Review: 75031 Star Wars Microfighter Series 1 TIE Interceptor

I dug into my backlog for today's review, all the way back to the start of the Microfighter line.

Box.  MSRP was $9.99 for a $0.11 Price per Piece.

Instructions.

Minifig.

Parts 1.  Dish, Transparent Printed Dish, 4x4 Round Plate w/Cutout,
Plates, Tiles w/Studs, Wedge Plates, Clip Plates, Inverted Tiles, Tiles,
Pin Connector Plate w/2 Holes, Bar Plates, Technic Bricks w/ Holes,
Log Bricks, Brackets, Bricks, and Inverted Double Slope w/Cutout.

Parts 2.  Dish, Boat Studs, Brackets, Plate, Studless Slopes,
Tiles, Cheese Slopes, Technic Half Pins, Barraki Eyes, Round
Plates, Minifig Binoculars, Minifig Blaster, and Flick Missiles.

Build.  Frame and a Station.  This
could also double as an IO Frigate.

The Questions:

Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away?  Yes.  (+5)

Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio?  Above.  (-10)  (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)

If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away?  Yes.  (+5)

Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts?  Yes.  (+5)

Score: +5 (B+).  As with most of the Microfighter line, it's good but hampered by the parts count.

Purity: Block Tech US24-1269 Meta Bots Blue Cyclone Review

I picked this up back in November of last year at 5Below.  It's out of stock there but Big Lots has the double set.

Box.  MSRP was $5.00 for a $0.05 Price per Piece.

Instructions.

Parts 1.  Some oddly shaped pseudo-Technic pieces, Axles, Technic
 Liftarms, Barbs, Brackets, Slopes, and Technic Connectors.

Parts 2.  Printed Studless Slopes, Printed Wedge Slopes, Grille Tiles, Slopes, Wedge Slopes, Technic Pins, Tooth Plates, Plates, Trans-Clear Clip Tiles, Round Plates (with some quality control issues), Bar Bars, and Technic Bushings

Build.  Frame (2Rd+d8/2B).

The Questions:
Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away? Yes. (+5)
Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio? Below. (+5) (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)
If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away? Yes. (+5)
Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts? Yes. (+5)
Score: +20 (A+).  It has some really interesting parts but I had to work at building something from this set.

Sales Alert

Target has three Minecraft Lego sets on sale this week at 15% off.  Since there's only three I can do a little breakdown for you.

21158 Panda Nursery -- 204 pieces, regularly $0.10 Price per Piece, on sale $0.08 PpP.
21159 Pillager Outpost -- 303 pieces, regularly $0.10 Price per Piece, on sale $0.08 PpP.
21160 Illager Raid -- 562 pieces, regularly $0.11 Price per Piece, on sale $0.09 PpP.

Good hunting.

Review: 40270 Brick Headz Bee

This is the Valentine's Day Brick Headz set from 2018, purchased on Clearance.

Box.  MSRP was $9.99 for a $0.07 Price per Piece.
(As you can see, my PpP was $0.05.)

Instructions.

Parts 1.  Round Plates, Dishes, Flower Plates, Transparent Boat
Sliders, Leaves, Clip Plates, Plates, Tiles, Bricks, Headlight Bricks,
Round Bricks, Cones, Technic Balls, Plant Stems, Antenna, Bar,
Technic Half Pins, Bar Studs, Printed Round Tiles, and a Clip Tile.

Parts 2.  1x2x2-1/3 Bricks w/Studs on Side, Plates, Quarter Circle Plates, Tile w/ Studs
on Ends, Tiles, Printed Tile, Bar Plates,
2x3 Rounded Plate, Studless Slopes,
Bricks, Dome, 1x4 Brick w/Studs on Side,
1x2 Technic Brick, and Round Bricks

Build.  IO Frigate (2Rd+d8/1Y).

The Questions:
Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away? Yes. (+5)
Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio? Below. (+5) (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)
If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away? Yes. (+5)
Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts? Yes. (+5)
Score: +20 (A+).  It's a decent start for an IO Frigate as usual.  Maybe a better builder could make something of this.

Build Journal: SA-1 Siren

This all started back in December with me looking at an older iteration of the Monthly Mecha Making Inspiration Game and the "Ninja" by Suspended Animation and thinking, "That looks cool, I may be able to copy/modify that with the parts I have on hand."  This led to me to making the Rooftop Racer.

Rooftop Racer

I wanted a selection of colors that stood out -- it being a racing frame

and all -- I have a lot of the Black Lampholders from a trip to my

local PaB so Black became the core color.  I also have a decent

amount of pieces in Dark Pink so that became my secondary color.

I also wanted wheels on it and I managed to work that out.

I still had a ton more Lampholders in Black and a decent selection of the other pieces necessary so I tried making the Frame in more muted colors and having actual lower legs/feet.  It was at this point I came up with the name, Siren.

SA-1 Siren Soldier

I really liked it and I thought I might be able to pull off a "camouflage
pattern" look instead of the solid Brown color which led to this.  I also
threw together some Systems while I was changing the color palette.
At this point I got a little obsessed and made a full squad.

SA-1s Space Siren

This obsession led to me looking into the core pieces, what
colors they were available in, and what I had on hand.  A short
period of experimentation later, and another version appeared.

SA-1c Chevron Siren

At this point I ran out of Pneuma-Ts.  Again.  So I started looking

around for other parts to make the hip joints.  I settled on Taps which

 have a better color selection than Pneuma-Ts.  I also wanted to see

how Wedge Plates interacted with Lampholders instead of the 1x3

Plates I had been using.  This led to the SA-1c Chevron variant.

SA-1w White Knight Siren

SA-1ce Centaur Siren

I started messing around with the legs
 --and hands -- on this version.

A comment from Hydromancer

led to a quad version.

SA-1r Racer Siren

I made another racer after
finding some parts in Aqua.

SA-1b Siren

While sorting parts I found some Bar Ball Joint
pieces.  This led to another variation on
the hip joint.  I also changed the hands
slightly along with adding more attachment
points at the back of the torso.

SA-1g Gremlin Siren

This led to my wildest variation yet.  The Gremlin uses the "+" shaped
Plate instead of the 1x3 Plate and has Bar Clips as the hip joints.

Here's the Hangar topic discussing these builds if you feel like commenting.

Here's the Flickr album as well.

Build Journal: Ice 9

I'm not sure where the idea for this table setting came from, maybe it was just the fact that I had a bunch of Transparent Dark Blue pieces and a ton of White pieces.  It got a lot of attention at PAX Unplugged 2019 and seems to be a favorite in general.

Long building, this can take four
hits before being destroyed.

The small building can take 2
Hits before being destroyed.

This big building can take 4
Hits before being destroyed.

Cylinders can take one Hit.

Pumping Tubes can take two Hits.
Yes, that is a Nixel face.  I built
these because my friend Tom said there needed to be something to fill the space between the Cylinders.

Ice Flames can take one Hit.

Domes and Flag, they
can all take one Hit.

Ice Formations can take one Hit.

Ice Spires can take two Hits
before being destroyed.

This is what it looks like when all laid out on a table on a piece of white felt.

I hope this helps people with making their own unique table settings.

Build A Polybag Contest

Brickset is running a "Build A Polybag!" contest until  the 31st of May.  I figured it may be a good way to introduce people to Mobile Frame Zero so I took a shot a making a few entries.

Here are my creations so far.

This features a mech with extra pieces to act as color markings to keep multiple versions distinct and to help with playability.  It has 49 total pieces and is designed to be used in conjunction with future polybag releases.  Designer's Notes: The upper torso is inspired by Mechanis' Harrier frame.  This is not an actual polybag set for Mobile Frame Zero.  Nor is it an actual Lego set.

An expansion kit for MFZ Polybag 1.  It has weapons and equipment to enhance the play value of the prior kit.  It contains 50 pieces.  It allows you to field -- in conjunction with two MFZ 1 polybags -- two Soldier archetypes, or a Recon-by-Fire and a Brawler archetype, or a Delegator and a Charger archetype, or many other combinations.  From the top down; It has 2 Artillery attachments (gyrojet launcher), 2 Direct Fire attachments (rifle), 2 Melee attachments (tonfa), 2 Spotting attachments (antenna array), 2 Movement attachments (jump jet), and 2 Defensive attachments (armor).  Designer's Notes: All the Attachments are color-coded for ease of use.  This is not an actual polybag set for Mobile Frame Zero.  Nor is it an actual Lego set.

The third polybag idea features one Ruler, three Stations, and three Single Shot Rockets -- allowing you to field the Missile Monkey archetype.  It has 50 total pieces and is designed to be used in conjunction with prior polybag releases.  Designer's Notes: I was originally going to include a piece of terrain instead of the Ruler.  One of these, three of MFZ Polybag 2, and six of MFZ Polybag 1 is effectively a Starter kit.  This is not an actual polybag set for Mobile Frame Zero.  Nor is it an actual Lego set.

Here's my Flickr album for the set of photos.


There's also a "Nine Brick Mech" contest being held by "Bricks'n'Beer".