Here comes the Easter Bunny

Easter is fast approaching our household. After dinner one night, I was asked to help find some parts for a basket, and then to help build a bunny to sit in it. This one was a very collaborative project that we both had a lot of fun building.

Round One ... FIGHT!

Two esteemed sumo wrestlers have entered the ring and are preparing to spar.

Wait, who is that there with them?

Oh no! It appears the sumo ring was actually an ice skating rink!

The biggest problem with ice skating is of course the risk of injury, often requiring a stretcher.

The above started with a sumo wrestling scene I was working on. It was then turned into a longer narrative by an imaginative child which roughly followed the above plot. Somewhere there was an attempt at building crutches that didn't work too well. I also enjoy the fact that in the Lego universe a female ice skater and a sumo wrestler have identical body compositions.

Architecture Experiments

I like to make experiments to try new architectural patterns. In my mind these are small tests to see if I think there is any chance of scaling them up to be part of a larger structure. It hasn't happened yet, but I think at least one of these has a chance. This one is an attempt to make an entrance with columns bordering it. I think some contrasting colors may work better for this style.

This second technique, as you can see, I experimented with some different color combinations. I really like the way the lime green turned out, although the other two color patterns are pretty decent as well.

Now to watch the pick a brick wall for a color of 1x1 round plates to stock up on and try to make a larger building...

Samurai At Rest

The collectible minifigures have been a great source of inspiration by providing scenes for them to live in. I made a quick attempt one night to show the samurai from series 3 outside of his battle armor.

I thought it worked o.k., although my choice of colors for the table and weapon/armor racks could have been a lot better. What was really fun for me though was this kid built table for her snowboarder to relax at.

I'm sure those goblets are full of water...

Under the Helmet

In the prequel trilogy we found out that all of those clone troopers from Kamino were from the genetic material of none other than Jango Fett.

Like always, they decided it would be better to swap out the heads.

I find the decision to use a female head pretty fun. What really warms my heart though, is that the elder child expressed her preference for yellow Lego heads over the fleshies that the newer licensed sets come with.

Ready to Move Out

The empire is really getting busy and pulling old troopers out of retirement for their upcoming battle. After some retraining they all seem to be ready for duty. Well, almost...

CMF Series 4

Reports starting hitting late last week that Lego Collectible Minifigures Series 4 were hitting the west coast in Fred Meyer's. One of which happens to be pretty close to our house, so when the kids woke up Saturday morning they found this sitting on the kitchen table.

Normally new sets get tucked away in the closet until a rainy afternoon, but in this case I wanted to confirm we actually had all 16 so I knew whether to watch for any misses or not. The reason I was confirming this is the packages are unlabeled, so I spent time in the store feeling packages late Friday night to try and confirm the contents. I'm guessing I wasn't the first person to do that during the day, as the store clerks trying to restock the shelves only looked at me like I was a bit crazy, not completely off my rocker.

Luckily after 15 minutes of opening bags and assembling, we had the target of all 16, plus a few doubles that the kids were looking forward to playing with. This is one of the easiest ways to stock up on girl figures, which they particularly seem to enjoy playing with.

The kimono girl was probably their favorite, due to her pretty flower dress. It is a pretty cool print, and the fan is a first as far as I know. The kids have good taste.

And the whole crew arranged with giant cups and boxes looming in the background. All around Series 4 is a pretty good arrangement of figures that even if you were to pick randomly would be unlikely to let you down.