Taute-Manu
A bewildering and quite elusive specimen, the Taute-Manu is a sight to behold for those who find it across the Wahis. While many other beings would find hilarity staring at this bird’s colossal red gular pouch, it’s acknowledged between all avian Rahi as an emblem of pride. Not that it’s the only thing the Taute-Manu can boast about; for its flight stamina, wing maneuvering and Kanohi Miru allow it to fly safe and true to anywhere it wishes.
This was a MOC I designed for Spherus Discord's Monthly Mini-Contest, whose challenge was to build a bird. In this instance, I tried to recreate a Great/Magnificent Frigatebird (although, rightfully so, many believed it looked more like a penguin). I took 6 hours into designing this MOC, which has the following features.
112 pieces.
Articulation points for head, neck, wings, legs, feet and claws.
Gearbox for wing flap motion.
Can be physically recreated with stock pieces (and in the same colors displayed).
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LEGO On A Budget 2024 #9: 10792 Drill Spinner Vehicle & 42163 Heavy-Duty Bulldozer
It's - more or less - the end of the road for my LEGO reviewin' duty. I don't doubt that i'll continue enjoying LEGO, as i've gotten a nice ass Animal Crossing set for my birthday and that seems like the ideal thing to collect like once a month, but i'll admit that writing has become stale and therefore i'm not very tearful about being able to move back to what my blog is mainly about.
Still! I wanna go out on a high note, with two sets from the opposite spectrum inside the budget zone. You'll see what I mean with that.
LEGO Marvel 4+ - 10792 Drill Spinner Vehicle
Yep. In March, a new Marvel set dropped for the young'uns among us. After doing many of the bigger sets, this definitely uh... was a step back, alright. At least the box looks surprisingly nice and bright, I enjoy it's visual presence.
I do think it at least trumps the other 4+ sets however. I don't think much of the vehicle itself is that crazy, though it's rather chunky which I always find neat. The drill in front is dulled out, which makes perfect sense for the kids though it hardly actually makes it look like... a drill. You also get a net, which I THINK functions fine, though is rather hard to actually stuff in someone's hands. ...Electro, anyone?
Also, good lord, ANOTHER Spidey, this time it's the chibified Miles Morales making an appearance. That's number 4 for the collection and i'm hardly even a Spider-Man fan! LEGO needs to release a Kang the Conqueror set pronto, the real star of Marvel.
LEGO Technic - 42163 Heavy-Duty Bulldozer
So the very largest set in the €10 category, clocking in at a staggering 195 pieces, comes in one of the smallest boxes of them all. Huh. I suppose there's a reason for it, and that's because it's one of those sets where the amount of pieces is heavily exeggerated cuz of one certain aspect of it being overly convoluted. In this case, it's the moving tracks that take up a whopping 48 pieces out of the 195. Lame advertising, guys.
Honestly, this did not leave an impression, like at all. It's DECENT, this has some level of 'neat' to it. Like the way you can twist the knob to lift or lower the blade in front, or how the tracks DO work very well once you put them together.
But man I don't care. You coulda chosen anything with personality. Nah. Bulldozer. Which is very similar to the steamroller from LEGO City. It won't ruin the building experience, yet I wish they would be a bit more daring with the cheaper sets, as with their more expensive stuff. Maybe that's why they ARE the way they are.
Current rankings:
Well neither of these are gonna win, that's for sure, and since these are the final ones to be ranked, there's barely any reason to give them an extensive time in the spotlight. Let's go over them quickly.
I'd argue Drill Spinner Vehicle is the 4+ set with the most oomph, the one that most people could still get a small kick out of if they saw it in the store. However I also think the Fire Rescue Motorcycle was pretty COOL for how generic the theming was, including the uncannily long fire hose that came with it. Choices, choices.
The Heavy-Duty Bulldozer is obviously beating out it's smaller cousin, the Construction Steamroller, but otherwise, it's a disappointment. False advertising and lack of personality being the obvious culprits. It's still worth it if you HAVE to have the more complex architecture at a low low price, but otherwise, I don't reccomend it. Which is strange to say. Was looking forward to this one initially.
Creator - 31145 Red Dragon
Friends - 42608 Tiny Accessories Store
City - 60428 Space Construction Mech
City - 60411 Fire Rescue Helicopter
Marvel - 76275 Motorcycle Chase: Spider-Man vs. Doc Ock
Ninjago - 71805 Jay's Mech Battle Pack
Super Mario - 71428 Yoshi's Egg-cellent Forest
Friends - 42606 Mobile Bakery Food Cart
DREAMZzz - 71471 Mateo's Off-Road Car
Friends - 42607 Autumn's Baby Cow Shed
Technic - 42163 Heavy-Duty Bulldozer
City - 60401 Construction Steamroller
Marvel 4+ - 10792 Drill Spinner Vehicle
City 4+ - 60410 Fire Rescue Motorcycle
City - 60400 Go-Karts and Race Drivers
Friends - 42612 Cat Playground Adventure
Minecraft - 21251 Steve's Desert Expedition
City 4+ - 60399 Race Car
Finally! It's all over. 18 regular sets and 8 polybags later, i'm done judging. Only the ultimate question remains; which ones are genuinely worth your time and which ones are off-limits for those who aren't young or are specifically seeking out that theme?
I'd say the absolute winner is Creator, of course. Creator is always worth it as it gives you 3 things to build. If one isn't too your taste or is too small, boom, new thing to build in the place of it. The Red Dragon and co. look awesome though, so that makes it even MORE worthwhile. Crazy value, this one.
I think most City sets are perfectly fine too. Even the low ranked ones are pretty solid purchases if you just want bitch ass basic LEGO, which in some cases IS preferable. The Space sets are fantastic however, i'd highly suggest looking into it. It expands past City too!
All the pop culture/video gamey sets are ooookay, with the exception of the rather garbanzo Minecraft set. That's not to say LEGO Minecraft in general is bad, however I still think it's a rather pointless theme if you don't enjoy having accurate real-life counterparts to the game's mobs, which is to it's benefit.
The LEGO 'brands' stuff, so Ninjago, DREAMZzz and Friends, are mostly pretty solid. You can tell they have a bit more creative freedom cuz it's something they thought of entirely by themselves. I don't know how much you'll jump for joy at the sight of a theme designed for young girls, but there's some real quality works in there. Like damn, that Tiny Accessoires Store was clever. Could do without the piss stain on Cat Playground Adventure set though.
I've given the ranking list some color, as you can see. Green means I would definitely give it a gander, blue means it's up to your gut feeling and orange means *I* didn't really like it.
And with that, I bow out and shall ready myself for some old fashioned gaming on my trusty... well I wouldn't call my Atari carts entirely 'trusty'. Hope y'all had fun and i'll see you again soon!
(Why do I hear boss music?)
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Matoran Macku
Having made a scuffed lightbox for a different project, I figured it was time to share my matoran gang, starting with my favorite.
My parts choice for this model was to get as much color variety as possible in order to build the characters I wanted, AND, I absolutely wanted to use the mctoran foot for Mata-Nui authenticity.
From there I wanted to get as much poseability as I could, because I love posing figures.
I like juuust a hint of sexual dimorphism in my Bonks, so Macku and other Ga-Matoran I've built have a slightly longer axle and a set of spacers in their hips. The classic Gali chest piece was also used here but that steadily became a non exclusive trait as I built matoran in stranger colors and needed the socket pieces to fill out their schemes.
I consider this body configuration to be the post-bohrok rebuild, with a little Mask of Light mixed in.
I'll post some more later because I built a ton of these gremlins.
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