Sold the Falcon

Well, my Ford has been sold off.

Sold it for $300, which represents about a $2,500 loss but I'm still kinda happy about it. For one, it's gone and second, the chap that bought it wanted a registered chassy he could put his engine and stuff into. So it worked out well for both.

I've decided to try and build a trailer to go with the Lego truck I bought a while back. Not sure what kind of budget I'm willing to commit to yet, but it seems like I really ought to be saving money for this whole financial disaster thing the news keeps talking about.

Car died

Car is now officially dead.

It has some problem in the engine that requires the engine to be pulled apart to determine the problem. And if the problem can be fixed, then it'd be fairly easy to fix since the engine is, you know, already apart.

However, it'd be a few hundred dollars in labour in order to pull the engine apart just to find out what was wrong and then a couple more to put it together again. And it might even need a complete new engine.

So I figure I'll cut my losses and see if I can sell it off for a few hundred. With the criteria outlined in the previous post, I'll be looking for a fresh car this weekend.

Oh well, win some, lose some.

In other news, I got my latest Lego package from Europe. Just gotta put it together. Also, our cat might have been kicked or clipped by a car - she's limping around and not letting anyone get close.

And work sucks, but you already knew that...

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...

Insane, but quiet.

Okay, I was looking through some of my old stuff when I found some old Lego catalogues (I seem to be thinking a lot about Lego at the moment). In it, I saw one of the old Technic sets, specifically set 8880, which was "the" must-have supercar in the mid 90's.

This particular set is actually available from a few places (only second hand) and I got to thinking, would it be possible to build this set out of new parts?

I trundled over to Shop@Home (Lego's on-line shop) where they have a "buy the bits you want" service. Now, they don't keep the full range of bits for people to buy, but they do have a very wide selection of bricks. About 80% of the parts I would need are available.

Now, it's that last 20% that is the kicker. This set uses many pieces that are not in production any more and two specific pieces that were exclusive to this set.

Doing the maths, new bricks from S@H come out to about AUS$160. The other 20% would need to be bought second-hand and total (approx) another $50-70. And the two exclusive bits are still available, but they would be about $20 for just those two.

So the running tally would be AUS$240 plus postage, which would be around another $80 since all the extra bits would be coming from different sources, mainly in Europe.

AUS$320 for an 80% new car.

Or AUS$200 for a second hand one with no box or instructions.

Gee, which would I do? Let me think about this one for two seconds. . .

eBay - it's damned addictive!

Well, I need to develop more self control.

So far I've order some dog tags (no idea why, don't have a dog), some books, some stuff or the camera and Lego. Lots of Lego (luckily I've been out-bid on some of the bigger bulk lots - so there are people out there that want Lego more than I do!).

I have a feeling that I need to keep a pretty close eye on how long I spend looking at eBay. It would be so easy to buy junk that I don't need or want. Earlier today I was looking at buying 100 sheets of gold leaf just because it was cheap - nevermind that I have absolutely no use for gold leaf, let alone 100 sheets of it!

However, I do need a new battery for the camera... and a memory card...

Oh dear, it is a slippery slope.

eBay'ing

Well, didn't do anything that I had planned for this weekend. I really ought to make lists so that I can keep track of these things. Actually, I should do that now:

• Solder up the LED lighting for LTPD.
• Start making LTPD updates, generic starter ones (need 38!).
• Get judging for QSA contest done.
• Prep package for randomparrot so it can be mailed on Monday.

I think that's everything that is important at the moment. I'm sure I'm forgetting something though...

In other news, as the title implies, I've started buying stuff off eBay. I have a remote release and macro extension tubes for the dSLR on order. Hopefully they will arrive this week. Might need to use the A550 in the meantime to have bigger images to play with that can be cropped.

Need to add "build sets" to the list.

One last little diddy: found a great master builder on Flickr: legoloverman's flikr. I have yet to find something of his that didn't look like pure win.

Hooray for small accomplishments

I recently got Lego set 10191 - Star Justice. Peeron, who are where you go if you want to know what bricks comes with what set, did not have an inventory of this set.

So I took it upon myself to write it up. Oh man, that was hard! Took about three days. It involves a lot of jumping around different sites trying to get the exact part numbers for different bricks. It looks like there are three different standards for the numbers, and sometimes you use one, other times you use another.

Anyway, enough of that - Peeron accepted my inventory! Whee!

Okay, that really is a small thing, but I was excited about it. Don't think I'll be doing too many of these though...

And it arrives

The Lego order from Denmark arrived on the 18th! That's pretty prompt service as far as I am concerned. From the various bits of information on the outside of the box, it appears to me that it came to me from Sydney, which is odd.

I assume that what happens is that Lego in Denmark pack all the orders for Australia in one big box, mail it to their sub-distributor in Sydney who then ship them out to all the individual places. Either way, I'm stoked.

I picked up an Indiana Jones set, just for the motorbikes and the Star Justice set, for no particular reason. However, earlier today I did do the inventory for it (I lie, it took a couple of days) and uploaded it to Peeron. We'll see if they accept it.