The dark side of the brick

I've finally gotten around to having enough shelf space to feel like building some more sets (I have boxes and boxes of unmade sets stacked up in my very small Lego Man Cave and honestly won't have much more space until I've started building). Because they're easy to take away on travel to home #2, I've put together two of the more recent helmets: the Boushh ( 75351 ) and the Captain Rex ( 75349 ).    All fairly standard examples of helmet builds, though I did like the Boushh mouthpiece. 

Walkers to me initially calls to mind shortbread... but in this context, it is my collection of AT-STs (and one AT-DP).   I'm missing 7127 from this list because I've already deconstructed it and 10174 because it is too far back on the shelf, but otherwise I think this is a complete collection of the current 2-legged AT walkers... 7657 from 2007 75083 from 2015 75153 from 2016 75201 from 2018 75254 from 2019 Clearly, 75153 is a complete disappointment - widely panned as the most useless Star Wars set of its vintage.  7657 hasn't aged all that well, though I suspect it was good for its time and it has some useful rare parts in it.  The other three are all fine examples.

 I promised a comparison of the three turbo tanks back in a post ages ago.  The three released by Lego are 7261 from 2006 8098 from 2010 75151 from 2016  This means we're overdue a new one, I reckon.  I was right that 75151 was the smallest of the three.

Discounting the microfighter and mini version, there are four proper AATs, two with Naboo paint (tan) and two with colours from the later Clone Wars (dark blue mainly).  They are: 7155 from 2000 8018 from 2009 75080 from 2015 75283 from 2020 Interestingly, the colours switch with each release!  Interestingly, Lego bucks its usual trend of each version getting more and more pieces: they max out with the 2009 version (407 bricks).  The 2000 version does merit a shout out though: with just 158 pieces (and they were limited at the time), it does a great job of replicating the shape.  Some people have voted this into their top 10 - I'm not that generous but it's a good effort.

One of the interesting ranges that Lego released were the planet sets: there were 12 of them in 2012/2013 in two series of 6 each year.  You got a minifigure, a small-scale ship (typically 50-60 parts, very much in line with the later magazine gift line), a stand for these with a printed tile (always welcome) and a large planet which also doubled as the packaging.   The sets are largely unremarkable but the planets make a nice feature.  My Hoth is sadly sun damaged, though. Here's the list: 9674 : Naboo Starfigher & Naboo 9675 : Sebulba's pod and Tatooine 9676 : Tie interceptor and Death Star 9677 : X-wing and Yavin 4 9678 : Twin Pod Cloud Car and Bespin 9679 : AT-ST and Endor 75006 : Jedi Starfighter and Kamino 75007 : Republic assault ship and Coruscant 75008 : TIE bomber and asteroid field (not really a planet!) 75009 : Snowspeeder and Hoth 75010 : B-wing and Endor (again - and not as good as the first one!) 75011 : Tantive IV and Alderaan   My favourite is the twin pod

It's been a busy few months - since I last managed to post, I've spend 2 weeks in Singapore, 2 days in KL and 10 days in HK, as well as going to Wales (a week), Scotland, Wales again, Stratford-upon-Avon and Paris for long weekends.  I worked out that by the end of June, I'll have spent 90 days out of 181 in the first half of the year away from home.  With nights out and time spent with the (very understanding) wife, that's not left much time for Lego.  Lockdown wasn't fun but it did leave lots of time for hobbies! So, here's a bit of a round up on the deconstruction I've managed to do.  My tracker says I'm now 72% of the way through my collection, though I've got stacks of boxes which are still waiting to be built up, so I'm not going to run short of things to build for a while. First up is the Child, aka baby Yoda ( 75318 ).  This is an ok display set but a bit dull to build (like the more recent Yoda, there is too much plate-work filling out t

I've started branching away more from pure Star Wars Lego in recent months.  I've always had a hankering for the large technic sets but going beyond that was something relatively rare.  However, I couldn't resist the Eiffel Tower ( 10307 ) when it came out and hence bought a copy, using some of my points to make myself feel slightly better about the enormous cost. Anyway, I actually built the set at Christmas and two weeks ago got around to visiting the real thing.  I have to say that the Lego design team has done an amazing job of replicating both the shape and the intricate detail of the Tourd'Eiffel in something that is robust enough to be moved around (albeit in two pieces). The build took me four days, though not working for more than a 4-5 hours at most on any given day.  The first box does the base and some of the first level.  The second box gets you the first level complete and some of the 2nd.  The third box finishes off the 2nd level and the final box does th

Next off my shelf was the set of Corporate Alliance tank droids.  There are three of them, though one of them comes in a set called "Wookie Attack" and includes a Wookie airship.   The three sets are: 7258 from 2005 ("Wookie attack") 7748 from 2009 75015 from 2013 Wookie attack has the sand blue colour scheme and, in my book, this gives it a good recommendation.  The two sides also hinge up to give access to a droid seat and the wookie airship gives great playability options.  I also really like the printed trans neon orange 10x10 dishes.  This makes it my favourite of the three by a strong margin. 7748 has really boring minifigs and only the printed dishes rescue it from obscurity. 75015 is fine but also a bit dull.