Just Saying 9

Solstice has come and gone once again.  This year i bought myself 4 LEGO sets - one of them kind of threw my Solstice budget off, but i didn't expect it to go on sale (though it did go on sale cheaper after i bought it).

Only one of these LEGO sets was under 2,000 pieces (Indiana Jones at 1,545 pieces).  i think 3 of these are now retired (Viking Village is expected to be retired by the end of 2025).

The manuals are now printed with garbage paper.  So much worse than it used to be.

This took a little while to post.  i also got a record 11 puzzles this year (2 of which did not have all the pieces).  i spent two weeks on a 3,000-piece puzzle to find it was missing 3 pieces.  

Viking Village (21343):

Not sure if my ancestors were Vikings (decent chance), but i wanted to try this one out. There's a section that didn't fit exactly right though (near tower).  A little bit different than the sets i usually do (Architecture series).

Indiana Jones Temple of the Golden Idol (77015):

This one is a bit different than previous sets. There were more Technic elements than i anticipated. There are also gears and movement. The knobs in the front have movement functions - rolling up the bolder, side to side, and kind of a collapse scenario in the third part.

i think i bought this before March 2024 and just waited to put it together until after Solstice.

Space Shuttle Discovery (10283):

Back in the day, my dad used to give me models of planes/space shuttles, and Star Wars stuff. i wanted to try this space shuttle LEGO model - it is a bit different than sets i have done before. Why the Space Shuttle Discovery? They didn't have the Challenger model. Not like the name Discovery has some association for me.

Too many stickers. Stickers on a curved surface too (not pictured). Stickers would not work for me.  i'd line them up, but when i went to put them on they would shift or get air bubbles.  The stuff on the wings was printed (the Discovery name and flags).

It was bigger than i anticipated too (about 20" long). The thing on the side is the Hubble Telescope (with annoying foil pieces on the side).

Atari 2600 (10306):

This was the one i never expected to be on sale.  i thought they were discontinuing it too. 

The things on the top (i put them up there) were small builds representing the games (Asteroids, Adventure, and Centipede).  The inside is some kind of early 80s display (or what they thought it was like).  This can be closed to look more like the "woody" console.  Family only had the 1986 revision (gift from aunt).  The things under the iconic controller were game cartridges (which do fit into the slot at the top).

Once again, a bunch of stickers (game labels and things in the 80s display).

It was an OK build, but i think the Mega Bloks Showcase Xbox 360 was done much better.  Now if they could only release a Sega Genesis and a PlayStation One (PSX).