Building the Cavalry

Perhaps one, if not the, most intresting army builder sets of the past few years, has to be the Lone Ranger one.

Set 79106 gives you a cowboy, but more imporantly 3 `Union` soldiers for any ACW project you might have running, a cannon and a horse.

Okay, and some bricks to make a small build, as we`ll see here.

Opening the small box, you get two bags of parts and said horse.

The first accessory that we`ll build is the campfire, complete with a piece of grilled chicken.

The second build is the cannon.  Even though it is the same main body as, well, forever, this one has a gorgeously build up wheeled set underneath.

The third small thing coming with the set is the walled enclosure for placing the gun behind.

Nothing spectacular, but in handy colours...

And the full set completed:

With of course it`s additional parts.

Like I said, on a `build` level, there is barely anything to it, but on a `minifig` level, this little box, coupled to the fact the line wasn`t that big a success over here and allowing you to pick these boxes up around 7 euro currently, make it a real winner.

Raising Steam - Terry Pratchett

I never thought that when I started reading this book, it would be the last one ever to be published while sir Terry was alive.

So there is one more novel coming, but then, the Discworld will travel into the big galaxy upon it`s mighty Turtle and into legend.

Raising Steam ironically is the novel where the Discworld started changing.  The power of steam is at last harnessed by a young Sto Lat Engineer, Dick Simnel, and together with Moist von Lipwig and Harry King, they start modernising transportation on the disc.

But it also the novel where the population is changing.  The trolls have been well integrated in the world now, the goblins are following the path and their journey really opens in this book (and in a way, the one of the gnomes end before starting again) and the Dwarves... keep arguing wether or not progress is needed or has to be hold back, wether they should get out into the world or fold in upon their traditions.

It was a highly enjoyable work once more, with a lot of tongue in cheeck humour and subtle word plays, but now, the tale comes to an end.

Thanks Terry, it was a great journey...

The Vault... my first video

It`s a short one, at 4.02 minutes in length, but I went in and finally tried my hand at YouTube.

In this first short episode, I tackle a bit of different items, but it was fun to do...



Now, the general idea is to do this about 6 times a year, so no promises if and when episode 2 will be coming ;-)

Sometimes, Time IS on your side

The one benefit perhaps you have as a collector of 80s toys it seems, is that time is actually your best friend.

Things you want to add, and which are not uber rare prototypes and the likes, are bound to be showing up sooner or later and there seems to always be a deal to be struck.

The most recent example?  I was allowed by the GF to order my own gift for our anniversary soon.  I had been looking around on the internet auction sites and the likes for an Emperor Dark from Starcom, one of the rarest figures to get overhere in Europe.

He was a mail away exclusive in Canada, and back then there was no internet, and those mail offers where usually native residents only.  I found them online for between 60 to 100 USD, but it was even rare to have him with cloak AND staff, and you would not only be paying a hefty amount of shipping, but also import taxes, making it really expensive for another time just expensive exclusive.

But now I found one in Spain, and he knocked me (well, technically her) back for 65 euro incl recorded shipping, and he is even on the way as we speak already.

This is going to be such an awesome gift!

And it is also the perfect example that unless you get offered pristine MIB boxes, you actually have time to wait.  Most of these toys are 30 years old, and due to shows like the Toy Hunter, the market is having a bit of an uplift at the moment, as people think they have found the newest goldmine. 

So if you can bring it up to wait just a few more years, the market is going to be settling down again in all probability and prices will lower again by about a quarter, especially for not so popular ranges like StarCom and even MASK. 

GI Joe, Masters of the Universe (with it`s upcoming movie) and Transformers is a whole other matter though and have markets of their own...

Inspirational Lego 12: Tolkien`s Middle Earth

And so we return one last time to the MELO contest, as the battles are fought, and the winner is known.

It was an awesome display of skill over the months and a real visual festival...

But in the end, the winner was... ANDREW JN

He gained the upperhand in the finals over Dunedain98.

In the semi-finals, we had these entries:

Andrew JN

Dunedain98

Graham Gidman

Joseph Olson

A great run all, and hopefully more of this next year!

Classic Build: Lego City yellow car

This is the set that the little road repair one came with yesterday when I picked it up in the recycling store.  

To be honest, I hadn`t even seen that the other one was included as well...

Set 6530 is a simple little set from around the early 80s, containing a yellow car with cool canopy roof, and a minifigure with suitcase.

The build is nothing spectacular, and based upon the old car frame parts. 

The sides are heightened a little, and the canopy gets added

And voila, instant city car.  But it had cost me 4.50 for both of them together, not to bad and they have their instructions, upping their value as well...

A big haul of Transformers

I hinted at it last week, and now I finally found the gap to photograph all the contents of a pretty nifty find I had last week.

A big box with 13 of the more recent Transformer models, all in all costing me less then 60 euro and which I hope to be able to trade for a nice set of MASK I have my eye on, priced around 75 euro.

The big attractions in this lot are the Star Wars crossover models, of which I only showed the Obi-Wan earlier this week, but also this fella, a TIE pilot transforming into a TIE Bomber.

Another bigger bot in the set is this movie Jazz.  Now, I always have had a weakness for him, and he will not be traded around but be placed in the cabinet over at my GF`s.  I just like to keep the odd bit and piece over there, to show my evil influence...

The main sort of bots in the box are these smaller ones, that tended to retail around 10 euro over here a piece, and I have payed about 3 if I do the math each.  Most are from the Revenge of the Fallen Line, and should be suitable for an occassional hit or miss trade addition to pull someone over the line.

The first is Tankor, who changes conveniently into a tank.  I personally think former Rhinox looks okay in this scale.

Secondly, we have Sideways, who except for his hands is a nifty model in my taste.

The same can be said for Sideswipe, lovely little model as well.  Now generally, I find the smaller scale ones that transform into a car generally better executed.  Why... hold on...

Because here is Starscream and his jet mode.  Which is basically trying to put everything underneath him and just look at him from above to have it vaguely resemble an airplane.

Grindor is better for that purpose as he can stow away limbs inside the body work, but still... meeh

But it still beats Ravage.  What the heck does he transform into, an metallic piranha duckalien???

Ratchet on the other hand is okay again,

Finally, Springer is a bit odd in robot mode with all his rotor blades, but heck, I had worse in this series.

The next big thing in the box was this Power Ranger bot... I mean Power Core Combiner, Mudslinger.  The central part transforms from truck to robot to body for a gestalt, but the other 4 are just `drones`, vehicles that change into limbs but don`t have a robot mode.

And finally, we end with a normal transformer more or less, Strongarm.

All in all, not to shabby a deal and like I noted at the start, I *hope* to have it suffice for getting myself a MASK vehicle to the collection...

I`ll keep you posted!