We love LEGO!
If you’re a regular reader of HeyUGuys then those opening three words will come as no surprise to you and you can see all our previous posts on the subject here. Recently, we’ve been putting up an awful lot of posts relating to the Danish company as they have been brokering deals with various movie studios to license their brands to create some the greatest plastic models that we’ve ever seen. Those lovely people at LEGO found out how much we love them and were kind enough to send us some samples of their current stock.
These included the Star Wars range, Cars 2 from Pixar range, and characters from DC Universe Super Heroes range. Now as much as I want to sit down for the next couple of days building these quite frankly awesome sets, unfortunately time doesn’t allow for it BUT, that didn’t stop me this afternoon from spending 3 or 4 hours putting together set number 7961 which you’ll all know well to be from the Star Wars range and more specifically – Darth Maul’s Sith Infiltrator.
It’s been quite a while since I sat down to create anything on the scale of the Sith Infiltrator. In fact I think the last time I did attempt anything this grand was probably around ten years ago! It was still just as exciting today (at the age of 31!) as it was when I was 10 years old and if you’ve been a fan of LEGO for as long as me, not much has changed. Inside the box is still the injection moulded plastic pieces that you always remember, a book to walk you through the build literally piece by piece and best of all, the LEGO men that come as part of the set.
To my amazement, this box had two books in it which told me immediately that it was going to take me a little longer than I anticipated to put this little baby together but fortunately my cat Dennis was on hand (or paw?!) to help out! Although LEGO may not have changed too much over the years, my life has. I now have an 8 month old baby who thankfully (when it comes to small LEGO pieces lying on the floor), cannot crawl yet. I have a feeling when his mobility improves (which I’m sure is only a week or two away), we’ll be in trouble for future LEGO builds!
Clicking each piece together to create the final infiltrator was just great. It really did take me back to being in my early teens where every single birthday and Christmas would mean a new LEGO set of some description. I still have my two pirate ships in my parent’s loft and cant wait to show the to my son when he’s old enough to touch them without ripping the deck to pieces! I think that’s really where LEGO has it’s value. This set that I’ve built here is designed for kids aged 8-14 and as I mentioned above, I’m way outside that age range but it’s still enjoyable. When I completed the ship, I felt that same sense of accomplishment that I had so many times before all those years ago. The only different this time was my wife saying ‘great, now where are you going to put that?!’ My reply was that it would be taking pride of place on the shelf in our lounge to which I got a very disapproving look (fortunately for me I was joking!).
LEGO really don’t patronise the kids these sets are designed for. I made a couple of mistakes while building this and had to go back a few steps to correct them and this gets you thinking while also making something that you can hopefully enjoy playing with once it’s been built. In the age where everything is about video games and starring at a box (which I love to do too obviously hence starting a movie blog!), it’s refreshing to see a toy like LEGO thriving more than it ever has.
As you’ll have probably seen, LEGO has signed contracts for The Lord of the Rings The Hobbit, with Marvel for The Avengers and who knows what else. They really are going from strength to strength and I’m so pleased that’s the case.
I’ll end on my favourite fact that you may or may not know. LEGO is the largest manufacturer of tires in the world! There you go.A party fact for you right there!
Now stop what you’re doing and go and buy some LEGO. I’m off to go and sit in a room for hours making the rest of these awesome sets. Keep your eyes peeled for photos!
