The Secret Treasure of Cocovia

Last time we saw famous `first contact specialist` Your Honourable Doctor Atreides Lapzwanzer, he was entering a Mysterious Cave on a then unspecified location.

However, in the meantime we have learned that the island is called `Cocovia`, or Chocolate Island by one of it`s mayor`s.  But we never learned what happened inside that cave.

Well, this...

The professor received from the tribal chief, L`ulkoek`us, one of the treasures of the island, a sweet yet bitter substance called `chocolate`.  This product, made from beans, is said to have a great effect on the moodswings of the female species.  As presented by the calm demeanor of the chief`s wife, Boemsie-Boemsie.

A pretty simple build actually, this one was made to be able to proceed the storyline for Quinnsville, centered around coffee and chocolate.  The coffee coming soon(ish ish).

Thank god for the new Elves range and their chocolate bar ;-)

Lego Justice League Cosmic Clash

The latest of the DC based original movies produced in Lego, Cosmic Clash is one of the better ones imho.

And it came with a Cosmic Boy limited edition figure, that this time actually had a part to play in the movie.

Plot

When the Justice League succesfully defends Earth from an attack by Brainiac, the highly evolved robot returns with a plan to take out the three biggest threats he sees to his plans: Superman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern.

Instead of attacking them, he scatters them through time, but he forgets one factor.  The one member of the Justice League without powers but with great intelligence, plans and gadgets.  Batman travels through time (with a Flash powered Batmobile) to recover the lost members and face Brainiac.

In the meantime, Cyborg defends Earth with the help of some JL reserve members... Supergirl, who fights in a very cheerleadering style.

But perhaps the coolest part is when all the JL members in the final confrontation with Brainiac pilot unique jetfighters... that combine Voltron style into a big robot!

God, I`d love if Lego actually made that, though I know it`ll never happen...

Opinion

This was definitly one of the more `intense` of the Lego movies, compared to the slapstick of the two previous ones.  It has a taking along story, and some great input on the part of Batman and what drives him within the League.

Oh, and Buccaneer Batman, I`ll be glad when he comes out next month with the DK Book as a limited edition, he is just to awesome looking!

Rating: 7 / 10

Classic Lego Build: 6805 Astro Dasher

In today`s classic build, we have a small but nice little vessel from the classic Space range, hailing all the way back to 1985.

Coming from the first Space waves, this is till a grey vehicle, though the astronaut now comes in blue, after the initial white, red and yellow variants.

Yup, that`s Benny`s progenitor!

The set itself is based on two round plates, with two support elements added to it for the wings.

A third one for the nose is then added, and everything is secured using a 2x4 plate.

The pilot seat is mounted on this underside.  Small headlights and it`s piloting handles are then added to the front of this seat.

More of the support elements, this time ending in transgreen studs, make up the tail section of the little dasher.

A `camera` is added at the front to serve (in my child`s mind back then) as the cannon of this flying chair, while an engine goes to the back of the seat.

And the full set stands completed:

While not the most elaborate of models at slightly over 20 pieces, this would have been a polybag set in current days.  But what a cool polybag would it have been :-)

Het Eiland - S. J. Paul

The latest book I`ve finished is this first instalment of a new youth adult series, called De Eilanden serie (The Islands series) by flemish writer S. J. Paul.

Whom I know personally, being in my LUG and we had a good laugh at last years FACTS, where I bought the book (and it`s personally adressed to boot ;-) )

Plot

When 16 year old Stef wakes up on a rocky beach, he has no idea how he got there.  Going inwards, he discovers a peacefull village populated only by children, the oldest around his age.

Wanting to return to the normal world, he causes a riptide in this community who have never known anything else then the village, and the island seems to be thwarting all his attempts to uncover the truth.

He goes looking for someone named De Geest (the Ghost) and when he finds him at last with the help of some of the other children, a chilling truth emerges, and it is only a question if the island itself would ever let him return to his previous life.

Opinion

First, let me say this is not my usual genre of reading at all.  But it wasn`t bad, feeling a bit like a mixture of Lost and The Maze Runner to me personally (which is good, because even though it pains me to say, current day`s target audience is to young to remember Lost... darn I`m getting old).

The book had a nice selection of twists and unexpected directions, and the end was a real suprise.  But to be honest, it`s my GF, who is literally ripping through it nowadays, that is really excited about getting the second part of the series, De Wolf.

It was a good read though, well done S. J. (whose real name I won`t reveal on this little corner of the internet)

Gundam Iron-Blooded Orphans

Finally we have a decent Gundam series again, and it was a 25 episode blast that brought back a lot of classics.

But also tackled some very heavy issues from the real world...

Plot

When a bunch of children are abandoned on the planet Mars when an attack occurs, they take their defence upon themselves and with the help with a relic of the Calamity War 300 years earlier, they overcome the odds.
This forces passionate Orga and ice-cold Mikazuki to form a worker company of their own, called Tekkadan.  They are hired by miss bernstein, who was the target of this attack, to bring her to Earth and initiate talks for better conditions to those Mars based.
During this trip, Gjallerhorn, a royal house consisiting of 7 families and tasked with overseeing Earth, tries to interfere and prevent this as it would mean the end of their influence.  But together with the Gundam dubbed `Barbatos`, Tekkadan overcomes what is thrown towards them.

Opion

After the funny but not really Gundam show Tri-Fighters and the messes that where AGE and Reconguista in G, it`s great to have a `regular` and good Gundam show again.  Political scheming, rivalling factions, heck, even a mysterious masked man playing all sides in his red Gundam are present.

Like a Gundam show should be!

The series also tackles some serious topics, like child soldiers, poverty, slavery... which is perhaps the source of the biggest criticism on the series, but it`s succes has outweighted this and it has been confirmed for a second season towards the end of 2016.

Rating: 7.5 / 10

Lego Star Wars in 100 Scenes

Now that the GF and the kid have finally begun watching Star Wars, it happened that I finished reading / drooling over this book.

I found it last december in Canterbury on the shopping spree with my mum, and at 8 GBP it was a bargain.

The book, by DK Publishing, does just that what it says on the cover: it depicts scenes from the six movies recreated in Lego.

Every scene takes a double page and holds a few bits of information on certain figures, or where the sets came out, that sort of thing.  Add in the traditional Lego joke, and this is a truly magnificent work.

Inspirational Lego #63

Hello all on this Easter monday, when everything here is closed but I still present you with some gorgeous pieces of eye candy I stumbled upon.

It might help digest the overdose of chocolate eggs that where stuffed down the past 24 hours ;-)

We`re starting the selection with this awesome Nidoking build from Pokemon, and it comes with a twist.  On the inside of his chest, it has an opening hatch for a pilot to take place, so that it doubles as a monstrous mecha as well.

The next build is this fantastic looking modern day ship, featuring a lot of details and great incorporation of hull markings.

This mosaic of a Minion is well executed and really captures the little yellow bugger`s facial expression.

Chibi is kind of a thing these days, with the MicroFighters and now also the micro superhero sets, but these little builds feature a lot of popular 80s and 90s cars.

A small build from Andromeda`s Gates, this build has excellent desert terrain and I love the plants.

Peter Pan has always been one of my favourite fairy tales, and this classic image of Hook is fantastically recreated.

Another Andromeda`s Gates build, the use of the pink and medium azure colours in this landscape really make it stand out.

Somebody really loves Uni-Kitty...

The final two builds this week are these representations of the TARDIS console room, the first based on the `clean and sterile` look of the older series, while the second resembles the mansion like interior of the Paul McGann movie.

And that is it again for this weeks selection, be sure to pop by again next monday for more gorgeous recreations in Lego!

Lego Build: 40202 Easter Chick

Happy Easter everyone, and what better day then today to build the seasonal set for this year, the Easter Chick.

These little sets tend to be available in theory for 2 - 3 months, but if you`re not fast, they are usually gone within a day in the store and you can wait for a hopefully restock.  Which is why I always get them through S@H just to be safe then sorry.

Opening the box, we get the instruction booklet and two bags of parts in predominantly both the yellow tones in the current Lego range.

The central body is the first thing we will be assembling, starting from a 4x4 yellow plate.

Using slopes, this is `fluffed` out a bit.

The connectors at the front will be for attaching the belly of the little chick, as the build has a nicely rounded out shape.

The belly itself makes use of some yellow curved pieces and is then attached to the body.

The little wings are simple, mirrored affairs, and then attached to the side of the body.

Next up is the head of the bird.  Using inverted roof elements, they give the little guy nice `fat` cheecks.

The use of teeth pieces makes it look like little plumes hanging on the head.

It`s pretty cool there is a slight opening between the under and uppersides of the beak, and it has those big eyes that make it look all innocent.

The head is then attached to the body.

The final section we are building are the feet of the chick.  This starts out on a white plate.

This cornered tile piece was something I hadn`t seen before, but I like this a LOT.

Small orange feet are then added to the underside and all we need to do is connect it to the body.

And the full set stands completed:

Now, for a seasonal, you get a very limited amount of extra parts though:

I really love this set, and the GF`s reaction when she came in yesterday afternoon when I had put it together was "ooooh, that`s sweet", so yes, this is a very nice set indeed!