Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue

It's been a while and to be honest these photos have been sitting on my phone for quite some time. It is time to reveal my Lego TARDIS. I wrote a blog a while ago on my inspiration and the computer design, it is now the time to reveal the real thing!!

Now already during construction there were a few modificatons. Just to stability or due to lack of pieces being found. In the end I had to go to 5 piece providers to get all the bits in the colours I wanted.

I'm very happy with how the pieces I got at Brick 2014 worked in the set.

I understand that with Lego unleashing an official set later this year, my design is slightly redundant. But as my first ever computer design, with procurement of the exact bricks I needed I am VERY proud of the results!

It now takes pride of place on my desk at work.

 

 

With the doors opened put it stands very well on the surface, no wobble at all. I even think it's not too badly scaled for a minifig either.

You can see how cramped it is inside once the doors are closed, so unfortunately you cannot transport a minifig around inside.

Lastly are some construction pics. If you like the look of it and want to replicate it please let me know through the blog or my Instagram (whinney_g). I will send a PDF of the computer generated designs free of charge to anyone that wants a go.

Please feel free to build it, mod it, improve it. I'd love to hear ideas for how it could be made better in general or for your own uses.

 

 

 

 

Hope you are all well and happy building!!

McLaren P1

So, me and the new fiancé took a day trip to Cambridge for a bit of R&R and some shopping. She picked things up for the house, our daughter and the upcoming baby, I picked out this!

From the new Lego Racers range, the McLaren P1. The two Ferraris were in the shop also, but I preferred the McLaren. Mostly because it was yellow!!

Now for £13 I thought it was a pretty good price. Any more than £15 and I'd have been put off a bit, even if it is a special range. What I like about the box is that it has a picture of the actual car and some vital stats on too.

What first struck me upon opening the box was that there were two instruction books. I think that they could have done it in one really. The other thing was the amount of stickers. Now I understand that some would be required because some of the shapes aren't doable in Lego. Plus to print every brick would probably add production cost.

However a couple of the stickers I feel they could have printed, one the exhaust, as that is a prominent visual piece and even a slightly jaunty sticker could ruin the look of the car. The second was the dashboard. A sticker placed on a 2x1 wedge. Again, too easy to get wrong. 

I'm not opposed to unique bricks for a set, especially one such as this where the look and shape of the car is paramount in recreating a real life vehicle in Lego. But there were a few custom pieces I've not seen before and cannot see appearing in any 'normal' set. Is this a slight laziness on the designers part? Or were they trying to not only capture the look of the vehicle, but make it playable too?

One of the downsides of the DeLorean from Back to the Future is that because of its construction it is not very playable as it is quite fragile. Custom bricks would have improved stability sure, but it would then be hard to describe it as 'normal' Lego.

I fear it is one of those battles Lego will never be able to win and please everyone.

Now this does sound quite a negative review, but there are so many good things to this. One, again is the price. For a real world car I gladly paid that amount. The detail is astonishing, especially with the small scale of the model. Oversizing it would have made it easier on the designers, but not right to play with with a minifigure.

Lego supply two sets of 'alloys' 10 spoke and 5 spoke depending on your preference. The model is VERY well constructed and easily playable.

On the whole I'm quite happy with this purchase and it has now shown me the range is good enough to warrant buying some more. Just have to convince the missus I need them!!

Red Dragon

Just a short post today to show you my latest Lego purchase! It was even approved by my other half, under one condition, that our daughter is allowed to help me build it.

And here it is, modelled by the young lady herself;

This is set 31024 for ages 7-12 (it's just a suggestion). With my daughter's help it took about 40 mins, but I must say I am very impressed.

Including the Castle and Ninjago ranges there have been a few dragons produced by Lego. I've not always been that impressed, they either have good wings with not so good limbs or vice versa. But this set has it all. They have used a mixture of joints, the staggered clip-hinges, the ball and socket joints and even the newer mini ball and socket joints.

Each have been put to good use, none trying to hold up something that's too heavy or maintain a stance with too much weight applied.

Put together this lends itself to a very poseable dragon. It is also strongly constructed so very playable too! Even (mostly) by a three year old! 

The set, being a Creator set, also makes a snake and a scorpion, but as an avid dragon lover I shall keep it in this form. It has even made it to the office, where today it is keeping a colleague's hands warm!

You can see a lot of the used joints in the last picture. At the price of £17 I think this is a must have for anyone who likes the Creator range, or just dragons in general.

That's my quick post done for today. Have any of you got this set? What did you think of it? What is your favourite Creator set?

Until next time!

Lego TARDIS

Happy New Year to you all. Hope you had a good one and a good Christmas.

I'm going to start this year with a post about two things I enjoy very much. Lego creation and Doctor Who. Now I've only really been a fan since the revamp with Christopher Eccleston, but I am a solid fan. One thing that has bugged me was how the rights too constructable toys for Doctor Who were snapped up by one of Lego's rivals.

Now I am a massive Lego snob. If it's not Lego I generally will overlook it. Megablock's HALO series being one of the very few exceptions. That said, I went to a Doctor Who exhibit in London some years ago, pre-Mat Smith I believe, and they had the Lego equivalent models there. 

I had to buy the TARDIS, and it is pretty good, but there are a LOT of custom bricks and stickers required. And I feel, as proof of my required snobbery, the bricks do not really fit well together. This has lead me to thinking one day I should try something better. With Lego.

I'm not the only one out there with this idea and a guy called Flailx in conjunction with Glen Bricker and Kaminoan created this;

It is posted on the Lego Creations site and isn't doing too badly. You can check it out here; https://ideas.lego.com/projects/59237

I love the detail and the fact that you can open it up and have a playable model inside. Instantly I wanted to recreate it for myself and set about trying. I used the free Lego 'Digital Designer' (available free for Mac and PC users). However, I struggled. It may just be my construction method, I prefer to have stability in my models for playability, and I just could not figure out how the side panels were fixed.

So mine ended up like this...

Close, but not good enough for me.

The other downside was the number of stickers required for the detail. Not an issue if this ever becomes a real set, but for those of us trying to recreate it at home a real issue.

Deflated, I gave up, my model looked nothing like the picture and I struggled to make it work.

Then a few weeks later I started again. This was spurred on by a Lego purchase at Brick 2014. Along with a very cool custom minifig;

 

This was from the Brickarms stand and the detailing, especially on the sonic screwdriver is amazing. Although for copyright reasons their figure is called Inspector Q. Not only that, they had produced some custom sprayed bricks for people in my very situation;

Now I had the minifig, the bricks and the motivation to get cracking on my own design. Inspired greatly by the creation of Flailx, my task was to use these bricks to minimise sticker requirement, to build something that looked TARDIS-like from the outside, but could open up to look like a playable set.

Weeks of tweaking later I have come up with this;

Not having the time, due to parental responsibilities, to have my Lego all over the floor for days of tinkering, I used the Lego software and am pretty happy with the results. As you can see the top has darker bricks (1x4 smooth plates) to show where the printed 'Police Box' plates would go. The 1x1 White square plate is the printed information sign also bought in the set from Brick 2014.

Apologies for the crude rendering of a Doctor, but he is there just for scale. Now, for me anyway, comes the exciting part, opening it up!

As you can see, the inspiration is massive from Flailx's model, but I feel more confident with the fixing of the side panels and the structural integrity of the model as a whole. I have included two over head screes that can also be hinged and possibly rotated.

If it looks a bit cramped inside for your liking you can easily replace the Orange, black, yellow and red sections from the centre of the ceiling (kept as random colours purely for ease of differentiation in this blog) and use the new circle stud with a hole in. Two of those stacked will allow you to raise the central 'lightsaber' bar up and connect inside.

This shows a bit more of how compact the design is, when the doors are closed it is very tight inside, making the addition of consoles and screens hard, but an interesting challenge.

The bottom edge of each door and the 4x6 dark blue plate on the base of the main model are all floor touching, enabling maximum stability when open for balance and playability.

The top section looks bulky, but the centre of the sandwiched 6x6 plates is hollow and the center console acts as a support also.

In this view you can see that the right angled bracket holding on the top of the rear panel may be interrupting the rotation of the screens. The downside of creating a model in a computer program is that you just don't get a hands on feel for it.

So there you have it. My Lego TARDIS. My aim is to purchase the bricks required and actually construct it, but with a new child on the way money has been diverted to more essential things! :)

What do you think? Have you managed to build something similar? Or are you too in the midst of designing a solution to the problem of making something bigger on the inside?

If you like the idea I have managed to save the Building instructions as a PDF which I am more than happy to share. Even if you wish it as a starting block for your own design as I did with Flailx's creation. There is nothing more exciting than thinking that I too may have inspired something great.

Please do not forget to try the Lego software either. It is totally free and the library of bricks available is all encompassing! Just Google Lego Designer and download the appropriate program for your computer. However, if you are not the owner of the computer, please seek their permission first!!

Happy building. Until next time!

Brick 2014

It's a bit late in the day, but still in time for those that missed this year and were wondering about going next year. Here are my thoughts on Brick 2014.

Now I can write this not only from a Lego Lover POV, but as a father of a three year old too. And my reaction from both sides is WOW!

We booked to go on the opening day, Thursday, in the hope that it would not be too busy. Our tickets were for regular people, we could afford the VIP ones, which allowed you 10 o'clock entry and a VIP gift bag.

The bag included an exclusive mini-set and lanyard and other such things I believe. Regular ticket holders could enter any time from 11 o'clock onwards. There was a free Batman Minifig available to all those that entered though which was a nice touch.

Arriving on the Thursday we found that it was the day for school groups (wish I went on trips like that when I was at school), but they were segregated off to have their tickets checked and the entry went swiftly and smoothly.

This was where I was torn. My three year old daughter had been travelling for four hours. She saw one of the four Lego pits and wanted to dive straight in. I, on the other hand, wanted to go straight to the exhibitors.

The father in me won out and we went to the red pit. A brilliant idea of creating many 'zones' of soft play areas just filled with 2x4 standard bricks. All of a certain colour. The one we hit first was red. Build is the only instruction and looking around some of the older kids had made some impressive stuff.

Once we had satiated my daughter's desire to play, we had a look around. The center of the show was about the games. And they had done really well in setting up lots of PS4s, xBox 1s and PS Vitas. All showcasing the new Lego Batman Game. All open to be played with. I was happily surprised that there were so many consoles to use that even with all the school groups there wasn't the rush and squeeze of children desperate to have a go and needing to wait.

She features in the DLC!

A little further around were the stalls. You like to buy custom Minifigs? They're here. Opened Minifig bags? They're here. The Lego shop from Denmark were even there with a tub of Minifigs that didn't quite meet quality control, selling for cheap. Brickarms had a stall selling what they do best, custom weapons and their new Inspector Q range. Matt Smith's Doctor Who for those that recognise him.

My daughter clocked the Anna and Elsa from Frozen almost instantly and so we purchased those and Olaf. All the stalls were well laid out and the sellers more than happy for you to browse and rifle through their stuff.

True some of the Minifigs were a bit on the pricey side, but there were so many pieces and accessories on sale that were within children's price range also that you wouldn't leave wanting.

Best find of the day was the cuddly Lego Man. Bought as a first toy for new baby that's on the way! (Yes I dragged my non-Lego-Loving pregnant girlfriend along as well!)

Soft Lego Man and free Batman were good, Lego Doctor Who was better!

Just be prepared to take lots of cash as none of the stalls seemed to provide card payment. However, there is a free cash machine just outside in the ExCel concourse. The use of hand stamps also lets you exit and return should you wish to go outside for lunch.

There were a couple of food outlets inside and toilets, but they were pricey. Even for London.

Being so close to Christmas, there was a Winter Wonderland type zone. A soft play area with white bricks, my snowman instantly snapped up by some boys when we departed and turned into a zoid-tron. What ever that is. But that's the beauty of Lego! There were some sweet stalls there and a huge play area for slightly older children in the corner.

A section of the room was set aside for a mosaic. Where you can build a tile and it be used to form a larger mosaic at the end of the Show.

Then there was the main attraction. The Exhibitors. If, like me, you follow Lego bloggers such as the Brothers Brick and BrickNerd, you will recognise some of the models on show. It was amazing just what these guys had created and managed to transport as well. They were all protected by barriers and seemed so happy to talk to anyone that wanted a chat.

My daughter struggled looking at these for any period of time, but she is only three and a lot of the models hold no interest for her. Ones that had Doctor Who TARDIS in or any of the MARVEL heroes (I've taught her well) did excite her.

Ones that I enjoyed were the Steampunk scene with flying cows and the stall that had one model from every Lego space range dating back to way before I got into Lego. I recognised a few of the sets and got excited to the point my girlfriend started rolling her eyes!

Quicker than waiting for pigs to fly I guess!

On the whole, the show, for me was a great success and cannot wait to go next year. I would suggest that if taking a child, be prepared with snacks and allow plenty of time in the building sections. I think we were lucky with my daughter as she loves Lego a lot, but at three she did struggle a little.

They had provided a lot for customers, the event was very well organised and there were lots of people milling around ready to help if needed. If you like Lego and seeing what can be done by fans go. Go now. Well, next year when it opens.

If you have any more questions on my experience of Brick 2014, then please do not hesitate to get in contact!

Minifig Series 13

Here it is! Minifig Series 13!! Out Jan next year for us Brits. I can't wait to get them all. Favourites? The space guy, hotdog man and the king.

Which do you like the look of? My daughter is going to want the Unicorn for sure!

The Alessia

”She’s not the prettiest ship I’ll grant you, but she’s robust. Never-fail engine in her too, well, once you get it going...” The large salesman dry washed his hands. The heat from the two suns in orbit was not the only reason for the sweat running down his face. He had been trying to get a sale for months, and this off-worlder looked like he knew little about ships. This was going to be his ticket of the planet.

“I don’t think that I could ever have need for such a large vessel.” The customer said, rubbing his chin, appraising the junk parked in front of them.

“Come now, sir, size means more cargo space. More cargo space means-“

“More for raiders to steal?” The customer cut in.

“I... er... The main shipping lanes are very safe these days, thanks to the GEG, I’m sure you’ll find that her hull plating will be more than sufficient for the few remaining raiding parties.” Another lie, but he did not want to lose the customer. “For the price you’ll admit it's a lot of ship.”

“For the price yes.” The customer replied, not really paying attention. The light from the larger of the two suns was glimmering off the canopy of a vessel parked a few mantras to the rear. Not even in the main line up of ships on offer. To say she had been parked was a bit of an overstatement. Crashed looked more apt a word, but there was something about her that called to him. “What about that one?”

The salesman looked around the ship he was gesturing to, to the outdated mining craft the customer was looking at. “That?” He almost laughed. “That is about five minutes away from being towed for scrap. The drill bit alone would get me-“

“Let us have a look shall we?”

“I really don’t think this is the ship for you, sir, do you know anything about vacuum mining?” But the customer was already striding off. “I thought you were looking for a cargo vessel, this one has very little room thanks to all the-“

“Room can always be made.” The customer smiled as he reached the ship. To many she would have looked cumbersome and clunky, but to him it looked like home already. “A Spiner Class is she not?”

The salesman was taken aback slightly. He had not really taken the time to research the ship she seemed that outdated and obsolete. “I think so yes.” He lied. He quickly rattled through what he did know;

“She comes with the externally mounted vacuum drill. Hardest material known to man, that will pierce any asteroid you can land on and never go blunt. I hear they gave them a life time guarantee! Same side, further down, your escape pod, probably wouldn’t take much to convert that into luxury living quarters...

“On the other side,” The salesman continued, walking the customer round, “are the engines. The side mounted configuration was to balance out the weight of the drill with the Jump engine centrally at the rear.”

The customer ran his hands down the external paneling and realised that the forward section was glazed. “Nice for looking out at the stars.” The salesman said, noticing the customer’s actions. Maybe he could get a sale after all. “Shall we take a look inside?”

The large, sweaty salesman motioned towards the front of the ship. Below the elevated cockpit was a bay door leading inside what looked like a dumping ground for all manner of junk. As they manoeuvred between scrap metal and old engine parts the salesman mentioned something about having the ship gutted on sale, but the customer wasn’t really listening.

The interior of the ship was dark and grimy and it looked beautiful. Where the salesman saw broken cabinets and battered panelling, the customer saw a kitchen, living quarters and a home. The side viewing dome that allowed the control of the drill was also covered in so much dust that visibility was near zero.

“I’ll take her.” The customer said, holding out his hand. The salesman eyed him suspiciously.

“You do know that to sell you a mining ship, even one this old I’ll need to see a license. I can’t be giving something like this to someone without proper zero-gee certification or proof of intent. The GEG would have my sales permit torn up. Especially with some people not believing the war is over.”

“I have more than adequate training, trust me.” The customer said, almost too gruffly. “And as for my intent, I want nothing more than to simply disappear and make a small living for myself.”

“Yes but,”

“Maybe this would help?” The customer responded pulling out his credit chip from his coat pocket. The Salesman recognised the GEG emblem immediately and licked his lips. “I’ll pay you what the ship is worth in it’s current condition, the price you would have got for the drill, and you wont have to clear out the junk.”

The salesman dry washed his hands again, he felt hotter inside than he did out and mopped his brow. “Deal.” He said, wiping his hand on his dirty trouser suit before accepting the customer’s. “And your name?” he asked as he took the credit chip and scanned it.

“Skylar, Ryjax Skylar.”


<<>>


An extract from the story I'm in the process of writing, but obviously as a Lego blog you may be wondering why I've given you this. Well, it's simple, the Alessia is my latest creation, the ship, and the main character is inspired from one of the minifigs in series 12. The Space Driller. But first, before the ship, let's meet the crew!

From left to right, Ryjax Skylar. The captain of Alessa. Pippin, the engineer. Commander Temperance Sol, scientist. Jason Vista the pilot. Larry, trainee chef, but photographer wannabe. And Merlin. Yes, Merlin. It will become clear in the story why he makes an appearance.

They each have their normal attire, and space suit capabilities. Well except for Merlin. Should he ever need to spacewalk he can easily cast some form of bubble spell around himself.

They each have their own accessories also, pertinent to their role in the story.

But that's enough of the crew, the ship is why I started this post! And here she is, the Alessia!!

Scale wise she should be about 4 times the size, but lack of bricks and sheer weight on completion made this a little hard. Let's start at the beginning, the drill bit. Made from the hardest material known to man, you may recognise it, and a few other bricks, from the miners sets from years back. The two lower sections are contra-rotating.

 

The whole drill bit lowers and raises on the angle arm, for when the Alessia has landed on the asteroid or planet on which it wishes to mine.

The controls are situated inside and to allow maximum visibility there is a glazed bubble for Ryjax to be able to see what he's drilling.

Moving around the ship, next to the viewing bubble, you have the escape pod. Within the story Ryjax converts this into a small shuttle which we shall look at in more detail in a second.

Continuing around, counterbalancing the weight of the drill bit, the two engines are mounted one above the other. You may recognise the rear mixer from the cement truck being used here. Again, this was due to weight and number of available pieces. However I like how they look and I got inspiration from the large tank/ship from the Galaxy Squad model.

The central rear engine is the 'hyperdrive / warp' engine. I haven't decided what to call it yet, but that's the gist of that one.

The other side has the glazed viewing window that gives you a lovely vista from the dining area inside. And then a bit further forward there is something I'm still a bit unsure about. It's a fully glazed compartment. At the moment I'm toying with it being a stasis chamber...

 

Using the Agents canopy was tough to get right due to it being connect on its top at the 'base' and the bottom at the 'top'. I always struggle when getting the measurements of length when matched to height of stacked bricks.

If anyone has a good rule of thumb for how many studs length fits exactly to stacked bricks that would be awesome.

From the front you, like many in the universe I'm creating, may think that the Alessia looks a bit ugly, but I, like Ryjax think she is beautiful.


The unsymmetrical, clunkiness of her, the fact she is designed more around use than aesthetic enamours her to me.

 

As mentioned, she is not scaled correctly as per the story, but the cockpit still has room for two side by side.

 

They can both sit upright and minifigs can have hair or hats on and still not be impeded by the cockpit. This is a must for me in all models I make, sometimes makes it harder, but I dislike how Lego do, on occasion, just have the character laying down with no visibility out or method of control.

The corridor to the rear of the cockpit as with the elevated cockpit itself was inspired by Serenity from Firefly. And a little from the Millennium Falcon.

 

My aim was to allow the player to see that there was a way in and out and that the cockpit was a part of the ship as a whole, and not some segregated section for a pilot to sit.

The cargo bay door, as described in the story, is at the front. Again, inspiration came from Serenity here. It is 10 studs long and 6 wide, so pretty good for a cargo compartment. Had the ship been at the correct scale there would have also been a set of steps up into the main ship as this is situated partly beneath the floor.

Now what does every freelancing cargo ship need? That’s right! A smuggling compartment. The Alessia has one at her centre. The hatched top of a tomb from the Adventurers sets fitted perfectly in the square ‘bracing’ piece.

 

 

Next we have the top view. I wanted to make a ship that was not only playable, as in internally and externally, but also could be ‘covered’ so it looked like a complete ship when being zoomed around the living room. This is the first time I have created a model with removable panels like this, and the large Police Seaplane roof sections helped greatly. It is connected by one stud at the rear, two in the centre and two at the front.

 

The yellow Technic brick is used to brace the top half of the ship, as when its lifted the walls may collapse in on themselves. It allows you maximum visibility into the ship while still zooming.

I wanted to give each crewmember their own designated space. Due to the smaller scale actual living compartments are a dream more than a reality.

 

Larry has the Kitchen area, with bench table for group meals, cupboards for ingredients and the prime view out of the window for his photography.

 

 

Pippin obviously has engineering!

 

 

Merlin is given the rear ‘living’ area. He has a shelf for his potions and space to test new spells.

 

 

Captain Skylar has his control seat for operating the drill. You can see behind him the accessories tower. Everything that the minifigs ‘own’ and need for space missions is stored within the Alessia!

This is Larry’s view from the outside. You can see the chainsaw accessory attached to the rear of the ship for those missions that need a little more than a huge great drill!

 

 

Underneath where Merlin stands is the the compartment where their space suits are stored. I like to be able to keep everything n one place for a complete set. It’s not the easiest to access, but it keeps everything internal.

 

And lastly, the shuttle craft. Converted from an escape pod, the controls now mean that is it just a one man craft and detaches as below;

 

 

The flight controls are very basic to keep the size down, but a minfigure, complete with accessories and space attire can fit in there. Or in this case, Temperance Sol with her big hair!

 

 

Other than that I tried to make the Alessia look as industrial and beefy as possible. She is by no means a fighting craft, but a mobile space home for the crew that find themselves put together.


Let me know what you think, I’d be very interested to see your thoughts. Just please try to keep criticism constructive.


Have you liked any of the Minifig series characters more than the others? Did any of them inspire a set just for them? Do you like to write and use Lego to build your inspiration? Let me know and leave a comment. I would love to hear from you!


Until next time!