It's an otter!

One was by The Creator, and one by little sister, at the ago of two!

Guess which?

They're both otters

Birthday time again *already* ?!! - and we're still liking the kits

The Creator was most particular about this model - rarity counts apparently.

Just after being built - I like the dramatic lighting of the Sunday morning light on the sofa.

Now *that* is a tank...

I've been perusing a little of Tv Tropes, (warning, may have annoying ads) and stumbled across some rules like "There is no kill like Overkill". 

Yes, flames shoot out of the back

The creator proffered this recently. You can't see the missile racks and the extra missiles on the side of the hatch, but trust me nothing was left to chance.
This after quite some time of pedestrian carriages that seemed more suited to cramming on passengers in the most alarming ways - see remote working will be the future. Meanwhile I noticed some of his older friends had acquired a mild edifice complex and joined the LEGO arms race to make the most awesome .... thing.
With amazing results to be honest.

 And perhaps we're entering that new phase now.

Again with the TV Tropes, there are a few McGuffins and some Phlebotinum attached to the back story of these things. And yes, they *all* have a back story...

context matters

The Creator's little sister is almost 5 years younger, but through a process of LEGO osmosis and exposure to the Creator's friends (mainly boys), is starting to branch out on her own.

Here's a recent oeuvre. It has wheels, BTW.


"It's a tank: the guns are at the front."

Some might say she is travelling a well worn furrow, but I'm amused to observe the differences.
She has voiced concern at a very young age about succumbing to the "tyranny of pink", but then, she quite likes the Lego Friends and the more (ahem) "structured" environment that brand seems to supply.

Then again, there's the above. Go figure.

p.s. one thing that is apparently a familial constant as you can see from the quote is how I have show surprise as I am described the painfully obvious details. Not sure how to take that.

The LEGO "technological plateau"

So, the small one proudly announced her creation.

"It's a tank"

Influence of the big brother and his friends there I suspect...

The Tank

Things being as they are: she proposed "we could make a movie".
I don't think she's seen the pilot or knows the effort involved, though that goes down every year...


I've been remiss on the old posting front recently, but I'm now prompted to muse that there seems to be steps in the progression of using the LEGO.
For the older one, they are used with mini-figures as props in "the LEGO battles", and in many ways the shape and sophistication has not changed so much.
Other considerations have come into play:

• plainly, just making bigger and bigger armies is an end in itself
• is it rare?
• does it have any "exciting pieces"?
• how much does it cost?

Maybe more on the "exciting pieces" later - I'm sure there is a whole department in LEGO devoted to stickiness...

The upshot is, she's catching up quick...

Shh - it's a secret!

The creator's sister is now well entrenched in "the Lego life", and this oeuvre is apparently -
"A spaceship, but it's disguised as a car - see? [indicates the wheels]"
Did she just re-invent Decepticons?

I just didn't ask about the chaining of the head to the deck.

I love the [suspension of disbelief/trance logic] exhibited.
To be honest, I would have guessed spaceship first reflexively, and then perhaps commented on the wheels.

As an aside, generalising on the special items produced by Creator and Creator's Sister- it's interesting how the low hanging fruit is just skipped - I have no records of
LEGO bicycles
LEGO horse drawn carts
LEGO reasonably priced family oriented cars

It's mainly spaceships and flying carpets and "water back speeders".
And a Disco - maybe more on that later.

And again, more 'droids

These new fellers are brand new, and frankly they creep me out.

The LEGO construction seems to follow a couple of strands: copying existing models with increasing fidelity and "the original works". The latter we're seeing more of. They may have been inspired by some of the baddies in the now-defunct Lego Universe.