What was meant to be a quick spin to collect some LEGO minifigures turned into a 4 ½ hour epic journey across Leinster. Roads, roundabouts, traffic jams, and crates of bricks carried us through multiple counties, each stop adding another chapter to the growing story of the Redmond’s Forge LEGO Museum.
Blanchardstown Bound? Oh No Detour
It all began en-route to Blanchardstown with a simple plan: pick up some LEGO mini-figures from a seller for €40.
The M50 was chocca-block, a parking lot, so it was time to avoid it. While going along the R112 in Ballyboden heading to the N7 road via Templeogue & Walkinstown, we received a call from the seller in Virginia, Co. Cavan as they were in Navan, finishing work, had the lego with them and could we meet them there promptly. We said we could be in Navan at 6:40pm (it was 5:30 by this time). We canand Blanchardstown on the wa. When we arrived into the Costa Coffee car park, near the Navan North exit on the M3, the seller was waiting with a treasure trove. The 1 large box of LEGO we agreed was glorious, and then 2 extra sets in shoe boxes for an extra €30. Even more worth while. The haul included:
- 42045 LEGO Technic Hydroplane Racer
- 42112 LEGO Technic Concrete Mixer Truck
- 60195 LEGO City Arctic Mobile Exploration Base
- 60214 LEGO City Burger Bar Fire Rescue
Even better, Michelle promised the rest of the manuals to follow, which makes rebuilding and cataloguing so much easier.
From Navan to Blanchardstown
This little detour ended up sparking something much bigger. I met the seller and picked up the mini-figures and we talked, we talked, and we talked. The kids waited patiently in the car. He would have more mini-figures, was I interested, he read this blog, he loved the idea, he keeps his mini-figures immaculate. We discussed rarity and value. Then I needed to leave as not only were the kids reaching their boredom threshold but I received a message from a previous seller in Ashbourne that they had more LEGO – another great price for 4 boxes of LEGO and it was time to leave.
AI Power Mini-figure and Set Valuation
As I sorted through the figures later, the idea of writing an AI-powered Minifigure and Set Evaluator was born – a tool to automatically identify, catalogue, and even value LEGO sets and figures. What started with a bag of mini-figures could end up becoming one of the most useful pieces of tech I’ve built for this project! After Claude coding, aka vibe coding, or prompt engineering for the evening, I have something very powerful, very useful, and it can be a tool that we will use at Redmond’s Forge, and that others can use when I put it on the website.
The problem – having received 60 mini-figures for €40, how much were they worth, how to quickly update my brickset, wordpress, database, and bricklink inventories. The previous way was scan them one by one via Google Lens, and see the results, and if that didn’t work go to BrickLink and use the search functionality and manually find the value. Then update the various sites. The new solution – take a photo of the mini-figures, not one by one, but with them all laid out in front of me on the kitchen table – get the different sub-sections of the photo – use Claude Vision to identify pieces, use the bricklink api to get the values – create a detailed report, update the inventories on the different sites. This will save me hours for each batch of mini-figures.
It also works for sets, and could I get it to work for a set where if I place all of the pieces out, and know the set number, can it tell me the missing ones? Yes it can. If I don’t know the set can it tell me the set it is most likely to be? Yes it can. Previously the Google Lens way I needed the set fairly complete, or a very distinct part to identify the set. Not any more.
To Ashbourne and Beyond
The final stop of the evening was Ashbourne, where our seller had one massive box of LEGO plus three boxes carefully sorted by colour, the kind of organisation we don’t often see, plus 40 manuals for the sets included. And this set list? It reads like a cross-section of modern LEGO across themes:
- Botanicals & Minecraft:
- 10280 LEGO Flower Bouquet
- 21170, 21241 LEGO Minecraft
- Creator 3-in-1:
- 31058, 31089, 31121, 77941
- Friends:
- 41361
- Technic:
- 42054, 42071, 42092, 42093, 42118, 42121, 42136, 42148
- City:
- 60138, 60139, 60215, 60226, 60242, 60302, 60377, 60379, 60397
- Licensed Sets:
- 71453 LEGO Dreamzzz
- 71745 LEGO Ninjago
- 75699, 76414 LEGO Harry Potter
- 75892, 76899 LEGO Speed Champions
- 75940, 75941, 76941, 76942, 76949 LEGO Jurassic World
This was one of the most diverse single hauls we’ve picked up on this mission and that’s saying something.
A Return to the House of Play in Lusk
The journey wrapped up with a return to Lusk, the House of Play. The reasons were twofold – I was meant to drop the kids to my Mums yesterday at 6pm and then go to Groupon’s Summer party, however with the traffic and diversions, I spoke to my Mum and explained the situation. The kids were disappointed not to see their nan, it was 8:30pm by this stage – too late to call into my Mums. I needed to make it up to Luke and Rose. It felt symbolic, as if the evening had come full circle. What began with a handful of mini-figures had evolved into car-loads of bricks, spanning Technic, City, Jurassic World, Speed Champions, Harry Potter, and more, so for them it was the House of Play.
The Bigger Picture
What struck me most about the evening wasn’t just the sheer volume of LEGO, but the connections each stop created:
- Blanchardstown’s mini-figures led to an AI idea.
- Virginia’s haul came with promises of manuals and stories of big LEGO train sets.
- Ashbourne’s meticulous sorting revealed a collector’s care.
By the time we rolled back home, tired but buzzing, the Redmond’s Forge collection had grown by dozens of sets and thousands of pieces, and the dream of the LEGO Museum inched closer to reality.
Another day, another adventure. And who knows? Maybe tomorrow’s “quick spin” will turn into another epic, although methinks I will partner with my best buddy Claude and build some more cool things.
