The dark side of the brick

No posts for a month and then 2 in a day.  I almost added the Falcon set to the last post but decided that they deserved their own special post. As I've been deconstructing, the Falcons have been taking up significant shelf space, even stood on their side, proped up against the wall.  So, they had to be an early target for deconstruction.  However, I did want to get the full set out and compare/contrast.   To date, Lego have released 6 Falcons at what I would call "minifig playset" size.  Generally these come in at around 1000-1300 pieces (the earliest is the counterexample due to the use of bespoke printed parts for the superstructure) and have been some of the pricier sets each year they came out.   The full list is: 7190 from way back in 2000 4504 from 2004, which was the archetype for all subsequent versions, though somewhat flimsy itself 7965 from 2011 which substantially improved on the sturdiness by introducing a technic substructure but makes the ports on the fron

Well, it's been a while since I posted anything but I've been busy doing enough deconstructions to move all Lego off the floor of my study before I turned the underfloor heating on.  My spreadsheet tells me that I'm 24% of the way through the whole lot so after 5 months, I had better revise my estimate on how long it will take me to get all the way there.  One other thing I need to revise is my estimate on how many boxes and ziplock bags I'm going to need... I bought 50 cardboard shoeboxes (the ones with pull out drawers) but over 30 of them are already full, in addition to the Really Useful and Ikea boxes I already had.  Hmm. Anyway, what's been deconstructed that I've not already blogged about... first off was the majority of the Droid fighters, including: Droid fighter 7111 Vulture droid from 7660 Vulture droid 7751 Vulture droid 75041 Hyena droid bomber 8016 The only one of this ilk still made up is the 2005 vulture droid from 75256.  These aren't my fav

Barring a couple of the Y-wings and some of the Jedi interceptors, there isn't an awful lot of yellow in the Star Wars cannon, for some reason.  The big exception is the Naboo starfighter which is pretty much defined by its yellowness.   I will be open that this was never my favourite vehicle: it comes from my least favourite Star Wars film and is noted for being piloted by a very irksome Anakin Skywalker.  I think they wanted it to be beautiful and streamlined but I feel it misses on this, even in the film.  The Lego versions do their best to try and capture the flowing lines but are hampered by the brick nature.  As such, I've never been a fan of these. Over the years, Lego have released 5 minifig-sized versions, albeit one of them not including any minifigs and being (just about) part of the UCS series. Way back in 1999, one of the first SW sets was the "Naboo Fighter" ( 7141 ).  For its time, it was pretty good but, in my humble opinion, it's not really stood

It's getting colder and I want to turn on my underfloor heating... which means that I need to clear the floor of the Lego cave.  Most stuff is on shelves but I have a couple of sets that fell apart while I was doing my inventory and video of the whole lot.  One of these was the Pasaana speeder chase ( 75250 ) from 2019.   I'm often ambivalent about the sets which comprise several small vehicles and a bit of random scenery.  I tend to the view that they miss on all fronts barring perhaps some playability.  However, this set actually has some really nice design features and I find myself actually quite liking it. The colours are pretty startling and definitely not traditional SW grey: you get plenty of red, some sand blue and the odd bit of medium blue thrown in.  You also get some nice minifigs - the two stormtroopers are unique to this set.  Both speeders are very nicely realised with lots of asymmetric detail and I even like the random tool shelter.   Just don't knock it o