BenSpark Family Adventures

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.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02412 I collect Transformers but the one that has the most special place in my heart is Wheeljack. Every once in a while I search Amazon for "Transformers Wheeljack". The other day I found a model kit for Wheeljack from the Bumblebee movie. We don't see Wheeljack for much in that movie but they at least got the design right. Not like Rise of the Beasts where they made Wheeljack into a VW Minivan. I refuse to get any of that version of the character. Wheeljack is a sports car, preferably a Lancia. I've got quite a few Wheeljack figures and some include models. I also have a Metal model that I will attempt to build in the near future.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02410 Today something that I've been looking for for a while arrived. Hot Wheels made a couple of Transformers including Optimus Prime and Bumblebee. I was excited to get this but I see that it has a scratch on the Autobot symbol. The card has not been opened so that is strange that it has a scratch. Oh well.  Today eva left on a coupe day trip with aunt Tara. They are going up to visit Dartmouth in New Hampshire and Bennington in Vermont. Along the way they are going to go by some of Tara's old stomping grounds. It should be a great trip for the two of them to do together.

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 #02403 Inspired by Andy cleaning up their room I have been cleaning things up in my office a bit. I had these LEGO sets in one of my cubbies with the Hulkbuster LEGO set. It got so crowded so it was time for me to disassemble these sets. I'll be putting all the Marvel related LEGO sets away to save and some of the other ones may be sold at some point. I still have a huge box of LEGO bricks to sort that are of Andy's sets but that will be done at a later date.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02402 Andy decided to clean their room today. In so doing they decided that they no longer wish to hang on to their LEGO sets. So, I now have them all and I spent the afternoon disassembling many sets to fit into the one bucket. There were many Minecraft sets in there. What I'm going to do eventually is take what is in the bucket and separate it down to the individual sets that I still have instructions books for. The organizing of that is going to be daunting. I will try and figure out an efficient way to separate everything but I'm sure that will take some time. Andy also decided that they no longer want the piggy bank that was mine. That I am putting into a box for Andy for when they get older and maybe have kids of their own.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02390 I was in Target today and saw that they had one of the Funko minis on clearance and it was Deadpool and his Chimichangas food truck. I had looked at it previously but it was way too expensive for such a tiny thing. But, it was on clearance and so the price was decent. So I picked that up and also the Hot Wheels Target tractor trailer because that was also on clearance. Both items I have physically picked up many times over the past few months. Just gotta hit the store at the right time to get some deals. Other than that there wasn’t much happening today. Andy had more classes at JWU and today’s cooking was American food so mac and cheese and pulled pork and bbq chicken. Andy had a big lunch and tonight them finished working on their 8th grade Aleks program which is the math program. Andy had to have it finished by tomorrow. So we are happy that Andy is all done.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02382 We cleaned upt he backyard today. Allison, andy and I took care of some wisteria that has been growing back again and also the weeds on the back patio. I sprayed all of it with vinegar/salt/dawn the other day to dry everything out before I weed whacked it to clear it out. Worked pretty good, too. Later on tonight I built a new LEGO set. It was a Fortnite set. the cool thing is that LEGO now puts the bricks into paper bags instead of plastic. I love that for LEGO. It is very cool.

  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 #02371 Last weekend I picked up a little LEGO set. It was of two happy little plant holders. These cute little guys are going to be happy little additions to my desk. I came home from the Cape today with Andy. We played another round of Command of Nature and Andy won again. He’s gotten really good at this game and I am looking forward to a rematch.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02369 During my morning walk today I saw a Great Blue Heron along the water of Great Bay. I saw it as I walked along and made sure to grab a photo today. Tonight andy and I played a new game called Command of Nature. It is a great strategy and deck building game. Andy caught on very quickly and in the end he won. Partially because I let him have one more turn and partially because he’s devious. I won’t go easy on him again.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02311 The kids got me this Optimus Prime model kit for Christmas. I had a chance last night to put it together. Blokees are model kits that have various sizes. The smallest sized models are in blind boxes. I did pick up the first set of them when they first came out. They are expensive so I did not keep up with buying them plus I didn’t want any doubles. There are a couple of Wheeljack ones and I would like to find those ones. They also have larger ones like this one where you know what you are getting. I’d rather buy one that I wanted so I do have a couple of these, Two different Optimus ones and one Bumblebee one. There is a Soundwave one coming out soon, too.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02282 Allison and the kids got me this Wheeljack metal model for my birthday. It arrived today. I’ll have to see if I have the skills to put this thing together. It is all about bending metal to make the model. andy had a half day today so I took them to see The Minecraft Movie. It was okay. Silly and not my thing but Andy enjoyed it so that is what is important.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02258 I built the LEGO Donut Truck today and made a video while building. I have an overhead camera that I use to show myself building the set The food trucks that LEGO has are pretty fun. I found some company that makes knock off LEGO bricks but they make a set of crazy food trucks. I don’t have anywhere to put more food trucks so I’m going to limit myself and not go and buy any more unless they are LEGO ones.