Having Friends in Lego Places

An obsession with Lego began some time in May and it has since then descended into madness.

In the future, there will probably be a full-on post capturing the sets we've built since May of 2012 but for now, I'd just like to thank the wonderful Marvs for her contribution (and enabling) our current bad habit.

For Christmas (and yes, I know I owe a Christmas Loot list to all and a proper thank you to all...I will get to that too!), Marvs sent us a cute package containing some of our favourite friends.

Not only is it awesome having a friend who lives in the U.K. who has access to little Lego sets that may otherwise pass us by, it's even more spectacular having a friend living in the U.K. who is also employed by the greatness that is Lego.

In our little package were Avengers loose packets (which is fitting, since it was my obsession with Tom that started it all...curse you "Hiddleston Chain Reaction") and a tiny friend from a very Special Edition mini-figure set.

That's right, I've my very own Olympics 2012 Team Great Britain Tennis Player.

Just look at his fabulousity!

And look at his smug mug.

Did he actually win gold? Because I'm not so sure...! A quick Google Search tells me that the Mens Single was won by Brit, Andy Murray.

Well then, considered me served.

Carry on.

Currently listening to: "Sit Down, Stand Up" by Radiohead.

Chitauri, It is

In shopping for A'Face's Birthday presents and a potential scheme of racking up Lego Club points for the discounted purchase of a Haunted Mansion (which we have now estimated will take me 29.1 hours to build given my current building rate...ugh), H1 confiscated the Lego Captain America Avenging Cycle that I was going to buy for myself and squirreled it away for my Birthday.

I was bored yesterday, found it and built it.  I think this means I'm not getting a Birthday present come October 4th and I may be regretting things at the moment.  

In any event, I did not have that much fun building Captain America and his Avenging Cycle.  There was not much to it but I did love his shield and the finished product.  It was pretty cute.

So here's the thing with my abilities to use decals: I have non-existent skills.  From finger prints to crookedness, it's usually a right mess with me.  I can never be a Surgeon for many reasons and that's definitely one of them.  No comments from the Peanut Gallery, H1!

Conundrum

In case you missed it a couple of posts down, I've come to the realization that I enjoy building Lego sets.

Now, I've only done two so far and while I'd like a Lord of the Rings: Mines of Moria set and The Avengers Quinjet set, there's one set out there on the horizon that makes me forget my wish for a Cave Troll or my desire to destroy a Lego Black Widow.

I present to you, the Lego Monster Fighters Haunted Mansion set:

As if it was not cool enough, it actually opens up like a play house with various rooms in your typical haunted mansion - a torture/potion/kitchen type room, a creepy basement, and a piano room.  I may be stretching it wtih a 'torture' room but I'm using my imagination as Lego would like me to and thinking up things my Haunted Mansion will have, okay? Okay.

Even cooler!!! (because why stop there), the set comes with a a zombie chef.  A zombie freaking chef.  And! ghosts...ghost that glow.  In.  the.  dark.

In discussing this with Bughie J. (Confidant for all my musings of ridiculous schemes involving Lego, toys and video games (while kindly reminding me I have a Hot Toys Loki to pay for at the end of the year)), we decided that all manners of things can live in this Haunted Mansion.

Some where along the way, the conversation on the Haunted Mansion went a little like this:

Me: ...people could live in there.  Like Loki.

Bughie J.:  and command his zombie chef to make him fish n chips! and Dalek cakes for you.

Me: He and I still trying to sort out the alleged chortling.  Let's not talk about it.  There was no chortling! pfppbbttfftt.  Hm? What? You heard nothing.

Bughie J.: Nothing? Or Something.

Me: Uhh...pancakes? No, nothing.  Really though, do we want to eat fish n' chips from a Zombie Chef?

Bughie J.: Depends how good!

Me: It's probably Gollum's fish, all rotten and stuff.

Bughie J.: Might be worth the risk.  Fish n' Chips and all.

Me: True.  True.

Bughie J.: Plus i'm sure the alcohol will protect me

Me: Who's brewing alcohol in the basement? The ghosts? Well, who else to brew some alcohol than some spirits, I guess.

I can see great things for this house and great frustration in my trying to build it.  14+ difficulty at 2,064 pieces, huh? Should make for hilarious times.

Currently: Trying to justify spending $16 for tax and shipping on the Wizard Edition of Ni No Kuni

Fish, Anyone?

My precious Gollum from my aforementioned Lord of the Rings Lego set...in pictures!

Creepy...nightmare inducing pictures.

Have some fish...

...yes.

Have some.

There's nothing busted about him as some may have you believe.

Currently listening to: "Dance Little Liar" by Arctic Monkeys.

A Lego Story

I built my first prefabricated Lego set last weekend.

Is that some sort of blasphemy on my part?

Lego sets are cool but the HOchieS had some lego bricks back in the day when the pine trees were the coolest spiral shaped things ever, and most everything you built was left to your imagination.

I don't recall having the instructions to build movie and television franchised sets back then.  I'm not sure Lego existed in that capacity as it does now.  It's rather brilliant and a little sad on some level, perhaps.

But I can report that it was lovely fun building last weekend.  It was such fun that I am considering buying everyone Lego sets for Christmas.  It's a sort of calming thing and I am impressed by the genius of Lego Engineers.  I don't know what you call the people who think up the construction of these things but I'm sticking with "Lego Engineers".

There have been some amazing sets from Lego but I never have space for anything and the last thing I need is more toys or something else to obsess over.  Really.  I don't.

But as with all my obsessions, they start somewhere.  It's usually a villain in an anime, or video game or in this case, that blasted Joss Whedon and his The Avengers, a certain Brit, and one bad-assed Agent Coulson.

I decided to start small and with $20 later, an hour or so of my life spent dealing with tiny bits of super heroes and a very helpful BooHead, I finished the Lego set "Loki's Cosmic Cube Escape".

There is in fact a demented looking Lego Hawkeye driving Loki around.

For some reason Iron Man was included in this box and I guess they did not think Loki could sell it on its own.  Well, that's crazy talk! ...or I speak crazy.  I don't know but the other thing that sold me on it was the fact that it involved S.H.I.E.L.D.  They could not very well include a mini-figure of Agent Coulson because he is just too awesome to include in any Lego set and I understand.  The world would implode.

Obsessions of the Month (May 2012)!

The Avengers

To be more specific - Loki. Or rather, Tom Hiddleston. A whole blog post followed because I had nothing better to do.


Though I did enjoy the Avengers, so much so that I saw it twice and would see it again if the rumoured Director's Cut makes it to the theatre in August.  So much fun! So much Tom.  Stop judging me.




Persona 3 Portable

Some time ago, I started playing Persona 3 FES. I'm not sure what happened (probably a broken PS3 that did not allow for PS2 games to be played) but I never finished. I got near the end and....yeah. So now, I've been playing P3P and it's even more fantastic than I remember. It's a lot deeper than I recall: all the relationships I've been investing my time into and I'm honestly having fun. I'm probably over hour 60 or 70 at this point but I'm only now feeling it wear on me. It's been a fun journey and I hope for a stellar ending. Also, I'm looking forward to P4: The Golden in the Fall. Wooo!  (Update: I finished it and loved it but those 80 plus hours were draining).




Lego Mini-Figures

At some point, I became obsessed with these things. Perhaps it was in part due to the fabulous work by Mike Stimpson or Powerpig but in my tiny brain, I figured I could re-create some sort of epic story by using lego mini-figures. Um. Yeah, I'm still trying to think of something funny and have come up with diddly-squat. I'll probably just use them to keep on playing inefficiently with my macro lens. So expect some pictures of mini people in the future. Or mini robots. Or mini...minis?

Friday Evening with The HOchieS, Part I: A Story Told in Legos

If you have not yet visited the newly opened Lego Store located at Rockefeller Plaza, please add it to a list of things to do.

The store is crowded with tourists and New Yorkers alike, pricey and all this packed into a fairly tiny space but it does have its charm.

 I never liked that Orange Lego Guy.

Perhaps I have been here for quite the while now to no longer really appreciate Roc. Center with its influx of tourists, and the hell that is other people during Christmas time, New Year's, St. Patrick's Day and what seems to be most of the year now.

I will admit that the Lego Store gave me a little bit of the warm and fuzzy feeling to be a resident of the great state of New York.

For all the complaints of tourists and rudeness, The HOchieS are rather fond of our city of New York (with no smug attached as we say that).

 I mean, this is impressive.

But this is even more so...

Eddie Izzard in Lego

Ah, who knew Eddie Izzard was so funny? Good thing someone lego'd that man 'cause I probably wouldn't have much more patience than this to listen to his skits but maybe now I will:









Currently listening to: CLee on the Magic Jack.