LEGO Creator Bike Shop And Cafe

A new addition to my LEGO city today and it comes in the form of the LEGO Creator Bike Shop and Cafe which my lovely wife picked up for me as a present from Very and it was delivered today on my day off so I had plenty of time to get it built.

Consisting of 1032 pieces and taking me around about 4 hours to build I was very satisfied with the end product, it had some really nice mini builds within the full build which I will point out later and also used some interesting and effective building techniques and part combination's which I will be keeping in mind when I start making my own buildings from scratch. This is also another 3 in 1 kit so you can also build two other types of building from this kit but I chose to go with the main build.

Both of the buildings are build in the doll house style which means that they can be split down the middle and opened up like a clam shell giving you easy access to the inside of the buildings.

Here are some of the interior details of the cafe.

Two of my favourite mini builds from this set was the coffee machine that can be seen behind the counter and the cash machine that's located on the side of the building, I also love how they made the blue drapes for the window area. The only thing I wasn't to crazy about is the small bird they have sat on the roof, its a nice idea but I'm personally not a big fan.

Next are the interior details of the bike shop.

 I quite like a few details in the bike shop like how they've angled the bike to fit onto the store front window and i like the little kitchen area that's upstairs as well as how the roof access has been done and the little barbecue that is up there as well.

With this set you also get 3 mini figures which can be seen here.

The set also comes with a very basic convertible car.

So overall I'm very happy with this build and is a welcome addition to my LEGO city which is starting to come along nicely now, just need to get some road tiles and a few more shops to complete the downtown shopping area before moving on to the residential area.

Many thanks

SH

Back To The Wasteland...

I've recently watched Bethesda's E3 presentation for the new Fallout 4 game that will be coming out later this year and I can't freaking wait!

So my past experience of the Fallout franchise is playing Fallout: New Vegas. I was pretty late to the Fallout hype, but I was instantly hooked on the game, not only because its an role playing game which I am a huge fan of but the stories and characters that you experience and interact with had real depth with many having a tongue in cheek feel to them which made it even more fun to play.

I was also a massive fan of the soundtrack that accompanied me on my many adventures through the desolate and baron nuclear waste that that is New Vegas.

In the E3 Fallout 4 presentation it looks like Bethesda has out done them selves again, with new improvements like complete customisation to your characters face to making you own post nuclear camp site's.

Bethesda has also improved their buddy system, as you can see in the E3 presentation you now have new tactile commands depending on your environment, such as making your dog go and fetch a wrench in the distance.

They have also radically improved the weapon customisation system where the trash of Bostons nuclear wasteland can be recycled to create a plethora of weapon customisations.

One of the coolest things Bethesa announced is that the collectors edition will include a full size pip boy that you can slide your I Phone into and use a Fallout 4 app to create a fully working and interactive pip boy, they didn't mention a price on how much the collectors edition would be but its going to be a definite for any Fallout fans.

So in conclusion I'm really looking forward to the next instalment in the Fallout series, there is still no release date as of yet but they have said it will be this year so it looks like I'll be playing Elder Scrolls until it comes out.

If your on PlayStation 4 and want to add me feel free my PSN ID is BEANY89.

SH

The Beat Of My Drum

OK so another thing I'm really into is playing the drums, I used to play when i was about 15 and did so for a few years and stopped but I recently got the urge to want to play again.

So me being me I jumped straight on the Internet started looking at some starter drum kits and it became very clear that I would need to get an electric drum kit as I live in a semi detached house and an acoustic kit would be too noisy.

I eventually found the electric kit I was looking for within the price range that was comfortable, I was originally looking at a £2,500 Yamaha kit which was way to expensive for what I was going to use it for and I'd found a £600 KAT KT3 kit which was great as I could get it on a government scheme that meant it was 0% over 9 months, bonus ball!

I then rushed down to my local music shop called Electro Music and purchased the kit there and then, along with a Pearl bass pedal and a Mapex drum stool, I'm sure the guy who sold it me couldn't believe his luck it was probably the quickest sale he's ever made.

I've now had it set up for a few months and I don't regret buying it, I love being able to come home and zone out with my headphones on, I was really surprised how fast I managed to pick it up again after not playing for so long.

Another feature that I love about having an electric kit is being able to change the sound of the kit at a touch of a button, it sounds crazy but a different sounding drum kits makes me play a completely different way to how I would normally and I love it.

I'm now thinking of getting some lessons some time soon though as I really like playing along to songs from bands like Queens Of The Stone age and rock in general but I've recently developed a taste for jazz, I don't know what it is about jazz that I love so much I just love the off beat and unpredictable feel of playing the drums to jazz but I really need to be taught how to play jazz properly.

Lego City Police Station Review

After visiting Toys 'R' Us today I got my hands on the Lego City Police Station for £79.99 which is the same as what Lego charge from their website.

The set comes with 854 pieces and took me about 3 hours to assemble. All the parts are separated into differently numbered bags which aids with following the six instruction books making it easier to build.

It builds a nice sized 3 story police station with a police bike, police car and police helicopter as well as 3 police men, 1 police woman, 3 bad guys and 1 police dog.

Here are some pictures of the mini figures that are included in this set.

I like how both sets of  figures have some nice detailing on the back. I also like how two of the bad guys come with ball and chains and as you can see the bad guy on the right has a crowbar and a bag full of cash.

These are the vehicle that come with the set.

The vehicles are pretty basic builds but I think they still look good, all the Police signs and number plates are stickers so getting them straight and lined up can be a bit of a pain. The tow truck that's included in this set has a nice long chain with a grapple hook at the end that can be used to pull the bars off of the cells.

This is the Police station building completed.

 I then placed all the mini figures and added two of my own which can bee seen below.

Helicopter pilot running to an emergency.

 An undercover cop has caught a criminal in the act.

 The dog handler keeping an eye out for any suspicious activity.

New convict getting processed.

 Sound asleep in his cell, some interesting scriblings on the cell walls.

 Looks like he has a plan to escape and the tools to do it stashed in a secret compartment in his bed.

Looks like the Police biker needs a well deserved cup of coffee to keep him alert.

So in conclusion I'm pretty happy with the set. In the future I will modify it so that all the walls are built up instead of just the front and I will be adding some flowers and plants to the grassy area in front of the station.
My only bug bear with this set was the amount of stickers that were required to be stuck to every window and door as well as some vehicles, but this is only a minor complaint and I would highly recommend this set to anyone who enjoys Lego and is thinking of building a Lego city.

SH

Secret Life Of Pets

So exited to see that the creators of Despicable Me are bringing out a new film and it looks like its going to be another absolute cracker.

The new film is called The Secret Life Of Pets and I was pretty much hooked on it from the title, I absolutely love animals, me and my wife have 3 cats and I am always pondering about what they get up to when we aren't around.

The trailer has a slight Toy Story feel to it with the way its going to tell a story about what animals do when there owners backs are turned, the same as what toys do when we aren't around, and I think that is a key reason why this film will be so successful as we will never truly know what animals do when know ones looking at them, its like a blank space in our imagination that this film is going to tap into and fill in.

I love how they have captured the individual characters of the animals in this trailer, when I was watching it with the wife we could relate the fat cat to one of our own, I swear he steals food when we aren't around.

I also loved the posh poodle at the end of the trailer, you can see it coming a mile off but the choice of song for me anyways was just perfect (I am a System Of A Down fan).

So that will be a definite watch for me when it comes out in the summer of 2016, cant wait! :)

SH

Bath time wizard!

So one of my loves in life is to have a nice soothing bath, and nothing makes a bath better than adding your favourite Lush product to enhance your bathing experience.

I was never a fan of Lush until about 2 months ago when my wife Jen got the 'lush bug' and began using their products.

After smelling the enticing smells of the many bath bombs and bubble bars I decided to make the leap and tried them out for myself and never looked back. My Lush experience has now been enhanced by finding that you can mix different products together to make a Lush cocktail, so I did a quick Google search and found some examples and tried out one I found on a blog called Irati's Vanity.

The Lush cocktail consisted of mixing 1 Green Bubbleroon, 1 Sunnyside and 1 You've Been Mango'ed bath melt.

After crumbling both the Green Bubbleroon and the Sunnyside under running water I then added the Mango bath melt like some sort of bath time wizard mixing a concoction in my bath sized Calderon.

Once the bath was ready I jumped in to experience silky soft water accompanied by a aroma of what I can only describe as grass with a distinct citrus smell, the water was a milky green colour with fine gold sparkles that wisp'ed around with the flow of the water.

Once I managed to pry myself out of the bath it had left my skin soft and smooth and non of the fine gold glitter had stuck to me which was a relief as I was wondering if I was going to emerge looking like a vampire from twilight.

Overall I enjoyed this Lush cocktail mix however next time I would probably use half as much ingredients as towards the end of my bath time I found the aroma a bit overpowering for my taste but this is just personal preference.

Hope you enjoyed my Lush cocktail review and if you have any suggestions feel free to comment me, you can also check out the Lush! website here.

SH

LEGO creator Toy and Grocery shop

 So my newest hobby is creating a LEGO town, and I've decided to start off with my first shop which is the LEGO creator Toy and Grocery shop which I picked up from Toys 'R' Us.

 Priced at £35 I didn't think it was too expensive, however after purchasing it I later saw it at a lower price elsewhere such as Argos for £28.99.

It's a 3 in 1 kit so you can choose to make either the Toy and Grocer shop, a news paper stand or a post office depending on your preference, I suppose it also gives kids the ability to deconstruct their original build and make something different which as a kid that would be something that I would have done. However for this build I just made the Toy and Grocer shop shown on the front of the box.

The kit contains 466 pieces and was fun and reasonably easy to build, it took me about 2 hours, has some really nice pieces such as the vending machine and the angled door which is always interesting to see how they accomplished some of the design by using different pieces in a way I would have never though to use them.

The thing that i really like about this set is the way that the centre of the shop is hinged so it can close together like a doll house which gives it lots of playability for kids and also makes it easier to pose mini figures inside the shop.

This shop also has a upper floor apartment living area with a bed and a chest of draws as well as access to the balcony were either the shop owner lives or rents it out to other people.

Here are some pictures of the final build.

 I think my favourite parts of this build was the small details like the Wall-E style looking robot on the shelf and the model train in the window, and I love how the vegetable display is on a 45 degree angle showing off the little apple and banana.

The set also comes with two mini figures, the woman shop owner and an exited customer boy who would be perusing the toys, the kid also comes with a little scooter that he can pose on.

Overall i was quite pleased the set and would recommend it to any beginner LEGO builder and children, the other thing that i could criticise the set for was the build quality of the kids scooter as the handle bars often fall off as they are on balanced in place and not fixed down, but that is a very slight inconvenience.

SH