On the Bridge
(An original Minifigure inspired poem from True North Bricks)
Think about the life I know,
On the bridge, water below.
Sometimes a torrential flow.
Sometimes but a trickle slow.
Always past the waters go,
Moments swept away in tow.
This poem was inspired by a random shot that took of my Ninjago City set.
I never actually collected any sets from the Lord of the Rings or Hobbit themes. It’s not that I didn’t want to, but you have to draw the line somewhere in terms of budget. I did, however, really like the warg figurine that was included in some sets. It is like a direwolf, or something of the like. I am also a big fan of LEGO® animals. So, today the warg gets its own coloring page. You can use the link below to download a printable PDF of this page (it will open in a new window). If you like the content at True North Bricks, I would love it if you followed me here on WordPress (click the “follow” option in the menu to your right), Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter for weekly coloring pages. Happy coloring!
Click here to download a copy of the warg coloring page.
Feel free to share this image on social media (with the appropriate link back to True North Bricks), but please do not re-post it on other websites without getting my permission.
It looks like the LEGO® after Christmas sales are starting to die down this week. Many stores still have some savings to offer, but it is looking more and more like left over deals. The best bet for getting what you want this week appears to be Hudson’s Bay where everything is 20% off. The LEGO® Store has added some items to their sale list, but at a meager 10% off.
There are double VIP points available all month at the LEGO® store on these two sets.
Spending $40 or more will get you three packs of LEGO® Movie 2 trading cards. There are 36 cards to collect in total. VIP card holders can also get an album for their cards, plus and exclusive card, with purchases of $15 or more.
CHAPTERS & INDIGO BOOKSTORES
At this point, a lot of these deals seem like leftovers. Many of them are only available online, or in certain stores that still have stock. I have tried to indicate which ones are only in “some stores”. You should check your store’s stock levels online before going out for sure. The following deals are being advertised online:
COSTCO
You will require a membership to access the following deals online. The prices are compared to the regular price at the LEGO® Store.
HUDSON’S BAY
All LEGO® appears to be 20% off online.
THE LEGO® STORE
This month’s double VIP points sets are Mia’s House (Friends) and the Tracked Loader (Technic). You can also get three packs of LEGO® Movie 2 trading cards when you spend $40 or more. VIP members can get an exclusive card and album to display their trading cards with purchases of $15 or more. The following sets are on sale:
TOYS R US
The following items are on sale online:
WALMART
I recently finished reading the new edition of The LEGO® Book, and thought that I would take a moment to share my thoughts on it. I’ll start off by stating that this is yet another DK book, so there is a fair amount of overlap with previous LEGO® books. However, there is a concerted effort to include as many themes as possible, and a fair amount of history too.
Front cover of The LEGO® Book.
I have not read the first edition of this book, so I can’t compare the changes that have been made. However, I can say that I found this book to be an enjoyable read that contained a lot of fun facts. The LEGO® Book does not jump into the same amount of detail about any given theme as, say, a DK visual dictionary would, but it gives the highlights. I found the content to be similar to A Million Little Bricks by Sarah Herman (click here to read my review), only in this edition you get the picture heavy layouts that DK books are known for.
Back cover of The LEGO® Book.
Like previous DK books that I have reviewed, this book made a sort of haphazard attempt to be current at the time of its release. It was released on October 2, 2018. The book does contain many references to LEGO® sets and happenings throughout 2018, but leaves other key developments out. An example would be the book’s discussion of the arctic City sub-theme. It mentions the sets that were released in 2014, but makes no mention of the theme’s revival during the publication year. Those sets were released months before this book was. I also noticed a few errors, like the fact that the bear figurine is listed only as a 2018 addition. Perhaps they were referring specifically to the black bear variant, but the same mold has been seen in the past as a brown bear and a polar bear, neither of which is mentioned in the book.
A spread showing how LEGO® bricks are made.
I did rather like the spreads in this book. Generally speaking, DK does a good job with the layout of their LEGO® books. The same is true for this edition. But, this book also switched up the page orientation from portrait to landscape in the Pirates section, which I thought was neat. I would have liked to have seen more sections flipped like that, just to mix things up.
One of the flipped Pirates spreads that mixes up the visuals in the book a little.
Finally, this book also comes with a freebie. While most books of this nature include a Minifigure, this one comes with an exclusive LEGO® brick. It is a standard 2×4, but one side of it is printed to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the brick. It is a change from the usual, but they could have still stuck with a Minifigure since it was also the 40th anniversary of the Minifigure. Or better yet, include both to warrant all that extra cardboard packaging in the cover… I will still probably find a neat way to showcase this brick in my LEGO® city though.
The packaging for the exclusive LEGO® brick is a little much, but you still get a lot of actual book with this edition too.
Overall, The LEGO® Book is a fun read, but it is not mind blowing information that you can’t find in numerous other sources, or on the internet. I am still waiting for that defining LEGO® book. I like the commemorative brick, but it would have been cooler to get a Minifigure too. It makes a nice coffee table book though.
Each theme has a “sets to remember” spread like this that I found quite nostalgic.
Have you read The LEGO® Book? Feel free to share your thoughts on it in the comments below. Also, if you like the content at True North Bricks, I would love it if you followed me here on WordPress (click the “follow” option in the menu to your right), Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter for regular updates.
Until next time,
-Tom
The exclusive, commemorative, printed 2×4 brick included with The LEGO Book.
I finally made my way out to the movie theater, and I saw Aquaman. As many of you know, this is the latest installment in the DC Comics movie universe. Overall, it was a pleasant experience. The movie was entertaining and visually stimulating. It also continued in the same vein as Justice League in that it was more light-hearted than some other films in the franchise. It had a few moments where I questioned the necessity, or purpose of some inclusions. But, I don’t know the Aquaman comics well enough to judge if they were trying to stay true to the source material or not in those instances. In general, I liked Wonder Woman more as film. But, this was certainly a movie that I enjoyed a lot. In fact, I liked it enough to make it my next LEGO-fied project.
The simple scene that I built for my LEGO-fied Aquaman poster.
I started by building a simple background using BURPS (big ugly rock pieces) that I have a load of in my parts collection. I didn’t spend any time making them fit nicely, or filling in gaps because I knew from the get-go that they would be faded out in the background, and such details would not ultimately be visible. I then made a slightly more detailed rocky perch for my Aquaman Minifigure. This point would be in focus, so I made sure to add details in the form of extra “rocks”, plants, and animals.
The sea life included in the end product was all individually photographed LEGO® animals. My menagerie for this shoot consisted of one shark, one turtle, one crab, one lobster, and one dolphin figurine. The killer whale in the photo was the brick-built version that came along with Lighthouse Point (click here to read my review). I photographed each one from several different angles, and used Photoshop to insert them into the image with Aquaman. The color was, of course, altered to resemble the underwater appearance of the original film poster, and the lighting effects were all added in in Photoshop.
My LEGO-fied version of the Aquaman movie poster.
And there you have it, my first LEGO-fied post of 2019. Last year, I produced quite a few LEGO-fied posts, but I was not very consistent at it. I enjoy making them, but they are time consuming. This year, I will be trying to put one out each month. So, one month down, 11 to go!
Until next time,
-Tom
p.s. If you like the content at True North Bricks, I would love it if you followed me here on WordPress (click the “follow” option in the menu to your right), Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter for regular updates.
Another Line
(An original life inspired rhyme from True North Bricks)
I’m standing, waiting for my turn,
To be somewhere else I yearn.
In what seems like an endless queue,
I’ve many better things to do.
Everywhere I go, a line,
To wait once more, I must resign.
Another line…
To go along with this past week’s Ninjago set review, here is another coloring page from the Bricktober 2018 Ninjago Minifigure collection. For your pleasure this week, I have turned Harumi and the Oni Mask of Hatred into a coloring page. You can use the link below to download a free, printable PDF file (it will open in an new window). If you like the content at True North Bricks, I would love it if you followed me here on WordPress (click the “follow” option in the menu to your right), Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter for weekly coloring pages. Happy coloring!
Click here to download your free Oni Mask of Hatred coloring page.
This is a sample of the Oni Mask of Hatred coloring page, it is not print quality.
