Building a brighter tomorrow with LEGO® bricks
Every year the Bay Area LEGO Users Group (BayLUG) sets up an exhibit at the Museum of American History (MoAH) in Palo Alto, CA over the holidays called “Living LEGO-cy.” This year was our 9th annual show. Here are some pics I took on the last day of the show just before teardown. Click the image to view the rest of the photos, or view a slideshow.
For Christmas this year, my mom got me a sweater, a necktie, a pocketknife, a toothpaste tube squeezer, and a LEGO set – LEGO Train Set #3677 Red Cargo Train. I went over to her house last night and we exchanged gifts, and she wanted to see what it looked like when it was built…. so I suggested we build it right then and there! To my surprise she wanted to do it, so I helped by sorting out the parts and going through the instruction book with her while she put the pieces on. Her 71 27 year old fingers had some trouble getting the pieces to go on, but it went pretty well.
This was, I honestly think, the first time we ever did this! I think maybe one time as a kid I tried to work with her but I didn’t have the patience and took it away to do it myself. At least, that’s the sort of kid I was :-) but we went through the first two of seven bags (the locomotive, and the high-rail truck) and she built them all herself. But after that, her fingers were sore and it was like 11pm, so we stopped and I took the rest home.
But it was really a nice little mother/son moment, even if it was 30 years late.
Last day of the LEGO Advent Calendars!
Star Wars and City both give us what we have come to expect from LEGO Advent Calendars – Santa Claus minifigs. Santa Maul is a cute idea, though I don’t think we can count on him for some really good toys for the good girls and boys… and for the bad ones, recruiting for the Dark Side? Either way, lose-lose. But the Santa Suit is great, just swap the heads and you’re good to go. In City we have a plain unprinted red suit for Santa, so I’d combine the two and get a great Santa. But what is up with this item from Friends? A cosmetics table… with a wig stand? Are we supposed to believe the teenagers of Heartlake City are wearing wigs? Perhaps one of them is a cancer survivor? That’s a cheerful thought for Christmas. Sorry, I call Christmas Fail on this one.
The next-to-last day in our Advent calendar gives us some gift boxes and a snowdroid!
The light blue and white box is from Friends; the other two are from City. But the best part about today is the droid – look closely at the printing, he has carrots on his chest and eyes made out of coal! And of course, the top hat to finish it all off. Adorable.
Today is the penpenultimate day in the Advent Calendar, and we have a bumper crop of bonus parts!
The Friends set gives us a nice little tree, and though I checked carefully there’s no use for the 2×2 round plates or those extra red dots in the model!
Star Wars gives us another microscale ship, with the expected extra cheese slopes and half pin.
In City, we get what seems to be a sleigh trailer with no fewer than three extra robot arms! I welcome this, because these are a neat part that we don’t see often – the battle droid arms with the 90 degree rotation between the two ends, and straight elbow.
Day 21 of the LEGO Advent Calendars brings us a Star Wars Super Battle Droid (meh) and some traffic cones and a sign for City, and finally Friends comes through with a detailed model!
The Super Battle Droid is a lot more detailed than LEGO’s regular Battle Droid model, but it feels like cheap plastic from China like a lot of non-LEGO toys, and the parts don’t seem to be very useful.
City gives us two traffic cones with blue lights on them, and a yellow warning sign. In case you’re wondering how the warning sign is attached, it has a clip in the back and it’s attached to the dark grey claw – you can see the extra claw lying with the other extra parts. Not a bad way to attach the sign, though it’s kind of low to the ground.
But the best model this time comes from Friends, and there’s no pink or purple or teal or anything! How odd! It’s a nice simple little fireplace with a mantle decorated for the holidays. How sweet.
Also, happy Mayan New Year everybody! It’s already December 22 in parts of the world, and we’re all still here….
For Day 20 of the Advent calendars, we get a cool (and very detailed) Star Wars microscale spaceship, but the other two calendars are a little bland.
The ship is General Grievous’s Starfighter, from the prequel movies, so blah, but it’s a nice little piece of LEGO construction and SNOT (Studs Not On Top) design. For City we get a wheelbarrow with an extra wheel hub, for cleaning up the mess created by all those snowball fights, and for Friends we have a Shrubbery.
Day 19 of the LEGO 2012 Advent Calendars.
For City, we get a fireman. For Star Wars we get a microscale Trade Federation Shuttle. But where’s the Friends model, I hear you cry? Look closely in the fireman’s left hand – a handbag. Just one part. Really, LEGO? One part???
But we get tons of extra fire hats and coffee mugs. Speaking of which, has anyone else noticed that minifigs drink a lot of coffee? Seems like every set nowadays has one … every truck driver and heavy equipment operator in LEGOLAND is apparently sipping coffee all day long. I think LEGO may be working their set designers too hard, they need more sleep…
We’re 3/4 of the way through Advent, and today we find a wrapped gift, a Star Wars rebel trooper, and a dog with fire hydrant.
None of these are challenging builds to say the least, but I like the pairing of the dog and fire hydrant. I wonder what’s in the wrapped box?
And again we get double bonus visors. Can you name some uses for those other than snapping them on a helmet?
The 17th day in the Advent Calendars gives us thee little models
The mailbox from Friends is cute, but not exactly a complicated model. More pink cheese, yay.
In City we get a snowball catapult, with much bigger ammo than yesterday‘s snowball-throwing minifigure. Press the red button!
And in Star Wars we get a cute little vehicle, not sure what it is but FBTB tells me it’s a “flash speeder.” I like the green, it helps me to restock my supplies after building Kermit.