Review: The Batmobile (Lego kit 30161)

I was browsing through one of those toy sales in Manila when I chanced upon this beauty.  Even though they asked for 600 pesos for the model (About US$14) for it I couldn't resist and ponied up my money.  I mean its Batman's batmobile with flaming wings at the back!

Oh man its a little Batmobile!

So as usual I had my girlfriend quickly build up the kit:

Woohoo flaming Batmobile!

Beware the Bat criminals!

Nice silver accents on the wheels!

Nice wheels Batman!

Those flames!

Those flames again!

Holy flaming cars Batman!

Overall it's a nice kit especially if you are a Batman fan and must absolutely have all of the Batman related merch.  I think I did overpay for it at US$14 (600 pesos).  My girlfriend did enjoy building it.

Lego Swag: The official Lego Watch!

My girlfriend chanced upon this while waiting for me at the mall.  And she knew she just had to get it for me:

Han Solo looks good on my wrist

This is one of the most awesome watches I have ever owned.  For a Lego and Star Wars fan this is amazing swag.  The watch of course is almost a toy by itself.  The whole thing disassembles as befits something with the Lego brand.  And of course Han Solo.

Being a Lego watch you can disassemble the links

The Lego watch is available at MyTime in Glorietta for about Php 1,200 or about US$30.

Review: BeCool Ninja Turtles

Although we get a wide selection of Lego products in the Philippines sometimes we get some of the stuff late.  Minifigure Series 10 for example has still not reached the shores of our islands.  Same is true with the Lego Ninja Turtle collaboration.

When I was a kid I loved TMNT and now they have Lego models.  I want them!  Unfortunately they are not available here yet.  So imagine my surprise and excitement when I saw this at a hobby shop in Makati:

Whoa!  Knock off turtles!

I quickly asked the salesgirl how much each one was and she said it was Php65 pesos or about US $1.25.  I decided to try it out and bought fake Raphael and fake Michaelangelo.  The shop had all four turtles plus Shredder and Master Splinter.

Upon opening Michaelangelo's box this was inside:

Pretty much feels like the real Lego turtles!

Not readily apparent was Mikey's troll face expression

The colors were good and in the proper light actually looked like the real thing.  Holding the plastics in your finger was a different story though as a few rough edges can be felt.  the nunchaku sticks also did not fit that well into the chains that supposedly held them together.

Pizza sticker!

There yah go!  Mikey's troll face!

Cowabunga dude!  Stickers applied!

So despite that little snag with the chain thing the model itself was about as close as we here in the PH can get to for now as far as TMNT in brick form is concerned.  It wasn't a bad deal for 65 pesos per box

Well she was happy building those little dudes.

yeah pizza!

And skateboards! 

Dude you should get your nunchakus fixed!

I'm practicing my troll face Raph!

So just maybe I might get the rest of TMNT. :)

Lego Digital Designer: Playing with virtual bricks

Few people outside of Lego fandom may know this but there is actual software out there that lets you design Lego models on your PC or Mac.

It's called the Lego Digital Designer (or LDD) and is a free download from the Lego website:

The Download Link!

After installing it and then running it this is what you get:

Pretty spiffy opening screen!

As you can glean from the screen you have three building modes:

Standard Mode - the full spectrum of available Lego bricks
in the official Lego colors

Mindstorms Mode - for Mindstorm models

Extended Mode - The full range of all Lego bricks but with the option to customize colors

You can spend practically days on end just trying out any kind of idea for a model in your head.  The bricks are unlimited and can be mish-mashed in a variety of ways.  The only limitations I find are time and of course my own imagination.

Creating a model is a simple as picking the part from the left hand portion of the screen and dragging it to the building area:

Building in Mindstorms mode

You'd probably spend a good chunk of your time just looking for the right brick for the model in your mind.

Isn't she pretty? :)

Just finishing two minifigs took me about half an hour because of the vast amounts of choices for parts:

Why hello there strangely hued Bossk! (Creating in Extended mode, custom colors yeah!)

It's a fun piece of design software and a great way to try out your Lego ideas without breaking your wallet.

Too bad Lego stopped the service where you build in LDD and then order the actual model from them.   It was awesome because the model you created would come in an official Lego box with official Lego instructions.

LDD is still capable of producing Lego-like instruction sheets for your creation.

It's an awesome piece of software and no die-hard Lego fan should be caught without it.

The Lego Story

The Lego system unveiled

This is an awesome video that tells the story of how Lego came to be.  All Lego fans owe it to themselves to watch this and learn about the history of their beloved Brick toy.

Thanks to Cabs for pointing me to this video

The Lego movie in 2014

I don't know how I missed this one but thanks to my brother I now know there is a Lego full length movie in 2014:

Here's the FB page:
https://www.facebook.com/TheLEGOMovie

The IMDB entry:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1490017/


And the YouTube official trailer:

Truely exciting!

More details when I dig it up :)

Review: Ausini Race Car model no 26305

My girlfriend Apple got this Ausini model as a gift for her nephew BJ who really likes cars.

The car is predominantly red with a minifigure that has a strange expression on its face.

The brick quality felt a bit strange, like it was too glossy and smooth. On the other hand  I was impressed by the rubber wheels.  Sometimes when you buy alternative brick toys the wheels are plastic.  So I was pleasantly surprised that this had rubber wheels.  The model did combine a lot of Lego-like building techniques including the use bricks turned on its side and overlapping bricks for strength.

Well the model itself looked good after it got built:

From this angle the minifig bears a lot of similarities  to
Lego minifigs.

Looks good fromm here

Nice ride buddy!

The cockpit's size wasn't correct.  You had to stand the minifigure
to make it fit.

That is one of the stranger expressions I've seen from

a minifig

This model was obtained from The Landmark toy department in Ayala Center Makati.  It cost 149 pesos (or about 3 US dollars).