At the end of March I began building the models from Creator kit 31011, Aviation Adventures. But as I put the speed boat together I discovered that there were some parts missing; a lot of parts.
Inventoried the parts that were supposed to be included and found that about more than a dozen different part #s I didn't have.
On Monday April 28 I called the Lego customer service toll free number. I reached a call center in Connecticut. I spoke with a representative named Jeanna. I explained my situation and she came to the same conclusion that I did: a bag of parts was missing from the kit when I bought it.
I gave her 15 part #s I'm missing and she placed a replacement order. They are being shipped from over seas so they haven't arrived yet. But they are on their way.
The call with Jeanna was one of the best customer experiences that I've ever had. I am now even more confident I'm getting quality that's backed up by a reliable company when I buy Lego products.
The day before my call to customer service, I finally managed to complete the process of making a Lego model move with commands from a computer.
Learning how to do this was all part of the classes I helped with at the local school. Here's the video of my initial accomplishment.
The biggest Lego story from these past two weeks was the release and subsequent collection of The Simpsons mini-figures.
On Thursday, May 1 I was in front of the Lego Store before it even opened.
The displays in the front of the store may have been set up to celebrate Star Wars day 3 days later but I was there to be among the first to grab this.
My efforts were rewarded when the young lady who opened the store directed me to this.
I had access to a plethora of blind bags of Simpsons mini-figures.
I immediately brought up the pictures of the set I had put on my phone and began implementing the seeking strategies I had devised. Then I let my fingers do the walking to find the 6 figures I still needed to get my set complete.
If you recall the I already had 7 of the 16 in the set thanks to an early preview release in Walmart a couple of weeks ago.
I picked out and paid for a couple of dozen packs and filled up a large pick-a-brick cup before heading out to my car.
I sat in the driver's seat and opened the blind bags I had just purchased. After I finished opening I had all but one of the 16 figures needed. I still needed Grandpa Simpson.
I wanted to go back into Opry Mills Mall and search for the last figure but I had to get home to go to work.
On the drive home I couldn't think about anything except getting that last Simpson to complete the set.
With a little time to spare I decided to stop at Toys R Us in Bowling Green before heading home. The toy store is usually a reliable source for buying Lego mini-figures but they don't always have the new series the day it is released. I had to wait a few days for my local store to get last series from "The Lego Movie."
The reason I drove to Nashville to the Lego store that morning was that I wanted to make sure I could get the mini-figures on their release date for sure.
But this time my local Toys R Us store was up to speed. They had 2 boxes of Simpsons figures for sale.
I searched the packages, pressing to feel the parts inside until I was sure I found Grandpa. After a few minutes of looking I thought I had found it. But I wouldn't know for sure until I bought it and opened it.
Too anxious to wait until I got home, once again I opened the package in the parking lot. Eureka!! my Simpsons mini-figure set was complete on the very first day of their official release.
Needless to say it was the quickest compilation of any of the 4 mini-figure sets I've collected. I am very proud of it because I did it relatively efficiently.
The downside of this was that "the hunt" was over. I felt a kind of let down similar to the one you get just after you finish opening presents on Christmas morning.
Over the next few days I watched the Lego fan websites and kept track of just how popular these Simpsons mini-figures were with Lego fans. I discovered that they were selling very well.
This gave me an idea about how to revive the excitement of hunting for the latest mini-figures while making an investment that could be profitable in the near future.
Putting this idea into action meant making a bigger investment in mini-figures than I had ever made before. It turned out to be a lot of fun that really played into my OCPD.
I will explain what I did and how I did it in my next blog post about the next phase of my Simpsons mini-figure mission.
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