Random builds

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.

Interestingly, I've spotted that the official Lego photo seems to have lopsided application of the toa okoto pieces on the legs!  

Finally, some weeks back I built up the minifig scale version of Krennic's Imperial Shuttle (75156) which I got some years back in impecable second hand condition. 




I really like this set for a number of reasons.  Firstly you get a whole host of unique minifigs, including the only known version of K-2SO (back to the buildable figs, the K-2SO was one of the very few that I actually really liked, probably because he looks pretty much like he's built from those arm and leg pieces anyway!). Secondly, it's a unique set - apart from a microfighter version.

Thirdly, I love the way that all the panels on the body fit together so perfectly.  Fourthly, I love the unique cockpit canopy which fits so well with everything else.  Fifthly, it's got some good playability features.  Finally, the mechanism for the wings is pretty cool - using a ball joint as a stiffener.  

This one is a solid 9 out of 10 in my book.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Star Wars M&M Mosaic

Image
A few weeks back, I was trawling through Rebrickable, checking which Star Wars sets I hadn't build up and I came across two promo sets that I'd not found before.  The first was the "Han Solo on his Tauntaun" that I built up a week or so back and documented here .  The other was the altogether more crazy Star Wars M&M promo mosaic ( SWMP ) which rocks in 5462 pieces, according to Rebrickable.   It's debatable whether this really a released set, as only 400 were made that they were never available to the general public.  Apparently, it was a Walmart promotion event, held in different locations across the US and you could build these over 48 hours.   The set is massive - it covers 6 48x48 base plates so is around 76x115cm (2.5x3.75ft for those who work in imperial).  However, the whole thing distils to just 4 plate sizes (1x1, 1x2, 1x4 and 2x4), plus 169 2x2 black tiles.  And there are only 9 colours too.  Before you can start building, though, you've got to
Read more

Lego Colours

Image
Thanks to my mother and grandfather, I am colourblind. After discovering (c. 2001) that I knew all of the PhD students and postdocs in the colour vision team at Cambridge, I allowed them to experiment on me and was duly diagnosed as extreme deuteranomalous vision defective.  Putting aside the science, this means I have very limited ability to distinguish blue from purple, as well as struggling with red/brown and green/brown (oddly, I'm almost always fine with red/green).   Why am I writing about this in a Lego blog?  The answer should be obvious in that there are times when I really struggle to identify what colour my bricks are.  Particular challenges are: Dark red vs. reddish brown (this is my all-time worst and I struggle with them every time) Dark green vs. dark brown (especially cheese slopes) Transparent yellow vs transparent bright green (this is another random weakness which totally foxed Petroc when he tested me 20 years ago) Dark green vs. black (yes, really - I regularly
Read more

Han Solo on his Tauntaun

Image
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
Read more