LEGO turns 80! It was my favourite toy when I was a kid and still is. Back when I was young, my grandma realised the wonders of LEGO, and bought them for me. And I will definitely buy LEGO for my kids next time.
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LEGO & Lord of the Rings
LEGO & Lord of the Rings = Please just take all my money already!
Just found out that LEGO will be releasing LOTR sets and minifigs. Initially there will be 7 sets released in August:
9469, Gandalf Arrives: 2 minifigs: Gandalf and Frodo, Gandalf on horse and cart with fireworks and snake in the back. I think the price was £9.99.
9470, Shelob Attacks: 3 minifigs: Frodo, Samwise and Gollom! Gollum looked great, hunched over with movable arms, a bit like skeleton arms but different. Shelob the spider looks fantastic and scary!
9471, Uruk-Hai Army: 6 minifigs: Eomer, Rohan soldier and 4 Urak-Hai. The set consists of a small section of wall, a horse with moving legs and a small siege machine. The wall can be joined to the Helms Deep castle, apparently, so this will make a great battle pack to extend the castle and build your armies.
9472, Attack on Weathertop: 5 minifigs: Frodo, Merry, Aragorn and two Ringwaiths on horseback. The set builds a small section of Weathertop with spiral staircase and ruins at the top.
9473, The Mines of Moria: 7 minifigs: Pippin, Gimli, Legolas, Boromir, a cave troll and two Moria orcs. The set builds a selection of sub-assemblies for mine walls, doors, pedestals etc.
9474, The Battle of Helm’s Deep: 8 minifigs: Gimli, King Theoden, Haldir, Aragorn and 4 Urak-Hai warriors. The castle itself is fairly substantial, complete with the ‘side door’ used to gain entry
9476, The Orc Forge: 5 orcs with a forge, various metalworking tools and weapons.
More about these sets can be found here. It seems like I have to get all the 7 sets in order to collect the entire Fellowship of the Ring minifigs. Well, like I said, just take all my money already!
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Movies and LEGO
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Trying To Buy Back A Piece of My Childhood
Amazon finally delivered my copy of LEGO Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary. While flipping through it, I noticed one of the first LEGO Star Wars set is that of the Landspeeder set.The Landspeeder is a significant piece of vehicle in the Star Wars galaxy. I remembered when it first appeared in the movie Star Wars Epsiode IV : A New Hope, Luke Skywalker was driving one. As a young kid, it left such an impression on me that I told myself I wanted the Landspeeder toy. However, we were very poor then, and my parents could never afford any Star Wars toys for me.
I was very disappointed then, and I remembered one fine day when I was playing downstairs in the grass patch, I found an abandoned Landspeeder toy. The figurines that came with it were missing, but overall the toy was pretty intact.
I remembered spending hours playing with it, picturing myself as Luke Skywalker. Very fond memories.
Somehow as I grew up, I must have misplaced this toy, and it was lost. I decided last night to search through eBay, and to my surprise, there are a few copies of this toy, almost in mint condition for sale. I am still considering if I should bid for one as it costs quite a tidy sum.It is like trying to buy back a piece of my childhood.
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Retail Relief – Tantive IV
To provide myself with some retail relief this week, I bought the LEGO Star Wars Tantive IV (Item # 10198) at a discount. A lot of people are saying this set is a absolute beauty, judging from some of the comments online.
Looking at the pictures of the completed set, it looks solid, and the minifigs of R2D2 and C3PO are a plus. I might buy another set, one to collect, the other to build.
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Light and Sound R2-D2 LEGO Minifig
Great hack.
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WTF?
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My Other (Expensive) Hobby
Someone previously remarked to me that I do not have any other hobby besides World of Warcraft. As a matter of fact, I DO have another hobby, though I do not count WoW as a hobby. WoW is more like an addiction.
My other hobby, which is more expensive than WoW, is building LEGO. Yes, those building blocks toy that every kid used to play. But there are many people in the world now, who are no longer a kid, yet still very interested in LEGO. There is even a term for it, called Adult fan of LEGO, or AFOL.
The thing I like about LEGO is that the quality of the bricks, quality of each design, and how each piece has a place in the overall design. Building LEGO destresses me, it promotes logical thinking, and encourages creativity. On one hand, every piece has its own place, on the other, it provides infinite flexibility to come out with something out of the box, something totally new.
With the limited time that I have, I have not been able to build that many sets, and I have many sets lying around waiting for me.
Two photos of the ones that have been completed :
