Updated website

Wow, it has been way too long since I updated my website.

Well, at least I don’t do frivolous updates for the sake of an update. Put up the latest “essay” (if you can really call it an essay). It’s a short article about upgrading my Extensa 5220 laptop with more RAM and a bigger HDD.

Didn’t go out on the weekend to do any photography (wanted to save a bit on fuel) but I did take a bunch of photos of the flowers and stuff around the house.

Mood: Anxiously waiting for stuff I bought on-line to arrive.

And then thought the better of it

Okay, so after two hours of mucking round, here are the final results:

The total of all the parts that are available new comes out to AUS$115 + $30 postage. The remaining parts are available from four separate dealers, all in Europe. The total for the extra parts is only $37, but postage from four separate sellers adds $80.

That's $262.

Or, I can pay $68 and get an incomplete second hand 5580 and make up the missing pieces from my collection. This works out much better for two reasons: first, it is cheaper and second, Lego ages pretty well. I have Lego that's almost as old as I am and it is still in pretty good condition.

So I guess that's that. An interesting experiment, but at least I didn't spend any money. I might still get 5580 at some future time, but I'll put this idea on the backburner for a while.

And since we might be moving soon, it's probably a good idea not to buy stuff internationally which might get delayed in transit.

So I've decided to be stupid...

As I was discussing in my previous post, it is quite possible (though sometimes more expensive) to re-build an old, discontinued set by buying new individual parts directly from Lego.

Since the 8880 Supercar has so many specific parts and would be quite expensive, I've decided to give it a go but with a different model: the 5580 Super Rig.

The reason for choosing this set is that a)the set is from 1986, when sets where very much built from basic bricks, b)it's a cool set and c)I want it.

Not very good reasons for dropping a bunch of cash on little plastic toys...

Anyway, it's not recorded anywhere that I can find how much it originally cost, but looking at comparable models from that range and time, I'd guess that it was somewhere around $60 to $100 USD. Assuming that it was $95, adjusting for inflation and converting to AUS, it would probably have been in the region of AUS$160.

Currently, there are around 30 copies of this set available from BrickLink, ranging from USD$50 for one missing bricks with no instructions or box to sets around USD$500 still in original box. There is even one going for over USD$2,000 since it is sealed in mint condition.

Obviously I don't want to spend anywhere near that much. For around USD$90 (plus postage) I can get a complete set including instructions. That's probably the smart way to get it, but that's not how I roll.

So I'll see how many of the bricks I can get new from Lego, then pick up the rest second hand. And see how much I end up spending on this stupid project...