Winter Holiday Train

 

It's Christmas Eve, so I'm allowed to bring a toy in - and this year, it's some festive Lego. I've been adding to the collection over the year, and so even though it's discontinued, I have set 30584 Winter Holiday Train. 

It's a fun little set. The complete train is only 15cm long, and building isn't exactly an arduous process. That's handy, as I can't even find my usual enthusiasm for Lego building this year, and putting little bricks together is normally something I look forward to. 

 

Never mind, the set is built, and sitting in front of my computer to make me feel festive.  Could it be motorised? Doubt it. Conversion to P4? Not far off already, I reckon it's 20mm gauge now! Would a 3D printed set of giant-sized bricks be fun for a 16mm scale project? Very much so! I wonder if anyone is doing some? Hmmmm. 

Festive Lego tradition

 

One Christmas tration I've made my self maintain, is to build the ever growing collection of festive Lego sets, to decorate the bookshelves. In a week or so, I'll take them all apart, so they can be built next year. 

Anyway, first up, is the oldest item in the collection, the Elves. 40205 Seasonal Elves Workshop is reasonably absorbing, but I put it, and all the other sets together, while watching Richard Osmans House of Games. 

40498, Christmas Penguin came next. The odd thing about this set is the giant snowflake hidden in the base. You spend several minutes assembling it, and then it's hidden from sight. A bit wobbly this one, that penguin is heavy, and only attached to the base with a single stud. 

Now we have a mixed bag of Father Christmases, including 40206 Christmas Set with Rotating Arms, at the back, and the weird looking 30478 Jolly Santa Claus Polybag Set. A Playmobil figure has crept into the scene too, because I played with both as a kid. 

Finally, we have 40744 Christmas Ornament Selection, which I picked up in the Lego shop in Battersea Power Station a few months ago. These are really clever, not many pieces, but the results look fantastic. 

Anyway, that's the first festive post this year. Look out for more to come. You have been warned...

Saturday Film Club: We Built a Giant LEGO TUBE MAP With Working Trains!

I like Lego. I like trains. I like underground trains. Mix them up, and what have you got?

Saturday Film Club: Building a Cat-Sized Lego Train

The title says it all - although not how difficult it is to wrangle cats!

Lego loco

Another random photo filling the Sunday slot - a Lego industrial spotted next to an excellent copy of BRM. TBH, I can't tell you much about this I'm afraid, but I like the model.

Saturday Film Club: Making Minifigs

OK, I love learning how things are made, and find the machines used to do it fascinating. A Lego mini figure is quite a simple toy, but the process to produce one, and the kit that does it, is impressive. But then it has to be, they make an awful lot!

Lego London

I recieved a lot of lovely messages while in hospital, once of which suggested ordering some Lego to aliviate the boredom. A suggestion borne out of experience sadly. 

Once back home, I sort of took this advice and treated myself to a build using a kit I'd bought from the Leicester Square store when working at Ally Pally show earlier this year. 

Set 40569 is the London Postcard, and features Big Ben (OK, technically the Elizabeth Tower), Picadilly Circus, and the London Eye. Does anyone remember the fuss when the latter was built that meant it had to be described as temporary to get it through planning? Oh, and a red bus. 

The 277 pieces entertained me for over an hour, and I like the result. It's a bit of fun, which is what I needed. Perfect.

It's time for the festive Lego!

As the big day appraoches, it's time to build the festive Lego again. Every year, I take the sets apart so when the decorations come out, I can put them together again.

This year, the Elves and little Santa have been joined by a big Santa (Set 40206), which I'd forgotten I owned.

And from a recent trip to London for some beer, where I happened to visit the excellent Lego store, a Christmas Penguin (Set 40498).

 

Christmas is all about tradition, and building my decorations each year is one of mine. I hope you are all enjoying similar fun this year. 

Looking for my mojo in a Lego Beetle

 

My creative mojo is still missing - I can get on with work, but enthusiasm for making anything for fun just isn't there. All those projects aquired in fits of eagerness over the years aren't calling to me. Even part finished models like the Hudswell Clarke shunter sit on the workbench, untouched for weeks. 

A bit part of this is that I'm busy. Very busy. And that's dented passion for pretty much anything I used to enjoy. Not a good place to be, but there are many who are far worse off, so I can't complain. And if I do, people are welcome to tell me to shut up. Even if I'm whining about a Windows re-install suddenly forced on me right when things were manic...

The good news is that the workload should start to ease right now. And with a bit of luck, I'll have some downtime I want to fill with interesting and unusual stuff, which can then appear on here. 

So, for the moment, posts will still be sporadic, and very likely a bit random, but then this is my blog - if I want to be wierd, then that's my perogative. Sorry about this (not the weirdness, the lack of posts).

However, the other evening, I found time to unpack and build a Lego Beetle  that has been kicking around my office for many months. Truth is, I can't remember when I bought it, possibly over a year ago. 

Anyway, a very pleasent hour was spent putting the bricks together. OK, you can argue it's not "proper" modelling, but it's a box off the pile and more importantly, I enjoyed it. As I always say, if you are enjoying a hobby, you are doing it right. 

Saturday Film Club: New uses for a hole punch

You are going to have to trust me this week that this is an interesting video. 

Combining Lego and paper might not seem an obvious move, but the good people at Lego Central once thought it was a good idea. Then got bored, and a hobbyist took it up instead. 

It's all very clever, even if the colours are a bit garish.

Saturday Film Club: Fix your Crocodile

Lego recently released a kit for the classic Swiss Crocodile electric locomotive. Aimed firmly at adult fans, it looks great, but apparently, there are problems.

This video claims to talk you through fixing them. What amused me is that the fixes for a Lego loco are the same as for traditional models. The presenter even solves the "it's too expensive to motorise" issue with a trick that Kitmaster pulled off in the 1960s!

Lego Wuppertal

Yes, I know it's another Lego post, but how amazing is this Wuppertal monorail? ]

OK, it's a bit slow, but fascinating. Well, I liked it anyway.

Saturday Film Club: A history of Lego trains

After yesterday's collectables, let's have some more bricks from Denmark. 

This film is mesmerising if you were a Lego building child. I remember some of the sets shown in the middle of this. Mostly remembering that I wished my parents could afford to buy me some of them. I did have the blue rails, but no points, so my trains had to circle rather than shunt. As ever, it was the building that interested me more than operating anyway...

Heritage Lego VeeDubs

I've always loved Lego and always loved VWs, so combine the two and I'm a happy man. 

These two VW panel vans date from the 1961-67 period when Lego made a range of HO scale vehicles. There were pickups and minibus versions of this model in a variety of colours. 

Made from acetate with metal wheels, neither model is perfect, but as I paid a pittance for them, I'm not going to complain. Sometimes you just get lucky on a second-hand stall and for once I did. Maybe a sensible person would ship them straight off to eBay for a decent profit, but not me. I really like these little models, which is surely what collecting is all about.

There's a useful article on the Lego HO range here. 

These weren't the only Lego models picked up at the time, I'm now the proud owner of some of a few Bedford lorries. 

These have suffered badly from the plastic warping over time. With nothing to lose, I'm wondering about a hot bath for the worst affected. Again, I can't complain as the oldest could be over 60 years old, and plastic technology wasn't as advanced back then, as anyone who owns any Tri-ang short coaches will know!

Saturday Film Club: Lego automata

I love automata and I love Lego. Combine the two and I'm a happy man.

A locomotive kit from Butterley

Nipping over to the Midland Railway at Butterley for the garden railway open day, I had a great time. When this happens, I like to come away with a souvenir as a contribution towards the coffers and by the end all they had out of me was the price of a delicious ham salad bap.

Nothing in the gift shop appealed, apart from an APT riding certificate that people have been asked to make a "reasonable" offer for over the last 2 years. That and some Triang Big-big coaches that the contents of my rucksack told me I didn't need.

On the counter though, were some bags of Lego. "Home made" kits for a steam loco. Complete with printed instructions that I assume come from an official website that presumably also allows you to produce the kit and buy the bits. All for a fiver and a nifty gift idea. Not a bad price compared to official kits too.

Assembly of the loco kit takes a few minutes. I reckon the design is by a proper AFOL as the boiler and smokebox is a bit unusual in format. I though it very clever. A young Phil would have been over the moon with it.

I built a beetle

Thanks to the generosity of my sister, I got to spend a few evenings building a Lego model of a VW Beetle. 

Long term readers will know I'm a big fan of the bug, my first car being a '73 model that now awaits serious repair after being left in the care of a maniac mechanic years ago. Maybe this year she'll go back on the road.

1167 pieces go to make up the car, drinks cooler and surfboard. Assembly is interesting with some fascinating detail work along the way. Lego isn't ideal for building models of cars made entirely of curves so the factory could reduce the amount of steel used (the curves avoid the need to inner strengthening parts required for flat panels) being brick shaped, but the only custom parts appear to be the wings. 

The designers have done a top job, although this isn't the first attempt. That was the incredible 10187 set which is now highly prized and very pricey if you can find one. Set 10252 is still in the range, although possibly not forever.

Unsurprisingly, I really enjoyed making this model. The huge booklet is perfectly clear and as long as you follow the pictures, you don't go wrong. There was a single missing part in the bonnet but as it was hidden, I improvised with some of the spare parts. Construction was spread over 3 evenings to prolong the enjoyment. 

Lego is normally thought of as a kids toy, but it was interesting to read Jonathan Clay comment on Facebook over the festive period that 13 friends had mentioned thay had recived some, but none were kids. I can add another who is very proud of his TIE fighter model. The Beetle kit is listed as being suitable for ages 16+...

Down in Santa's workshop

While in the Leicester Square Lego store (I just went in out of curiosity), I bought myself a Christmas decoration. A pair of elves working away in Santa's workshop. 

Half an hour of enjoyable building later, it's finished. Quite why putting a Lego model together is so pleasant I don't know, but it is.The best thing is, someone has obviously been very good, because they will be getting a new toy train from the man in red.