The dark side of the brick

Back in the day, Lego TIE fighters were blue.  I've never understood this design choice from Lego as I don't believe that they ever featured much blue in them in the films!  Still, it doesn't look too bad and they now form a distinct subgenre in the Lego Star Wars universe.  Anyway, I reckon there were a total of 8 unique sets, though some of these appeared multiple times in different sets.  Here's my list: 7150 : TIE flighter (with Y-wing) from way back in 1999.  This is actually a Darth Vader (or Advanced) TIE and did indeed come with Darth himself.  Very simple.  Later reappeared in 7152 and 7262. 7146 : TIE fighter from 2001.  This one came with a TIE pilot and a standard stormtrooper but usefully a stan to precariously balance it on 4479 : TIE bomber from 2003.  This one really harks back after 7150.    10131 : TIE fighter collection (2004).  This introduced a new version of the Darth Vader TIE and a slightly remodelled ve...

New sets released today - and on order.  But in the meantime, I've taken delivery of a load more plastic boxes to store all my deconstructed parts in and am continuing with the grand deconstruct: after 6 months though, I'm still only 31% of the way through the collection!  Hmm Yesterday, I started on my box of cube dudes and Brickheadz.  The cube dudes are clearly a forerunner of the brick head, sharing quite a few design features.  The dudes are, however, based on a 3x3 plan and are pretty fragile whereas the the 'headz are 4x4, plus generally two plates worth of detailing around the head.  And are much much more sturdy. At the time of writing, there are I think 18 Brickheadz out there with a 19th (Ahsoka Tano) to be released soon: 41485: Finn 41486: Captain Phasma 41489: Rey and Kylo Ren (also released as singles) 41498: Boba Fett and Han Solo in carbonite (I own a mint version of this set and it's one of the very few I will never build to retain its value) 41...

The V-wing remains one of the most mysterious of the Star Wars craft for me.  It apparently turns up in the Revenge of the Sith but I struggle to remember it in that film.  That said, compared to the original trilogy which I must have seen at least 30 times each, I've probably only watched this one 3 or 4 times and not with any attention for some years. The internet tells me that it's actually an "Alpha 3 Nimbus V-wing starfighter" made by Kuat.  No hyperdrive and an unpressurised cockpit but highly manouverable.   Lego has made three versions over the years: way back in 2006 came set 6205 with just 118 parts.  I do not think that this is Lego's finest hour: like some of the early Sith Infiltrators, the front section feels very flat.  The radiator wings also don't rotate which is a nice feature on the later versions. The fact that you only get a droid head also feels cheap to me.   Next up in 2011 was set 7915 , with 139 parts.  A sligh...

A final bit of catching up with blogging: the last set I deconstructed back in November was the Ewok Village ( 10236 ) from 2013.  This is counted as a UCS set but would now fit much better in the Master Builder series (along with the still lamentable Assault on Hoth), given that it features large numbers of minifigs and a scene with lots of detail. This one comes with 16 minifigs and plenty of play features, including may favourite which is the roasting spit for Han.  I also love the drum kits and the swinging logs for crushing AT-STs.  Plenty of catapults and, places to hide and slides for Ewoks (though not all of them work brilliantly).   I'd have kept this one constructed but I really needed the space back.  All in all, it's a really nice set, but doesn't naturally sit within what I would define as the UCS sets.

More deconstruction... today's efforts are the following. Firstly, Major Vonreg's TIE fighter ( 75240 ) from 2019.  Making use of the relatively new 6x4 wedge plates and the some really nice dovetailing of 2x4 wedge plates in different colours, this is a nice set.  My niece liked it because it wasn't grey! 4 unique minifigs is also great. Next up is the Sith TIE ( 75272 ) from 2020.  A very solid set and always feels like it's going to topple off its stand.  I like this one less. Finally, I took apart Duel on Geonosis ( 75017 ), from 2013.  This is a relatively simple set with some playability, mainly in the fact that you can zap Yoda around the set with the articulated arm that he attaches to.  Not the most thrilling set ever.  

Another belated post - back in early December, I took apart both of the UCS Y-wings: 10134 which I've owned from new since 2004 and 75181 from 2018. Back in 2004, I remember being slightly disappointed with the Y-wing: it was my second Lego Star Wars set after the incomparable 10030 and it didn't quite measure up in terms of scale and scope.  However, revisiting it now, I think it really holds up and delivers tons of detail for its part count.  The only bit that I still hate is threading all of the short bits of tubing onto the white 12l axles.   75181 is, of course, better detailed and takes advantage of 14 years of new Lego parts.  That said, I'd be hard pressed now to separate them in terms of which I like the best.

As I've not been blogging much of late, I've missed talking about a couple of builds.  First up is 75310 : Duel on Mandalore.  One of the smaller sets of 2021 - indeed barring the Falcon microfighter, I think this is the smallest regular set.  With only 147 pieces you expect limited playability and detail and what you get is therefore not a surprise.   The best bit of this is clearly the two minifigs, especially the unique Darth Maul.   Next up is Darth Vader's Meditation Chamber ( 75296 ).  This one took a while for me to get - seemed to be out of stock on the Lego website for ages so I eventually got it from Amazon.  This is probably the most SNOT set I think I've ever seen from Lego: there are some studs visible on the outside of the meditation chamber itself but certainly all of the floor area is entirely free of studs.  Which is unfortunate for the redoubtable General Veers.  Otherwise, I really like this set.

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...

My pace of posting has massively slowed down since the first half of the year... though taking Lego apart and putting it in plastic bags isn't anywhere near as exciting to talk about as building it is.  This week, however, I've gone back to building - not that I have anywhere to put my new build it turns out.  My house is in disarray as I have new windows fitted in most rooms and my nephews are coming to stay next week which will cause further havoc.  Hmm. Anyway, my build for the week was the much delayed UCS republic gunship ( 75309 ).  I've not rushed it but it has taken me 4 nights of building and turns out to be 3292 bricks of typical incredibleness.  I really like all of the proper UCS sets and this is no exception.     The set is massive - it certainly compares to the ISDs and Falcons in terms of sheer scale.  Here's another photo with the old minifig scale gunships for comparison: It's also nicely designed with a robust feel and large...

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 ma...