Like many AFOLs I seem to spend an inordinate amount of my time sorting and resorting my LEGO collection, and it was during a recent sortfest that I stumbled across the little fellow below. It reminded me that I'd long intended to share the rambling tale of how he came into my possession, and in so doing say a public "thank you" to the US-based AFOL and all-round good guy who has tracked down all manner of US-exclusive LEGO-related items for me over the years including Yoda.
Back in May 2013 there was a disturbance in the force, with the unveiling in New York's Times Square of what was at the time claimed to be the world's largest ever LEGO model - a 1:1 replica of an X-wing Starfighter - to celebrate the impending premiere of The Yoda Chronicles animated series. Based on Set 9493 X-wing-Starfighter, this huge build was 42 times the size of the retail set and apparently took 32 builders at LEGO's Kladno Model Shop in the Czech Republic over 3 months to build from 5.3 million bricks. As you can see from the picture below (courtesy of starwars.com) it caused quite a stir....
To further promote the Yoda Chronicles series, the nearby Times Square branch of Toys R Us ran a promotion from May 23rd to 25th 2013 whereby purchasers of specially-marked copies of Set 9493 would receive a limited edition "NY I Love" Yoda minifigure. Apparently 1,000 of these minifigs were made and handed out during the 3-day promotion, and as a big Star Wars fan and LEGO collector I was obviously really keen to get hold of one. Thankfully, help was at hand in the form of US-based Brickset admin Roland a.k.a. Rocao, and to cut a very long story short he was able to secure a limited edition Yoda minifigure for me. The plan was initially for Roland to package Yoda up with a bunch of other items that he had collected together for me and for other folks and ship the whole lot over to the UK for me to distribute. For various reasons, however, Yoda didn't make it into the consignment and was left stranded in the US.
Jumping forward a couple of years to August 2015, a delegation of Brickset Forum members headed by Brickset head honcho Huw and myself journeyed to the LEGO mothership in Billund, Denmark. Thirty three of us in total travelled over at the invitation of LEGO's Community, Events and Engagement Team for a one-day visit which included a tour of the fabled vault housing copies of pretty much every LEGO retail set every released, the LEGO factory at Kornmarken, and the site of the work-in-progress LEGO House and visitor centre (above). There was also a visit to the LEGO employee store for a spot of shopping, and a presentation by LEGO designer Mike Psiaki who's the man behind 10248 Ferrari F40 amongst other sets. As good fortune would have it, one of the 33 Bricksetters to make the trip to Billund was Roland, who travelled over to Denmark from California. Aside from the fact that it was absolutely brilliant to finally get to meet him in person and hang out after literally years of chatting online, Roland had stashed the promised Yoda minifig in his luggage and so I was finally able to take delivery.
Neither Yoda's printed sand green head, which has a tuft of white hair at the rear, nor his short tan legs, are exclusive to this minifigure, although the head has only appeared in two other sets, 75002 AT-RT and a Yoda Clone Wars Watch Set. The torso, which doesn't have a back print, isn't exclusive to this minifigure either, having also appeared as a part of a 2013 New York Toy Fair giveaway. The minifig came sealed in a 7.5 cm x 13.5 cm soft plastic bag which also contained the printed white card that you can see in the picture above.
In addition to Yoda, Roland had also brought me the special cardboard sleeve which was placed around the otherwise standard copies of 9493 X-wing Starfighter to mark them out as being promotional items. The front of the sleeve (above) is focused on advertising the Yoda Chronicles premiere and also gives notice of the free Yoda minifig available with purchases of the set, while the back of the sleeve (below) provides photographs of the life-sized LEGO X-wing together with technical drawings and some facts and figures.
Talking of the X-wing, following its brief Times Square residency it was transported to LEGOLAND California in June 2013 where it went on show. Then, in March 2015, the X-wing crossed the Atlantic to LEGOLAND Billund where it formed the centerpiece of a Star Wars display. And so it was that by a quirk of fate the X-wing was on display at LEGOLAND Billund when I visited, and my Yoda minifigure was therefore, in a manner of speaking, reunited with the X-wing more than 2 years after the Times Square reveal. All of my pictures of the X-wing unfortunately came out appallingly badly, so I'm indebted to another US-based Bricksetter who came on the Billund trip, JusJeff from Iowa, for giving me permission (albeit about 18 months ago....) to use his picture below.
So thanks again Roland for all your efforts to track down juicy US LEGO exclusives for me and others on this side of the pond, and sorry it's taken so long to get this posted....
I spent last weekend at the 2012 Great Western LEGO Show (GWLS) at STEAM. It was my third consecutive year attending the event and it's really not getting old for me at all. There's no doubt that the standard of models on display was incredibly high - a quick skim through the 350+ photographs I took there immediately reminded me of that. At least as importantly, however, I probably enjoyed the social aspects more than ever as I've now got to know more of my fellow exhibitors, and some of them have become good friends.
Centerpiece of this year's LEGO display at GWLS was a collossal model of the British Olympic Stadium, complete with over a thousand minifigures, which was built by Ed Diment, Annie Diment, Stuart Crawshaw and Naomi Farr. Many of you will have seen pictures of this masterpiece during the extensive pre-Olympics publicity it got. As the show was wrapping up on Sunday, Ed and co. got to have their photograph taken with an Olympic Torch used in the Olympic torch relay (picture below - click to enlarge) which was a nice touch.
From L-R : Ed, Annie, Naomi and Stuart
My contribution to the show was modest this year; all I had on display was the red Volkswagen T1 Camper Van that I posted about last week. It was part of a collaborative display coordinated by Robert Clarkson which brought together a total of 14 large-scale camper vans in various colours, including a neat pimped version in yellow and black, plus a number of smaller versions. What was interesting was how everybody seemed to have a different favourite; my picks were Robert's psychedelic multicoloured version and Vaughn Medway's black mobile disco van (pics below - click to enlarge).
Robert Clarkson's Psychedelic Camper Van
Vaughn Medway's Mobile Disco
One of the exhibits closest to my heart was the Gerry Anderson-themed collaborative build coordinated by Gary Davis. This featured creations inspired by such legendary TV series as Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, UFO and Stingray. The centre piece was Gary's magnificent model of Thunderbird 3 which was making its UK debut. Other top creations included Gary's huge Thunderbird 2 complete with elevator cars, Peter Salter's Thunderbird 2 hanger and launch strip complete with power functions, a beautiful Angel Interceptor, once again built by Gary, and a massive model of Stingray's Marineville by Andrew Danielli, complete with a wonderful LED-lit seabed scene. I'm not sure who built the UFO Control Room staffed by custom Homemaker figures below but I loved it ! If anyone knows who the builder is please leave a comment and I'll credit them. (EDIT : The UFO Control Room was built by Eleanor Thorn and Andrew Walker - thanks for the info, Gary !)
Thunderbird 3 by Gary Davis
Angel Interceptor by Gary Davis
FAB 1 by Andrew Walker
UFO Control Room by Eleanor Thorn and Andrew Walker
Marineville by Andrew Danielli
Thunderbird 2 by Gary Davis
As in previous years, Pete Brookdale (cavegod) brought a large selection of his superb Star Wars MOCs down to Swindon from his home in the frozen north. These included old favourites such as his huge AT-AT and Sandcrawler, and also some newer models including his 74-Z Speeder Bike and Rancor, plus the recently released Set 10227 B-wing Starfighter. This time out Pete was joined by first-time exhibitor Sam Pearce who displayed a superb crashed AT-AT - anyone who's seen The Empire Strikes Back will immediately recognise the downed AT-AT from the movie. STEAM veteran James Sutton displayed his model of Yoda with glowing lightsaber and some of his superb large-scale Star Wars figures alongside Pete and Sam's stuff.
74-Z Speeder Bike by cavegod
Sam Pearce's downed AT-AT
Yoda by James Sutton
Rancor by cavegod
Set 10227 B-wing Starfighter
Caroline (Savage_Steel) and Nick, a.k.a. Minifigs.me, had brought a bunch of their custom minifigures along. Having started out by making custom minifigures for their friends, including some superb Watford F. C. minifigs for me (much obliged !) they branched out into making custom minifigures of the Team GB Olympic and Paralympic medallists which really caught the public's imagination and thrust their creators into the media spotlight. Caroline and Nick showed off a selection of their celebrity figures including our medal-winning Team GB Olympians and Paralympians, various incarnations of Dr. Who, the cast of Red Dwarf, and even a parachuting Royal.... Special mention for Lucy (lost_in_translation) who put together an excellent miniature Strictly Come Dancing set complete with band at late notice to show off some of the Strictly glitterati.
On yer bike...
Not amused....
Sorry, Doctor Who ?
Significantly better than the TV show...
The were a number of train layouts and townscapes on display. Some of my favourites were Eleanor Thorn and Andrew Walker's Alien Invasion diorama (I love the decadent minority partying in the jacuzzi as the city burns, and the cow abduction !) and Chris and Yvonne Mathews' Dutch Townscape, as well as the big collaborative effort between Naomi Farr, Huw Millington, William Howard and Jason Railton. These are the kind of exhibits that you can stare at for ages and keep seeing more and more neat details that you hadn't previously noticed.
Alien Invasion by Eleanor Thorn and Andrew Walker
Alien Invasion by Eleanor Thorn and Andrew Walker
Dutch Townscape by Chris and Yvonne Mathews
Dutch Townscape by Chris and Yvonne Mathews
Train layout built by Naomi, Huw, Jason and William
One of the things that struck me as I wandered the exhibition halls over the weekend was the sheer variety of LEGO creations on display. Alongside the dioramas above, which are classic GWLS fare, were Technic and NXT exhibits. These included an eye-catching series of models by Simon Burfield, who showed his huge moving T1 Robot complete with a pair of fearsome mini guns and also his LEGO-built wheelchair which can shift a full grown adult. The wheelchair had been featured on a ton of blogs and other sites in the run-up to GWLS so it was excellent to see it in the brick, or at least in the liftarm... When I asked him what he'd be building for next year he said he might try and build a car to move people around the exhibition hall; if anyone else had said that I would just have laughed at them, but I wouldn't put anything past burf.... There was also an appearance from the team responsible for Cubestormer II, which holds the world record for fastest completion of a Rubik's Cube. Their machine looks cool even when it's not doing anything, and it's amazing to watch the thing in action.
Burf's Wheelchair
Cubestormer II
Below you can see pictures of a few more creations that particularly caught my eye. I really want to give a special mention to "Twilight of the Gods" by renowned builder Luke Hutchinson (a.k.a. Derfel Cadarn). It's utterly wonderful, spellbinding even; perhaps my favourite model of the whole show. Click on the picture below to enlarge it and take a closer look at the little details. Even the purple moat at the base of the tower, complete with little pink bubbles, just works. I love it ! Incredibly, it appears from Luke's Flickr Stream that he built the whole thing in just a few days. Astonishing.
"Twilight of the Gods" by Luke Hutchinson
Friend's Kitchen by Yvonne Doyle
Tim Fegan's Iron Man
Ralph Savelsberg's Land Rover
Mouse by Tim Goddard
Maersk Container Ship by Tom Groombridge
In addition to those creations above there were others which I would have included if I'd managed to get better photographs....James Sutton's large-scale Superman figure, Robert Clarkson and Maria Sant's Mephistic Manor display, Barney Main's Galleons, Annie Diment's Looney Tunes characters, James Pegrum's Sacking of Camulodnum, Tim Goddard's Triport Spire and Space Police Hangar, Candlestick Hall by Michael Le Count, and Jeremy William's Neo-Classic Space models, for example. And there were others that I didn't even manage to photograph at all despite my 350+ pictures. I've therefore embedded a video below shot by film production company Infinite8 which captures a few of the GWLS 2012 creations that I've missed - click arrow to view.
In summary, I was blown away by the quality of the models on show - the bar seems to rise every year. And it's not just showing off, either - it actually seems to be inspiring people, and not just the AFOLs. I genuinely lost count of the number of parents I spoke with who said that their kids were wide-eyed with wonder at what they were seeing and would be getting their LEGO out and building as soon as they got home. LEGO can't buy this kind of PR and publicity. Attendance figures were extremely healthy, with around eight and a half thousand people visiting over the weekend; I think that might be the most visitors that GWLS has ever had during the ten years it's been going. Certainly the venue was heaving on both days, and the traders seemed pretty much rushed off their feet. So a fantastic weekend, then, and it'll take a lot to keep me away next year. Many thanks to Martin Long and his team for organising a wonderful weekend, and of course to all the exhibitors, traders and visitors.
Before I go, just a quick word about the frequency and timing of posts on this blog. For over a year now I've tried to stick to weekly postings, with new stuff appearing on Wednesdays, and up until the last couple of weeks I've pretty much managed to stick to that. The problem is, as my postings have tended to get longer and more detailed, I've increasingly struggled to meet my weekly self-imposed deadline, particularly when I'm reviewing a larger model which takes a longer to build. I've generally managed it, but this blogging business is supposed to be fun, and rushing to hit deadlines feels a little too much like work for my liking.... I'm therefore going to relieve the pressure a bit and allow myself more flexibility in respect of posting on here; it was either that or force myself to post shorter entries, and where's the fun in that ?! So just a heads-up to those of you who check in on Wednesdays for the latest post that you might need to wait a bit longer in future. Apologies, but I hope it'll still be worth the wait.
Master Yoda and all at Gimme LEGO (i.e. me) wish you a Merry Christmas !
May all your Christmas dreams come true, and may the rattling sound beneath your tree be the set you always wanted rather than a problem with the central heating....
Hold on a minute - how did that get there ?! Looks like Santa's been....!
OK, as promised, here's the second dip into my bucket list - 5 more sets that came and went while I was in my LEGO Dark Ages and which I made it my mission to track down....click the pictures that follow to enlarge them.
What is it about the Batman sets ? These have, almost without exception, literally exploded in price over the past few years, putting them out of reach of all but the most dedicated collectors. A pity, then, that I have an interest in the subject matter and would rather like the full set....
Truth be told, I'm keeping a look out for all but four of the Batman sets, but I think Arkham Asylum is probably the most interesting of those that I don't already own, and hence its inclusion here. As well as an interesting selection of structures which do a pretty good job capturing the quirky and, frankly, spooky feel of the subject material, the set contains 7 minifigs of which 4 are exclusive to the set. And those exclusives include the Poison Ivy minifigure, who I'm almost ashamed to admit I find quite alluring....
And yes - before you say anything, I'm well aware that I need to get out more.
Poison Ivy (thanks to Huw for the pic)
So what's the catch ? Well, if I tell you that the only boxed example of this 860-piece set on eBay.co.uk at the moment is priced at £599.99 plus postage you'll get a pretty good idea.... This set is rare and ridiculously expensive, so I fear it's going to be languishing on my "to buy" list for a while longer yet....
Quite possibly the most predictable inclusion on my list, this absolute monster is surely the pinnacle of bonkers - a one metre long collossus which is virtually impossible to display in anything smaller than an aircraft hangar, costs a fortune and falls apart if you even breathe on it. But just look at it - it's amazing ! Of all the official sets I've ever laid my eyes upon, this one definitely had the most jaw-dropping impact, and as a big Star Wars fan it was clear that I had to get one.
I'm delighted I that took the plunge and bought the bad boy in the picture above when I did as the price of this set has continued to increase. Unless you strike it particularly lucky on eBay, you're looking at paying at least £400 on Bricklink for a complete, boxed example, and even that's assuming you're willing to pay whatever it takes to have it shipped from the US plus import duty on top of that. Otherwise you're stuck with paying £500 plus shipping from mainland Europe. All of which makes the £280 I paid for a MISB example back in 2009 look like an absolute bona fide bargain, although it felt like a small fortune at the time.....
This set seems to be on a lot of people's Bucket Lists.... Released in 1990 and containing 767 pieces and 9 minifigures, this set is one of only 3 monorails that LEGO have ever released, and if recent noises coming out of the LEGO company are to be believed, there won't be any more for the foreseeable future.
So why is it so desirable ? Well, aside from the fact that the motorised shuttle itself works just as it should and looks great, there's so much else to the set - you're getting 2 loops of track which form a 2-tiered arrangement, you're getting not one but two stations, one of which is complete with a neat station plaza with stairs leading up to the station platform and shuttle, and you're getting loads of minifigures to bring the models to life. There are also a host of neat little design touches; as an example, one of the stations is designed to imitate the 'T'-shaped Airport Shuttle logo.
Beautifully designed, then, but not cheap; at the time of writing, the cheapest boxed example on Bricklink is on sale for well over £200, and if you want a new, sealed set then you're looking at almost £900. So expensive, certainly, but I'm on the lookout for one all the same - I'd just love to add a monorail to my city layout, and this beauty fits the bill perfectly.
Released in 2002 at a price of £79.99 / $100, this is one of those quirky sets that people seem to either love or hate. I have to confess that Yoda wasn't at the top of my "must buy" list when I started to amass a Star Wars collection on emerging from my Dark Ages, but he gradually got under my skin, and I ended up buying an unopened example for £101 + postage from eBay in mid-2009.
I absolutely loved the 'old style' building experience; the vast majority of the 1075 pieces are 'proper' bricks and plates rather than the profusion of specialised parts you tend to get these days, and many of them are in relatively unusual and interesting colours such as sand green and dark orange. If you're after more information and pics, feel free to check out my photo review of this set hosted on Eurobricks.
I'd be the first to admit that the final result is a little on the blocky side, but LEGO Yoda has a charm all of his own, and tellingly he was a fixture in communal areas of my house for absolutely ages before I finally returned him to his box to free up display space for another set.
Yoda can still be obtained relatively inexpensively given the piece count and rarity, with eBay auctions and buy-it-now listings often going for £100 or less, and the cheapest boxed example on Bricklink currently listed for around £130.
Given my well-documented ambivalence towards LEGO Technic, this might seem like a surprising choice of set to include in my list, but it's testament to what a great set it is that you're reading this now.
Admittedly the initial hook was my love of all things Space Shuttle and my quest to collect all the LEGO Space Shuttle sets, but once I took the time to research the set it shot to within striking distance of the very top of my "must have" list. In short, it's an amazing set, featuring motors to power the cargo bay doors, Canadarm and satellite, a fibre-optic system to emulate the engine thrusters, and other moving parts such as retractable landing gear and flaps. And it actually looks like the shuttle to boot, with my only gripe being the lack of body and wing panels to 'fill in the gaps'.
Inside of box lid, showing some of the many features of the set
I have to confess that I struggled to get everything working as it should, so complex was the build compared with the average LEGO set, but the finished model is just stunning.
Consisting of 1368 pieces, Set 8480 Space Shuttle was released in 1996. I picked up mine, used but boxed and complete, for £70 in January 2010. You'll pay between £100 and £150 plus shipping on Bricklink for a boxed example now, and it'll be worth every penny.
Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed this brief snapshot of some of the highlights of my Bucket List over the past couple of weeks; I have to say that it was really hard cutting the list down to just ten sets, and loads of interesting stuff missed the cut, so maybe I'll return to this topic at some point in the future and dust off a few more entries.....
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