The dark side of the brick

Today's build was a nice quick one - the Phantom ( 75048 ) from 2014.  This was one of the early sets I bought from Ebay, as I started coming fully out of the dark ages, though I made the mistake of buying it without minifigs and had to collect these separately.  I'm still missing the unique helmet for Ezra. It's a nice little set with some unusual bright-light orange detailing.  I initially thought I'd picked the wrong colours out of the store!  As usual for the Rebels sets, I don't know much about it - I really need to explore this side of the Star Wars non-canon.   Of course, the main thing about this set is that it pairs with the Ghost ( 75053 )... which I wrote about a few months back.  Of course, I had to join the two together and I think they look really good as a pair. The Ghost looked a bit incomplete but I really like the joint set. One of the next builds now has to be the more recent version of the Phantom for a proper comparison. While I'm writing, I

I've not done very much building in recent days - I've instead been focussed on a couple of super-rare promo sets.  The first is the Star Wars / M&M Mosaic which I now have all the parts for but realised that there are no building instructions out there.  So I'm painstakingly creating my own in LeoCad - will post a link once I've finished them so others may follow in the footsteps of the Sith M&M.   However, I did mostly build one of them today - the super-rare Han Solo on his Tauntaun ( LLCA53 ) which I've rebuilt from spares and Bricklink.  I struggled to find any build instructions until I came across this post, which gives chapter and verse on the set... so I'm just going to post a photo.   I'm missing a piece (on order from Bricklink) and I replaced two of the reddish brown plates with clips with dark red equivalents.  The jumpers are also modern equivalents and I switched the turntables that top the legs with black rather than LBG bases which a

It's been a few days since I posted anything, because I've spent the time doing c.1,000 picks ready for building up some more old sets (I've got 176 to go).  However, I've squeezed in a few minutes to build a couple of sets in recent days. Firstly, I built the Amelia Earhart Tribute freebie set ( 40450 ) that came with a recent purchase.  This is the first set in a while where I was super tempted to apply the stickers.  The build was simple but enjoyable with some really nice design especially in the main fuselage of the plane.  There is also a unique part/colour in the propellers.   The second set is back to topic with the Range Trooper ( 75536 ) from 2018.  I've never generally been a fan of the buildable figures and this one continued to not excite me.  There are a few parts in here that I don't have elsewhere (e.g. the "toa okoto" armour piece) and you get some furry cloth pieces but otherwise this gets nothing much more than a 5 out of 10. Interes

Most of my week has been spent cleaning and then building a second hand copy of the most recent Republic Gunship - the 2013 75021 .  Lots of lime and dark red! The historical records show that Lego has released three full-sized gunships and I now have this one and also the 2008 7676 , but not the original 2002 version ( 7163 ) which must have been an awesome set at the time.  On that release schedule, Lego is well overdue another release of this ship but, to be honest, I think they're going to struggle to better these. Both the 2008 and 2013 versions weigh in at over 1000 bricks and share a distinct design heritage with very similar overall sizes, side panels, wings and thrusters.  This one seems slightly fatter at the base and the cockpit area is more streamlined - in fact, I love the snug fit for the minifigs underneath the control panels in this set.  This one swaps fully closing sides for two moveable gunports that have a really nice seat design too - a definite upgrade on the

In order to track my Lego collection, I generally use Rebrickable but this isn't so useful for working out which sets I'm missing.  For that, I fall back on trusty Excel which is my day-to-day workhorse tool for just about everything.  However, occasionally, mistakes creep in and I discovered that I had logged the Imperial V-wing ( 7915 ) as owned in the spreadsheet when that wasn't true.  However, this was quickly and cheaply remedied via Ebay and the set duly arrived today. After a clean and replacement of 6 chewed plates from spares, what emerged wasn't too bad, though the main sticker on the front wing is missing.  I can live with that, though, as I generally don't apply my own stickers anyway. I'm struggling to recollect this from the cannon films but the internet tells me that they appeared in Revenge of the Sith... I'll have to look out for them next time I watch the film (though the prequel trilogy aren't my go-tos).   Anyway, the Lego set is sim

Another delivery from Ebay arrived today, with one of the rarer sets: the 2014 Republic AV-7 Anti-Vehicle Cannon ( 75045 ).  Possibly one of the most convoluted lego set titles!   I've been searching for this one for some months so I took the opportunity to buy this one even though I knew it wasn't quite complete: I'm missing the body and legs for one of the Wolfpack Clone Troopers, which is probably why I got the set at a not extortionate price. You also get a unique Plo Koon minifig and a droideka.  I think the set may also have been quite a limited release which probably adds to the rarity and therefore cost.  The cannon itself was a nice build, though unusually I found quite a few bricks with split sides (!) which needed to be replaced from spares as I went.  I like the way the designer did the rounded central section - I think this works well.  The articulation of the legs is nice and the cannon barrel is pretty nicely designed.  My one quibble is that the up/down arti

I wasn't intending to do any building today but it was either a bit of Lego or a Sunday night at the work laptop and it wasn't a difficult choice.  Having had a bit of a tidy up today, I was looking for a mid sized box to fill a space in the big box of boxes which is going up into the attic sometime in the next couple of days and first off the shelf was the Battle of Hoth (2014: 75014 ), which felt appropriate given I've spent the last week obsessively building AT-ATs. This set comes with no less than 7 separate elements which for a set weighing in at just over 400 pieces isn't bad.  You also get 7 minifigs plus a probe droid and tauntaun.  The set focusses on playability with various guns, storage containers and emplacements.  It's a clear forerunner of the 2016 UCS Assault on Hoth.  However, there are a couple of misses in my mind: firstly, you only get one fig (Luke) for the snowspeeder, despite there clearly being space for two.  Secondly, there is only one miss

After several weeks of concentrated building, the AT-AT collection is now complete!  Today's build was the 2020 version ( 75288 ), following a Friday night build of the USC motorized version ( 10178 ). That adds to the three other versions I already had built, plus the First Order Assault Walker... and having done all but one of these in the last couple of weeks, I'll be glad to move onto something without four legs. First, a few thoughts on the builds from the last 24 hours and then a comparison across the full gamut.  Taking the UCS motorized version first, this was obviously a 2nd hand Ebay purchase.  The seller had clearly done some work to replace the worst of the yellowed pieces as there were some more recent molds in there instead of the 2007 contemporary ones.  I also then replaced another 30 or 40 parts from spares/bricklink and am now passably happy that this is in ok condition.  The build was fun and quite different from the rest of the AT-ATs being very focussed on

Another super quick build today as I spent the evening sorting out bricklink deliveries and starting to put all the recent spares in their homes. What came off the shelf was the Resistance X-wing magazine giveaway ( 912063 ).   I love treating these as puzzles to complete without instructions and I'm always impressed with the detail given such a small number of bricks.  And you often get some relatively rare colour/part combinations too. Not much more to say about it so a small build and a short post!

I spent most of this evening sorting out all the odd bricks I've purchased over recent weeks but couldn't resist a quick build.  And, given the AT-AT theme I've got going on at the moment, I thought I'd build the brand new set which arrived today from Lego: the AT-AT vs Tauntaun microfighters ( 75298 ). This is newly released since I last looked on the Lego website and indeed not all the Lego websites have been updated.  The photo which will appear on Rebrickable for Hoth Luke should be mine. So, what do I think?  I'm not a massive fan of the microfighters - I find them a bit cartoonish - but they fill a niche of cheap little sets which appeal to children and are easy to build.  I gave one to an adult friend who was having a bit of a hard time in a care package last year and she loved it, so clearly there's an audience.  However, the amount of page turning you have to do is a bit frustrating as an adult builder - I reckon this uses up about 25% of the build time

It's not quite an AT-AT but the First Order Heavy Assault Walker ( 75189 ) is definitely the progeny of the classic Empire 4-legged beast.  This is my 3rd walker in just over a fortnight and I've got two more ready and waiting to be built so I'm getting a real insight on the similarities and differences.   This one is clearly a step apart for several reason - firstly it's mainly DBG rather than the classic LBG and secondly it features the front legs that look like an angry gorilla posturing.  It also features a 6-shooter gun on the top which can be swivelled up and down.  There are also more bricks in this one than just about any of the other walkers and you feel that level of detail as you build.   However, ultimately, I'm not a huge fan of this set.  Partly this stems from my views of the film - The Last Jedi is definitely the weakest of the three most recent films.  It's derivative of the Empire Strikes Back with the Jedi training, the perfectly matched speed

I had grand plans to follow my AT-AT theme and build the First Order heavy assault walker (almost an AT-AT) today but I got distracted with work (on a Sunday!) and hence decided on an easier build.  Looking at my shelf of BNIB sets, I alighted on one of the freebies that I picked up last year - the Death Star II Battle ( 40407 ).  I think I have two of these but the other will stay safely tucked away gathering value. I really quite like these little vignettes that Lego have been giving away over the last couple of years and I think this is definitely my favourite of the three.  They remind me in a way of a couple of Comic Con exclusives from way back - there was one of Tatooine and one of Dagobah - and one of my favourite little sets, Escape the Space Slug .  While I liked the Hoth set, I thought the Endor Moon one was a bit sparse.  This one amps up the detail to 11 and has a real sense of drama.   Hopefully, I'll get some time tomorrow to get back to the four-legged Star Wars set

I am on an AT-AT roll at the moment... having built the 2014 75054 a few weeks ago and with the motorised UCS set and the 2021 set both ready and primed to be built, yesterday I took delivery of the original minifig-scale AT-AT from 2003.  Set 4483 is, to be fair, the architype and remains pretty awesome to this day. Yes, it's in old colours; yes, the sides don't join up as well as they do on more recent models.  But weighing in at 1070 pieces, it's got as much detail as any of the newer sets (indeed much more than the slightly disappointing 2010 version and the UCS set which focusses on the motor) and it has the printed dishes at all the leg joints.   The version I picked up for a total bargain (less than the original purchase price!) is in near mint condition, with just 3 pieces missing (one immediately replaced from stocks) and only one with any noticeable yellowing. It took my a satisfying 90 mins to build and this is a pleasing addition to the collection.  Once I'

Finally, after months of daily ebay alerts, I finally managed to purchase a copy of the BARC speeder with sidecar ( 75012 ) at a price I didn't consider to be too outrageous.  For the record, I paid £65... though I think I got it a bit cheap as it was missing one of the droids.  I knew I had a spare one of those lying around so I wasn't too bothered by this. So, why is this set so expensive?  I have no real idea as there seem to be plenty of copies for sale.  The reason appears to be this bad boy: This Captain Rex is exclusive to the set and seems to command a price tag of £40 or so all to himself.  In fact, any Captain Rex seems to be ridiculously expensive - I recently got the correct head for one of the other versions and that set me back quite a bit.   The Obi Wan minifig is also unique but seemingly less desirable.   Otherwise, this set comes with lots of stickers (all intact on this version) and I like the sidecar but otherwise, I reckon it's pretty unremarkable and w

Back to building one of my BNIB sets... last year's Anakin's Jedi interceptor ( 75281 ).  A short build - about 20 mins all told - which was probably all I had time for this evening, having only stopped working at 8.45pm.  WFH has its downsides!  Here's a photo: The set is very similar to all the standard Jedi interceptors so the build didn't feel at all novel.  I decided to get the two older yellow interceptors off the shelf to have a look: the 2014 75038 and 2005 "Jedi starfighter" (which came with a droid fighter) ( 7256 ). As an aside, I think the "starfighter" now explicitly refers to the more V shaped model so this is an interesting oddity. The latest version is almost identical in size and shape to the 2014 version, though the lines are slighly smoother.  Both are slightly bigger than the 2005 version, which also features a bit less detail and is somewat flimsier (as all old sets are in hindsight).  Here's the "fleet: Interesting swit

I forgot to post about this build a week or so ago... while I reported back in Jan that I'd built up all the Brickheadz barring the very limited Boba Fett and Han Solo in carbonite, I then discovered that I had the standalone Boba Fett ( 41629 ) hiding at the back of my pile of unbuilt sets. I generally like the Brickheadz sets - they're quick to build but satisfying and also quirky.  Apart from the fact that I struggled to tell the dark green and dark red apart in the light I have to build by and seemed to have a spare sand green piece where I was expecting a LBG, this was a fine build.  Some nice printed pieces too, which I always like.