Tonight I went over to Brian’s house to film Built from Bricks. It has been two weeks since I last went over to his place and he had done a ton of work on the Millennium Falcon. He was on the very last bag. I knew this because I had been watching his livestreams as well as his Instagram feed showing his progress. I decided that I would open my own Millennium Falcon and built it with the kids. Mine was considerably smaller than his. His is 7500+ pieces and mine is 696. Mine is also the very first Millennium Falcon that LEGO made back in 2000.
After college I was buying LEGO toys like crazy. I would order them online and have them shipped to me. It was always my intention to save them for when I had kids and when those kids were old enough to play with LEGO and appreciate Star Wars. Back in April we went on a family trip to New Hampshire. I brought along an X-Wing fighter from 2000 and we built that together. It was fun and I was looking for the next set to build.
when Brian originally bought the new Millennium Falcon I dug through my LEGO Star Wars boxes and found my Millennium Falcon. I bought it over to start off the Livestream on the day we worked on the new set for eight straight hours.We opened our last livestream on the set with my completely built Millennium Falcon as a joke. Then we set about finishing the new one. Which happens in the video below.
Today was a day that I’ve been waiting for! Today was the day that the Star Wars Millennium Falcon was released in stores and this was the largest most expensive LEGO set ever. And I didn’t even have to buy it. No, I did not get it for free. My friend and co-host of Built from Bricks, Brian bought it because this was something that his son CJ had always wanted and he is building it as a tribute to his son. He let me build a little, too.
This was a very hard set to get because only so many of them would be released in stores. Brian was up at 4am to get over to the Providence Place Mall to be first in line to pick up the set. His plans were to Livestream the build all day and there was no way that he was going to miss getting this set. Luckily he got there first and was able to secure the very first one sold at the store that day.
This is a Massive Box. It was so massive that a handle was added to it as well as wheels so that people could carry it out of the store.
Tonight I went to Brian’s to film Built from Bricks. I really thought that I’d have more time today to do something other than talk more about the Stop Motion Studio.
I did get a bunch more LEGO sets today. Two came in the mail and two I picked up from Toys ‘R Us. I like to scoop things up on the 10% off days. Next week I will have a coupon plus a $5 coupon. There is another Marvel set that I have my eyes on.
I think that I’ll build many of these in a stop motion type video.
My Daughter has caught the Stop Motion bug. We started with the program Stop Motion Explosion on my computer and Eva made a couple of Stop Motion movies with our Modibots.
This past weekend I was at Philly BrickfFest Live where I met Dave Pickett from Brick 101. I bought his book The LEGO Animation Book. He even signed it and that thrilled Eva to no end.
When I got home I looked around my office and decided to move the studio back upstairs but also build in some space where Eva could work on her Stop Motion Creations as well.
Our third day on vacation and we are enjoying our time at Pollard Brook. Today we spent some time in the room and then the pool and later an adventure out for dinner. We started off the day with a very special activity. Back in 1999 LEGO started producing Star Wars sets. At the time I was working as a Residence Hall Director at Saint Anselm College. I also had a full time job. I had no girlfriend and no extra expenses. I had some disposable income and I went LEGO crazy. I also bought a lot of comics and Transformers. I bought the LEGO Star Wars sets with the specific intention that when the children, that I hoped I would someday have, were old enough to enjoy Star Wars that we would build these sets together. Andrew and Eva are both fans of Star Wars and are both old enough to build LEGO sets so it was finally time.
I packed the Star Wars LEGO set 7140 – X-Wing Fighter to be the very first one that we would make together. I also downloaded Star Wars: A New Hope onto my phone and was able to play it through the Chromecast on the TV, not without a lot of finagling, this thing does not seem to work right every time, nor does it work the same way every time. We watched Star Wars while building the X-Wing Fighter and had a great time doing it. We organize all the bricks by color and then take turns, by page to build the sets.
Eva did some more Stop Motion Animation and had me upload her three movies to YouTube. You can find her 1st Try (with my help), 2nd Try (all Eva) and 3rd Try (All Eva) on YouTube. She is very proud of them and each video represents a couple of hours work using Modibot and Stopmotion Explosion.
We had a simple lunch in the room and then went over to the pool. The kids love hitting the pool. We also used the Jacuzzi and it turned much colder today than yesterday, so that may not have been the best move. Then it was time for cleaning up.
We opted for an early dinner over at The Woodstock Inn and Brewery. There we shared an Onion Blossom. Allison tried a sampler flight of beers and you have to watch the video just to hear Andrew tell her to “chug, chug, chug!” Neither of us knows where that came from. Allison and I shared a Fisherman’s Platter. Eva had chicken wings and Andrew had a huge hot dog and mac and cheese.
Ten we headed back to the Pollard Brook Resort where there was an activity happening. The kids made some bath fizzies. Eva made some peppermint ones and Andrew some sage ones. I stepped in to help him out because he wasn’t quite getting the concept of how to mix up the bath fizzies. Things were flying out of his bowl.
We went back to the room and the kids played while I got ready for a Twitter Party. I try not to have to do too much work while on vacation but occasionally I am working on things so it cannot be helped. It was only a short party so it did not interfere with spending time with everyone.
I’m getting things ready for our Spring Break Trip up to New Hampshire. I will be bringing along the Polaroid SnapTouch camera and the Cube+ and the Zip. The kids saw me playing with them and they wanted to try it out, so they let me take their photo with the SnapTouch. It isn’t be best camera but it is meant to print out 2X3 images on heat transfer paper so they don’t need to be high detail, but they aren’t too bad.
Like I said, we’re off on vacation for Spring Break next week and we’re not going to be doing a whole lot other than being together and having fun. So, I think that it is finally time to break out some of my LEGO Star Wars sets that I have been collecting for years. The kids are old enough to work together to make Luke’s X-Wing Fighter!
During the Snow Day yesterday the kids and I decided to put together the Star Scavenger. This is the ship from the show, LEGO Star Wars The Freemakers. It was a very enjoyable show to watch. It has all the humor that you come to know from things like The LEGO Movie and The LEGO Batman Movie. It also has the whole mythos of Star Wars to draw upon. In the show you will see many of the characters from all over Star Wars including people like Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia. I am looking forward to a second season and would really like to get the other LEGO set from the show. If the show continues then I suspect that even more sets will be made, at least I hope so.
When I first heard about LEGO Star Wars The Freemaker Adventures I got really excited. One thing that got me more into Star Wars these past few years has been LEGO and the LEGO Star Wars sets. Now there has been this show that combines LEGO and Star Wars. It has the mythology of Star Wars plus the fun and humor of LEGO. Separately these two properties are powerhouses, but when you put them together they are unstoppable. I thoroughly enjoyed the first season of LEGO Star Wars The Freemaker Adventures.
The show centers around three siblings, Rowan, Kordi and Zander: The Freemakers. These kids are salvagers and mechanics who build and sell starships that they salvage from the battle debris in space.
The show takes place between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. This means that there may be familiar characters showing up from time to time. There are plenty of guest stars who visit the outer rim. Kordi is the older sister who handles the business part of the salvage operation. Zander is an ace pilot and top mechanic. He has a love of Naboo star-fighters and has been building his own spaceship. Rowan is the little brother who is attuned to The Force. He discovers a portion of the Kyber Crystal. This earns him the interest of The Empire and a Jedi named Naare. The Kyber Crystal is part of a larger Kyber Saber that has unimaginable power. so, as you can imagine the whole galaxy wants their hands on it.
I watched all the episodes for the first season and even bought a LEGO set of the Freemaker’s ship. I am also thinking about picking up Naare’s ship as well so that we can build them both as a family. At the heart of this show it is a show about family.
The Blu-ray has some nice bonus features as well.
Meet the Freemaker Family – Get to know the members of your favorite family of celestial scavengers – and meet the actors who bring them to life – in this fun collection of clips, behind-the- scenes footage and cast interviews!
Freemaker Salvage and Repair – Visit the shop with the finest salvage in the galaxy as Rowan, Kordi and Zander take you on a tour of the family business.
Voice Cast: Nicolas Cantu (upcoming TV movie “Hey Arnold: The Jungle Movie”) as Rowan; Vanessa Lengies (TV’s “Second Chance”) as Kordi; Eugene Byrd (TV’s “Bones) as Zander; Grey Griffin (Disney Channel’s “Miles from Tomorrowland”) as Naare and Matthew Wood (Disney XD’s “Star Wars Rebels”) as RO-GR.
I have, once again, found myself behind with my unboxing and review videos. There are a few that I just can’t get motivated to do even though they may be a lot of fun. There are some that I’m wondering, how will we video that and yet others here I wonder, how will we do that one at all.
At the same time I have 6 new video games and a new video game system to play. I haven’t played many video games in months. Pretty much when I started getting serious about making videos on a daily basis I ended up having less time to sit and play video games while we watched TV at night. That may change because it is gearing up to be video game season and I’m going to get working on more video reviews of games and game pieces. I should start receiving Skylanders and LEGO dimensions toys soon so I’m going to talk about them on video. I may even make more than one video each day, a vlog and a toy review in order to catch up.
It is going to be tougher with school starting, my time with Eva is going to be more limited and she won’t be able to help with as many videos. Well, here is what I’ve got outstanding right now.
When I heard about the new Disney XD show, “LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures” I was very excited. I love the LEGO Star Wars shows that have been released before because of their humor and fun. Those were all based on the movies and existing Star Wars properties. This time, however, the show is about something completely new.
Introducing new heroes and villains to the LEGO Star Wars universe, the animated television series “LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures” will premiere MONDAY, JUNE 20 (10:00 a.m. EDT), on Disney XD. Set between the events of “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi,” the action comedy series follows the Freemakers, a family of sibling scavengers who operate a salvage and repair shop in space. The series will also feature familiar characters and locations from the filmed Star Wars saga.
NEW OFFICIAL Trailer Available for “LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures” –
Premieres Monday, June 20 at 10:00 a.m., ET/PT on Disney XD!
Zach King to Host Live-Stream “Brick-Building” Event, which will Feature Series Sneak Peek
Fans will get a sneak peek at the series during a special live-stream “LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures Battle of the Bricks” event tomorrow, Saturday, June 11 (8:00 p.m. EDT). Presented by Disney XD (https://www.youtube.com/user/disneyxd), YouTube stars (EvanTubeRaw, Parker Games, 101 Dark Monkey, ZexyZek ) and LEGO enthusiasts will gather in teams to determine the galaxy’s BRICK BUILDING CHAMPION. Instagram celebrity, Zach King will host, and a panel of LEGO Master Builders will judge the showdown.
