General LEGO discussion (inc. collectible minifigs)

Chat about stuff other than Transformers.
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Warcry
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Re: General LEGO discussion (inc. collectible minifigs)

Post by Warcry »

Tantrum wrote: Sat Dec 12, 2020 7:23 pmI generally have more nostalgia for the toys than the show, and have been kind of bummed that the Jetfire toys homage the latter. Even when they have the masked face, they still have the wings out Seeker style instead of folding away G1 toy style.
I'm not sure if I would agree with that. The most recent Jetfire is the only official figure that really seems to give much attention to the animation model. The few before that mostly seemed to be aiming for "Valkyrie knockoff", though they wound up missing the mark because Hasbro was afraid of rousing Bandai's legal wrath.

What amazes me is that no third-party companies have tried to make a toy-based Jetfire. It's not like they have any qualms about "borrowing" other companies' character designs...

Your Lego version is pretty damned cool, though!
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Re: General LEGO discussion (inc. collectible minifigs)

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Thanks, Warcry.

I got a Barnes & Noble gift card for my birthday last month, since it's one of the only stores I'll still go to. I wanted to get out of the house, so last night I took a walk there just before they closed, and scored a couple LEGO sets.

LEGO Creator 31112 Wild Lion - I've only built one of the alternates s far, an ostrich. There's also a boar in addition to the titular lion. It's one of the few Creator sets I've seen in a while where I like all 3 builds. The lion is accompanied by a tiny vulture. Since I was able to build the vulture and the ostrich, I assume some of his parts are used in the boar. The boar's tucks aren't used in the lion, so the lion also gets a bloody rib cage made of the tusks and some red bricks.

LEGO Classic 11013 Creative Transparent Bricks - About a third of the 500 pieces are transparent. Like most Classic sets, there's some simple builds shown on the box, with instructions for littler kids. They're little animals and a wizard, similar to other Classic sets, but with some transparent bricks. There's a solid green turtle with a clear blue shell, and a solid yellow lion with a (mostly) clear orange mane. Unfortunately, the bottom of the lion's mane is solid orange. I don't know if this was an aesthetic choice, or if they just don't make that brick shape transparent.

This is the first Classic set I've seen with parts in numbered and unnumbered bags. The numbered bags contain parts for the suggested builds. Bag 1 contains the parts for the lion and duck, bag 2 the turtle and robot, etc. The other pieces are in the unnumbered bags. This is probably to make building the things on the box easier for the little kids this kit is intended for. But, it kind of goes against the build-something-out-of-a-pile-of-bricks vibe other Classic sets have had, and more towards the these-parts-are-for-this-those-parts-are-for-that that single build sets have.

Also, there may be too many colors of LEGO now. 500 pieces divided over 20-something solid colors and another dozen clear colors mean you only get a few pieces of most colors. There's just over 20 regular blue pieces. Then, 2 light blue 2x1 tiles, 3 round tiles in a different shade of light blue, 4 bricks in a third shade of light blue, and 4 teal bricks. It's hard to build much when you run out of your chosen color almost immediately.

Usually, when I get a Classic set, I build the stuff on the box, then get inspired to build at least half a dozen other things with the remaining pieces, then put whatever's left in my LEGO bins. This time, I built a walrus, and am pretty much out of ideas.
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Skyquake87
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Re: General LEGO discussion (inc. collectible minifigs)

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Aye, I kind of wish they made the Classics sets like those old '80s Basic ones - three, maybe four colours, plus wheels and other specialised elements, that built in a multitude of decent sized models. Then, whatever you can come up with. The rainbow you get in these brick boxes nowadays does feel a bit limiting.

I'm trying to steer clear of Lego nowadays, as I really don't have space for even the stuff I've got, but I couldn't resist:

76173 Marvel Spider-Man and Ghost Rider vs. Carnage
I love Ghost Rider, so I was on it with this set. Which gives us the Robbie Reyes Ghost Rider (fun fact: he's possessed by the spirit of his murderous uncle) in his Hell-Charger. The build itself is good fun and has some nice techniques. I'm not 100% sold on the end result. Like some of the old Speed Champions designs, it feels a bit pinched and narrow. The use of stud shooters for the raised engine block (I don't know cars) is fun, but doesn't do wonders for realism. But then this is for kids. I think Mr Hyde would have been a better inclusion as a villain, rather than Carnage. Overall, good set, just not as lively as the earlier GR one.

60287 CiTY Tractor
The red tractor came out in 2009 was the first set got me back into collecting Lego as a grown up, so this seems a fitting capstone (he says). The main build is excellent; surprisingly involved and unexpectedly so, given the general drive towards simplicity and lower part counts this year. The new Technic chevron tyres are used to great effect and the scoop works well. In addition to the farmer and a couple of bales of hay, the set also throws in a crate of farm produce, rabbit and a child minifigure, which honestly it didn't need (and would have shaved about £5 off the RRP). One of the better larger CiTY vehicles that's come out this year, if not the best. Recommended.
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Tantrum
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Re: General LEGO discussion (inc. collectible minifigs)

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LEGO Classic 11016 Creative Building Bricks - As with the previous Classic set I bought, the parts for the builds on the box are in numbered bags, separate from the rest of the bricks. There's only 7 builds, and they're pretty simple, even by Classic box standards. And as with the previous Classic set, I felt uninspired by the remaining bricks. I think having to dig through the various bags to assemble the box builds in previous Classic sets helped me get into the mindset of poring through all the parts to create something.

The remaining parts are bagged by color, and distributed somewhat consistently. That is, all the colors that come with 2x2 bricks come with exactly 10 of them, the colors that come with 3x1 bricks come with 3 of them, and so on. That's not to say that there's equal numbers of each color, though, since many colors skip some shapes entirely. There's one odd shade of blue that only has the 3 3x1 bricks.

Another shade of blue, maybe teal, only has 2 4x1 arches. Plenty of basic blue and red, though. I wish they'd do Classic boxes that flip these ratios. Give me dozens of teal, aqua, and lavender and just a few red and blue. I have plenty of red and blue, already.

In fact, as I was sorting these bricks to add to my bins, I was wondering if I'd ever actually use most of them. I have plenty of red 2x4s already. Would I even notice the 8 more this set gives me? Or would they just sit in my red bin, unused, for the rest of my life? It's not like I've ever been close to running out of red 2x4s. Or most other red bricks. Or blues, yellows or greys, which is the lion's share of what they gave me.

I know LEGOs are fungible, that just about every set I've bought for quite some time has been redundant. Still, having a fresh pile of bricks in unique color ratios, with a few odd eye or wing pieces, usually inspires me to create something I otherwise wouldn't. But not this time. Did I really spend $50 just to spend an hour or two sorting bricks I'll never use? Have I nothing better to do with my money? Or my time?

Then I found the teeth pieces, and made a head with a gaping maw and pink mohawk, which I attached to a 4-armed, 4-legged humanoid body, which I call octo-punk.

1,200 bricks for $50 and a brief existential crisis is a pretty good deal.
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Re: General LEGO discussion (inc. collectible minifigs)

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76199 Carnage - I bought the Maximum Carnage video game back in the 90s because Green jello did the soundtrack. I don't actually have much for Carnage comics. $60 for 546 pieces is a bit more than average. I didn't like the look that much until I put the stickers on. When applying stickers to the eyebrows, do the rectangular ones first, then line up the black on the triangular ones.

10281 Bonzai Tree - 878 pieces for $50 is a much better deal, even though 200 of those pieces are just round studless 1x1 tiles used as gravel. step 55 on the instructions is just pouring the entirety of bag 3 into the structure you made with bags 1 and 2.

There's two sets of branches, one a typical green set, the other white branches with pink frogs used as cherry blossoms. They both look good, but are pretty repetitive to build. There are 100 frogs to apply to 10 identical branches. Maybe that's part of the zen thing?
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Re: General LEGO discussion (inc. collectible minifigs)

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Ooh, the bonsai tree. I love the concept of the bonsai tree, mainly for the creative use of the frogs but putting it together looked like torture.
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Re: General LEGO discussion (inc. collectible minifigs)

Post by Denyer »

Tantrum wrote: Sat May 22, 2021 11:11 pm1,200 bricks for $50 and a brief existential crisis is a pretty good deal.
Do you use https://www.bricklink.com/ ? Now officially owned by LEGO. You can upload part lists (and those can be exported from LDD etc or some third-party instructions come with them) and it'll help break them down into orders with different sellers, which is rather handy if you're planning to build something specific.
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Re: General LEGO discussion (inc. collectible minifigs)

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Denyer wrote: Thu Aug 26, 2021 11:38 am
Tantrum wrote: Sat May 22, 2021 11:11 pm1,200 bricks for $50 and a brief existential crisis is a pretty good deal.
Do you use https://www.bricklink.com/ ? Now officially owned by LEGO. You can upload part lists (and those can be exported from LDD etc or some third-party instructions come with them) and it'll help break them down into orders with different sellers, which is rather handy if you're planning to build something specific.
I've used that (or a similar site) to look up kits I already own to cannibalize for parts I need for a build I'm working on. But, that's generally the opposite of what I buy Classic sets for, a bunch of random parts I hope will inspire me to build something I hadn't thought of before. I did find around 3,000 cubic inches of bricks for $65 at a flea market a couple weeks ago.

I used to just keep all my bricks in one giant tub. Pawing through that would sometimes inspire new ideas. But, It would then lead to searching through every brick I own looking for parts I don't have. Keeping my bricks sorted at least allows me to determine how many 2x1 curved red tiles I own for certain in a few seconds, instead of an indeterminate amount of time to not know if I missed any.


I also got the Ghost Rider/Spider-Man/Carnage set Skyquake mentioned. I put the flame effects on the car per the instructions, but have 2 rods left over. Any idea what they do?
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Re: General LEGO discussion (inc. collectible minifigs)

Post by Denyer »

I roughly sort into boxes to keep less useful pieces out of the way: minifigs, "classic" bricks and bases that don't get used much unless it's for functional things like risers, castle, and everything else (mainly small elements, which is what I tend to use). Similar parts might get stacked together if that's practical.

I don't "build" build very often, it's more finding pieces to customise/improvise things with, so even with a not particularly large collection I tend to just order more bits as and when rather than get frustrated trying to find the last few of something or need a wall-sized sorting unit.

Somewhere on the project list is an Original Series Trek star ship bridge or interior, but that's been there as an idea for about a decade. The improvements in part colour availability (but keeping a Classic Space aesthetic) might be what tip it to actually getting tackled. TBH, the planning is more therapeutic than doing a complex build.
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Re: General LEGO discussion (inc. collectible minifigs)

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Stopped in at the LEGO store this afternoon- just passing through. It was the first time we've been able to go inside without pre-booking since it opened so we wandered and took some pictures because they have some crazy LEGO works up-

Crazy Lambo sitting at the entrance:

Image

Interior:

Image

Rear:

Image

Detail:

Image


Baby Lambo locked in a case:

Image


Sir, stop searching, the treasure's under your feet:

Image

Millennium Falcon:

Image

Heist in progress:

Image

Plane:

Image

Helicopter:

Image
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Re: General LEGO discussion (inc. collectible minifigs)

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Neat stuff, although I've never seriously considered Legoland Windsor because big builds where it's essentially just basic bricks but stacked to produce curves and textures tend to be a bit... boring, after the first few in a row? It's sort of the LEGO equivalent of pixel art or MS Paint drawing. And they almost always have to be glued or reinforced because the clutch effect of LEGO bricks fails at heavier weights.

Saw this earlier and thought it was fun, although the shark mode is better than the robot... it's also quite a bit bigger than may be first apparent.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPfG5xOrhaQ
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Re: General LEGO discussion (inc. collectible minifigs)

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That is cool, though I was mostly distracted from the process by mentally questioning the black serial killer gloves. I agree that the shark mode is cooler than the robot.

I heard a random YouTuber recently say that the insides of the LEGO scupltures are supported by metal framework and mostly consists of DUPLO, which is interesting if true. And yeah, they absolutely need to be reinforced. IIRC a few of these figures here came shipped in large pre-assembled pieces and were assembled for a final time on-site, smaller ones (like the pirate) came in one piece. I think them being made of tiny little bricks is what makes them interesting- I appreciate it as an art form, and I'm pretty sure they have to be constructed by hand, every time (don't quote me on that, I'm just assuming by the nature of the thing and some half-remembered documentary I may or may not be making up in my head. They might very well have a LEGO-building robot out there somewhere, I don't know :laugh: ) If they do, that's pretty neat. I appreciate that.

(and I did try and find out if any of this shit I'm saying is true, but I got distracted every time. Next thing I know it's ten days later. So I'm just going to reply, then look- that way if I get distracted, I've already replied! Winning.)

edit: Yas by hand/metal frameworks, no to Duplo so far:



And this is just cool:

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Re: General LEGO discussion (inc. collectible minifigs)

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Denyer wrote: Sat Oct 02, 2021 12:37 am Neat stuff, although I've never seriously considered Legoland Windsor because big builds where it's essentially just basic bricks but stacked to produce curves and textures tend to be a bit... boring, after the first few in a row? It's sort of the LEGO equivalent of pixel art or MS Paint drawing. And they almost always have to be glued or reinforced because the clutch effect of LEGO bricks fails at heavier weights.
I like it where they do stuff that isn't just one of their sets upscaled in bricks. That's a bit more interesting to me.

I bought the Lego Marvel Daily Bugle 76178 set! As a building, it's quite boring on the outside all grey and windows, and it's the interiors and the mini-figures that make it a great set to play with. I really enjoyed putting it together (took 10 hours over 5 days) and the figure selection is great, although I'd have happily sacrificed Miles Morales and Spider-Gwen/ Ghost-Spider for a couple more of Spidey's regular supporting cast/ more office workers.

Also got Lego Marvel Bro Thor's New Asgard 7200, which is easily the best of the current Infinity Saga sets. Nicely detailed vignette of Thor's gaff from Avengers: End Game. Tons of cute little details (I like the wonky picture and all the little knick-knacks dotted around on shelves) and good figure selection, although Meik is a bit rubbish. It would have been nice if some proper exterior walls could have been added, as it does look a bit patchwork, but then that's not generally the angle you'll be viewing if from.
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Re: General LEGO discussion (inc. collectible minifigs)

Post by Denyer »

It's what the older guy was talking about I find most interesting about LEGO -- different techniques like Studs Not On Top and just general Nice Parts Usages in general. Finding the most appropriate pieces, ideally without having to mine odd/rare stuff, although sometimes that produces really neat finishing touches (like the old Belville sets had rosettes that make good 40K style purity seals). CAD and basic bricks feels more like pixel art in a way than building and parts selection.

LEGO itself can be strong enough to take weight and force, with creativity and reinforcing structures internally with technical beams etc.

Have y'all seen any of these vids? LEGO vs metal parts. Lots more on the channel.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRn5waE0qfk
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Re: General LEGO discussion (inc. collectible minifigs)

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I guy on TFW2005 offered me his Kre-O if I paid for shipping. I gladly accepted, and built a hybrid G1/Bee movie Starscream and Monstructor. I also rebuilt the original Kre-O Prowl and Starscream to have better proportions.
pics
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Re: General LEGO discussion (inc. collectible minifigs)

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Re: General LEGO discussion (inc. collectible minifigs)

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I'll take things we couldn't have made with the bricks we had as kids for $100, Alex.

The Monstructor's about as detailed as the original, too.
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Re: General LEGO discussion (inc. collectible minifigs)

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I've bought a bunch of the Lego Speed Champions 2022 sets over the last couple of weeks. I haven't been so keen on the recent switch to the 8-wide builds, but these sets are really, really good.

First one I got was 76908 Lamborghini Countach because I like this car so much. It's curiously sleek and wedgy looking, like a very fast cheese. The Lego version captures this so well and has some fun building techniques. The red interior is very nice too.

76907 Lotus Evija I like this more in Lego form than the actual thing. I find these rounded globules that pass for super cars quite boring, and the limitations of Lego bricks lends this some nice choppy shaping. I particularly like the side panels and the air scoops on the bonnet and the mouthy front end. Nice.

76910 Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR Pro and Vantage GT3 The Vantage is the more straight forward (and less interesting of the two vehicles), but has some nice building techniques (I especially like how the tail light bar thingy is made up) and looks pretty muscley. It's actually a really nice design, it's just it's in a box with the Valkyrie which is such an incredible piece of work. There's an ingenious use of parts and techniques to get the shaping as close as and I really love the mix of lime green, black and red. It's a really great build.

76906 Ferrari 512 M What a funny looking thing this is. I love these mad old spacey looking racing cars. They look like they're straight out of Wacky Races. I think it's probably the weakest out of the new sets, but that's not to say it's by any means bad. It's just everything else in this run of sets is so good, this just sticks out as a little odd, but I appreciate the variety.
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Re: General LEGO discussion (inc. collectible minifigs)

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DJD Kaon and Rotf Devastator

Tantrum wrote: Sat May 22, 2021 11:11 pmIn fact, as I was sorting these bricks to add to my bins, I was wondering if I'd ever actually use most of them. I have plenty of red 2x4s already. Would I even notice the 8 more this set gives me? Or would they just sit in my red bin, unused, for the rest of my life? It's not like I've ever been close to running out of red 2x4s. Or most other red bricks. Or blues, yellows or greys, which is the lion's share of what they gave me.
So much for that. I've got fewer than 20 free red 2x4s now, used up a lot of my other red bricks, and made a significant dent in my yellow supply as well.
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Re: General LEGO discussion (inc. collectible minifigs)

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40529 Children's Amusement Park (170 pc) and Ideas 40533 Cosmic Cardboard Adventures (203 pcs) - The LEGO Store was having a promotion today when I went to go buy LEGO Optimus Prime, so I got these for free. The former is a couple kids with a swing, ring toss game, and test-your-strength setup. The latter is another kid whose made a rocket ship out of cardboard and other household items. There's a plunger used as a thruster.

Wolverine Mech Suit - I bought this a couple weeks ago. I tried to build it from the pics on the box, without using the instructions. But, this is the first time the pic on the box didn't match the build exactly. the hips are totally different. The box shows those square 1x1 tiles with round 1x1 tiles attached to one side. The round 1x1s have studs on both sides, and a hole that goes all the way through. It looks like pins with ball joints would be inserted into those holes.

The box actually contains two 2x1 tiles with ball joints attached. I spent too long staring at that photo of wolverine's taint trying to figure out what I was doing wrong.

Ninjago Water Dragon - This was on clearance at Walmart. I've got a couple other dragons. This is the first with flapping wings controlled by a button in the torso. It came with a round piece with a dragon sculpted into it that reminds me of the Mortal Kombat logo. Now I want to cobble together MK minifigs.
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