Anyone here collect toys/Action Figures?

[SignOfGoob]

I got one of those overpriced “adult” Lego sets for Xmas. It’s a Fender Stratocaster, so I guess it’s far from the stupidest thing they make. It’s somehow well over 1000 pieces which is about the same as the VW bus I built some time ago and I’m not sure why because it doesn’t really do anything.

It isn’t bootleg, so I didn’t remind me of M even a little.

 

[neo_mao]

I got one of those overpriced “adult” Lego sets for Xmas. It’s a Fender Stratocaster, so I guess it’s far from the stupidest thing they make. It’s somehow well over 1000 pieces which is about the same as the VW bus I built some time ago and I’m not sure why because it doesn’t really do anything.

It isn’t bootleg, so I didn’t remind me of M even a little.

Do you have kids? My family got me a technic car awhile back and I was like okay but turned out to be a fun rainy day project to come back to every now and then with them.

Couldn’t imagine building those sets in 1 sitting though, I think i’d go nuts.

 

[@M]

Last set I built (yesterday): MOC C355 "Constitution Class U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701". Only 199 pcs., so, it wasn't too bad to do. Just $10 on Amazon too!

 

[SignOfGoob]

Do you have kids? My family got me a technic car awhile back and I was like okay but turned out to be a fun rainy day project to come back to every now and then with them.

Couldn’t imagine building those sets in 1 sitting though, I think i’d go nuts.

I built a few with my girlfriend and with those huge sets of 1000+ parts that’s the way to do it. Lego like that is like a jigsaw puzzle…that is 20x the price. Indeed doing all that crap alone, one 1000 piece Lego kit after another…setting them all next to each other on shelf as if it were an actual craft…but it isn’t because every model is exactly identical to every one ever built…like millions obviously must be doing…that’s a pretty pathetic existence, and a lot of dusting.

My seven year old has built a lot of Lego sets with us. Many. Many many. Usually the City stuff. I never buy the licensed crap. To be honest City is and has always been by favorite. That Pizza Truck that came out a few years ago was some of the most fun I’ve ever had with anything and it takes like 15 minutes to built. I’d take whatever this year’s fire station is over any set.

 

[SouthtownKid]

Last set I built (yesterday): MOC C355 "Constitution Class U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701". Only 199 pcs., so, it wasn't too bad to do. Just $10 on Amazon too!

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How in the fuck is that rinky-dink tiny chunk of nothing 199 pieces? Are you sure you didn't misplace a decimal point? It looks like someone made a model of the Enterprise and then Lego de-rezzed it.

 

[@M]

Piece counts can be deceptive, the size of the bricks (i.e., 24 1x1 plates are the same size as a single 2x8 block) also matters. It's not huge, but this Enterprise is 9" long with a 4" diameter saucer. While I didn't count the pieces myself, the box said 199, and I don't see any reason to question that number.

 

[SignOfGoob]

How in the fuck is that rinky-dink tiny chunk of nothing 199 pieces? Are you sure you didn't misplace a decimal point? It looks like someone made a model of the Enterprise and then Lego de-rezzed it.

The Lego guitar I got for Xmas is 4” wide and it’s 1000 pieces. An actual guitar is like 50.

The Lego Voltron they did a while back has to be like 15 or 20 times as many parts as a decent Voltron toy.

“Use more parts to make something worse” is their market.

 

[@M]

A building block set is exactly that. Your complaint that they have more parts than the objects they're based on is like being upset that a jigsaw puzzle has more pieces than a photograph.

 

[SignOfGoob]

A building block set is exactly that. Your complaint that they have more parts than the objects they're based on is like being upset that a jigsaw puzzle has more pieces than a photograph.

I understand that to an extent…but at some point it just becomes stupid. The Lego Voltron is more expensive that a SoC version, vastly shittier, falls apart, etc. Why not make it out of mud?

Something as huge and expensive and space consuming as a 2300 piece Lego Voltron is weird to me because it’s too complicated for an actual child but it’s too infantile for an adult who holds a job. Meanwhile actual Voltron toys are being made by actual kids in China and they are WAY better.

Maybe if you never taught yourself how to draw, and your parents never let you play with paint because it’s too dangerous and you don’t think sewing and knitting are manly enough and you’re allergic to wood so you can’t whittle or do cabinet making and you’re afraid of glue because of that time your friend glued his figures together and you can’t paint Holliday decorations or do gardening or literally ANYTHING creative with your hands then it makes sense to be deathly afraid of any hobby that doesn’t have “Lego TM” written in front of the name of it then maybe it makes sense. For everyone else I recommend more exposure to a broader range of hobbies. You have the creative scope of someone who’s voluntarily never left their wheelchair.

Like…get one of those black felt posters that comes with all the markers you need to color it. Try moving up to that level…or maybe just Presto Magix. Anything. Not an app, something that produces an actual smell because it’s an actual thing.

 

[sirlynxalot]

People get a sense of accomplishment from making stuff. Lego taps into that.

I went to an art exhibit for large lego sculptures a few years ago that was heavily promoted in Boston. The exhibit played a video about the artist - basically he was a corporate lawyer in New York who decided he needed a break from his life so he decided to do the lego art, and using his connections and money he was able to get his stuff heavily promoted. The main deal with his art was that it was big, like its kind of novel to see a lego sculpture that's 6 feet tall... but a lot of it was replicas of other art. Like a giant lego version of the Egyptian Sphynx or Michelangelo's David sculpture. It really felt like a cop out. Does it really take artistic talent to make a replica of something else out of lego? In addition, the description of his process to make a "work" mentioned that he orders large quantities of specific legos directly from lego in order to make the works - so if he's making a sculpture of an egyptian pyramid, he calls up lego and orders thousands of yellow bricks to put together. My main takeaway from the exhibit was that the guy isn't really an artist in the same way that I think of someone who has significant learned artistic skill to paint interesting or detailed pictures or sculpt interesting stuff out of marble or so.

 

[terry.330]

I understand that to an extent…but at some point it just becomes stupid. The Lego Voltron is more expensive that a SoC version, vastly shittier, falls apart, etc. Why not make it out of mud?

Something as huge and expensive and space consuming as a 2300 piece Lego Voltron is weird to me because it’s too complicated for an actual child but it’s too infantile for an adult who holds a job. Meanwhile actual Voltron toys are being made by actual kids in China and they are WAY better.

Maybe if you never taught yourself how to draw, and your parents never let you play with paint because it’s too dangerous and you don’t think sewing and knitting are manly enough and you’re allergic to wood so you can’t whittle or do cabinet making and you’re afraid of glue because of that time your friend glued his figures together and you can’t paint Holliday decorations or do gardening or literally ANYTHING creative with your hands then it makes sense to be deathly afraid of any hobby that doesn’t have “Lego TM” written in front of the name of it then maybe it makes sense. For everyone else I recommend more exposure to a broader range of hobbies. You have the creative scope of someone who’s voluntarily never left their wheelchair.

Like…get one of those black felt posters that comes with all the markers you need to color it. Try moving up to that level…or maybe just Presto Magix. Anything. Not an app, something that produces an actual smell because it’s an actual thing.

 

[StevenK]

People get a sense of accomplishment from making stuff. Lego taps into that.

I went to an art exhibit for large lego sculptures a few years ago that was heavily promoted in Boston. The exhibit played a video about the artist - basically he was a corporate lawyer in New York who decided he needed a break from his life so he decided to do the lego art, and using his connections and money he was able to get his stuff heavily promoted. The main deal with his art was that it was big, like its kind of novel to see a lego sculpture that's 6 feet tall... but a lot of it was replicas of other art. Like a giant lego version of the Egyptian Sphynx or Michelangelo's David sculpture. It really felt like a cop out. Does it really take artistic talent to make a replica of something else out of lego? In addition, the description of his process to make a "work" mentioned that he orders large quantities of specific legos directly from lego in order to make the works - so if he's making a sculpture of an egyptian pyramid, he calls up lego and orders thousands of yellow bricks to put together. My main takeaway from the exhibit was that the guy isn't really an artist in the same way that I think of someone who has significant learned artistic skill to paint interesting or detailed pictures or sculpt interesting stuff out of marble or so.

So painting a picture of the Egyptian Sphinx wouldn't be art?

This guy isn't following a step by step instruction manual.

And criticising him for ordering the coloured bricks he needs is the weirdest complaint of all, what do you expect him to do, have a big box of old mixed up sets he's had since he was 4 years old? How do you think a sculptor gets his materials, scrapes bits of old cement off the floor in car lots?

 

[zaneiken]

I had a lot of small to mid-sized LEGO space sets when I was a kid, so these retro-remakes have been right up my alley.

 

[SouthtownKid]

Holy shit, I had the original one when I was a kid. They've added a shit ton of bullshit cheating custom parts to this version, though.

 

[zaneiken]

Holy shit, I had the original one when I was a kid. They've added a shit ton of bullshit cheating custom parts to this version, though.

What custom parts? I just see a lot of creative build techniques using already existing bricks. The canopy pieces aren't new either. Mind you, there have been a lot of different brick types since the original came out in 1979.
The only piece I've never seen before is the large black floor piece used for the cargo bay ramp.

 

[kernow]

 

[SouthtownKid]

What custom parts? I just see a lot of creative build techniques using already existing bricks. The canopy pieces aren't new either. Mind you, there have been a lot of different brick types since the original came out in 1979.
The only piece I've never seen before is the large black floor piece used for the cargo bay ramp.

Here's the original:

Canopy and rear spoiler are totally different, no smooth edge pieces for the wings. In those days, everything was made out of regular legos.

The new one is close enough that I could recognize it, plus I remembered the name, but it's a totally different kit.

 

[kernow]

 

[zaneiken]

Here's the original:


Canopy and rear spoiler are totally different, no smooth edge pieces for the wings. In those days, everything was made out of regular legos.

The new one is close enough that I could recognize it, plus I remembered the name, but it's a totally different kit.

It's not supposed to be a reissue of the original, but an updated, modern version of it. Like with cars.

 

[SouthtownKid]

It's not supposed to be a reissue of the original, but an updated, modern version of it. Like with cars.

Yeah, no shit. What part of my post caused you to think I didn't understand that?

 

[wataru330]

View attachment 61737

Does this particular model transform into a Zippo lighter?

 

[kernow]

Well. An s.t.dupont

 

[wataru330]

Well. An s.t.dupont

But of course.

 

[@M]

McFarlane Toys DC Multiverse Grifter. Jim Lee sold Wildstorm Studios to DC in late 1998, so, WildC.A.T.s belongs to them now. Grifter looks pretty good, but, I would have preferred his original Image Comics look, with bandoliers crossed over his chest and a trenchcoat, to these duds. Grifter is also a character I strongly associate with guns, so, I think this figure should have come with at least one of those (both of his hands even have trigger fingers for chrissakes). I don't recall him ever using a katana, maybe it's one of Zealot's?



For comparison, here's the original Playmates Grifter action figure:



Thinking about his design today, that mask is giving me strong Deadpool meets Hooded Cobra Commander vibes!

Addendum: Consulting with the guys in one of my toy groups, Warner Bros. has apparently forbidden guns in any toys of their (DC) characters, which is why this Grifter only has a knife and sword. Lame. McFarlane has released generic gun packs to get around that though. I'm glad that Disney (especially Star Wars & Marvel toys) isn't doing that shit!

 

[wyo]

I did a Lego