A few days ago I decided to stop procrastinating about getting some Lego and actually do it! I headed into a toy store and spent an agonising 20 minutes deciding between a VW Kombi van, the Star Wars Millennium Falcon and A VW Beetle. In the end I got the Beetle figuring I'm going to get them all eventually so it didn't matter what order I started in.
It's been a long time since I built Lego and I was a little concerned about the construction phase however my mad-ninja-Lego-skilz came flooding back the moment I opened the box of about 1100 pieces, and the instruction booklet. To be honest I was struck by how well the instructions were presented - If IKEA did the same hundreds of hours could be put to better uses around the world...The Lego instructions were very easy to follow.
Each bag was clearly numbered and the suggestion was to start with all the number 1 bags, then the 2's and so on. To make things a little easier for me I emptied each bag of components into it's own container and worked from there.
Construction went along well, accompanied by Lego-snacks in the form of a packet of chicken-flavoured chips and some lime cordial. Yeah, I know, not a lot of sophistication going on there, but hey, I've never been pretentious so didn't bother with a more adult snack/beverage combination.
Faith was watching TV whilst I was building and every so often I could hear her snigger or giggle. I'd look over and she'd make a show of ignoring me. This went on for a while until I realised she was laughing at me. It seems I was talking to myself as I worked through the instructions, looked for the appropriate components and had success in their assembly. I was oblivious to this fact, talking to myself I mean, being more engrossed in my Lego-building than anything else. Laugh it up now girl, you won't be laughing at me when I attain the glorious completion of my masterpiece!
I was really getting into the building and got a lot of enjoyment from seeing the Beetle come together. My plan was to complete all the number 1 packets that night which was pretty much the chassis, axles, engine and rear seat area.
The images show a time-line of the construction to date from the initial pile of component-bags to what is starting to look like a car. What I was struck with was the ingenuity of the Lego manufacturer - How they bring hundreds of components together so easily. It's really quite ingenious engineering - And all for what is essentially considered a toy.
As I said ,it's been a while since I built Lego and to be completely honest as a kid I didn't have full sets because my parents could not afford to buy them. My brothers and I would scour the newspaper for people selling Lego blocks and we'd pool our meagre funds to buy second-hand sets when we could. Creating set items, kits as I have just bought, was not something we were able to do. We free-styled-it and came up with our own creations content just to have the opportunity. It was fun though and we came up with some cool stuff.
These days I have the ability to buy sets and whilst I have had that ability for a long time I simply haven't - Until a couple days ago. It was such an enjoyable purchase to be honest. Yes I know I'm 49 years old, but walking out of the shop with that set, opening it up at home, starting the build...It sort of took me back to my younger days...Days spent in enjoyable-frustration at not having the right bits to make exactly what I wanted. I have them all now though, and I'm thoroughly loving building my Beetle.
Phase one is complete and I'll start on phase two shortly. I know I'll have a great feeling of satisfaction when I'm done because I do, even now, when my Beetle isn't even finished. I also know I'll be looking for the next item to build...Probably the Kombi van I think. I reckon Faith is a little worried about having a house full of Lego and it's probably a valid and well-founded fear because...Well, I fucking love building Lego.
Thanks for reading - Keep an eye out for Phase two...And keep an eye out for a rant-style post entitled I have a missing piece of Lego, in the advent of there being a missing component. I'll probably swear a lot in that post if it happens.
Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default
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