I made a Custom Storage Tray for the JMBricklayer 70003 Steampunk Dinosaur Marble Run Building Set

 

Hiya brick fans!  Today, I want to show you my custom storage tray that I built to collect all of the marbles/balls that come with the incredible JMBricklayer 70003 Steampunk Dinosaur Marble Run set.

If you are not familiar, with the set, please take a look at my other blog posts where I document the building of the massive structure along with my thoughts and tips and tricks that I found useful.  The links are here:

Unboxing: https://its-not-lego.blogspot.com/2024/06/unboxing-kickstarter-funded.html

Part 1:  https://its-not-lego.blogspot.com/2024/06/constructing-5391-piece-jmbricklayer.html

Part 2:  https://its-not-lego.blogspot.com/2024/06/building-5391-piece-jmbricklayer-70003.html

Tips and Tricks: https://its-not-lego.blogspot.com/2024/07/jmbricklayer-70003-steampunk-dinosaur.html

Here's the marble ball tray.  It will hold all 10 of the marble balls that come with the JMBricklayer 70003 Marble Run set.  I made it because I found I had no place to put all of the marble balls.  They kept rolling around the base and dropping to the floor.  And during play, whenever some of the marbles would come flying off or during troubleshooting, I needed a singular place to collect them, so that's why I came up with the storage tray idea.

These are all of the parts you will need if you want your own tray.

1pc 8x8 plate

4pcs 1x6 plates

4pcs corner 2x2 sloped bricks

7pcs 2x2 sloped brick

1pc 1x2 brick with technic hole

4pcs 1x1 bricks

1pc technic pin 4studs or longer

12pcs 1x2 sloped bricks

optional: 1pc 1x2 tall sloped brick

I had all of the pieces I needed in black, but you can use whatever coloured bricks you have on hand.

The 8x8 plate will serve as the base for all of the other pieces.

Attach the 4pcs of  2x2 corner sloped bricks.

Now, attach 7pcs of the 2x2 sloped bricks.

Insert the technic pin  into the 1x2 brick with technic hole.

Attach the 1x2 brick to the baseplate.

Attach the 4pcs of 1x6 plates to each side.

Attach the 4pcs of 1x1 bricks to each corner.

Optionally, attach 1pc of tall 1x2 sloped brick behind the technic brick. It's purpose is to stop the technic pin from sliding back.

Or you can just omit the previous step.

Finally, attach the 12pcs of 1x2 sloped bricks on all four sides.

The storage tray is complete and ready to be installed into the Marble Run structure.

Locate the free pin location on your marble run structure.   

The exact location is referenced Manual B - pages 186/187 in steps 5-14 and 5-15.

Insert the technic pin of the storage tray into the free slot.  It should now be firmly attached and capable of supporting all of your marble run balls.

I hope you have found this tutorial helpful and it makes your JMBricklayer Steampunk Dinosaur Marble Run even more enjoyable to build and have fun with!    If you have any questions or concerns, don't hesitate to reach out to me in the comments or you can also find me on Instagram and Facebook too!

BTW, the Marble Run campaign on both Kickstarter and Indiegogo are now closed, so if you are hoping to acquire this limited edition set, keep checking the JMBricklayer website to see if/when it becomes available again.

Bye for now!

#jmbricklayer #marblerun #kickstarter

This is the McDonalds Restaurant that Lego didn't make!

Hey brick fans!

I finally got around to adding a second floor to my McDonalds restaurant, so I thought I'd give you a tour of what it looks like now.   I haven't really had a chance to work on it until now, with the last changes occurring in 2020 with the addition of a drivethru lane.

The restaurant has gotten quite an overhaul as you can see above.  It now sits on a raised baseplate which is 32 studs wide.   The sidewalk has been changed to conform to the standard I've been using on all of my other Japanese themed modular buildings.   The most notable change is the inclusion of the new second floor dining area that allows patrons to sit inside or out on the terrace.   To access the second floor, I've added a new staircase on the side of the building.

There are large windows throughout the building.

The drivethru lane has been retained.

It's almost strange that in the past four years I've not increased my collection of red bricks, so I'm still making due to with these old bricks on the back wall.  I really should go and order some new 1x4 bricks from Aliexpress.   The back door leads to storage space under the stairs that go up to the second floor.

The unused storage area under the stairs is visible from the side windows.

The front entrance to the restaurant has not changed much.

But this outdoor terrace is all new.  There are two tables outside with seating for four but there's enough space to add another two seats if required.   The huge glass wall and door separate the inside and outside.

The signature style of the roof has been maintained.  It used to be two pieces but now it's just one large roof.

We can get a better view of the second floor interior with the roof removed.

Inside the dining room, there are two large tables and one small table.  There's also a long raised counter that provides seating for four.   At maximum capacity, there is room for 10 minifigures.

Of course, like all of my modular buildings, the second floor can be removed as well.

I still need to update the main floor interior.  I'm trying to figure out how to expand the kitchen area and put in more appliances and storage.  So until I do that, I'm not going to re-tile the floor yet.  I still want to get some printed menu pieces for the overhead menu board.

Just keeping the counter as is for now.

The customers don't seem to mind that the interior renovations are still ongoing.

Well, that's it!  Let me know what you think of the new changes.  👉. Don't forget to check out my other Lego compatible building set reviews at bricktoyreviews.blogspot.com. Thanks for looking, bye for now!

How I Make the Raised Baseplates for my Modular Buildings

 

Hey brick fans!  

Some of you have asked me about the raised baseplates I'm using for my modular buildings, so this blog post will be a small tutorial and  closer look at how they are constructed.  Hopefully it will inspire you and give you some ideas for your own modular buildings.

It's still a work in progress, but I'm slowly migrating my modular building collection from classic baseplates to raised baseplates.  Classic baseplates have a tendency to warp over time and tend to flex when lifted. Raised baseplates give my buildings a cleaner and consistent appearance in addition to providing more structural integrity underneath.  

Just to be clear, my raised baseplates are not MILS plates, since mine have no connection points that allow the modular buildings to be connected to other plates such as roadways or other buildings.  Here's an example of what MILS plates look like: https://www.brickaddict.net/road-plates.  I don't need to have all my buildings attached to each other, because I like to rearrange them all the time for picture taking.

Today, we will look at how I make a raised baseplate for a 16x32 stud modular building, but the technique is the same if you have 32 stud wide modular buildings.  

Essentially we are making a sandwich structure with some blocks placed in between two sets of plates.  On the front of structure we place some SNOT bricks / technic stud bricks to which we will attach a fascia plate.

More on SNOT bricks here: https://bricknerd.com/home/snot-basics-geometry-techniques-and-pitfalls-3-18-2021

Here are all the parts you will need.   First we start off with a classic baseplate (that's the thinner single sided ones.

We then place some bricks on the classic baseplate.  It doesn't really matter the type of bricks that you use as long as you can attach them to the classic baseplate and then attach the regular plates on top.  For our example today, I'm using two pieces of 16x16 plates to place over the bricks, but you could use whatever you have on hand.  

You can use whatever technic bricks you have on hand, this is an example of 3 types of bricks you could use.  The 1x2 brick above will give you the greatest clutch power for attaching the front fascia. For most of my builds, the 1x1 brick with hole and blue pin is my preferred choice.

Here is example one.

Here is example two.

And here's example three. As I have said earlier, it's up to you to use whatever you have on hand and see which method works best for you.

Place the remaining plates on top.

These are the pieces we will use for the front fascia, 1 piece of 2x16 plate and 8 pieces of 2x2 tiles.  I've used dark gray for my fascia but you could use a different colour, just make sure that the plate and tiles are the same colour.

The completed fascia.

The raised baseplate with fascia attached.  It doesn't fit flush to the ground because of the lower baseplate and there's a bit of a riser where it meets your sidewalk.  I kind of like the setup though.

Now just finish off your sidewalk for your modular building.  It probably looks better if you have a contrasting sidewalk colour vs. fascia.  I'm using light gray tiles on my sidewalks so I use dark gray on the fascia.  But you can choose to make yours any colour you want.

There you go, that's how I make my raised baseplates with fascia for my modular buildings.  Hope you have found this information helpful and hoping to see how yours turns out.   Feel free to leave me a comment or question below.  👉. Don't forget to check out my other Lego compatible building set reviews at bricktoyreviews.blogspot.com. Thanks for looking, bye for now!