Happy Holidays!

Hi everyone,

Thank you all for reading this awesome blog. I know I haven't been up for the rest of the year, but toughest part of school has taken my time away. I know it is almost 2014, but before this year ends, I want to say Thank you to all the amazing viewers who made this place awesome.

I know I haven't been up since August, so I will say my holiday greetings now:

Happy Halloween,
Happy Thanksgiving,
Merry Christmas,
and Happy New Year!
better late than never!

Thank You!

LEGO Palace Cinema and Modifications

Hello and here are some modifications I made to my LEGO Palace Cinema.

In general, there were some big modifications, and small modifications. I will point out my favorite mods and ones that seem to be an issue in the reviews.

Here is the Palace Cinema

Some of the reviews complained about the roof not being completed. Because I don't have the correct parts, the best that I can do is to top off the roof. 

One of my favorite mods is this rolling screen. You can see it utilizes a set of bevel gears to transmit the motion to the rubber wheels that turn my custom rolling screen. 

Here is my custom movie projector and platform. The platform was raised by one brick to allow a custom gear box. The movie projector can also hold a light from the power functions light. 

By removing the diagonal window, the platform, and the pillar, you can see the motor, gears, and universal joints. 

The seats are staggered so that the audiences' heads don't block others from viewing my iPod Touch. The red curtain is removable for easy installation. 

A hole behind the exit sign allows the iPod Touch's USB cable to connect to the device. The movie playing is the trailer for LEGO's new movie:"The LEGO Movie". 

The exit sign can be removed to access the volume controls easily. 

Minor modifications were made here. I added some at the bottom. and removed the rail.

Here is a video showing the rolling screen. The screen features the titles of two movies both developed by LEGO. 

And there it is, the modifications for my Palace Cinema. I'm pretty sure you can use your own mobile devices, and play videos for your minifigures to watch. 

Battle Tank (Inspired by Laval's Royal Fighter)

Thank you all for waiting for a new post from this blog. It has been about three months since my last post. Thankfully,all of the school work is done, and my vacation began. We are really thankful to have awesome viewers like you who never lost faith in this blog no matter what situation. This blog has surpassed 4,000 views, and that is another achievement we are thankful for. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

Here is a small model for now, and I plan to do something a bit bigger later on, so stay tuned.

I was inspired by Laval's Royal Fighter from the LEGO Legends of Chima theme, that I wanted to make my own tank-like vehicle. Of course this is way smaller, but what was most inspiring was the treads, and the turret on top.

The Turret can rotate a full 360 degrees, and has a spinning machine gun. 

There is room in the cockpit for a minifigure, and space in the center section for any supplies or materials

Disassembling the model a bit reveals the gears inside the turret, and the treads that allow the machine gun to move as the vehicle moves on the ground.

This vehicle over all is a nice solid and strong vehicle, and might go well with my white vehicle collection (You might remember a previous post).

Thank you all again for waiting very patiently. I know this may have been hard for others, but I'm glad to have came back for more awesome models.

Working Metronome

Some of you may remember the LEGO Violin I built a year ago. For this year's music themed model, it will be a working Metronome.

I was inspired by many of my friends who supported me in the LEGO Violin. For this year, that same support helped me in this model. I was also inspired by someone on YouTube called IsogawaYoshihito. He built a mechanism for making a tick-tocking sound device. I modified his design into a metronome.

The metronome starts at 208 beats per minute and then quickly drags to 168 beats per minute in about 22 seconds, then 132 beats per minute another 22 seconds later. Then it stops completely due to loss of potential energy in the wind up motor.

If you have trouble playing too fast, use this metronome to help you decelerate to a desired speed. 

Custom Decorations for Minifigures

Hello Fans,

Thank you for visiting this blog. I know it has been a very long while since I last posted, but school has bogged me down. Thank you again for your patience and your understanding.

School has taken my time from building with LEGO, but it has not taken my time away from LEGO related activities. So today's post will be about designing your own decorations for your own bricks, minifigures, etc.

There are already companies who make decorations for you, but they cost money. I will show you how to do this by yourself.

I will guide you through the steps I took to achieve a nice decoration for a LEGO minifigure.

1. Scan a LEGO element.
If you have a scanner, use it to scan a side of a LEGO piece that you want to add a sticker onto.

2. Upload and Edit
Upload the scanned image into your computer. I will use Microsoft PowerPoint to make decorations. Please use any program that lets you import images and at the very least draw shapes, lines, etc. In this image, I wanted to make a custom tuxedo for my minifigure, and I used a blank torso as a guide to how big the image should be.

3. Begin Editing.
Use the tools provided in your program to edit or add to your sticker. In Microsoft PowerPoint, I used shapes and colors to make a suit. You can see the image that I scanned, and the shapes I made to make a suit.

4. Test fit
If your decoration has color on it, I recommend you first print it out gray scale just to make sure that the sticker fits. Once it fits, print it out in full color.

5. Cut and paste
Cut out the image to fit your brick, and stick it on with any adhesive. I just use tape so that I can easily remove the sticker if I needed to.

6. Done
After the sticker is pasted on, you are done and you can continue playing with your LEGO, or make more stickers.

You can see in this image, my minifigure has a white tuxedo on. The female minifigure's dress was also edited to five plates high instead of 6 plates high (2 bricks).

If there is anything you feel is missing from this tutorial, please comment. The comments I get are sent to my email, and I can check what you commented.

Thank you again for your patience.

Jesus On the Cross

I know it has been a while, and I'm sorry this post came very late. But school has been tough, and even though I got two weeks of winter break, all of the days were busy with school work.

Anyways, I was able to finish the homework and had some time to make something that was supposed to be for the Christmas season.

I know the image quality on my camera is terrible, but the camera was my iPod Touch camera, and the quality on that camera is usually not very good.

For those who do not know the life of Jesus, here is a quick overview.

Joseph and Mary lived in the Israel. God gave Mary a baby.  She gave birth in a shed in a manger, and the new baby was named Jesus. Jesus saw sinless and he performed wonderful miracles, taught valuable lessons, and healed others from their illnesses. Jesus was executed at around thirty years old even though he has not done anything wrong.

In the bible, It says that Jesus died for our sins, then he rose again and came back to life three days later.  

We celebrate Christmas to celebrate the life that Jesus lived that no one on Earth could live: a sinless life. The bible also says "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believed in him, shall not perish, but have everlasting life." -John, Chapter 3, verse 16. This means that God loves everyone on earth. He also gave us an opportunity to believe in the story of Jesus' Life before we die on earth. Then, those who believed in him would have their souls lasting forever.

The Bible also says that all people fell short of the glory of God, and all have sinned. In Romans, Chapter 10, Verse 9, It says "If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."

If you know you have sinned and know your life is out of control, you can be saved today by praying this prayer:

"Dear God, I know I have sinned, and I know I have fallen short. I know your son Jesus died on the cross for my sins, and I ask for your forgiveness. Amen. "

If you prayed this prayer, I congratulate you and hope your new life with God is the most amazing, never-ending relationship you ever experienced.