A few weeks ago I was introduced to a lovely LEGO fan named Brett by a mutual friend.  As you do we then swapped LEGO photo's until 1.30am and got on like a house on fire. Some of his stuff was absolutely amazing, and I couldn't help but think it was way too cool to be hidden away.

Last week he came round with 'a few bits' - luckily for us that turned out to be an entire modular house street, including a modified Emporium and his own Apple Shop.

The Grand Emporium set 10211 is a big LEGO set with 2182 pieces, a 3 storey department store which lives on a corner. Brett didn't feel it was grand enough, so he has put together 4 Emporium sets into one immense build. I'd heard about it and seen a photo, but watching him unpack it was really something else.


The different floors come apart, and he's designed it so that it separates easily in the middle, so in fact it travelled in 6 sections. The original has only one escalator, but you can't go up without coming back down, so his modification includes 2 escalators to each floor.


Seeing this, you do tend to agree with Brett that the original LEGO Emporium wasn't quite so grand as it could be....


The original Emporium set appears at either end of the build. Part of the Modular Buildings series, and designed to be an end corner building. His build doesn't use all of the 4 sets, but it still has around 7000 bricks standing on 4 x 32 stud baseplates.



It's an incredibly impressive piece - so large in fact, that I completely failed to get a straight on photo of the whole thing! 


Impressive as the Emporium redesign was on it's own, Brett then started unpacking the rest of his boxes of  LEGO....
 


He has a host of the modular buildings - including the Palace Cinema 10232 and  the Cafe Corner 10182, which he has populated in his own very unique style.

Brett also has a love of Dr Who, as the Character Options figures appear on his Market Street 10190 building - much to the delight of my little boys, who were never far away throughout....pocket check each time they tried to leave the kitchen!


Having such a huge street scene on the table was truly amazing, when you get down to minifigure level everything takes on a whole new outlook and you really can immerse yourself into the LEGO. It's something you dream about when you're a child, at least, I certainly did when I was building my 8 brick high buildings with half a roof!



However the buildings are laid out, the dominant feature in the middle of the street opposite the emporium was always the Apple Shop.


Brett designed the Apple Shop from scratch himself using the LEGO Digital Designer and bought all of the necessary bricks through the LEGO shop pick-a-brick and then through Bricklink  - a fantastic resource if you lose parts or want to make yourself something you can't readily buy the parts for. Bricks are bought and sold in a marketplace with starting prices around 2p for common small elements.

In total the build cost around £150, which is actually a fairly standard price for a build of this size, although it contains less actual elements than you'd usually find because it has so many large pieces.


It truly is a really imposing building. The laptops and other items in the shop are fantastic, it's incredibly hard to get all of the detail into one blog post.


It was a rare thing to meet another adult fan of LEGO as keen (if not even keener) than we are, so we did ask him a few burning questions -


What was your first LEGO set?
The 6630 Bucket Loader and 6631 Steam Shovel bought for me by my Grandparents.
What are your biggest childhood memories of LEGO?
Playing with Space LEGO - the Moon Buggy, Space Digger and Sismobile
What was the first set you modified?
The 6605 Road Racer or the 6824 Space Dart which I changed from a rocket to a launch pad.
When you came back to LEGO as an adult after the dark ages, what was the first set you bought?
When I was at University I bought the 8880 Super Car, then the 8480 Space Shuttle and then I got the 5600 Radio Control Racer because it was a proper remote control car and I could sit on the sofa and drive it about the room passing stuff to my housemates.
How much LEGO do you have?
834 different sets and minifigures. In total 2094 minifigures.
Are you Emmet or Lord Business?
Both - one on either side of my head.
Tell us something great about you and LEGO?
I bought my God-Daughter her first LEGO set, the 3177 Small Car. I bought two, so that when she's an adult I can give her the second one, because it would be brilliant if tomorrow someone gave you the exact same set you'd owned first as a child.


You can find Brett on Brickset - he's under the username Brett, if you message him, he will reply eventually!

We've been sent Back tO Your Roots! recipe book to review from Parragon Books and I've cooked a really easy Winter warming meal of Colcannon, Vichy Carrots and Caramelised Swede, Onion & Ham Pie...



When I think of home cooked food it's impossible not to think of root veg and potatoes. Good solid food that is incredibly cheap and will fill you up and keep you warm on cold hard days. The Back To Your Roots recipe book from Parragon is full of recipes you wish your Mum had made.


Colcannon (page 102) is an Irish classic, and like most root veg recipes, incredibly simple yet requires a bit of elbow grease to prepare.


Ingredients

8oz green cabbage, shredded
8oz floury potatoes, diced
1 large leek, chopped
3 tbsp milk
Pinch of nutmeg, freshly grated
Knob of butter
Salt and pepper

Method

Cook the shredded cabbage in a saucepan of boiling salted water for 7-10 minutes, drain thoroughly and set aside.

Bring another pan of salted water to the boil and add the potatoes and leek. Simmer over a medium low heat for 15-20 minutes until cooked through.

Drain the potatoes and leek and stir in the milk and nutmeg. Mash it thoroughly.

Add the drained cabbage to the mash, season to taste and stir well.

Spoon the mixture into a serving dish, make  hollow in the centre and place the knob of butter in the hollow - serve immediately.

I'm serving my Colcannon as an accompaniment to a pie, so I'm also trying out another side dish recipe...

Vichy Carrots With Parsley (page 120) - not just any old carrots, carrots with style.



Ingredients

2 tbsn unsalted butter
1lb carrots, cut into 5mm slices
1 tbspn sugar
1 bottle of Vichy mineral water (I'll be using corporation pop)
Salt and pepper
2 tbsp chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Method

Melt the butter in a large, heavy saucepan, stir in the carrots, then stir in the sugar and seasonings.

Pour over enough water to cover the carrots by 5cm and bring to the boil. Reduce to medium heat and leave to simmer until all the liquid has been absorbed and they are coated in a thin glaze.

Transfer to a serving dish and stir in the parsley. Serve immediately.

Caramelised Swede, Onion & Ham Pie (page76), was our main dish, but as I don't eat ham I substituted it with the nearest veggie equivalent I could find, which is a kind of lightly beef flavoured soya chunks. I have included the recipe here, but obviously mine is not true to the recipe.


Ingredients

600g cooked ham, cubed (or in my case 600g veggie soya chunks).
85g butter
2 onions, chopped
450g swede, cubed
1 tsp chopped fresh sage
25g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
600ml milk
325g ready made puff pastry
Beaten egg to glaze
Salt and pepper

Method

Put the ham in to a large bowl and set aside.


Melt 55g of butter in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Add the onion, swede and sage and season with salt and pepper. Stir well and cook over a medium heat occasionally turning until golden brown, around 35-40 minutes.


Meanwhile, melt the remaining butter in a saucepan over a medium heat. Add the flour and stir for 1-2 minutes. Gradually add the milk, stirring all the time to make a smooth sauce. Remove from the heat and season to taste.

Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas Mark 7.

Roll out the pastry to a rectangle slightly larger than your pie dish (pie will fi a pie dish around 26cm x 18cm).


When the veg are caramelised, add to the bowl with the ham, then add the white sauce and stir gently. Transfer to a pie dish, brush the rim with beaten egg and then lay the pastry over the filling. Press the pastry to the rim, trim off excess and brush with the beaten egg.


Cook in the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until the pastry is puffed and golden. Serve immediately.

The instructions are really easy to follow and nicely laid out. I love good wholesome food that's full of flavour and these recipes were. The meal was a hit. I would have liked a little less white sauce in my pie, and the Colcannon seemed a bit short on potatoes actually, but everything was eaten and the carrots were deemed the best ever.

We love Swizzels Matlow and I always think of them as locals as they're only about 20 miles from me and I practically drive past whenever I go back down to Derby. They haven't always been in New Mills though, they only moved during the war because  of the bombing. Our good fortune...


One of Swizzels Matlow's biggest sellers are LOVE HEARTS, and this year they celebrate their 60th birthday, so Swizzel's are celebrating in style!


Over the next few weeks Swizzels Matlow LOVE HEARTS are running a competition on their Facebook page. As with their Valentine's competition, you can win your own design printed onto LOVE HEARTS Sweets and an amazing VIP tour of the factory to watch your sweets being made. Entry is through the Facebook app. and all you need to do is decide exactly what message you want on your sweets.

There will be 10 winners and they will have their message inserted into rolls of LOVE Hearts for a limited time. The tour of the New Mills, Derbyshire factory will include travel expenses equal to standard class train fare, 1 night's accommodation nearby, travel from the hotel to the factory and £100 spending money.(Full terms and conditions can be found on the Facebook app.).

The Little Boy Who Lost His Name and The Little Girl Who Lost Her Name are gorgeous A4 sized personalised books created by 3 Dads and an Uncle who had a dream, and made it a reality.

Aimed at children aged 2-6 and written by David Cadji-Newby and illustrated by Pedro Serapicos, it's been a real delight to review.




The first thing that struck me was the careful way they were sent, with stiff card to prevent them being damaged in the post. The books were also a lot thicker than I'd anticipated with more pages, and much heavier quality, environmentally friendly paper.

 
 
The first pages of each book are the same, introducing the little boy and his predicament - he has lost his name and can't remember what it was, and goes on an adventure to try and find it...





I was intrigued to see how the stories worked, as my youngest child's name only has 4 letters, his book has 30 pages. My 5 year old's name has 6 letters and his book has 34 pages, so I guess the longer your name, then you may get a slightly longer book and slightly longer story. Most names are 3-7 letters anyway, so it's not going to make a great deal of difference.


I was also interested as to how they dealt with 2 letters being the same - in our case one letter came from an animal the boy meets, and the other from large dark hole in the ground, which will work for any letter of the alphabet.


At the end of the book your child realises that the letters spell out their name. This was a revelation to my 4 year old who was stunned. He hadn't realised that the familiar letters would go together to make his own name. My 5 year old had cottoned on about half way through, but wasn't confident until the end. They were both delighted with the story and really pleased - making the decision that the little boy was them.


It's really the detail that makes this book, the people involved in it's design and production clearly love what they've made and are proud of it. The illustrations are gorgeous. The adventure is little disjointed occasionally, but children won't see that. All of the creatures the child meets are interesting and have a story to tell, they are all individual characters, and none are in the least scary.

These books will be something special to treasure forever. The Little Boy Who Lost His Name makes an excellent gift to send to a friend or relative's child and I'd have been delighted to receive it for any of mine. It's a great substitute for sending chocolate this Easter.

We've previously reviewed LOGO Billionaire and LOGO Best Of TV & Movies, but I'd only played LOGO itself a few times at friends' houses before and hadn't tried LOGO What Am I? We were sent both games to review, and we've had a real laugh with them.

LOGO (rrp £32.99) is the original in a series of games from Drumond Park. Designed for 2-6 players aged 12+ it's a really easy game to grasp, and the rules are very simple.





On the back of each question card are  4 questions with answers. Players take it in turns to be question master, asking the player to their left the questions until they get one wrong, when they instead ask the next player. Every time a question is answered correctly the player moves their counter to the next available section of board with a matching colour, until they reach the centre, when they must answer 2 questions correctly consecutively to win.


We play this with our teenagers and it's a real laugh, as well as teaching us some bizarre and probably useless trivia! It's ideal for family evenings in and we found although the adults win most of the time, it's close - in another year or so I'll have no chance. The questions are mainly so obvious once you see or hear the answer, they don't require academic knowledge, just general knowledge and you have to have paid attention to the world around you!


LOGO What Am I? (rrp £24.99) is a junior version of LOGO that is suitable for 3-6 players and age 8+. We played it with everyone, with the younger boys working as team players with us. Our 5 year old has trouble with the reading, but grasped the gameplay almost instantly despite being too young.


Again played by moving around the board, LOGO What Am I? isn't about trivia and doesn't have questions. Instead play is by each player in turn throwing a die and then completing a challenge on the card. They have to get the other players to guess what they are describing or drawing.


Depending on where you land on the board you take a card and may have to describe the brand or product without using the name, draw a picture for the other players to guess, or simply answer questions with 'yes, no or maybe' until the brand or product is guessed correctly.


LOGO What Am I? is a timed game, everyone gets 1 minute to try and get the other players to guess correctly. If they do then both the person who guessed and the person holding the card move forward. There are 2 winners. When the question answered is held by the player in the centre Winning Zone, both players involved win.

This is a great game for the bringing the family together, especially when you want something for teenagers and pre-teens to play on an even level with the adults. Our 5 year old is obviously below the recommended age, and didn't really grasp the 'yes/no' aspect and always asked the same questions, but as part of a team with his Dad they won more than anyone else. Everyone knows what ketchup is - however old.


We really liked both games and they'll be back out on Saturday for games night. Neither are frustrating or leave room for arguments to develop. They are great games to play on your own, or in pairs if necessary, and are suitable to play with the older generations together. It's real family fun.

Drumond Park have recently released a FREE LOGO app.  for iPhone and iPad, which is available to download here from the Apple store. The only officially endorsed LOGO app., it has full approval and permissions from the brands and features loads of big name favourites such as Birds Eye, Wagon Wheels, Tesco and Campbell's.

Late last week I got a surprise email from Denmark. Not from anyone I've previously talked to about LEGO, but from DUPLO. After half an hour trying to remember how to edit a PDF to insert my actual signature, my non-disclosure agreement was signed and I was let into a big secret that I can now share with you. I've been asked to sit on the jury panel for the brand new How Do You Play? competition that was launched yesterday on the LEGO DUPLO Facebook page.


Shocked doesn't really cover it, I'm incredibly flattered to have been asked. They've even designed me a custom build Brick Castle. It's awesome. My jaw is still on the floor.


The competition is really simple and anyone can enter. LEGO DUPLO want to see how children interact with their DUPLO. They want to see creativity and imagination at work. They want to see how you play.

All you have to do is upload a video of your child playing with LEGO DUPLO to the app. on their Facebook page. It has to be less than 30 seconds, you can film it with your phone or whatever you have to hand, and it must be genuine LEGO - this can include other LEGO bricks as well as DUPLO. You can even enter up to 3 times in total over the 6 week period, so if you think of a better entry or your children make something awesome after you've already entered, it's fine.

Each week 3 winners as chosen by public vote via the Facebook app will receive a bundle of 5 LEGO DUPLO sets. LEGO can additionally choose up to 3 wildcard entrants who are not in the top 3 most voted, to also win. On top of this 3 voters will be chosen at random each week to win a box of LEGO DUPLO themselves - so it's worth voting even if you don't wish to enter a video. That's up to 9 winners each week, for 6 weeks.

At the end of the 6 weeks all of the entrants with winning videos will go through to the grand finale to win a prize money really can't buy, and something I'm incredibly jealous about - The Grand Prize: a fantastic trip to Billund, Denmark to visit the original LEGOLAND, along with a host of extras (as described at the bottom of this post).


It was our one and only big family holiday abroad to take all 7 of our children to LEGOLAND, Billund 3 years ago, and it's something none of us will ever forget. Our 5 year old still talks about it now, many memories were made on that trip. I spoke about our holiday in my LEGO memories post.




What are you waiting for? Get building and filming.....best of luck to all of my readers whether you enter the competition, or you vote for the winners!

Full Terms And Conditions are shown on the LEGO DUPLO Facebook Page Competition Tab, and should be read by any potential entrants. 
All entries must be submitted within the competition entry period, which ends at 11.59pm May 11th EST (4.59am May 12th UK).
There will be one Grand Prize, consisting of flight, five nights in the pirate theme room at Hotel Legoland, including breakfast, Legoland Billund Resort passes (including access to Legoland, Lalandia Aquadome, Monkey Tonkey play land, and Givskud Zoo), VIP visit to Legoland where winners will open the gates to the park, a guided tour of the Idea House Museum, meet and greet with a LEGO Designer, and a signed LEGO® DUPLO® box. Plane tickets and stay at hotel LEGOLAND includes 2 adults and 2 children. Prize should be claimed before December 31 2014

SELECTION OF POTENTIAL WINNER: The Potential Winner will be selected by a panel of judges composed of members of the marketing teams from LEGO System A/S (“Judges”). Entries will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

• Creativity (40%),
• Originality (30%), and
• Overall fit within the LEGO DUPLO So Many Ways To Play tagline (30%).