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Are there any other Lego fans out there?

Discussion in 'General Chat' started by ravagekitteh, Jul 25, 2017.

  1. ravagekitteh
    Skink Chief

    ravagekitteh Well-Known Member

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    Given that this is a forum discussing both a hobby that is one third modelling and things related to said hobby, populated by fans of said hobby, I'd have thought there would be some Lego fans out there. I myself am a massive fan of Lego, owning an awful lot of sets, and thanks to the amazing Make A Wish Foundation I have had an extremely special, once in a lifetime experience with it. If there are any other fans out there, it would be great to have a discussion on your thoughts and opinions on it. I also understand that some of you use it in conjunction with your Warhammer, so this is a good place for demonstrating and talking about that as well. Lego I think is a brilliant toy, but also doesn't lose it's appeal no matter how old you get. It remains a creative tool, relaxing past time and is amazing at developing the imagination. If anyone else agrees with me, this is the place to voice it, and any other thoughts you may have about it. I would love to hear your opinions, so if you have any I hope to see you here!
     
  2. Aginor
    Slann

    Aginor Fifth Spawning Staff Member

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    I used to be a big LEGO fan as a kid, but never had big or complex models because of the price.
    At some point the PC took over as my main hobby and then I moved out of my parents' house and thus had no LEGO available anymore. So that's that. I only recently built my first LEGO kit in 20 years: the Saturn V which is awesome.
    So yeah I follow LEGO and always look at the new kits and kinda like them, but not far enough to actually buy them. Yet.
     
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  3. Crowsfoot
    Slann

    Crowsfoot Guardian of Paints Staff Member

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    Always wanted the Death star but never got round to buying it.
     
  4. n810
    Slann

    n810 First Spawning

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    .... I was once in the fan club, if that's any indicator.... :artist:
    and I may or my not have an attic full of LEGO sets... :shifty:
     
  5. Warden
    Slann

    Warden Tenth Spawning

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    HUGE lego fan when I was a kid... and still am! I could almost say they were my first favorite before warhammer came along. My favorites were definitely the old Robin Hood/Medieval Knights sets that lego used to make. My brother and I replayed the entire Errol Flynn Robin Hood movie as kids together over and over again.
    Tower Bridge.jpg

    huge favorite:
    Robin Hood.jpg

    King's Carriage.jpg

    Merryman Hideout.jpg

    OldCastle.jpg

    The Tavern.jpg

    Also had a few other kinds, ninjas and Johnny Thunder (aka Indiana Jones in Egypt)

    Ninja Tower.jpg

    Adventure Egypt Mouth Temple.png

    Most of my old sets are now with my brother, who has used them in his stop-motion videos known as Yeti Productions. If they ever get posted online I will add link.

    There is a ton of great inspiration that can be gained from Lego sets, especially where terrain is concerned (considering that you can build anything with legos, this isn't that surprising). Before I made a castle out of foam, my brother and I would fight our warhammer siege-scenarios on makeshift lego-castles! I still get a lot of inspiration looking at many of the old pictures, and would love to make something even half this epic someday, with all the tiny details:

    The Hornersburg.jpg
     
  6. tom ndege
    Skar-Veteran

    tom ndege Well-Known Member

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    Had the same and even of older knights than @Warden had. Also some of the SiFi/ Space stuff they made in the same period (late 80 early 90s)... space police (green visors and laser guns) and ice world (red/orange visors and power saws) were two fractions... the third one (yellow visors and laser( the bad guys... forgot the name... but they had androids...
    my father told me that space police was already there, when he was a child, and the bad guys were called blacktron... the were still included as prisoners in some kits of the space police fraction... and I think my father had two or so among the tons of Lego he had kept since his childhood... we used to play a lot with this stuff...
    I also had some pirates and navy guys... including the smaller of the two ships available back then...
    And it's all still there... including the building instructions (if not original my dad made copies of all of them and has a folder...)
    So in my opinion Lego is some really great stuff!
     
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  7. pendrake
    Skink Priest

    pendrake Well-Known Member

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    Logo is awesome. Used to try building Tholians and Orion Pirates out of them (before there were dedicated space craft kits).

    Always a fan.
     
  8. Warden
    Slann

    Warden Tenth Spawning

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    I forgot about space legos, I had this guy as a kid, must have explored the entire galaxy and lego-multiverse (and the living room) with him:

    red space saucer.jpg

    Also found this:

    lego_space_marines_by_scharnvirk-d5jq49t.jpg

    Purge those heretics.
     
  9. ravagekitteh
    Skink Chief

    ravagekitteh Well-Known Member

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    Great to see there are so many other fans out there. Like I said, I myself am still a huge fan and have an extremely large collection of it, probably dominated by Star Wars. I have also had a very personal, once in a lifetime experience. After I had finished treatment for my first bout of Leukaemia, I qualified for a wish, from the Make a Wish Foundation, which you may have heard of. It's a absolutely brilliant charity that offers wishes for seriously ill children. Well, mine was to go to Lego and see how it was all designed and everything. So they organised for me to go on the Lego Inside Tour...

    They organised the flights and everything, so we arrived at Heathrow and flew out to Billund, Denmark. We were booked into the Legoland hotel, and had free access to the park. We spent the first day there in Legoland Denmark, which frankly is amazing by itself. If any of you have been to a Legoland park, well, this is the king. After an action packed day there we retired back to the hotel room, ready for the Inside Tour the next day...

    The Lego Inside Tour is basically the most behind the scenes you get there short of actually working there. It's extremely hard to get on, with only 130 people a year getting to go on it. I don't know if anyone saw the Secret World of Lego documentary, but you get to see all round the places there. There's the Lego Ideas House, full of the story of Lego, inspiration and The Vault, which I will elaborate on later. You meet designers, take part in building challenges, have factory tours and go behind the scenes at the park. And at the end, you get an exclusive Lego set. Like, properly exclusive. 130 ever made.

    So we woke up amd headed down to the meeting area. The tour is done in groups of about 20 or 30, so we all introduced ourselves and made badges with personalised minifigures of ourselves. Then we went into a quiz on Lego knowledge. Bearing in mind that other than us, the Tour is made up of the biggest Lego fan and aficionados from across the world. So I was quite surprised and pleased when I won! I received another Lego set and we had a presentation from a senior Lego employee. We then headed out to our first stop, the Lego Ideas House. It was super interesting to hear the origins and how Lego evolved, and we had a Lego through the years section, which was also interesting to see. Then we reached The Vault. The Vault is an underground vault which contains one of every Lego set ever made. Every single one. We were allowed time to explore and look at it all, and me, my dad and my sister were all sure to get photos of our very first Lego sets. That was definitely a highlight. Next up, we headed back upstairs and we're each given a personalised bag full of sets based on what we liked, and were ushered into a meeting room. There we were treated to presentations by designers on various different parts of design. If you have seen the Secret World of Lego, you would recognise Justin, who over the course of the program you follow him as he works to become a designer. That was our first meeting with the Designers, but it wouldn't be our last. We headed back and had a few hours of rest.

    Then, we went back down to the meeting area ready for the evening part of day one. Down there were the designers that had given the presentations, plus lots of other designers. They all introduced themselves and some of the sets they had worked on. The guy behind the UCS Millennium Falcon was among them, which was pretty cool. Then, it was time for the building challenge. We had access to almost all non theme specific pieces, and the designers at our disposal, and we each had to design a Lego set. We worked hard into the night before leaving our models ready to be judged by the professionals.

    Day two had the factory tour. It was really interesting to see what actually makes a Lego brick. It's amazing how much they can actually churn out as well! We walked away with a pot of ABS plastic each, what makes Lego bricks. Another little souvenir that I will definitely cherish. We got on a coach and started on our way back, when we stopped, and someone got on. We carried on, but this time we had the CEO of Lego giving us commentary! We got off for another special stop and we're each given his business card, which just happens to be a minifigure. Next, the Lego Employee Shop. Everything half price! There was a lot of spending and we mailed back our haul, given it was far too much to take on the plane. Back we went for another few hours, then went back before dinner. We had a couple of tasks before heading out into the park for dinner with the designers! It was very interesting to speak to them all, definitely. We went back and it was results time for the Building Challenge. I didn't win anything but everyone that all the entries were all very close. It was time for bed after that.

    Day three came. We went out into the park before it opened, and were told how Legoland all, works and how the many models there are made. We also got some exclusive screenings of the 4D experience. After that, we went back to the meeting area for the last part of the tour. The exclusive model. We had a presentation on how it was made and then it was unveiled. This year, it was the Lego Truck Show. About ten years ago there was a Coca-Cola truck style truck that would tour around and promote the latest sets. It was an awesome set and we each got one. It is definitely amazing to have a set so rare and precious; I still haven't actually built mine yet. That more or less concluded the amazing tour. It was a once in a lifetime experience and I'll never forget it.

    Sorry for boring you with my extremely long post. I try to keep them smaller then they have been in the past, but this time there was so much to say about it. I hope you found it interesting. Unfortunately I have since relapsed in Leukaemia. Like before, treatment has been unbelievably tough, however, I have had my stem cell transplant and it seems to be working. I'm still having problems, for example I'm still recovering from shingles which I had last week. Shingles basically means constant agony, so if you know anyone who has had it, make sure to give them lots of respect for it. Things are looking up though, and we're hoping things will be more or less back to normal by the end of this year. Once more, sorry for boring you with the exceedingly long post. I hope you found that interesting and you never know, it is perfectly possible for any of you to go on the tour. It is an experience you'll never forget, I can assure you.

    PS: Extra special thanks to Make a Wish. They are a truly fantastic charity and if you're ever looking for one to raise money for, you can't go wrong picking them
     
  10. Lord Agragax of Lunaxoatl
    Slann

    Lord Agragax of Lunaxoatl Eleventh Spawning

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    Lego Spess Mehreens... certainly a cheap alternative to Games Workshop... ;)

    That must have been amazing! I haven't been on the Lego factory tour but I have been to Legoland Windsor - a few years ago, it was. It was ridiculously busy but I went on both Dragon rollercoasters and the Viking boats. However, the highlight was the LEGO Star Wars exhibition, which featured Lego battlefields from the first 6 Star Wars films including the Battle of Naboo, the Arena battle on Geonosis and the Battle of Endor with hordes of Ewoks, with larger characters pieced together from lego bricks rather than the minifigures. The exhibits were also interactive as you could press buttons on most of them to do things like get the creatures to rush forward towards Anakin, Padme and Obi-Wan in the Arena battle, get the Millenium Falcon to rise out of the Mos Eisley spaceport in a Tatooine display and have Anakin and Obi-Wan duel each other on Mustafar. I'm not sure if it's still there - I hope it is but it was a few years since I went.

    I hope you recover soon from your ailments my friend, and I'm sure everyone else here wishes the same. :)

    As I say in Aginor's painting blog, my latest set is the Hovertank set from Rogue One - I haven't built it yet but I'm looking forward to making it, especially the Chirrut figure as he's one of my fave characters. He'll be able to join my dozens of other figures from Star Wars and my other sets like my Aquaraiders, Atlantis and Mars Mission sets.

    Also again yes I am doing my own set of Star Wars wargame rules bases on Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes which involves rolling dice, using tape measures and taking account of special ability cooldowns...(yes, the last one isn't as exciting as the previous two I know) in addition to my unofficial Warhammer army books, my fantasy novel, Starcraft, Warhammer army building and the oodles of other stuff I'm doing - Let me know if any of you are interested in a copy of the rules and I'll drop you a PDF or Word document as soon as I've finished doing it.
     
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  11. n810
    Slann

    n810 First Spawning

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  12. Lord Agragax of Lunaxoatl
    Slann

    Lord Agragax of Lunaxoatl Eleventh Spawning

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    Got a trio of Lego Star Wars sets for Christmas! :joyful:
     
  13. Warden
    Slann

    Warden Tenth Spawning

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    Nice! Kinda still wish I had my old x-wing... that set was awesome!

    star wars luke skywalker x wing lego.jpg
     
  14. Lord Agragax of Lunaxoatl
    Slann

    Lord Agragax of Lunaxoatl Eleventh Spawning

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    I didn't have that set but I do have the 2012 version with Jek 'I can hold it' Porkins and R7-D5, who blew up when Luke tried to buy him.
     
  15. Crowsfoot
    Slann

    Crowsfoot Guardian of Paints Staff Member

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    I always wanted the Death star kit, I keep dropping hints to the wife but she ain't getting the message.
     
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  16. Aginor
    Slann

    Aginor Fifth Spawning Staff Member

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    Fun fact: I never owned any of the Lego Star Wars kits. They always fell short of my expectations so I stuck to the other Lego Sci-fi stuff which I liked a lot.
     
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  17. ravagekitteh
    Skink Chief

    ravagekitteh Well-Known Member

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    I don't know about the older stuff but the new stuff is great quality in my opinion
     
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  18. Warden
    Slann

    Warden Tenth Spawning

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    Random Lego find from today.

    Lego Star Destroyer of the city of Jedda, from Rogue One:

    lego star destroyer jeda.jpg


    Awesome Lego collection of Star War space ships:

    lego collection.jpg

    And only because this can't become just another Star Wars thread ;)... the USS Enterprise Bridge!

    lego star trek bridge.jpg
     
  19. Warden
    Slann

    Warden Tenth Spawning

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  20. Lizards of Renown
    Slann

    Lizards of Renown Herald of Creation

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    I grew up with Lego.

    We were always buying more and more. And more.

    One Christmas my Dad stayed up all night making our latest (a tractor... I know, anti-climatic).

    We ended up having a HUGE wheelie bin filled with random pieces.

    I'm sure I still have scars from stepping on it.

    Funnily enough, Lego brought me and my Brother to Warhammer. We were always (spoiler alert) making weapons and vehicles of war and destruction (famously turning my sister's tourism resort into a Caribbean Sci-Fi War Base when she wasn't looking) so was an easy step to go the cast lead models of warhammer.

    While I don't have any now, I think it is a fantastic toy set that really brings out the builder in kids as well as firing the imagination and creative impulse.
     
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