Toy Bender

I think Back to the Future is one of the few nerd movie franchise that almost everyone can agree is awesome. One of the great things about Back to the Future is that even non-geeks love the film. It’s just that great. Another thing that makes Back to the Future so awesome was the use of the now iconic DeLorean Motor Company’s DMC-12 as the time travel machine (DMC-12 is the model, because there were supposed to be other DeLorean cars just like there’s Chevy and Ford). Lending proof to my credence that anything made into Lego is automatically more fun comes this DeLorean DMC-12 made out of Lego bricks:

As cool as it is, it’s got one feature that pushes it from cool to ball droopingly awesome. It’s actually a remote control Back to the Future DeLorean.

I can’t get over how great this is. I’d make one of my own, but I’m guessing in order to track down all the pieces I’d need to invest a lot of time and money, since I’ve only got a few Lego sets that are meant to be Star Wars vehicles. Who wouldn’t want their very own remote control Lego DeLorean though? In a perfect world Lego would make these. They’d earn another billion dollars and nerds like me could have fun with their new RC toy on the kitchen floor.

Thanks to: The Brothers Brick

Ahh there are some very simple things in life that bring me joy and this custom Danger Mouse Lego creation is one of them. The car by Louise Dade looks great and those mini-figures (made by Louise’s Mom of all people) look perfect as Danger Mouse and Penfold. I really wish this could be purchased in stores.

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And… just when I was beginning to thing I had nothing toy related to write about today, in comes this fantastic custom set of Lego mini-figures made to look exactly like the crew from Watchmen. The weakest link here is Rorschach who could have used a custom painted head, but I believe the point of this set was to try do make the figures as close to the characters without doing a lot of custom work.

I can’t think of that many Lego sets you could make using Watchmen figures aside from Nite Owl’s ship and his lair. I suppose you could do the Ozymandias winter getaway.

Anyway, some of you might be wondering why I haven’t posted my Watchmen thoughts yet. I haven’t done so for a couple of reasons. The first is that everyone else did already and so I didn’t see a point. Another is that nobody asked, but in case you are wondering I did like it. I liked it a lot. There? You happy now?!

Side Note: You want to get your blood boiling? You really need to read this review, which pretty much misses the entire point of the film (and consequently the book if the reviewer had read it). Here’s my favorite quote:

And Ronald Reagan is thinking of running for President in 1988. Wow, isn’t that cool that they got it wrong on purpose? I’m so amazed at this “high-brow art” of deliberately getting dates and timelines wrong, you know, just to be “artistic,” and get the drooling of the critics. That is sooooo genius. Like way totally cool.

Oh wait, this one is better:

If you see it yourself, you’re also probably a moron and a vapid, indecent human being.

Even if you didn’t like the movie, the idiocy here should really piss you off.

Side, Side Note: Sometimes when I hear Rorschach’s name I think of Horshack from Welcome Back Kotter. Man, that book and movie would have been a hell of a lot different if you swapped those two out.

Thanks to: Brothers Brick

The following guest post is by my wife, Diane. She’s a My Little Pony fan who has some issues with Hasbro. I find it interesting that the issue she has parallels the feelings of a lot guys have who collect toys like Joes and Star Wars figures, especially when the 25th Joes were in their first year:

Dear Hasbro,

As a collector of My Little Ponies, I am considerably disappointed in your recent My Little Pony offerings. The fun of the previous series was that each new wave of Ponies brought new characters with new special gimmicks. What you’re giving me now is the same 6 Ponies with new add-on crap (cowboy hats? surf boards?) and a slightly different paint job. It’s hard for me to get interested in buying the same ponies over and over again. Now, I know you may be gearing this line towards kids, so you really don’t give a crap that I don’t want 2 Scootaloos even if one comes with a tennis racket. But, when the toys were originally released in the early 80’s, I was a kid and I ate that shit up like birthday cake. Call me crazy, but I’m thinking it still works that way. You can keep releasing the play sets with the creepy Pony clothes for the kiddies, but keep up with the variety for the adults with money to spend.

Sincerely,

Diane M. Rudolph

Here are a couple of pictures of what is clearly a couple of Lego mini-figs that have been customized to look like the Heath Ledger Joker from The Dark Knight. You’ve got two flavors of the Joker so enjoy:

One is obviously the regular style of Dark Knight/Heath Ledger Joker and the other is the creepy nurse Heath Ledger Joker. Nicely played, Lego mini-fig maker guy.

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Wow, this set is something I’d never see from Lego as an official release. It’s the Lego Gunship/Dropship complete with a AT-OT Walker:

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I meant to post this awhile ago and then I realized I was posting Lego news almost every day. Since I realize you guys and gals can only handle so much Lego, here it is today.

There were a few Lego sets shown at the Canadian Toy & Hobby Fair held a few weeks ago that were notable for Star Wars fans in that one set gives us the first ever Lego Tauntaun. What? What?!

Now that is totally awesome balls. I’m pretty sure my wife would divorce me if I didn’t do whatever I could to get one. After all, she is sporting a nice collection of Star Wars themed animal buddies at this point, which includes a vintage Kenner Tauntaun that I picked up for a whole two bucks at a toy show.

Another set that I’m going to have to sell my kidney to get is the Endor bunker:

Why do I love this set? Well it’s the perfect excuse to get Ewok mini-figs and a great piece to display figures. Having vehicles is fine and all, but I’d like a more of a playset for my figures and this would be perfect. It would go along great with the now pricey set I forgot I had and then opened up about a year ago during my Lego-mania that temporarily gripped me.

For the rest of the coolness, I’d recommend clicking on this link right here.

I love Back to the Future. Hell who doesn’t? If anyone could honestly tell me that Back to the Future isn’t one of the greatest films of all time is either a liar or a communist. What isn’t there to love? You got time travel, orange vests, romance, Pepsi Free, the cop from Masters of the Universe, great music, Doc Brown, incest, a DeLorean, and attempted rape. It’s the perfect movie for everyone! The sequels aren’t exactly as good, but they are much better than most movies that don’t feature DeLoreans.

Anyway, this Lego set perfectly captures the greatness of the films in brick form. It’s a shame this isn’t a set you can buy in the store, especially the mini-figs of Doc and Marty.

Thanks to: Brothers-Brick.com

One of the greatest joys that the internet brings me are elaborate Lego sets done in Star Wars themes. This set I ran across is no different and is perhaps one of the best Lego dios I’ve ever seen. It’s a depiction of the Hoth battle from The Empire Strikes Back and it is simply stunning:

According to Brothers Brick, this set is 5 feet by 10 feet and contains 55,000 to 60,000 Lego pieces and over 50 working lights. One of the coolest features is a remote mechanism that deploys troops from the custom AT-ATs. I know this word doesn’t get used much, but I feel I should say, “zounds” to that.

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For some reason I never put “He-Man” together with “Lego” in my nerdy man child mind. Thankfully, someone else did. Behold, the alliance of He-Man and Lego:

Bad ass.

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It seems that Aliens is so friggen cool that it must make another appearance on this blog in the form of a work of Lego art (check out previous looks at Alien related Legos here and here). This time we have the dropship that inspired almost all other dropships in subsequent science fiction films and games:

It’s hard to believe how cool the Aliens dropship is still as cool looking as when I first saw it.

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The Playskool (i.e. Hasbro) Rose Petal Cottage is a set for little girls that contains a lot of things like a kitchen, washer/dryer, and a baby basket. The girl in the commercial looks like she is having fun with all her great play toys, but is she really? What may seem like an innocent playtime activity is this girl being subjected to the brainwashing of a sexist society that wants to keep women barefoot and pregnant… or something.

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You know what’s scary? Alien is scary. No matter how many times I watch that flick, I get all nerved up when they decide to examine the alien vessel. Speaking of Alien, there’s been a couple of really great Alien themed Lego works that look super sweet.

The first is a mini-fig with a bit of a chestburster problem:

It’s amazing how much this mini-fig looks like John Hurt.

As a bonus, here’s some figures from the Alien and Predator franchises made into Lego form. Some of these are hit and miss, but I think the creator really nailed the Alien.

If you can’t tell that dude is supposed to be Dutch from Predator. Dutch is of course played by Arnold Schwarzenegger who uttered the immortal lines:

Need I say more?

I’m sure you’ve all seen the super awesome Lego Aircraft carrier that was built to scale with the mini-figs, but have you seen the 20 foot long replica of the HMS Hood? Check this out:

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Man, I get a kick out of when micro-scale Lego building meets Star Wars. That’s why I went nuts when I saw this epic Star Wars battle all done with tiny, tiny Lego pieces:

There’s so many details that it’s hard to narrow down which ones are the best. Personally, I really dig the TIE Bombers dropping bombs on the capital ship.

This base even has an Imperial monorail! Evil public transportation! I love it!

You gotta love the X-Wing that’s about to blow.

To see all the shots of this spectacular work of art, head on over to roguebantha_1138’s Flickr account. Oh yeah, and if you dug this be sure to check out the Lego Imperial base done in micro-scale by the same fellow. That thing is dripping with sweet sauce.