techniques you can't even see in the pics. For me they knocked it out of the park on this one.

Walmart - LEGO Batman Movie Scarecrow Fearful Face-Off Building Kit $9 https://www.walmart.com/ip/LEGO-Batman-Movie-Scarecrow-Fearful-Face-off-70913/55126250?u1=9705407491c911e8bf28fae05afd5f940INT&oid=223073.1&wmlspartner=lw9MynSeamY&sourceid=26771511070706644011&affillinktype=10&veh=aff

Speed Champions showing up in my local Barnes and Noble store search. Nothing on their official website but interesting seeing where Speed Champions are showing up post-TRU. If you have gift cards and/or membership (10% off) you might get a deal that way.

I had so much fun interviewing Rok Zgalin Kobe about the LEGO Architecture theme earlier this year. It's rare to get an opportunity to get inside the minds of the creative genius designers at LEGO, so I thought you might enjoy some selected highlights from my interview! Highlights from: ɪɴᴛᴇʀᴠɪᴇᴡ: Rok Žgalin Kobe on LEGO Architecture I started with the same question I asked Jamie - how do you decide what building to make into a LEGO Architecture set? Is it based on market research, your passion, or to coincide with when a new LEGO store is opening? Rok Žgalin Kobe: "It’s actually a combination of them all, and really depends on the model. One might stem from a good idea of a great model that we think is feasible, another might stem from the underlying ... We need to take into account everything from how many sets we’ll have that year, and the price points we would like to have them at, to how the overall portfolio looks like. Of course, we are glad for the ones that just work out." He brought a few prototypes of both the LEGO House set, and the Guggenheim model. It was interesting to learn how he balances literal accuracy with matching the mind of the builder when designing something like the LEGO House. I also enjoyed learning about how teams like Architecture collaborate a lot with other teams, including Creator Expert where he has helped on sets like Downtown Diner. I also enjoyed the deeper look at a few specific sets like Statue of Liberty, Great Wall, and the Guggenheim. Rok shared some of the unique challenges and pleasures in being one of the few people at LEGO with a background in Architecture. The whole interview includes more photos of the Guggenheim and LEGO House prototypes. Sincerely, ---tom P.S. For practical reasons, these were just a few of my favorite excerpts from the full interview at brickarchitect.com website. I hope you enjoyed the stories behind these great LEGO sets!

The prototyping process. I think its interesting that the designers both (Rok & Jamie) start with the "look" then work backwards to build and refine the internal structure to meet guidelines. I'd be curious to know how much of that is done themselves, or by team subordinates. TLG has historically been very tight about releasing images of the prototypes of sets. I think that there's actually some really good information there that can help AFOLs and TFOLs build better MOCs.

That was a great interview, thanks for posting it. ? I thought this part was particularly telling, given how many people on these forums (myself included) react to new sets:

EBay NIB 4867 Hogwarts $165 + shipping. I have 3 left.

Not a Harry Potter fan, but it looks pretty cool, quite like it actually. I don't mind the nanofigs, but the ones that should have longer hair look silly without it. The scale would work well for my needs in displaying if i ever decided to get it, definitely not at $500 CAD though.

This set is a home run! The exclusive figs are unexpected and a really cool addition to this fantastic display piece. I can't even understand how people are complaining about this! We'll see if people are still iffy on this in a few days. Bugatti was getting a lot of hate at first too but people seem to be coming around. In fact, seems like every big release here is met with mostly hate at first and then people start coming around. Haters, haters, everywhere!

GB BHZ were on the menu today.

Man, you guys are impossible to impress these days! Looks like a great set (to build and display)!

maybe one of the microfigs would work well for hagrid.

Box: backside: detail:

St. Basil's Cathedral, Moscow by Markus Rollbühler

Le Château de Chenonceau by Aaron Newman

March 30, 2018. This is a date that will forever be remembered. I can get a little emotional at times. As an adult, there are a few instances when I've shed a tear. I cried when my son was born. I cried again a year later when my daughter was born. I cried tears of joy when my beloved Green Bay Packers won Super Bowl 31 after three decades of mediocrity, and again when they won Super Bowl 45. The last time I cried was two years ago this April when my Mom passed away. March 30, 2018. Today is another day that I've sobbed like a baby. Upon waking up for work, I checked my phone like I always do. Waiting for me was a PayPal notification. A large one. I checked my Bricklink account, and it appears that some blessed soul has decided that they needed some Steam Rollers in their life. Yes, some Steam Rollers. All of them. 27 to be exact. Gone. Purchased by an unknown person. A risk taker. A gambler. A guardian angel, perhaps? I began this saga with over 50 of those Steam Rollers. I'd sell one here, one there through multiple platforms, slowly chipping away at that number. I whittled it down to 27. Now I have 0. They are gone. The purchase price was just a shade over $1k. I'll make a few bucks on each one after the usual fees and shipping, but that's not the point in this circumstance. The nightmare is finally over. March 30, 2018 is my Independance Day.