Category Archives: lego minifigs

lego minifigs

Minifig Hipster the Final Post

lego minifigs

So after a little consultation (mainly with the inspiration for this minifig) I have settled on the hat for the figure. Which means I am glad to present in all its glory the hipster minifig.

Below I've broken the figure back down to its parts so you can see what makes the completed figure.

Last night at a local quiz night I presented the finished figure to my friend.

So in the picture below we have the hipster minifig with the inspiration for its creation. I think you will agree I have managed to capture the essence of my friend and being a hipster (something my friend denies being vehemently. Although our response is always “well a hipster would say that wouldn't they”, it's a discussion he can't win ^_^ ) in the figure. The bottom half of the photo also shows another gift for my friend that continues the hipster theme. Yep a hipster dice from Steve Jackson Games. Ok picking up the hipster dice cost me an unplanned £12 buying a used PS1 along with a copy of Command and Conquer Red Alert. But I'm sure I'll write about that another day.

I've really enjoyed creating the hipster minifig. It's been fun finding the right parts, and I got lucky that there was no need to create my own custom parts. But that is something I am looking forward to having to do at some point.
My next minifig project is creating two hiking minifigs to represent two of my friends who will be hiking across Scotland in May on the TGO Challenge. I've already been collecting some bits for this next project. But I will go into more detail about it all in a future post.

 

Lego Research Institute

lego minifigs
I mentioned in yesterday's post that the Lego Research Institute arrived.

Well as the photo below shows I've now had time to put it all together.

The Research Institute depicts the roles of an Astronomer, Paleontologist and Chemist in three viniettes.
One of the things this set was applauded for was that it used female characters in these roles instead of male ones. I don't want to get into the whole gender equality, portrayal of women, discussion. How can I really discuss it because I don't experience it on a daily basis? All I can do is try and be supportive and not re-enforce the gender steriotypes that do so much damage, that put up an invisible wall that acts as a barrier to dissuade women from entering STEM subjects. A more diverse make up of the STEM subjects can only be a positive thing enabling us to create great and amazing things. Does this set fulfil this?
The instruction booklet with the construction details in has a nice touch at the start of it where it tells you a little bit about each of the roles in the set.

Combine the booklet with the viniettes and I do think this set does create an interesting way to encourage the possibility of doing one of the STEM subjects as a career.

I like this set a lot. The figures and especially the supporting viniettes really do capture the three STEM roles. I love the T-Rex skeleton, it's frickin cool. The viniettes aren't over complicated, but their simplicity gets to the heart of what the role is.

I can see this set being used at schools. But this is a fun set, easy to build, and if you are into Lego really worth getting.

 

You’re making me laugh, tell me your killing joke

lego minifigs, netrunner, new arrivals, tabletop

So the edition of Death of the Family that I wanted arrived. It was the edition with the Joker mask. Now I have the quandary do I leave it unopened or do I open it. But I know if I open it up I will be drawn to trying the mask on. Then who knows what will happen. I'm afraid that the mask will take me over and I will become lost in some nether world while the Joker takes over my flesh and go on some insane killing spree. Who knows where it would end with no Batman to stop my Joker possessed carcass.

At least I don't have to worry about being taken over with this following Joker. All I have to worry about is some sort of Chucky thing happening. Waking up with a miniature Heath Ledger Joker standing over me is just marginally more scarey than waking up with the apex predator Nico the attack chihuahua next to me.

This rather cool Lego Research Institute arrived also. It's got a frickin dinosaur!

Finally the second Android:Netrunner core set arrived. Thanks to attending the rather Raspberry Pi Third Birthday Party celebrations today, I've not had time to start organising the cards. But free pizza, cake and odd freebie override a day of card organising and making lego.

 

Creation of the Hipster Part 3

lego minifigs

So the three hats that I got in to put the finishing touch to the hipster minifig I'm creating have all arrived. The final one was today (see previous post).

So here is how the hipster figure looks with each of the hats on.

For me the brown cap is too large, doesn't work as well as I had thought it would. The beret as a cap works really well, but still on the fence over the trillbe. Which is your favourite?

 

Trapped in an invisible box

lego minifigs

Another day another minifig! Today the new arrival was the mime character from season 2 of the minifig collections that Lego push out. I really do like the look of this minifig, especially the multiple heads with their expressions. Plus I bought the beret separately to use in the hipster project (my next post).

Today started off with an amazing start and a very generous gift of a Lego minfig of the Vitruvius character from The Lego Movie from a friend at work. This was given away with the movie on Bluray and dvd.

 

The Corporate Minifig Post

lego minifigs

New minifig arrivals! Today a couple of astronauts from a space shuttle set arrived. While a minifig business man complete with accessories has also dropped through the letter box. The final figure should need no introduction if you have seen The Lego Movie that came out last year and got Oscar snubbed. For those that haven't seen the movie it's the big bad guy from the movie Lord Business.

I got Lord Business because I thought if you had to have one Lego minifig to symbolise “the man” or in the world of Android:Netrunner the corporations then it just had to be Lord Business. The other business minifigs naturally are there to represent his corporate minions.

Finally here is a picture of the vintage astronaut with his new space shuttle astronaut buddies.

 

Hey hey have you heard the news?

lego minifigs, tabletop, trip report

Thunderbirds are go!!!

Yes you have guessed it the Kickstarter for the cooperative board game designed by Matt Leacock based on the beloved children's TV classic (despite Holywoods attempt to ruin the memory with that aweful live action movie) Thunderbirds, has gone live today.

Be quick as the top tier will be locked once the game has reached £70,000. The top tier is awesome as it gets you the game, expansions and stretch goals PLUS your name in the credits!!! OH YES! I think it will hit this target easily, although I guess it won't raise as much as the Ghostbusters boardgame. It will be interesting to see what both of these franchises manage to raise via Kickstarter when they reach the end of their funding periods. And I'm sure when both have closed on Kickstarter I'll write some fluff piece comparing how the campaigns went and commenting on the totals raised. I may even try to make myself sound intellectual and know what I'm talking about (I know that will be amazingly hard).

click here to go back the game

Lego Minifig Stuff

Had some new arrivals today. First up straight from the U.S. some cowboy hats, a couple of flat caps, a couple of trilbes, and some six shooters.

The flat caps and the trilbe are for the hipster figure I'm creating. I have one more cap coming before I decide which is the one I like best for completing the figure. Once that arrives I'll write a third and final post on the hipster figure.
Next up I was able to source off eBay the parts I wanted from a particular Indiana Jones lego set that I need for another project which you will see the fruits of in May.

Remember my post about Android:Netrunner from the weekend? I used my Hacktivist figure for that post. Well I want to be able to depict the conflict between runner and corporation, so I've sourced some business minifigs to represent the corporation side of the Android:Netrunner. Can you guess which minifig is on its way that is the ultimate representation of a corporation?

Finally today also from eBay came a vintage Lego minifig astronaut. I think this was one of the first minifigs I played with as a kid/teenager.
Mum got me a series 13 minifig today, but I'd already got the Egyptian guard/warrior so it was kept for the parts. I don't mind doubles when it comes to minifigs as I do as I have here and use them to build up my spare parts to make other figures with.
I also got the latest copy of Blocks, a magazine about Lego. I particularly want to read the building a Star Wars arm article.

 

Creation of the hipster part 2

lego minifigs

As expected the minifigs.me bits arrived today. Which means the alternate head arrived. This one has more “hipster” like glasses on it, they are meant to be wire frames! But also a couple of beanies were also in the order, along with a tile made to look like an iPad (this will be added to my minifig of me as a lecturer). There is also a cowboy/trilby hat and two more tiles to add to the hipster in the form of a record sleeve and a smartphone.

For me a lot of the time the accessories can make or break a minifig like this.

Now I know these two accessories along with the star bricks coffee really do add to this minifig being a hipster.

When designing a minifig I really should sketch out, however badly a plan for the figure. At the moment the design lives in my head. I then spend ages trawling the sites looking for the bits that look right for what I'm trying to create. Luckily so far I have found the bits I want on the sites. Which means for the moment I haven't had to create my own custom parts, nor have I had to create custom decals. At some point down the road I can see myself getting a 3D printer!

So while this model is getting close to being finished, I'm just awaiting the flat cap from the U.S. now as the finishing touch for this figure. I do prefer the new head for this figure, but what do you think? Which head do you prefer?

 

Creation of the hipster part 1

lego minifigs

Today some of the parts for the hipster minifig I'm creation arrived from Firestarter Toys. As you can see from the photo below I got some beards, black legs, and two different hoodies, a head with glasses, a latte, and two bases.

So I've thrown some of the elements together to create an initial version of the hipster. The flat cap is in the postal system somewhere between the U.S. and here, and an alternative head is also on its way from minifigs.me
Once all the bits have arrived I play around to get the perfect combination to make the hipster. In the meantime I can decide between the hoodies, I think the one in the photo is the right one for this model based on the source photo (see Sunday's gaming post).

 

Great Start To The Week

lego minifigs, netrunner, star realms, tabletop

So the cape for Bane arrived today which I got through eBay, it looks really cool and finished off the minifig for me. The added bonus was a surprise free black cape. That was pretty cool, and now being so easily bribed heck when I need to get some ponchos guess where I'll be looking first for them?

Then this evening from The Entertainment Centre at the heart of the capital of the universe Wisbech I got a great deal on the Western Emmet from The Lego Movie. Which looks, wait for it… AWESOME!
They also got in a Jason Vorhees Pop! figure which now joins the Black Widow and Lady Sif I have. I had promised myself I wouldn't become that guy who buys these sort of things (oh hark look at the minifig collector getting high and mighty). Sadly that pusher of such things Bouncy at The Entertainment Centre has hooked me in, and turned me into that guy! Mind you I had seen Jason in a Facebook feed Friday, thought it looked pretty cool, low and behold Bouncy the Walter White of Videogames and merchandise in Wisbech goes and gets it in! He's evil I tell you.

A couple of firsts happened today, I finally got to play Star Realms using the physical cards. I also played with the cards from the event packs mixed in. Good grief the Megahaulin card is powerful. It seemed a little weird playing with cards, less random. The cards also felt better distrubuted when being dealt into the trade row. It was fun, and I'm not just saying that because I won.

Finally thanks to a friend I had my first game of Netrunner using a learning deck created by my friend. I was playing a hacker deck. I won, but did really enjoy the game. I can sadly seeing myself getting into this game big time. Curses another game for the collection. I'm looking forward to my next game, and learning the game better. I can see myself tending towards playing hackers over the corporate side.