The dark side of the brick

Next off my shelf was the set of Corporate Alliance tank droids.  There are three of them, though one of them comes in a set called "Wookie Attack" and includes a Wookie airship.   The three sets are: 7258 from 2005 ("Wookie attack") 7748 from 2009 75015 from 2013 Wookie attack has the sand blue colour scheme and, in my book, this gives it a good recommendation.  The two sides also hinge up to give access to a droid seat and the wookie airship gives great playability options.  I also really like the printed trans neon orange 10x10 dishes.  This makes it my favourite of the three by a strong margin. 7748 has really boring minifigs and only the printed dishes rescue it from obscurity. 75015 is fine but also a bit dull.  

Back in 2019, before the helmet collection came along, Lego released two sets which could almost be considered prototypes.  Both were called "busts" and one was Darth Vader ( 75227 ) and the other a Sith Trooper ( 77901 ).  Also, both were limited edition sets which could only be purchased if you won an online raffle ahead of a convention.   Clearly, my sets are therefore both rebuilds from parts bought online.   They are about 1/4 the size of the helmets and about half the number of parts but pack in a good level of detail, and also include shoulders.  I quite like them, though the Sith Trooper is by far the better of the two.

So, after a couple of years of steady blogging, the last 8 months have been a bit of a drought... Three things have conspired to take my attention away from Lego Star Wars: firstly, my uncle died in July last year - you can pretty much see exactly when.  Sorting out his estate has taken me quite a bit of time, not least because I inherited 2,000+ CDs, 378 LPs, c. 1,000 DVDs, boxes of cassettes and hundreds of books.  It's actually turned out to be pretty valuable in parts and I've been selling individual items on ebay for upwards of £100, though a large part of the DVDs went to resellers for pennies. But listing and posting 1000+ items takes time. Secondly, my new role at work last year has meant significantly more travel - I'm now on a plane to Asia once a month and - like the last few weeks - twice in quick succession.  This takes out a lot of nights at home.  Finally, I also spent quite a bit of time playing back through Skyrim on my xbox... and am likely to lose ...

Again, not had much time for Lego over recent weeks and I suspect that's going to get worse before it gets better.  Still, found a bit of time to take apart my two T-16 Skyhoppers. First up is one of the older sets: 4477 from way back in 2003.  This is a pretty simple and straightforward set but with the use of printed parts is quite effective.  2015 brought 75081 with more than double the parts twice the number of minifigs and a desert rat.  But not that much extra fun.  My version has the stickers applied (it was second hand) but the wrong way round on the cockpit which is slightly annoying. Anyway, here's the photos:  

Another month has gone by and I've not had much time for Lego.  A trip to Scotland to see family, a night away with the better half and a week in Singapore with work has left me with less time than ideal.  Still, I have managed to do find some brick time... and this month cleared out my podracing sets. Lego has delivered podracers in 3 and a half distinct styles: initially, way back in 1999 some of the very first SWL was the Mos Espa Podrace set ( 7171 ) with Anakin's podracer released as a standalone set ( 7131 ).  This was followed up in 2001 with Watto's junk yard ( 7186 ) which added another two podracers, albeit one of them in junk parts.  These sets share a - to modern eyes - somewhat clunky tan stand but are otherwise excellent examples of early design with the brick selection available at the time.  Good use of printed parts enhances the design.  These are a great addition to any Lego collection and there are some rare minifigs in there (Watto, Sebu...

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...