Lego: Vic and Elsa

Back in February I wrote about the episode of Jeff Stormer’s podcast Party of One where I played the RPG Atomic Highway.  My character in that game was a descendant of Frankenstein rebuilt to resemble the famous monster.  That episode was actually the second that Jeff and I recorded but the first one is lost to the ether.  I think it was something on my end but Jeff is way too polite to say so. 

With two games under my belt I think about the character a lot.  Randomly one day I was thinking about how Lego had made a greaser style hair piece and how I had a few Frankenstein’s monster head pieces.  The idea clicked into place like two Lego.  The moment I could dive into my parts bins I quickly threw together Vic.  I was super happy with the results but I immediately knew I wanted more.  Vic was nothing without his car Elsa (named after Bride of Frankenstein actress Elsa Lanchester).  I knew I had to build the car too.

Luckily for me I didn’t have to work completely from scratch.  Lego’s Speed Champion line currently has a Camaro two pack.  Once of those cars is based on the current model while the other is an older version that looked ready to drag race.  It was a perfect base.  There were things that needed to be on Elsa through; specifically a ram prow and two linked machine guns.  The ram prow was easy enough, Lego has made enough old style trains that getting a cow catcher just meat spending a few minutes on Bricklink. 

  The machine guns were a little different; Lego doesn’t care for realistic looking weapons.  After looking around for a little bit I decided to go the third party route.  I placed an order for the Brick Arms machine guns and clips that allow them plug into jumper plates.  The ram prow and guns required me to rework the front and hood of the car.  I lost a lot of the sleekness that’s in the original set but it looks far more dangerous.

Because of all extra hardware on the hood I raised the passenger area and roof up by one stud.  I also replaced headrest with a stickered tile that has a 13 on it.  Vic always had a rockabilly vibe to him, so when I found the 13 stickers I knew I had to use them.  I originally wanted the back end to be fully of survival type gear.  I really, really wanted propane tanks and things like that.  The scale eventually got the better of me.  Had I made the car 8 studs wide instead of 6 I think my original vision would have worked but by this point I was already fully committed to the smaller vehicle. 

I also wanted to only use half the back end.  That way I could still have part of the white stripe that goes down Elsa’s hood.  This literally was the longest part of the build.  I took apart and rebuilt the back end numerous times until I got to a version I was happy with.  The tool sled slides into place and is held in the back with the ladder and a chain.  It rests on smooth tiles so it’s easy to pull out for use.  Under the sled I used another of the 13 stickers.  With the scale I was only able to get a hammer, wrench, and socket into the tool area but I feel it gets the point across.

In the end I’m really happy with the results.  Both Vic and Else turned out extremely close to how I imagined them.  If you want to hear more about the character check out the Party of One Podcast.  Make sure you give a listen to more than just the Apocalypse Highway episode though, there are far funnier people playing there that me.

Lego Rogue One

I don't believe anything has been officially released yet, but it is inevitable that Lego will have sets based on Star Wars Rogue One. Today they posted this image to their Facebook.

Needless to say I'm excited beyond words that we may have a Star Wars move that isn't knee deep in Jedi.

Flash Friday: Happy Meal Car

Happy Flash Friday everyone!  You have my wife to thank for today's update.  I don't normally go to McDonald's so if she hadn't told me about the newest promotion I would have never known it was happening.  Right now McDonald's is putting superhero themed cars into their happy meals.  They also have Barbie Spy Squad themed stuff too if that's your thing.

Anytime there is a Flash car made there is always the joke made about why the world's fastest man would need a car.  Moving past that low hanging fruit we can see they certainly picked a fast looking car for the Flash.  The red paint job has gold glitter in it, although it certain lighting you probably won't notice it.  There is printing on the sides and the roof consisting of both Hot Wheels and Flash logos.  The car does have a pull-back motor to sending it racing across non-carpeted surfaces.

The rest of the car line up consists of Superman, Batman, Aquaman, Cyborg, Green Lantern, Robin, and the Joker.  I guess because this is considered the "boy toy" that they left out Wonder Woman.  I found it strange that they include a single villain to go with the seven heroes.  Finally if you need one or more of these in your collection, remember that McDonald's will sell you the toy without having to eat their food!

X-Wing: The Ghost

The Star Wars cartoon Rebels is a big, big hit in my house.  It shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that knows me that I love the main ship on the show.  When the first images were released I didn't care for it.  The odd angles and design elements shoved together were a little off-putting.  As I watched the pilot episode I quickly grew to love the design and watching the ship in action.  I was extremely excited when Fantasy Flight announced that they were creating the Ghost for use in their table top miniature game, X-Wing.

For those unfamiliar with X-Wing: The Miniature Game is game where players form small fleets of ships representing the Empire, the Rebellion, or a criminal faction known as the Scum.  Players maneuver their ships in space combat and try to either fulfill some scenario based objective or just try to eliminate the other player's ships.  Today's update is going to really talk about how the Ghost preforms in game.  I haven't had the change to even use it once yet.  The set comes with enough pieces and cards that it will take a few games before I really get a good feel of the piece.

What I wanted to show off was just how nice the model looks.  The Ghost is huge compared to other ships and the small details really shine through on it.  The package comes with both the Ghost and the Phantom but I've also used an A-Wing in one of the pictures to show off just large it is.  Unlike Warhammer, X-Wing miniatures come pre-painted.  I've heard about other people having issues with badly painted pieces but I've never seen it.  The paint on the Ghost looks far better than I could have put together.

The surprising thing is that the model is hollow.  When looking at it you expected it to have some weight to it.  The model is super light, which is a good thing considering its size.  It already has to use a different flight stand than the other ships if it weighed more it would have to use something even larger.  I should point out that the Phantom doesn't actually dock into the Ghost model.  Instead the Ghost is sculpted to already have a Phantom back there.  Expect another Ghost article in about a month from now once I've gotten to do more than fly it around my kitchen making "pew pew" laser sounds.

Iron Fist Teaser

With the release of Daredevil's Season 2 we started getting a lot of information about the other upcoming shows.  Luke Cage got a release date and a teaser trailer.  Iron Fist got a confirmed star and this image.

I'm beyond excited.  This image is also a reminder that I need to continue my Iron Fist 101 series, so I'm announcing that it will be returning in April.

Baloo and Bagheera?

C'mon Baggy, get with the beat!

There are some insane deals on Disney Infinity figures right now.  Best Buy has some figures marked down to 5 dollars and most of the others down to 9.  In addition to that a lot of the discs are also half priced.  Toys R Us has buy one, get one for a dollar on all of there figures.  I had to get Baloo because Jungle Book is my favorite Disney movie.  As soon as my son saw Black Panther something clicked in his soul and he needed to have him.  When we got the two of them home I realized just how appropriate the paring was.

Flash Friday: Lego Mighty Micros

Happy Flash Friday everyone!  I had really wanted to post this last week, but sadly real life kept me from getting my order on time.  Ultimately that may have been a good thing, because I’ve had more time put my thoughts together.  Mighty Micros are a new Lego line that started showing up on store shelves this month.  For around 1o dollars you get two very small, almost kart-like vehicles and two mini-figures with short leg pieces.  The current wave contains both Marvel and DC characters; although we’ll be talking about the Flash set today.

  

The first thing you have to remember is these are small sets.  To get two vehicles at such a low price point they had to keep them pretty simple.  The Flash set totals 88 pieces.  That’s 88 pieces split between two figures, two vehicles, and accessories.  Flash gets a tiny race car and Captain Cold a tiny snow plow/tractor.  The Flash symbol on the front of his car is a printed piece; in fact there are no stickers at all in the set which was a really nice surprise.  Both vehicles in this set are pretty sturdy and roll around well.  If you have the urge to really build something out of Lego, these aren’t going to satisfy that, but they are fun to zoom around your desk.

For a Flash fan that isn’t normally interested in Lego this seems like a great set to grab to get a cheap Captain Cold and Flash figure.  Before this Flash was in two sets a Riddler themed set that ran about 20 dollars and the Grodd Goes Bananas set that was about 60.  Captain Cold was only available in the 60 dollar set.  The Might Micro figures are not the same as the ones that came in those sets though.  Besides the fact that the figures come with the short legs that are usually used to represent Lego children the face and chest designs are almost more simple and cartoonish.  The full sized Flash figure has a smaller lightning bolt symbol and detailed muscles on his chest print.  The Might Micro has a much larger symbol and belt print. 

The other big difference in the Flash figures is the face.  The full sized Flash has visible eyes when his mask is on.  The Might Micro has white eyes.  Between the white eyes and the split belt I can’t help but feel the figure was influenced by the Bruce Timm Justice League run.  I don’t have any facts to back that up, it just seems likely.

Much like the Flash, the two Captain Colds are very different.  Let’s talk cold guns first.  The full sized gun is a gigantic collection of thrown together pieces that in my opinion tries to do too much.  The entire lower section cold be left off and it would only improve the look.  The Might Micro cold gun is a ray gun with a few clear blue bricks attached to it.  The large Captain’s torso is done very realistically while the Micro’s is again cartoony and simplified. 

The full sized Captain Cold’s face was always a little wrinklier than I wanted, but was otherwise very good.  The Micro version is cartoony but isn’t so over the top.  Regardless of the design, both figures are instantly recognizable as the captain.  The parka hood on both figures is identical.

The Mighty Micros are a very fun line.  At the price it’s hard not to recommend them.  But I did want to show off the differences between the minifigures.