The dark side of the brick

A few more sets have now been deconstructed and this includes a few that feature in my "bottom 10" list or very close. The first set is the First Order Heavy Scout Walker ( 75177 ).  Wookiepedia tells me what I already suspected: this is a vehicle (otherwise known as the All-terrain heavy scout or AT-HS) which never made it to screen and there's not surprise there: it's really ugly and totally ridiculous.  It reminds me of some sort of nodding donkey.  The way the legs move as the wheels turn is vaguely clever but otherwise, I could totally leave this set. Next up is the Sith Nightspeeder ( 7957 ), which is from the big face period of Lego Star Wars.  It's from the Clone Wars cartoon, and it shows.  Leave it. Third is the Magna Guard Starfighter ( 7673 ) from 2008.  Not bad for its time but not my favourite set.  Perhaps jaded by the fact that my version was a bit tatty and I made the mistake of buying without the minifigs, which meant I had to purchase those sep

The grand deconstruction is continuing and I wanted to clear some shelves down before the sun got too high in the sky (last year, I used bin bags to protect).  I therefore focussed on some big sets, including both Republic cruisers.   The first is the 2007 Republic Cruiser ( 7665 ) which is a cool set in red with dark red and white detailing.  It stands out now with the predominatly grey sets you get these days.   2011 brought the Republic Frigate ( 7964 ) which is a very similar design but slightly more parts.  If I had to choose, though, it would be the 2007 version I would go with. I also took apart the 2011 Jedi T-6 Shuttle ( 7931 ) which is quite a nice design and quite big but fewer pieces than I remembered.  It's also firmly from the era of big face minifigs, which I still don't really love. Next up is 75100 - the First Order Snowspeeder.  A relatively unremarkable set (very little to do) and one where I think the scale is all wrong.  That said, there is no real canon f

The intention when I get around to finish the deconstruction of the full set of Lego Star Wars sets is to focus on MOCs.  That said, I had reached a binary point in my career: I was either going to be massively promoted or made redundant.  It turned out to be the former and I've not posted much here because I've spent the last two months doing my new job as well as my old one.  I suppose it will pay for my Lego habit but I have a stack of sets waiting to be built and no shelf space for them yet.   Anyway, long digression, but I still occasionally build MOCs.  Two recent ones are both "heads".  Firstly, I made up The Armorer by Breaaad, which is in the style of the Helmet collection.  This one tested my colour vision to the limit with its mix of yellow and bright light orange.  However, it's a great design.  I particuarly loved the angles at the bottom which flow seamlessly around the sections (random, I know, but it's how I roll).   Second up was Leia in gold

With some regret, I finally took apart one of my favourite sets: the 2018 Betrayal At Cloud City ( 75222 ).  For me, this is a game-changer from Lego: the move into making sets aimed squarely at adults, complete with a "master builder" theme.  Arguably, the Ewok Village and possibly the rightly-maligned Assault on Hoth are precursors in this theme but both of them are primarily play sets.  This one has elements of play to satisfy any 10 yr old but the overwhelming aim is to make a set which looks amazing. Firstly, it rocks in at 2812 parts and 21 minifigs (was this a record up to this point? I think it was).  You get a super-cool mid-sized Slave I and the only proper twin-pod cloud car since 2002(!).   But that's just where it starts: you get so much detail, faithfully recreating the art deco vibe of Cloud City.  All the key scenes are captured in a really compact space. I have to briefly mention the original Cloud City, which was a pretty cool set for its time but it doe