MegaLegomania

I Know, I Know

It's not a word that appears in my Collins Concise Dictionary, so if it ever does make it in there, or into British vernacular, Conrad wants royalties.

     Where does it come from?  Well, partly from the Youtube algorithm that parses what you've been watching and delivering more thumbnails associated with that theme.  Recently I've featured the work of Matt Brenner and his very large 'Starz Wark" (sp?) models, which are verrrry impressive.  Art!

     I'm sorry if you can't unsee this, it's a consequence of "Brenner" and "Lego" being used as search terms.  Let us instead try with Matt's correct surname: Benner.  Art!

     That's more like it.  This is another SW build, which, to Conrad, has a look of Chris Foss about it.   Matt's modus operandi seems to be just start building the thing, absent any overall design or crafting.

     Hmmm, yes, I'm sure you're thinking, that's an approach that works for a mere 20,000 pieces.  What if -

     And here we enter the world of scale.  You see, it would be wildly impractical, not to mention impossible, to replicate all the myriad things that men (it's principally men) like to make in model form at a 1:1 scale.  Art!

     That's a 1/400 scale replica of the South Canadian battleship USS Missouri, which is 26" long and can be fitted onto a display table quite handily.  More than one and wifey might start giving you icy looks.  Art!

BB-63 berthed

     This is the real thing, clocking in at 887' and over 57,000 tons, so any display table would likely need substantial reinforcement.  The example can be repeated ad nauseum, which I will avoid unless we run short of the Count later in this blog.  Ship models are necessarily small-scale, thanks to the real things being whacking big objects, whereas i

     ANYWAY let us now return to what one might call a 'base scale' in Lego: that of their Minifigs.  Art!

     These work out at 1:48 scale, or ¼ inch = 1 foot.

     So.  Human, or Hom. Sap. if you like, hubris being what it is, a group of Lego fanatics/nutjobs/afficionadoes <delete where necessary> carried out a preliminary planning session to do a Minifigs-scale Death Star.  Art!

Courtesy 'Brickvault'

     They did the background maths ('math' for South Canadian readers) and you can see the number-crunching that came up.  Their scale seems to have been slightly smaller than 1:48, as at their scale it would have been 2.76 kilometres in diameter (!), as - er - opposed to 'only' 2.5 kilometres in 1:48.  Plus it would have needed over seven BILLION baseplates simply to create the spherical surface, and there aren't that many baseplates in existence.  Art!

Courtesy 'Brickvault' again

     In a handy-dandy visualisation, they realised the Minifig-scale Death Star would need a construction space equivalent in breadth to that of Manhattan Island.  I rather suspect that they'd also need to construct it under cover to prevent weather extremes from causing damage, and would also need an internal structural skeleton to keep it rigid and intact.  Plus, everything above say a hundred yards height would need to be put into place with drones? at a guess, because there are precious few cranes that can reach 2.73 kilometres.  None, in fact.  Art!

     That impressively large free-standing dome is the Singapore National Stadium, which is all of 312 metres in diameter - yes yes yes, Conrad is using those hideous metric measurements out of practicality, sue me if you don't like it.

     ANYWAY this is the record-holder for domes and has been so for the past decade, yet it is only one-ninth as large as the Minifig-scale Death Star.  That's how insanely enormous the structure would have been, had the planners not seen daylight and given up on it.  Really, it would have needed a government-sized and funded engineering project to make it happen.

     Phew! you are thinking to yourself.  Common sense to the rescue!

     Not so fast .....

What Can Possibly Go Wrong?

The Mansion no longer echoes to the sound of felines patrolling the hallways in search of both food and attention, yet Conrad knows how these creatures behave.  The company "Alluriste", not so much.  Art!

     The video clip up on Twitter shows one of these flitting and flying around a room, with a cat, it's blood definitely up, maniacally attempting to catch it, as cats will do.  In the genes, you know.  Art!

"KILL!  KILL!"

     Yeah, you can imagine wifey sheepishly greeting hubbo as he crosses the doorstep back from the office.  "Ah - sweetie, you know that one four-hundredth scale model of that Missisissourabadabah that was on the display table?" and hubbo immediately notices the use of a past tense.

"City In The Sky"

Medical issues are afoot aboard Arcology One, quite possibly tied to an ingress of micro-organisms from Australia.  We shall see!

When Terry arrived he looked as tired as she felt, his voice reduced to a hoarse croak after endless hours of talking to an audience of eager inquisitors, whom he said were reduced to quite as hoarse a state as himself; he could have done with a honey and lemon balm, except the arcology didn’t have bees or citrus fruits (only sucrose and Vitamin C pills).  Ace towed him into the common building and an area partitioned off with shoulder-high screens, a pair of wicker bed frames put out for them, white plastic boilersuits laid on a pair of scuffed plastic chairs and space blankets hanging on the screens.

     ‘This is for us to kip on,’ she told him.  ‘I’ll get changed on the other side.’

     Terry held up a space blanket, frowning.

     ‘What, done up like a Christmas chicken?’

     ‘No! Haven’t you – oh – of course.  It’s a space blanket.  Lined with reflective foil that keeps your body heat in.’

     ‘No proper blankets?’

     ‘Hardly.  Do you see any sheep or cotton plantations up here?  That’s lightweight and recyclable.  Now, I’m going to get changed.  No looking.’

 

     Davros looked at the makeshift ward, twenty four beds, each occupied by a patient, leaving only six free.  Glancing back at the entrance, he saw Paramedic Prakasz shaking her head with worry. 

     Ooops.

More Christmassy Stuff

So what if it's out of date?  Art!

     In fact we on the blog have rather moved from speculative criticism of various film and television programs based on bus posters, and more into real financial analysis of box office returns.  With a fair bit of gloasting about how gigantic- budgeted films this year have turned out to be absolute dinosaurs, whilst the closely-monitored small budget ones have been outstanding - what would the correct analogy?  Mammalian survivors?  Art!

Zilly being silly

     I thought I'd gotten a photo of Edna in front of the television showing burning Yule logs, but no, so here she is pining for attention (and food).  Art!

     Sorry, Edna.  Boundless love but empty hands.

Under The Whip

A metaphorical one, that is.  The extended family all go to a bowling alley on Boxing Day, to play - you may be ahead of me here - bowls.  Our start time is 13:00 and Your Humble Scribe is trying to finish this blog before leaving, as well as posting up today's, which I got ready yesteryon, which is quite as confusing as it sounds.

     Not only that, I've got to wait until tomorrow to watch the last episode of "Slow Horses", after the cliff-hanger of Episode Five, where Louisa and River cannot possibly escape from a plethora of gun-toting baddies.

     Nope, knowing that there's a Season Four in the offing doesn't mean that either of them will be saved, SH likes to bump off it's cast with some regularity.  Art!

River being a soft git

     Toodles!