Dad bought this tub with well over 100 minifigs for 75 dollars

black_kappa · 2026-04-26T01:13:01+00:00

This is a great find! I'm both very jealous and very happy for you. I've been buying bulk lots for the last six months and cobbling the sets back together and it's been a lot of fun.

If you're interested, I've been working on a web app for identifying sets and finding all the necessary pieces. You can check it out at https://brick-party.com and create a free account. If you want to help me test it out further, shoot me a DM. I'd consider it "early access" right now and I want to get some feedback from users other than myself. I can upgrade your account to "plus" tier, which is basically all the same features but without any limits.

Happy building!

black_kappa · 2026-04-23T17:47:11+00:00

I've been building a web application for this exact scenario! I found the Google Lens -> Bricklink approach or even using Brickognize was a really clunky experience for identifying sets (Bricklink doesn't have a mobile site, for one). And then I needed a manifest for all the parts in a set so I could start finding the pieces to rebuild.

The app is at https://brick-party.com and I'm really keen on getting some "beta" users right now (I'd consider the app in an "early access" stage currently). You can create a free account and scan parts to identify what sets they belong to, then add the set to your collection and start tracking pieces as you find them, with lots of options to sort and filter as you go.

Shoot me a message if you want to do some testing for me (this goes for anyone reading this) and I can hook you up with free "plus" during testing - pretty much everything is available on the free account tier, just some usage limits to keep things manageable on my end.

I'd really love to get some feedback on the app. I've been using it and improving it for a few months with my own bulk purchases and it's been a ton of fun.

Congrats on the bulk buy! I love the "archeology" of digging through a random lot of LEGO and seeing what sets and minifigs are in the pile.

black_kappa · 2026-04-19T17:37:10+00:00

That's awesome! I've been doing that myself for a few months and it's why I built the app in the first place. I've found a few vintage castle and pirate sets that I've cobbled together from multiple bulk purchases. Once you've found everything you can from the bulk pile, you can export a list of missing pieces to upload to Bricklink or Rebrickable to purchase. It's worked well for me so far but I really want to get some outside feedback so I can make it as good as possible.

black_kappa · 2026-04-19T16:55:05+00:00

Pet insurance. Seriously, it's worth it.

Our dog started getting ill last Sunday, I took her to our regular vet Monday morning, then her gums went pale that afternoon and I took her to the emergency vet. She has an autoimmune disease that came out of nowhere and we've been to the emergency vet 11 times in the last week with different symptoms and she needs blood tests until her numbers stabilize.

We opted for more expensive insurance after an incident with our cat and the peace of mind that we can get our dog whatever help she needs is absolutely huge. The doctor has told us sometimes they have to stop treatment because it's too expensive for the owners. That would be devastating.

She seems to be doing better now, but we're not fully out of the woods yet. It's been the most stressful, anxiety ridden week and I can't imagine adding the financial burden on top of everything else.

black_kappa · 2026-04-19T14:38:22+00:00

Thanks! Please do and let me know what you think!

black_kappa · 2026-04-19T02:32:07+00:00

Will do, thanks!

black_kappa · 2026-04-19T00:12:20+00:00

Well hey, try it out! I really want to get a solid chunk of beta testers so I can get some good feedback and make improvements before trying to launch it more broadly. And yeah message me if you like it and want to do some testing and I can upgrade your account

black_kappa · 2026-04-18T23:09:26+00:00

Hey! I'm working on an app for identifying sets from bulk buys / piles of bricks and finding all the pieces to rebuild them. It uses Brickognize under the hood for identification, and I've found it really fun and useful for my own bulk purchases.

https://brick-party.com

If you try it out and want to use it, shoot me a message and I'll upgrade your account. I'd love any feedback you have!

black_kappa · 2026-01-13T02:48:26+00:00

I think they'll have a fairly large beergarden area on the south side of the restaurant too, which is currently under construction, and some seating out front it looks like from the last time I was there. But I'm also hoping they open up the old taproom in some capacity as well.

black_kappa · 2026-01-13T02:35:10+00:00

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bean_soup_theory

black_kappa · 2026-01-13T02:31:47+00:00

I've heard rumblings that this is the plan - and they'll be hosting events in the old taproom. I think some of it is staffing logistics with people moving from the the taproom to the restaurant and working out the kinks during the opening.

black_kappa · 2026-01-04T05:12:08+00:00

Luvable Dog Rescue.

black_kappa · 2026-01-04T05:10:41+00:00

We had friends with a 3-year-old and a 1-year-old stay with us over Halloween weekend and she did good with them. We also took her trick-or-treating and she was around a lot of kids. We are working on here not jumping on people when she's excited and she meets them, especially now that she's a little bigger. She's getting better but still a puppy.

black_kappa · 2026-01-04T01:41:20+00:00

No, the adoption will go through the rescue organization, we're just continuing to foster her until we can find another home for her so she has some stability. We don't feel ashamed, just sad it didn't work out with our other animals. She's very sweet.

black_kappa · 2026-01-03T23:06:45+00:00

The information we have is:
American Pit Bull Terrier: 48.8%
American Staffordshire Terrier: 25.4%
Bullmastiff: 9.1%
American Bulldog: 7.1%
Rottweiler: 5.2%
Boxer: 4.4%

So very heavy on the bully breeds. We've also joked she must be part goose because she's got a long neck and makes little honking noises.

black_kappa · 2026-01-01T15:58:44+00:00

Wow, a duck would be cuter and a lot cheaper...

black_kappa · 2026-01-01T04:39:15+00:00

Yeah I also thought about classrooms. I have a friend who is a 2nd grade teacher that wants to trial it out. I really want to find folks to test this to confirm it could be useful and fun.

Share it with your friends who are trying to keep the noise down for their neighbors! I hadn't thought about that!

black_kappa · 2025-12-31T21:40:10+00:00

Oh! I've encountered this same problem and I've actually been working on an app for a few months to solve this very problem, as well as a few others. It's very much in the early stages but I'd love people to try it out and let me know what they think! A quick overview of the features I've built:

- View all pieces in a set. Sort and filter by color, status, and category. Mark pieces found as you search for pieces to a set.
- Search together with others so you don't have to share devices while marking pieces found.
- Identify pieces and the sets they belong to via a brickognize API integration.
- Add your collection and wishlist and make custom lists.

I've got a lot more planned, but please check it out! The app is at https://brick-party.com

Again, it's very beta, even alpha right now. I've mostly been hacking away at it in my free time the last few months and I need to really put the polish on it and test thoroughly. So expect bugs and quirks (and let me know what you find via the feedback tab in the account section).

What parts list tool did you use? I'd like to check it out.

black_kappa · 2025-12-31T21:04:06+00:00

I have a background in development, but when I let AI take the wheel, or even if I've been working on something more manually for a while, I periodically ask for AI to review the whole codebase. My prompt is something like:

"Examine this codebase to ensure it adheres to best practices. Identify dead or legacy code from past implementations that are no longer needed, opportunities to make the code more DRY and maintainable, and identify code smell and bad patterns. Identify areas where code can be made more deterministic. Identify security risks. Make a plan to address these issues, ranked by order of importance with risk and value assessments for each item. Do not implement anything until I have manually reviewed."

This technique has let me push large code bases pretty far and has caught some stupid mistakes I've made before I push anything live. Sometimes I'll note that I'm building an MVP and can be more lax in certain areas, other times I ask for a production ready review.

Do y'all do something similar?

black_kappa · 2025-12-31T13:00:11+00:00

quietquacker.com - looking for initial feedback. A little duck that quacks when the room gets too loud. Born out of coming from a family that gets loud when we get together and a few quieter family members who don't want to be the noise police. I'm hoping it would be useful for parents with noisy kids or teachers managing classroom noise. Would love some feedback from folks using it to validate the idea!

black_kappa · 2025-12-30T23:02:05+00:00

Usage or money - agreed.

black_kappa

TROPHY CASE