LUBOVILLE IS FOUNDED

The upstairs room (which was meant to become the library) was annexed and tables built and placed. With approx. 7square meters of table area, we decided to combine some traditional model building techniques with the creative bricks. At this stage we don't have a layout of Luboville to share, as this tends to change daily, if not hourly. It is also a stark wake up to realise just how many bricks are going to be needed to complete Luboville.

BEST-LOCK - SWAT

 We found this at a local supermarket and looked forward to building and playing with the items as Best-Lock seems popular and gets favourable reviews... a little disappointing to say the least.

PIECES:  225

VALUE:   ZAR 120.00 (ZAR 0.5333 per brick)

ACCURACY OF PACKAGING:  9/10

                   FUN/PLAYABILITY:  5/10

                                     QUALITY:  4/10

                         INSTRUCTIONS:  7/10

                MINI CHARACTERS:  2/10

                                   OVERALL:  4/10

A few miss-formed bricks were found along with a few clutching problems. Plastic tends to be a poor quality and the mini-characters are a complete waste of time.

UPDATE

Starting out we didn't realise the commitment needed to upkeep the blog and ensure regular posts. Unfortunately due to other business commitments and travel, the blog and the creative blocks ended up on the back-burner. None the less we did manage to get a nice haul of new sets from various manufacturers, which we will bring to you in the coming weeks. Excitement for the creative bricks was reignited with actually starting on Luboville, our brick city and will be making a concerted effort to update the blog on a weekly basis, possibly even daily.

Please comment on the posts and share your experiences with "compatible blocks".

SHELL, FERRARI & LEGO

Each year we faithfully purchase all the collectable items launched by Shell and Ferrari and quickly rushed off to a Shell Station with the launch of the 2013 Lego Collectibles.

The oil company Shell and Lego go back a long way with the first sets (325 & 491) released in 1966.  With the introduction of the fictional gasoline company "Octan" in 1992, no regular sets were released anymore, except for occasional promotional sets.

After lying on the shelf in bags for a few months,  (have never really opened promotional items in order to maintain their collectable value...) we opted to open the packets and build the cars!

There are 6 cars and a set of 3 minifigures to collect and each item has the Ferrari "official product" certification. Builds are simple and relatively quick, the one downside being applying all the little stickers precisely and accurately. The pull mechanism on the cars adds to the playability, unfortunately the mechanism on the F40 was faulty.

WEBSITE

Finally after many months of procrastination, our website is up and running, bar a few glitches.

We will make a concerted effort to complete all functionality as quickly as humanly possible and get our product listing and order system up and running.

Fans of creative building blocks, please get in touch. We aim to set up a local network of people which will hopefully lead to local South African events that can compare to what is being done elsewhere in the world.

Visit us at www.lubos.co.za

After having read some other blogs and visited numerous sites, lets get the formalities out of the way:

LEGO®, the brick configuration, and the minifigure are trademarks of the LEGO® Group, which does not sponsor, authorize or endorse this blog.

ENLIGHTEN STEAM LOCOMOTIVE

Enlighten Set Number 627 - Enlighten Steam Locomotive

Set consists of 196 pieces and includes one mini-character. The mini character is nicely detailed and compares favorably to leading brand items. Brick quality is good and no alignment or clutching problems were experienced, with instructions being relatively clear and easy to follow. There was no need to fiddle with stickers as the details are etched into the bricks.
At around ZAR100.00 the overall scale and robustness of the Locomotive provides for good value.

It is unfortunate to note that Enlighten has stopped production on their train series...