BenSpark Family Adventures

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 #02454 I found the new LEGO Gameboy today at Target. This is one that I'd been waiting for for a while. The build as fairly quick but it was one of the most well constructed set that I've seen in a while. IT has the same size as the original Gameboy from Nintendo and it comes with 3 lenticular screens that you can put into the game plus two cartridges. Super Mario Land, which I never had and The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, which I also never had.  I played Tetris all the time on the Gameboy, but I also had some other fun games to play like a fighting game and Tennis and some other games.  I remember when I got my Gameboy. I was working at The Dairy Tower on Cape Cod and my boss had a BJ's membership. We went to BJ's and bought the gameboy plus a brick of batteries. So many batteries were used playing that Gameboy over the years. I remember taking my Gameboy with me on a road trip with my friend James and his family. We went to and from Florida...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02406 The other day I saw that I had a bunch of points at the LEGO Shop and so I made a purchase of couple of fun sets like the Arcade Machine. I also got the Brick Headz versions of Optimus Prime and Bumblebee. I plan on displaying the Brick Headz with the regular LEGO versions of these characters once they are all built. I also have a lighting set for Bumblebee and that will probably be the next thing I build.  As for the Arcade Machine I'll be displaying this on my desk now that I made some room. I thought that Lightailing made a light set for this but looks like another company did so I'll wait and see if Lightailing mades one. It would be cool to light this one up.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02378 I picked up a few things from the Tik Tok shop for Christmas presents for the kids but I also got myself a little something. They had a brick building set, think LEGO but not LEGO, of Link from The Legend of Zelda. But they can’t call it that because it is not officially licensed. So it is Master Sword. The little figure is clearly Link from Zelda and the giant sword is his Master Sword (pictured on box). I’ll build the Sword part another time because I need a photo for today and even though we went on a little adventure today I did not take photos. My manager invited the tea to his house to enjoy a nice pool party. He did this the year that I joined the group but hasn’t done it since. I always regretted not having the family come with me to enjoy the event the last time so I made sure that they were with me today. Eva is at the Cape so it was Allison and Andy with me. Andy had a good time eating plenty and getting lots of pool time. I even enjoyed some poo...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02314 My purple controller started acting up with stick drift recently so I picked up a new controller. Trying to fix stick drift has proven very difficult if not impossible so far. So I got the new controller and it is the same as the purple one with the special buttons. I find it near impossible to play the game now without these special buttons. I set them to be the same as pushing down the sticks. So much easier than pushing down the sticks. When I plugged in the new controller it had the same stick drift as the other one so I then checked the settings in Fortnite and realized that the settings were what was causing the drift. So now I have a backup controller.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02224 I’ve been playing this silly little game called Gold and Goblins. I play it daily and some of it is a set it and forget it way of playing. The game is fun and I have been enjoying it. Sort of a mindless little thing.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02152 I seem to go through XBox controllers pretty frequently. The convenience of a wireless controller is great but they are much more expensive and once they get stick drift they end up less than useless when playing certain games. When you try and line up a shot and the stick moves on it’s own it is a real pain in the neck. All of my controllers now have this issue in one form or another. I did have my cousin try and fix a bunch of them and at least one is passable but not great. So I picked up this new one, it is wired but it does have a couple of special programmable buttons on it and speed triggers, we’ll see if it helps my gameplay.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02134 Allison got me a Thor bottle opener for our Anniversary. I found a great place for it on top of my game over lamp, and by the looks of it, needs to be dusted.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02118 For context, I put the kids’ Nintendo Switch on the charger and it flashed the charging light over and over. The battery was dead. I ordered a battery replacement kit from ifixit. It came today. I installed it. The switch powered on. Then it threw an error. I looked up said error. No bueno. I tried taking it all apart again and reseating the connectors. Still error. Must be fixed by repair professionals. At this point it’s not worth it. The kids barely play it anymore and the next gen Switch is coming next year. Plus, we have mine if they really want to play something on it. This was one of the very first available Nintendo Switches, so it had a decent life.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02093 This year Fortnite partnered with LEGO to make a LEGO version of the game or rather a LEGO game mode. Now things are going the other way around and LEGO is releasing Fortnite sets for fans. I picked up the Fortnite Battle Bus set and I cannot wait to build it. I’ll be building it next week or so for my YouTube channel. I have a whole new setup that I’ve been working on and am looking forward to seeing how it goes. This set will be one of my first.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02061 I fall prey to nostalgia ads all the time from Temu. The other day on my Facebook page I saw that they had a Nintendo NES controller rug and also pillows. Well, I got them. The pillows were actually pillow shams and luckily that worked out for me because I had the pillows for the futon already. They were the perfect size. The rug was also a great size for my office and maybe it will prevent my chair from rolling all over the place.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02041 Now that Andy has their own TV and our old Wii U in their room the kids have been playing a few games together. The one that they are playing the most is Nintendoland and specifically the Legend on Zelda game on Nintendoland. This is a two player game that they play where one person has a sword and shield while the other has a bow and arrow. Working together they go through a bunch of levels fighting enemies. They were so excited to get to level 9 together. LAst night at dinner they were talking about playing and how they really want to get to some of the higher levels. It is great seeing them excited and playing together.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01915 Nearly Four years ago I backed a Kickstarter campaign for a video game that combined adventuring with boxing. I had started Krav Maga about a year earlier than that and was interested in anything that would help enhance my training. Quell looked like the perfect fit. The original kickstarter had the device as gloves but as they worked on it the design changed to these hand held joysticks and then these attach to wristbands that also attach to resistance bands that attach to a chest strap so that you can have some resistance when you throw punches. I didn’t get too far in setting up the game, though, because I had to go into the office tonight. So glad that I have the rest of the weekend off. I can’t wait to begin playing.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01893 I realized that it has been nearly a year since I’ve posted anything to YouTube. March 31 of last year was the last time I had posted anything. A bunch of things happened around that time that made keeping a filming schedule going nearly impossible. I had started training for my black belt in Krav Maga. We started tearing apart the bathroom on the first floor to remodel it and Fortnite made it more difficult for creators to create videos. So, I took a step back and never really went back to making videos. That is, until today. I was sent a very fun box of toys from PMI Kids World for the video game Stumble Guys. The package contained a bunch of fun things inside and I did an unboxing of those toys. So, I’ll attach my video below.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01689 I’ve been playing a ton of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and it wasn’t until today that I dug out my old Nintendo amiibos to use in the game. Amiibos can be used in the game to give the main character, Link, some additional items. Apparently some amiibos can also give Link special fabrics for his glider. I do not have all of the Legend of Zelda amiibos out that but I do have quite a few and they did give me some cool stuff in the game.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01685 Andy got a Quest VR headset for Christmas and it has quickly become his favorite activity. We try and limit playtime to 1/2 hour increments. That tends to creep up when we are not strictly paying attention. For the most part the interactions that Andy has on the headset are good. They’re learning to get along with people and work together in different games. There hasn’t been a major meltdown in a while so that is good news. With the bunk bed out of the room and Andy’s room picked up (sort of) they have more space to play.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01602 I found Andy playing with their VR set while wearing the Bob Ross wig from the Living Wax Museum. Sadly Andy was not playing some virtual painting game because that would be absolutely perfect considering the wig.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01600 We received a free copy of the new cookbook by Tara Theoharis, Minecraft: Gather, Cook, Eat! Official Cookbook for review. Opinions are my own. When your kids are into Minecraft and also have a passion for the kitchen it is a total no brainer to pick up Minecraft: Gather, Cook, Eat! Official Cookbook. I was asked if I wanted to review this and I jumped at the chance because my son loves both cooking and Minecraft. Andy got a whole night to showcase their cooking talents (with some help from Allison). Andy made 4 things from the cookbook. We were able to enjoy 3 of them tonight and tomorrow we will get to enjoy the fourth item. For our main course Andy made the Chicken Jockey Sandwich. This was a chicken breast sandwich on a brioche bun with provolone and bacon plus tomato and lettuce. You could also add pesto to the sandwich. I’m not a big fan of pesto but I did add a little. I enjoyed it more without the pesto. But that is personal preference. Andy also ma...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01594 I got my copy of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom the other day. I haven’t had much time to play it yet but I’ve played enough to really enjoy it. I’ll be playing the heck out of this game for a while to come. There are some amazing physics in the game and so many cool things to create and explore. I suspect that I will be playing this for many, many hours.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01577 Occasionally my Facebook memories feed comes up with photos of my Skylanders from over the past years. There was a time when I played Skylanders almost every day. Now I have all my figures in my office and I have yet to play with any of them in such a long time. At one point the Skylander pictured here, Crusher was my favorite.