Slave 1 (75060) - Mom Freaks Out

Another 1.25 hours spent building last night and we managed to get most of the way through chapter 5. We did a lot of work to the underside of the ship, where the engines are and got to work with a few new colors (much to mom's enjoyment and pleasure). You can see the light, transparent blue engine thrusters in the 2 circular and 1 rectangular sections.

However, the most enjoyable (at least for me) aspect of the evening was after mom finished putting together the circular engine frame. That's the piece right underneath the rectangular engine in the picture above. It's got the two curved wings on the side that kind of encircle the outer edges of the round engine thrusters.

Anyway, that piece is supposed to be symmetrical down the center. Well, somehow my mom managed to build it such that one arm was longer than the other. Not noticing this, she very proudly proclaimed how beautiful it was and how clever she was to have finished it. Of course, I had to burst her bubble and asked her why one arm was longer than the other. She looked at it, shrieked and said very loudly WHY WHY WHY?

It's not nearly as funny in the re-telling as it was in person, given how proud she was of building the piece. And NO, I am NOT being mean by laughing at her!

Slave 1 (75060) - I Have Nothing Witty To Say

Despite wracking my brain, I could not come up with a witty and catchy title for this post.

In more interesting news, we finished Chapter 4 last night and got part way through Chapter 5. Chapter 4 was dedicated to building the rear base of the ship. The finished product looks a lot like the front end of a very fancy car.

Chapter 5 finishes off some detailing on the base pieces and then joins them up. We finished for the night after attaching the two halves.

So far the build remains very solid. One of the reviews on the Lego site said that pieces kept falling off during the assembly process, but thus far we have not experienced this at all. It's possible that as we move outwards and start building the outer details and the weaponry, we may get into this situation.

Slave 1 (75060) - It's A Lobster Crab!

We were very productive last night, finishing both chapters 2 and 3. The ship is starting to take shape now and is recognizable as the back end of the vessel.

To me, it looks like a hybrid between a lobster tail and a horseshoe crab. The overall shape is like the crab but the way the armor plates are tiered is reminiscent of the shell on a lobster tail.

The set, so far, has been very sturdily designed. Already, the piece we have put together is quite heavy. And with the solidness of the build, you could give someone a good whallop on the head with it.

Of course, mom was ooohing and aaahing with all the dark red she was getting to build. Admittedly, this is definitely one of the more colorful star wars sets, as most of them seem to be comprised primarily of dark bluish gray, light bluish gray or black.

This build also seems to be easier so far. We are certainly moving through it at a pretty rapid clip. It's only taken us 2 hours to get to this stage. As mom says, we better slow things down a little as this is a hobby that is not cheap!!

Slave 1 (75060) - On To The Next Project!

With the quick completion of our AT-AT, we had to move on to a new project (of course!). I've had this set sitting in my closet for a few months now and we figured it was time for it to get some attention.

Mom picked this one up - she was drawn in by all the color and by the unique shape. I am, of course, referring to Slave 1. It's another Star Wars UCS set and will look very nice beside our Super Star Destroyer.

We cracked it open last night and dove in, managing to finish off the first chapter before calling it a night. We decided we would track our build time this go around, just to see how long it takes us.

The instruction manual is pretty hefty. Once more, we were annoyed with the fact that it is a glue spine and not a coiled spine. This makes it impossible to lay flat, particularly if you are trying not to crease the spine as we were. Secondly, the paper that they used has a gloss finish, which had the annoying tendency of catching the overhead light and casting a glare into our eyes. We had to move the book around to different angles to overcome this. Thirdly, they decided to use a dark gray tint on each page, which made the pieces harder to differentiate at times. I think the message is that simple is still best! Plain white, non-glossy paper would have been the best way to go. It might not look as fancy but it sure would be more user-friendly. The money saved could go into making all the manuals coil bound instead.

Anyway, with that little rant out of the way, below is a picture of the finished product from Chapter 1. It's not much to look at - in fact, I am not entire sure which portion of the ship it is.

AT-AT (10178) - Final Thoughts

This post is being written a lot sooner than I anticipated!! This was definitely the quickest built we have yet to date. I think this was mostly due to the fact that it is a much smaller and less detailed set than the last few that we have done.

That, however, is not to say that it was an easy build because it wasn't. As you can imagine, with it being able to walk, it was a very Technic heavy set, which always means challenges due to the number of small parts and the diligence to alignment that must be maintained. Of the entire build, the head was probably the most difficult to build. There were a lot of moving parts even within the head - all the armor plates can lift and swivel and the guns are not attached very sturdily. If mom wasn't very careful about where she held the assembled part in order to attach new pieces, she would knock things off and have to backtrack and put them back on.

We really liked the built-in carrying handle on the back. Given the relative fragility of the model, I think that moving it would have been extremely difficult without this feature. The handle is extremely sturdy as it is integrated into the frame of the AT-AT itself. Well done on this part of the design, Lego!

The overall model is pretty hefty. I didn't weigh it, but online resources report that the weight of the pieces is 3.81lbs. This puts a large strain on the batteries when the AT-AT walks, and the battery life drains very quickly as a result. While we didn't take note of the total walking time before we started noticing battery fatigue, I estimate it to be no more than 5 minutes. At this point, the walking slowed significantly and sometimes stalled altogether. I would need to lift the handle and relieve the weight before it would start walking again.

This completely dashed mom's hopes of having a fleet of these plodding through the house. :) So we will be sticking with just the 1 unit of this haha.

Removal of the battery pack is fairly simple. The side armor plates on both sides, as well as the back, swivel up very easily, allowing access to the pack for removal. Once out, it is easy to slide back in and lock back into place.

Overall, this was a fun build. Challenging at times (which I think adds to the enjoyment) but the end product is a very unique-looking machine. The walk function is cool, although better battery life is required. I have often wondered why Lego doesn't design a power pack that runs off a single 9V battery instead of the 6x1.5V. It would mean less weight, a smaller power pack, and general improvement in ease of use.

AT-AT (10178) We Are Done!

Well, it happened a lot sooner than I had anticipated. But we finished the AT-AT over the weekend. Admittedly, it was a pretty small build. Just a little over 1,000 pieces. Plus we didn't have any missing pieces that we needed to wait for.

The head proved to be pretty finnicky to build. Mom kept knocking pieces loose as she was trying to put other pieces on. I think this is partly due to the intricate design and the number of small pieces but also partly due to the fact that she wasn't holding on to the most structurally sound parts when trying to attach more pieces. Either way, she got through it, although there were a few pieces that had to be put on more than once.

It's a snug fit in the cockpit area. There is just enough room for the pilot to sit at the controls while General Veers stands behind and calls out targets. Here, we have raised the armor shielding a little so you can see into the cockpit. Mom likes how the blast shielding on the front look like rows of teeth.

The end product is a very nice looking model and surprisingly heavy. We were a little disappointed to find that with the weight, our batteries (which were brand new) didn't last very long. While I didn't time the amount of walking it did, I would say it was no more than 5 minutes. By that time, the AT-AT had visibly slowed down and would sometimes come to a complete halt altogether. If I lifted up slightly on the built-in handle and relieved some of the weight, it would start walking at a normal rate again.

As always, we had to pose our minifigures in an interesting fashion. While the set comes with a string that you are supposed to hang from the underbelly of the AT-AT, thus re-creating the scene in the movie where Luke rappels up the machine, cuts through the belly armor and throws a grenade in, we decided to deviate from this standard display.

We posed Luke and the snowtrooper up on the back of the AT-AT where they are facing off.

AT-AT (10178) - First Steps!

Surprisingly, mom has managed to scrounge up a few hours over the past few days to work on our set. In addition to getting the last 2 legs built and mounted, we also installed the power pack and had the chance to see the little guy walk.

The walk is highly reminiscent of the movie - it plods along ponderously (as something of its size should). It's actually pretty cute as it walks around. It does have a habit of pulling to the left though. I guess the bright side to that is that you can set it down and leave it to itself, knowing that it will just keep doing large circles.

AT-AT (10178) - The Adventure Begins

We got quite a bit done this past weekend, finishing off the engine compartment and one of the legs.

The engine compartment was pretty tricky. As expected, there were a lot of small moving parts that had to be aligned properly in order to work. To check our work periodically, we plugged in the power box and turned it on just to make sure that things were turning smoothly and working as intended (insofar as we can tell anyway with just the engine casing).

With the engine compartment finished, we moved onto the first leg. Mom was unbelievably excited to build it. She was literally bouncing up and down in her seat with anticipation. The foot and leg are well detailed - you can imagine some of the struts being muscles and tendons. And the articulation on the joints is very well done. There is clearly an ankle and a knee, both of which have a wide range of motion. The top has a 3rd joint, which I am sure will become a hip of sorts once it is attached to the body.

Mom had a great time moving the leg around even without it being attached to anything. She went so far as to proclaim that maybe we should get a whole bunch of the AT-AT's and have them all walking around the house.

We probably won't get much done for the next few days - mom has already reminded me that Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays are very busy TV days for her. This week in particular, with finales for a few of the shows that she follows. That's ok, I have more than a few video games that I need to play as well!!

AT-AT (10178) - Unveiling Our Next Build

Well, we've decided on our next build - actually, not just decided, we've got it in our hot little hands already.

Since our last build was the carousel, we decided to return to (my favorite) Star Wars theme. In keeping with the mantra of our builds, this is another retired set. And if the title of the post hasn't already given it away, we are going to be building the AT-AT (All Terrain Armored Transport).

It's going to be our smallest build thus far, with "only" 1137 pieces. Aside from its unique look, it also has a power function - something mom is particularly excited for. She has had visions of the completed AT-AT walking around our Lego table while we work on future sets. I have to admit I am pretty stoked to see it in action as well.

Hopefully we will get some time to start on it this weekend. Mom has a very busy TV schedule during the first half of the week (as she never neglects to inform me) so Lego is just an end of week and weekend activity for us.

I leave you with this tantalizing teaser of things to come.

Grand Carousel (10196) - Final Thoughts

I have to admit that I was generally disappointed by this set. Previous Lego sets that we have built have all been sturdy and well designed. This set, unfortunately, smacked of something that an in-experienced designer but forth and the QC department flubbed on by allowing it to pass in its current state.

The base of the carousel was far too flimsy, with pieces popping off with the slightest touch or adjustment. The movement was also rough, resulting in the motor stalling out constantly when attempting to use the power function. I was tempted to blame this on Lepin and their (possibly) less precise fit of their pieces. However, after reading similar reviews from users who have built the Lego set and found the exact same issues, I have to conclude that the issues are due to Lego's design and not to anything Lepin may have done.

The canvas top once again struck me as being shoddy and incomplete work. The attachment mechanism between the support struts and the canvas pieces was lazy and lacked rigidity and security. The floating struts with no bottom anchor only served to reinforce this impression.

The saving grace of the set is its vibrancy of color and how it catches the eye. I would, however, only use this as a display piece. It is far too brittle and temperamental to hold up to any play. Overall, I must say that I would NOT recommend this build. There are other, equally colorful sets out there that have a much stronger design, meaning less headaches during the build and more play functionality upon completion.

Grand Carousel (10196) - The Finishing Touches

We finally did it! After more than 8 months of off-and-on building, we have finally put this one together.

Last night, we put the canvas top on the carousel and mounted the final decorative flag on the top. Both mum and I were struck by the flimsy design of the canvas top and were rather un-impressed by Lego's design. It felt lazy and unpolished. The canvas sheets are held on by a series of flexible "struts" but the method of attachment is poor. The top of the sheets are very loose and tend to slip off their moorings, which are a single post on each of the struts.

As you can see from the photo below, the canvas sheet is slipping off, which is not surprising given that the blue post is holding it on by sheer force of friction and nothing else. The design should have included something to snap onto the bottom of the post and prevent slippage.

Another disappointing aspect of Lego's sloppy design with the canvas top is the lack of an anchor point for the struts at the bottom end of the canvas. You can see here that the struts simply sit on top of the canvas sheets with no method of attachment. 

Regardless, if you don't look too closely at details like this, the set is a pretty one. Very colorful and certainly a good addition to our ferris wheel.

Grand Carousel (10196) - Almost at the finish line!

As you well know, this past weekend was the Labour Day long weekend. And what does a long weekend mean? Good progress on Lego, of course!

We got all the individual rides on the carousel done as well as all the fascia decorations. All that is left to do now is to put the top on and the whole thing will be done!

This first picture is from Saturday evening after we got all the horses and sleds built and people in them. When you turn the carousel, each of the carriages moves up and down - just like on a real carousel. Most move pretty smoothly but there is a lame grey horse that seems to get stuck on the floor plate. This is due to the fact that the floor plate keeps popping up and is a big pain to try and push back down because you invariable end up popping something else up! So we decided just to leave it and that the lame horse adds to the story. :)

Speaking of the story, we had one mini-figure where the head came pre-attached to the body. And unfortunately, it was stuck on there so hard that we couldn't pull it off and so we had to leave it as is. It would not have been such a big deal except that it ended up being a bearded man's face on a flowery shirt that would be more suited to a little girl.

So either this person was some odd cross-dressing dwarf of a man or it was a greedy little girl who had smeared her face with chocolate sauce as she was such a little piggy that she couldn't wait until after the ride to eat her Nutella crepe. I am partial to the second scenario as it reminds me of myself .... but I'll let you decide. Here she (or he if you go with story #1) is below:

The fascia decorations are quite intricate and ornate. Once we got them on, the carousel really started looking pretty fancy and akin to what you would see at a real fair. This is the bigger and fancier of the 2 types of fascia.

 I forgot to take a separate picture of the smaller fascia but you can see it below. It's the one with the large golden dish in the middle.

And here is the carousel on Sunday night after we had attached all the fascia pieces. It is really coming along nicely.

In fact, it is far enough along that we are contemplating what to build next. We were at the Lego store on Saturday and saw a couple of new sets that caught our eye but we were kind of thinking of leaving those for the time being so they could be put on our Christmas wish lists (yes we are already thinking that far ahead). We have a few thoughts on what to do next. I, of course, would like to do something Star Wars so we'll see if we can find a colorful one that mom wouldn't mind building as well.

Grand Carousel (10196) - Carousel parts have arrived!!!

Well, after months and months of waiting and delays, the missing pieces for our Grand Carousel have finally arrived!!! We got the parcel in the mail last Friday. Oddly enough, the postage sticker on it indicates that it was redirected through Samoa which I found very strange as that isn't exactly on the way from China to Canada. But anyway, the main fact is that it finally got here.

The good news is that we didn't really miss doing Lego too much since we stopped a few months ago. The spring, summer and fall months tend to be pretty busy with yardwork and gardening, leaving precious little time for luxuries like Lego. We've tried to sneak in an hour here and there since getting the pieces but haven't made enough progress to warrant any photos.

In other news, I just got an email from Lego unveiling their newest set in the Star Wars series. The NEW Ultimate Collectors Series of the Millennium Falcon. This beast has over 7,500 pieces and will be retailing at $900. $900!! Good thing I started saving up for this a while ago, it looks like I will need every penny of my Lego fund! The official release date is October 1 .... can anyone say Merry Early Christmas for us?

According to certain online news outlets, the new box for this colossus of a set is so large that it will come on wheels, kind of like a pull-behind piece of luggage. This will certainly be appreciated by fans who would otherwise have to lug the behemoth through the mall. I know when I bought the re-release of the Death Star last year, my arms felt like they were going to fall off by the time I got back to the car. And that set only had around 4,000 pieces. If I had to carry the new Millennium Falcon through the mall, I would probably have to go through a month-long training regimen first to ensure I didn't drop it partway back to the car and ruin the box!

Anyway, stay tuned for progress on the Grand Carousel. It may be a little slow in coming until the snow starts falling but we are still here!

Super Star Destroyer (10221) - Final Thoughts

I am a Star Wars fan, so needless to say, I am biased in my thoughts on this set. The real deciding point was how much my mom ended up liking it in the end. She did not start off as a Star Wars fan but by the end, I think she appreciated the set and the franchise in general. In fact, she liked it so much that she has proclaimed her like and desire to do some additional sets - Millenium Falcon, Imperial Star Destroyer, B-Wing, Y-Wing, AT-ST, AT-AT. I would say that is quite the turnaround!!

This build was definitely challenging, even with both my mom and I working on it. The similarity in the colors of the pieces required focus to not only select the correct pieces but then assemble them correctly. There were a few instances in which I picked the wrong color pieces and my mom put them together incorrectly due purely to the similarity of color and the difficulty in making out the instructions.

Aside from color, the sheer size made this a challenging build as well. Finishing at over 4 FT in length, this took up a large portion of our Lego table and at times, it was even partially hanging off the side. This made it a little unwieldy to flip upside down and rotate to continue building it. Not to mention trying to take decent pictures of it! With previous sets, I could leave it on the table and get some fairly un-cluttered shots but with this behemoth, most of my pictures either have the surroundings in them or I had to move everything onto the floor to try and get a shot of just the ship.

There were also some blind build sections, which took a little maneuvering to snap together. Examples include attaching some of the engine sections underneath the chassis and snapping the two "wing" top deck sections onto the frame. These were done completely blind and to this day, I am not sure whether ALL the snaps were done. Seeing as it hasn't fallen apart, I am working with the assumption that enough of them were successfully aligned and snapped. :)

The look of the set is spectacular. It is definitely meant more as a display set than a play set. The play functionality is very limited but the raised stands and the descriptive placard really make this set look superb sitting on whatever display surface you have chosen.

Super Star Destroyer (10221) - It's All Done!

This past weekend was a long weekend, and we made excellent use of the extra time off! We finished off the super star destroyer and even found a place to display it (on top of the piano).

The view from the back end is pretty impressive too. You can almost imagine the engine banks igniting and propelling this behemoth around. Maybe Lego 50 years from now will be able to do just that!

We had a lot of fun putting this together, despite the occasional griping about the lack of color :)

We are still waiting for pieces to finish off the carousel (fingers crossed there are no problems getting them). We've already started thinking about what we might build next. Continuing on the Star Wars theme, and particularly the Ultimate Collection Series sets, mom has said she likes the looks of the B-Wing and the Y-Wing in particular. So those may be coming up in the near future. She also likes the AT-AT and AT-ST sets, so those are a possibility as well.

In non-Star Wars related sets, she is a fan of WALL-E as well as the Technic Bucket Excavator. I was a little surprised at this since it's not, at least in my opinion, a really good looking set. I think she was drawn to it because of the plethora of yellow pieces hahaha.

So keep your eyes peeled to see what we get up to next!

Super Star Destroyer (10221) - Fire Up The Engines!

Last night saw the beginning of the work on the propulsion system for the SSD. We put together a couple of the engine banks and put them into place.

Also managed to do a fairly nice printout of the placard sticker and got that set up as well. It looks pretty sharp!

The SSD has grown to the point where it is quite unwieldy to move around for photo shoots. It's been really nice outside these past couple days so I may take it out today and get some shots of it in the driveway. At least, there won't be clutter in the background of the photos that way.

Mom also picked up a Slave I set yesterday. She said she was tempted by 3 things:

1 - it is also part of the Ultimate Collectors Series
2 - it is colorful (its got some green, dark red, and yellow)
3 - it "looks like a turkey drumstick" - those were her exact words

She is such a riot!

Super Star Destroyer (10221) - Middle Section Complete

The "crumble" is done! I'm talking about the bumpy section in the middle of the ship that reminds me of the crumble on top of an apple crumble pie.

It looks pretty amazing with the whole section done now. I can only imagine that the remainder of the build will be putting the top deck plates on and installing the engines.

Mom is going to the dentist tomorrow and is already planning on stopping by the lego store. She claims she will just be browsing to see what other sets there are but I'm thinking she may give in to temptation and bring home another set. Not that I would complain about that. We are going to have to do some serious thinking about where to display all these builds!

Super Star Destroyer (10221) - It Takes To The Air!

Well, not really - at least not like you might be imagining. It did get put up on supports to raise it off the table though, so there IS air between the bottom of the ship and the table ....

Made some decent progress this weekend - got a lot more of the greebling done in the center part of the vessel and of course, got the stands put together and attached. Here is a picture of one of the supports. They are pretty beefy but still classy looking!

And the vessel looks really majestic when it is raised up like that. It's going to be a treat to see when it is 100% done. We put together the placard (bottom right of the picture below) which typically would have a sticker attached detailing what the vessel is along with some technical specifications. I didn't buy stickers for this set (and wouldn't put them on even if I did - all that glue and limitation of re-buildability etc.) so for now, it's just going to sit as a plain black piece. That looks a little odd though so I'll see if I can print off a paper copy and just tape it on.

And a few closer shots so you can get a better look at the awesome greebling!

Super Star Destroyer (10221) - Mega Greebling!

I think mom has found her calling - Master Greebler. Despite vociferous complaining about how hard it is to make out the differences in color (light bluish gray, dark bluish gray, and black), she has done a really good job on the nit-picking greebling that really makes the SSD look great.

A lot of the tail section is now done and we have started working our way towards the nose of the vessel.

She was also itching for a Darth Vader minifigure that she could parade through the ship. I didn't pick up any of the minifigures when I put this set together as I had intended it primarily as a display piece. I told her that when we build our Death Star, Darth Vader can come for a visit :)

We've also picked out a pretty good place where we can display this once it's finished. We're thinking it will look pretty sharp on top of the china cabinet in the formal dining room.