Smaug from The Hobbit

 

One of the annoying things about Lego is the frequency with which they retire old sets, which if, like me, you are new to building means you’ve missed out on some really cool stuff over the years. Stuff that’s either no longer available at all, or is hideously expensive. Luckily there is Ebay, and clone products. Now I don’t hold with cloning full sets and undercutting Lego as some of the overseas manufacturers do, but versions of mini-figures are, to my  mind, fair game. I’m not 100% sure if this rather fabulous dragon figure I found on Ebay is genuine Lego or not but I don’t really care as a) dragon and b) DRAGON! Ahem.

What actually arrives is a bag of bits and no guide. Which caused me a bit of confusion, but when in doubt, ask a child, or more accurately, do a web search and come up with a handy YouTube video done by a boy of about 9 years old, thanks to whom I am now the proud owner of a fully assembled big red dragon.

This figure was released as part of the 79018 The Hobbit: Lonely Mountain  set but is clearly the best part of the whole thing.

And its a nice big figure, nearly 18″ long measured to the end of that impressively sinuous tail, and enough to make any minifig human (or hobbit..) quake in fear

I really like the detail on the head, and the moving jaw, so it can breathe “flame” (a removable piece) or be a bit more civilised and keep its breath to itself. The wings too are a brilliant design, made of a thin rubber stretched across struts much like a bat’s wings, they can be folded inward or spread wide for flight, and are on swivel ball joints for aid in posing. The claws on each wing are also a nice touch and can be positioned for potential grabbing and tearing action (those poor minifigures!)

All in all this is really well made and though a little pricey for a figure depending on where you source it from, is still good value compared to the whole set and a great addition to any Lego or dragon collection.

LEGO Ideas

I was unfamiliar with LEGO Ideas until the last week or so when the blogs were full of news about the newest set, a Ship in a Bottle, created by a Lego fan and then submitted via the Ideas website, so I went to have a look.

It’s an amazing place, so much creativity from folk showing off their MOCs (which stands for My Own Creation) and hoping to be the next one chosen. You can support your favourites and follow them for updates, and the more popular a design  in terms of supporters, the longer it can stay on the site garnering interest. Past 10,000 supporters and it goes forward for review by Lego themselves to see if it will make the grade and be considered for a proper set to be sold in shops. That seems to be a slow process and I notice the original designs often get tweaked to make them more suitable for mass production – the afore-mentioned ship from the Ship in a Bottle set has been simplified somewhat and doesn’t look quite as good to my mind, although its still very clever.

I’ve followed and supported a fair few over the past couple of days so though I’d share my top two favourite designs, both of which stopped my in my tracks.

The first is Chitty Chitty Bang Bang from the classic film, which I first watched at a very young age 40 years ago and was apparently glued to the screen for the whole thing. I’ve seen various vintage cars created in Lego before but getting the wings involved too? That takes some talent! You can see details and more images on the Lego Ideas page proper for the car.

Second is this rather fabulous “Hammerhead V” Steampunk Sharkship which as the name suggests is a flying ship shaped like a shark. I love steampunk, and flying machines and so this one ticks all the boxes and is again, very creative, certainly unique with its sail-like fins (fin-like sails?) and even a crew to run the thing.

I think the whole Ideas concept is brilliant and if you’re a Lego fan its well worth taking the time to visit the site and add your support and encouragement to the builds that catch your eye, or even consider creating your own.