Sunday, December 9, 2012

Hanukkah 2012: Day 1

Just checking in via phone to show you guys what I got last night.

From my father:


Star Wars Vintage Series Wedge Antillies

He's a decent figure, but the helmet is hard to get on and off without decapitating him. His flight suit doesn't sit well with the little rings near his knees. But it's Wedge. It's Ewan's Uncle. That's still cool.

From my wife:


Lego Star Wars Anakin and Sebulba's Podracers.

I would collect more Legos if they weren't so expensive. My wife would too. She heard me say that if I could own only one Star Wars Lego set, it would be this one, And I love her that she got this for me. We haven't started building it yet, and may not for a while. But I'm so glad I have it.

See you tomorrow!

UPDATE!!!

My wife and I decided to build them yesterday. Here's what it looked like after an hour and a half:


Another hour and a half, and it looked like this:



After that, Sebulba's cockpit took maybe another fifteen minutes to build. Here's some pics of the completed set:






Wicked. Sweet.

Although, I just realized this. This set comes with an Obi-Wan minifigure...why? He was nowhere near the podrace. It should have been Qui-Gon. Oh well, at least I have A Jedi minifigure now.

14 comments:

  1. I grew up on the older SW sets, they're really fantastic (the first two years of sets aren't all that accurate, but have this really magical quality about them that makes me incapable of disliking them).

    But yeah, it's a shame they're so expensive- especially the licensed stuff (like the new Jabba's Palace, which is twice as much as it should be).

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    1. I know. I think there's a Death Star that's like $300.

      We're building it right now. Anakin's is finished and we're starting on Sebulba's.

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    2. The Death Star is seriously awesome- expensive as hell, but completely awesome. Too expensive for me, but I sometimes for fun just try to piece one together out of my own collection (I'm actually building one right now).

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    3. If you succeed I'd seriously love to see it.

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    4. There's an old photo of the first attempt here, from about 2008 or so:
      http://www.flickr.com/photos/36475856@N02/3449374084/in/pool-2041980@N25/

      Ideally this latest one will have less color differences.

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    5. Ideally it would be to scale, but you'd need a whole backyard for that. Awesome first attempt!

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    6. You know, there's actually an article studying that very possibility:
      http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/02/could-you-build-a-scale-lego-model-of-the-death-star/


      For myself, I'm content merely recreating the LEGO set. :P

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  2. Oh, by the way, LEGO has a tendency of placing figures in sets based on their desirability/rarity and not on whether or not they have relevance to the scene- hence Obi-Wan here ('cause Qui-Gon was already in another set in the line), and Queen Amidala in the Gungan Sub.

    On the one hand, this prevents the problem the original line had where you'd have something like 15 Luke's and R2's, and then 1 Han or Leia. On the other, though, it's a rather crass marketing gimmick- as scene in the latest LOTR, where they split up the Fellowship among all the different sets, so you have to buy every single set to get the complete fellowship.

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    1. Really? Amidala is with the Bongo set? I don't remember noticing her when I saw it in the store...ah well, it is what it is.

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    2. Mmhm. I think it's a bit of a crass move on their part "oooh, here's a set that we know isn't going to sell very well, so let's include the minifigure everyone has been clamoring for since the very beginning of the line!"

      But yeah, they've been splitting the figures like that since probably 2008 or so. It's annoying, but whatcha gonna do.

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    3. What set wasn't supposed to sell well? Or is that a crack at poor old Jar Jar (whom, remember, the target audience doesn't hate).

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    4. Just that in a line that includes a Sith Infiltrator, a Gungan vs. Battle Droids battle pack, and podracers, kids likely aren't gonna pick the Bongo.

      I don't believe the original sold all that well, either- at least from my experience as a kid I always wanted the MTTs and podracers.

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    5. I actually really want the Bongo now...

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