Vulture discovers talons are rubbish for building Lego's International Space Station The Register's resident brick botherer picked up Lego's new International Space Station (ISS). But is it any good? The ISS set has its origins in the Danish toy maker's Ideas programme, which has furnished enthusiasts with the likes of the mighty Saturn V set over the years. This take by builder XCLD, a scaled-down version of …
"change the Lego Saturn V to Skylab configuration"
I've done this with mine (instructions here), I should probably take a picture because it does look pretty cool.
Still waiting for my official set to show up, but at work I have a mini Lego ISS on top of my computer.
There's plenty of potential for recreating scenes from a film for example, taking advantage of LEGO's primary feature, i.e. its take-apart-ability.
Um, it seems to me that that is not something that Lego encourages these days. My godson got a Saturn V two years ago for Xmas. I watched him build it and, all the while, thought to myself "okay, and when that's done, then what ?".
The number of custom pieces in Lego sets these days tells me that Lego has abandoned creativity in order to just sell toys that you have to build yourself and cannot do anything else with once it's done.
My Lego years are over, but I find my two large suitcases full of bricks infinitely superior to what Lego is churning out these days.
> The number of custom pieces in Lego
Why, you still can buy the generic pieces, don't you? The "sets" are just more publicity-worthy. There is obviously more "wow" factor in a Lego ISS than in a heap of bricks.
I don't think they are aimed at the same public either: Generic bricks are for inventing and building all kind of stuff, but not everyone is able to invent cool-looking things out of a random heap of multicolored plastic rectangles. Some clearly prefer to be told "connect piece A to piece B - look what a nice thing you're building here".
Just saying. (I personally would prefer the heap of generic bricks, but I admit that's me. I've been building all kind of crazy stuff with them when I was young.)
I remember purchasing my youngest son (a prolific Lego builder with an enormous collection of bricks - mainly purchased in job lots from car boot sales at knockdown prices) a book of lego designs for 'interesting things'. He thought it was great and carried on taking some of the designs and constructing increasingly bizarre electromechanical widgets that swung/crawled/shed dangerous lego bits arond his bedroom and the house in general. One of my best purchases (at retail costs) was a 'lego hoover'. It saved many a foot injury and the early introduction to the kids of creative anglo saxon.
Nothing stops you from using the custom pieces in other ways.
My older granddaughter is also 7, and she's been playing with Lego since she was 2. She has a bunch of sets from various collections (mostly DC Superheroes, Harry Potter, and Frozen), and we do all sorts of things with them after the official build. All sorts of stories have been played out with odd characters and chimerical monsters in bizarre vehicles and Frankenhouses.
And all the sets I've seen have plenty of generic parts, too.
If only the ISS was in a geosynchronous orbit...
Although even then, assuming you could build several hundred miles of track and bolt them together, you've still got hundreds of other physics / engineering challenges to overcome (including protecting the track from space debris).
Cool idea for a Sci-fi flick though...
For those on a limited budget, try Blox (available in WIlkinson's in the UK).
There is a Space Shuttle (on an amusingly far too-small gantry) among other things, and it's about 1/3 of the price of Lego (but is compatible).
My 11yo daughter spends most of her spare cash on the stuff-it's taking over the house....
Bargain so far, at Xmas, a 2ft long racing car transporter, with pits, tools and 2 cars (160 stages in the instructions) - £17 in the sale.
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