Go to the Myer toy department!

There are some cool Lego models, including this excellent Flinders St station.

Lego Dalek - exterminate!

It's school holidays, and Thomas had nothing special on for the day. I had already challenged him to build a big Lego set each day, and let me know if any pieces were missing. So he built Jabba's Sail Barge, set 6210, a cool big set if there ever was one. And the next day, he created this Dalek entirely from pieces in that set. We were pleased.

Lego news! Friends set 41019 has a Turtle!

Here's a cool little Lego set you can get for around $6 - Turtle's Little Oasis. It's part of the Lego Friends range, that girly (but not too girly) Lego that has been so successful. Here's what you can build with the set as it comes ...

Oooh, that's a CUTE LITTLE TURTLE! You can see why a serious grown up like me had to buy it.














But if you want to have a bit more fun, it's only natural to try an alternate build. That is, something quite different you can make out of the same pieces.

Well, I did add just one piece ... a minifig of Jack Sparrow from a Pirates of the Caribbean set.

Here he is escaping from the desert island by strapping two sea turtles together. Or at least, one turtle and a raft.

Do you know this set gives you FIVE gold telescopes!













And once you've built Jack Sparrow escaping from the island, you still have enough bits left to make the Girl Bug.

Lady alien

We just got some new Lego mini figs ... Lady alien is not very enthusiastic about your welfare!

How you'll feel after a whole day at Legoland

Whoomph!

Try harder Jonathan!

Darn, that's twice in a row Jonathan's been outwitted. He chooses scissors, while the dastardly Darth Maul goes rock.

We went to New York too!

Oh, wait, that's Lego again.

The mini Eiffel tower

Only this is the mini Eiffel tower in mini Las Vegas at Miniland in Legoland near Los Angeles, not the mini Eiffel Tower in mini Paris at Miniland in Legoland near Los Angeles. Things get a little meta here.

Giant lizard attacks Miniland!

A bit attraction of Legoland is miniland, the miniature city built of Lego, with lots of detail. In the mini las Vegas, we were amazed to see the this enormous lizard Godzilla-ing his way around town.

My Lego car

Here's my car on the test track. Poised to win! Or poised to make a right turn and hit the side, which it did every time. It went on (in later iterations) to become a winner! I let Jonathan stick it onto the top of his car.

Best thing at Legoland

Here's Jonathan at the Build and Test. A terrific Lego activity. You sign in and get issued one set of wheels. Then build any car you want, and test them against other cars. Jonathan's extremely long and heavy car handled the test track really well.

Splash!

Here's Thomas on the Wave Racers, a fun ride we remember from our last visit (12 or so years ago). Riders zoom around in their boats, while onlookers push buttons to set off water cannons and splash them. My button pushing finger got so tired I almost couldn't take this photo.

Legoland day

We went to Legoland! It's an hour out of LA, an easy freeway drive. Of course the half hour in the DRIVEWAY to get in is less exciting. Ah well, we are in holiday season. A few rides had waits so long we didn't go, but here's the guys on the Pharoh's Revenge. You get to shoot at stuff. Safe and fun!

Jeff and Thomas at the Lego shop

We're in Los Angeles! We arrived late last night (bed was after midnight) so no plans for doing anything big today. Instead we checked out the local area.

That turned out to include Downtown Disney, the shopping area outside Disneyland. There's a Lego store there. Well, I've never been to a real Lego store. It was COOL! Here's Jeff and Thomas checking out the Pick a Brick wall.

Mr Piranha Attack

Thomas made a Lego model yesterday. Meet Mr Piranha Attack. Wonder how he got that name?

We must make this into a little tableau - we have a Lego fish, that's a start.

Planet of the Apes - the undiscovered sequel

Fans will be excited to know that the already-crowded Planet of the Apes universe has another element. For Jeff's recent birthday, one of the presents was a DVD set of all the early Apes movies. As I wrapped it, I read the blurbs to the boys, and they were excited! When I suggested we do something creative (like nice birthday cards) they were already creating a stop-motion animated film. No, epic!

It took most of the day. There were story boards, stop motion shoots, special effects, dialogue recordings, sound effects recordings and of course a fancy cover! There is a montage too.

There's even a blurb:

"Totally a real movie"
"What makes a Planet of the Apes film better? A HUGE EXPLOSION!!! WOOOOO!!!"
"A dramatic and unexpected climactic finale to the Planet of the Apes saga"
"It's definitely a legit end."

Viewers may find some aspects of this film challenging, particularly the appearance for no reason of monkey pirates, the ninja, and the fact that the main human character is a mime. We can put much of this down to the fact that Lego is such darn'd fun to play with.

Happy Birthday Jeff, enjoy your movie.

Steeped in Steampunk

Steam what? Steam-punk? What is that? Oh, it's an artistic and lifestyle movement that's been going on for yonks, but it's so hot right now. Catriona and I just got the bug. We've smashed up some clocks looking for cogs and stuff. We went to see Hugo (that is WAY steampunk, and a top flick too). But mainly, I sorted through the Lego for a Steampunk Kit. With it, I made this - the Steampunk Pizza Drivethrough!

Here we see Lord Fotheringale in his steam driven Navigator-Mobile 3002. But inventing all day is very hungry work, so he's arriving at ...

Master Percy's Esteemed Pizza to the Gentry, (serving the Steampunk community since 2012) where even the chefs wear goggles.

And let's just get one more look at Lord Fotheringale's vehicle - yes, that all seems to be in order. Damn fine. He was in the military, you know.

Not the face!

A little Lego art from the top of my computer screen at work. The artist has painted the soldier green, and wants to finish the job.

Lego minifigs series six in Australia at last!

Here they are at Target at Forest Hill.

Release Ninja!

I work at a software company - we write awesome software that cable TV companies would use. This week was a release week - we spent all week testing, fixing, and preparing everything. The dude who comes to the fore in Release Week is Kai, who actually builds the release.

Now, a computer program is made of heaps of bits, and many people work on them. And we keep every version of every bit. So at release time, someone has to pick out which version of each bit is set to go right now. That's Kai. It's not straightforward, because people are making last minute changes, and some are working ahead on the next version already.

We decided Kai needed a great title. "Release Manager" was taken - that's a whole different job, negotiating with customers about who wants what feature, and when. Management. Yawn. Kai needed a way more exciting title for his interesting IT job. So he's now the :

RELEASE NINJA!

I made him a card, and Jeff and I game him a little present - the ninja in this Lego set is called Kai!