I like LEGO. I also really like the people who work at the two LEGO shops in Toronto (at Fairview Mall and Sherway Gardens - with a third one opening up later this month at Yorkdale Mall), but I just don't have the financial wherewithal to spend the money on a LEGO kit like this.
I can, and have, bought kits almost as expensive for my seven-year-old son, but I can't justify buying a kit just for me.
So... here's my attempt to build the exact same, but completely different kit for maybe $40 of bricks.
So... I decided I would download the kit's instructions available for free at the LEGO.com website, and see if I could build the kit using bricks I have accumulated over the years.
I glanced though the graphic instruction manual and decided that although I lack the correct colors, I could still pretty much build an exact replica of the same kit...
I have accumulated a lot of bricks over the past year by purchasing them from the LEGO Brick Wall at the two stores - buying them for no real reason, except that I knew one day I would maybe, possibly build something with them. Perhaps.
One thing... when it comes to the LEGO stores, they usually don't have any really rare bricks on their brick wall, which makes sense, because I'm sure they want you to actually buy kits. But... they do get in a lot of bricks - different ones... and if you are smart, the wheel hubs you purchase today will make sense when the rubber tires are made available for sale next month.
You have to buy bricks you think you may need, when you can. They do disappear quickly.
As an aside, did you know that if LEGO bricks hit the floor, employees are required to pick them up and toss them out - they don't want kids handling something that may have picked up dirt from their spotless floors. Yeah. Weird, but I admire the initiative, even though snot-filled kids probably create new diseases by handling product and replacing it back on the shelves or back in the brick wall.
And, no following LEGO employees out to see where they dump the dirty bricks. That's just pathetic and below any reader of this blog.
At the Lego brick wall, of course what you see, isn't always what they have. If you ask real nice, the folks at the store will at least go into the back storage area and look to see if they have the particular brick you are looking for. There's nothing wrong with asking. They always say yes and go look, even if the store doesn't always have what you want. But... you could always order what you want from the LEGO website... if you don't mind a short wait.
But... I hate waiting, and that's where all of that brick accumulation of mine comes in handy. Along with my brother's LEGO collection from the 1970s, my cousin giving me his collection from the 1990s, I purchased 20 lbs of random black LEGO bricks from E-Bay, I have bought (oh god) hundreds of kits for my son, and have all of the bricks I have purchased from the Lego wall(s) - and so, I have a decent collection of bricks.
Guys... hide this collection. If it becomes so large that you can't hide it from your wife - you are screwed - and not in the fun way. Welcome to my life. Oh well, at least she supports me not buying any kits for myself. I do so want the Sopwith Camel bi-plane. To damn big to hide in the house, though.
Back to the Japan aspect...
Day Four of the Tokyo Imperial Hotel build... I admit that it doesn't look like much... and the colors are kind of barfy when compared to the exact drab sandstone color of brick and stone that original Tokyo Imperial Hotel architect Frank Lloyd Wright chose when he designed it... but... beggars can't be choosers. Spare some bricks?
I've come across minor LEGO challenges to jerry-rig pieces to provide a similar look to what the kit's instructions called for - and then I realized while putting together the artsy-fartsy purple columns (below) that, if I can straighten it (I only just noticed that now - I just have to straighten it... it's on a swivel) - Hey! The whole damn kit is made up of LEGO! It's never going to look as perfect as the original Wright design.
And that's when it happened. Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh-ahhhhhhh. Zen occurred.
Holy crap. I achieved zen by using LEGO? Do Buddhists know of this?
For Day 5 (which I did last night), you should see (and you will in the next blog) how a bit of roofing really changes the complexity of the model.
Somewhere under the bodhi tree,
Andrew Joseph
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