An Old Love

I better start by saying that this is perhaps not the Valentines Day post you were looking for.

HAHA ! :-)

I mean, you'll have had Valentines Day stuff for ages now right ? And I try to avoid following the crowd by avoiding trendy topics. (Unless it touches a nerve that is).

On Valentines though, I do hope you had a good one, whether that's enjoying doing your own thing as a single person (cricket and rugby chill out for me and now listening to game vids while tapping this out) or being in great company. I've noticed that online dating has been in the news a lot lately too, I have a post coming sometime on that (positive to the online side) but ... not just yet. For now, if you are looking for people, check it out just be wary (like you would if you were meeting people for the first time anywhere else) and see what's there, not what you want to see.

And I'm also listening to Lucy Spraggan's excellent first album. She's one with the crowd when it comes to singers. She does great, intelligently written songs that literally anyone could sing along to. They're great stuff.

An Old Love ?

What else could it be !!!

Yep. Finished !

Oh wait. That's actually two old loves. Star Wars and Lego. Today is not about the Star Wars though.

That's my new Lego X Wing, I finished building it the other night and as you can see (perched precariously on a couple of boxes and my nasty sofa), it's rather impressive.

It reminded me actually of the old time Lego. Lego and Airfix models were a great way of keeping me occupied way back. It was a staple Christmas present from the parents and they rarely disappointed. I think there were a few Christmas Eve frenzied stressy shops too in the hunt of more Lego for the precocious pre-teen that I was back before discovering the cricket.

Good times.

There it is again in landing configuration with the wings folded up and the landing foot extended. There's a couple more bits too, a landing ladder, a mechanic's trolley and 4 figures. You might be able to spot the pilot there and a mini BB-8 giving a sense of scale.

This puppy is big. Maybe 40cm wingspan, 50cm length. (Those are rough by eye measurements, where did I leave my measuring stick ?). I'm super impressed with it as a kit. Things seem to have improved since way back when I was getting Lego for Christmas presents. The instructions book seems better than I remember and the parts are divided up into bags labelled with numbers that show the order in which they are opened and added to the kit. That's awesome.

And the X Wing makes me want to get more and build more !

Trouble is though, I've been looking at the other kits though and after the XWing, I'm not too bothered about the other Star Wars kit. Maybe the Millenium Falcon (it is an iconic ship after all) and the shuttle but not about some of the prequel stuff and the Imperial stuff. Perhaps the miniatures ? You can even turn the Millenium Falcon kit into one of the big Elite ships.

Gosh, that's an old pic (oops - look at the dust!). It's from my older Lego fleet where I'd put the mini XWing and Tie Bomber on top of my old amp. The XWing is winning in that pic because it has the Imperial ship in its gunsights.

I used to enjoy the Technic models a lot. The engineer in me would put them together and they'd share a lot of genuine engineering principles. They did a technic car which had rack and pinion steering, McPherson strut suspension like in a normal car, double wishbones and engines that had pistons that moved in the cylinders.

If I get more Lego, it may well be one like that.

One drawback though, the pneumatic Lego worked well for a short time but would then stick and freeze up. (Which I remember back to later and realise that it was because it wasn't dry air, the wetness causes problems)

The trainset was another classic. Pretty massive though. If I remember right, the gauge of the tracks was maybe 2 inches, or more than twice as big as the old Hornby OO scale. Is that still used ? I think it is. The advantage with Lego trains is that you'd build the trains and carriages. With Hornby, you'd buy the trains and build the scenery. I was more interested in the trains.

The last ones I can remember are the Lego boats.

These had a big floaty shaped hull underneath and you'd build on the superstructure. I don't think you can get these any more. They floated ! Lego as a bath toy ! How cool is that ?

Yeah. Loved Lego. It was a great discovery finding it again and I can thank my sister for reminding me of it a while ago and a lovely Youtuber/Streamer called HeyChrissa for making me think of getting some now. Here's HeyChrissa's Ghostbuster's car build. I reckon some time she'll be tempted into building the XWing (cash permitting!).

Hmm - quick peek in the archive ... Nah. Can't find it (will post it if I can !)

I had a little spell over 10 years ago where Ravenwolf got me doing the Lego again but to be honest, I had other things on my mind then instead of Lego. That's when the old fleet got built. Let's see - mini XWing, TIE Bomber, AT-AT, AT-ST, 2 pod racers, snowspeeder, mini Falcon, Y-Wing (one can never have too much Lego), mini AWing, mini Slave1. I think I need to find somewhere to pose the Fleet.

I think I've rattled on enough for today though.

Lego - Eveything is Awesome ! (It says so in the movie). And it was an excellent relief after a couple of weeks when the stress was getting the better of me.