'Your friendly Neighbourhood Yoshi'

 I'm a professional when it comes to procrastinating when I need to be writing. For the last few nights I have come up with all manner of things to stop me doing the one thing I need to be getting on with. My favourite though has been playing Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World, to say I am loving this game would be an understatement. Last night Mrs M wanted an early night and I should have been the perfect chance for some quiet time to get my head down and write, but I decided to join here and take my 3DS. I had planned to play a few more levels but found myself hooked when entering the 'Yoshi Hut' on the game. The game itself is AWESOME, but being able to create your own Woolly Yoshi's  is such a great addition to the game. 

It started with Wolverine Yoshi and then when I looked at my phone I realised I'd got a little carried away. It was 1am and I'd been creating marvel Yoshi's for a couple of hours. Anyway, I thought I'd share them with ya'll.

"You know what they say. The female is the deadlier of the species."

AAAAGGGGHHHH!!!!! Is pretty much the only way I can describe how I felt when I first read that this LEGO kit was actually going to be released. I'm quite sure that people would tell me to grow up if they knew me, but as a 36-year-old LEGO geek, there are certain LEGO releases that have almost tipped me over the edge. When you combine my brick obsession with a lifetime love of Marvel comics then things can go into nerd overload. Don't get me wrong, ALL LEGO kits get my creative juices flowing but every now and again there will be a kit that really excites me, more than the others. The last time this happened was with the release of the Guardians of the galaxy movie kits as the comics were such a big thing for me growing up. So I'm sure you can imagine just how excited I am about the kits that accompany the Guardians of the Galaxy vol 2 movie, which is released later in the year. 

The kit that has got me so excited recently though is Marvel Super Heroes Hulk Vs Red Hulk 76078, surprisingly not for either of the hulks, despite how awesome they are and how great they will look displayed with our collection. The She-hulk run of Marvel comics was one of my favorites growing up. Hulk's cousin Jennifer Walters (She-Hulk) didn't get the same attention that Hulk did but for me was always the more interesting Super Hero (plus I may have had a little teen crush on the green heroin). I had been hoping that she would be one day immortalised in LEGO for many years, but I didn't think there was much chance of that happening, until now (Cue that AAAAGGGGHHHH!!!!! again).

LEGO continues to blow me away with all of their amazing releases, and this recent release has made me realise that if She-Hulk can make the cut then there is hope for some of the other characters that I would love to see getting the brick makeover. I'm still holding out for a comic style Baron Zemo (Maybe in a Thunderbolts kit) and a large buildable Galactus (possibly something I should just create myself). There are so many characters from the Marvel universe that LEGO could be producing kits that I adore forever! 

What is also great about these awesome kits is that with each new character release from the marvel universe, there comes more super hero education for the boys. They love anything that I loved as a kid and I have opened their eyes to the magical worlds of both LEGO and Marvel. Lego's Hulk Vs Red Hulk has everything the boys need for boisterous play. 4 Hulks for a full on tag team battle, trucks made for bashing and catapult that flings the characters about. 

This kit has got me and the boys talking about a big Hulk themed build, to house our hulks, so watch this space. HULK SMASH!!!

Before I go to continue some solo LEGO building, I had to include Opeie's creation that had him rolling around on the floor laughing. Both hulks lost an arm and they became conjoined twins. Opeie had them doing all sorts of awkward things together. They look like a couple of drunk aggressive lads on a night out to me. I love Opeie's crazy LEGO role-play. This is what LEGO is all about.

With the Lego Batman Movie hitting the cinemas and many Marvel Movies soon to be released, its going to be a big super hero fuelled year for LEGO and I'm excited to be a part of it.

Happy building all! Mighty Micros post coming very soon (and they are AWESOME!).

Pirates Assemble!!!

We love all LEGO but the Marvel Super Heroes LEGO combines two of the things that played a huge part in my childhood. With the second Avengers movie due to be released in the next few weeks, LEGO have done what they do best and have released this range to accompany a movie that is going to be huge. With a great range of new figures spanning over these six kits they are a great addition to any super hero fans collection and this ever expanding range looks to get even bigger with the release of many new Marvel films over the coming years.

The LEGO age of Ultron kits from this range include:

The Avengers Quinjet City Chase (76032)

Attack on Avengers Tower (76038)

The-Hydra-Fortress-Smash (76041)

Avengers Hydra Showdown (76030)

Iron Man Vs Ultron (76029)

The Hulk Buster Smash (76031)

And if you are feeling a little flush (maybe we'll own it one day).

The Shield Helicarrier (76042)

(Gifts from the Pirates Heroes not included haha)

"Sometimes, it is not the kings and queen who make for the most fascinating history but the shadowy souls who happen to be in the right place at the right time.”

Mrs M had to work a convention this weekend in London so as always I thought it would be nice if me and the boys tagged a long too, we used it as an excuse to go adventuring on the tube (as the boys love it) and also head over to Madam Tussauds. I've wanted to go for quite some time and almost visited the one in Amsterdam many years ago but it just never seemed to happen. Getting the tube around London can seem a little daunting but once we had worked out that Baker Street was the nearest station it was really easy to find and as it was quite early the trains were not as busy.

We arrived at our destination and I was really surprised to see that there wasn't much of a queue as we had been told by our friends who live in London that Madam Tussauds is one of the hotspots for tourists. When we got inside we realised that the lack of people queuing outside meant nothing because in fact half of London seemed like they were inside!

(apologies for any blurry photos because of having a pushchair and two boys i refrained from taking the camera and relied on my phone)

I realised from the first room that the boys were not going to know many of the waxworks exhibited in each room but Seth was really fascinated by how life like each sculpture was. Bless Opeie, there were so many visitors there and he was so low down that didn't really know what was going on until I picked him up. Russell Brand was the first person we spotted and Mrs M loves his political views so i snapped a pic to send her, the boys spotted professor x (Patrick Stewart) and then I spotted the man Mrs M would leave me for if asked. There was a woman photographing him so we stood patiently waiting for some time until I realised, that too was a waxwork,Der!

Seth got really excited when he spotted James Bond from afar and couldn't wait to get a picture and then he noticed M too, Opeie as always being in complete awe of his big brother got really excited too, it's so cute how much he looks up to him.

Because the boys didn't know who many of the famous people were I used it as a chance to take pictures for other peoples enjoyment. Our friend Chris is a big Alfred Hitchcock fan, Mrs M finds BoJo quite entertaining and I know that if nanny Robson had have still been with us she would have found the picture of Seth with Henry VIII very entertaining. Nanny Roo definitely shared my humour though.

One of the highlights of the day for me was chatting to Emma, one of the lovely staff that works there, dressed as Madam Tussaud. She was a fountain of information and had i have not been with the boys i could have spoken to her for a lot longer. She told me all about Madam Tussaud and explained about the fire in 1929 where many of the wax works were destroyed. The bust of Napoleon on the shelf behind was one of the things that survived the fire. We also found out that Madam Tussauds final piece was a self portrait and was also on show further along the attractions.

We made our way through the attractions snapping away. It made me chuckle that Opeie wanted his picture taken with Shakespeare, most three year olds wouldn't know who William Shakespeare was but thanks to the wonders of LEGO and our Minifigure collection he knew exactly who it was.

Seeing her final piece was great and the boys loved that in this section of the exhibition you got to see things like trays of eyeballs. Aside from all of the celebrities i thought that this side of the experience was most interesting, its so easy to get drawn in to having your picture taken with the beckhams or Lady Gaga but the history of the place is and the story around it is far more entertaining.

The spirit of London ride was great and really broke up the visit, getting us away from the crowds briefly and giving us the chance to relax for a short time. Sadly i was using my phone and the pictures didn't turn out great but the the boys found it really interesting

Because of the boys being so young we couldn't go into the Chamber of Horrors and Scream, which initially i felt a little disappointed about, not because I'm interested in that sort of thing but because i wanted to experience all the attractions, but as i walked away i thought to myself it was a shame that that attraction was part of the tour. I really don't think that serial killers should be glorified in this way as i think its why many of them commit these crimes. Anyway that aside we finally got to the part of Madam Tussauds we were desperate to see. Yes you guessed it, the Marvel superheroes section...

Finally some characters Opeie knew (yes he is carrying a syringe around with him, clearly he was expecting a medical emergency). It was great to see Spidey and his friends and this definitely made the visit for Seth and Opeie.

After seeing the waxworks we queued for the Marvel Super Heroes 4d Movie Experience and we thought it was great. We got sprayed, our ankles were attacked by robots and every time Wolverine took a swipe with his claws we got a jab in the back which was really entertaining. The visit was great, the only negative side to the morning was that once we reached the Spirit of London ride i couldn't help but feel like we were rushed through the remainder of the exhibits and before we knew it we were standing in the gift shop with no way of getting back in.

I can definitely see why Madam Tussauds is a hotspot for tourists, the most popular waxworks to be photographed with apart from those plebs one direction was the royals, the visitors couldn't get enough of them. It was a great morning in London and with some more London visits planned within the next few months it was another attraction to tick off our ever expanding list.