Starting my own space programme

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One of the last places we visited on our big trip was the American Museum of Natural History. I will do a post on that soon. I was there about twenty years ago and there were a few new exhibits. I am not sure how big the gift shop was then, but the main one is huge and spread over three floors. There were some others too. I wanted some souvenir of the trip and decided on this little model. Okay, so there do not have a Space Shuttle in that museum, but it called to me. I well remember the Shuttle missions, including those that went tragically wrong. It was meant to make space travel cheaper, but will have cost a vast amount. Now we are seeing space become more of a commercial area with private companies doing launches.

Kit

This is a Lego clone in miniature. Like much of the stuff in the shop it is made in China, but it does say it was designed in the USA. There is some history of the Shuttle on the box. I played a lot with Lego as a kid and my kids had it too. I having being getting back into it recently and Adult Fans of Lego (AFOLs) is quite a big scene these days. We have been enjoying some of the Lego Masters shows that have been on TV here lately. We have had them from Australia and New Zealand so far. There was a UK one a few years back.

Tiny piece

The parts really are small and a bit fiddly for adult fingers. I kept it all on a tray as it is easy to drop them and have them disappear. I did have the issue that the black parts were hard to see on the dark tray and I resorted to my phone torch to find some. You really need to keep them away from pets and small children.

Shuttle

I built it over several evenings. It is not too hard, but you have to look closely at the instructions to see where some parts go. Pushing some parts into place was difficult at times. They have got the proportions right.

Finished

The result is quite satisfying. That tower took a while as has so many parts and you can see I did not quite push some together. If I push too hard it can break apart, and it did a few times. It joins my other models on the shelf over my desk so I can remember those fun times.

There were quite a few parts left over and I know I did not miss any steps. I may see what I can make with those.



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15 comments
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I was really impressed with the way it turns out. I mean the tower. it actually looks so great

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I never get to play this game, but i'm sure it would be fantastic back then for you to be nostalgic about it now. I'm looking forward as you recount your past trip to American Museum of Natural

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Your space programme is realistic and can be achieved if you put in effort. Impossible is nothing

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That is really cool. I had a Lego shuttle set when I was a kid. It's probably still downstairs in my basement. My brother in law has a huge collection of Legos and he keeps some of his completed models in a glass case.

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Some of the old sets are worth serious money. Like anything you can take it too seriously. This was just a fun build.

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I have an old castle too, but I am not sure all the parts are still there. The medieval sets were some of my favorites.

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I used to make various buildings. I didn't have the mini-figures back then, so made my own little men with a few bricks.

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I got this image of you shining your phone torch on a tray of tiny Lego bricks now 😁

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That's how it was. You need the eyesight and dexterity for this. At least I didn't knock the tray off my desk.

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I have a child in my class who has a lot of this. Sometimes, he builds aeroplane with it and I heard that it helps a child to be sharp
The tower is really looking great

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Our son-in-law gave my husband a Lego set for his birthday (Grogu and the Mandalorian). He had the same problem with those smaller pieces. He also had a few pieces left over. I wonder if they don't do an exact count of some of them, or throw in a few extra just in case.

I think they did a better job designing the space shuttle than they did the Star Wars characters.

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This was not made by Lego, but it seems as good. With other kits you sometimes get a few leftover parts, but this one had a lot. It would be easy to lose the smaller one, but I had spares of the larger ones too. The cost of each part must be tiny, so it's no big deal for them.

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