Life-sized Bag End

 This life-sized Lego version of Bag End was built by 12 employees over a period of 3000 hours. It consists of over 2 million bricks and features working lights (my favorite) and actual smoke from the chimney. I'm not sure what this was built for, but it is incredibly awesome nonetheless.

Lego scale model of NYC

 Not really. But it is really cool piece. This digital render was made by 3D artist JR Schmidt, using maps and satellite data. This should be made. I think it would make for a really awesome build.

Yay! Sonic Screwdriver!

 One of the coolest sci-fi tools ever, from my absolute favorite show. The Tenth Doctor's sonic screwdriver by Bruce Lowell (bruceywan), effective against just about everything, expect deadlocked seals and wood.

Space Jump Recreated in Lego

 By now you all have probably seen Felix Baumgartner's 129,000 ft. skydive (if not, watch it). This would be that jump, performed by minifigs. Enjoy!

Oh... My... God

 I can't even begin to describe how beautiful this is. Carlyle Livingston II and Wayne Hussey spent over 800 hours putting together this Batcave. The cave itself is comprised of over 20000 individual elements, weighs over 100 lbs., and has motorized parts and its own lighting system! These men are gods to me.

Super Bitching Shield

 Hylian shield from the Twilight Princess by Remi (Bolt of Blue)

LEGO Wheelchair

 This Lego wheelchair is powered by Mindstorms and can support up to about 200 lbs. (90 Kg). 6 NXT's are used to control the drive motors while a master controls the direction. Each driving NXT has 2 motors and 2 touch sensors for direction, while the master has 4 touch sensors to control direction and 2 motors to switch on the driving touch sensors. Support for Android and Bluetooth is currently being worked on.

Source

17-Stage Ball Contraption

 This amazing Lego machine, built by Skiyuky, does a very simple task. Moving balls along a complete circuit. That is all it does. But it does that task in such an amazingly cool way. And it's incredibly accurate.

Rivendell - Home of the Elves

 This is... beautiful. This masterpiece is the result of a collaboration by Blake Baer (Blake's Baericks) and Jake Bittner (Bitts and Pieces), which was shown at BrickFair this month.
 Here's a video of set with all its details on display.

The Amazing Spiderman

 Super cool posable Spiderman, by mccooey.

Faerie Forest

 The "Faerie Forest," made by Sean and Steph Mayo (Siercon and Coral). I love this because of how intricate it is. It's just so detailed and, in some parts, beautiful.

Noble VI

 This is pretty cool. Noble VI by Mike Nieves (retinence).

Super Awesome Batman/Joker Mosiac

 You may know Arthur Gugick (torgugick) from his Anakin/Darth Vader lenticular mosiac. Well, he's back with this amazing Batman/Joker lenticular mosiac. This is just a quick post so no embedded video. You'll have to go look yourself.

Happy Birthday LEGO!

 80 years ago, in 1932, Ole Kirk Christiansen started making wooden toy in his workshop. In 1934, he named his company "Lego," from the Danish phrase leg godt, meaning "play well." In '47 they began producing plastic toys, and then in the year 1949, the "Automatic Binding Brick" was introduced. And the world was then a better place.

Steampunk Sunday

 captainsmog's "Anihilator" handgun, standard issue among the Mars Imperial Elite Troops.

Now These Are Awesome.

 This Star Wars: Return of the Jedi chess set, made by Brandon Griffith (icgetaway), is the third in a series of Star Wars-related chess sets, along with A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. All the pieces except the pawns are mini-scenes in themselves. All of them, amazing pieces of work. Truly incredible.

Rolls-Royce Engine

 The most complex Lego machine ever built, this Rolls-Royce engine is comprised of 152,455 bricks, weighs 677 lbs., and is 6.56 ft long. This engine - the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000, which powers the Boeing 787 Dreamliner - was presented on the 9th by Rolls-Royce at the Farnborough International Airshow, after having been constructed over 8 weeks by a team of 4 people.

Classic Star Trek Equipment Redone in Lego Form

 From Star Trek TOS, these beautiful creations - a tricorder, a communicator, and a Type-II phaser - were created by Tommy Williamson (GeekyTom). The tricorder is especially amazing, with its working compartments and lights. More photos and a video demonstrating the tricorder can be seen in the Flickr set.

Awesome LEGO Retro Video Game Tumblr!

 Tumblr user Meufer has an awesome blog showcasing her Lego recreations of retro video game characters and items. Well, mostly Lego. Some of her palette choices are wonky, like this Link, but nonetheless, these 8-bit recreations are really cool.

100th Post! And A Portal Gun!

 Post #100! And to celebrate, I present to you this Portal Gun, made by Ted, of the LEGO Store in Minneapolis. It features moving arm things, and changing lights to correspond with the two different portals. All in all, a very cool creation.

Steampunk Sunday

 Battle Tripod by Isaiah.S.

Just A Quick Blurb

 Remember a while ago, when the CUUSOO review board rejected this Shaun of the Dead set, which was proposed by yatkuu. Well, in the wake of his rejection, yatkuu has posted instructions on how to build the Winchester.
 Two different types of instructions were posted. The first one is in PDF form, with one PDF per floor, done in a similar style to official Lego sets. And the second set of instructions are source files for 3D images of the set.

 And in other news, after the failure of LEGO Universe, which was developed by NetDevil, a new MMO is in the works. This time it will be developed by Norwegian Funcom.
 I find myself unable to get excited about this, mostly because I don't really play MMOs, but also because of LEGO Universe's failures. But we'll see what time has in store.

 I guess I should also include this little bit. LEGO has announced that there will be a LEGO Batman and Superman in the upcoming LEGO movie, set to release February 28, 2014. They will be voiced by Will Arnett and Channing Tatum, respectively. Also announced was that Chris Pratt will be voicing the lead character Emmet.

Steampunk Sunday

 The Octopodal Frontier Rescuer by Antman_c.

The Amazing Isle Lothloxia

 The Isle Lothloxia. Constructed by L D M, this island set is absolutely amazing due to the wonderful job he did on the water and transition to the beach. It looks beautiful, and the castle is pretty boss, too.

USCSS Prometheus by onosendai2600

 Another version of Prometheus, this time done by Andrew Lee (onosendai2600). This one is very true to the actual ship from the movie, unlike this one.

Steampunk Sunday

 This steampunk TIE Fighter is way better than the previous steampunk TIE Fighter I posted. This TIE Fighter was made by Sean Jensen (Steadibrick), to accompany the X-Wing he had built previously.

Well Now, Isn't This Just Amazing!

 Not this splash, but this gallery, curated by John (Five X Five). While not actually Legos, these renders, by Brickthing and [Lego Junkie], are extremely cool.

Lego Turing Machine

 This machine was built by Jeroen van den Bos and Davy Landman for Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica's (CWI) exposition "Turings Erfenis", in honor Alan Turing's 100^th birthday this year.

 More on the machine here: legoturingmachine.org

Scania R730 ''The Dragon''

 Super cool truck by bricksonwheels.

Holy Mother of Krypton

 Amazing. That's all I have to say about Dave Ware's (BrickWares) Superman Lego mosaic. I mean, just fricking amazing. The shading, the lighting, all working together to form the most wonderful Lego Kal-El I've ever seen.

Steampunk Sunday

 Ah, my favorite post of the week because I don't have to come up with a title. This week, I show to you Hammerstein NWC's mech "The Queen's Hammer."

Escher's Relativity How It Should Be

 Paul Vermeesch puts a twist on Relativity with this Lego Star Wars themed version. The whole build is one foot cubed and represents the original trilogy in a clock-wise fashion. The model is also fully light, you know, when it needs to be.

Super Beast Castle

 This super beast castle was made by Duco Brugman (bloei). It has glowing lava! Glowing! Duco posted a video of some of the moving features of the castle.
 Click picture to enbiggen.

My Little Pony... CANCELLED?!

 Super sad news. Yesterday, the CUUSOO review board announced that the My Little Pony - Friendship is Magic idea has been rejeceted before it even reached 10,000 supporters because Hasbro owns the license.

Official statement:

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First and foremost, congratulations to Addam for gaining so many supporters for this very well done concept on LEGO CUUSOO. The work you have put into the concepts for potential LEGO renditions of My Little Pony figures and playsets is outstanding.

We know My Little Pony is very popular, and these concepts would make great products. Our team has done our due diligence. Since the property is owned by Hasbro we've decided it’s neither a brand fit nor a strategic fit for the LEGO Group to pursue a My Little Pony license, and so we will not consider My Little Pony projects on LEGO CUUSOO further. We see how enthusiastic and hopeful MLP fans are at the possibility of a LEGO line and are sorry to be the bearers of this disappointing news.

Since LEGO CUUSOO opens us to new product suggestions, naturally people will suggest concepts that aren’t a strategic fit. We are grateful for the spirit behind projects like the My Little Pony - Friendship is Magic project. It keeps us sharp and looking toward the future of the LEGO brick.

The LEGO CUUSOO Team

---

 Yeah, so. Sadness.

Steampunk Sunday

 Behold! The magnificence that is the Steampunk Shark Submersible, built by Eurobricks member Legobodgers for the To Sail the Technic Sea..." contest. This is possibly the worst submersible ever due to the fact that it couldn't actually submerge without killing the passenger.

Star Trek TOS Pixel Art

 These pixel art mosaics were made by David Shaddix (Southwest Bricks) and displayed at Phoenix Comicon over the weekend. Two of the mosaics, Spock and James T. Kirk, have the actors signatures, while one is forever destined to remain signature-less.

Lego Gameboy Color

 Today I show you lego27bricks' Gameboy MOC. 27 (as a shall call... um, her) has made a few recreations of Nintendo consoles and controllers, though none of them have decals. decals really could have made these much cooler. As I've said, I love details, and their absence tends to annoy me.

Silicon Valley Exec Caught Stealing Lego

 Thomas Langenbach, a top exec for Germany-based software giant SAP, was prosecuted on Monday for faking the bar codes on boxes of LEGOs at the Stevens Creek Boulevard Target in Cupertino. Lagenbach used the faked bar code stickers and his smart phone to obtain the sets at massive discounts.
 After searching his San Carlos home, police found 2100 unopened boxes of Legos. Mountain View police spokeswoman Liz Wylie released a statement about the event, stating that Lagenbach has been selling the items on eBay, from which he made $30000.

Steampunk Sunday

 It's getting harder and harder to find good steampunk creations, but I managed to find this neat-ish Dwarven steampunk armor made by Pate-keetongu.

Lord of the Rings Sets and Exclusive Hulk Figure

The third-quarter LEGO sets are now available, including new LOTR and Marvel sets. And, as an added bonus, if you buy $50 dollars worth of Marvel sets from the LEGO Shop between now and the end of the month, you'll get a free, exclusive Hulk minifigure

CUUSOO is Just Hopping Lately

 A lot of projects have reached 10,000 supporters on CUUSOO recently. Minecraft, BTTF, EVE Online, to name a few. And now yet another idea has reached 10,000; Modular Western Town submitted by mb_bricks. Just a collection of modular buildings you might find in an Old Western frontier-type town. Neat set, very well done, but nothing to get excited over.
 But what's really interesting about this is its showcasing of how CUUSOO has been picking up steam in the last couple of months, jumping from three to eight fully-supported ideas. This site has some amazing potential and will be fun to watch as it grows.

Steampunk Sunday

 Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers, of course.

 This week I'm showasing Hammerstein NWC's steampunk version of Jedi training. This is a really cool model, one of the best re-imaginings of Star Wars I ever seen. I love the way the lightsaber is attached with a chain, like it has a battery pack. I applaud Hammerstein on his creativity and Lego building mastery.

Why?

 Brandon Griffith (icgetaway), whom some of you may know as the creator of this Tower of Orthnac, has started a Kickstarter campaign to make a line of collectable trading cards featuring Lego builders and their creations. And I'm just wondering why? I think it's kind of a neat idea, and I wish Brandon well with it, but I'm not excited about this nor will I buy any.

Bad News...

 The Firefly Serenity playset has been rejected by the CUUSOO review board, with the reason being cited as the product idea wasn't appropriate for their core audience. This is extremely unfortunate, though somewhat expected.

 Press release:

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First and foremost, huge congratulations to tbone_tbl for reaching 10,000 supporters on LEGO CUUSOO, and toward everyone for all of the support of the Firefly Serenity Playset project!

LEGO CUUSOO gives the opportunity for adult LEGO fans to submit product ideas. You submit some incredible things, and we’re huge fans of all of your work. This is a beautiful model and a skilled rendition of the beloved Serenity from Firefly built with LEGO bricks.

When reviewing projects for production, the LEGO Jury first looks at how the concept fits the LEGO brand. We learned the IP was questionable regarding a brand fit, and since we anticipated this project reaching 10,000 the team got a head start and reviewed the project on these criteria.

LEGO produces toys for children. Therefore all LEGO products, regardless of age target, must be content-appropriate for this core audience. With this in mind we have decided that as cool as the Serenity model is, the Firefly TV show and Serenity film contain content that is not appropriate for our core target audience of children ages 6-11. While we know this news will disappoint those who supported the project, we will not be producing this as a LEGO product.

Opening ourselves to new product suggestions invites popular ideas that don’t always fit our brand. We are grateful for the spirit behind projects like the Firefly Serenity and for the opportunity to be challenged. It keeps us sharp and looking toward the future of the LEGO brick.

---

Steampunk Sunday

 Well, I can't show this week's entry, as the creator, Simon (Si-MOC), has disabled downloading, but here's a link. This week I'm showcasing a steampunk Imperial shuttle, actually Simon's second attempt. I like all the little miscellaneous details that really say, "I'm steampunk."

 And, once again, a CUUSOO project has reached 10,000 supporters. This time the project, submitted by user tbone_tbl, is actually really cool. 'Firefly Serenity playset' is the name, and, as you may have guessed, it's Serenity from Firefly, a show tragically cut short. I'm just a little disappointed in this model in that the outside could've been more realistically rendered. The set will apparently feature rotating engines, a lit-up firefly drive, and an accessible cockpit and dining area.

Avengers Weapons Made From Lego

 Ken Robichaud (buriedbybricks), in anticipation for the Avengers' movie, constructed all of the Avengers weapons entirely out of Lego. Well, you know. The ones that have weapons. Thor's hammer, Captain America's shield, Hawkeye's bow, and Black Widow's belt and things. All of them life-sized. Check them out on his Flickr stream.

The Legend of Zelda on LEGO CUUSOO, Part 2

 Well, the Legend of Zelda set submitted by MINGLES reached 10,000 supporters. That's a bit disappointing. If the review board approves this project, that means Ragaru's idea, even if it reaches 10,000, won't be made. I'm happy for MINGLES, but I really liked Ragaru's idea so much more.

New Star Wars Planets Sets

 A second wave of the LEGO Star Wars Planets has been leaked. The new sets are 9677 X Wing Starfighter And Yavin 4, 9678 Twin Pod Cloud Car And Bespin, and 9679 AT-ST And Endor.

The Legend of Zelda on LEGO CUUSOO

 Most people have seen this CUUSOO project, put up by MINGLES, which currently has 7,658 supporters. But now a better, more detailed version of a worthy project has been posted by Ragaru.
 This new version is much more detailed than the previous one and just seems more worthy of being put into product. More pictures of the proposed pieces can be seen here.

 Also, over the the weekend, the Back to the Future(BTTF) - DeLorean Time Machine, proposed by m.togami, became the fifth project (technically sixth) to reach 10,000 supporters. This feat was achieved on April 29^th.

News From LEGO CUUSOO

 The LEGO CUUSOO project based on Shaun of the Dead, submitted by Greg (aka Yatkuu). It reached the required 10,000 supporters on March 31, 2012. But LEGO released an official statement today, stating that their review board deemed the project inappropriate for their core audience. The statement reads as follows:

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The LEGO Jury has completed the review of the Winchester – Shaun of the Dead project that hit 10,000 supporters on LEGO CUUSOO on March 31, 2012.

LEGO CUUSOO gives the opportunity to submit product ideas, however all LEGO products, regardless of age target, must be content appropriate for our core audience. With this in mind we have decided that – good though the model is – the film Shaun of the Dead contains content that is not appropriate for our core target audience of children ages 6-11.

Long before the Winchester received mainstream media attention, Greg (Yatkuu) contacted us in earnest to see if his project was acceptable. We recognized the potential conflict, but didn’t see a reason to remove the project. The model was presented tastefully and we thought it deserved fair consideration. With 10,000 supporters, the Winchester earned the opportunity to receive the full LEGO Review.

Greg has been a pleasure to work with throughout this process. We’re impressed by his model, grateful for his constructive approach with us, and we are sad to disappoint such a devoted LEGO fan.

We appreciate the passion exhibited for new product ideas on LEGO CUUSOO. Opening ourselves to new product suggestions invites popular ideas that don’t always fit our brand. This is the first time we’ve felt that we should turn a LEGO CUUSOO idea down, but we’re grateful for the spirit behind projects like the Winchester and for the opportunity to be challenged. It keeps us sharp and looking toward the future of the LEGO brick.

---

 On a happier note, a project submitted by CUUSOO user czar reached 10,000 supporters (actually 10,006) yesterday. The project, EVE Online Ships - Rifter, is a model of a Minmatar Frigate called the Rifter from the popular MMO EVE Online and has the full backing of CCP.  czar is working on three more ships to compliment this one. The ships were chosen based off of a poll on the EVE Online Facebook page. Apparently the three other ships are going to be Gallente Incursus, Amarr Executioner, and Caldari Merlin.

Custom Doctor Who Minifigs

 This whole set of Doctor Who custom minifigs, which includes all the doctors and all of the new series companions, was hand-made by Fine Clonier. I not particularly thrilled abouot the minifigures themselves, which have hand-drawn faces and decals, but rather, I like what they could eventually become. Full-blown Doctor Who-licensed LEGO sets! How amazing would that be!
 One piece out of the set I do very much enjoy is the TARDIS. The decals look rather good on this piece.
 Fine Clonier has several other custom sets, including G.I. Joe, Avengers, and The Walking Dead.

Steampunk Sunday

 This week's installment focuses on Mark Stafford's (lego_nabii) Tri-terrortops, a mechanized war machine that resembles a triceratops. This thing actually walks! Very slowly. You can see a video of it walking on Mark's Flickr stream.

LEGO DC Super Heroes Movie App For iOS

 Warner Brothers Consumer Products/DC Entertainment have created a new LEGO DC Super Heroes Movie Maker app for the iPhone and later gen. iPod Touch. The app lets you make stop-motion videos. Specifically Lego, of course.

Lego Labyrinth Game

 This really incredible Lego rendition of the traditional Labyrinth game was constructed by Jason (True Dimensions). The game features interchangeable boards, and ball storage unit, and a travel lock so it doesn't move about while you move about.
 Jason submitted this idea to CUUSOO, where it has 48 supporters. I don't think this will make it into production, though.
 Video of the game below.

'Epic Mario'

 Some interesting stuff can be found on Kickstarter. This project, created by Zachary Pollock, is asking for $26,400 to build a one-stud-per-pixel recreation of World 1-1 from Super Mario Bros. While useless, that is an incredible undertaking. The finished project, which is projected to consist of more than 780,000 studs, will be about 6 ft (1.8 m) tall and 90 ft (27.4 m) long. Pollock plans to showcase this at various cons and other exhibits after finishing.
 Looking through the rewards, you see the usual cheap stuff for the cheap people - thank you cards and stuff - but higher up are some really neat rewards. A couple are blueprints so that you can build a panel that will be used in the final product, and others are just neat knick-knacks. Even higher are rewards such as receiving a piece of the display after its exhibition run, wall art, and paid registration for BrickCon 2012.

Kickstarter campaign

Steampunk Sunday

 It would seem this week was a rather slow one in the Lego steampunk community. I didn't find anything that I thought was really great, so I settled with this airship from tikitikitembo. This was tikitikitembo's first attempt at the steampunk genre, and it was a pretty good first attempt.

Lego Star Wars Giant Music Box

 I just found this video today. I love this! It's so cool how the sets make the piano play.

Nintendoformers!

 I'm sure all of you remember Baron von Brunk's incredible LEGO Gameboy Transformer. Well, he decided to make a CUUSOO campaign out of it. It currently has 31 supporters, which is of course very short of 10000. But it did just go up yesterday. I think this would be a cool product, but the campaign is kind of pointless as he posted instructions on Instructables. Why buy the set when you can just build using parts you have lying around, like von Brunk did. I guess it is more convenient to have all the required pieces instead of hunting for them, but still.

1:1 Replica of the M45 Shotgun From Halo: Reach

 Nick Jensen (Nick Brick), who last year built a 1:1 Halo sniper rifle with actual working parts, has done it again, with this full-sized replica of the M45 shotgun. This model, with working pump, trigger, and bullet loading and ejecting system, took Nick 2 months to build, weighs 5 lbs., and is about 38" in length.

Sorry.

No Steampunk Sunday this week. I was gone all day, and I didn't have time to look.

This Hermit Crab Makes His Home In Legos

 Harry the hermit crab lives in the Atlantic Discovery Area of LEGOLAND in Windsor, Berkshire. He was a picky crab, rejecting all the shells that were offered him. But then some staffers made him a shell made of red, blue, and yellow bricks, which he took to quickly.
 A video of Harry can be seen here.

LEGO Batman Tumbler

 This Batman Tumbler was made by Legohaulic as a last minute entry for the MOCAthalon in the Super Hero category. It's really well done, and he plans to add an interior sometime soon.

Exclusive Model for the Opening of New LEGO Stores

 LEGO is opening 10 new retail stores across North America, and they'll be giving out this model, 3300003 LEGO Brand Retail Store, for free to a limited number of people who show up to the grand opening of one of them.

 Press release follows:

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3300003 LEGO Brand Retail Store
Ages 7+ 280 pieces

New LEGO Stores are opening soon!
Celebrate the opening of a brand new LEGO Store in your area with the new, exclusive LEGO Brand Retail Store model! Not available for purchase, this set is only given out to a select number of customers with a qualifying purchase during the Grand Opening Celebration. We are proud to announce 10 new locations in North America opening in 2012:

• Nashville, TN
• Victor, NY
• Vancouver, BC; Canada
• Wauwatosa, WI
• The Woodlands, TX
• Peabody, MA
• Overlord Park, KS
• Elizabeth, NJ
• Seattle, WA
• Alpharetta, GA

Stay tuned for details on the Grand Opening Celebrations, featuring the new exclusive, limited-edition LEGO Brand Retail Store set and T-Shirts! For more information, please visit stores.LEGO.com.

Offers will be available during the Grand Opening Celebration only, while supplies last.
Phone orders will not be accepted, to qualify purchase must be made at store location.

---

 The Nashville and Victor stores have their grand openings on April 27-29.

Block Buddies

 Okay, so by now everyone's seen this picture, originally done by some German design company. Well, now they've spawned a whole trend, as documented by the Flickr page Block Buddies. There are a lot of cool pictures there. I, for some reason, find great fun in trying to figure out what they are. some are really obvious, some, not so much.
 Above are some of my favorite from the pool. Anybody with half a brain should know what these are.

Steampunk Sunday: April Fool's

 Ha! You guys thought I'd go another week without everyone's favorite feature. It was my April Fool's prank... no, actually I was busy yesterday and I forgot. But here it is.
 This week I'm featuring Felipe Avelar's (Felipe Descomplicado) Steampunk Walker Crane, powered by Mindstorms. In the video Felipe posted showing the crane's operation, it seems that all the motor can do is make the thing walk. The circle may be a consequence of the tile floor.

My Trip to NYC

 Well, I took a trip to New York City over the weekend, and I saw a lot of cool Lego creations while I was there.

 This and a couple following were in the LEGO section of the Times Square Toys 'R' Us. This one is the Woolworth Building, one of the oldest skyscrapers in New York. You can't really read the plate, but it says the model took over 784 hours and 188,160 bricks to build.
 If you look in the bottom-right hand corner you'll see Master Chief. This, while cool, was made from Mega Blocks, and a blasphemy. I therefore didn't take a picture of it.

 And, in order, we have the Empire State Building, with King Kong on the top, the Hearst Building, and the Statue of Liberty.

 And this is an almost life-sized Captain Jack Sparrow. Oh, look! There's the sacrilegious Master Chief!

 Last one. This was in the LEGO Store in Rockefeller Plaza, actually right to the right of the ice skating rink if you're facing the building. This LEGO sign is made of a whole bunch of solid-colored minifigures.

 And that is my trip to NYC, as told by me through Legos. OK, this doesn't sum it up at all, but still. Shiny Legos!