Turn A Gundam - BSL round 2

The second round, and another well deserved loss.  I personally adore Blue in VT`s painting style, check out his blog for one, but not when I`m paired up against him.

He is just to good for my skills, and I can perfectly live with the defeat.

It is a bit pity though that I`m not going to be able to make a fresh entry for round 3, with the pre-release and release weekends comming up, and I want to be armed as good as I can for the GP London as I can, otherwise it wouldn`t have been the deal to travel there in the first place.  So i`m spending the comming free time in weekends to battle it out at the card table and not behind the painting desk.

Still, at least I now have some painted mobile suits of perhaps the strangest of all the Gundam franchise series, the basic suits look `odd`, the Gundam has a mustache, and the setting is what looks like the Interbellum but turns out to be aeons after the high tech settings of previous series.  Complicated story, go watch it and you will have a smile on your face with this series.

A Big Step: T plus 30 Hours

A day and a bit later, and I`m amazed to say the sorting of my ancient Lego bricks is as good as done.  I have only two baskets from that `swivle tower` I posted yesterday to go, but I have a problem right now as I`m running out of plastic containers to store them in, and don`t want to go use cardboard containers as these ones stack better.

The solution?  I`m going to try and build some of the older sets in order to `remove` some bricks from all the containers into the models, and hopefully can get the remaining bricks in the boxes that way.

I tried my hand already on one of the classics, set 6890, the Cosmic Cruiser I also showed yesterday.  The set is from 1982 (I was like 4 back then!!!) and I always loved the model.  Don`t ask me why, but when I was a kid I thought he was one of the Thunderbirds vessels, probably the fact it has an auxiliary vehicle comming out of it like Thunderbird 2 had...

Now this was old school building, the actual build only took like half an hour, but I spend more then an hour and a half rummaging through all the boxes for the needed bricks.  You must realise, back then the building instructions (you can get the all Lego booklets scanned on this site) didn`t have an inventory of bricks to be used.  Nor did they have numbered bags like now.  Nor did they show what bricks where needed in each step.

So you have to analyze the plan before you go looking for the parts, trying to remember as good as you can while going through your boxes (and back then, those used to be big cardboard boxes with everything just tossed in, at least now I had it all sorted by colour) and look at times for ages for a certain brick (and usuall, that peticuliar one was never to be found).

I had it happen as well with this vessel.  I couldn`t find the second blue sidebrick with the black markings printed on, probably ended in a lawnmower or vacuumcleaner two decennia ago, so you will need to improvise, in this case a non printed blue brick.

This is what makes Lego so fun for me, and I think makes it a great educational toy.  You need to think and sort problems as you go instead of all those modern straight from the box, don`t dare to mix and match my collection, and look the plan says this as this generation is used to.  I know, I saw it with the Little Munchkin as well, I think he is going to flip out should I print him a plan and say "look kid, built this.  Search and keep searching for the needed bricks.  Don`t find them?  Use a different colour, but please try to keep the colours together as I spend a day and a half sorting them hehehe".

Which mind you doesn`t mean I don`t like the present day Lego kits.  Actually, I adore them, they are drop dead gorgeous (and I`m going to build me a trio of Atlantis kits this evening as we speak... well, after pizza, I don`t feel like cooking after all day sorting Magic cards and Lego bricks), it`s just at times, the old-fashioned way has a more satisfying feeling to it when completed succesfully!

Until next time, ciao ciao!

A Big Step

The start today of a week off from work, and the plan is simple.  With the Lego virus nibbling back on my sanity (using the Little Munchkin and my little cousins as an excuse) I finally took the step to sort out all my old Lego bricks that have been in moving boxes in the garage.  For like 20 years now.  So there are a lot of old jewels in there, no instructions though anymore but only my mind to try and remember more or less which of the bigger sets I had.

So today, a night through and the better part of tomorrow morning will be spend on sorting out the old bricks.  At the moment I`m filtering out all the transparent parts and all the minifigs and equipment, before going over to coloursorting all the bricks on well, erm, color and main types (basic bricks, flat bricks, plates, others...)

After that I`m especcially going to look for the bricks to build the following models, as I`m 100% sure I had those waaaay back (amongst many others) as a start.

After that the hardest part... making storage space available for all the build models with trying to sell off more of my wargame figures, which means I first have to sort them all out lol.

Sorting... the never ending vicious cycle...

Playstation Level 13

In the battle of the Playstation challenge, I have gotten a serious bump... thanks to my girlfriend.  She finally found a game she liked doing, and in a 3 hour gaming session last evening, she managed to pop no less then 13 trophies (12 bronzes and 1 silver) AND scored the achievement for the trophy that put me into level 13.

Her game... Happy Feet 2. 

Yes, the game based on the dancing pinguins.  I can't tell you how or what the game is all about bar it has catchy music (the movie soundtrack) but the few eyes I dropped on the screen while building lego star wars planes was that you have to level songs by dancing onto them and collect other pinguins... or something like that.

But anyways, now the level 13 trophy in my archieves is... 'Close To You' (bronze): Assemble a group of three pinguins.

Thanks babe, and keep that rate up ;-)

May the Brick be With You: Rebel Fighters

Build some Star Wars rebel fighters today.  With the munchkin having a few of them, I could not stay behind of course, but I wanted to build the sets of 'my' Star Wars from when I was young.

That is the Luke-era thank you, yes I'm an eighties kid ;-)

First one build today was the A-Wing.  These small interceptors come with additional figures of Admiral Akbar and Han Solo, a quick and easy build, but a great model none the less.

And it is the unfortunate bugger piloting the vessel that crashed in the Star Destroyers bridge above the forest moon of Endor, as his onboard computer reveals us...

Second is the venerable X-Wing of Luke Skywalker and R2-D2.  A superb model and the wings actually fold into attack position due to Technic parts.

Small point of critique or warning though, if your kid isn't used to building Lego's, this box, rated 8-14 years isn't the most ideal gift, it is a rather complex build as it contains a lot of mechanics to make the wings work, and that then gets covered up bu the exterior hull.

It also comes with minifigs for 'Red Leader' Jek Porkins and his droid R5-D8 and then you have to add an extra small white brick with red marking on each wing to indicate the rank and identification of the variant fighter.  Nice detail attention if you ask me.

But if your a Star Wars fan or a Lego love... buy this one peeps, it is a very elegant and nifty model, with great inner workings!

Lego Pharao`s Quest

Today I finally build my Sphinx from the Pharao`s Quest series of Lego Adventurers while visiting my mom and having chitchats of things like planning marriage, educating a kid, future career plans and more of that sort.

Yes, we have those talks in strange ways, my mom watching some soap opera`s and me building lego sets, but we`re in a room adjacent to each other and can talk open and non-forced that way.  It`s something that has been that way since well, I was a kid, and never change a winning team they say.

I bought the box a few weeks ago in a discount action of the local Bart Smit toystore, and I really like the whole setting.  I admit that in the whole `non-franchise` of the modern day lego settings, the Pharao`s Quest series ranks as my number 2.  I mean, it has mummies and an Indiana Jones feel.  Witout being the actual Indiana Jones lego series. 

My top series of the non-franchise ones must be the Oriental Adventurers series, I really love those, and the third place should probably go to the Atlantis series, but I`ll show pictures of the kits I have from those series when I get around building them.

So mummies it is then, these are the two sets I have of the series and build now, the Scarab Attack and the Sphinx set:

The Sphinx is pretty big and can upright itself to a walking position, with a tomb that can `explode open` to reveal a mysterious golden sceptre...

And the 1930s car is just sheer awesomeness...


`Till the next build, ciao ciao

Caverns of Nathuz after action report 1

Deep inside the Caverns of Nathuz, the Golem Lord has discovered an ancient artifact and is using it to create his own army of monsters.  You must fight your way into the caves, but can you recover the Sceptre of Summoning?

Tonight we tried the second set of the Lego Heroica series family game, estimated at a playtime of around 15 minutes and compared to Draida Bay this one is for 3 players.  The new hero in the fold is the Thief, who's special ability is to steal gold when he defeats monsters with his Melee ability.

The set also introduces the Trade Post, where you can exchange gold for weapons that copy the abilities of other heroes in the sets, and treasure chests that can contain gold or traps.

For the first run of the game, the board was set up as the race to get the Sceptre, and didn't include the Golem Lord himself, that will be for the next time we play the game.  I took command of the Thief (black), the Little Munchkin took control again of the Wizard (red) and the GF took the Barbarian (yellow), hence known as Slaughterhouse.

The Barbarian and the Wizard went for the central route, bypassing and ignoring all treasure for the most part.  The Barbarian slaughtered his way through the dungeon, taking down a truckload of bats and golems, only to fall to zero hit points in the fight with the last Golem.

This openened an opportunity for the wizard to pass by the recuperating Barbarian and grab the Sceptre, winning the game.  Two games played, two victories for the Little Munchkin so far.

And the Thief?  He had taken the southern route and missed most of the game being stuck behind rocks and ending in last place, as he collected far less points then Slaughterhouse the GF on his way to the objective room.

Next time it will be the version with the Golem Lord, before moving on to the other sets and in the end the grand finale adventure.

Platinum 4: Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4

With the Playstation challenge now in full swing, I scored my 4th platinum on the Playstation tonight.  With Lego Harry Potter years 1-4 from the Lego series.

As with the other ones I played of the series so far, they are great fun.  For one, the tongue in cheeck humor is hilarious, I never saw the movies, but I learned now that

1. Ginny Weasley is a hot red-head

2. Baby Potter defeated Voldemort with headbutting a fireball back to the dark lord
3. Mandragora plants are funny... especially when a dark wizard gets earmuffs made of a spear through the head.

So far, I still loved the Pirates Lego game the most, while the Batman one was rather bleugh so far and will be a harder grind then the other Lego games to get the platinum.  Probably has to do with the fact that I always was a Marvel boy and have no real affinity with the DC superheroes.

Only critiscism I have on this game is that once you unlock a Dark Wizard (my first was Tom Riddle); free plays are walkovers compared to Pirates of the Carribean where you needed to unlock over half of the characters to be able to complete most expanded Free Play levels.  Tom Riddle solves it all...

Next on the target to score a platinum (well, I have one bronze in it so far, so I'm still starting the game up so to say) will be Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues.

Tatatatataaa tatatataaa tatatataaaa tatatatatataaaaa


still sounds better then nananananananana anyways...


Cheerios

Lego Promotional Sets

A small Lego post today, as I received and build (and bought) quite a few Lego sets the past weeks, both for me and the Little Munchkin.

I scored myself two now hard(er) to find polybag promo sets from various franchises, being the Pirates of the Carribean Jack Sparrow from the first movie release in a small rowboat

and Hawkeye and his equipment rack from the Avengers movie franchise series

Now personally, I like the Pirates series more, but Hawkeye being such a cool bloke, he is probably the only set of this series that I`m going to get myself, while on the other hand I do have my eye on one set from the Pirates series, being The Black Pearl herself.