Small Scale Stuff

pictures of small scale toys

Category: Lego

A shot of a road going nowhere 0

About / Lego

Lego Builds and Farewell

I wrote this blog during the beginning of the pandemic to keep a log of my favorite minis and to keep me busy.  However,  one of the luxuries of being retired means I have the time to explore different things.  While miniatures will always fascinate me, I want to spend the next year traveling and making memories.  Time is finite, so I need to make good use of it. Thus this last blog post is a farewell of sorts and a short summary of some recent Lego builds I made over the past few months. 1.  Up-Scaled Lego Minifigure I...

Lego Jazz Club sign 0

Lego

Lego Jazz Club

I completed the Lego Jazz Club about three months ago.  While not my favorite build, it had some cute elements and cool musician minifigures. The modular has a club, pizza parlor, a manager’s office, a tailor, and a dressing room.  There is even a greenhouse on the roof! The set has 2899 pieces, including some I have never seen.  However, I would have appreciated flesh-colored minis vs. the standard Lego yellow heads. I do like the exterior of this set, especially the cool multi-colored windows, and the signage. I apologize for the grainy photos.    First Floor of the Lego...

Completed version of Knock off Grand Emporium 1

Lego

DH Gate Knockoff of the Lego Grand Emporium Set

This post discusses my experience ordering and building a DH Gate knockoff of the Lego Grand Emporium set. I note that I wanted to complete my modular display with the Grand Emporium building, but the price of this retired Lego set was so outrageous (over $400), that I ended up buying a DH Gate knockoff version. The set cost me around $80.  Ordering from the DH Gate website was easy, though all the various offers and coupons were a bit confusing.  Nonetheless, delivery was incredibly swift (less than 5 days).  In the rest of this post, I will describe my...

View of the store display window from the outside 0

Lego

Fake Legos Post #2 – Non-Lego Building Sets

I previously wrote about Politically Incorrect Legos, but this post is about non-Lego building sets that hope to compete with Legos. These again appear to originate from Asia and, just perusing Amazon and DHgate, some of these sets are really cute! The draw to the non-Lego building set route is the much obviously lower price. If you are really into modular buildings (as I am) but cash-strapped, these sets could be an alternative. Plus, Lego frequently retires sets, making it difficult to find sets to complete your collection (unless you are willing to pay thousands of dollars). So, this post...

Tablet image of stock market going up 0

Lego

LEGOS AS AN INVESTMENT

While I – and many other adults – enjoy building Legos, I learned that many folks use Legos as an investment. A toy as an investment – what do I mean? A few months ago, I read an article online about how certain Lego sets appreciate in value far more quickly than the stock market. To be honest, the market sucks right now – I’ve seen the value of my retirement accounts drop 18% this past year. However, certain Lego sets have soared in value. For example, I received as a freebie the 20th Anniversary Star Wars set called Battle...

LEGO GLOBE BOX 0

Home Decor / Lego

LEGO GLOBE

I am a fan of Lego Ideas sets (discussed in an earlier post), such as the new Lego Globe. I gifted myself the Globe for my birthday – partly as inspiration to take up traveling again in 2022. It also helps that I, as a Lego VIP member, had points to redeem, thus bringing the cost of the Lego Globe down by $20. The Globe sells for $199 on Lego.com, when it is available. At the time I bought the set, Lego had a promotion and included a freebie. The Freebie I am a sucker for promotions and I tend...

fake lego set of western food 1

Lego

FAKE LEGO SETS #1: Politically Incorrect

Friends often send me texts with some crazy Lego pictures, which -although funny- are definitely fake Lego sets. I am a little appalled by the sets that I discuss below in this first post on fake Legos. What motivates these sets’ creators to take a fun building block and make it into something offensive? This is the world we live in now. Incidentally, I pulled all these images from the internet and have tried to list the creator where I could. Oftentimes, the creator probably doesn’t want the publicity, so it’s difficult to “credit” the builder. WARNING: If you are...