Lego

[sesselpupser]

@Nexus I love that Concorde, I really have to get around to buying one for myself. That, the Ornithopter and Leonardo Da Vinci's flying machine are the only three current sets I want. Maybe the Blacktron Renegade too.

Two auctions ending today, one pretty rare, open box but mostly sealed bags (previous owner just wanted the minifigs) with >15 watchers, one bid and 4 hours to go, the other not super rare but definitely uncommon and usually expensive (usually Buy it Now, rarely auctioned) with >30 watchers, 10 bids but currently about 20% of the average price with 5 hours left. I want to bid on both but shouldn't because it's car insurance renewal month, but I'm waiting for about that amount in expenses from work, so I technically could... I think £30 on the first and £60 on the other. Let me stare at my banking app for long enough for my guilt to kick in (or not) and see what happens.

Edit - I won them both:




I should stop now.

But I didn't, I just got this:

Oops.

 

[SPhilli911]

Ya’ll ever bid on Ebay for something you don’t really need and end up winning? So that’s how I got a pile of classic Lego Mania magazines from 1995-2000. Man what a trip down memory lane these are.

 

[sesselpupser]

Ya’ll ever bid on Ebay for something you don’t really need

I have been known to, on occasion. Speaking of, I'm away for work again and my partner messaged me earlier: "Why have there been FOUR deliveries today that all sound a lot like they've got Lego in them?"

"Because I ordered some Lego, there should be two more tomorrow"

It's like she doesn't even know me. Or hasn't looked in the upstairs cupboard which is half full of Lego.



Bought this the day before yesterday too.

 

[SPhilli911]

That's not too far off from the 7420 Thunder Blazer plane I grabbed last week.

 

[sesselpupser]

@SPhilli911 that's awesome, great colour scheme. The tail on the 6615 is old enough to weird me out a bit:



There's just something not right about Lego slotting together! I can't wait to build it.

 

[SPhilli911]

@SPhilli911 that's awesome, great colour scheme. The tail on the 6615 is old enough to weird me out a bit:

View attachment 1447611

There's just something not right about Lego slotting together! I can't wait to build it.

I have never seen that slotted peice before now, maybe it was a short lived thing. Also maybe considered "illegal" by today's standards.

 

[Greycap]

I somehow think I have that red biplane somewhere. And the slotted tailplane is of course supported by normal bricks from the underside, that's just the way to get it closer to the fin leading edge.

 

[sesselpupser]

@Greycap

Gotta say, it's made me look at some of the older planes more closely and there are some really nice ones that are making me go full Ongo Gablogian that I glossed over last time I looked, like this:



Which has an opening roof and tail. To be fair I'm a huge sucker for twin boom planes in real life like the Vampire, Sea Vixen and Argosy, and in Lego, 31064 Island Adventures is one of my favourites too. Finding one that's not massively yellowed might be a task though.

 

[SPhilli911]

The summer Speed Champions revealed. A good selection if you ask me.

 

[Awong124]

The summer Speed Champions revealed. A good selection if you ask me.

View attachment 1447817

I'll definitely get the Lambo set. Definitely not getting the Challenger. The other two are maybes. The Porsche front doesn't look great, but I'll probably get it just to have it with the Technic one.

 

[Greycap]

View attachment 1447678

Got that one too. Not that it has been assembled for the last 35 years or so, but anyway.

 

[Famine]

The summer Speed Champions revealed. A good selection if you ask me.

View attachment 1447817

That 911 is repulsive. That's the best they could come up with for the headlights?!

 

[Famine]

And milliseconds after I posted the above, I got the press release for this...

Mattel Brick Shop Launches With a Build-Your-Own Hot Wheels Range

Renowned toy manufacturer Mattel is moving in further on the plastic building block market with a new product line under the "Mattel Brick Shop" banner, launching with a range of Hot Wheels sets in various scales this summer. It's a sector that has been comfortably dominated for decades by a cert

www.gtplanet.net

 

[SPhilli911]

That 911 is repulsive. That's the best they could come up with for the headlights?!

It's not great looking, no, but given the limitations of the scale and available pieces (no way Lego would mold a new piece for a set this small) maybe it really is the best they can do.

Looking at some MOCs of 8-wide 911s there are not many that look any better than the official Lego one. For example, here are other 992s:

 

[sesselpupser]

Lego once again reminding me why I don't like their attempts at real cars. I had heard Mattel were throwing their hat in the ring, it'll be interesting to see how that plays out. Lego could use some competition, I reckon, even if only to keep the price down. Then again if Mattel's products are crap it could even push the price up...

 

[hilajj]

That 911 is repulsive. That's the best they could come up with for the headlights?!

Yeah...it's not good.

Although from my experience, when displayed as part of a collection/scene it evens out the rougher models.

 

[Fezzik]

I'd like this one, though storage may be an issue

F1, tre Ferrari al Gp di Miami: ai box spunta una rossa fatta di Lego in scala 1:1, meccanici stupefatti

La Ferrari si presenta al Gran Premio di Miami con ben 3 monoposto. Non è uno scherzo, nel box del cavallino rampante è comparsa una rossa fatta con i mattoncini Lego, ben 400.000 in scala 1:1. Meccanici del Team stupefatti

sport.virgilio.it

 

[TheNormsk]

It’s been slow work since I got this st Christmas. Currently I’ve completed 11 bags out of 20 and it looks more like something you’d find a junkyard than the finished product at the moment.

 

[Jump_Ace]

Looks awesome so far dude, it'll be great once finished!


Jerome

 

[sesselpupser]

I'm not sure what I was expecting given that you can clearly see that the exo suit is made of >300 small pieces, but this box is tiny! I love it, definitely a keeper.

 

[sesselpupser]

I don't love it. It's got some impressive detailing like the dihedral wings on the 747 but the nose section looks bad. Difficult to do at this scale, and I think they did the best they could, but - just as with Speed Champions - Lego is simply not cut out for smooth curved surfaces at small scales. There's something weird about the shuttle too, maybe too train-like? Reminds me a little of a 0 series Shinkansen.

Anyway, that's £200 saved. What else can I convince myself I don't like in order to save some money? Taxes?

 

[VXR]

The summer Speed Champions revealed. A good selection if you ask me.

View attachment 1447817

Might just be me, but their ability to make the cars look a fair representation of the real thing is getting worse and worse. Case in point - even on the more brick friendly shape of the Challenger, they fumble the roof line. Why not print the top of the windscreen so the roof edge isn't at a visually jarring height to the side window line?

Small details like that are one thing, but something like the Revuelto is abysmal.

 

[SPhilli911]

I tend not to be too picky on accuracy with Lego, especially when it comes to small scale, but I don't disagree either that later Speed Champions (and many other sets) seem a little rushed out the door.

I don't know what goes on behind the scenes at Lego but surly they operate like any other massive company and have deadlines, budget limitations and have to keep sets in given price ranges and may sometimes be "forced" to released half-baked sets.

Those new Mattel Hot Wheels build sets are really going to force Lego to re-evaluate things.

 

[sesselpupser]

Why not print the top of the windscreen

Because a print would cost too much, I suppose. A sticker would be more in keeping with Speed Champs but I wonder if the windscreen being curved on two axes meant a sticker wouldn't stick or something?

 

[VXR]

It does irk me that Cobi can afford to print almost every piece and mammoth Lego think stickers is a worthy cop out.

 

[sesselpupser]

I've got one of these arriving later:

I was in two minds about it because I think it looks a bit weird but my collecting brain took over for just long enough to make an offer on it, and I was going to say it would be the end of my Creator collection (for now) but then I had another look through Bricklink and found a few more I'd forgotten:



I don't actually want all of these, actually looking at it there are maybe two that I want (4993 and 31138), I already have a 4997 but it's not a great example and I don't need 31138 and 31079. 4895 is spectacularly ugly and I'm sure there's a Technic set that better does what it does (which is that it's got a power function to spin the rotors), although it's interesting that it has projectile shooters and missiles tipped with chrome silver spears from the Aquazone theme given Lego's anti-war toy stance. All that does make it weird, though, and I do like weird Lego, so... It's a maybe. It's not even that expensive.

 

[Awong124]

I was originally going to pass on this one, but saw it on sale on Amazon.ca so I got it.

 

[VXR]

I've got one of these arriving later:

View attachment 1449245

I was in two minds about it because I think it looks a bit weird but my collecting brain took over for just long enough to make an offer on it, and I was going to say it would be the end of my Creator collection (for now) but then I had another look through Bricklink and found a few more I'd forgotten:

View attachment 1449375

I don't actually want all of these, actually looking at it there are maybe two that I want (4993 and 31138), I already have a 4997 but it's not a great example and I don't need 31138 and 31079. 4895 is spectacularly ugly and I'm sure there's a Technic set that better does what it does (which is that it's got a power function to spin the rotors), although it's interesting that it has projectile shooters and missiles tipped with chrome silver spears from the Aquazone theme given Lego's anti-war toy stance. All that does make it weird, though, and I do like weird Lego, so... It's a maybe. It's not even that expensive.

I'd recommend the older Sunshine Surfer Van over the Beach Camper Van set as it's a better attempt at the same thing.

 

[sesselpupser]

@VXR I was going to look up some comparisons, but I saw the higher piece count of the newer one and thought I'd go for that. It is also £60+ though which would make it the third most expensive Creator set I'd have, I think...

As soon as I posted this I went on eBay to look for the Sunshine Surfer Van, offered someone £10 for one and they accepted. Can't wait to find out how many pieces are missing or swapped out for Mega Bloks.