Episode 7
007 - Back to Bricking
In this episode of the Brick Magnate podcast, I discuss my recent hiatus from podcasting and my return to the world of brick building. I recount my experience at the Bricktastic event in Manchester and share my excitement for upcoming LEGO sets.
I also talk about some recent sets I've built, including a special snacky set and my thoughts on retired sets and custom builds.
Transcript
What's up everyone? You're listening to episode 7 of the Brick Magnate
Speaker:podcast. I'm your host Mike Morrison, AKA The Brick Magnate,
Speaker:and it's been a minute. It's been a little while.
Speaker:There's been a bit of a hiatus since the last episode of
Speaker:the show, so I've got a bit of catching up to do. I'm getting back
Speaker:on the brick building horse. To be honest, I didn't really get
Speaker:off that horse. I've been still hoovering
Speaker:my way through, a whole bunch of Lego sets. I just
Speaker:haven't been talking about it, haven't been podcasting, and,
Speaker:it's It's on me it's on me to kinda get back
Speaker:to this, and, you know, keep the momentum going or
Speaker:regain the momentum for the Joe, had some great, great feedback from
Speaker:those of you who checked out the first, 5 or 6
Speaker:episodes. So, I'm excited to be podcasting
Speaker:again, excited to be talking about, some of the sets that
Speaker:I've been working on over the last few weeks, and
Speaker:really excited about some of the upcoming sets that I
Speaker:get the opportunity to talk about, with some really good new stuff being
Speaker:released in the coming months. So let's kinda wind it
Speaker:back. I think the last episode was, end of January,
Speaker:maybe beginning of February of this year. And,
Speaker:yeah. I think I closed that out by saying that I was on the
Speaker:cusp of going to my very first ever LEGO based
Speaker:event. It's an event called Bricktastic, which took place
Speaker:in Manchester. And, that was such a a
Speaker:great event. It was a really really great event. It was packed.
Speaker:Like, I was expecting a relatively smallish space,
Speaker:Or maybe a larger space, but, like, with tables very spread out,
Speaker:you know, when people are kind of trying their best to,
Speaker:you know, Really spread the limited stuff they
Speaker:have, but this place was packed. It was absolutely packed. It was,
Speaker:very well attended. I think it ran over 2 or 3 days.
Speaker:Just went to the one day because, the the sets and the displays
Speaker:and stuff like that, they weren't changing on a day to day basis.
Speaker:So you kind of only needed 1 day to do it, but man, it
Speaker:was it was busy. And there was a
Speaker:good mix of types people. It wasn't all kids. It also
Speaker:wasn't all adult fans, and there were a lot of
Speaker:amazing creators on display.
Speaker:So many, varied builds. Varying
Speaker:as well in terms of, kind of the the the magnitude
Speaker:and the the skill that was on show. You know, you had some really
Speaker:cute little custom builds that maybe, you know, the
Speaker:average Lego builder like myself would be able to piece
Speaker:together, and then you had those gargantuan builds.
Speaker:I think there was, one of the kind of the the bikes
Speaker:from The Dread, the Judge Dredd comics and and
Speaker:movie, like a life size one of those, like
Speaker:yeah. You know the type of Epic epic builds that you usually only see on
Speaker:TV on kinda Lego Masters and stuff like that. So there
Speaker:was a real good variety, a real good variety of themes as well. I
Speaker:barely put my my camera away. You know, for
Speaker:friends of mine who were into Pokemon, my little brother was into Pokemon
Speaker:growing up, You know, I was taking pictures of the the life size
Speaker:can you say life size for fictional characters? Yeah. You can say life size. The
Speaker:life size, Pokemon custom sets and sending them to him, and so
Speaker:I'm Pokemon loving friends, and then I was taking pictures of the the Star
Speaker:Wars sets and the, really really cool kind of Star Wars
Speaker:artwork as well. Some of my favorite pieces.
Speaker:And sending those to my Star Wars friends. So it was it was just
Speaker:a real interesting event to attend, a real fun day. I I
Speaker:watched a little bit. They had kind of like the, like, a Lego
Speaker:build challenge going on. I can't remember the name of
Speaker:the, the that that was kind of under it was under some sort
Speaker:of brand. I think they do it at a lot of different events. I was
Speaker:alright, but it wasn't the kind of it wasn't the kind of
Speaker:event where you're you're really gonna stand around
Speaker:and watch anything long term. So, I think the the
Speaker:placement of those competing builders was a little
Speaker:odd because it It wasn't conducive to
Speaker:being able to actually watch them. So I kind of found
Speaker:myself doing the loop and going around, and then coming back and, You know, seeing
Speaker:how they were getting on for a minute or 2, and then doing the loop
Speaker:again. So yeah. But, otherwise, what a great
Speaker:show. Really good way of spending an afternoon. I resisted the
Speaker:temptation to splash a lot of cash on some of the
Speaker:retired sets that were on sale there. They
Speaker:had little stores with, with newer sets as well.
Speaker:Lots of, minifigures on sale.
Speaker:Lots of kind of, Like, just bagged up or boxed up
Speaker:collections of bricks, but, yeah, I I managed to not
Speaker:spend any money, which I'm quite impressed with myself over.
Speaker:But, yeah, I was kind of blown away by by how busy it was,
Speaker:in a in a big, big venue. So I do want the highlights This
Speaker:video over on TikTok, if you wanna head over and find me on
Speaker:there at Brick Magnate. You can check out the little
Speaker:highlights video from Fantastic to see some of my favorite sets,
Speaker:and see for yourself just how how busy the place was. It was a surprise.
Speaker:I'm not sure if I'll go next year. Again, it's running
Speaker:Just in February 2024. Mainly because I'm not
Speaker:sure how much is going to be different. Like, how much do they
Speaker:chain from year to yeah. I'm sure they do.
Speaker:So I I think it's one of those if I'm in the area, or
Speaker:if there's other stuff going on. So, you know, last time I managed to tie
Speaker:it in with a, with a football match and with a trip to the
Speaker:theater and catching up with friends. So, you know, if there's a lot
Speaker:going on, then I'll I'll maybe check it out, but it's not one that I
Speaker:make the trip specifically to attend again. But
Speaker:If it's convenient enough, I'll definitely be popping in. And if you've not been to
Speaker:it before and you are in the UK and you can get to Manchester,
Speaker:then check that out. It's called Bricktastic. I believe it's at bricktastic.org.
Speaker:Check it out. Tickets are cheap, and it's a fun event to go to.
Speaker:So, I'm not going to review any particular
Speaker:sets in this episode. This is more just about, kind of, getting
Speaker:back to bricking, and to talk about
Speaker:Bricktastic and pick up where I left off on that front. I will give a
Speaker:little shout out to, to a little snacky
Speaker:set. I don't I don't what do you guys call those,
Speaker:like, small builds? Those 1 evening or
Speaker:those two or 3 hour long builds. Like, those of you
Speaker:who who are obsessed with Lego,
Speaker:who do, like, you know, the ones that'll span over a week or 2,
Speaker:thousands and thousands of pieces. Like, those are those are the builds. Those are the
Speaker:Lego sets. Do you have a name for those little
Speaker:quick builds? I call them snacky sets because I'm a child.
Speaker:Literally going snacky sets. So, yeah. The ones
Speaker:that are, like, less than a 1000 pieces, they're maybe 50, £60,
Speaker:or 60 books, or what have you, and They're usually very quick
Speaker:builds. I do, like I'll kind of use these as
Speaker:palate cleansers between the bigger builds, and so My
Speaker:favorite snacky set, that I've built recently is the recently
Speaker:released piranha plant from the Mario Brothers,
Speaker:video game series. Big big gamer, big big nerd,
Speaker:and huge Mario fan. Mario was my
Speaker:thing growing up. The very first console game I ever
Speaker:played, Super Mario Brothers 1, on the NES.
Speaker:Obviously, played through 1, 2, and 3 on the NES and then onto Mario
Speaker:World and all of that. So, yeah. I'm I'm
Speaker:loving that they're seeming to do
Speaker:more with that Mario brand. I've not really
Speaker:been a big fan of those playsets that they've created. I think it's a
Speaker:cool idea, but I've not bought a single one, and I'm a huge, huge Mario
Speaker:Brothers fan, but they just don't appeal to me. But anytime
Speaker:they do something a little, a little more stand alone, something
Speaker:that's not a playset, I buy it. Like, I did, I think
Speaker:it was episode 2 or 3 where I talked about
Speaker:Lego Bowser. Still one of my favorite builds, still one of my
Speaker:favorite, end result sets.
Speaker:The the n 64 question mark,
Speaker:The question mark block said that they did, which has the little mini worlds
Speaker:from from Super Mario World or Super Mario 64.
Speaker:Again, that, I snapped that up and built that. So anytime they do something
Speaker:outside of those playsets with the Mario brand, I'll always
Speaker:buy it. And, yeah, the piranha plant,
Speaker:very quick build. It's 540 pieces. It was,
Speaker:$60 or £58, so Yeah. Those Brits kinda got
Speaker:screwed on the the pricing there. And it was a very quick build. I think
Speaker:it took me 45 minutes or so, but I just love the end result.
Speaker:It's such an an iconic thing from the Mario series. So I really
Speaker:really hope they do more like this. I'd love to see, you know, the star
Speaker:and the flower power ups. I'd love to see the Bob omb, I'd love to
Speaker:see Goombas, all of these things are kind of ripe
Speaker:for creating a Lego set. I don't know a single Kind of
Speaker:eighties kid who's into Lego, and he was into gaming,
Speaker:who wouldn't snap up a Lego Bob omb or a
Speaker:Lego Goomba or something like that. And, obviously, Lego
Speaker:Marios and Lego Luigis, maybe
Speaker:they're yeah. They're they're probably gonna be a bit more of a stretch to do
Speaker:Those justice. But I do hope the piranha plant is the
Speaker:start of them branching out a little bit with the Mario sets. I'm
Speaker:not sure how well the the play sets
Speaker:do. Yeah. I don't, I don't see a lot of
Speaker:Like the the Lego builders that I follow on social, don't see them talking
Speaker:about those a lot. They're presumably not the right target market
Speaker:and maybe I'm not either. But, I'm a Mario nerd.
Speaker:So of course, I'm the target market for something with that brand,
Speaker:so I do hope they're gonna do more. And, yeah, I just love the little
Speaker:piranha plant. It's a great size. I love the fact as well, like, Lego have
Speaker:been doing a lot more with, kind of, with flowers and with,
Speaker:I think they've got the botanic theories and stuff like that. Am I thinking
Speaker:that right? Yeah. So they've got all, like, so many flower
Speaker:arrangements and all these cool things for flowers. I just like the idea that
Speaker:just randomly in the middle of these flower sets and and floral
Speaker:arrangements and all that, you just got this piranha plant.
Speaker:Yeah. Pretty cool. So yeah. So that that's kind of
Speaker:been a little a little highlight. It was a really,
Speaker:really quick build though. Very, very quick build. And it
Speaker:kind of doubles up as a as a a money box. Like, it
Speaker:doesn't. No one would ever use it as a money box, I don't think.
Speaker:But, you know, they've obviously tried to do something there, which is
Speaker:cool. So, yeah. Lots of great stuff coming up.
Speaker:At the time of recording, we're a few weeks away from both the Avengers
Speaker:tower, that massive Avengers tower that they're bringing
Speaker:out. That's gotta be released, I think, at the end of
Speaker:November. We're maybe a week or two away from it at the time of
Speaker:recording. And the Natural History
Speaker:Museum, I was surprised by that one, and I'm
Speaker:intrigued by that one. And, Yeah.
Speaker:I'm gonna be snapping that up as well. I've been to the
Speaker:Natural History Museum in in, New York. I think that's what it's modeled
Speaker:after anyway. So, you know, it's quite a cool thing to
Speaker:have, but more than that, I think it's a really cool
Speaker:addition to, the Lego city that I'm
Speaker:Kind of trying and failing to build. I don't have the right
Speaker:space for it, and, Yeah. What I've done with this so far
Speaker:has not quite worked, but, you know, I persevere, and I
Speaker:continue to use it as an excuse to get sets like the Natural History
Speaker:Museum. So they're both coming out, in the next month or 2 before
Speaker:Christmas. I also just ordered 2
Speaker:retired sets, both of which I really hated that I'd
Speaker:missed out on when they were available. So I've ordered the
Speaker:Lego BB 8, which
Speaker:yeah. It's just been one of those. I think that I think that retired just
Speaker:before I properly got on or got back onto the Lego bandwagon,
Speaker:and I've kind of I've had my finger hover over the the
Speaker:buy button anytime, it's it's come up on
Speaker:Amazon, on the secondary market or anytime I've seen it
Speaker:on, eBay, been sold for new. So I
Speaker:finally caved. I've also ordered this, the Stranger
Speaker:Things upside down set. Just
Speaker:because, again, it's one of those. I loved Loved loved
Speaker:the look of it when it was originally available, but this was
Speaker:before I got deep into the Lego obsession. And
Speaker:price point wise, kind of
Speaker:display wise as well. Again, this was before I kinda carved out
Speaker:Multiple zones in my house just dedicated to
Speaker:Lego. So the sets that I was was building at the time,
Speaker:for display, It was kind of like, okay. I'm gonna put this 1
Speaker:piece in this one place. So, again, it was one of the there were there
Speaker:were just a few things to, that enabled me to talk
Speaker:myself out of it, but I regretted it ever since because I really, really, really
Speaker:love that set, and I really want it. So,
Speaker:yeah, I've ordered retired sets, which I feel I
Speaker:feel is, kind of, like a next level of going down that rabbit
Speaker:hole. I think the next level up from this is ordering
Speaker:custom build sets, which I am very tempted to do. I'll talk about
Speaker:that in a sec. But, yeah, I talked back, I think it was in episode
Speaker:5, about how the
Speaker:1989 Batmobile set was my first ever
Speaker:retired Better purchase, and
Speaker:I love that. That's still still right up there as
Speaker:possibly my Favorite build, my favorite piece of Lego that I own.
Speaker:But I didn't think I'd be making another purchase of another retired
Speaker:set, because Generally, you're looking at paying at least
Speaker:double what the good sets originally retailed
Speaker:for. And for the very good ones, the much older ones, Ones where Lego
Speaker:doesn't have that license at all anymore, you're looking at paying a
Speaker:lot lot more. You know, Lego might release another Batmobile in the
Speaker:future. Like another 1989 large
Speaker:scale Batmobile. So I think the pricing around those
Speaker:It's always kinda taken into account that maybe they'll they'll just come
Speaker:out with another one sometime. I think that's why things like the Star Wars
Speaker:death star are Not as exuberantly
Speaker:priced as you might think. Whereas things like the Lord of
Speaker:the Rings sets, were An hour, but I think
Speaker:they've got that license back. So yeah. Anyway, I'm rambling now, but,
Speaker:I just had to have these. I really did.
Speaker:They're they're the sets that have been playing on my
Speaker:mind, and I can't think of any
Speaker:others right now that I would buy. I mentioned the death star.
Speaker:I just don't like the end result. I don't like that it's all open and
Speaker:exposed. There's something about how it looks when it's
Speaker:finished in all the photos that just doesn't appeal to me.
Speaker:So, you know, a A good friend of mine has the
Speaker:death star and moved from the other end of of the
Speaker:world. Moved over from the Philippines to the UK and
Speaker:had to kinda dismantle the death star. And it's kinda been in a
Speaker:in a box waiting to be pieced back together. And so, you know, we keep
Speaker:talking about me going out on a visit to help him rebuild this.
Speaker:So that that's that'll be my catharsis. I think that'll be getting the death
Speaker:star out of my system. I just don't know whether because I'm someone who just
Speaker:displays them. I don't play with them. I don't have kids to play with
Speaker:them. Then, yeah. I don't
Speaker:know. But, yeah. I grabbed those sets from
Speaker:a site called retiredsets .co.uk. It's not a plug.
Speaker:I'm not endorsed by them. That's just who I got them from. It's
Speaker:rare to find, good Aftermarket
Speaker:retailers, I think, in the UK, most of them are US based,
Speaker:or certainly my experience. So, yeah, they've got a real good selection, and
Speaker:I Say that I've not got any of your mind that I'll go back for,
Speaker:but I probably will. Now I've reached this
Speaker:level of Lego addiction. And talking about that next potential
Speaker:level of buying a custom set, there's a website called
Speaker:bricker builds .com. I know there's a bunch of other sites waiting to buy
Speaker:custom sets, but these do the instructions and
Speaker:Send you the the all the pieces as well, which a lot of the other
Speaker:sites don't do. And yeah. Again, this
Speaker:isn't an endorsement, but I'm very very tempted. I got hit with their
Speaker:Instagram ads. Man, they've got some amazing
Speaker:builds. They've got life-sized versions of Mario and Luigi,
Speaker:like And they're retailing for over $1,000 each.
Speaker:I don't think I'm in a place where I can justify that, mainly because I
Speaker:don't know where I would put them. I've got a lot of space
Speaker:in the house, but having a life
Speaker:size Mario isn't about having space. It's
Speaker:it's just about like like, where does he live?
Speaker:But yeah. But they've got, some really great smaller Mario Brothers series.
Speaker:Again, the ones that I talked about before, things like the Bob omb, and the
Speaker:flower power, and stuff like that, like, they've got those. They've got the life
Speaker:size Pokemon. They've got lightsabers as well, like, to
Speaker:scale. Lightsaber sets.
Speaker:Again, Lego did kind of a gift with purchase
Speaker:for, I think, it was the At At, which I don't like. I don't like
Speaker:the At At set, where if you bought that, you you got a
Speaker:little model of Luke's lightsaber hilt.
Speaker:And I almost bought the other just to get that hilt, but
Speaker:you can't buy it anywhere else other than on the secondary market for 100
Speaker:of dollars. But you can get Custom
Speaker:build, full lightsaber with a LEGO blade and everything, for Luke,
Speaker:for Darth, for, for Darth Maul, for,
Speaker:I think, Ahsoka Tano, for the, the
Speaker:the dark saber. I think they've got the dark saber on there. So, yeah,
Speaker:that might be my next The next depths of obsession
Speaker:that I go to the custom sets from brickabuilds.com.
Speaker:Again, not an endorsement. They just They just have
Speaker:some very geeky, very awesome, Lego sets.
Speaker:So yeah. So that's kind of what where I'm at in my
Speaker:LEGO building obsession. We've got some great build
Speaker:reviews coming up again from next episode on. We're gonna get back to reviewing
Speaker:a set per episode. So in the
Speaker:upcoming episodes, I'm gonna be talking about the huge Gringotts
Speaker:set, which is the latest Harry Potter set.
Speaker:I'll be reviewing the Razor Crest set from Mandalorian,
Speaker:which I swore blind on a previous episode. I was
Speaker:never going to buy. I wasn't interested. Yeah. I
Speaker:caved, and so I'm gonna be talking about that and reviewing that in a
Speaker:future episode. Also, gonna have an episode where I think I'm gonna,
Speaker:bundle up a few shorter reviews about some of the modular
Speaker:buildings that I've added to my fledgling LEGO city, like
Speaker:the police station, the boutique hotel, And the a frame cabin,
Speaker:I've got the, the town square or assembly
Speaker:square, I think they call it, and I'm working right now on the
Speaker:bookshop. So, Again, I think they're they're all sort of
Speaker:thematically similar, and all very similar in terms of,
Speaker:build experience and the quality of the end result, but I'm I'm gonna Group those
Speaker:together. I don't think they need separate episodes. Maybe I do a 2
Speaker:parter on my LEGO city, so I'll be talking about those. Oh, I've got the
Speaker:bath cave shadowbox set to review. That was a very
Speaker:interesting build. Yeah. Very, very
Speaker:interesting build. Interesting altogether. I don't I
Speaker:don't recall Lego doing anything like that shadowbox they did with the Batcave,
Speaker:so I'm gonna do a whole episode on that. And just a whole bunch
Speaker:more brick based buffoonery coming in the weeks months, but it
Speaker:all kicks off again next week when I'm reviewing the Pacman
Speaker:arcade set, which as a spoiler is definitely
Speaker:one of my favorites in recent months. So lots and lots
Speaker:to look forward to on the Brick Magnate podcast. If you head over to
Speaker:brickmagnatetot come, then you can get all the
Speaker:past episodes and subscribe to make sure you don't miss any future
Speaker:episodes. If you want to see, photos and,
Speaker:walkthrough videos, so little preview videos or or review
Speaker:videos of the sets that I talk about on the show,
Speaker:and more, then Check me out on Instagram and on
Speaker:TikTok at brickmagnet. That's Brick,
Speaker:m a g n a t e. I'm at brickmagnet on
Speaker:TikTok and Instagram. Follow me on there. You'll be able to see everything that I'm
Speaker:working on and also those, little closer look of videos that
Speaker:I record for all of my sets. But for now, I'm
Speaker:gonna wrap things up. It's good to be back on the brick building bandwagon, and
Speaker:I look Forward to you joining me again next week
Speaker:when I'll be talking about the Lego Pac Man arcade set.
Speaker:I'll see you then.
