The "what set did you just build" thread

[danth]

I just built Baby Rocket's Ship. I will admit I bought it for the green windscreen. I think it looks better without the two front prongs/arms. I'm more excited about using it for an alt build than the set itself.

Also built the A-Wing vs Tie Silencer microfighters set. I mainly bought it for the A-Wing, which I've always liked, especially the blue version based on Ralph McQuarrie's concept art. And I've always liked super-deformed stuff. So the A-Wing micro tickles two fancies. It also looks so freaking good that I'm sad that Lego won't make cheap Classic Space sets, because there is just so much potential for cool, little, affordable space ships.

Also built the Porsche 963. It looks really good even without the stickers. Though I wish, at the very least, one of the Porsche logos was a print (besides the windshield I mean). Also has part usage that reaffirms my belief that Lego uses AI or at least some software algorithm to modify designs to make them cheaper.

Edited April 16, 2023 by danth

[Powder Monkey]

I just built the 7991 Garbage Truck from 2007 to see if all the parts are there (bought it used from a neighbour). To me still the coolest garbage truck. Realistic, yet playable. As my kids can't wait to see the weekly garbage truck pass-by through the window (waving at the garbage men like mad) this'll be the perfect birthday gift for them :)

[danth]

On 5/2/2023 at 2:19 PM, Powder Monkey said:

I just built the 7991 Garbage Truck from 2007 to see if all the parts are there (bought it used from a neighbour). To me still the coolest garbage truck. Realistic, yet playable. As my kids can't wait to see the weekly garbage truck pass-by through the window (waving at the garbage men like mad) this'll be the perfect birthday gift for them :)

 I'm surprised how many people are posting about building older sets. I think I have that garbage truck...it is a good one!

I've been building a lot. Built the GWP Flower Pot and 4x4 Off Road Ambulance Rescue.

The Flower Pot looks great! I was excited to get it. I wasn't expecting the inner structure. My only complaint is that some of the flowers sticking up can be easily knocked off, and the ones that can't are a still bit shaky. But, hey, free set.

The Ambulance is interesting. A very eclectic color scheme, with some very random red bits inside. It's like an AI built it out of whatever parts & colors Lego had in overstock or something. Which might make sense because, hey, free set. My only real complaint is it needs fender flares.

[danth]

Ok, so I built some Monkie Kid sets and a Ninjago set over the past week and had surprise opposite reactions.

First I built the Monkie Kid Combi Mech and Mei's Dragon Jet. Both seemed like great values and the combiner aspect intrigued me. I also wanted to see how they did the joints on the mech. However, as I built, I become more annoyed with the over-reliance on stickers. There were NO printed parts. Even the control consoles were stickers! I think if at least the control panels and maybe the main logos were printed for each set, it would have gone a long way. Mei's Dragon Jet especially looks pretty lackluster without the stickers, and both designs really rely on the stickers instead of brick texture and/or color.

I basically came away resentful. Also the combined form didn't exactly blow me away. Which was surprising to me. I thought I'd like them more.

Then I built Nya's Water Dragon EVO from Ninjago. This I bought on a whim and almost forgot about having. As I built it, I became more and more impressed with it, basically how it was all held together and how nice the blue and white color scheme looked. The curved parts all came together to make a really great looking, if smallish, dragon! And...NO STICKERS! The face and flag were PRINTS, which is really all that was needed, because the brick texture itself along with the color blocking really looked quite nice. The set is basically perfect. And it has some cool printed parts to treasure instead of Kragel-paper to be annoyed with.

I was not expecting to be that taken with Nya's Water Dragon EVO but it's so fantastic. Especially for the small price.

[danth]

I just put together the 75301 X-wing.

I was weak. I generally don't buy SW sets, but this one sells for $40, and it looks pretty good. And it's a space ship. So I caved.

Anyway, I was hoping this would continue the tradition of excellent, fantastic-looking, and cheap SW space ships after the recent Tie and Boba Fett Starship sets. But it's not quite as good as those. For one, it uses stickers in a few places where they really could have just used tiles or grill pieces. Also, the X-Wing mechanism is cool but pretty big and complicated and results in R2 sticking up WAY too high. It looks almost comical. Also, the wings don't touch when closed. They're further than a plate apart. I don't see what's so hard about getting the wings to close fully. And lastly the mechanism results in the rear of the ship feeling tacked on/not secure, and the whole top of the mechanism is visible instead of the standard greebling.

I had some tiles/grills on hand that I think look good enough to avoid stickers:

[Peppermint_M]

60287 - Tractor. My second purchase of the set (I am very easy to sell to if a set that costs more than £10 is reduced to less than £10...) as the wheels are nice for my collection, as are the windscreens. Also, Bunny! Affordable LEGO animals, extra cherry on top for me. 

The crate is a nice colour which adds a realistic variety to my collection of old brown and reddishbrown that makes good set dressing in a MOC (No lie, I have loved those crates since my first one in the Scorpion Tracker and as I have unfortunately reminded everyone, that was 25 years ago).

The build is simple, as expected of a City set aimed at the slightly younger audience, however it is nice and solid like a tractor should be. 

 

[Alexandrina]

Well, I somehow fluked into 6276 Eldorado Fortress complete without instructions for a full £100 less than the Bricklink quantity average price, and my prize arrived yesterday so I got to building that.

It's a great set, well worth the money I paid and I suspect I'd have been happy even at the quantity average price. The build was fun and not too difficult once I adjusted to the old-style instructions without piece callouts, and I was struck by how good the part selection was both for creating a high quality original model, and for reusing in other creations. As a kid I suspect I would have had hours of fun just from reconfiguring those bricks alone. I did manage to end up with a couple of 1x2 bricks left over, so I'm still trying to figure out whether I received extras or managed to miss a few bricks in the instructions.

I have 1822 sitting ready to go in a similar state, so I'll probably get to that tomorrow.