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Stardate: twentyfifteen

Another bigag in posts...sorry about that!

This is my first post for 2015 and it's already April; time is going by way too fast!

Toy Fair was two months ago, and as such Lego showed off its newest products for the summer wave, of which Star Wars interested me most (with one "minor" exception).

So for summer Star Wars, I am all about some Naboo Starfighter. I know a lot of people that have been in the hobby for a while lamented yet another system scale iteration of this thing, and I can't say I blame them. Even so, the last one was released in 2011, not too long before I actively started buying Lego sets again and thus it passed me by, so I'm happy to see this one released. It also will have the first young Anakin and Padawan Kenobi that I will own, and the pilot at least looks pretty different from the one I got with the Naboo planet set when I found it on clearance a year ago. The Starfighter itself looks really nice, if not overly different from the 2011 set; I do like the incorporation of the newer green spring loaded missiles and some clear blue pieces on the rear of the engines to give the impression of propulsion. I also appreciate the pilot's ladder leading up to the cockpit; none of my other starfighter sets have included something like that. More destroyer droids are nice, too.

The other SW set I'm most intrigued by is another Phantom Menace set, albeit one that yet to be fully revealed - the newest iteration of the Sith Infoltrator Scimitar! Again, I know there are a ton of fans who who lament the fact that we are getting another of these so "soon" after 2011, but again I'm happy that I get the chance since I missed out on that release. I'll be particularly happy to get a normal, non-CW Darth Maul to add to my Black Council, and this set also includes Qui-Gon Jinn (between this set and the new N-1, last year's MTT has been all but rendered obsolote in terms of minifigs), another young Anakin (I would have preferred Padme a la the 2011 set), Anakin's owner and an umpteenth R2-D2. We haven't seen a good pic of the Scimitar itself yet, but I'm hoping that it avoids a lot of the things that made people complain about the 2011 set. 

Most of the other new sets I'm not really interested in:

- Flash Speeder: no thanks. Just nothing interesting here.

- Final Duel: in theory is like this a lot, but it's a bit similar to Palpatine's arrest, and I'm not too fond to the updates they have made to both Vader and Sidious. Love those windows, though.

- Tydirium shuttle: again, another set I should really like, but it's too expensive and doesn't come with a single imperial character. I get that it's the stolen shuttle from Ep VI, but come on - one of the rebels could have been dropped in favor of an imperial pilot or officer.

- UCS TIE: I love me some TIE series ships, but man this looks awful. There is no reason why my 2012 TIE fighter should look better than s UCS set. It's prohibitively expensive anyway, so at least I won't be uselessly pining over it. 

- Imperial Assault Carrier: an interesting but flawed and ultimately overly expensive set. Interesting because it's anew imperial craft that is basically the poor man's Star destroyer (it only carries four TIEs, and on the exterior, at that!) and includes a helmeted Sabine, a helmetless Kallus, and some sweet evil astromech. Flawed because, basically, I don't care for starships that are supposed to be huge but have a system-scaled interior. Yuck. I know it's not new - the latest iteration of the Star Destroyer does the same thing - but I just don't like it. Too bad this is the only new Rebels set for the summer.

advent Calendar: I've never gotten one of the Advent sets, so I'm not exactly worried about getting repeat builds in this set, but I do like this year's version due to the diversity of models. Cool models: probe droid, Sandcrawler, Sarlacc, Sail Barge, AT-AT, A-Wing, etc. Also, I'm pretty sure that all the minifigs (aside from the doofy Christmas-themed droids) are new to me: Jawa, Hoth Rebel Trooper, new Stormtrooper design, Ewok, etc. I'll probably get this one, but it won't be easy sharing it with the kids!

Ok, what about that "minor" exception? It's the Ant-Man set! I've only recently become interested in the Ant-Man movie (having never really cared about the character before), but man does this look like a neat set. 3 different sci-if looking dudes (Old Ant-Man, Paul Rudd, and bad guy YellowJacket). The kicker is that the rat of the set is Honey, I Shrunk the Kids-style giant versions of tiny things! Naturally, it comes with a nice, brick-built flying ant for Ant-Dooter to ride, abut also some screws, "giant" Lego bricks, etc. it's just a neat idea for a set that allows it to work within the gimmick concept of the movie/character but having normal minifigs doesn't prevent you from having them hang out in normal size with other Avenger minifigs. Plus, it's only a $20 set, so not too bad for some pretty cool stuff!

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.