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007 - Back to Bricking
Episode 719th November 2023 • Brick Magnate with Mike Morrison • Mike Morrison
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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.

Transcripts

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

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

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

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

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

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

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off that horse. I've been still hoovering

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

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

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

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

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

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

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episodes. So, I'm excited to be podcasting

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

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

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really excited about some of the upcoming sets that I

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

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

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

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maybe beginning of February of this year. And,

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

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cusp of going to my very first ever LEGO based

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

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in Manchester. And, that was such a a

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

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Like, I was expecting a relatively smallish space,

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

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

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you know, Really spread the limited stuff they

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

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

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

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

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

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was it was busy. And there was a

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

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

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amazing creators on display.

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So many, varied builds. Varying

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

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

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cute little custom builds that maybe, you know, the

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average Lego builder like myself would be able to piece

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together, and then you had those gargantuan builds.

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

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from The Dread, the Judge Dredd comics and and

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movie, like a life size one of those, like

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

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

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

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barely put my my camera away. You know, for

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

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

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

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

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

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

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artwork as well. Some of my favorite pieces.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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placement of those competing builders was a little

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odd because it It wasn't conducive to

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

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

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

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

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

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temptation to splash a lot of cash on some of the

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retired sets that were on sale there. They

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had little stores with, with newer sets as well.

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Lots of, minifigures on sale.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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there at Brick Magnate. You can check out the little

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

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

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

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Just in February 2024. Mainly because I'm not

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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make the trip specifically to attend again. But

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

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

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

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

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So, I'm not going to review any particular

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

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back to bricking, and to talk about

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

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little shout out to, to a little snacky

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

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like, small builds? Those 1 evening or

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

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who who are obsessed with Lego,

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

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

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Lego sets. Do you have a name for those little

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

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Literally going snacky sets. So, yeah. The ones

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

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

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

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palate cleansers between the bigger builds, and so My

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

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released piranha plant from the Mario Brothers,

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

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and huge Mario fan. Mario was my

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thing growing up. The very first console game I ever

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played, Super Mario Brothers 1, on the NES.

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

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

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loving that they're seeming to do

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more with that Mario brand. I've not really

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

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

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

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

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

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it was episode 2 or 3 where I talked about

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

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favorite, end result sets.

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The the n 64 question mark,

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

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from from Super Mario World or Super Mario 64.

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

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

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buy it. And, yeah, the piranha plant,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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see Goombas, all of these things are kind of ripe

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

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

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

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

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Marios and Lego Luigis, maybe

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

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

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

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not sure how well the the play sets

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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tower, that massive Avengers tower that they're bringing

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

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

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recording. And the Natural History

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

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intrigued by that one. And, Yeah.

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

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

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

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

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addition to, the Lego city that I'm

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

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

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

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

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

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Christmas. I also just ordered 2

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

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

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Lego BB 8, which

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

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

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

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

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

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on, eBay, been sold for new. So I

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

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Things upside down set. Just

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

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

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before I got deep into the Lego obsession. And

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price point wise, kind of

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

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Multiple zones in my house just dedicated to

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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5, about how the

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1989 Batmobile set was my first ever

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retired Better purchase, and

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

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

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

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

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double what the good sets originally retailed

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

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

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

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future. Like another 1989 large

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scale Batmobile. So I think the pricing around those

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

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

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death star are Not as exuberantly

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

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the Rings sets, were An hour, but I think

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

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I just had to have these. I really did.

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

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mind, and I can't think of any

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

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

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

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

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

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death star and moved from the other end of of the

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world. Moved over from the Philippines to the UK and

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

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

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

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

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

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

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them. Then, yeah. I don't

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know. But, yeah. I grabbed those sets from

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

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

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rare to find, good Aftermarket

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

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

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

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but I probably will. Now I've reached this

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level of Lego addiction. And talking about that next potential

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

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

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custom sets, but these do the instructions and

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

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

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

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Instagram ads. Man, they've got some amazing

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

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

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

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

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in the house, but having a life

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

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

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

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

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

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

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scale. Lightsaber sets.

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Again, Lego did kind of a gift with purchase

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

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

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little model of Luke's lightsaber hilt.

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

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

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of dollars. But you can get Custom

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

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for Darth, for, for Darth Maul, for,

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I think, Ahsoka Tano, for the, the

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

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that might be my next The next depths of obsession

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

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Again, not an endorsement. They just They just have

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some very geeky, very awesome, Lego sets.

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

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LEGO building obsession. We've got some great build

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

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a set per episode. So in the

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

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set, which is the latest Harry Potter set.

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

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which I swore blind on a previous episode. I was

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

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

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

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bundle up a few shorter reviews about some of the modular

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

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

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I've got the, the town square or assembly

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

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

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thematically similar, and all very similar in terms of,

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

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

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

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bath cave shadowbox set to review. That was a very

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interesting build. Yeah. Very, very

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interesting build. Interesting altogether. I don't I

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

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

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

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

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arcade set, which as a spoiler is definitely

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

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

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brickmagnatetot come, then you can get all the

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

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episodes. If you want to see, photos and,

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walkthrough videos, so little preview videos or or review

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

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and more, then Check me out on Instagram and on

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TikTok at brickmagnet. That's Brick,

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

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

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

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

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

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I look Forward to you joining me again next week

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

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I'll see you then.

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