Flash Forward

Hey, it's been several months since my last post! I've not only gotten a new job and moved, but the lego collection has grown greatly, too. Mostly by being patient and seeking out discounted/clearanced sets, I've been able to pick up a lot of what I want from the various themes of interest.

Speaking of which, the themes I'm collecting most are Star Wars (duh) and Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit, with some DC thrown in for good measure. As such, I've also delved into the corresponding fictions a fair bit, such as watching all of the Clone Wars on Netflix, reading through the Hobbit with my son and restarting the Fellowship of the Ring on my own. I've enjoyed having the Lego version of these characters to manipulate as desired, and one thing I've enjoyed putting together is my "Black Council." Clearly a counter to the Hobbit's White Council, the Black Council basically consists of the Orthanc throne room set packed to the gills with various villains. On the throne itself is Chancellor Palpatine in Sith mode, thanks to the Palpatine's Arrest set, though I'd love to get his minifig from the Palpatine's Shuttle set as a replacement. Anyhow, directly in front of the Chancellor on right and left are the Mouth of Sauron and Saruman, respectively. Circling the palantir are Darth Tyranus at 12 o' clock (from the 2013 Geonosis set), Darth Vader (from the 2011 Millenium Falcon) at 3, Darth Malgus, only just acquired yesterday at 6, and Darth Revan at 9. On the left hand steps is General Zod and Faora on the right (both from the Battle of Smallville set). Hanging out on the back left of the throne is Darth Marr, also on guard duty. In the center on the Palantir dais is the Necromancer himself, Sauron! Basically, I've tried to give the impression of the Sith using their lightsabers in conjunction with the Palantir to summon the Necromancer in a sort of seance. As you can see, this relatively small collection of minifigs represents a decent investment, but I'm pretty sure the only sets that produced these figs that I actually paid full price for were the Wizard Battle itself and the Millenium Falcon. However, there are still a few individuals I want I add to the Black Council: Darth Maul (I'd like to get the version from the 2011 Scimitar, or the shirtless poly at version. I would just get the cyborg legs version, but I'm not a big CW face fan), the Weathertop Nazguls, and the new Witch-King of Angmar. Next year's SW Rebels Inquisitor will make a nice addition as well. 

Expansions

Ok, so a couple of weeks ago, shortly after my last post, I had the opportunity to go by one of the very few Lego stores in my state, and made sure to bring a decent chunk of cash. Luckily, they had a decent clearance section (mostly for damaged boxes, so far as I could tell), and I was able to get the 2013 75019 AT-TE! This is, honestly, my first large-sized Lego set I've gotten since I was a kid. My son and I had a great time putting it together, taking turn on building different parts of the set. It also included my first Mace Windu, whose purple lightsaber looks a great as you'd think. The other Jedi, an alien I don' recall from the movies (and is apparently called Coleman Trebor, a hilarious name for an alien warrior), but looks a lot better then many other Lucas alien designs (something I've always felt was a weak point for the franchise). The yellow-coded Clone Commander is a nice addition, though I would have rather gotten a super battle droid to go with the battle droid commander than yet another regular battle droid.

The AT-TE itself is pretty fantastic looking. I love the ball turrets at the front and rear, and the main cannon looks good too. I do wish the "interior", such as it is, was a bit more detailed/involved, but whatever.

GRIEVOUS

First review. This is my most recent set, having only owned it for a few hours. Pretty cool set, overall.

Minifigures:

Kenobi - very similar to the one I have from the 9494 set, though he has robe printing on the legs, and while the set includes 4 lightsabers, none are intended for Obi-Wan. He's supposed to use either the "electrostaff" or the blaster, as per the scene in RotS. His shirt is also a different print than the 9494 version.

Grievous - this is my first Grievous, although I first started buying Lego sets as an adult back in the RotS era. I'm glad though, since this newer (Clone Wars-derived) mold looks a lot better than the older design. He does really look great, though his posability is a bit one-trick; the only really good look he can pull off is the "holding two, spinning two" lightsabers trick. Speaking of which, of course the four lightsabers belong to him. Metallic hilts, 2 blue and 2 green blades. He does look pretty fantastic holding them.

Wheel Bike - I have to admit, while this thing is pretty cool when it's assembled, the actual build isn't very engaging for someone like me who enjoys more brick-based building. This really feels more like a technic set and may as well be. It's not necessarily a good thing when the most fun part of the build should be the most boring (building the bladed wheel tread). But, as I said, the finished vehicle is great. The legs are just posable enough without being too wonky, and the wheel spins well. The rolling "mode" is less impressive, display-wise, than the walker mode, but overall it looks good.

Not really sure the set is worth $25, so if you want to wait for clearances, that might be best. Still, it's a very good rendition of one of the more kinetic scenes in RotS.

Lego

Ok, I'm a lego fan. Of course, I had lego sets as a kid (late 80s/early 90s), but recently, since fall 2012 or so, I've really gotten back into them. I've spent a lot more time in the Transformers fandom (see my older blog, Basement Invasion), collecting them as an adult since 2003, but for the past year or so I've vacillated between which was the better toy franchise. I've always enjoyed the construction aspect of lego sets, just as I enjoy transforming transformers, but one thing I love about Lego, especially in more recent years, is the universality of it. There're whole worlds, both lego-original and licensed, that you can collect that all share the same physical mechanisms (honestly, the only thing that's really holding Lego back in this regard is their stubborn insistence to keep their non-licensed minifigures, at least the "white" ones, yellow, so that they don't quite mesh with the more natural-looking minifigures from Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, and so on). That's a very strong feature.

Anyway, this blog will largely serve to host relatively short reviews of various Lego sets. I'm not a died-in-the-wool AFOL, so you won't be seeing any Sea Cow or Sandcrawler reviews here in the coming months, but more mid-range to smaller sets that more typical people can afford. Hope you enjoy it!