Shackleton's Endurance sets sail for polar peril in Lego

The debate as to whether Lego is a toy or not largely depends on your willingness to accept revisiting childhood excitement as an adult, especially when it's now far more likely to be you footing the bill than your parents. Much less contentious is how influential Lego has been to countless youngsters. As a model to construct …

[Anonymous Coward]

The Joy of Assembling

As a model to construct straight from the box, it was a test of dexterity and mental acuity, with a single missed or incorrectly placed piece potentially causing havoc many steps later.

Bless you, all models the SWMBO allows me to assemble are made by Ikea.

[that one in the corner]

Re: The Joy of Assembling

As luck would have it, the Ikea BYGGLEK boxes will help make a deep enough ice-scape for this model to ride at the water line. A few extra bricks to tweak things, and a little pile up at the bow, then you have a perfect floe for the minifigs to lay out their camera kit.

If you are in the Gateshead area (similar may apply elsewhere), Ikea is close enough to the LEGO store that you could get a pile of Ikea goodies and then sneak the Endurance kit into the house: a couple of TROFAST will do the trick.

And, of course, you can find the perfect display shelf (IVAR FTW).

[spold]

Re: The Joy of Assembling

"Swede Who Must Be Obeyed" given the IKEA thing? Tell her Lego is from Denmark and she might give you a permit. Incidentally, I once did an IT project in Denmark and I asked one of the locals how I could tell who was Danish, who was Norwegian, and who was Swedish. They replied that the Norwegian would be drunk and the Swede would be naked. I don't remember if he had a bacon sandwich in his hand at the time...

p.s. the latter would be a good thing, as otherwise he might be offering you a glass if Gammel Dansk which is distilled devil spawn with cough mixture in it.

[David 132]

Re: The Joy of Assembling

…and the Swede might offer you some Surströmming, the ambrosia of the Gods (…I typed with a straight face…)

[Sampler]

Re: The Joy of Assembling

I recently got an off-brand Johnny 5 with full remote control, it was a lot of fun to build and I loved that film as a kid.

It has just sort of sat on the kitchen table since though, need to find a nephew to hand it over to (and a copy of the film).

[Paul Crawford]

An excellent review of the model, have a beer!

[Sam not the Viking]

Accuracy

One of my favourite tales of yesteryear..... These people were made of sterner stuff than me.

After completion and display, the 'Endurance' model can be at least partially dismantled to represent the remains as-found on the bottom of the Weddell Sea.....

In the interests of balance, I also admire the Nansen's 'Fram', which was also used by Amundsen and is on display near Oslo. The display has been updated. If you have the inclination go and see it.

[alkasetzer]

Review and accompanying story.

Thank you for making me want yo buy this model, even with a significant other ban on more legos until expansion of places where to put them..

[RM Myers]

Well Crafted

Both the model and the article!

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

18+

Does this mean that model won't be available in a majority of US states without using a VPN ?

[chivo243]

That's a long project, better fire up the primus and have some hoosh!

[CorwinX]

And then there's...

Meccano and (showing my age) Denshi Blocks - still available but flashier than back then. Printed book giving instructions how to build circuits out of plug in blocks containing basic components - resistors, capacitors, transistors, diodes, etc. My kit could be used to build a working AM radio.

[David 132]

Re: And then there's...

I, too, had Denshi blocks. I remember buying the kit to upgrade the Gakken EX “frame” with a voltmeter-type gauge in place of its original blanking plate (ie EX-150 spec).

Thanks for the memories.

[Beornfrith]

Re: And then there's...

Author of the article here: I'd never heard of Denshi blocks until this post. It looks like they stopped being produced the year after I born but I think they'd have been right up my street!

I inherited a huge box of Lego as a boy and that was the basis of my play and experimentation as a youngster.

More electronic and technical interests followed suit alongside practical work, and a number of supporting bits of equipment and antennas behind the radio gear in my photo are self-built as a result.

[Anonymous Coward]

Lego was a toy

I think it stopped being so when they started making all the specialty bricks.

It’s still a toy of sorts, but more so for big kids.

[MrBanana]

Re: Lego was a toy

The speciality bricks jibe is not really true. The Lego community, and Lego themselves, are happy to re-purpose special pieces in new and unrelated builds. I've just done a build of the Lego bonsai tree and it uses a whole load of the miniature frog pieces to signify flower buds.

[Jellied Eel]

Re: Lego was a toy

Thats one of two things I've wondered about Lego, ie how many parts in this kit are specific to it, and how easy it is to use them in other builds. A bit like the choice of an aircraft propellor rather than a ships one, which seems a bit strange given I've seen a number of other ship kits. I guess that might be a scale thing? Or just a cunning plan to get people to buy multiple kits so they can turn hull segments into space ships.

T'other thing is why the left-pondians added an 's' to Lego.

[Ian Johnston]

Re: Lego was a toy

And changed the case. It's LEGO, not Lego or - shudder - Legos.

[phuzz]

Re: Lego was a toy

I imagine the sails in this kit would require some inspiration to use in a different build (Maybe as a shack roof? Or a hang-glider?), but everything else looks pretty standard (ie not bespoke for this kit).

My favourite re-use of a piece I've seen was a part usually used as a crow's nest on the pirate ships, which was used on the Saturn V model as the nozzle for the F1 engines.

[TchmilFan]

Re: Lego was a toy

I lost my Lego bonsai to a storage fire :-(

What I really liked about the tree was they gave you two sets "bricks" to switch between leaves or blossoms. (When it was out, I kept the blossoms on)

[nijam]

Another excellent Lego model ... but could you perhaps throw in a comment now and then about Lego's inability to supply their products in reusable packaging?

[leadyrob]

They're moving to more recyclable packaging. A Christmas present had a leaflet about the change from plastic to paper-based packaging.

LEGO.com/sustainable-packaging

[gfx]

Steam

Triple expansion steam engines have different size cylinders the high pressure one is smaller than the lower pressured ones.

[Beornfrith]

Re: Steam

I thought that, and while writing the article I looked up what scant information I could. I found a contemporary cutaway drawing of Endurance and it shows an engine with three identically-sized cylinders.

I'm not very well versed in steam engines and don't know if it's possible to build a triple-expansion engine in this way. It might be more likely that the illustrator got it wrong and Lego copied the illustration!

[phuzz]

Re: Steam

At least with a Lego model it's easy to change it.

[mickaroo]

Read The Book...

I picked up 'South!' as the make-weight third book in a 3-for-$15 book sale bin.

By page 20, I was totally hooked! There are parts where the comment 'You couldn't write this stuff' seem literally true.

Buy the book, then build the model.

That's what I'm going to do.

[PerlyKing]

Re: Read The Book...

I'm not sure if that's the book I read, as I later lent it to someone and haven't got it back >:-( But the story is definitely one for the ages.

It bears repeating:

“For scientific discovery give me Scott; for speed and efficiency of travel give me Amundsen; but when disaster strikes and all hope is gone, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton.”

Something which isn't always mentioned is the support expedition on the Aurora which set up supply dumps on the other side of Antarctica. That ship also became icebound, stranding the shore party which completed its mission and lost three men in the process.

[eoink]

I hope Tom Crean is one of the human models. He's a legend in the part of Ireland I grew up in.

[Beornfrith]

Sadly not. Given the huge part he played in several expeditions it's a shame how little he's mentioned in general, including in the very interesting recent documentary. I gather that reflects some of his own attitude towards talking about his involvement, as he (apparently) rarely spoke about the expeditions.

I made sure his name did appear in the article though.

[SecretSonOfHG]

What a great mix of building and storytelling

Had a great time reading. Thanks

[J. Cook]

Sadly, I cannot partake in this model- what little display space I have is taken up by the two lego models I have already (the D&D set and the "Majestic Tiger" model.

I really need to dig out that large tote filled with various bricks n peices, and maybe take a month (or two) amassing the containers to sort everything out proper-like.