The dark side of the brick

I'm about to start deconstruction of my collection of Imperial shuttles.  I'm sad about this because the UCS shuttle ( 10212 ) is one of my all-time favourite Lego sets.  However, it is very big and it was taking up space where I wanted to put my new collection of storage boxes, so it'll have to go. The imperial shuttle recurs quite regularly throughout the Lego catalogue.  Apart from the simply enormous UCS set, there are, I think 4 minifig-sized play sets: 7166 from way back in 2001 7264 from 2005, which is basically a copy of 7166 (with the new colours) and more minifigs 75094 from 2015 and 75302 from earlier this year. Here's a photo of 3 of them (Imperial Inspection was on the floor): Of these, I have a soft spot for the 2001 original but would go for 75094 if I had to pick one - the most bricks, the best play features and the biggest at this size.  There are no less than 5 mini sets, though for some reason I could only find 4 of these.  4494 from way back ...

Well, it's been a while since I put anything on this blog but a) I've been on holiday, b) work has been very busy and c) having built all my Lego sets, there was pretty much nothing left to build. Apart from set 7264 - the Imperial Inspection - which I never bought.  I've generally not bought anything which was a duplicate of another set and the shuttle from this set was pretty much identical to the 2001 7166 Imperial Shuttle.  The obvious difference is that the older set is in old colours but I think they are otherwise near identical. However, having decided that 7264 was a "duplicate", it's since been bugging me as there are some bits of equipment and some unique stormtroopers in this set.  So, I've got a copy after all.  It was missing parts of three minifigs so came quite cheap and the bricks are in a mix of states. However, cleaned up, it looks ok: It's not going to set the Lego Star Wars world alight and if you don't have a copy, you don...

A quick one-hour build today - the new Imperial Shuttle ( 75302 ).  This is pretty reminscent of previous shuttles in overall size but benefits from the latest parts.  And for a set of this size, it has no less than four parts that are new to my collection, which is always a bonus. Playability is medium - the wings fold, the cockpit opens and the central section hinges back (there's a clip with a nice feel to it.  Three minifigs and brickset claims two of them are unique but I think that's stretching it (Darth's cloak and I'm pretty sure that the constituent parts of the pilot have been seen before).   However, overall, I'm quite pleased with it and if you've not got a shuttle in your collection, this is a good addition.

I decided to do another quick build... the freebie imperial shuttle ( 30388 ) that was an in-store give away this weekend.  I've had a copy of this for a while as it was also released somewhere at the start of the year.  Just 85 pieces, it's actually really good and feels surprisingly solid.  Another nice little set

It's been a few days since I posted anything, because I've spent the time doing c.1,000 picks ready for building up some more old sets (I've got 176 to go).  However, I've squeezed in a few minutes to build a couple of sets in recent days. Firstly, I built the Amelia Earhart Tribute freebie set ( 40450 ) that came with a recent purchase.  This is the first set in a while where I was super tempted to apply the stickers.  The build was simple but enjoyable with some really nice design especially in the main fuselage of the plane.  There is also a unique part/colour in the propellers.   The second set is back to topic with the Range Trooper ( 75536 ) from 2018.  I've never generally been a fan of the buildable figures and this one continued to not excite me.  There are a few parts in here that I don't have elsewhere (e.g. the "toa okoto" armour piece) and you get some furry cloth pieces but otherwise this gets nothing much more than a 5 out of 10. In...