ZatBricks

One thing that my city certainly needs more of is cars. Not just any vehicles, but cars specifically. I have plenty of trucks and and SUVs and entirely too many police/fire things. It seems like Lego rarely releases sets that are simply cars . In 2019, Lego held a contest to design a vintage car . This entry, titled Aedelsten Deluxe , was the chosen as the winner by fan vote and was given away starting this January 1st as a gift with purchase over $85. Hurray, new car! As a side note, the runners-up are all absolutely fantastic, and I would love to see them released in a similar fashion. Or, better yet, put them all in a single set called "Vintage Cars". I would buy a baker's dozen of them. So here it is -- the 40448 Ideas Vintage Car. The set largely holds true to its original design, although had some minor modifications, and all of the chrome pieces were replaced with light bluish grey. It is based on some sort of 50's American car, this set looks fantastic cast in...

Some of my co-workers are aware of my Lego hobby, have seen pictures of my layout, and thus view me as some sort of godlike expert on the matter, coming to me with any number questions. Many of those questions could be easily answered with a quick Google search -- but I don't want to bully my co-workers too  much. Anyway, one of them has decided to dig out his childhood sets, which are all smashed up and mixed together in some sort of box or plastic tote. Part of me hoped I could convince him to sell them to me, but it seems he received a few newer sets as gifts over the past couple months and like many folks who are locked inside their houses during this pandemic, Lego has the potential of becoming a hobby for him. He had previously asked me what I thought it was worth -- and my response was the same as it would be if I was considering purchasing something I saw on an internet marketplace. That is, "it depends". The value of a box's contents depend on a few things: -...

Super-duper shoutout to my fiancee's brother, who nailed it with two sweet gifts for my birthday last month, and once again for Christmas yesterday. For my birthday, I received the 75292 Razor Crest, which had recently jumped in price and decreased in availability due to a certain event happening in The Mandalorian. It came with a 40300 Han Solo Mudtrooper as well! Then on Christmas, he delivered again, with the 71374 Nintendo Entertainment System set. I've always thought this set was fantastic and was a welcome addition to my collection. Happy Holidays, everybody!

  Hurray! A piece of rolling stock from BlueBrixx that isn't brown! Really, that's the main reason why I bought this. It's colorful, and looks a bit different than some of the other rolling stock I've got. I'm guessing this is based on something European, which is fine by my me, as I don't model to any particular locale or time period on my layout. I'm running it along with some other BlueBrixx rolling stock, and this stands out -- in a good way! (That's because so much of their other rolling stock is brown, and that train is no exception.) Anyway, this car looks great. I which where were some stickers for those 2 x 4 tiles on the sides; it's possible they will be on one of BlueBrixx's future sticker sheets. There's really just one tiny problem  with this thing -- it's impossible to pick up. Those orange tanks aren't held on by much of anything and are quite heavy, comprising probably 80% of the weight of the car (without measuring). ...

I have to preface this by saying that I absolutely love BlueBrixx. They have designed so many cool sets for train-loving brick builders that I find myself scouring their website frequently to see what's coming next. They've done a fantastic job of delivering what Lego chooses not to -- locomotives, rolling stock, and accessory buildings -- at fairly reasonable prices.  I am a huge fan of of Lego's 10027 Engine Shed , a legend among train fans. But anyone looking to purchase one probably knows by now it will set you back a fair amount of money. To add insult to injury, you really need two of them for it to look appropriate.  Enter the BlueBrixx Locomotive Shed. This brick-and-mortar monster sits on more than 2 and a half baseplates and is comprised of approximately 5.3 billion pieces. You read that correctly. All of the walls are predominantly 1x2 bricks. The shingled roof on the side of the building is about 500 pieces alone. This created a rather detailed and quite fancy l...

I was a little nervous about this because, yes, it's made of flesh colored bricks. Definitely not the pinkish color this stock image would suggest. But if you think if it as peach instead, you can quickly get over the fact that you're building a modular building out of human skin. Honestly, the different color is a refreshing addition to my city because there's nothing out there that looks anything like this. I was not missing any pieces, and nothing was malformed. Many of the transparent pieces were scratched and/or cloudy. The instructions are absolutely ridiculous. You will not get bored building this thing; it basically has you put a few random bricks on each wall, rotate 90 degrees and put a few more on the next wall, and so on, until you get back to the first wall and actually finish the thing you started building. I haven't a clue why the directions are the way they are. It almost seems like it was done intentionally because there's no logic to some of the st...

I’m here to review the Kazi 98220 “Cargo Rail Train”. I haven’t seen many photos apart from the stock ones on the internet, so hopefully this will help some folks who are considering adding this set to their collection. The set includes a locomotive, passenger car, boxcar, oval of track with 2 switches and a siding, cargo truck, and a small platform. Five minifigures are also included – an engineer, two cargo delivery people, and two passengers. The set came in a tightly wrapped bubble wrap bag, and arrived in about 2 weeks from China to Baltimore. Retails for $55-60 on AliExpress. I paid $48.93, which included coupon from AliExpress during the 11/11 promotion. It’s worth noting that all of the bricks are screen printed! No stickers! I wish some other brick companies would learn from this … Below, I’ll review in the individual parts. Bricks : Great clutch, maybe even a little too strong. There is a brick separator included, and was needed for sure. The pieces were ju...