So, in just under 2 months and 17 posts, the rambling brick has had its 1000th visitor.
Thank you all for your support. I have some more posts planned for the near future, but would love to hear from you.
Thanks especially to everyone who has provided encouragement and discussion over the last few months. You know who you are.
Play well
I recently took time to visit my Childhood Lego Collection, which my parents maintain custodians of in trust for my brother and I. A number of features rapidly became obvious, and I thought I would share some of the clear differences for the benefit of those of you under the age of 30. And to provoke some quality ‘when I was a younger person…’ stories as well as floods of nostalgia amongst those born before 1985. If so provoked, please feel free leave a comment below or on Facebook.
Where shall we start? There are so many common pieces from’back in the day’ that are no longer readily available. The blocks and plates were there, but with an exceptionally limited colour palette. Slopes were present in red and blue, with black arriving a little later.
When the Nexo Knights broke onto the scene earlier this year (early february here in Australia) there were a lot of ‘ooh’s and ‘aah’s about the range of new pieces coming through, giving the theme its own unique look. Amongst these pieces were the ‘4 x 4 wedge, pointed’- lego element 6129453/ Brick Link 22391 and the ’tile, 2 x 3 pentagonal modified’- lego element 6128992/ BL 22385. The previously discussed 1 x 1 x 2/3 convex quadrilateral pyramid piece(lego 6127036/ BL 22388) also arrived at this time.
The sharp wedge piece is still limited to Nexo Knights sets, in Dark Brown, Dark Blue and Flat Silver. The Tile is a little more wide spread: appearing in the Brick Bank (10251), in some of the Batman v Superman Sets (in Black!). It is available in printed transparent red, green, yellow and blue, as well as solid blue, sand blue, light blueish gray and flat silver.
Let us look at the wedge first: 2 parallel 2 x 2 45 degree slopes and the point, being 2 studs long and tapering from 45 degrees at the top to a 70 degrees at the point.
The wedges can be placed next to each other to make a groove at 70/20 degrees to the grid. The differing angle on the wedges (45-70 degrees)makes stacking them a little difficult…
I only have 2 of them to play with, Continue reading
When you look amongst AFOL blogs and flickr galleries, there is no doubt that in recent years the landscaping has been getting more and more advanced. This trend was initially obvious as a theme group amongst Castle builders, although recently it has moved into the realms of Space and City building as well. ‘Natural landscaping’ is not something that has been a focus of attention in Lego City or Space sets. Earl examples were seen in Castle (especially Woodmen, and ‘Carriage ambush’ type sets) as well as pirates sets, especially desert island type environments. More recently, landscaping has been part of a feature of the Middle Earth sets, as the environment played such an important part in the story. Often however, it may be limited to the edge of a cave, a tree or a ruined castle.
Castle and Pirate sets are on hiatus, although we have Nexo Knights, with their emphasis on vehicles and buildings, and Ninjago – this year focusing on Sky Pirates – there have been some interesting landscape elements in Ninjago and other adventure lines over the years
Being more a story driven line, with an emphasis on story telling and role play, the Friends and Elves sets have been prone to feature landscape elements in recent times, when not hanging out at the mall. Some of these have been an excellent shorthand summary of what natural landscape should consist of: so, once again we embark on ‘What I learned about ******** from Set *****’Or… What does the Fire Dragon’s Lava Cave show us about Landscaping.
So 41175 is The Fire Dragon’s Lava Cave, 441 pieces, retailing for $AU59.99. It is the second largest set of this third wave of Elves sets to be released Continue reading
Curved slopes have been appearing more frequently in the least 12 months, especially when compared to regular bricks (I am thinking in particular of creator sets, and the new Elves dragon sets in particular).
Is this to add a more organic feel to builds, make things less blocky?
… Or just so it doesn’t hurt as much when you step on them in the dark?
Play well
So a couple of weeks ago, I looked at Furry Animals 31021, a creator set from 2014, and the SNOT (Studs not on top) techniques used in it in particular. Today I would like to compare this set to this year’s Creator creatures set: Park Animals 21044.
I obtained this set through Shop@Home, as it is not currently available in Australian stores. It currently retails for $AU24.99. Enquiries to Lego Australia were unable to shed any light on whether it would be a available on the shelves anywhere later in the year or not. Indeed, it did not feature in the January – May 2016 catalog.
With only 195 pieces, 
this is a smaller set than Furry Animals ( 292 pieces). That said, for the dog model in 31021, there were close to 100 pieces left over, once it was built (compared with almost everything used in the cat). The box reveals the puppy and ducks as the ‘hero build’, and an owl and a squirrel as alternate models. The predominant colours are reddish brown, and dark orange. There is a smattering of tan and dark tan in the set as well. For the purposes of this discussion, I have only built the primary model.
So I’m allegedly a grown up. I buy Lego for the construction, the figures, the pieces and the play or display value. The prospect of ‘free app for download’ is not a selling point for me. Indeed, it shouldn’t be – its free – no purchase required.
I enjoyed my Batman/Catwoman Mighty Micro set, and I thought I’d give the game a quick run.
Is it playable?
Is it worth the download?
I am a fan of Lego. I have a room full of it
I am a fan of Batman: I have collected over 20 years of Batman/Detective Comics and other related titles (so: another room full of it…)
I should love Lego Batman. But I don’t. Don’t get me wrong: I love the idea, but for me, I have never really had the vision for a great Batman MOC, and haven’t been grabbed around the throat and shaken about while a set screams “BUY ME” as part of my internal monolog.
Getting a set with Batman in isn’t really that hard.
Getting a good set with Batman in is slightly harder. I have picked up a random smattering of sets over the years. But when I remove the cowl, I have always felt a little let down by the ‘Look, over there: Bruce Wayne is wearing a headband’ look (I should have made a Tennis Match MOC..note to self).
So today, I bought one of the cheapest Batman sets I have ever seen. And I think it has the most Versatile Batman Head Ever in it. Continue reading
The Rambling Brick 
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