Lego Recommendations?

[antisocialmunky]

So a girl got me back into Legos again and I'm looking for good models. I've gotten almost all the interesting non-$200+ Lego TOT ship models so I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations? I've watched a lot of reviews but most of them gloss over the important aspects of:

- Is it fun to put together?
- Is it cleverly designed?
- Is it 'whimsical'?

I don't really like the overbuilt/overdetailed sets like the UCS Falcon or some of the UCS sets. I've looked at the superhero sets but don't have any real strong feelings, and I've looked at the Pirate sets being cleared now but the boats aren't that impressive or realistic.

I'm currently saving up for the UCS B-Wing that comes out in October and might pick up the CUUSO sets and the Sopwith Camel they have. Dunno yet. So anyone have any suggestions?

[sunrise089]

I'd be interested in following this thread, but can you take a step back and give some background and perhaps break down those acronyms?

[antisocialmunky]

Sure.
1) TOT stands for original trilogy meaning the original 3 movies of the Star Wars Franchise (4-6) which includes sets like. The sets from this line that I really enjoy are:

-9495 Gold Leader's Y-Wing, he's the rebel pilot who lives after the Battle of Endor other than Luke and Wedge I believe. Its fun to SWOOSH around despite being not that iconic. It has these little missiles for obnoxious children and a nice little bomb bay since this thing is a bomber.


-9492 Tie Fighter, the rerelease. This one is cool because it looks great and you used some some cool build techniques like the pieces that wrap around the hexagonal bits which is done using hinges. It also comes with some good figures including the imperial officer who can easily double as a Panzer Tank commander if you like to build historic military vehicles.


-9493 X Wing, not bad. I don't like this all that much but it is the best X-Wing so far. It looks great but the S-Foils tend to tear themselves up after some deployment/undeployment. The best part is that it comes with a Jek Porkins minifigure. If you've forgotten who he was:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFPI54fOWoo


2) UCS stands for Ultimate Collector's Set. These are $150+ uber sets for man children with too much money.

They include such beasties as a 4 foot long Executor Class Super Star Destroyer


... and the 500+ piece to scale Millenium Falcon which retails at ~$1800 since it has been discontinued


3) CUUSOO is lego's crowd sourcing website where you can upvote user submitted sets. Currently only the Lego Hayabusa Satellite and Lego Minecraft and on sale in the states. You can go here:
http://lego.cuusoo.com/

[NobleHelium]

What I want to know is, why do those Original Trilogy boxes feature Darth Maul?

[antisocialmunky]

No idea, it is all very odd.

[darrelljs]

I always wanted to build the Millennium Falcon...is the ~1250 piece re-release any good?

Edit: Here is the insanely expensive original version. Its got >10X the pieces you think it does ASM. Very jealous you were able to build it .

Darrell

[Sian]

I suggest ripping some of the builds here and build them with normal bricks just as they did :P

[Cromagnumpi]

I'm excited for the Lord of the Rings set. Plus some Avengers sets that look pretty neat.

[Bigger]

What I want to know is, why do those Original Trilogy boxes feature Darth Maul?

easy to guess. Generally, lego's target kids. Very few kids today are going to know who Darth Vader is. The new trilogy is more recent, Darth Maul is far more likely to be recognizable by someone 14 or younger.

[antisocialmunky]

I always wanted to build the Millennium Falcon...is the ~1250 piece re-release any good?

Edit: Here is the insanely expensive original version. Its got >10X the pieces you think it does ASM. Very jealous you were able to build it .

Darrell

The baby one is pretty cool, it is a wrongish shape but that can be fixed and you don't actually notice it. It does have this weird vibe of being the a doll house so maybe girls will like it to?