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. 

There's a distinct Edwardian meme floating around; obviously LEGO themselves could be part of it through what figurines they produce. However witness the recent Doctor Who stylings and Sherlock Holmes reboots among others.

This dude looks pretty serious, and I'm told he's a General!

Something different for a change

There is admittedly a strong theme of the highly marketed memes in here.

But Lego is so much more than that; here's some ideas that were sparked when the "class cuddly"* came to us for the day.
You can make many things with Lego: cake and animals too. The odd looking lump in item #2 is the contribution from the Creator's sister. You may have to squint. 

Mr Otter gets a Lego birthday cake.

And here are several Lego Otters

.

The Influence of 'Potter makes itself felt

Before the happy day when some gen-yoo-ine actual Harry Potter Lego arrived, there was nevertheless a pressing need to express some Dementor related scenarios. So, something got done.

This is put together from some Star Wars lego, with You-Know-Who* getting the "Battle Damage Darth Vader" head.

I particularly like the re-purposing of the Ewok flying machine stand ...

Scene of great ersatz drama.

*Voldemort

Occasionally, out of the maelstrom of smaller items, cobbled together to fit the whim or the theme of the current drama, a bit more time is spent to get a more detailed creation together.

Maybe later I'll pull something together on the key place that the "special pieces" play in the whole enterprise. Nothing though that the marketing bods hadn't already considered, I'm sure...

Quite a complicated number: yes, there is a co-pilot in there.
And I don't know why there's a small racing car on the back.