I just got back from an evening bike ride.

I'm not sure what the difference is between a tortoise and a turtle, but I saw one of the two. Its identity will forever remain a mystery, because I couldn't decipher any of the information on wikipedia, and I figured the shelled reptile wouldn't reply to me yelling "WHAT ARE YOU!?"

I stopped to hang out with it for a little while. It very slowly turned its head to look at me, and then we just stared at each other for about five minutes, sharing a comfortable silence. Then I said bye to my reptilian friend and rode off into the sunset. Except I guess I was actually riding away from the sunset. Do they ever do that at the end of movies?

This is LEGO Carter.

He knocked on my door to ask if he could have a banana, then left.

LEGO Kiddiefigures: Star Wars Edition

May the Fourth be with you. And no, I have not suddenly developed a lisp... It's Star Wars Day!

Honestly though, for me, every day is Star Wars Day.

In the past 15 years, LEGO has had many licensed themes, including Star Wars. But before the company acquired those licenses, we had to make our own versions of those themes with our own LEGO collections. I think it takes a lot of creativity and imagination not to have special pieces that are made specifically for these characters. I came up with an idea a few months ago for a special approach to building LEGO minifigures where you only use pieces that existed before LEGO released the official theme, which in my case, for the most part is actually how I made these characters into minifigures when I was a kid. I call them Kiddiefigures. I like the idea of capturing the classic LEGO aesthetic by incorporating kind of outdated pieces, such as the classic smiley face.

So here are my Star Wars LEGO Kiddiefigures, Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader.

More amusing LEGO minifigures.

This time I'd like to introduce you to Sparkles, the sleeveless wizard. And his brave companion is Buzz Lightyear of Star Clan. He's like a Frank Frazetta version of the popular Toy Story character.



I just thought it was funny to have the Buzz Lightyear head on that shirtless, muscular torso.

Sometimes I make LEGO minifigures that amuse me.

Although I guess all minifigures amuse me at some level. This one is simple. It's the statue of liberty with a fish for a torch.

I made some LEGO movie minifigures.

But not The LEGO Movie. These are characters from movies.



Gwynplaine from the 1928 silent movie The Man Who Laughs, and Edward from the 1990 Tim Burton movie Edward Scissorhands.

LEGO Hess Truck

I've always associated Hess Trucks with Christmas. My brother and I got all the toy Hess Trucks for Christmas they released from 1985 to 1988, and there were those very Christmasy commercials for them on television. We also used to go gift shopping at a mall where there was a Hess station right nearby.

I've been reminiscing, and I got inspired to build a LEGO Hess Truck!





I'm quite proud of it. A tractor trailer is kind of a departure from the things I normally build. I wish I could get the lights to light up, but it's good enough as it is.