LEGO Daniel is all bundled up for the cold winter weather.

And he's been building snow sculptures, such as this classic minifigure!



He also built this snow owl! (Not to be confused with the snowy owl.)



Then there's this Classic Space snowman who rocks the snow guitar!

LEGO sets based on The LEGO Movie!

I recently talked a little bit about The LEGO Movie that is coming out early next year, as well as the possibility of sets being based on the movie. If you haven't done so yet, you should check out the trailer for the movie, and then read that post I did. I guess I'll get a chance to get that cowlick hairpiece after all! It was announced today that they'll be making LEGO sets based on the movie.

Part of the press release also said that there will be a new line of 16 collectible minifigures based on new and "new again" characters from the movie. I don't want to get my hopes up, but between the sets and the 16 collectable minifigures, maybe we'll get to see one of my favorite characters from the trailer...

Bring on that 1980's-something space guy!

My Custom Classic Space Minifigure

Using my flea market LEGO minifigures and photoshop, I made this Classic Space figure in the style of the original minifigures.

Obviously the logo is just put on there with photoshop, but I'd love to get a Classic Space sticker so I can actually make it. It would actually be even closer to authentic, because I think the original minifigures only had stickers instead of printing.

The LEGO Movie, and some Flea Market LEGO!

I didn't expect to be that interested The LEGO Movie, but it looks pretty fun. I love that it resembles stop-motion, rather than having the blatant CGI look they usually use in LEGO movies. It's charming and actually has a LEGO feel. I also love that the "1980's-something space guy" has a cracked helmet and partially worn-off Classic Space logo. As probably anyone who ever owned those figures as a child knows, those details are so true to life. It would be pretty meta if they made sets based on the movie and had the space guy with a cracked helmet and partially worn-off logo. I don't know if that would be possible though. And the main character has a cowlick! As someone with a pretty unruly cowlick, if that piece exists, I want it! Anyway, this trailer really got through to this big old grump, and now I'm looking forward to seeing the movie.

I got some cool retro LEGO stuff from a flea market, including some very old minifigures that are in surprisingly good shape. I actually got these a while back, but hadn't gotten around to posting them. Seeing the trailer for The LEGO Movie motivated me to finally do so.

The first two of them are examples of the original minifigures, which were a precursor to the modern minifigures. I believe they were in sets from 1975 to 1978. They have arms and legs that don't move and a yellow head without a printed face. I never had any of these as a kid, probably because I wasn't born until the mid 80's. I was always aware of them, and found them appealing, so I thought it would be cool to own them now. And I was right! It is!

The other two figures are astronauts from the Classic Space line, which was sold from 1978 to 1987. They feature movable arms and legs, and they each have a simple smiley face. They're missing their air tanks, but that's fine. Other than that, and of course being in better condition, they're just like the space guy figure that's in The LEGO Movie. Also, the astronaut in white is just like the one on the shirt of LEGO Daniel!

I'm shocked by the condition these figures are in. Whereas my old LEGO toys were played with for over two decades, I'm guessing these figures were played with only a short time before being put away for maybe thirty years. The spacemen don't even have cracked chin straps! What kind of freak child owned these!?

I also bought a LEGO Idea Book, but from another vendor. It's pretty interesting that it's from around the same era as the figures I got. It was published in 1977, and it's also in pretty great condition. I have a LEGO Idea Book from 1990 and it is beat the hell up. So either this was also barely used, or it was owned by some other freak of a child who took ridiculously good care of his belongings. I bought it for $1, which is of course one penny more than it cost back in 1977.

I love LEGO Idea Books! They have so many fun little things to look at and make, and this one features those original minifigures. Here are a couple of examples of the things in this book:

This ferocious monster! That's how people unfairly see him anyway. But he's not hurting anyone. All he wants to do is dance!

There are also instructions to build what I can only assume is a man pushing a wheelbarrow filled with rolls of toilet paper.

Dancing monsters, toilet paper wheelbarrows... These scenarios could fuel a child's imagination for years!

Werewolf Balls, Spaceman Balls.

Here's a little update since I haven't posted anything in a while.

I went to a St. Patrick's Day party at my cousin Megan's house. We ate food, talked, played board games, played Rock Band (including the wonderful LEGO version). Here's a photo of some of us playing Rock Band. I'm the tall guy standing up.



A week later, I went to the mall with Patrick and Caleb. It was Caleb's first malltrip with us, and I was worried that our malling style was boring him, because we generally just wander around aimlessly, but I think we all had a good time.

We went to a toy store in the mall, and played in there for quite a while. This toy store always has cheap, statuesque "action" figures that don't come in any packaging, so it was quite easy to play with them, or mostly just posing them. I put a man with a gun riding a white tiger, shooting at a triceratops. There was a werewolf figure that I noticed was so detailed that it was actually anatomically correct. While it was wearing torn blue shorts, they were very tight, and you could easily see the bulges where his penis and testicles were. Whoever designed that figure must have been such a perfectionist. I made the anatomically correct werewolf ride a horse.

When we went to the food court to eat dinner, there was a new Chinese restaurant right next door to the Chinese restaurant we usually get food at when we're at the mall. We were walking past the new restaurant to get to our usual place when we were intercepted by a young man giving out samples of chicken. Then we noticed our usual place also had a person out in front aggressively handing out chicken samples. The other restaurants in the food court must have felt that these two competing Chinese restaurants giving out samples were making them look bad, or maybe it just got them into the competitive spirit too, because several other restaurants were giving out free samples of their food too. If we had just walked one lap around the food court collecting free samples, we probably would have gotten the equivalent of an entire meal, and I'm not exaggerating at all.

The Borders Books at the mall went out of business. I had no idea until we got there and the store was almost completely empty. There would be an almost completely empty shelf except for one lonely book I'd never heard of sitting there. We didn't even go in because it looked so depressing. Borders was probably my favorite store at the mall. Besides the fact that it just had so many things I'm interested in, it also stayed open an hour later than every other store in the mall, so even after most of the mall was closing, you could go hang out at Borders for a while before going home. Now when all the other stores close, there's no where to go except home. We walked by Borders again later, and it was completely empty. No books on any shelf, and there was a sign on the door that said "Closed". I assume it meant for good, so we practically watched it die. I looked in the window of that empty store with empty shelves, and a sign on the bookshelf ten feet in front of me said "True Crime". Well said, sign. Well said.

We also saw the movie Paul. I'm kind of shocked I haven't heard anyone talk about this movie, even though it's been over a week now since I saw it. It's seriously the best new comedy I've seen in ages. I didn't know much about it going in, aside from who played the three main characters, and I was expecting to at least enjoy myself, but I couldn't have guessed I'd be nearly as entertained as I was. There were so many wonderful actors showing up throughout the movie, including Sigourney Weaver (whose voice I recognized immediately), and there was a "phoned-in" cameo by one of my favorite filmmakers. There were so many references to science fiction movies that I love, but they were always really clever references. There was a lot of swearing, but it all had to do with the story, and was really funny swearing that I can guarantee you've never heard anything like before. The movie was also surprisingly pretty deep and intelligent. Anyone who is a fan of comedies, or a fan of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (from Spaced, Shaun Of The Dead, and Hot Fuzz), and anyone who is into Science Fiction needs to go see the movie.

Also, I guess I should mention I finally took a driving test today and passed. I now have a license to drive.