Over the years - 1930's

Over the years, Lego has built itself up to be one of the most well-known and iconic toy brands which is loved by both children and adults worldwide. This series will explore how the brand has taken itself from making stools and wooden toys with a grand total of 6 employees to being the beloved worldwide toy making industry it is today.

Way back in 1932, the founder of Lego, Ole Kirk Kristiansen, set up his company in Billund, Denmark which, at the time was focused on wood, not plastic. The company was a very small village business and focused on making stepladders, ironing boards, stools, and wooden toys. His son, Godtfred Kirk Christiansen, started working in the company at the very young age of 12.

In 1934, the company took on the name 'Lego' which is comprised of the two Danish words 'Leg' and 'Godt' which means 'play well'. Later, it was discovered that the word 'Lego' means 'I put together' in Latin. Before selecting the name, Ole Kirk Kristiansen ran a competition where whoever came up with the best name for the company would win a bottle of wine. He found that none of the names could beat his own (Lego) and so he kept the wine for himself.

Not much happened though the rest of the 1930's for the Lego company. They start creating clothes hangars, wooden ducks, and market 'Kirk's Sandgame' which is Lego's first construction toy. Ole Kirk's motto 'only the best is good enough' is cut out and hung up in the workshop by Godtfred and he starts creating models once he is 17 years old. By the end of 1939, the company has 10 employees.

LegoLad Reviews update - Future Posts and Social Media

Hello! I am making this post to let you know what my plans are for future posts and to say that if you wish to see anything on the blog, please contact me via a social media website.

At the moment, there are four categories of post that have been featured on this blog. There has been a set review, a T.V review, a project update, and news. Please let me know which you want to see more of. I apologise for the lack of set reviews, I have been working on a really big one for some time now and it takes ages to sort out the photos. Hopefully this review of the Lego Ninjago set  'Samurai X Cave Chaos', will not take too much longer. I will be posting a T.V review every Friday or Saturday as a new episode of 'Lego Masters' is released. I will also review any Lego films, old or new, the first will probably be 'The Lego Ninjago Movie'. I don't know when the next project update will be. There may be one in the next week or so, I will say on social media when I know. If you want me to review any particular set, please say. I will review any set I own and you can see these sets in the 'Revival Project' series.

I am glad to say that over the past four weeks or so, the blog has received just over 500 views and so I have decided to say that you can follow the blog on a range of social media websites. You can follow the blog via a Facebook group entitled LegoLad Reviews, Twitter via LegoLad Reviews, Tumblr via legoladreviews, Google + via LegoLad Reviews, Bloglovin' via LegoLad Reviews, and Pinterest via LegoLad Reviews. To quickly follow me on Google + and Bloglovin', just click the appropriate buttons on the right of the page. You can now also, hopefully, follow me by email. By following me, you can ask me questions, give feedback, or recommend what I should write about next.

Thank you for reading, sorry that this post hasn't been anything too interesting. Please follow the blog, spread the word, like the posts, and most importantly keep up the interest!

Lego Masters: Episode 1

Lego Masters has now aired its first episode and having now seen it, I was not disappointed! When I first heard it was to be the Lego version of 'The Great British Bake-off', I was slightly put off of the programme because I do not like 'The Great British Bake-off'. However, I quickly became interested in the show and loved to see how it was. I can see why people have made the comparisons as it follows a remarkably similar format but that is it. I found the opening very interesting as it talked about the history of Lego and I was overjoyed to hear the programme make the point that Lego is not just for kids, it is just as loved by many adults, and that the numbers on the box don't matter. One thing I would love to know is how much time and planning went into each build as the end results are remarkable. I would also like to know if any pieces were not allowed to be used as in the builds, I could easily see great chances for certain pieces to be used, yet they weren't. I think that this programme is wonderful for the Lego group because it helps to promote the product to adults by saying it isn't just for kids, plus it inspires many people of all ages to grab some bricks and build something. I would recommend this programme to all young lovers of Lego and most lovers of Lego in general. Please keep reading for a more detailed analysis of the first episode, spoilers will most definitely be included.


When I started watching the episode, I liked how it made the point about Lego not being just for children and this inclusion encouraged me to watch the programme. As wonderful as I found the programme to be, it did unfortunately have its downsides. The main disadvantage is that it seemed to leave me constantly asking questions about particular things, for example it is never mentioned how long the participants had in the trials stage of the competition, it never says how much planning time each team had in the main competition, and the kid's designs seemed more detailed than those of the Cambridge university students. This all distracted me from the main programme, which is a shame because lots of time must have gone into it for the builds to be as good as they were.

I was impressed that Roma Agrawal was on the judging panel for this episode because she not only is a structural engineer, but she has helped to build well known structures such as 'The Shard' in London. However, the joy of a professional such as her appearing on the programme soon ended as she didn't seem to do much in her role as a judge. To me, it seemed like she just made a very brief and fairly vague comment on the final builds, although, I found it funny to see her look very serious when talking to the kids about a rocket chair. I felt as though she should have picked up on more of the detail in the builds, especially with how the mechanism in the Cambridge students' chair worked.

I also feel like more focus should have been placed on the final builds as, once they were built, the testing of the chairs and the inspection of the smaller builds seemed very rushed which is disappointing given the viewer has most likely seen the programme mainly for the amazing final builds. I think it would be much better to show more shots of the final builds from a variety of angles so that the viewer actually has time to appreciate the builds. Another element which was rushed was the introduction of the participants. Only two pairs were looked at in depth, these being the university students and two of the young boys. I think that if they go into depth about contestants they should do this with all of them, not just a limited few, otherwise they should just not do it at all.

I really like the look of the programme as the bright vibrant colours of the build room really fit the Lego theme. Also, the presenter, Melvin Odoom, is charismatic and funny in his role. Even though the jokes made are quite often cheesy, they can be very funny.

Another downside to the programme is that a fair few of the moments seemed staged, for example reactions to when something broke such as one of the kids saying 'this will be a setback' or when someone would be interrupted by someone else when speaking to the camera. I am also surprised at the gender and age ratios of the programme as I expected an equal amount of men and women and more young people, however this is not the case as there, after this episode, is only one woman, and about three young people.

My overall impression of this programme is that it definitely has potential, however it seems rushed in places, unfocused on the builds and more focused on the building without including detail, and was unfortunately a bit too cheesy for my liking. I do think that it will go on to be a good series and that it will improve with time. Personally, I just loved seeing that many people building remarkably good Lego structures in a very colourful room. I hope there will be more focus on the builds and technicalities in the next episode which will be focused on movement and shall feature Richard Osman as a celebrity guest. Lego Masters airs on Channel Four at 8.00PM on Thursday. Please let me know your opinions in the comments below!

Lego News!!! - UCS Millennium Falcon?

It has been known for a while now that Lego is planning on releasing its biggest ever set. What is not know is what this set will be. Since Lego dropped the news that something very big was on its way, the group has been releasing various bits of information about the set, the most useful being that it is to be part of the Star Wars line. As can be seen in the image above, the amount of pieces is stunning and the overall set will be very grey in appearance. Unfortunately, this grey colouring is no stranger to the Star Wars sets which makes it no easier to guess what this set may be.

To tease the scale of the model, Lego has released three images in total so far, one showing the pieces, one showing the instructions, and one showing the box. Each item has been compared to a previous set. I was amazed and instantly excited to see the size of the instruction book because as the only large set I own is the Death Star (10188), I am not used to seeing instruction booklets in notepad form. I presume this is very rare and only happens when a set is Death Star size. If the white box in the box picture is the true size of the box, I find this very odd. Usually boxes are thinner and less square, however as it is the largest set to date, I suppose the shape is to be expected.

There has been lots of speculation as to whether or not the set will be a new UCS (Ultimate Collector Series) Millennium Falcon. At first, I thought that this was quite unlikely because there has been at least three versions of this iconic spaceship to date, two of which are pictured above in the boxes. In a new teaser trailer for the set, Lego showed the pieces flying through space and assembling to form the set. In this trailer, one key piece was glimpsed. This piece was the well known droid BB-8. This is an important detail because it tells you where the set is from in the timeline of the Star Wars universe. So far, BB-8 has only been featured in one Star Wars film, this being 'The Force Awakens' which was released in December 2015. Other than this, the droid is scheduled to appear in the upcoming film 'The Last Jedi' which is scheduled for released in December at the end of the year. For BB-8 to appear in the set, the set has to have been featured in 'The Force Awakens' as it would have taken a while for the Lego group to plan and build the set, especially as it has so many pieces, plus it isn't being released with the promotional sets for 'The Last Jedi'. There are very few things featured in 'The Force Awakens' which BB-8 is featured with and also few things of a very large size.

With the instruction book being 'Death Star size', I immediately presumed that the set could be Star Killer Base, as pictured above on the left. In 'The Force Awakens', this structure is very similar to the Death Star, except bigger. It has been wondered for some time if we would get this structure as a set, but so far nothing has been rumoured or confirmed. It makes some sense for the set to be Star Killer Base because it is the largest structure in the film and could definitely use that many pieces. However, it is most likely not as BB-8 never went to Star Killer Base and no blue or white can be seen in the vast pile of grey.

I was very sure that the set would not be a new UCS Millennium Falcon, however, before writing this, I looked on a website called 'Geek Culture' to find out information about the set. They claim that an image had been leaked in China which shows the box, complete with all of the details. The image said the price it would cost in China which translates to $1,275 which is about £996.25. I didn't think the image had much credibility as comments claimed it to be a Millennium Falcon mock which had been edited to look like a set and the article had only been published for about a day. Although, since then, the image has unfortunately been removed from the website due to copyright reasons. To me, this highly suggests that the image did have at least a degree of credibility to it.

So is the biggest Lego set to date going to be yet another Millennium Falcon? Or is it going to be something more unexpected such as Star Killer Base? Perhaps it could be something else entirely... Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below. The set will be revealed on the 1st of October.

Revival Project: post 1

Top left - The main city area

Bottom centre - Fairground area/meadow

I have been collecting Lego for about 12 years and during this time I have collected about 75 sets which are spread across a range of themes. Last year I took most of it apart so that I could focus on my A level exams and as I have now finished the exams, I have begun to rebuild. Once it is rebuilt, everything will be placed in specific areas as so to resemble a world of some sort and once this is done, baseplates and random bricks will be bought to improve the overall appearance. The purpose of this project is to show how a decent city can be built in a realistic setting without a warehouse or very large table.

The City

The Forest

Left - Hogwarts

Centre - The Bridge

Right - Gate/Weathertop

Far Right - The Hangar

Centre - Mining Area

Top Left - Jestro's Realm

Bottom Right - Construction Site

Top Left - Avenget Hangar

Beneath Top Left - Milano and X-Jet Hangar

Centre - Death Star

Lower Right - Coast Guard HQ

Centre - Meadow/Fair Ground

Top Left - Atlantis

Top Right - Forest

Right - Meadow

Centre - Jestro's Realm

Bottom Right - Watch Post

Centre - Coast Guard HQ

Centre Top - Hangar

Centre - Ninja HQ

Centre Left - Meadow

Centre Right - ?

Centre Bottom - River

Top Right - Aircraft Hangar

Bottom Right - City

Top Left - Hogwarts, Bridge, Gate, and Weathertop

Bottom Left - Fairground and Meadow

Centre Left - Ninja HQ

Iron Man: Detroit Steel Strikes

The set

The Lego Marvel Superheroes set Iron Man: Detroit Steel Strikes (Set number 76077) is, in my opinion, one of the most anticipated yet controversial Lego Marvel superheroes sets to date which makes the decision to buy it a difficult one. The set costs £29.99 ($29.99). The set features approximately 376 pieces (including minifigure parts/accessories), three minifigures, and two builds. One build is Lola the car which seats one minifigure and the other build is the Detroit Steel mechanical suit which one minifigure can be placed inside. There are very few play features included in the set and the Detroit Steel Mech is not visually pleasing, however I believe that it looks better in person than it does in picture. The set has two instruction books, the first for Lola which is 57 pages long, and the other is for the Detroit Steel mech which is 66 pages long. One play feature is included in Lola as the build allows for the wheels to be turned so that they point downwards which places the vehicle in 'flight mode'. Two other play features are included in the Detroit Steel mech. These are a 6 stud shooter on one arm and a chainsaw build on the other. Lola's doors can open and the arms, legs, and back wings of the Detroit Steel mech are movable. The play features are simple but that is to be expected in a set of this size. The three minifigures included are Agent Phil Coulson, Justin Hammer, and Tony Stark A.K.A Iron Man.

Agent Phil Coulson

 One of the biggest draws to the set is the inclusion of the Agent Phil Coulson minifigure. As the character and designs for the minifigure have been featured in games since October 2013, it comes as a surprise that it has taken so long for the character to appear in a set. The character is much loved by Marvel fans and has been featured in four films and four seasons of his own spin-off T.V series 'Agents of Shield'. The minifigure has a double printed head, one side shows him smile without glasses, the other shows him looking serious with glasses. I believe the hair mould is unique as I haven't seen it be featured in any other set and the gun mould also seems new. The printing on his face and torso is simple, although detailed as reflection marks are included in the glasses, stripes are included on his tie, and a small printed badge is positioned on his left side.

Tony Stark A.K.A Iron Man

The second minifigure included in the set is Tony Stark A.K.A Iron man. This character is no stranger to the Lego Marvel Superhero line as many versions of him have been featured in previous sets. In this set Tony is featured in his Invincible Iron Man armour and he comes with a black hair piece and helmet. Tony also has a double printed head as one side shows him happy and smiling, and the other shows him angry and ready for battle. Pictures of the complete armour and descriptions will be featured later in the blog.

Justin Hammer

The third minifigure to be featured in the set is Justin Hammer. This character is the villain of the set and comes with both a helmet and hair piece, just like Tony. The hair piece appears to be unique as I haven't seen it in any other set before and this is the character's first appearance in Lego form. The minifigure, just like the other two featured in the set, has a double printed head. One side of the minifigure's head shows the character smile and the other side shows him frown. Pictures of the complete armour and descriptions will be featured later in the blog.

This is the first inclusion of the Invincible Iron Man armour and unfortunately the helmet mould is different in comparison to other Iron Man helmets. At first I was not sure on the look of this Iron Man figure as, to me, it appeared cartoony in colour and appearance as instead of the dark red which has been used in previous sets, this version uses a bright red colour. The helmet mould is different as where the other helmets can be opened on a hinge at the front to reveal Tony's face, this one cannot. At first I was slightly put off of buying the set because of this minifigure, however the appearance has grown on me and the armour does look like an upgrade in comparison to past armours because of it's bright colouring. The set features a power blast shooter which is a new feature for 2017 and this can be seen on his right arm in the pictures. When pushed against the side of the minifigure's arm (whilst he is holding it) the shooter will fire forwards a short distance. The printing is simple but detailed on the torso as many lines are used to indicate the 'layers' of the armour.

This is the first inclusion of Detroit Steel in a Lego set. The only things which can be changes about the minifigure are the face, and the helmet can be swapped for hair. The helmet is the same mould as the Invincible Iron Man helmet which means that there is no front hinge for the face to be revealed. The printing on this minifigure is remarkably detailed and complex as it even includes details as small as screw holes. The minifigure does not look as cartoony as the Invincible Iron man armour as it uses a combination of bright red and dark blue.

I am sure that many were both delighted and surprised to hear that Lola was to be introduced in Lego form. The car has only made brief appearances on 'Agents of Shield' but is closely connected with Phil Coulson. Five sticker pieces are included in the build and the wheels can turn so that they face the floor. The doors can open and one minifigure can be placed inside it. The build is pleasant, however it takes a while for the vehicle to become distinguishable. The car has a smooth and curved surface at the back and a flat and almost smooth surface at the front. One printed piece is included and this is the Lola number plate at the front of the vehicle.

When in 'flight mode' four of the stickers used in this build can be seen. The stickers are positioned just above the wheels on the four wheel rim pieces. The stickers are very detailed as the show the inner mechanics of the vehicle such as pipes, however they are extremely difficult to place. The rim part of the piece prevents easy access to the area the stickers go and as the stickers are extremely small, they are hard to hold. Another downside of the build is that the wheels don't face perfectly flat on the ground as they slope upwards to the sides slightly. The underside of the vehicle can easily be modified to fix this issue as it only requires removing two pieces.

Another sticker is featured inside the car and acts as a dashboard for the driver . The driver has room on either side for their arms to move, plus there is enough space for them to hold a small weapon of some sort. Beneath the vehicle are two circular dark blue translucent pieces on the underside of the vehicle which act as engines.

The Detroit Steel mech is definitely not one of the best looking builds that I own as in pictures it tends to look clunky and ragged, however from what I have seen of this mech in Marvel comics, it is supposed to have that feel to it and it does look better in person. In my opinion, the things which make it look clunky are the chainsaw and the 6 stud shooter but luckily, these can be removed. It is easier to remove the shooter than it is to remove the chainsaw but the shooter is the larger item of the two. The two back wings can be moved and repositioned but this can be difficult to do without them coming off. The arms and legs have lots of movability which means the build can easily be repositioned, however it can be awkward to balance. The mech cannot hold Lola like it does in various images as the fingers cannot properly grip the car and the car makes the mech top heavy and prone to falling over. Five stickers are included in this build, all of them quite simple. There is a sticker on each arm and each leg, and the front chest-plate is a sticker.

One minifigure can be stood in the mech, leaving only the head visible. I am not overly fond of the Detroit Steel helmet printing as the mouth reminds me of a beetle, but besides from that and the fact the head looks really small in comparison to the mech, the mech suits the minifigure well. The arms and legs of the minifigure are not visible from the front and are barely visible from the sides, hence convincing you that the arms and legs of the mech either are the arms and legs of the minifigure or contain the arms and legs of the minifigure.

Conclusion

The Lego Iron Man: Detroit Steel Strikes set makes for an uncertain buy because as it includes the long awaited Phil Coulson minifigure, complete with Lola, it also includes yet another Iron Man figure which looks cartoony and doesn't have a helmet which opens, and it comes with a not particularly well known villain and a clunky looking mech. I, as I am sure many others did, bought this set just for the Coulson figure and his car. The car is very impressive and included stickers, which I did not expect, that are cool but unnecessary details in comparison to the final build. Coulson looks amazing and the Justin Hammer and Tony Stark minifigures look much better than I had originally expected. The Detroit Steel mech still looks clunky but better than in picture. I am glad that the 6 stud shooter and chainsaw can be removed as they do no favours for appearance and the chainsaw itself is unnecessary and hard to use. Overall the set is a disappointing one to use as Coulson's debut set because of the mech. This leaves half of the set as being very good because I like Phil's printing and how slick Lola looks, however the other half is bad because the stickers can be unnecessary and hard to place plus the mech is unimpressive and clunky. The only good things I can find in the mech is that, besides from the back wings, it has high movability. I would recommend this set to fans of mechs as the minifigure is a perfect fit in the mech, and I would recommend it to fans of Phil Coulson and Lola because of how accurate they look. Collectors should also pay interest in this set because I imagine that once it stops being sold, unless Phil is used in future sets with the same printing, I can see the set being worth much more than it is currently valued at.





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