Review: 30701 Field Flowers Polybag

This is the first polybag released for the Botanicals line.  Let's hope it's not the last.

Bag.  MSRP is $4.97 at Walmart for a $0.07 Price per Piece.  

Instructions.

Parts.  Small Palm Leaves, Gears, 3L Axle Connectors, Round Plate, Axle

Connector w/Pneuma Connector, 16 Petal Flower, Bars w/Stop, Extended

Weapon Hilts, 3L Axle, 2L Axles, Flower Stems, Eggshell/Crowns, Axle w/Stud,

Apollo Studs, Half Bushings, Translucent Inkwells, Cones, and a Travis Brick.

Build.  Three 1 Hit pieces of Cover, and a Station.

 

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?  Yes.  (+5)
Score: +20 (A+).  I like this set.  There's a lot here I can use and I'll probably buy a bunch.  I see sunflowers in my future.

Review: 30710 Skid-Steer Loader Polybag

Once again we have an easily available Technic polybag.  Excellent.

Bag.  MSRP is $4.97 at Walmart for a $0.10 Price per Piece.  

Instructions.

Parts.  Scoop w/Hinge, Tires, "L" Liftarms, Liftarms, Corner Liftarm w/Alternating Pinholes, Thin Liftarms, Bent Liftarm, Rims, Dual Axle Connector w/Pinhole, 3L Pins, Axles w/Stop, 3L Friction Pins, 3L Axle/Pin, Axles, Friction Pins, Barrel Hinge, #6 Axle/Pin Connector, Gears, Worm Gear, Axles w/Pinhole, and #1 Axle/Pin Connector.

Build.  Battlecart (2Rd [System is Dark Bley.]).

The Questions:

Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio?  At.  (0)  (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?  Yes.  (+5)
Score: +15 (A).  I like it but, then again, I think I like Technic stuff more than the general community.  I think it's a good start but you're going to need something else for Systems, Stations, and SSRs.

Review: 30688 Tropical Toucan Polybag Review

The first polybag review of the year.  According to New Elementary it's a Gift with Purchase for January 2025.  It's also currently available at Walmart.

Bag.  MSRP is $4.99 for a $0.08 Price per Piece.  

Instructions.

Parts.  Half Round Plate w/Cutout, Wedge Plate w/Cutout, Rounded Plate

w/Pinhole, Round Plates w/3 Leaves, Wedge Studless Slopes, Slopes, Bricks,

Bricks w/Studs on Side, Double Inverted Slope w/Cutout, Printed Round Tiles,

Round Plates, Plates, Corner Plates, Rounded Plate, Round Plates w/Petals,

Clip Plates, Slopes w/Cutout, Curved Slopes, Curved Slopes w/Cutout, Bricks 

w/Stud on Side, Angled Bars w/Stud, Studless Slope, Offset Plate, and 4x3 Leaf.

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?  Yes.  (+5)
Score: +20 (A+).  There's a nice selection of parts but I feel like it needs more basic Plates to be really good.

Terrain Workshop: Trees 28

Most of the parts for this build come from the Aurora's Forest Playground Polybag.  I was sorting parts the other day and -- as I normally do -- I starting putting things together in what I thought was a visually pleasing manner.  This lead to a basic tree design.

Starting at the bottom we have four 1x3x2 Inverted Arches, then two

2x2 Round Bricks, two Log Bricks, and four 1x2 Round Plates w/Layered Leaves.  This gives us 2 Hits and is 16 feet tall and 20 feet wide in 6P scale.

If you want something a little larger, and a little more complicated, we

can add in two 1x2 Bricks w/Pinhole, two Inverted 1x1-1x1 Brackets,

and two more 1x2 Round Plates w/Layered Leaves.  The tree

is now 3 Hits and is 19 feet tall and 25 feet wide in 6P scale.

We could also make a third version that is a cross between the original

and the taller one.  We do this by subtracting -- from the original build

-- a 1x2 Round Plate w/Layered Leaves and a Log Brick, then adding

in a 1x2 Brick w/Pinhole and a Inverted 1x1-1x1 Bracket.  This

version is 2 Hits and is 16 feet tall and 22.5 feet wide in 6P scale.

Size comparisons.

These are more Disney-esque than my previous builds but considering where the parts came from that shouldn't be a surprise.  You might even call these Keebler-esque.  I hope this gives people ideas or techniques to use in their terrain builds.  Flickr page.

Terrain Workshop: Windmill

Way back in the day there were a lot of windmill designs being shared in the Mobile Frame Zero community.  It's a pretty easy piece of kit to design and stands out on the table.  This design can function as a Station or as a piece of Cover.

Let's start at the bottom with two 2x2x2 Slopes, over that is a 1x2x5 Brick and a 1x2 Triple Slope, on top of the Brick is a 1x2 Brick w/Pin, and attached to that is a 3 Blade 9 Diameter Propellor.  This assembly is 1 Hit and stands 24 feet tall at the top of the column.  The propellor adds 10 feet to that at the top of the rotation.  The diameter of the propellor is roughly 22 feet.  This is all in 6P scale.

As this all fits on a 4x4 base, it can be used as a Station.  Using them as stations would provide a bit of a story element to a game as you could say your squad is defending a Wind Farm.  In real life they'd be OSHA nightmares but this is a game and we don't quite have to worry about Health & Safety labeling things as unsafe.

I hope this gives people ideas or techniques to use in their terrain builds.  Flickr page.

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.