I’m fond of 7567 Traveler, if for no other reason, the camera. Photography seems to be the only common point in my hobbies. As I’ve taken photos of any of the other of the things I do, but rarely build a Lego bird for instance.

So this little set, with a person wearing a classic space jacket and carrying a camera presumably through a terminal of some sort makes me smile every time I see it. Much like 5610 Builder, I’ve been sitting on this set for a while. So much so, that it is no longer available on shop.lego.com but you can still find it on Amazon or Bricklink. It originally sold for $3.49 (us), so you can expect to find it in that neighborhood. There’s not a lot to the set. A little cart in which you can put two briefcases that open and a terminal sign accompany the traveler.

The other fun and geeky thing about this set is that it comes all in one bag. Which means you can build it all in the bag. Which, I guess some of the kids are in to doing these days. ;-) There’s not much else to say, so I’ll let the photos speak the rest of the words.

Early Christmas has been kind to me once again. This year sees another installment in the winter village series. It seems Lego has caught on that people want to make villages for the holidays out of their bricks, and have started producing a series of sets with town buildings caught up in the hustle and bustle of the holiday season.

This year’s Winter Village Post Office is a nice addition to the collection. True to form, it comes with a semi-detailed interior which you can light up with the included light brick. The roof comes decorated with snow and you get two postal workers. I get a kick out of the option of turning the woman’s head between a smiling face and a scowling one. I chose the scowl, since this reminds me most of the Durham post office. (Even though it’s not my hometown, it’s the one I’m likely to use if I need to mail something at lunch.)

Of all the elements of the set, I’m drawn most to the mail truck that the two workers can use to deliver packages to the towns folk. It reminds me a lot of the mail truck found in Santa Claus is Coming to Town, though it lacks the tracks and skids. Just the same it’s a neat little jalopy that carries a few packages, and some snow shoes in the event the truck gets stuck in the snow. Although, these days, I’d expect if the postal service got stuck in the snow, they’d just head home.

The set also features a gazebo with two musicians playing a tune for all to hear. One carries a banjo and the other, a brick built brass instrument I believe is a saxophone. I found this to be the most challenging piece to build as the ’round’ construction and 4 posts made it interesting to line up where the roof would connect. I’m still not entirely sure I built it correctly, but it hasn’t fallen apart yet.

The set also comes with a few trees and and a bench for folks to sit down on and take in the activities of the town. Lego included plenty of little white 1×1 round tiles to use in an epic snowball fight. Really the set has plenty of playability and makes a fine addition to the Bakery and Toy Shop released in years past. The set comes in with 7 minifigures and a dog. The new dog at that, with the painted and sculpted face. Only one head comes with two expressions. The female postal worker, which I recognize the face from last year’s Kingdom’s Advent calendar queen. Two torsos come with painting on the back and some don’t have any at all, which I found a bit interesting.

Overall it’s a pretty good set. I’m guessing that if I had not had the ‘help’ of our 17 month old toddler, who insisted that things like the railing from her Duplo Zoo must absolutely fit on the post office mid build, the set would take an hour or two at most to build.

The set is definitely targeting a bit of an older audience as it returns to basics with 8 unnumbered bags. Some of which, contained smaller bags of bricks in them. That being said though, a sure sign of a quicker build was the single manual, thankfully packed with cardboard to protect it. Thank you again Lego. This is the one instance I’m all for a little more packaging, as manuals were shipping mangled or destroyed all together as box sizes got smaller. At an MSRP of $69.99(us) the price seems a little high, but after building the set it seems reasonable. I just hope in the future, Lego keeps the price point around $50-60 or this serialized village may come to an end of collecting for me.

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There’s been a lot keeping me from building lately. Most of them being very good, exciting things in life, but it doesn’t mean I don’t miss getting to play with the brick a little. One of the things I realized that was keeping me from building is convenience and safety. With the addition of a little one to the family, it’s just not safe to keep Lego laying around to play with on a whim. Well, anything other then the Duplo we buy for her, which does indeed lay around now, underfoot, waiting to bite your bare feet.

So I recently decided to remedy this situation. I realized the first part, convenience could be solved by just bringing some Lego back down to play with. Safety, however, did need a little thinking and a minor purchase. I knew I needed a container that I could keep the lid on and keep our little one out of if we weren’t right with her. A trip to Target and a walk down the storage isle surfaced the Sterilite Large Clipbox. This container was perfect. I’ve learned from the past, you don’t want anything too deep or you just can’t find anything in it. So I grabbed this and when I returned home filled it with pieces that would lend itself to building microscale.

Sure enough, this tactic has worked. In the last week, I’ve churned out 5 mediocre models. I say mediocre, because I’ve set out for now just to doodle. Which means I’m focusing on building quick little models just to get the rust off my imagination. Just like any hobby, if you put it aside for a while, it takes a little ramp up time to get back to the skill you were at.

Regardless of quality, this tactic is a sure fire way to help you out of the dark ages and get building again. Happy building!

I found this by accident but it’s still pretty funny. Enjoy

Set 7634 recently caught my eye when I was in Toys’r'Us this last weekend. It’s a simple set, but a neat one. What originally caught my eye with the set was the windscreen pieces that make up the cab. I don’t know if they’ve been in other sets before, peeron has no inventory yet, but it’s the first time I had seen them. They slope in from bottom to top, and have a chamfered edges. I could see the use of these in different builds, from more farm, to space, etc. I also noted the back wheels on the set, again not knowing if they were in any other sets, it was still the first time I had seen them.

The build was simple. I was able to lazily assemble the set during an episode of This Old House, with a few distractions. This set to me was more about the parts, so I don’t mind the short build time. I also think the set, given other farm stuff available, could be fun to play with as an assembled toy. Overall a fun quick set. Worth picking up to add to your parts, or as a toy.