The dark side of the brick

I've decided to bite the bullet and deconstruct my two big ISDs over the bank holiday weekend.  Mainly this is because they take up an inordinate amount of useful shelf space that I would love to have back, but I'll be sad to seem them taken down. The 2002 UCS ISD ( 10030 ) was my reintroduction to Lego after the dark years - I clubbed together all my Christmas and birthday money (the latter is well within the 12 days of Christmas) and got it delivered to my mother's house.  It took me most of the day to build but it was such a satisfying day that I got a couple more UCS sets in the following years... before I met my now wife and spent all my money on things like houses and cars. 10030 remains, for me, one of the all time best sets.  Its sheer scale is awesome and the level of detail, build ingenuity and fun factor were unmatched until the UCS Falcon came along in 2007.  A helpful article on Rebrickable tells me that at 3115 parts this was also the biggest set released by L

Today's deconstruction goes way back into the mists of time to 2005: the ultimate lightsaber duel ( 7257 ). I got this set a while back and it was one of the poorest condition sets I've ever got from ebay.  I immediately replaced all the bricks it was sensible to do so and it looks somewhat better now, though is still a bit sub par.   However, it remains an interesting, and somewhat unique, set in the cannon.  What you get is a relatively flimsy structure, which replicates the Mustafar industrial facility where Anakin and Obi Wan have their final duel, with lots of trans neon orange to give some sense of lava.  And then two very long axles with unique minifig stands on the far end so that you can get the fatal pair to fight each other. There are then some hazards (falling lava, tumbling towers) to avoid. Perhaps the highlight, though, is the two minifigs themselves, which both have light-up lightsabers.  I'm really pleased that the batteries in mine still work well after 15

Today's deconstruction is one of the Imperial Landing Craft - 75221 from 2018.  This is a nice enough set with some reasonable play features.  However, it pales into insignificance against the much older, smaller 7659 from way back in 2007. I was lucky to pick up a brand new version of 7659 for a bargain because the box was missing - everything else was still new and sealed!   To compare: 75221 is bigger all round and weighs in 636 parts whereas 7659 has 471.  Both have 5 minifigs, though to be fair perhaps 75221 pips in this area.  Playability is where I remain in awe of 7659.  You get: cockpit (on both) the rear wings are on 7659 move on technic gears (much inferior toothed hinges on the later set) rubber bullets on 7659 (vs small stud shooters) Opening middle section (on both) Working bomb shutes on 7659 The whole middle section detaches on 7659 To be fair, 75521 does give you an extending ramp Here are some photos of the playability functions: I have to say, controversial tho

I have boringly spent much of the weekend sorting out parts into ziplock bags - it turns out that it takes a good couple of hours to sort out and file a big box of even type-sorted bricks!  However, I did deconstruct a number of Hoth sets - though they all merge into one.  Assualt on Hoth, Hoth Attack, Battle of Hoth, Echo Base, Hoth Echo Base, Hoth Rebel Base, Hoth Medical Chamber... As I've said before, someone at Lego must really love all those white Hoth bricks.   Anyway, to the topic of today's deconstruction: the two Republic Fighter Tanks: 7679 from way back in 2008 and 75182 from 2017.  The earlier set is far bigger, weighing in at 592 bricks and almost twice the size in all dimensions.  However, I was surprised to find that the smaller set packs 305 bricks into such a small set - it's remarkable robust.   Both feature a relatively SNOT design and both, in my view, are pretty elegant.  You get better minifigs with the more recent version but for sheer playability

Today's theme is DK "build your own adventure" and "brickmaster" sets.  Dorling Kindersley long ago did a tie in with both Lego and Star Wars - I've got a number of their books covering both themes individually and together.  You often get a minifig but in a few cases, they did "build your own adventure" books where you get the pieces for one or two models.  In some cases, these could be deconstructed and other models built.  What's not to like? Actually, the sets are ok but none of them are amazing.  And the books are a bit below my reading age these days.  But nevertheless, they're worth adding to the collection. I make it four sets: Galactic missions (2019) with a twin pod cloud car (only the third minifig sized version of this) Battle for the stolen crystals (2013) with a V-19 torrent and a separatist cannon  2016 BYOA with a microfighter-style y-wing 2011 Brickmaster with an AAT and a republic shuttle  

Having just posted about buildable figures, on to another of my less favourite series from Lego.  The "action battle" sets.  By my count there are three of these and Lego's fascination with Hoth continues - two of the three are themed after the snowy rebel base.   The three sets are: 75238 : Action battle Endor assault 75239 : Hoth generator attack 75241 : Action battle Echo Base defense The last is more than twice the size of the others but none the better for it.  The one redeeming feature of these sets for me is the return of the rubber bullet, which I've always quite liked.  The downside is that what was delivered was a series of not very well executed models with mechanisms that are either impossible to trigger (doors on Echo Base, or even worse the generator on Endor assault) or are so sensitive that it's impossible to set them (the AT-AT or the speeder bike). Overall, I'm definitely not a fan!  And given the relatively short-lived nature of the sub-them

Back in 2015, Lego tried something new with Star Wars - a mash up with action man!  The buildable figure was born with Jango Fett the first out of the box.  Over the next 4 years, 29 sets in total were released before Lego gave up and admitted that these weren't all that popular.  2019 initially had some more figures on the set runway but they were canned. I was never an action man child - I did own a second hand one from somewhere which moved its eyes creepily from side to side with a toggle on the back of the head.  So I was never going to be a natural fan of the buildable figures.  Back in 2016, I did buy the first Rey figure and was duly pretty disappointed.  Until I decided to collect every Lego Star Wars set ever, that was my one and only purchase. However, having since collected all the figures, I find myself slightly going back on my initial distaste.  The Rey figure remains a low point in the series and a couple of them are actually pretty good.  My all time favourite is K

 One of my least favourite Lego Star Wars sets is the spider droid.  There are three versions:  7681 from 2008 75016 from 2013 75142 from 2016 The last two are almost identical with the only discernable differences being the top/bottom turrents, the minifigs and the fact that the latest edition has a platform at the rear for a minifig to stand on. What I hate about these is the fact that they never stand up well - I'd honestly rather that the legs were held in with at least one friction pin at each joint so that you can place the legs.  Otherwise, it takes ages to get all four legs on a surface without the whole thing toppling over. Rant over.  Here are all three (I appear to be missing a clone droid from the middle set!).

Back in the mists of Lego time (2003), a release of polybag "mini building sets" was released. As far as I can tell, barring a mini tie fighter in 2002, these were the ground breaking in that they were the first non-minifig Star Wars sets and pretty much laid the groundwork for all future polybag sets, the calendars and more recently the magazine "gifts". There were three series.  The first comprised the following: 4484 : X-Wing Fighter & TIE Advanced 4485 : Sebulba's Podracer & Anakin's Podracer 4486 : AT-ST & Snowspeeder 4487 : Jedi Starfighter & Slave I Plus a bonus Tie Bomber if you bought all four These had some really nice printed parts and most of them really stand the test of time. I particularly think that the Jedi starfighter and Slave I are really good for their size.   Series two concentrated on one larger model rather than two smaller ones: 4488 : Millennium Falcon 4489 : AT-AT  4490 : Republic Gunship 4491 : MTT Plus a bonus Y-

Way before the buildable figures, which I have very mixed feelings about, came the technic Star Wars figures.  These were released between 2000 and 2002 and I count 9 of them.  The buildable figures sometimes have some arm articulation (turn a cog on the back and the arm moves) but that is strictly it in terms of cleverness.  In contrast, the technic figures almost all do a range of really clever things via internal mechanisms. They also have a range of rare and unique part/colour combinations which is useful to have in the back pocket. I've purchased them all over the years and as part of the Grand Deconstruct, am now taking them apart.  I did the C-3PO, R2-D2 and Jango Fett straight off and forgot to take photos.  However, a few thoughts are: The 3PO model ( 8007 ) looks really good with all the metallic gold parts and stickers.  To date, I believe that this remains the only non-minifig version of C-3PO ever released.  The "clever thing" that this model does is fall apa

It's been a while since I blogged anything here - mainly because I was away for 3 of the last 4 weeks but also because once the Grand Work was done, I've spent time doing bits and pieces of Lego tidying and deconstruction.  Not very exciting!   Yesterday, on my return from travels, I did put in my order to Lego for the summer release sets so will be blogging some more when they arrive and I get around to building them. Especially looking forward to the UCS gunship. The next thing on the list, though, is the grand deconstruct.  I have something like 300,000+ bricks built up in sets and they all need to be put away, sorted into the little ziplock bags and then into my storage system.  I reckon that's going to take me the best part of a year - probably around 1000 bricks a day is manageable.  I'll blog about some of the sets that I built early as I go... The first is the 2003 Hailfire Droid ( 4481 ) which was, I think, the last of the "technic" Star Wars sets.  T