Something is about to happen...

21011 Brandenburg Gate

I have built my Brandenburg Gate. I have always liked the Architecture theme and this is the first set that I have bought. It is clearly for adults. Compared to Creator sets is a bit on the expensive side, but the result is very nice and I like it very much.

Many photos about the building process in the album.

bltools

New year it is, so let's start with something new.

New software for hardcore Lego builders: bltools.
http://code.google.com/p/bltools

With bltools you can process a Lego Digital Designer file and convert it into BrickLink orders. It may be especially useful since Lego will stop DesignByMe (the service to order bricks from within LDD) as of January 16.

bltools fetches the list of shops from Bricklink, optimizes the orders and exports them in BrickLink wanted list XML format.

Some remarks:

• It needs Python, GLPK and knowing the command line
• Since it is in Python, it runs on Windows, Mac and Linux and probably everything else
• It may run for a long time and not necessarily produce the best possible result

But I have used it and it worked.

2012

There is nothing to be proud of: 2011 was not particularly fruitful in the life of the blog. Yes, we have new design and I have also fixed the old links and even more, we got a new MiG-15. But I did not provide a lot of new content.

It is not because I don't have anything to write about. I don't promise daily updates in 2012 either, but I will go after some of the hotness.

Some hints of what will follow:

• It's not a secret that I am a big fan of cars from Mad Physicist. The Lead Sled replica is on my shelf for a long time, but now it sits next to a Ferrari Testarossa. More details will follow soon.
• The last piece from the big Technic cars, the 8860 is also on my shelf for some time now. It's time to share more details about it.
• I got several new Lego sets. For example a 5867 Creator car. I am very excited about this because Nathanael Kuipers built about 15 more variations, so now I can build those as well.

Gran Turismo from Nathaniel Kuipers-től. Now I have all bricks to build it :)

• I also got a 21011 Brandenburg Gate. I have always liked the Architecture series, I am happy that I own the only European building so far. It is so nice that I started thinking about other buildings I could build in a similar style. Born in Hungary, I have started building the Parliament of Hungary. We will see soon how far I get.
• I have found a serious problem with my Trabant. On its own it looks quite alright, but next to its friends it is obvious that it is not tall enough. It is just taller than the Ferrari Testarossa which does not look good. I hope to find somt time to fix that. It may need a substantial redesign though. At the moment I don't even dare to think about more cars.

I wish everyone a Happy New Year Rich in Lego!