Terrain Workshop: (Clone) Trees 27

After reviewing and sorting the BrickCraft Christmas sets, I stumbled across the Axle Connector w/Clips piece from the Bricktanicals Bluebonnet set.  This led me to thinking about my original Clone Tree design and how I could update it with the new piece.

This starts with two Clip Leaves from the Miniso Toys Sunflower set.  The next piece

is the Axle Connector w/Clips piece from the Bricktanicals Bluebonnet set.  The next

piece is an Inkwell from the Make-It Blocks Birds 3 set.  The final pieces are two

1x1x2 Round Bricks from the Brix Record Player set. This gives us a 1 Hit tree that

is 30 feet tall and roughly 8 feet from edge to edge in 6P scale. Granted, it costs $16.22

to build this but you also get four Frames and a ton of extra parts out of the deal.

To build two of these you'd need another Miniso Toys Sunflower

set and Bricktanicals Bluebonnet set.  This brings the total price

to $26.19 but that means each tree is only $13.10 each.

The usual size comparison.  I hope this gives people ideas

or techniques to use in their terrain builds.  Flickr page.

Terrain Workshop: Volcanic Cone

Okay, let's start the new year with some new terrain.  Something other than trees this time, for a change.  I had this idea recently -- along with a bunch of others -- for something a little volcanic.  It starts at the bottom with two Half Cones, two 2x2 Round Plates, then a Round Large Jumper, and Large Flame Piece.

It's 1 Hit, 30 feet tall overall -- 12 feet for the Cone and 18 feet for the Flame -- and 10 feet in diameter at the base in 6P scale.  It also counts as Cover without the Flame Piece if you want to add a Tile or something to round out the numbers.  I think it's a good way to use up those Large Flame Pieces if you didn't have one already.  For me, it's also the start to a new set of terrain.  I also think it looks pretty spectacular and a bunch of these would make a good "Ooohh, look at that" display on a battlefield.

I currently have nine of these assembled.  I hope this gives people ideas or techniques to use in their terrain builds.  Flickr page.

Polly Want A Baggy 13

Back in October of last year we got a preview of what this year had to offer.  Looks like Lego is transitioning to paper bags for future polybag offerings.  As per usual, this information comes from Brickset.

30688 Tropical Toucan There are some nice flashes of color in this one.  According to New Elementary it's a Gift with Purchase for January 2025.

30689 Birthday Party Animals Kinda brick-y.

30691 Mini Monster Truck This could be a decent starship.

30694 Space Science Mech Frame-in-a-Bag

30695 Cinderella's Mini Garden Castle Looks like a terrain set to me.

30697 Nova's Doghouse Build Either terrain or a Station.

30698 Cooper's Flying Controller Mini Build This looks fun.  Probably another Frame-in-a-Bag.

30699 Mini Ninja Combo Mech Another Frame-in-a-Bag, hopefully it's more available than last year's Ninjago polybag.

30701 Field Flowers The first Botanicals polybag.

30703 Julian's Beach Painting Terrain, from the looks of it.

30704 Balkiry Attack I think this could be a Ship-in-a-Bag for IO or maybe a flying Frame for RA.

30705 The Lush Cave Fight Not sure what to think of this one.

30710 Skid-Steer Loader Another Technic polybag.  Lets hope this one is as good as the Mars Rover from last year.

As always, good hunting.

Yearly Look Back, 2024 Edition

It's time once again for another look back at the year that was.

The Central MA gaming group continued to meet this year.   We again played nine games together, which is one up from 2023.  We debuted a new table setting, brought an old one back from retirement, and accomplished a full size playtest of a new rule set.  We also managed to play most of a game of Intercept Orbit.  Which is the first time in six years since we've tried that rule set.

I'm up 4 posts from last year but, still maintaining my "at least three posts per week" average for the twelfth year running.  I made my 2,000 post in the middle of June this year.  I'm estimating 3K posts to be roughly six years away.  March of 2024 was my 12th anniversary of starting this blog.

I managed 122 reviews this year; 1 Zuru Max, 1 Mega Bloks, 3 Lazer Blocks, 4 Miniso, 4 Gundam Converge, 5 non-building block, 6 Brickcraft, 20 Clone, 17 Make-It Bricks, 5 non-building, 30 Lego, and 31 Block Tech.  That comes out to an average of 10.2 per month.  Which is the most reviews I've ever done in a year.  It's also the first time I've reviewed more sets of a company other than Lego.  I feel like Block Tech came storming out of the gates this year.  I acknowledge that a fair amount of the sets I reviewed from them were back log ones but there were a ton of other sets they debuted.  I also haven't touched any of the upscaled (upgraded?) Make-It Block sets that debuted late this year.

I did 3 War College and 12 Terrain Workshop posts this year.  Which is a decrease in both. I wanted to pivot to more Terrain Workshop and War College posts this year but more interesting sets were released this year than last and maybe next year will be the year that we start talking about tactics and terrain in earnest.

I'm now at 1.47M views, which is roughly another 200K views since last year. I still have no idea when I'll break 2 million. Thank you to everyone for the continued readership. My Flickr stream is over 6 million views which I must thank everyone for as well.

I managed to attend PAX East this year, if only for a couple of hours.  I want to try and organize a bigger con presence for 2025, make more of an effort to "show the flag".

Keep on gaming and I'll see you next year. :-)

Review: Block Tech US101-0793 Build Your Own Ornament Christmas Tree

These sets are similar to the "Gizmo Blocks" line from earlier this year but Christmas themed.  These are all small impulse buy sets that can be found at 5 Below.  They can be found either in the Toy section with the rest of the building block sets, or on a rack by the entrance, or in the aisle to the checkout with other sub $5 items.  There doesn't seem to be a page on the website and, my receipt lists them as "Micro Blocks".

Box.  MSRP is $1.00, for a $0.03 Price per Piece.

Instructions.

Parts.  String, Plates, Wedge Plates, Inverted Slope w/Cutout, Dish,

Pin Connector Plate, Round Brick, Brackets, and Round Tiles.

Build.  IO Frigate.

The Questions:

Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio?  Below.  (+5)  (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)
If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts?  No.  (-5)

Score: +10 (A-).  Like the Reindeer set, you can actually build something more than terrain.

Review: Block Tech US101-0825 Build Your Own Ornament Snowman

These sets are similar to the "Gizmo Blocks" line from earlier this year but Christmas themed.  These are all small impulse buy sets that can be found at 5 Below.  They can be found either in the Toy section with the rest of the building block sets, or on a rack by the entrance, or in the aisle to the checkout with other sub $5 items.  There doesn't seem to be a page on the website and, my receipt lists them as "Micro Blocks".

Box.  MSRP is $1.00, for a $0.02 Price per Piece.

Instructions.

Parts.  String, 1x6 Bricks, 1x4 Bricks, 1x3 Bricks, 1x2 Bricks, 1x1 Bricks,

Brick w/Pinhole, 1x4 Plates, 1x3 Plates, 1x2 Plates, and 1x1 Plates.

Build.  Three 1 Hit pieces of Cover.

The Questions:

Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away?  Cover.  (0)
Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio?  Below.  (+5)  (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)
If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts?  No.  (-5)
Score: +5 (A).  Yeah, I'm not too thrilled with this set either.

Review: Block Tech US101-0826 Build Your Own Ornament Santa Claus

These sets are similar to the "Gizmo Blocks" line from earlier this year but Christmas themed.  These are all small impulse buy sets that can be found at 5 Below.  They can be found either in the Toy section with the rest of the building block sets, or on a rack by the entrance, or in the aisle to the checkout with other sub $5 items.  There doesn't seem to be a page on the website and, my receipt lists them as "Micro Blocks".

Box.  MSRP is $1.00, for a $0.03 Price per Piece.

Instructions.

Parts.  String, 1x8 Brick, 1x4 Brick, 1x3 Bricks, 1x6 Brick, 1x2 Bricks,

1x1 Bricks, 1x2 Brick w/Pinhole, 1x3 Plate, and 1x2 Plate.

Build.  Two 1 Hit pieces of Cover.

The Questions:

Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away?  Cover.  (0)
Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio?  Below.  (+5)  (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)
If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts?  No.  (-5)

Score: +5 (A).  Very brick-y.  I'm sure a better builder than me could wring something more interesting from this set.  I'm just not sure how.