The dark side of the brick

Well, it had to be bought.  Back in early December, the Lego courier delivered the biggest set of 2021 - and indeed the second biggest Lego Star Wars set in terms of number of pieces.  The enormous 75313 UCS AT-AT.   What to say about this?  As always, with the UCS sets, it knocks the spots off every previous version of the vehicle in question.  Size - check.  Detail - all there.  Build factor - excellent. Sense of awe - off the scale!  New pieces - several.   I was at the end of a long year of work and trying to sort myself out for a much-rescheduled vacation so while I did pretty much drop all other Lego activity and start on this, it still took me 5 days to finish it.  At no point was the build really repetitive - even the legs weren't too bad.  And when you got to the two sides, there was the occasional greebling difference to keep you on your toes.  Though I was able to do large chunks from memory. Here's a phot...

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 v...

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 per...

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. ...

Today continues the AT theme with the 2014 AT-AT ( 75054 ).  This pretty much follows the format of yesterday's post on the AT-TE... a second hand set from ebay which turned up dirty, yellowed and with missing bricks.  I've managed to already replace all but 3 parts from my spares and the others are on order but it's still disappointing when you get poor quality sets.  Still, this one was pretty cheap, all told so I'm not complaining too much. Build was fine and there's a reasonable amount of detail in here.  But not amazingly fussed by it... though perhaps that's just because I'm really tired.