Groovy Toy Tale #2

When my friend Kyle came back from Christmas, he had a big cardboard box filled with Legos for me. Some friend of his up in Sacramento had them lying around and was only too glad to hand them over to someone whose obsession was still fresh. It was quite a haul.

In the picture above is the hoard divided up into basic categories, with my Starspeeder 3000 toy nearby for scale. From upper to left to lower right, the big bins contain bricks, plates, stuff I put in my small boxes, and stuff I put in my large boxes. The smaller bins have broken pieces, round pieces, sloped pieces, and decorated pieces. There were also a large amount of non-Lego toys to weed out, including a bunch of that horrid Lego clone Mega Bloks. Yuck.

But so what! The bounty was supreme. I'd guestimate it would take me about two years at my regular acquisition rate to gather that many bricks. All of them predated the Great Color Change of 2003, so I got a lot of old style grey, dark grey and brown pieces. Above are some of the minifigs that I was particulary excited about. (By the time I took these pix I'd already mixed in some modern pieces; that black ninja in the middle is sporting a new Undead skeleton head, and Spaceman Ron Weasley there is wearing the helmet from that SpongeBob in Space set.)

Here are the rest of the minifigs I got; altogether I probably gained about 60 or 70 new citizens. It took me several months to finally assimilate all the new stuff, much of that time "getting around to it" time. Still, doing the actual work was time consuming, and it didn't happen until the unexpected month off I got right before Zack was born. It was sort of like "hyper nesting."

And here are all the new decorated tiles I got, including a tasty number of that round, red-lined vent tile I love so much. So good!

Groovy Toy Tale #1

This story has been due for quite some time. A year or two ago I became interested in the set pictured above, or more accurately the big blimp part. This Adventurers set was released in 1999 and a model builder I knew purchased it so he could use the blimp parts as the basis for a rocket prop, which I think was used in a painkiller commercial. He gave me the rest of the pieces, but I always kind of wanted that darn blimp.

The gimmick of the blimp was that you could take apart the set and store all the pieces inside. Since I started nosing around there's always been at least one seller on Bricklink with the complete blimp for sale, but the minimum price I ever saw it for was 25 bucks (right now there are two for sale, for 35 and 40). The unopened set is usually available, but prices on that start at 50 smackers. Needless to say this is too high.

For more than a year there was this one guy who had the front section you see above without the back section. Naturally it was priced much cheaper -- I think under 3 dollars. So for quite some time one of my regular Bricklink haunts was to check for the corresponding piece...

which I call the Blimp Ass. Finally, some dude put one up for sale at a dreamy $1.35, and I went to both sellers' shops and snapped them up. But then... the Letdown. The first guy, the one who'd had that Blimp Nose posted in his shop forever, contacted me and told me he couldn't find it and had probably discarded it. Rat farts!

He was cool about it and I cancelled the order and we gave each other nice feedback and everything, but there I was stuck with a lonesome Blimp Ass. This would've been around mid-September 2007, because that's right when Julie found out she was pregnant. I remember this detail because I mentioned my acquisition of a Blimp Ass and she predicted that that would be her ass in the months to come. I have to give her props because that never really came true.

The "groovy" part of this story is that while nosing around on Ebay only a few weeks later, I found a dude selling an incomplete version of that set. "Unfortunately," he stated "one of the missing pieces is the back section of the blimp." Not unfortunate for me! I slapped down my bid and a few days later watched the clock go down with my counterbid ready to go, but in the end bought it uncontested for a measley $1.50.

Now I have this wonderful blimp, which is pretty impressively big (note the SpongeBob minifig placed for scale). Not having the front piece for that time, I had no idea how much big fun I was getting.

Since it's a container, it's made of different plastic than most Lego pieces, but this bottom part has contours that form a fine interface. Someday I'll make a cool steampunk contraption to sling beneath it.

And I've considered painting it black or creating some custom stickers on it to make it eeevil. I generally find painting Lego stuff to be too much of a bitch, and putting stickers across the ribbed texture of the blimp is kind of iffy (the piece did come with a few stickers on it, which I removed). But imagine long black stickers placed in between those ribs, tapering to a point as they get to the front. Could look awesome.

Jungle Walker

I uploaded something onto my Brickshelf page for the first time in forever -- the Jungle Walker. Since I've got Greedo driving it I was calling it the "Rodian Swamp Walker" or a "converted Rodian science pod" in my head while I built it. But I dropped the "Rodian" because EVERYBODY ties their creations into Star Wars somehow and I don't like to, and I swapped "swamp" for "jungle" because I figure feet like that would just sink into a swamp, y' know?

More pics here.

General Grievous' Starfighter is cool

Finally, new JLU!

from cooltoyreview, Due to overwhelming support from the fans, Mattel and Target are teaming up to bring an all new Collector’s Line to store shelves starting this August!

16 brand new figures along with collector requested repaints and reissues will be available in singles, 3-packs and 6 packs. Figures will be out in two waves. Each wave will consist of two 6-packs, two 3 packs and five single carded figures, some with brand new accessories. This line will be sold exclusively at Target stores starting Aug 1, 2008. At this time the line will be an in store exclusive only.

Wave 1 will be revealed at New York Comic Con in April and Wave 2 will be shown at Comic Con San Diego in July.

There may be a few other JLU surprises this year as well. But fans will just have to wait for the summer conventions to find out what!

We are pleased so show the first 6-pack for Wave 1: Attack from Apokolips featuring Superman, Darkseid, Mr. Miracle, Lashina, Mantis and Forager.

Along with these figures, we are excited to announce that the line will also include several major MIA characters including The Question!

*Note to collectors, these are not the final figures and we do plan to adjust Mantis’ cape color and Forager’s shield.

LEGO Indiana Jones Temple Escape

read thorough review here

Another Justice League update

Thanks to the speedy actions of JPX this morning, I snagged the two rascals above for a reasonable 26 bucks (with shipping). This of course prompted me to figure out how many of these infuriatingly elusive figs I still needed, so I sought out my last post on this subject. It was all the way back in March! Right here, if fact.

Since then, I have snagged myself Sinestro, Hawk, Dove and Shade, along with the 3-pack containing Joker and Black Canary which wasn't around then. STILL yet to be found are the bastards below, which I am not only listing but also illustrating with pics from the loathsome Toywiz.com (I loath their prices, although I like that they are a good yardstick to determine which figures actually exist in the world).

Justice Lords Martian Manhunter, Green Lantern, and Flash. 35 bucks at TW, which might start looking reasonable someday since at least I need all three figs.

Hawkgirl in her yellow outfit and The Ray. 25 bucks at TW, which I guess is also not beyond the realm of reason. However, I'm a little annoyed that Hawkgirl's repaint includes her flesh-painted Hawkgirl belt instead of actual bare midriff. That's just cheap.

Parasite and Star Girl. 50 bucks at TW, which is way too much.

Vulcana. Sold out at TW. Which is fine; since I've found myself a Hawk this 3-pack is less appealing.

All of these I'd listed back in March and not a one have I seen anywhere. Added to those bastards I have the following bastards:

Red Hood Joker and Gorilla Grodd. 40 bucks at TW, which doesn't exactly suck for six figures but sucks because I only want those two. The Luthor repaint is lame.

Deadshot and Barda. 45 at TW, which is a no.

Sand and Star Saphire. Sold out at TW.

Obsidian. Sold out, too. This 3-pack also lost appeal today because I've got a Vigilante coming.

Hawkman. Also sold out. Of course I don't have that Flash either, but I'd rather get him in the J-Lords 3-pack.

And I suppose I can't forget this guy.

In the past a we've heard about the discontinuation of this line, then seen more and more new images from Toy Fair and the like. I suppose I'm glad that the only mysterious "do they exist" figures right now are Fire and Ice as pictured on the back of the Black Canary/Joker pack I have. So...

WHERE ARE THESE FIGURES???????? I continue to be baffled as to how they're being distributed. Even the most rabid nerd activity does not account for the perpetual drought. I just can't figure it out. I don't know if I'll ever buy anything from Toywiz to complete my collection. It's too much of a burn. I suppose I should be glad to still have something good to quest for, to wait for the opportunities like this morning's Ebay snag.

But it's dang frustrating. When I posted in March I needed thirteen figures. Of that list, I've acquired five in nine months: Sinestro, Hawk, Dove, Shade, and Vigilante. I've also snagged three that weren't on my list: Blue Devil, Joker and Black Canary (who did not make my list then because the face on that figure sucked; I haven't tried to check but I'm convinced the 3-pack BC is slightly different and way better than the first one).

Meanwhile, not counting Fire, Ice or Grundy, EIGHT more have emerged that can only be found in the darkest corners. Cut us a fragging break, can't you?

Bob L'eponge

While at the Lego store I also picked up this utterly charming Bikini Bottom Express set, which at a mere twenty bucks is practically a must-buy. I hadn't sprung for a Patrick yet, and that pissed-off bus driver is a riot.

Also at the store was this puppy, which sells for thirty dolla. The spacesuit Spongebob, Patrick and that squirrel or whatever it is pretty much make this a must-buy as well. But I spent enough on Lego stuff for myself this close to X-mas. You have to draw the line somewhere, even if you admittedly stepped way over it.

More new Lego SW stuff

I went to the Lego store this weekend and scored this cute speeder full of Rebel Troops. In the spirit of the Clone Trooper battle packs from earlier this year, it's got four minifigs in a set that only costs ten bucks. Very cool.

The Rebel Troops themselves are adorable, as you can see (this guy is showing off a brand new, never-seen-before piece). I always think of these guys as the losers of the SW universe, as you see them get their asses kicked in the beginning of the trilogy and then never see that particular uniform again, so it's good to see them repped in Lego. The black part of the helmet is a standard Lego helmet visor, and detaches.

The Lego store also had this set, which is also ten bucks and also comes with four minifigs. I highly recommend it for building a Stormtrooper army, but I already have a bunch of Stormtroopers so I skipped it for now. The pilot is the new Shadow Trooper (below), whose helmet is decorated the way the TIE Pilot's should have been from the start, although his torso design is distinctly different.

Shadow Trooper
TIE Pilot

While I agree with your "Star Meh" sentiment below, and I'm not desperate for an updated Jedi fighter, I do like this new Anakin minifig that it comes with. Admittedly, that may be just because of his new hair piece. And it's exciting that they're using the Clone Wars cartoon as a source for new sets.

Other upcoming Star Wars sets are:

this Hailfire Droid and Spider Droid set,

the weird, three-legged AT-AP (All Terrain Attack Pod, whose third leg is dropped for stability when firing the big guns),


and the boldly asymmetrical Rogue Shadow, which after a little digging I discovered is set to show up in an upcoming video game called Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Again, interesting that they're willing to reach so far for new product. It opens up all kinds of cool possibilities...

like say an official Lego version of IG-88's ship, the IG-2000.

Now that I say that, I guess they already struck out beyond the movies with this thing, which always struck me as impractical as hell but it's a really good set. The TIE Crawler set is also where the Shadow Troopers first showed up.

Anyway, I don't know if I'll be picking up any of the above sets besides the one I already have. Of course, the minifigures are always a special draw. Here's the trio from the Rogue Shadow. Kinda interesting. I like the"Imperial officer with boobs" torso.

New Legos

Indy 4 stuff




Star Meh

Go, Speed Racer, Go!

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

Cool 2-pack from the old Marvel Series!


We can't wait to be added to JPX's Ewok village!





The only thing that takes my post-partum Horrorthon depression away are the swelling toy aisles. A ton of new Star Wars product is now out there waiting for your hard earned cash. I recently picked up approximately a dozen cherry-picked figures from a few of the recently released waves including a bunch from those pictured above. How cool is that Hammerhead figure from The Clone Wars cartoon?

Indy Legos!