The dark side of the brick

Yesterday evening was spent in the car so I didn't have a chance to post on the quick lunchtime build... the First Order Stormtroooper brick sketch ( 40391 ).  This is the second brick sketch and I bought both almost straight away; I built the BB8 very quickly but this one ended up at the back of the shelf and only came out when I was looking for something I could build in my lunch hour.   I know this took less than 12 mins because that's how long my pasty was in the oven for and I finished this by the time the timer went off so it wasn't a long build.  Firstly, I was surprised by the number of hidden tiles in there.  Secondly, I liked the layers.  In summary, it was a satisfying little build and quite different to the average Star Wars build. Today's build was in a very similar vein - the Scout Trooper ( 75305 ) from the helmet collection.  I was now looking for something that wasn't going to fall apart when it gets transported back in the car on Sund...

Excitingly, I've finally managed to escape London and get away for a few days. So, this morning, we packed the car with clothes, food, the wife's sewing machine, some books... and three lego sets that I deemed would survive transportation.  I've got to pace myself because these have to last me a week!   First out of the pile was the Boba Fett helmet ( 75277 ).  Weighing in at 625 parts, this is actually the simplest of the 2020 helmets.  However, it was a very satisfying build with plenty of interesting features.  Took me about an hour all told.     However, I'd like to raise two colour-related gripes: I really struggle to tell sand green apart from LBG in the instruction manuals, given my colour-defective vision Dark red is still coming in a really wide variety of colours and it's really obvious, even to me!

I'm still working through 10179 and felt like a Sunday break.  It's not as if there's a lot to do - normally, we'd be in the Midlands this weekend for my mother's birthday but lockdown life is pretty limited.  So, I thought I'd build my latest delivery - after being out of stock almost everywhere for weeks, I found the Tie Fighter Pilot Helmet ( 75274 ) available from Argos for delivery.  18 hours later (Argos is doing a good job of competing with Uncle Jeff!), it's on my doorstep and another 24 hours later than that, I've now constructed it.   This is my first foray into the Helmet collection which Lego started up last year.  It's clear that this is aimed at adult collectors (the box labels it 18+) and it is somewhat fiddly in places (the breathing tubes).  I can't imagine my 8yr old nephew building this one yet!  It also certainly looks pretty good once finished - there is plenty of detail and dimension to it.  It also contained a part which wa...