A Rather Nasty Tree...

I just finished up a build of the Harry Potter Whomping Willow set.  (75953)

Nice, detailed castle section, cool car, and a good set of minifigs.

The Whomping Willow itself is an interesting build, especially with the added Technic limb-spinning mechanism.
I concur with many of the online reviews I've seen about the tree- the small green flora pieces are a loose fit and constantly fall off.

A nice set, nonetheless.

I just might have to spring for the Hogwarts Great Hall set....

A Very Busy AFOL...

It's been some time since I last posted here, but I have been very busy in terms of LEGO building.
Christmas and a recent birthday have netted the following sets:

This last one, Lord Business' Evil Lair, is a long out of production LEGO Movie set which I have been seeking for quite some time.  My daughter found it -of all places - at a Tuesday Morning store at a greatly reduced price.

I will be posting about these builds as they progress.  Stay tuned...

A Mighty Fine Mech.

Today's post covers a build of Creator set #31034 - Future Fliers.
Again, the set was part of the September  yard sale haul.  That acquisition has been keeping me quite occupied as of late.
As with most Creator sets, there are options to build three different models.
The first one to be tackled was the Car of the Future:

Next was the futuristic jet aircraft:

Finally, the Mech.:

  This is by far the coolest build of the three.  The figure features a lot of moving parts, making it quite pose-able.

This iteration will remain assembled and put on display.

All in all, a very satisfying set!

More Star Wars: Obi Wan vs.General Grievous

Greetings, LEGO Fans,
Today's  post features another great Star Wars build - set #75040 - General Grievous Wheel Bike from the Clone Wars film.

This interesting vehicle was employed by the good gen'ral during the epic battle with young Obi Wan Kenobi.  The build is very fun and utilizes a lot of unique build techniques, particularly in the wheel tread.

My favorite piece in the set, though, is the Grievous minifig.  Not bound to the highly inaccurate body proportions as with regular human minifigs, Grievous looks just as menacing and cool as his movie counterpart, quad arms, light sabers, and all.  Arguably, the best minifig rendition of all LEGO-dom.

Though not as cool, the set comes with a minifig Obi Wan, complete with double ended light "lance".

What this set needs to be truly complete is a brick rendition of 'Boga', the Varactyl ridden by Obi Wan during the big running battle sequence.
I am toying with the idea of coming up with a MOC version of the beastie...

Star Wars AT-RT (75002)

Today's post features a set that I put together a few months ago, but am just now getting around to taking pics and writing up.

This set came to me mixed into the same bag as Benny's Spaceship, so I wasn't even aware that there was another build.  Since the general color scheme is similar to the Spaceship, it was that much easier to overlook. I should have noticed that there was a random Yoda minifig in the bag.

"Hmm...very strange, it is!"

Once Benny's  ship was completed, I noticed there were a lot of blue and gray parts left over.

I had to do some serious sleuthing on the Wonderful World Wide Web to find out what I had.

Taking one of the more unusual parts, I looked it up on Bricklinks and got a list of all sets that used it.  I finally came across a picture of the AT-RT set and noted there were other pieces in the box that fit.

After downloading a set of instructions, work got underway.

This is a very enjoyable Star Wars set to build and display.

The main build is, of course. The AT-RT Walker, followed by a Sniper Droid Droideka.

Minifigs in the set include Yoda, a 501st Legion Clone Trooper, and a Commando Droid Captain.

Upward and onward....

Bad Cop's Pursuit Set Build

As a major fan of the Lego Movie, I was very delighted to find a plastic bag in my recent yard sale haul containing the parts and instructions for set 70802, Bad Cop's  Pursuit.

After cleaning and sanitizing the parts, I gleefully got busy building.  The set is quite straight forward and easy to assemble.

By far, Bad Cop's  police hover-car is the star of the set.

It's  also nice to have a Bad Cop/ Good Cop to add to the collection of LEGO Movie minifigs.

The railroad bridge section leaves a lot to be desired, but it does at least help to set the scene.

Later on, I might moc build a blue water base, but for now the set goes in the display cabinet as is.

Here are some pics:

A Great Yard Sale Find !

Early last Saturday morning, I happened to swing by a yard sale being set up in my neighborhood.
At first glance, I noted there were a lot of kids' toys.  Thinking there might be some LEGO in the mix, I stopped to have a look.
Sure enough, I spied two boxed sets: one being a LEGO City set and the other a Minecraft set.
Three dollars each.  Nice!
I didn't have quite that much cash on me at the time, so I had the lady hold them for me while I went home a block away to get the necessary funds.
When I returned, she told me they had a huge bin of LEGO in the basement, and would I be interested in that?
Absolutely.
A few moments later, I was looking at a three drawer plastic bin rack - packed full of LEGO !!!
Now the million dollar question - How much are you asking for this?
"I don't know...how about $40 ?"
SOLD  !!!!
I had to make another trip home to get the extra cash....
Here is a pic of the overall purchase:

A quick look-through revealed the bottom drawer full of loose bricks.  I estimate close to a thousand individual pieces.   The other two drawers contained plastic bags holding LEGO sets in various stages of assembly.  Set instructions were included in the bags.
I estimate there are well over a dozen complete sets the stash.
To round things off there were a couple of large baseplates included.
Not bad for $46 !

Now, it's time to get busy cleaning, sanitizing, sorting, and organizing this mess.

Stay tuned....