Other Pete J's thread of Lego building (current project: Barad-dûr)

There was definitely a larger ED-209 by another brand. Just can’t find them now.
Rebrickable has instructions £10ish? for a 25cm tall ED-209 I believe.
In car on way to Glasgow so can’t link anything reception is sh*t.

 

It's been a comparatively active month for me Lego wise. Firstly, some progress on Barad-dûr:







I'm not far off having the bottom third finished now. I also purchased and built this chap last Friday:





A nice straightforward and aesthetically pleasing model.

Two new projects added to the roster:

10367 Balrog Book Nook - IMPROVED Deluxe


"Dark Gargoyle"


The Balrog model is an upgrade to the 10367 official Lego set that bulks it out nicely. I bought some parts from Australia (because I wanted some upside-down bricks...) mainly because the model has a unique part that only one store was selling in the new condition.

The Batman model is another design from the chaps who did the Robocop I built ages ago. When I was building Robocop, I ended up with two spare parts that were reasonably rare and expensive for impatient reasons: fortunately, Batman uses these pieces!

Finally, the next "mega" car has been officially revealed:



This looks like a significant advancement in terms of functionality:

• FINALLY includes a gear indicator.
• 9(!) gears - I'm interested in seeing how they've managed to add this ninth gear without making the gearbox significantly larger.
• Very clever mechanism that makes the doors and bonnet pop up upon lifting the boot.
• Rollbar style suspension - will be interesting to see if it is a true rollbar or not.

Looks like a very complex build, and I love that difficulty - especially as I'll be converting it to right hand drive. However, it'll be at least a year before I purchase and build it to allow the MOCers to tweak the design, and save a few tens of quid in a sale! I hope that the geartrain isn't as stiff as the McLaren ended up having.

 

Daughter is after that car, it does look very good.

 

Got this for fathers day..


Picked up the following over the last few months...
3x BttF Delorean (so i can build/display each variant - will need to do a bricklink for the BttF2 and BttF3 versions)

Lightnight McQueen

Batman vs. Superman Batmobile

AT-AT

Epic Battle: Spiderman vs Sandman

Epic Battle: Hulk vs Ironman


And still need to finish Rivendell (have done the two ends, just need to do the "middle"), and build the Viking Village and Dune Ornithopter...




Build backlog is getting silly...

EDIT: must not look at prime day deals...

 

No such thing as a silly build backlog
I like the Delorean build. Got one in a display case.
Eventually going to do the 3 film moc of it.

I’ve got a small backlog. Wish it was much bigger.
but I’m not a Lego purist.

Are you going to do the extended Rivendell?

I enjoyed the ornithopter build.


- and Pete that balrog moc looks amazing.
looking into that.

 

/deep breath
I dont do/have display cases, mainly as i cycle through the lego on display.
Will have to look up the 3 film moc...
im probably a lego purist, the only flego i have are minifigures (w40k, xenomorph & predator)
i'd love to do the extended rivendell, but i'd rather spend money on other sets than the extra parts for a large moc
/and breathe...

 

the delorean is in one because I was in impulse buy mode and bought the display case (before the Lego even got released) - the case took 6 weeks to arrive. I’d forgotten all about it.

I only call Ali-special ripoffs - Flego
Ones with actual brand names, that just aren’t Lego. I consider legitimate bricks.

I’ve also got the predator and a couple of xenomorph builds! The predator is HORRIBLE and falls apart so easily. The xenos, one is ok and built sort of fine. The other two are more like the predator, fall apart easily. I was going to do a little diorama?ish-mishmash of xenos fighting the predator. But will have to work out how to make the builds sturdier.

Would love some w40k builds.

Do agree with the extending of sets. It usually ends up costing more in MOC parts than the original set I find. I want to do the 5ft tall avengers tower.
But the extra pieces are mental money.

 

Finished off the first section of Barad Dur:





Decided to take a break from this and build this little fella:



A very cool small scale build: mandatory for any Lego/Star Wars fan IMHO. And here it is next to Big Daddy:

 

I built the little guy today too! its really quite neat!

 

Daughter got the blue skyline technics lego car from the fast and the furious had to put another shelve up.

 

Forgot I had it. Started about a year and a half ago, but got put away due to life. Found amongst bits and pieces.
Just nowhere to put it now.
Not as fun as my M1000 RR build.



*disclosure* Not ‘Lego’.

 

HEATHEN. BURN HIM.

 

I've been looking at alternatives since they offer models that Lego don't (or even won't*) have in their range. Cada in particular seem quite reputable! Some of the alternative suppliers also do offer interesting parts, including modern versions of older parts that have been discontinued.

Lego however do have their engineering tolerances absolutely nailed though, and for the moment, no other manufacturer seems to be able to ensure the same high level of control that matters when you have multiple connection points. Though Cada do seem to be close, looking at some reviews of their sets.

*Lego has a policy of not making models of real military equipment. Certainly current, though maybe not historical - after all, they do pirate ships...

 

I mean… surely that just an aggressive commercial enterprise, right?

knights on horseback is another matter entirely though!

 

I have a Kick Sauber F1 car by CaDFi(CaDa) that I have yet to build.
And it gets good reviews. So looking forward to that. I also built a copy of the Daily Bugle. It’s perfect. Albeit a delicate *******.

As far as the QC(tolerances) goes, Lego definitely have the edge. However, I’ve yet to find many issues with newer other brands ones.
I built a friends Lego McLaren F1 technic (old one), and it was good. I wanted it, so I got a knock off (I’m cheap). And certainly the tolerance of some parts were off, technic bits. But overall, was perfect and exactly the same in every way.

For getting old-retired sets from places, it’s great.
The Upside Down as an example. I got it for £60.
It’s exactly the same. And that was after it had been retired.
I would love to always get Lego brand, but just priced out of it - and I never intend to resell or keep boxes etc.

However, they are all cottoning on to the fact people know they’re just as good overall, so prices are going up.

I’d definitely recommend trying out other brands, CADA especially.
Knock-offs of current LEGO obviously is another matter.

 

WARNING - Wallets in DANGER!!!

7000+ brick, Minifig-scale Fondor Haulcraft from Andor:-


Estimated bricklink price - around $900

https://www.brickvault.toys/products/fondor

 

Sounds 'cheap' for a 7000+ MOC...
I seem to hit like £200/300 for the small amounts I want to buy to expand sets I have. :/

And I check every so often and they only seems to be going up in price.

So... Pete J's next project a 7000+ piece MOC???

 

I've decided to focus on building my Batman collection for the moment, so Barad Dur is paused. In the meantime:



A fiddly build because of all the greebling: a couple of times I ended up knocking a bit or two off as I was trying to hold the assembly to put another part on. I decided to put the golden Batman minifig in the vault in the centre. At some point I need to give my nephew the code so he can unlock the minifig in the upcoming Lego Batman game.

More Batman to follow...

I need to watch Andor at some point. Though I cancelled my Disney subscription years ago.

 

This week I've built the Project Hail Mary - great build but some really fiddly parts in places.

Also built a MOC Calvin and Hobbes cart https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-154520/grubaluk/calvin-and-hobbes/#details - can attest to the tolerances not being as good as official Lego (found this when I built my James Bond DB5 MOC as well a few years back)