 |
| The kit. We're not actually missing a brush. |
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| The shine! Which is pitch black. |
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| Shoe mid brush. |
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| A shined shoe. You can see how glistening it is! |
Adventure Van, shoehorning in.
Thursday, May 31, 2018
Shoeshining!
Hey guys, it's Adventure Van here about Shoeshining! This ancient practice is how you make a shoe look like a moviestar. Simply take a shoe, and a shoe shining kit. The only special thing you need for a kit is the shine, when everything else can be found at home, as it's a brush and a cloth. Socks work for that cloth, so there's no problem. Brush the shoe in order to get the dirt and grime off, then put a bit of shine onto the cloth. Just circle it around on the shoe, then brush hard! Really hard, to melt the shine on and get of excess. Then, on areas you really want shiny, huff onto it and then brush. And tada! One shined shoe! Just have to do the other one.
Monday, May 28, 2018
Leg Godt.
Hey guys, it's Adventure Van here with a blog about the company LEGO. That's right, LEGO isn't just the name of the product they produce. But the story of how exactly this small family owned business gained the monopoly of the simple plastic brick market? From a housing contractor to the company that at one point had the second most amount of themeparks in the world? From a wooden toymaker to movie blockbusters? How exactly has Lego done this with so little?
Lego has been around for a long time, to be fair. I mean, it's an old business that's been around since just before WW2, though under different name. They produced houses, but when the war hit, they began producing smaller things, like wooden toys. And business boomed! It boomed so much, they began running out of wood to make toys with. So they had to turn to something better to use alongside their wood toys, and that's when they decided on plastic. Plastic blocks, in particular.
But these weren't the same blocks we use nowadays, anyway. See, if you've ever held a Lego block, you'll noticed the pegging system on the bottom. That's so that they can grip and lock into things. But those weren't always there. That part used to be hollow, so it wouldn't grip. And that's a problem. They tried hundreds of different patterns before finding the right one, which they immediately patented. And for several years, they had the miracle block that sold like hotcakes, in variants like City, Space, and Medieval. But patent's don't last forever.
The second the patent dropped, competitors were easily able to steal the design and make it their own, able to say that their blocks were compatible with Lego yet were half the price. And Lego's profits dropped significantly during that time, and they began going down fast. So, they had to begin thinking of ways to get Lego back to being the block builder. If you think that The Lego Movie was their first dip into movie making, you'd be dead wrong, as they tried several times before to make... Half-decent movies that were really just taking money that Lego didn't have. They needed a savior or they'd go bankrupt.
And it was a two part deal. One was partnerships with big hitters that kids loved, some unheard of things like Star Wars and Harry Potter. But the sales of those fluctuated with the movies, so Lego needed to be self dependent as well. If the past movies they tried to make were any lesson, kids liked a story, or a world, above anything a Castle or City could provide. So they began making stories to go along with their sets, and tried a new building system as well, called Bionicle. It was a two hit wonder that very likely single handedly saved Lego from bankruptcy.
And they've managed to keep producing beautiful products with no problems, despite still using the same materials and forms they used way back when. And they've made even more huge hitting sets with stories and beautiful unique parts. But you'll see that if you took a block from now, and took a block from the first patented print, they'd still stick together perfectly, despite the time between them. And that's the timeless beauty of Lego. It'll be the same now as it will both 50 years in the past and the future.
Adventure Van, building out.
Lego has been around for a long time, to be fair. I mean, it's an old business that's been around since just before WW2, though under different name. They produced houses, but when the war hit, they began producing smaller things, like wooden toys. And business boomed! It boomed so much, they began running out of wood to make toys with. So they had to turn to something better to use alongside their wood toys, and that's when they decided on plastic. Plastic blocks, in particular.
But these weren't the same blocks we use nowadays, anyway. See, if you've ever held a Lego block, you'll noticed the pegging system on the bottom. That's so that they can grip and lock into things. But those weren't always there. That part used to be hollow, so it wouldn't grip. And that's a problem. They tried hundreds of different patterns before finding the right one, which they immediately patented. And for several years, they had the miracle block that sold like hotcakes, in variants like City, Space, and Medieval. But patent's don't last forever.
The second the patent dropped, competitors were easily able to steal the design and make it their own, able to say that their blocks were compatible with Lego yet were half the price. And Lego's profits dropped significantly during that time, and they began going down fast. So, they had to begin thinking of ways to get Lego back to being the block builder. If you think that The Lego Movie was their first dip into movie making, you'd be dead wrong, as they tried several times before to make... Half-decent movies that were really just taking money that Lego didn't have. They needed a savior or they'd go bankrupt.
And it was a two part deal. One was partnerships with big hitters that kids loved, some unheard of things like Star Wars and Harry Potter. But the sales of those fluctuated with the movies, so Lego needed to be self dependent as well. If the past movies they tried to make were any lesson, kids liked a story, or a world, above anything a Castle or City could provide. So they began making stories to go along with their sets, and tried a new building system as well, called Bionicle. It was a two hit wonder that very likely single handedly saved Lego from bankruptcy.
And they've managed to keep producing beautiful products with no problems, despite still using the same materials and forms they used way back when. And they've made even more huge hitting sets with stories and beautiful unique parts. But you'll see that if you took a block from now, and took a block from the first patented print, they'd still stick together perfectly, despite the time between them. And that's the timeless beauty of Lego. It'll be the same now as it will both 50 years in the past and the future.
Adventure Van, building out.
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