Legos, anyone?

[kanedaestes]

I had mine sitting on top of my fridge for awhile 

[Phyrox]

I picked up one of those 3rd party mount sets that has it up at an oblique angle and set it on top of a bookshelf for a while.

Then I took it apart and gave it to my cousin's kids because I don't love the Falcon enough for the space it took up.
Well, that and the non-locking roof panels were a pain in the ass with the display angle.  A slight bump and they shifted out of alignment.

[Sanity is Optional]

Big box, and the finished thing is almost 2ft x 3ft.

[M'Kyuun]

45 minutes ago, Sanity is Optional said:

Big box, and the finished thing is almost 2ft x 3ft.

I've had that box sitting under my table for a couple of years now- same issue, no room for it, but hopefully someday. I also have a similar looking cat. If you're short, bald, and a little paunchy about the midsection, I think we've got some parallel dimension stuff going on.

[Sanity is Optional]

17 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

I've had that box sitting under my table for a couple of years now- same issue, no room for it, but hopefully someday. I also have a similar looking cat. If you're short, bald, and a little paunchy about the midsection, I think we've got some parallel dimension stuff going on.

I'll be stacking mine underneath the Star Destroyer box.

Not bald yet, but give me a few years!

[Dobber]

Finally finished this monster! It’s so cool!

 

Chris

[no3Ljm]

Wow! 

 

[sh9000]

1 hour ago, Dobber said:

Finally finished this monster! It’s so cool!

 

Chris

[Dobber]

Thanks lol,

My a/c has been out for the past week so it got me to spend more time in my basement to escape the heat and finish it off. 

Chris

edit: just saw a building error that I’m going to have to fix on the top of the hull. 

Edited May 24, 2021 by Dobber

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

What an absolute unit of a build-congrats!

[M'Kyuun]

Since the New York Toy Fair for 2021, was cancelled due to Covid, LEGO has their own plans: LEGO® CON 2021 | Watch LIVE | Official LEGO | Official LEGO® Shop US

June 26 at 9AM PST

[David Hingtgen]

Shuttle upgrade, phase 1 complete!

All credit to Cameron from "Bricks in Space" for the "flush hinges" mod----https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10100172786209769&set=pcb.1010098302728754

[technoblue]

Nice. That's a clever way to get rid of the gap. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Sanity is Optional]

Well, found a place online selling the Excavator for $330 with free shipping so...

[wm cheng]

Oh MAN!!! @David Hingtgen I didn't even noticed that till you pointed it out!  Now I can't unsee it - argh.

I wished they moved the whole cargo bay forward a few studs, and made the OMS pods longer and moved the forward landing gear forward. (other than that, its a pretty perfect Lego kit)

[M'Kyuun]

2 hours ago, wm cheng said:

Oh MAN!!! @David Hingtgen I didn't even noticed that till you pointed it out!  Now I can't unsee it - argh.

I wished they moved the whole cargo bay forward a few studs, and made the OMS pods longer and moved the forward landing gear forward. (other than that, its a pretty perfect Lego kit)

I agree, pretty good kit, but not without its flaws, and the fix for those door hinge indents is pretty simple and straightforward. It beggars the question of why the designer didn't do it that way, but they're up against constraints that most consumers aren't aware of, so I'm more willing to let things pass. The landing gear system was well executed, but I think the scale of the gear as opposed to the Shuttle itself is a bit too large; however, it's LEGO, so they have to work with what's available, and compromises are a necessity. For how smoothly the gear retraction/extension works, I'm not too plussed about it.  

Part of me wishes that this had been minifig scale like the Shuttle Adventure set years ago, but this was more of a commemorative model, thus the more realistic crew cabin. Moreover, it's grossly out of scale for the minifigs, but I'm old skool, so astro-figs in anything make me happy.

[David Hingtgen]

Shuttle upgrade phase 2 sneak peek:

[David Hingtgen]

O Canada(rm!)

 

Meh vs yeah!

 

Stickers suck! Crooked stickers suck even more. But perfectly-aligned stickers that still end up looking crooked suck the most!

 

All together: (aka my shuttle is better than your shuttle)

 

 

 

[David Hingtgen]

Unlike a certain set of stickers, Discovery most certainly does not suck.  That said, it's simply not *quite* as cool as Atlantis...

[M'Kyuun]

Looks great, David. Did you buy the stickers or make them?   I like the crew hatch tile, and wonder why LEGO didn't do the same; it's a pretty simple solution that looks much better than official. Anyway, it seems like a lot of the fixes were simple to employ without major mods to the model beggaring the question of why those solutions weren't employed in the first place. The budgeting politics at LEGO must be a bumpy road to navigate.

LEGO has unveiled the latest IDEAS model, and it's an old school typewriter. More about it on Brothers Brick.

This, like the piano, is a cool model, with moving internals that simulates the actual object in question.  The sting, I think, is that, for all their artistic and technical prowess manifest in these beautiful models, neither the piano nor the typewriter actually works. However, the spirit behind these models, that they are objects of a particular nature that LEGO would not otherwise consider doing, has merit.  The typewriter would make a great gift for anyone old enough to have used a typewriter, or for someone in the writing profession. Likewise the piano for musicians. For the average LEGO buying Joe, though, I think the appeal is limited, except, perhaps, as a parts pack (all that delicious sand green!). If I'm coming across negative, I'm not; I think stuff like this is why IDEAS is such a good platform; models like this are niche, expensive, specifically targeted at an adult consumer,  represent some incredible artistry and engineering on the parts of the designers and submitters, and also represent real world objects that hold personal or nostalgic feelings for many people. I hope the folks at IDEAS continue to receive submissions like this; it adds a whole new range of depth to what a LEGO set can be, and hopefully changes perceptions about it as more than just a toy, but as yet another creative medium like clay or scale modeling.

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

Liking your mods on your shuttle, David-the crew hatch is a nice touch!

[Chronocidal]

Definitely an upgrade, that hatch tile is great, and love the Atlantis version.  I can't say the hatch ever particularly bothered me, because I do appreciate little brick-built details, but things like that are what I would expect of MOCs, not an official set with the ability to print their own detail parts.

Stickers are something I never touch as a rule, because I hate having them peel over time, but the Discovery stickers fell into a whole 'nother level of terrible when they printed that nameplate diagonally.  Personally, I'm debating rebuilding a significant portion of the nose to use... not what they used.  Might lose the crew cabin, but I don't particularly like the printed windscreen and cockpit top they used, and want to revisit some of the tiered slopes that make up the shape.  LEGO seems to really struggle sometimes with the concept of building up those larger curved shapes (though fortunately nothing as incomprehensible as the UCS Slave I).

[technoblue]

@David Hingtgen’s mod appears to use custom printed pieces, which is even better than stickers. Very cool indeed. 

[David Hingtgen]

Yup, NO STICKERS.  All printed.  See the first close-up pic of the large wing-tile.  Stickers would be cheaper, but I'm not cheaping out on a $200 set, and wouldn't be much of an improvement over Lego's own.  But printing that's 99% the same as the official?  Oh yes...

I got them from here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/millionprintsdesign/

 

Someone ordered enough printed parts to make a 200X Atlantis, with the meatball logos:

(and again----printed, not stickers)

Just a pair of printed-name-cockpit-wedges will make the biggest difference in looks IMHO, the rest are just "nice little upgrades".

 

[sh9000]

 

[David Hingtgen]

They actually painted it----and it still doesn't match the real thing's color at all...

[Chronocidal]

5 hours ago, David Hingtgen said:

Yup, NO STICKERS.  All printed.  See the first close-up pic of the large wing-tile.  Stickers would be cheaper, but I'm not cheaping out on a $200 set, and wouldn't be much of an improvement over Lego's own.  But printing that's 99% the same as the official?  Oh yes...

I got them from here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/millionprintsdesign/

 

Someone ordered enough printed parts to make a 200X Atlantis, with the meatball logos:

(and again----printed, not stickers)

Just a pair of printed-name-cockpit-wedges will make the biggest difference in looks IMHO, the rest are just "nice little upgrades".

 

So, I'm feeling like I almost need to rebuild the entire nose with either side or front-facing studs, and remove those giant hard edges from those angled bricks.  I'm thinking layered plates would just give a much better profile overall.

[David Hingtgen]

Personally I've never been fond of excessive use of layers of plates.  Eventually you'll end up at the "typical style of very large official Lego creations" where it's just a zillion stacked directly from bottom to top, with no "techniques" or ingenuity to get the desired shapes, beyond occasionally moving one stud over as you go up.  

[Chronocidal]

48 minutes ago, David Hingtgen said:

Personally I've never been fond of excessive use of layers of plates.  Eventually you'll end up at the "typical style of very large official Lego creations" where it's just a zillion stacked directly from bottom to top, with no "techniques" or ingenuity to get the desired shapes, beyond occasionally moving one stud over as you go up.  

Not wrong, sometimes it gets quite overdone.  I think someplace that would make sense is on the wing thickness, instead of those fugly slopes at the root, but that would also prevent using the printed tiles, so it's a trade-off.

I mostly think that those stark diagonal slopes on the sides of the cockpit and all the terraced sections they cause would look better if they were more subtle slopes, 60 degrees instead of the current 45s, or maybe more curved bricks.  I'd also like to rework the canopy shape using some angled bricks.  I think there's plenty of room in the nose to rig up some angled mounts that would give a better shape, but I'm not sure what that would look like yet.  The wrap-around curve to the windshield just feels wrong to me.

Edited June 9, 2021 by Chronocidal

[sh9000]

 

 

[technoblue]

Man, I really like the LEGO Ideas typewriter. Early VIP access is this week. That's going to be hard for me to pass up.

[Tking22]

4 hours ago, technoblue said:

Man, I really like the LEGO Ideas typewriter. Early VIP access is this week. That's going to be hard for me to pass up.

I think I'm grabbing it too, I passed on the piano, but the typewriter is just too cool, I need it. 

[sh9000]

 

 

[M'Kyuun]

LEGO's really branching out in what subjects get made into sets, as well as the licensing they're pursuing. Personally, I think the typewriter's neat, but the shoe does nothing for me. But there are a lot of folks into kicks, so I guess this is aimed at them. Hey, whatever sells sets.

[technoblue]

2 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

LEGO's really branching out in what subjects get made into sets, as well as the licensing they're pursuing. Personally, I think the typewriter's neat, but the shoe does nothing for me. But there are a lot of folks into kicks, so I guess this is aimed at them. Hey, whatever sells sets.

The LEGO shoe is...odd, but as a runner I'll admit the first question I had was: "What's the heel to toe drop?"