#Particularly building and customizing minifigs

[fantasybots]

Now that sexbot has a name, my tanuki girl also needs a name.

She's kind of a dork, and honestly is kind of a shut-in. Most of her social interaction comes from going to cons and that sort of thing because she doesn't like being disguised as a human.

[captainignatiuspigheart]

When I first saw the Child at the end of the first episode in The Mandalorian I was delighted, and very possibly in love. Disney managed the incredible feat of keeping the world from revealing that a baby Yoda was the show’s star, or at least it did for those watching Disney+ in the US. Thankfully I’d been watching along too, otherwise I’d have been unable to avoid the spoilers in the months before it became available in the UK and elsewhere. I’m so glad I did!

One of the most intriguing aspects of having maintained this spoiler-free state is that for months there’s no official baby Yoda merch. This isn’t surprising as licensing tends to result in tonnes of leaked images and spoilers, particularly for LEGO. Right now we won’t get a proper LEGO version of the Child till September when he becomes available only in the £119.99 set of The Razor Crest. At 120 quid, that’s a bit steep for a baby Yoda. It’s an expensive set, even by LEGO Star Wars standards, at 12p per brick. The Razor Crest looks OK, but as with many Star Wars sets it’s a big grey lump and doesn’t excite me much. In the gaping absence of official baby Yodas (because a pluralised “the Childs” just sounds weird), China’s bootleg factories have gone into overdrive. Collecting them has become a slight obsession… 

Basic Childs (see, reads horribly.)

The first one popped up quickly on eBay, before, I think we had any sight of the future LEGO version. It’s a basic (and quickly done) repaint of the existing LEGO babies mould (fucking creepy things), with ears stuck on. It’s not terrible, and is quite cute. His “basicness” feels a little like something LEGO might actually do. The little mini capes flap around quite annoyingly till you press them down firmly. He was my first, so he feels kinda special… he cost £2.95 with a Mandalorian minifigure at the end of January.

Number two popped up a week later. The body is identical, as are the pair of capes, one rectangular on the front and a rounded version on the back. This time he’s got a rather nicely sculpted head, much like the official LEGO Yoda, but scaled down and up-cuted. He was a bargain at £1.65! With the immovable arms I figured he was pretty close to what we’d end up with. 

The Child #1

The Child #2

With Trash Baby for comparison

Yoda Evolution

If there was one thing missing, it was the iconic space pram that baby Yoda follows Mister Shiny Helmet around in. I’d been looking at a few ways to build one, but then was spared by China coming through once again.  Number three cost a bit more – the bank-breaking sum of £3.99, but finally came with his little carriage.  Along with the space pram came a complete re-design. This chap’s larger, more lime green, and waaaaay angrier-looking. Clearly tired of LEGO’s somewhat freaky babies, this little chap has moveable arms (and indeed hands that plug into the wrist holes like regular minifigures) with a nice scarf accessory. The pram is quite neatly done, if a bit loose in its fitting. There’s an antistud on the base and four studs inside to choose whether you want the lid to close when the child is inside or not. I think it’s rather good, and although he is very angry, I find him rather adorable. The pram is of course MASSIVE though, as you can see when hes hanging out with Mando. Note that the first pic with Mando below is the official Din Djarin figure, and the second is the newer bootleg version with shiny beskar armour.

The Child #3

Poseable!

OK components

Hello!

Sleep tight.

Then It Got… Hideous

At this point I lost all power to not buy these things. The next two that popped up showed up in mid April, just a few days after space pram boy. They were of somewhat lesser quality, but I was committed. First up, Child number three. He’s a repaint of the usual LEGO (knock-off mould) Yoda figure with mini-legs, and larger eyes literally coloured with marker pen, as far as I can tell, since they started rubbing off immediately. The head is also hard and spiky at the back, y’know, like Yoda’s… On the other hand, they’ve put some effort into the design, adding clothing patterns to all sides of the minifig body, legs and arms, which rather endears him to me more. This chap was the princely sum of £3.49!

And then this one happened. It looks OK at a distance, but close up or next to anything else and he’s a freak monster. This chap’s completely unarticulated, and he’s pretty much a single lump of horrifying plastic. But he does come with a mug, enabling him to empty his bone broth on the ground… Bizarrely for his outlandish size, he is still intended for LEGO system, four studs wide and three deep, allowing him to fit onto other plates with ease. Looks like he’s had a few too many plates of something. This monster was also £3.49, and I feel I’ve been repaid with nightmares.

Aaaaargh!

Kill it with fire

Wait, You Must, for Good Things There Are 

Just a week later (I know, I know, this is getting ridiculous), possibly the best little dude ever appeared! For £3.95 (someone on eBay’s definitely seen me coming…). This little guy gives me the same feeling I did when the Mandalorian rescued baby Yoda from the Empire: intense fuzziness. He’s a bit bigger, but they’ve done a lovely job moulding his head to be super-appealing. He’s a smarter construction too – a regular size minifigure body, albeit with little custom arms and hands that can’t hold anything, plugged into a neat, um, I don’t know what to call this… body socket? with a ruff on top. Size-wise he feels more like the usual LEGO difference between an adult and child character, with lots of very nice detailing. Goddamn, he’s adorable.    

The Child #6

In Semi-Conclusion…

Obviously number six is the best all-round, but how close are any of them to what LEGO has planned? Honestly, I’m a little disappointed. Clearly, he fits into the usual LEGO sizing and design scheme, and has lovely big eyes and cute face, but after seeing so many other versions, I’m not that into him. I’ll almost certainly pick up a copy of him split out from the Razor Crest set.

Official LEGO

The Child #2

The Child #6

You’ll be extremely unsurprised that I’ve got at least another two on the way… though they’re mostly for their space pram variants! I think the whole thing is a fascinating example of what happens when they’re a gap in licensing, and I’m oddly inspired by the resulting creativity.

I’ll do another post like this when I receive the others, and another one comparing the Mandolorian designs for Din Djarin himself. Do you have a favourite? Let me know!

Bootlego Baby Yodas – I’ve been obsessed with collecting knock-off versions of the Child, waiting for official The Mandalorian LEGO to come out! Showcase time (warning, some are hideous!) #LEGO #mando #thechild #mandalorian https://wp.me/pbprdx-8Ff When I first saw the Child at the end of the first episode in The Mandalorian 

[gumshoeblog]

I bought all the Overwatch LEGO sets. These are the best.

I love Overwatch. I love LEGO. When the two combined, I couldn’t resist buying all of the themed sets that LEGO released at the start of 2019.

If you’re not quite as enamored with this geeky peanut butter-and-jelly combination as I am, or if you’re on a limited budget and you want to know which sets are the best, I’m here to break it down for you. The list follows from best to worst, with a particular emphasis on the quality of the sets compared to Overwatch’s fantastic character design. Here we go!

The Best: Big Bastion ($50)

If you only get one Overwatch LEGO set, make it this one. The only one of the bunch not at least attempting to build to minifig scale gets a lot of freedom in its design, and it’s a lot better for it. This guy stands about ten inches tall, from the top of his rotating turret gun to the bottom of his surprisingly stable feet. He transforms into turret mode, his head lights up with a special LED brick (no external batteries necessary), and he gets a little buildable Ganymede (that’s the bird) to keep him company.

Bastion’s robotic character design is ideal for a big, beefy LEGO set, and little touches like the decals on his shoulder plates and knobbly accents on his legs really stand out. It looks fantastic on a shelf. The transforming design means you get a lot of flexibility in posing him, too, which is a problem with the tank set below.

The turret mode isn’t all that exciting in and of itself---LEGO isn’t as flexible as polygonal models, after all--and they couldn’t squeeze in a tank mode. But posing Bastion in his standard mode is great fun, and the build is surprisingly simple for such a complex result. It’s the hardest set of the series, and even so, I’d say a ten-year-old would have no problem getting through it.

The Next Best: D.Va and Reinhardt ($40)

The set that probably has people most excited is the combination of two tanks in one box, the Korean mech pilot D.Va and the geriatric German knight Reinhardt. And they’re definitely some of the highlights of the series. If you’re a fan of either character you’ll love the way they’ve been modeled here. Both the MEKA and Reinhardt’s armor look fantastic posed.

Both six-inch tanks come with minifigs: D.Va in her “baby” mobile form and Reinhardt in a miniature version of his armor, which can also be accessorized with a tiny hammer. That said, the scaling is weird: while both match the rest of the minifigs in the other sets, the mech and the armor are about twice the size that they should be at minifig scale---though I appreciate this was the only way to get them both inside with any detail. I do like the inclusion of a sans-helmet Reinhardt option, complete with his flowing snowy locks. The character is so expressive in the game it would be a shame to hide him behind a helmet all the time.

The gamer decals on the MEKA and the bits of livery on the armor are fantastic. But both knight and mech are very unbalanced, and need to be posed in specific ways to keep from tipping over. I wish Reinhardt came with some kind of shield, and D.Va’s mech has only one canon on each arm, instead of the distinctive triple rotating guns in the game. It’s the one sore spot in an otherwise fantastic translation of the game model. I also wish there was some way to secure D.Va inside the mech---she just kind of sits in there, rattling around whenever you move the model.

Even so, both were great fun to build. They’re ideal for desktop companions if you’d like to show off your gaming habits in LEGO form.

The Rest: Dorado Showdown ($30), Tracer vs. Widowmaker ($15), Hanzo vs Genji ($20)

The smallest three sets with minifigs have a focus on the stages themselves: Dorado, Gibraltar, and Hanamura, respectively. They’re also good choices if you want quick, easy builds with a bit of Overwatch flavor, without having to dedicate an hour or more to setting them up.

Among the three, Dorado takes the definite lead. This set includes Soldier 76, Reaper, and McCree, plus the hovertruck payload and a stage-themed arch and market stall. The elements really come together nicely, with minifig scale working well between all of them. The truck is particularly nice as a translation of the game model, with plenty of places to stick the minifigs for posed battles.

Next comes Tracer vs Widowmaker, the cheapest set of the whole line. There’s no scenery to be had between these two rivals, but they can duke it out over a nice rendition of the Gibraltar spaceship payload. The Tracer minifig in particular is a highlight, with her dual-wield pistols, mop head hair, and translucent “blink” trail.

Genji and Hanzo get a minifig recreation of their battle from the Dragons animated short. The Japanese castle interior is nice, but the inclusion of action pieces that shoot dragon-themed discs is kind of forced, and the Yakuza lackey minifig (the only one in the series not of a playable character) is unnecessary. You’re buying this for the great Shimada brothers minifigs.

The Ones To Skip: Watchpoint Gibraltar ($90) and Omnic Crisis Bastion ($25)

The biggest and most expensive set is Watchpoint: Gibraltar, a recreation of the game stage with no less than four minifigs. And these minifigs are popular heroes that many will want: Mercy, Pharah, a wonderful BigFig Winston, and a repeat Reaper with a special smoky shadowstep bottom option.

Unfortunately these figures are saddled with a huge and underwhelming spaceship and launch tower. The ship itself actually has some cool elements, like a pop-out deployment module, crew quarters, and pilot cockpit. But the spaceship at the end of the Gibraltar stage is never part of the actual game, so the massive 15-inch long shuttle feels unnecessary at best, as if LEGO just needed a big set piece for the most expensive Overwatch box on the shelf. (The Overwatch team dropship, the starting point of many maps, would have been a better choice.) 

The launchpad and tower, while having some nice high spots to stick Mercy and Pharah, are likewise mostly unnecessary. Maybe this set would have been better if it had been combined with the Tracer vs Widowmaker set, which includes the themed payload, as the manual none-too-subtly reminds you.

The minifigs are a bit of a mixed bag as well. Winston looks fantastic, but Mercy and Pharah are a bit simple, and Reaper can be had in a much cheaper set, sans the admittedly cool shadowstep feature. All in all, this is one to skip unless you want another rather generic LEGO spaceship or you just have to have Mercy, Pharah, or Winston---its price just isn’t justified by its weak connection to the games.

There’s one last set you won’t find on store shelves: Omnic Crisis Bastion. This much smaller, orange-skinned version of the cheerful robot is exclusive to Blizzard’s online merch store, and it comes with its own placard stand and Ganymede in a matching cardinal skin. This one fits in well with the D.Va and Reinhardt tanks at five inches high, though it’s still way too big to match minifig scale.

With no mode transform option, only two decals on the shoulders, and a high $25 price tag for just 182 pieces, Omnic Crisis Bastion is only for those who love the character but can’t find a place for the much bigger, better Bastion. I have to assume that, since it came out in October, Blizzard wanted a LEGO Overwatch set for its store before Christmas.

Omnic Crisis Bastion is an “exclusive,” and unlike the other widely-distributed sets that can be found in most retail stores stocking LEGO, it may be hard to find later. But even if it is, it won’t be worth the effort.

Minifig Breakdown

Once again I’ll go from best to worst.

Tracer is the face of Overwatch, so it’s good that they nailed her minifig (especially since it appears on all the retail LEGO boxes). Her spiny pistols are faithfully depicted with a few translucent pieces, and the “blink” effect on her backpack looks great and lets her balance while holding the heavy guns. The custom spiky hair is spot-on. LEGO could have left her legs plain orange without much grumbling, but they added a few splashes of paint for straps.

The Winston BigFig is a close second. The Hulk-style figure is a natural fit for his gorilla frame, and both Winston’s torso and arms get custom moldings. His tesla gun and jetpack are both made from only stock pieces with decals, but they’re still very good approximations of the game models. Winston’s also the only tank that fits in with the scale of the other minifigs.

Genji and Hanzo are probably the best minifigs in terms of accessories. Genji’s iconic helmet is rendered well---no face underneath, so you can’t peek. Genji gets his sword and several shurikens, plus a scabbard. Hanzo gets his bow and a quiver for his back, with the single flesh toned arm and custom hair with bandanna insert being highlights.

For a character that’s little more than a cowboy with a few bits of armor, McCree looks great, with excellent painted patterns on both the chest and legs. I love the little detail of a grey left hand, since McCree’s arm is robotic. I just wish they’d given him a custom hat with his Blackwatch band...or painted a tiny “BAMF” on his belt buckle (though I can guess why they left it off).

The Reapers are pretty good: one included in the Dorado set, another in Gibraltar with an optional shadowstep bottom. Granted, it’s hard to get Reaper wrong. Even the oversized shotguns, much bigger than the game model, fit with Reaper’s ridiculous character design. But it is the start of a trend in overscaled guns with these figs.

The “baby” D.Va minifig is also simple, but effective. Her custom hair and headset work well---note the grey and pink paint. And while her gun isn’t custom, it’s all that’s needed to approximate her in-game pistol. A secondary face, complete with bubblegum, is a great inclusion.

Widowmaker’s minifig is serviceable, with a nice custom hair mold that includes paint for her visor. But I wish the visor could fold down---it’s not like LEGO hasn’t done this before. The sniper rifle made out of stock pieces is oversized and looks nothing like her curvy, expandable gun. I know toy guns aren’t a huge focus for LEGO, but it doesn’t even have a rifle stock, just a handle from a smaller gun piece. Widow gets a hook, but no line or separate piece for her to hang from, a la the Spider-Man LEGO sets. 

Soldier 76 suffers from some of the same problems. He’s painted well with good contrasting colors, but his multi-piece gun is ridiculously massive. It’s bigger than the sniper rifle or Pharah’s rocket, and again, looks nothing like Soldier’s intricate machine gun. This character really deserves a custom weapon.

Reinhardt’s minifig is almost unnecessary, since he’s always in his armor. But perhaps being aware of the odd scale of the tank set, LEGO painted a tiny version of his armor on the minifig and includes instructions for a scale-appropriate hammer. Still, seeing Rein as the same size as D.Va and Widow just looks odd. At least they included a hair piece for when you want to see his face outside of the helmet. The tank set also has a spare Overwatch team medallion, as seen in the Honor and Glory short.

Pharah is a let-down. The shoulder pads and attached “wings” don’t do a good job approximating her flight suit---these look like pieces recycled from a Nexo Knights set, with none of the fins or pieces her Iron Man-style getup really needs. The helmet looks good, but there’s no sign of Pharah’s hair or distinctive beads. And finally, there’s no way to elevate her, no jet effects. How can justice rain from above when she’s on the ground? At least her rocket is both correctly-sized and shoots a tiny capsule. 

Mercy is easily the most disappointing of the Overwatch minifigs. The wings attached to her backpack are stock “angel” wings, not the high-tech gliders from the game. Her caduceus staff is just a stick and a hook. And her skin tone face printed on an all-black head looks washed out and doesn’t match the colors of the rest of her outfit. Nice paint on the chest and leg pieces can’t save it. This figure is a big stumble for one of the game’s most visible characters.

If these complaints sound like nit-picks, well, they are. But in a game with an overwhelming amount of attention paid to character design, the Overwatch minifigs would inevitably be the focus of their LEGO sets. They range from great to embarrassing, so if you’re trying to buy a set with your favorite character included, choose accordingly.