I’ve been subscribing to the Lego Master Builder Academy for a while now. It’s the replacement to the bi-monthly unrelated Lego sets. What’s nice is it means I have a tidy little box of Lego meant for building on a small to micro scale. I keep it beside the couch and on occasion actually get the chance to doodle. This, is one of those.

I’m not sure how it happened, but subconsciously I almost always default to building space ships. I guess because there’s nothing saying how they should look. Except of course, when you get wondering what would happen to the manufacturers of Star Destroyers and Alliance ships if their respective oppressive backers were to topple. Lets face it, lots of good people can get involved with companies that may make something less than pure. Hey, they have mouths to feed t home. This welding job came up. They got the job and they build ships.

So what happens when the Rebels or Brown Coats topple their oppressors? Notice how I refrained from calling these groups what they are? Like Terrorists? These people, going about their business, building ships are out of work. Or are they? That’s the idea behind this interstellar Apartment/Condo building that lacks a name. It’s as if some junkers took a Star Destroyer and a Tohku-Class Cruiser, washed off the blood of the oppressed and turned it in to luxury living.

Breaking free of aerodynamics (space i a vacuum, remember) you can basically build any shape you want. With a towering living quarters and additional decks scattered around the ship there is ample space for residents and crew. Accessed via the front deck so the bridge can also act as tower control, a docking bay allows for residents to make on world visits as they travel through space.

I have no idea if this thing can travel through hyperspace, or create trans-dimensional worm holes to quickly navigate the far reaches of space. I didn’t think it through that hard. ;-)

Anyway, it was a fun little MOC to build while watching the incredibly dumb antics of Storage Wars. So there’s that. Enjoy!

LEGO Star Wars Elite Clone Trooper and Commando Droid B 9488 $12.99

LEGO Star Wars Endor Rebel Trooper and Imperial Trooper 9489 $12.99

LEGO Star Wars Droid Escape 9490 $19.99

LEGO Star Wars Geonosian Cannon 9491 $19.99

LEGO Star Wars Tie Fighter 9492 $54.99

LEGO Star Wars X-Wing Starfighter 9493 $59.99

LEGO Star Wars Naboo Starfighter and Naboo 9674 $9.99

LEGO Star Wars Sebulba’s Podracer and Tatooine 9675 $9.99

LEGO Star Wars Tie Interceptor and Death Star 9676 $9.99

4191 The Captain’s Cabinis one of the many current licensed sets available from Lego these days. Taking a slice of The Pirate’s of the Caribbean, this set delivers a small vignette of none other than the captain’s cabin. This set, being from a license theme and coming in at $11.99 (us) MSRP seems similar to the Mandalorian” Battle Pack and Clone Trooper” Battle Pack of the Star Wars line. It does have more pieces, but one less figure than those but comes in at $1 less. This is where it gets interesting.

This set is a treasure trove of unique little pieces. It includes a small older in styling globe perched on a brick built stand. I can see lots of uses for this little piece in various MOCs, from current day offices, to steampunk navigation systems and more. In addition, the set comes with a round 2×2 tile printed with a navigational chart. I’ve purchased two of these sets now, and each also seems to come with 2 printed 1×1 tiles representing Jack Sparrow’s trusty compass. As if that were not enough, on the rack in the background comes 2 bottles with a ship on each. All of those elements being printed and not the new norm of self-applied decals. Add in some pearl gold pieces and this set is chock-full of pieces useful in a number of various MOCs.

As mentioned, the set comes with 3 minifigures, Captain Jack Sparrow (in vest), and two zombies. Each of the figures has painting on the back of the torso and Cpt. Jack and the Zombie Yeoman each have a second face hidden by long hair pieces on the back of their heads.

When I purchased 4191 The Captain’s Cabin,it came with a free poster inside. The photo of the package on Lego’s site seems to indicate it likely still does. This poster, a card and instruction book come bundled and protected in plastic with a piece of corrugated cardboard to keep things flat. A nice touch, since in recent years, manuals have been damaged in shipping. The box art is pretty standard fair for Lego right now. Two big photos of the main set depicting battle and no alternative models. 4191 The Captain’s Cabinis still available through Lego’s online store as well as most big box stores. I’d highly recommend the set as it’s a good value, even at licensed set pricing.

I’m fond of 7567 Traveler, if for no other reason, the camera. Photography seems to be the only common point in my hobbies. As I’ve taken photos of any of the other of the things I do, but rarely build a Lego bird for instance.

So this little set, with a person wearing a classic space jacket and carrying a camera presumably through a terminal of some sort makes me smile every time I see it. Much like 5610 Builder, I’ve been sitting on this set for a while. So much so, that it is no longer available on shop.lego.com but you can still find it on Amazon or Bricklink. It originally sold for $3.49 (us), so you can expect to find it in that neighborhood. There’s not a lot to the set. A little cart in which you can put two briefcases that open and a terminal sign accompany the traveler.

The other fun and geeky thing about this set is that it comes all in one bag. Which means you can build it all in the bag. Which, I guess some of the kids are in to doing these days. ;-) There’s not much else to say, so I’ll let the photos speak the rest of the words.

I’ve had this set for a while now. It’s not a big set. 18 pieces to be exact. I got it some time ago when I ordered other sets direct from Lego. It came, much to my surprise with a letter stuffed in the box about being a valued customer. Please have this free set, yadda, yadda. Now don’t get me wrong. Any free Lego is AWESOME Lego. Yes, even if someone were to hand me free Galidor, I’d enjoy it, because hey, it’s free!  Besides, if you can get past what all the ‘cool kids’ say, and use a little imagination, you can make cool things from anything. That’s the Lego way.

I suspect though, that they wanted to dump this set, and here’s why.

O.K. Kids, lets play what’s out of place here… It seems they may have forgotten to print the package with the “Choking Hazard” warning. You don’t usually see add on stickers to Lego’s packaging. Unless of course you remember the Admiral Akmar magnets…

Anyway, there’s not much to be said about the set. It’s a construction worker with a cement mixer. It fills up your city workers, but I’m not a fan of the mixer really. It doesn’t remind me at all of the one I used to have to use in real life working for my father. For one, where’s the rust, and this one has wheels! Who knew they came with wheels? My back sure didn’t.

The mixer itself spins and tilts side to side, but can’t pour out. The way in which it’s packaged prevents “Built in Bag” builds. The set originally sold for $3.49 (us). In all honesty, I did, and would give it a skip unless you are one to complete a series regardless of the set. Which if you are, you still can find it on Amazon or Bricklink.

7049 Alien Striker is another one of those sets I had lost to the clutter of Manland and time. I found this set in a box beside 7050 Alien Defender. Once again I had purchased this set purely for the minifigures and at an MSRP of $4.99 (us) it’s a reasonable way to go about picking some of these new figs up. Sure, there’s the battle pack you can pick up. But lets look at it for a second.

You can pick up 853301 LEGO Alien Conquest Battle Packfor a cool $14.99. In that, you get the two common aliens and two of the common ADU figures. In addition you get a snazy dressed business man. Which is all fine and dandy, and I’ve been known to buy battle packs. However, if you’re looking to get bang for the buck (barring the battle pack going on sale) you could pick up 7049 Alien Striker and 7050 Alien Defender for $14.98 and also score some interesting colored bricks. If you’re looking to build a homogenous army, 3 of the 7049 Alien Striker and end up with 6 figures for about the same coin. After all that, if you just have to have that sharp dressed man, you can always go cherry pick him from Bricklink for around $2.

Anyway, back to 7049 Alien Striker, the set at hand. You get 2 minifigures. The human comes with a back painted torso and single face. The alien has the same pattern on the back of the head as in set 7050. Unlike 7050 Alien Defender though, the alien’s ship is a little beefier. It reminds me of the older ships in the classic space line. There’s enough of a ship to be believable, but not so much as to drive up the piece count and bump it in to a higher price point. In fact, at a 4.99 MSRP, this set falls in to the impulse set category. You know the one. When you’re walking down the Lego isle at the local store, you can throw it in the cart and you won’t get yelled at. ;-)

Like all Lego of late, the box art lacks alternative models and depicts the gunfight play. Still though, no one buys these sets for the boxes, right? In my opinion, this is the real keystone set for army building. I’ve noticed the trend of these size sets dropping to around $3 at your local blue big box store at the end of the cycle of themes. At which point you can scoop up several and plot to take over you Lego City layout.

When I first got this set, I only purchased it for the figures. This is one of those sets I bought last winter, harvested the figures out and put the box up stairs and forgot about it. In a recent cleaning of my Lego room, AKA Manland. I discovered a small stash of small sets I had either not opened, harvested the figures out of, or opened and never got to do anything with it. This is the story of one of those sets.

I found 7050 Alien Defender sitting neglected, partially opened and decided I should put it together and see what the intended set was like before integrating the parts in to my collection. I was pleasantly surprised at how neat the little buggy was.

There’s not a high piece count really, but there’s a lot going on with it. There’s a vast array of electronics to keep track of, depicted by decals. The vehicle is a mobile weapons system comprised of 2 flick-fire missiles, and two turret mounted handguns with flare. The overall shape gives the impression that, if this were real, it would be relatively fast.

The alien ship included though, is a little more disappointing. In what looks like not much more than a sit-down hover board, this alien pilot comes to attack with a little ray-gun. Maybe we’re to assume the 2 trans-green 1×1 cones are laser output as well? I can overlook this, as without this ship you wouldn’t have the ability to play out a little battle unless you had purchased another set. Besides, the alien ships in other sets are all much better.

As I said, I originally purchased this for the figures, and mainly the alien at that. I’m always happy to see new and interesting types of minifigures to add to the collection. The alien does not disappoint, despite it’s similarities with what might happen if a pug, bull dog, and alien DNA were to mix. The Alien lacks any paint on the back of the torso, but has an interesting design on it’s head.

Meanwhile, the human member of ADU has painting back and front on both torso and head. Which means you can depict smiling confidence, or that face that tells everyone around it to run. The helmet, coming from the mold for the Collectible Minifigure Series 1 Spaceman is a nice touch. It means you could begin building out different divisions within your Earth Defense lineup. Or you could mix and match helmets from that and the Series 3 Space Villain to signify various specialties or rank.

Box art remains a sore spot in my mind. With two depictions of the main model engaged in various battles, it lacks the alternate models sets of my childhood had and clearly indicates the only way to play with  7050 Alien Defender is through engaging in death and destruction. Mind you, that’s how I’d play with it anyway, but, you know…

Overall the set weighs in at 105 pieces, which are used very well in the defense buggy. At an MSRP of $9.99 (us) it has a decent 9.5 cent per piece rating. If you were to extend a guess, I’d clearly recommend buying the set, as you can tell, I already have. If you’re just looking for minifigures from the series, I’ll share the best priced set for starting your army in the next review of the Alien Conquest line.

I decided at the end of last year though, that I would get back to it. As is evident with a small rash of reviews, and more in the pipeline for the coming month. Hopefully that gets me back in the swing and I can come up with some more valuable content once the rust is gone. As an exercise, I decided I should look and see what my top 10 pages were for all of 2011. What surprised me was that the top two were nothing about Lego, and in fact 50% of the top 10 were about anything but. I guess it just goes to show, that I’ll continue to keep the posts a little broader than just that topic. Since, after all, the blog was initially set up to share the escapades of dealing with a local pack of semi domesticated Raccoons breaking things in our yard. Anyway, here’s to a hopeful new year. Please enjoy the review of the top 10 favorites bellow. I’d like to identify any of them as one of my more favorite posts, but I can’t.

2011 Top 10

1. Not enough server storage is available to process this command. error.
2. Use Server 2003 to get files to your Xbox 360
3. Lego Brickmaster Replacement – Lego MBA
4. Brick blog, intended about Lego, but wound up everything else
5. Cleaning Lego
6. Manfrotto 055XPROB & Giottos MH 7001-621: A dynamic duo for sure
7. Mommy, my mouth tastes like burning rubber
8. “Working” Lego V8 Engine
9. Coffee Table Makeover: Extreme Edition
10. Lego Crab Instructions

The discounts on sets are as follows. There’s too many to link to individually. But if you follow: Save up to 50%. See what’s on sale! You should be taken directly to the Sales & Deals area, and doing so thanks me too! Enjoy!