In this episode of the Brick Magnate podcast, I discuss my recent hiatus from podcasting and my return to the world of brick building. I recount my experience at the Bricktastic event in Manchester and share my excitement for upcoming LEGO sets.

I also talk about some recent sets I've built, including a special snacky set and my thoughts on retired sets and custom builds.

What's up everyone? You're listening to episode 7 of the Brick Magnate

podcast. I'm your host Mike Morrison, AKA The Brick Magnate,

and it's been a minute. It's been a little while.

There's been a bit of a hiatus since the last episode of

the show, so I've got a bit of catching up to do. I'm getting back

on the brick building horse. To be honest, I didn't really get

off that horse. I've been still hoovering

my way through, a whole bunch of Lego sets. I just

haven't been talking about it, haven't been podcasting, and,

it's It's on me it's on me to kinda get back

to this, and, you know, keep the momentum going or

regain the momentum for the Joe, had some great, great feedback from

those of you who checked out the first, 5 or 6

episodes. So, I'm excited to be podcasting

again, excited to be talking about, some of the sets that

I've been working on over the last few weeks, and

really excited about some of the upcoming sets that I

get the opportunity to talk about, with some really good new stuff being

released in the coming months. So let's kinda wind it

back. I think the last episode was, end of January,

maybe beginning of February of this year. And,

yeah. I think I closed that out by saying that I was on the

cusp of going to my very first ever LEGO based

event. It's an event called Bricktastic, which took place

in Manchester. And, that was such a a

great event. It was a really really great event. It was packed.

Like, I was expecting a relatively smallish space,

Or maybe a larger space, but, like, with tables very spread out,

you know, when people are kind of trying their best to,

you know, Really spread the limited stuff they

have, but this place was packed. It was absolutely packed. It was,

very well attended. I think it ran over 2 or 3 days.

Just went to the one day because, the the sets and the displays

and stuff like that, they weren't changing on a day to day basis.

So you kind of only needed 1 day to do it, but man, it

was it was busy. And there was a

good mix of types people. It wasn't all kids. It also

wasn't all adult fans, and there were a lot of

amazing creators on display.

So many, varied builds. Varying

as well in terms of, kind of the the the magnitude

and the the skill that was on show. You know, you had some really

cute little custom builds that maybe, you know, the

average Lego builder like myself would be able to piece

together, and then you had those gargantuan builds.

I think there was, one of the kind of the the bikes

from The Dread, the Judge Dredd comics and and

movie, like a life size one of those, like

yeah. You know the type of Epic epic builds that you usually only see on

TV on kinda Lego Masters and stuff like that. So there

was a real good variety, a real good variety of themes as well. I

barely put my my camera away. You know, for

friends of mine who were into Pokemon, my little brother was into Pokemon

growing up, You know, I was taking pictures of the the life size

can you say life size for fictional characters? Yeah. You can say life size. The

life size, Pokemon custom sets and sending them to him, and so

I'm Pokemon loving friends, and then I was taking pictures of the the Star

Wars sets and the, really really cool kind of Star Wars

artwork as well. Some of my favorite pieces.

And sending those to my Star Wars friends. So it was it was just

a real interesting event to attend, a real fun day. I I

watched a little bit. They had kind of like the, like, a Lego

build challenge going on. I can't remember the name of

the, the that that was kind of under it was under some sort

of brand. I think they do it at a lot of different events. I was

alright, but it wasn't the kind of it wasn't the kind of

event where you're you're really gonna stand around

and watch anything long term. So, I think the the

placement of those competing builders was a little

odd because it It wasn't conducive to

being able to actually watch them. So I kind of found

myself doing the loop and going around, and then coming back and, You know, seeing

how they were getting on for a minute or 2, and then doing the loop

again. So yeah. But, otherwise, what a great

show. Really good way of spending an afternoon. I resisted the

temptation to splash a lot of cash on some of the

retired sets that were on sale there. They

had little stores with, with newer sets as well.

Lots of, minifigures on sale.

Lots of kind of, Like, just bagged up or boxed up

collections of bricks, but, yeah, I I managed to not

spend any money, which I'm quite impressed with myself over.

But, yeah, I was kind of blown away by by how busy it was,

in a in a big, big venue. So I do want the highlights This

video over on TikTok, if you wanna head over and find me on

there at Brick Magnate. You can check out the little

highlights video from Fantastic to see some of my favorite sets,

and see for yourself just how how busy the place was. It was a surprise.

I'm not sure if I'll go next year. Again, it's running

Just in February 2024. Mainly because I'm not

sure how much is going to be different. Like, how much do they

chain from year to yeah. I'm sure they do.

So I I think it's one of those if I'm in the area, or

if there's other stuff going on. So, you know, last time I managed to tie

it in with a, with a football match and with a trip to the

theater and catching up with friends. So, you know, if there's a lot

going on, then I'll I'll maybe check it out, but it's not one that I

make the trip specifically to attend again. But

If it's convenient enough, I'll definitely be popping in. And if you've not been to

it before and you are in the UK and you can get to Manchester,

then check that out. It's called Bricktastic. I believe it's at bricktastic.org.

Check it out. Tickets are cheap, and it's a fun event to go to.

So, I'm not going to review any particular

sets in this episode. This is more just about, kind of, getting

back to bricking, and to talk about

Bricktastic and pick up where I left off on that front. I will give a

little shout out to, to a little snacky

set. I don't I don't what do you guys call those,

like, small builds? Those 1 evening or

those two or 3 hour long builds. Like, those of you

who who are obsessed with Lego,

who do, like, you know, the ones that'll span over a week or 2,

thousands and thousands of pieces. Like, those are those are the builds. Those are the

Lego sets. Do you have a name for those little

quick builds? I call them snacky sets because I'm a child.

Literally going snacky sets. So, yeah. The ones

that are, like, less than a 1000 pieces, they're maybe 50, £60,

or 60 books, or what have you, and They're usually very quick

builds. I do, like I'll kind of use these as

palate cleansers between the bigger builds, and so My

favorite snacky set, that I've built recently is the recently

released piranha plant from the Mario Brothers,

video game series. Big big gamer, big big nerd,

and huge Mario fan. Mario was my

thing growing up. The very first console game I ever

played, Super Mario Brothers 1, on the NES.

Obviously, played through 1, 2, and 3 on the NES and then onto Mario

World and all of that. So, yeah. I'm I'm

loving that they're seeming to do

more with that Mario brand. I've not really

been a big fan of those playsets that they've created. I think it's a

cool idea, but I've not bought a single one, and I'm a huge, huge Mario

Brothers fan, but they just don't appeal to me. But anytime

they do something a little, a little more stand alone, something

that's not a playset, I buy it. Like, I did, I think

it was episode 2 or 3 where I talked about

Lego Bowser. Still one of my favorite builds, still one of my

favorite, end result sets.

The the n 64 question mark,

The question mark block said that they did, which has the little mini worlds

from from Super Mario World or Super Mario 64.

Again, that, I snapped that up and built that. So anytime they do something

outside of those playsets with the Mario brand, I'll always

buy it. And, yeah, the piranha plant,

very quick build. It's 540 pieces. It was,

$60 or £58, so Yeah. Those Brits kinda got

screwed on the the pricing there. And it was a very quick build. I think

it took me 45 minutes or so, but I just love the end result.

It's such an an iconic thing from the Mario series. So I really

really hope they do more like this. I'd love to see, you know, the star

and the flower power ups. I'd love to see the Bob omb, I'd love to

see Goombas, all of these things are kind of ripe

for creating a Lego set. I don't know a single Kind of

eighties kid who's into Lego, and he was into gaming,

who wouldn't snap up a Lego Bob omb or a

Lego Goomba or something like that. And, obviously, Lego

Marios and Lego Luigis, maybe

they're yeah. They're they're probably gonna be a bit more of a stretch to do

Those justice. But I do hope the piranha plant is the

start of them branching out a little bit with the Mario sets. I'm

not sure how well the the play sets

do. Yeah. I don't, I don't see a lot of

Like the the Lego builders that I follow on social, don't see them talking

about those a lot. They're presumably not the right target market

and maybe I'm not either. But, I'm a Mario nerd.

So of course, I'm the target market for something with that brand,

so I do hope they're gonna do more. And, yeah, I just love the little

piranha plant. It's a great size. I love the fact as well, like, Lego have

been doing a lot more with, kind of, with flowers and with,

I think they've got the botanic theories and stuff like that. Am I thinking

that right? Yeah. So they've got all, like, so many flower

arrangements and all these cool things for flowers. I just like the idea that

just randomly in the middle of these flower sets and and floral

arrangements and all that, you just got this piranha plant.

Yeah. Pretty cool. So yeah. So that that's kind of

been a little a little highlight. It was a really,

really quick build though. Very, very quick build. And it

kind of doubles up as a as a a money box. Like, it

doesn't. No one would ever use it as a money box, I don't think.

But, you know, they've obviously tried to do something there, which is

cool. So, yeah. Lots of great stuff coming up.

At the time of recording, we're a few weeks away from both the Avengers

tower, that massive Avengers tower that they're bringing

out. That's gotta be released, I think, at the end of

November. We're maybe a week or two away from it at the time of

recording. And the Natural History

Museum, I was surprised by that one, and I'm

intrigued by that one. And, Yeah.

I'm gonna be snapping that up as well. I've been to the

Natural History Museum in in, New York. I think that's what it's modeled

after anyway. So, you know, it's quite a cool thing to

have, but more than that, I think it's a really cool

addition to, the Lego city that I'm

Kind of trying and failing to build. I don't have the right

space for it, and, Yeah. What I've done with this so far

has not quite worked, but, you know, I persevere, and I

continue to use it as an excuse to get sets like the Natural History

Museum. So they're both coming out, in the next month or 2 before

Christmas. I also just ordered 2

retired sets, both of which I really hated that I'd

missed out on when they were available. So I've ordered the

Lego BB 8, which

yeah. It's just been one of those. I think that I think that retired just

before I properly got on or got back onto the Lego bandwagon,

and I've kind of I've had my finger hover over the the

buy button anytime, it's it's come up on

Amazon, on the secondary market or anytime I've seen it

on, eBay, been sold for new. So I

finally caved. I've also ordered this, the Stranger

Things upside down set. Just

because, again, it's one of those. I loved Loved loved

the look of it when it was originally available, but this was

before I got deep into the Lego obsession. And

price point wise, kind of

display wise as well. Again, this was before I kinda carved out

Multiple zones in my house just dedicated to

Lego. So the sets that I was was building at the time,

for display, It was kind of like, okay. I'm gonna put this 1

piece in this one place. So, again, it was one of the there were there

were just a few things to, that enabled me to talk

myself out of it, but I regretted it ever since because I really, really, really

love that set, and I really want it. So,

yeah, I've ordered retired sets, which I feel I

feel is, kind of, like a next level of going down that rabbit

hole. I think the next level up from this is ordering

custom build sets, which I am very tempted to do. I'll talk about

that in a sec. But, yeah, I talked back, I think it was in episode

5, about how the

1989 Batmobile set was my first ever

retired Better purchase, and

I love that. That's still still right up there as

possibly my Favorite build, my favorite piece of Lego that I own.

But I didn't think I'd be making another purchase of another retired

set, because Generally, you're looking at paying at least

double what the good sets originally retailed

for. And for the very good ones, the much older ones, Ones where Lego

doesn't have that license at all anymore, you're looking at paying a

lot lot more. You know, Lego might release another Batmobile in the

future. Like another 1989 large

scale Batmobile. So I think the pricing around those

It's always kinda taken into account that maybe they'll they'll just come

out with another one sometime. I think that's why things like the Star Wars

death star are Not as exuberantly

priced as you might think. Whereas things like the Lord of

the Rings sets, were An hour, but I think

they've got that license back. So yeah. Anyway, I'm rambling now, but,

I just had to have these. I really did.

They're they're the sets that have been playing on my

mind, and I can't think of any

others right now that I would buy. I mentioned the death star.

I just don't like the end result. I don't like that it's all open and

exposed. There's something about how it looks when it's

finished in all the photos that just doesn't appeal to me.

So, you know, a A good friend of mine has the

death star and moved from the other end of of the

world. Moved over from the Philippines to the UK and

had to kinda dismantle the death star. And it's kinda been in a

in a box waiting to be pieced back together. And so, you know, we keep

talking about me going out on a visit to help him rebuild this.

So that that's that'll be my catharsis. I think that'll be getting the death

star out of my system. I just don't know whether because I'm someone who just

displays them. I don't play with them. I don't have kids to play with

them. Then, yeah. I don't

know. But, yeah. I grabbed those sets from

a site called retiredsets .co.uk. It's not a plug.

I'm not endorsed by them. That's just who I got them from. It's

rare to find, good Aftermarket

retailers, I think, in the UK, most of them are US based,

or certainly my experience. So, yeah, they've got a real good selection, and

I Say that I've not got any of your mind that I'll go back for,

but I probably will. Now I've reached this

level of Lego addiction. And talking about that next potential

level of buying a custom set, there's a website called

bricker builds .com. I know there's a bunch of other sites waiting to buy

custom sets, but these do the instructions and

Send you the the all the pieces as well, which a lot of the other

sites don't do. And yeah. Again, this

isn't an endorsement, but I'm very very tempted. I got hit with their

Instagram ads. Man, they've got some amazing

builds. They've got life-sized versions of Mario and Luigi,

like And they're retailing for over $1,000 each.

I don't think I'm in a place where I can justify that, mainly because I

don't know where I would put them. I've got a lot of space

in the house, but having a life

size Mario isn't about having space. It's

it's just about like like, where does he live?

But yeah. But they've got, some really great smaller Mario Brothers series.

Again, the ones that I talked about before, things like the Bob omb, and the

flower power, and stuff like that, like, they've got those. They've got the life

size Pokemon. They've got lightsabers as well, like, to

scale. Lightsaber sets.

Again, Lego did kind of a gift with purchase

for, I think, it was the At At, which I don't like. I don't like

the At At set, where if you bought that, you you got a

little model of Luke's lightsaber hilt.

And I almost bought the other just to get that hilt, but

you can't buy it anywhere else other than on the secondary market for 100

of dollars. But you can get Custom

build, full lightsaber with a LEGO blade and everything, for Luke,

for Darth, for, for Darth Maul, for,

I think, Ahsoka Tano, for the, the

the dark saber. I think they've got the dark saber on there. So, yeah,

that might be my next The next depths of obsession

that I go to the custom sets from brickabuilds.com.

Again, not an endorsement. They just They just have

some very geeky, very awesome, Lego sets.

So yeah. So that's kind of what where I'm at in my

LEGO building obsession. We've got some great build

reviews coming up again from next episode on. We're gonna get back to reviewing

a set per episode. So in the

upcoming episodes, I'm gonna be talking about the huge Gringotts

set, which is the latest Harry Potter set.

I'll be reviewing the Razor Crest set from Mandalorian,

which I swore blind on a previous episode. I was

never going to buy. I wasn't interested. Yeah. I

caved, and so I'm gonna be talking about that and reviewing that in a

future episode. Also, gonna have an episode where I think I'm gonna,

bundle up a few shorter reviews about some of the modular

buildings that I've added to my fledgling LEGO city, like

the police station, the boutique hotel, And the a frame cabin,

I've got the, the town square or assembly

square, I think they call it, and I'm working right now on the

bookshop. So, Again, I think they're they're all sort of

thematically similar, and all very similar in terms of,

build experience and the quality of the end result, but I'm I'm gonna Group those

together. I don't think they need separate episodes. Maybe I do a 2

parter on my LEGO city, so I'll be talking about those. Oh, I've got the

bath cave shadowbox set to review. That was a very

interesting build. Yeah. Very, very

interesting build. Interesting altogether. I don't I

don't recall Lego doing anything like that shadowbox they did with the Batcave,

so I'm gonna do a whole episode on that. And just a whole bunch

more brick based buffoonery coming in the weeks months, but it

all kicks off again next week when I'm reviewing the Pacman

arcade set, which as a spoiler is definitely

one of my favorites in recent months. So lots and lots

to look forward to on the Brick Magnate podcast. If you head over to

brickmagnatetot come, then you can get all the

past episodes and subscribe to make sure you don't miss any future

episodes. If you want to see, photos and,

walkthrough videos, so little preview videos or or review

videos of the sets that I talk about on the show,

and more, then Check me out on Instagram and on

TikTok at brickmagnet. That's Brick,

m a g n a t e. I'm at brickmagnet on

TikTok and Instagram. Follow me on there. You'll be able to see everything that I'm

working on and also those, little closer look of videos that

I record for all of my sets. But for now, I'm

gonna wrap things up. It's good to be back on the brick building bandwagon, and

I look Forward to you joining me again next week

when I'll be talking about the Lego Pac Man arcade set.

I'll see you then.