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 purcha...

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....

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). ...

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...

Today's deconstruction is the Battle of Endor ( 8038 ).  This was a set that was pretty hard to get hold of with all the individual bits included - with 12 minifigs and 5 ancillary elements more versions I saw had something missing. And those that didn't were typically very expensive.  I eventually lucked out by finding a super dusty version for sale.  Apart from the grim task of getting rid some someone else's dirt, I have typically found these to be a reasonable bet as it indicates a set that has been built and displayed, rather than being played with/damaged. The only risk is sun damage but I couldn't see any sign and it turned out ok in the end.   This was a 2009 set but feels like it could have been from a bit earlier, if I'm very honest: most of the set is pretty straightforward in design.  That said, it's very effective.  The main shield base has all the right detailing and some good play features (moving doors are a must but the exploding walls...

A more recent film franchise that I have also taken quite a liking to is the MCU.  In particular, I really like the two Guardians of the Galaxy films, with their great soundtracks, irreverant humour and sci-fi setting.  I've often planned to go back and purchase the Guardians Lego sets but never got around to it (too busy with Star Wars). Anyway, bonus day came at the end of March so I went on Ebay and picked up 76021 - The Milano Spaceship Rescue.  This is a relevation!  My wife has always teased me that my lego is basically grey and that this is such a shame given the range of colours out there (see my colour chart for a good indication).  The Milano has some bits of grey in it but the dominant colours are blue and bright light orange, making it much more interesting.  With the flat silver panels, you also get some sparkliness.   Clearly, this reflects the underlying ethos of the MCU vs Star Wars: the former has its origins in colourful comics ...

One of the more enduring themes of recent years in the Lego Star Wars pantheon is the microfighter range.  I have to start out with the view that these aren't my favourite sets - while some of them manage a pretty good design with a relatively limited number of bricks, most of them end up quite cartoonish.  The real problem, in my view, is that the minifig is always placed on a prominent position in a way that is totally out of scale with the rest of the model. That said, I guess cartoonish is what Lego was probably going for, so maybe they've hit their mark.  I suppose these are really aimed at younger builders who probably don't have the aesthetic sensibilities that I do. Least favourite for me are the AT-ATs (and variants) with their clumpy 3x3 dish feet.  At the other end of the spectrum, the dewback and bantha are pretty good, partly because the scale is right.   So, what do you get?  In general you get around 90-100 parts (minimum was 62 with the very...

A few weeks back, I took apart the collection of Jedi Starfighters .  As a collection, I really appreciated the different design details for each Jedi's unique decoration.  A few weeks on, I'm now onto what Lego typically refers to as the "Jedi Interceptor".  In full-on lore, the terms "starfighter" and "interceptor" seem somewhat interchangeable but these are models of the Eta-2 Actis-class light interceptor .  Smaller than the "starfighter", it apparently packed more firepower and is faster.  So, I know which one I'd want in a fight! Actually, I am much less keen on the interceptor than the starfighter, as a Lego model.  Maybe it's just that all of them are pretty similar?  Over 15 years, Lego really hasn't innovated very much with the design - the same hexagonal flags as wings and - almost - the same cockpit canopy (on closer inspection, there are some very subtle changes to the print design).  And there's not the varia...

Today I've gotten to Cad Bane's speeder ( 8128 ).  This is a set from Lego Star Wars' 2nd phase (one day I'll write up my contention that there were broadly 3 phases), with a wide selection of bricks used to good effect and the "large face" minifigs from that time.   I'm not a massive fan of the set: it's somewhat simplistic and has limited play features.  That said, the underside has more detail than is usual for a set of this type and there are some unique minifigs (though not Cad Bane himself as he also comes with the 8028 Turbo Tank). Overall, 6 out of 10.

Final post of the day... lots to catch up on, it seems.  Next off the shelf is the Droid Commander set from 2019.  I eagerly purchased this straight off as the concept looked really interesting and I was keen to see how it actually worked out in practice. What you get is enough bricks to build three droids: a really nicely detailed R2-D2, a pretty good Teal gonk droid and an afterthought of an imperial mouse droid.  Plus a number of random parts to build into targets and implements.  And a single control unit that you have to swap between droids. No instructions, though: they come with the app.  Which is where I started to get a bit bogged down.  I'm generally a pretty fast builder and the app wanted me to do one piece at a time before I could move to the next.  I spent the whole time pressing the "next" button which was pretty frustrating. You can also only build the R2 unit first and have to leave the rest of the parts bagged up until you've passed e...