New Year, Old Sets...

I’m not usually one for New Year’s resolutions.  When I’ve set them in the past they usually revolve around eating less, getting fitter and so on, and they last from 00.01 on January 1st, right up until the moment that I find a bar of chocolate.  

During the Christmas period (1) that doesn’t take very long in our house.

But this year I think I’m going to make one.  As I sit here in mid-January, I have already been overtaken by the first new Technic releases of 2014.  In the summer, I was waiting impatiently for the new sets to come out.  Right now I could have done with the new ones being delayed a bit!

As you may be aware, over the past 12 months or so, I haven’t exactly denied myself when it comes to buying LEGO.  But while I’ve had plenty of time to purchase new things, I haven’t always had the time to build them.  The result being that I’m starting to get quite a backlog of unopened boxes.  Not so bad if they were all the size of the mini off-roader for example…

Lego Technic 42001 Mini Off-Roader

Mini by name, mini by nature...

(Image courtesy of Brickset.com)

...but when there’s the likes of an 8110 Unimog, an 8043 Excavator, the 42009 Mobile Crane MkII, the 9396 Helicopter and so on waiting to be built, that suddenly starts adding up to a whole bunch of time. (2)

The mighty 8110 Unimog takes rather longer to build

(Image courtesy of Brickset.com)

At the weekend I looked at picking up the 42026 Black Champion Racer and 42027 Desert Racer.  These are the two mid-to-low range sets that use pull back motors and can be combined to make an Off-Road Racing Truck.

These are basically the 2014 equivalent of the 42010 Off-Road Racer and 42011 Race Car, again with the pull-back motors, and which could be combined to build a dragster.

Both of which are sitting in our living room, still waiting to be built!

So should I be buying new sets when I’m so far behind with my existing collection? (3)

That aside, it’s clear that if I want to carry on acquiring at my current rate, the only solution will be to build a bit quicker.  So here’s the plan.  Which will hopefully last a bit longer then the ‘no chocolate’ thing.

I’m going to try and build a new set every week until I’m up to date.

Try?  “Do or do not.  There is no try.” as Yoda once said.

Ok, I am going to build a new set every week until I’m up to date. (4)

So how’s 2014 going so far?  Well I built the Seattle Space Needle, so one set done!

Then again, I’ve bought the Technic Hot Rod, Snowmobile and Twin Rotor Helicopter, Architecture Guggenheim Museum and Cuusoo Mars Rover in the past two weeks.

Ah well.  One step forward, five steps back.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

(1) And every other day of the year too.

(2) Don’t get me wrong - I’m not complaining!  Nice problem to have!

(3) Yes.  Yes I should.  Despite what Mrs Boo says.

(4) Probably.  The road to hell is, as is often mentioned, paved with good intentions.

Tossed Salads & Scrambled Eggs. Review : LEGO Architecture 21003, Seattle Space Needle

Christmastime, Mistletoe and wi…  Hang on, we’ve already done that, haven’t we?  But as well as plants and plonk, Christmas also means pressies!  And I was fortunate enough to get a Lego shaped gift this year.

In the online world, my favourite hangout for the past decade has been the gaming site, Eurogamer.net, or more specifically, the forum of said site.  For some years now, we’ve run an EG Secret Santa, whereby you get given the name and address of another forumite and depending on how much research you put in, either send them something that suits them down to the ground, or something wholly inappropriate.

I think some some people take ‘wholly inappropriate’ as a challenge, rather than something to be avoided...

Anyway, I took part as I usually do, and in mid-December a parcel arrived at Chez Boo, which rattled in a most promising manner.  When I finally opened it on the big day, as well as a pile of sweets (always appreciated), I was delighted to find a couple of items - one was the 21003 LEGO Architecture Series model of the Seattle Space Needle, the other, which baffled me for a while, was the soundtrack to Frasier.

Don’t get me wrong - I was very pleased with it.  I’m a fan of the show, and this was music from the series, interspersed with clips of dialogue, so good stuff all round.  But while I spend a lot of time in the LEGO, LEGO, LEGO thread on Eurogamer, I don’t ever remember mentioning an admiration for this particular show.

And then it dawned on me.  Where is Frasier set?

Seattle!

So with a big thank you to Ignatius_Cheese (1), I put the CD on and settled down to build myself a Space Needle…

The box is of the usual Architecture Series quality (2), and has a picture of the model on the front, while the back also has a couple of images of the actual building itself.  The side panel notes that the set was designed by Adam Reed Tucker, who coincidentally designed my first Architecture set, Fallingwater.

LEGO Architecture Series, 21003 - Seattle Space Needle

...and the back of the box

Opening the box reveals a nice glossy manual, and in addition to the build instructions, it gives a short history of the Needle, plus a few words from Adam Reed Tucker.

A manual of the glossy variety

There’s also a facts and figures page.  I can only presume the they chose this particular Pinnacle type as otherwise the rod would have been too heavy! (3)

Pretty sure it should be Lightning Rod

The other things we find in the box are two bags of parts and four flexible rods.

The management would like to apologise for the poor quality

of some of these photographs.  Steps have been taken to ensure

better quality in future.

It’s a modest set at 57 pieces, so with the dulcet tones of Dr Frasier Crane in my ears, it’s on with the build.  Pretty soon we have a 10 x 8 base and the bottom of the tower…

The actual Space Needle has a 30 foot thick slab of concrete

underneath the base to lower the centre of gravity, fact fans!

The main ‘stem’ of the buidling soon goes up…

And then I turned the page of the instruction book over…

In the LEGO community, there are a great many people who would consider that they fall into that group often referred to as ‘purists’.  In essence, it means that if you want to build something out of LEGO, then that’s what you do.  You don’t build it ‘mostly’ out of LEGO, and then finish of a tricky part with something else because there isn’t an appropriate LEGO part.  Other crimes against LEGO include glueing pieces together, cutting them, painting them, melting them and so forth. (4)

So I wondered what had happened when Adam Reed Tucker took his Space Needle prototype into the boardroom for a final sign off on his design.

“Hello Adam.  What have you got for us?”

“Well, this is the Seattle Space Needle, for the Architecture line.”

There is much nodding of heads and appreciative noises at Tucker’s simple, clean design.

“Very nice, Adam, that will make a great addition to the series.”

Meanwhile, one of the head honcho's has picked up the model and is taking a closer look.

“Say, Adam.  These three flexi rods that you’ve used on the main structure.  I don’t believe we make any this long.  How have you made them fit?”

“Ah, yes…  Well I’ve put in the instructions that the builder takes the rods that we supply and er…”

“Yes?”

“Er…  cuts a bit off with a pair of scissors.”

Cue that noise you get in films where a needle is dragged across a record and suddenly everybody in the bar goes silent and slowly turns round to look at the hero who's just said something inappropriate to the baddie's girlfriend.

It’s certainly not what I expected to find in an official set.  Everything that I’ve learnt over the past months that I’ve been back into LEGO, and in particular, with what is and is not acceptable for a CUUSOO submission suggests that any kind of mutilation, or ‘illegal’ use of parts is not tolerated at all by the LEGO group, so this came as a surprise.

I asked the good folk of Brickset.com what they thought about the whole ‘altering parts’ thing, and to be fair, there’s a reasonable split between those who think that there’s always a way to build what you want with official parts, and those who take the aforementioned view, "It’s my brick and I’ll cut it if I want to.” 

In fact I was reading something only this morning, on the very excellent Bricknerd.com, run by Nerd-In-Chief, Tommy Williamson.  He’d done a review of  the book ‘LEGO Space - Building The Future’ by Peter Reid and Tim Goddard (which incidentally I got for Christmas - yay!), and I noticed the following potentially heretical statement:

“The main difference is what might be called "illegal" techniques. You won't find an official LEGO model using things like the lever base without the lever, or removed Minifigure hands and hooks. But you'll find these advanced and out-of-the-box techniques in this book. It's really when a builder learns to embrace a little "rule breaking" that they take their building to the next level. I'm not talking about cutting bricks or modifying parts, this is just simply pushing existing elements beyond what they were intended for, and Pete and Tim are masters of this.”

Quoted from Bricknerd.com 

Interesting view.

Anyway, I wielded the scissors (and was grateful for the fact that the set included a spare rod in case you make a mistake).  Fortunately the spare was not required.  Putting the rods into place gave me this…

Nearly finished!

A few more pieces as the job is complete!

It’s a lovely little set.  Not big or complex, but there is something immensely right about it.  Aesthetically it’s extremely satisfying, and the curves of the tower means that it’s very nice to pick up.  Mrs Boo took one look at it and pronounced that she much preferred it to Fallingwater.

Highly recommended.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

(1) I suspect that’s not what his parents named him.

(2) I.e. a cut above most LEGO boxes, and openable without destroying part of it.

(3) I may scoff, but I suspect that broadly speaking, the LEGO designers’ grasp of the English Language is a darned sight better than my Danish!

(4) In the interests of balance, there are plenty of people who take the view ‘They’re my pieces, so I’ll do just what I like with them.’

It's Christmastime...

It’s simultaneously both depressing and a testament to the songwriters art that for a long time now, I have been unable to hear the words ‘It’s Christmastime’, without mentally adding ‘Mistletoe and Wine’ to it.  I mean, if you’re going to have a Christmas song stuck in your head, at least make it a good one.  Or indeed, the greatest Christmas song ever! (1)

But while I’ve had Christmas songs on in the background since the first of December (2), the other thing I’ve been doing since the the first of the month is opening the doors on my Lego Star Wars Advent Calender.

As mentioned elsewhere, I missed out on this last year, so ended up with a City one, which was ok, but I didn’t really get excited about it.

But this year though, thanks to some forward planning, it was going to be 24 days of Star Wars.  X-Wings!  Tie Fighters! Luke! Leia! Maybe a Millenium Falcon if we’re lucky!

Were we lucky?

No.  

Having now opened all 24 windows, I would suggest we were not.

It would appear that  all I want for Christmas, despite Mariah Carey’s protestations to the contrary, is a time machine so I can go back and get a 2011 Lego Star Wars Advent Calender.  Because that was the one that had all the good stuff!  The X-Wing!  Chewbacca!  A Falcon, a Tie Fighter!  Yoda as Santa Claus!

2012 seemed to be a bit of a mixed bag, although most people seemed to appreciate the ‘Darth Maul as Santa’ minifig.

But this year?  I haven’t checked thoroughly yet, but at a guess I’d say that at least 20 of the 24 models are from the prequel trilogy.  I mean come on, guys!  At least make it a 50/50 split between the three rubbish ones and the Holy Trinity!

The 2013 Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar - not as great as it might have been

(Image courtesy of Brickset.com)

Maybe it’s just because I’m old.  Maybe it’s because I grew up with the originals, which were simple tales of goodies vs baddies, plus some cool spaceships.  Maybe it’s because I can’t help looking upon the prequels as overly flashy, overly complicated vehicles to sell toys, but this was a disappointment.

Chances are there are plenty of youngsters out there for whom Episodes I, II and III are what Star Wars is all about, and who think that the original trilogy are just some boring films that their Dad makes them watch periodically.  Maybe they look upon a young Boba Fett minifig as an exciting addition to their collection, or immediately recognised the Acclamator Class Republic Assault Ship which appeared briefly at the end of Episode II : Attack of the Clones.

Frankly I was grateful to CapnRex101, over at Brickset.com, who did a daily mini-review of each model.  If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t have a clue what half the things were supposed to be!

Still.  It’s been fun having a little mini model to build every day, and if nothing else, I’ve got a few handfuls of spares to go in the parts box.

Maybe next year will be better…

On a jollier note, as it’s now December the 27th, I know what loot (3) I got for Christmas, and I was fortunate that some of it was Lego-related!

Thanks to my Sister and her husband, I got the book ‘Lego Space’ by Peter Reid and Tim Goddard.  It’s an unusual mix of a story, illustrated by Lego models and punctuated by building intructions for some of the more interesting creations.  Ok, Dostoevsky it ain’t, but a bit of relaxing over Christmas and getting some inspiration for building is just what I wanted.

Lego Space - Building the Future.  Out of Lego.

(Image courtesy of Amazon.co.uk) 

Courtesy of our good friends Tracey & Terry (not forgetting Daisy, Lily and Bertie, their trio of Westies), I got another book, ‘Beautiful Lego’ by Mike Doyle.  No instructions this time, just a photographic compilation of some of the most incredible creations by some of the most talented Lego builders out there.

Beautiful Lego, by Mike Doyle

(Image courtesy of Amazon.co.uk)

And did I get any actual Lego?  Yes.  Yes I did!

A big high-five, a jaffa cake and much thanks to my Eurogamer.net Secret Santa for my parcel of goodies, which included the Lego Architecture set, Seattle Space Needle.  I’ve recently got into the Architecture range, and I am really looking forward to building that.

Lego Architecture 21003 - Seattle Space Needle

(Image courtesy of Brickset.com)

And finally, big hugs to Mrs Boo, who bought me the Mindstorms EV3 set that I’ve been drooling over since before it was actually released.  I’ve treated myself to a copy of Daniele Benedettelli’s ‘The Lego Mindstorms EV3 Laboratory’, which the reviews suggest is a good reference book for those starting out and wishing to dig into the nitty gritty of the set.

Thanks to a certain on-line retailer, I ordered it Christmas evening, and the delivery chap has just dropped it off.

Mindstorms EV3 - Robot-tastic!

(Image courtesy of Brickset.com)

And some help on understanding it!

(Image courtesy of Amazon.co.uk)

Good thing I’ve got next week off work...

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

(1)  At mention of ‘the greatest Christmas song’, many of you will be (incorrectly) thinking of ‘White Christmas’.  Some of the more savvy amongst you will be thinking ‘Of course it’s not White Christmas!  It’s ‘A Fairytale Of New York’ by The Pogues and the late, lovely and lamented Kirsty MacColl.’  This, of course, would also be incorrect.

The greatest Christmas song ever is ‘Christmas Wrapping’ by The Waitresses.

Great story, awesome ‘ching, chinga ching’ guitar riff, brass stabs, Tracy Wormworth’s fantastic bassline and the whole thing dripping in 80’s cheese.

It’s the best Christmas song of all time!

FACT!

(2) More like the second week of October!  I love Christmas!

(3) I’m a huge Calvin & Hobbes fan.  For me, Christmas presents will always be ‘loot’!

I bought a Ferrari the other day...

Like many men of un certain âge, I have a passing interest in fast cars (1), and so read one or two car magazines now and again.  Something that I find strange, and indeed mildly amusing (as it’s never likely to affect me directly), is that when you start talking about real exotica - the limited edition stuff, ‘Only 249 to be built.’ etc, they’re quite difficult to get hold of.  And this is not wholly down to the astronomical price tags that these cars can command (the Bugatti Veyron was one of the first to break the £1m barrier if memory serves correctly, but since then, there have been several in that £1m+ bracket).  

It’s the fact that in many cases, you have to be invited to buy the car.  Just having the money isn’t enough.  You have to qualify!

With some of the rarer Ferrari’s, like the FXX, they were only offered to people who already had a Ferrari-buying history.  And not just ‘a rusty old 308 GTB like Magnum used to drive’. (2) You had to have bought the good stuff.  And plenty of it.

So I was amused when Shell (3) announced that they were going to be running a promotion in association with Ferrari and Lego.  They would have a set of polybags comprising of five cars, a truck and a set of minifigs available.  

But they weren’t giving them away, oh no.  You had to buy them.

But in order to be allowed to buy them, you had to purchase £30 of their fuel.  And not the ordinary fuel.  The good stuff.  The premium stuff.

The expensive stuff.

And then, when you’d bought the petrol, could you buy the polys?

No.

Poly.  Singular.  At £1.49 each.

So in order to collect the set of vehicles, assuming your petrol pump skills were good enough to stop the counter on £30.00 exactly, you would have to spend £188.94.

And what of the minifigs?

Yes, they were another £1.49.  But to get them, you had to buy a carton of oil, the cheapest of which appears to be abour £11.00.

So all in, a shade over £200 to complete the set.

Ouch!

Ok, to be fair, for that money you are getting £180 worth of fuel, which you’re almost certainly going to use (4), and some oil which you may also use.

It so happens that I’d already tried the premium Shell petrol (5) and now use it as a matter of course (6), so when the promo was announced, I thought I’d pick up some models.

It was discussed at length on the forum over at Brickset, and once the campaign kicked off, it became immediately apparent that the communication coming out from Shell headquarters to their filling stations was wildly inconsistent.  People were reporting that some filling stations knew nothing about it, others were sticking rigidly to the ‘one bag per £30 fill up’, while a few were happily selling you whatever you wanted to buy. 

I have a Shell garage around the corner from me, so early one Sunday morning, went in, bought my £30 of petrol (rather than filling the car up as I’d normally do), and went in to pay.  

The lady behind the counter was baffled when I started talking about Lego, but when I pointed to a) the leaflet on the counter, and b) the box of polys on the wall behind her, she seemed to get it.  Then instead of asking which set I wanted, she reached back, grabbed a minifig set, scanned it and handed it over.

I should really have told her that I was only allowed to have this set if I’d bought some oil that I didn’t need, but shamefully, I kept my mouth shut and waltzed out with my minifig set.

That evening, I went back to put another £30 in.  This time, the guy behind the counter  did ask me which one I wanted.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained…

“Well actually I’m after the complete set.  Don’t suppose I’m allowed to buy them all, am I?” I said, feigning ignorance.

“Don’t see why not.” said the nice man, and proceeded to scan all six vehicles through the till.

What a nice man.  What a nice garage!

Since then, some clarification has clearly been sent out, and now they only let me have one at a time, although they recognise me now, and have got to the point where they know which ones I still need.  They’re also good enough to go rummaging through the stock room for me if the model I need isn’t in the box.

Due to various long distance trips to visit family and friends in the run up to Christmas, we’re going through petrol a bit quicker than we normally would, which means that thus far I’ve managed to pick up two complete sets, and I’m two cars into my third set.

The first set I’m going to squirrel away unopened.  The second set is going to be a prize in SirKevBags annual Brickset charity raffle, while the current set I’m actually going to build.

So are they any good?

Well I’m not sure, not having opened any of the bags yet!  I’m going to wait until I’ve got the (third) set, and then build them all at once.

We do have some pictures though…

Ferrari 150 Italia

Scuderia Ferrari Truck

Ferrari F40

Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta

Ferrari 458 Italia

Ferrari FXX

Ferrari Pit Crew

(All images courtesy of Brickset.com)

I shall report back after another tankful!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

(1) However, after a visit to a software conference held at Mercedes Benz World at Brooklands a couple of years ago, where I ‘won’ a ride in a 6.3 litre AMG estate, going round the handling track for 6 laps, I have rather less inclination to actually buy a fast car.

I have never felt so ill in all my life.

(2) I’m not saying that Magnum drove a rusty 308 - he didn’t.  As far as I know, it was a very nice car.  I’m just saying that these days, 308’s tend to be in less than stellar condition unless you can find a beautifully cared for example.

(3) Other petrol retailers are available.

(4) If you’re spending £180 on petrol or diesel and you don’t drive, then you’re probably taking this hobby a little too seriously.

(5) It’s called V-Power, which sounds like it’ll make your car go at 200mph even with the engine switched off.

(6) I am in no way affiliated with Shell.  I’ve used the stuff and I think it does a good job.  It keeps the engine slightly cleaner, and because of the extra oomph it gives you, you don’t have to accelerate so hard.  The upshot is, it’s a few pounds extra to fill the car up, but I usually get enough ‘extra’ miles out of a tank to more than offset the cost.  I can’t guarantee it’ll make any difference to you, but it works for me.

So. That 'Technic only' rule...

As I’ve mentioned before, the only way I can keep this Lego habit of mine down to reasonable proportions is to restrict it to just Technic.  Ok, I’ve drifted once or twice, usually with Star Wars stuff, but that’s allowed.

Because it’s Star Wars.

Rewind to last Christmas.  I think Lego had hit my radar about November time, which is why Mrs Boo ended up buying me the Supercar that started all this off.  Anyway - a friend at work mentioned that she and her husband had bought the Lego Star Wars Advent calendar.  The reason she mentioned this was because she’d opened that day’s window, had built whatever it was she had to build that day, and was still none the wiser as to what it was supposed to be.  A bit of googling and I was able to tell her that it was an MTT, or Multi-Troop Transport, from Episode 1 : The Phantom Menace.

Although it looked like a small, brown dog to me.

After a couple of days of this, I began to get the itch for an Advent calendar of my own.  Of course, searching high and low revealed that absolutely everywhere had sold out, and unless I wanted to pay scalper prices on ebay, then I wasn’t having one.

I didn’t, and I wasn’t.

Fast forward 12 months, and I wouldn’t be making the same mistake again.  A visit to John Lewis at Brent Cross to look for fabric for new sofa covers (1), and I ended up in the toy department.  There’s a valid reason for this.  We have a new office policy at work, which means that we have to clear our desks every night and put all our stuff in a locker.  Now this was proving to be hassle, due to the large number of ‘bits’ that live on my desk (2).  So I’d spotted that a few people had these large Lego brick containers that happened to be a perfect fit for the lockers.  

And I ended up purchasing one.

It's a big Lego brick.  For putting stuff in.

And while I was there, I spotted the Star Wars Advent calendar.  Not, as previously mentioned, wanting to miss out again, that went on the pile.  And I also picked up a second 42010 Off-Road Racer and 42011 Race Car (3).

But the important thing was the Advent calendar.  And it’s sitting in a cupboard upstairs, just waiting for December the 1st.

Christmas is coming!

(Image courtesy of Brickset.com)

Meanwhile, some other bits and bobs have crept into the house.  I swear I have no idea how they get here.

Well.  Maybe a bit of an idea…

We were over in Watford a few weeks back, for some reason that now escapes me, but while my beloved was off investigating nail polish, or hand cream or something, I had time for a quick mooch round the Lego in John Lewis.  It’s interesting (4) how quickly you get to know the RRP for things, and also what the going rate is on Amazon.  So when you find, say, an 8293 Power Functions set on offer, and discount means 47% off the original price, well - you know you’d be a fool to miss it.

So I didn’t.

And when, a while later, you see that JL are matching a competitor’s price on the 42006 Technic Excavator, and that with discount, it’s another set that’s virtually half price, well it would be silly not to buy one for the parts box.

The next couple, courtesy of an event at the Watford Lego Store, were not quite so serendipitous. (5)  To cut a long story short, I recently built the Architecture set, Fallingwater, and have since become really quite keen on some (not all!) of the Architecture line.  So it was I walked out with the Villa Savoye.

21014 : Architecture Series, Villa Savoye

(Image courtesy of Brickset.com)

And as it’s nearly Christmas, a ‘Decorating the Tree’.

Decorating the Tree, Lego style

(Image courtesy of Brickset.com)

Which brings us up to date.

Almost.

Some months ago, Lego released the set 21050, Architecture Studio.  This is (to be blunt) a rather overpriced box of white bricks and trans-clear parts.  The big selling point (for me anyway), is that included in the box is a rather nice book, created in collaboration with some major Architect's studios around the world, which gives you ideas and suggestions.  Different architectural styles.  Use of space.  Repeating elements.

It is not a set to build any particular model, but to let the inner architect in you play about.

Yes, you could do this with any old bunch of Lego bricks, but there’s something about this set that called to me.

Unfortunately, Lego saw fit that I shouldn’t have it.

It was not available in the UK, and there didn’t seem to be any plans to make it available here.  I mailed the ever helpful customer services team at Lego UK, who thanked me for my interest and told me that no, I couldn’t order it from the US Lego site.

Oh well.  Your loss is Amazon’s gain.  I’ve ordered Lego from them before (the Imperial Shuttle, for example).  Off to the website.

And there it is for (gulp) $149.99.  Place in basket, checkout and…

"There appears to be a problem with your order."

Er, no there doesn’t.

"Yes, yes there is.  We don’t ship to that address."

Presumably because it’s a UK address.

I’ve tried about half a dozen times over the past few months to order this set, in case they’ve relented, and decided to start selling things to people who want to buy them, but to no avail.

Eventually, last week, I got fed up, and mailed Amazon’s Customer Service desk in the USA.  I explained the situation, and wondered why, exactly, they wouldn’t sell it to me.

“Sometimes,” they said “we don’t ship stuff overseas.”

They put it rather more eloquently (and indeed long-windedly) than that, but they were very polite all the same.

The very next day, presumably because they thought it was funny, they sent me one of those emails that suggests things you might like to buy, based on your browsing history.

“Have you considered,” they asked, “the 21050 Lego Architecture Studio?  We reckon that would be right up your street.”

Hilarious.

Because I’m a glutton for punishment, I added the set to my basket and tried to check out, just to prove to myself that they were heartless bastards with an evil sense of humour.

But wait!  What’s this?

Confirm order...

Confirm order?

Confirm order!!!

Hell yes, I’ll confirm that!

I spent the next 24 hours waiting for an email to drop into my inbox saying either:

a) "We’re very sorry, we appear to have made a mistake, and we’re having to cancel this order."  

Or,

b)  "Sucker!  You didn’t really think we’d let you have it, did you?"

But no!  48 hours later I did get an email.

“Your order has shipped.”

/does a little dance

And when I got home yesterday, the courier company had dropped a parcel off with my neighbours.  And now I’m sitting here looking at a rather swish box.

Lego 21050 Architecture Studio.  At last!

(Image courtesy of Lego.com)

I haven’t even opened it yet.  It took me long enough to get hold of it.

I’m going to savour this one...

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

(1) See!  I do buy grown up things on occasion.  Well.  I accompany my wife and make approving noises at her choice of fabric, but it amounts to much the same thing.

(2) Photo of my lovely wife.  Mug with pencils and pens in.  Scissors.  Stapler.  Paper hankies.  Ink for my fountain pen, you know the sort of stuff.

(3) I may have already mentioned this.  You can combine the two sets to make a dragster.  But that would involve messing the parts of the two sets up, which makes me twitchy.  So I picked up the second sets specifically to build the larger model, while keeping the originals neatly separate.  It keeps me happy.

(4) Sad.

(5) Not serendipitious at all.  Planned.  Well, sort of planned.  I knew I was going, just didn’t know what I was going to buy.