Lego

Lego Catalogues - A Trip Down Memory Lane 2022-11-29

As promised, here’s a post about old Lego Catalogues/Brochures/Flyers/whatever you want to call them.

For reference, the website Brickset has a whole collection of scanned catalogues, complete with a little Javascript-based interface that lets you flick through them. If you’re interested in this subject, I suggest you head over there and take a look at what they have on offer.

This one is a bit before my time, but the format is exactly the same

Lego Build - Galaxy Explorer (Part 2) 2022-11-21

I did not build the Galaxy Explorer into its second alternate form. There are two reasons for this. The first, more practical reason is that my kids wanted to help out with this build, and they made it clear that they wanted to build the full Galaxy Explorer (or as they called it, the “Four Ship”, since it can seat four minifigures).

But even if they hadn’t gotten involved, I’m not sure I’d have built it.

For context, the second variant set is supposed to be a remake/homage to set #924 (Space Cruiser):

And here’s what the variant looks like:

Lego Build - Galaxy Explorer (Part 1) 2022-11-20

Okay, let’s get this started.

… Wait, how do I get this started?

I guess we can begin by taking another look at the box:

This is an obvious throwback to the old boxes from the Golden Era, with the yellow “Legoland”-style trim and what looks to be the use of an old school camera filter to give the image a washed out look. It’s not that far off from the original box:

Lego Build - Galaxy Explorer 2022-11-19

It’s been a while since I built some Lego, which is a bit ironic considering the Lego Group is doubling down on the amount of sets they make explicitly for adults.

But while I do think most of those sets are very impressive, so far I’ve been able to largely resist temptation. I’ve said no to Voltron, the Saturn V rocket, and even Optimus Prime. And it wasn’t even hard to do! The reason is simple - as cool as these sets look, they don’t hold up to a cost/benefit analysis. Most of these adult Lego sets cost $100 minimum, with many going for double (or even more) than that.

To put it in terms relative to Gunpla, these sets are like the Lego equivalent of a Perfect Grade model kit. Except whereas Bandai releases PG’s very sparingly, Lego is cramming out adult sets multiple times a year. I simply can’t imagine buying more than one or two lifetime, despite Lego putting out at least that many or more in a single calendar year.

And after having bought this thing here, I definitely can’t imagine buying any more: