BenSpark Family Adventures

The folks from Lumibricks sent me their latest building set, the Izakaya for free to build and review. Opinions are 100% my own. I've built a few sets from Lumibricks (formerly FunWhole) in the past and they are really fun and interesting. The photo above is of the Izakaya and also The Apartment. they are both part of a Cyberpunk theme called Neoncity. At this time there are also two additional buildings that you can build and add to this whole theme, the Game Stack and the Floating Train Station. The great things about these sets is that they light up. As you build you are also adding lights and wires and ways to illuminate the amazing build. Once you're done building you fire up some power and the lights blaze up. With Neoncity sets you get some incredible Nenon effects light signs and even neon tube lights. That is one of the coolest things about these sets is how the lights are incorporated into the build. Some very innovative bricks were made in order to thread the wiring...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02497 I received a Blokees Optimus Prime figure from the kids at Christmas. It is the one on the left . then I bought myself the G1 version after Christmas and built it tonight. Blokees are fun to assemble non transformable figures of Transformers characters and the ones that I made here are the deluxe versions. they have bigger and smaller versions that you can get including some blind bag options. I bought the first series of blind bag ones but stopped after that. Now I will pretty much only get a character if I am collecting them, like Optimus or Wheeljack. I won't just chance it and get something I'm not interested in getting.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02496 Apparently Funko may be going out of business. I have collected many Funko figures over the years and I recently saw that there was an Optimus Prime Magic the Gathering figure that was going to be released. So I ordered it. I do try and pick up the Transformers Funko figures and I put them on my wall in the office. This one is neat because it has a background of the Optimus Prime Magic card. I never found that or even a pack of Transformers/Magic cards but this looked like fun.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02495 I finished building my latest set from Lumibricks. They sent me this set for a review that I need to post up next week. I've been doing a little bit each day but today I powered through and completed the whole thing. This will go perfectly with my Neon City Apartment that I have in the office and the neat thing about the two buildings is that they can eb lined up and both be powered by one powerbank. I'll make sure to put them together when I post the review.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02482 A while back I bought the Fortnite Battle Bus LEGO set, I have yet to build that one, but it came with a free LEGO set of a couple of Fortnite characters as BrickHeadz. Not a fan of Peely the anthropomorphic Banana but Cuddle Team Leader is cool. This set has been on a stack of LEGO sets I have yet to build. I'll probably resell these ones because I have no more display room. I'm trying to limit anything I purchase to what I can still display. Otherwise, I end up with years of collectibles that are just sitting in boxes until I get the motivation to sell them.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02476 The other day I learned about an Omega supreme extra large Funko Pop. I've been collecting the Transformers Funko POP! figures and displaying them on my wall. So, when I saw this I picked it up. I figured that I'd get a couple of things with the money that I made selling off other Transformers figures. I've decided that if I am buying anything more it has to be displayed.  In addition to the new Funko POP! figures I got I also got some Bitty sized Funko Pop! figures of Transformers. These I can display on my desk. I found a great Transformers shirt as well. There is also a metal model that I need to build. I've never built a metal figure before but that will be a fun challenge.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02473 Today I drove up to New Hampshire to Double Midnight Comics to sell a huge lot of Transformers toys. I'd been collecting these toys for well over 40 years. After college I bought a ton of them and kept buying them. In 2007 I had them all out and did a photo shoot with the local newspaper because a Live Action Transformers movie was going to be released. The local paper was doing a story on people who were Transformers fans and I got into the mix. At one point I had 19 very large boxes of Transformers, many that were still in their own boxes.  Today I sold about 300 toys to Double Midnight. They were split up into 23 boxes. I photographed every one of them and wrote in the descriptions and dates they were released so that Scott at Double Midnight could look them over and decide if they wanted to buy. He gave me fair price for them and so yesterday I got my ad's van and Andy and I loaded up all the boxes and I drove them up today. While I was there I checke...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02472 Today I drove to the Cape to pick up my dad's van so that I could load it up with the Transformers toys that I am selling to Double Midnight comics. They offered me a good price and I'm happy to get everything sold. When andy got home they helped me load up the van with all the boxes. The whole back of the van has been filled completely. I'll run everything up to NH tomorrow. 

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02470 The other day I learned about a new Back to The Future LEGO set. It was up for pre-order and so I placed my order ont he LEGO Shop site and I needed a little bit more to get free shipping so I ordered this little holiday themed set the LEGO Pumpkin truck. It was a cute quick build that looks really fun. 

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02439 On one of my Temu shopping sprees I got a bunch of knock off LEGO sets. They are mostly robots and supercars. Today I choose one at random to build. Actually I choose it and built all but one part yesterday but Andy too priority on the photo a day yesterday.  So I finished this up this morning and here it is. It is a bit wild looking. The TEMU cars never look like real cars, always look futuristic. At least this one wasn't made out of super tiny LEGO pieces like my fake Optimus Prime was. Had a call back phone interview with Target today. Very much a waste of time. I clearly stated on my application the days and times I could work but once we confirmed that in the interview it was over because they want people for the weekends. I told you I couldn't do weekends at all. You should never have called me. Off to Granite State Comicon tomorrow morning with Eva. Unfortunately both of the celebrities that I was looking forward to meeting and hearing their pan...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02436 I've been working on a little craft project with some of my Transformers collections. I bought a piece of foam that looks like diamond plate and I spray painted it chrome. Then I took my Transformers Robot Heroes and Transformers Movie cars and glued them to the piece of foam. Don't worry, the Robot Heroes are made out of that type of plastic that just feels 'sticky' after a few years. so I am not upset that I'm using them this way. If you are looking at the photo then ont he Left side I tried to put all the Transformers The Animated Movie characters as well as random Robot Heroes Characters. On the Right side I have my G1 Transformers and On each I separated Autobots on the left and Decepticons on the right. Now, I am realizing that I may have done that subconsciously. In the middle are the cars with again Autobots on the left and Decepticons on the right.  I have the foam set in place with some tacky glue dots so that I can remove it when I ...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02435 As I continue to clean out and discover things that I have collected I find more and more strange things. At one time Hasbro tried their hand at LEGO-like sets called Kreo. They made this weird one of Optimus Prime but in a skiing jacket with skis. That is really weird. But I found it and now it is on display on my desk.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02434 I said I was going to build the Bumblebee Brickheadz soon so that I could display it in my office. Tonight I brought the set with me to work so that I could build it. Now I have to get some room on my computer to display it with the other larger Bumblebee set. Didn't sleep well today. So I got up and tackled the buckets that I had brought down from the attic. These are the boxes that I had packed up with all the knick-knacks I used to have on my desk at work years ago. So I went through the boxes and I found the remaining Transformers that I'm going to sell to Double Midnight. I also found a bunch of other things and I separated everything into different boxes. I found G.I. JOE stuff for my friend Ken. I also found Star Wars stuff for my cousin's son, Danny. My friend Marybeth has a son, Matty, who is very into Marvel and I put those things into a box for him. There are a couple of boxes for Savers and additional items that I want to sell. This week I...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02433 As I have been working on the Transformers documenting I realized that I have some additional Transformers figures that I had at the office. I have 6 boxes full of toys and knick knacks that were on my desk in the office for years. I just boxed everything up and brought it home. I have not opened the boxes in over 5 years and I am rediscovering a bunch of things. There are things that I definitely do not need but I do want to keep some things. I've gone through a couple of them so far and have 4 more to go. I'm excited to see what else I rediscover.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02427 I'm in the office tonight and I'm working on updating some projects which leaves me plenty of time to do other things. I do like to build LEGO when I have the time. Tonight I built this monster truck. I do like to pick up LEGO trucks when I can find them, especially food trucks. This, however, is not a food truck. I do have a couple of other monster trucks including ones that you can pull back and they move automatically.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02425 For the past couple of days I have been sorting and photographing my Transformers toys that I would like to sell. I've found some Wheeljack ones and have rediscovered so many figures that I've purchased over the years. I've found some things that I totally forgot that I had including many items from the very first LIVE Action movie. I attended the movie twice in the same night and have tickets from the Charity event and also the Botcon event. I've got a couple of posters and even some Transformers themed napkins. so many interesting things.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02424 Yesterday I drove Andy to school. Today I walked over with them. I did so not because I didn't think Andy would be safe on their own. Andy has been walking home from school for well over a year so walking to school is the same thing just in reverse. I wanted to see how long it actually took for the walk to go. I of course, over estimated how early we had to head over. The walk itself only takes a brisk 15 minutes. And that is at a modified teenager's shuffle. So Andy can leave the house around 6:25-6:30 and still get there by 6:45 when the doors open to the High School. Good to know. During the day I started one of the projects I've been meaning to start and have been putting off. I'm sorting through my Transformers and getting them ready to sell. I have talked with the guys at Double Midnight Comics about selling them my collection. Not the stuff I have on display and also I am picking out some figures that I want to keep as part of the collectio...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02420 A few weeks back I realized that I had a bunch of LEGO points from the LEGO shop and so I made a purchase of a couple of sets including the Optimus Prime BrickHeadz set. This one has Optimus in both robot and truck mode. I moved a few things around in my display area to add these two little guys. They go great with the light up LEGO Prime. I also got a Bumblebee one and I'll put that guy with my light up Bumblebee that I assembled the other day.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02418 I finally completed building my Transformers Bumblebee LEGO set. As I built it I also set up the lights. There are a bunch of wires out the back of this but maybe I can hide them better. Might have to rearrange my lit up LEGO sets soon. Also, the next build will be Soundwave.  I took my car for service this morning and knew I'd be at the dealership for a while so I took this with me to build a bit while I waited. It definitely made the time go by quickly. I only got through 2 bags before they were done.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02415 The other day I put together a mini knockoff LEGO set of a knockoff Optimus Prime. the set allowed me to not only build Optimus as a truck but also as a robot. I decided that once I built it that was the end of it. No Robot mode for me, just making it a truck and leaving it that way. It was a very cheap thing but it was fun to build albeit very challenging because the pieces were so small. My Optimus Prime display is getting more and more full. I'll be taking a lot of my older Transformers figures out of storage and I've decided that it is time to sell them. So there are many in the boxes that I'll be cataloging and then I'll decide if I want to keep any. Probably any that are Optimus and or Wheeljack. Maybe some others.