Relatively recently that I’ve finally reached the critical mass of Lego Star Wars sets that I’ve decided to start doing things with them (I’m a bit anal about mixing different ranges — we’re very lucky I’ve got expanded universe and original trilogy sets mixed up here).
So of a Saturday night, when it’s past bed-time but there’s still a good hour or two of the modern equivalent of Classic Dance Saturday left…
Lego is wonderful.
Lego bred in me a certain attitude to construction. I only start with the vaguest plan in mind — models grow organically from locally optimal combinations of the coolest pieces. It’s this attitude that has stayed with me all along; this is broadly how I approach my Warcraft maps, finding new parts and bolting them on as I go. Growing them in a known direction but along unknown lines.
It also engenders the ability to improvise — because, nine times out of ten, you will for some reason not have precisely the correct piece that would fit there and you’ll have to change the entire model to work around this lack (actually, most likely because you’ve already used it). But hey, that builds character.
I always start with a single prime model — the one that wants to be built, the one that gets the pick of all the pieces. This time, it was a little Battle Droid walker with plenty of guns. If I had one of those little windscreen panels I’d rather use that than the smooth panel for the front, but needs must and he’s a bloody robot anyway.
After the prime model, I find myself with a huge pile of pieces that still need to be used — because I’m a completist whore and No Man Left Behind, the following models begin to warp in strange ways as I attempt to accommodate every single brick on offer.
Naturally, with the number of hinges I now have available from the Tri-Fighter, I had to go for another mech. This one’s a little less cohesive, so I think I’ll need to dismantle the souped-up General Grievous’ Starfighter so I can mop up some more directly useful pieces. At the helm is the silverite Assassin Droid, though I reckon I’d kill for a silvered normal Battle Droid head (let alone a black one) — the giant Assassin Droid head throws the Battle Droid body parts’ petite beauty right off.
Also have a bit of a surplus of mini-figs right now (I seem to remember never having enough as a child… ho well!), so I’ll need to start making more smaller vehicles (for which I don’t have enough steering wheels/levels/control panels) or convert Grievous’ Souped-Up Starfighter into a bus.
But these are just the kind of design challenges that keep you alive.
Rao Dao Zao 