"I'm one with the Force, and the Force is with me."

I've felt a little naughty this December. After building Krennics Imperial Shuttle last week and feeling a little guilty that I was building it alone while the boys were in bed. I've found myself sitting here this evening building another huge Star Wars kit all on my tod. It's been a month of solo LEGO indulgence and secretly this time round I don't feel guilty at all. I'm loving having some 'me' building time and it has made me realise just how much I love building the kits as well as custom building.

I say 'solo building' but if I get the LEGO out when everyone is in bed then I nearly always have Polly joining me, she's a HUGE fan of the boxes.

As with all the Star Wars kits, I'd love to see a little more colour, but these detailed vehicles are awesome. Like Krennics Shuttle, the shape of the Clone Turbo Tank had me intrigued. I love how LEGO gets around the obscure shapes of each build. It gives me so much inspiration for my own building. The best thing about this build for me was the movement of the wheels, when you are actually building the wheel they seem over flimsy and just wrong, but once you have placed them on a flat surface the magic happens. These wheels are amazing and now that I've seen how they are built I think me and the boys will be building some similar vehicles over the summer to roam around our back garden and over the rockery.

The Clone turbo Tank reminded me of a Transformers Optimus Prime toy I had when I was a little boy. The tank looks great complete and the design means that you can fully open up every part of the build making it a great playable build. The Mini AT-RT walker also cleverly folds up and can be stored in the back part of the vehicle to be stored ready for action.

Included with the kit is Luminara Unduli, Quinlan Vos, Clone Commander Gree and the Elite Corps Clone Trooper along with two droids.

I couldn't resist taking this outside the following morning even though it was raining. The Clone turbo Tank is made for playing outdoors and we'll definitely be making the most of that once it's dry.

The great thing about a solo build is seeing the boys faces when they wake up to new LEGO to play with the following morning. Polly is always there to take full advantage of that box for a little longer.

The Clone Turbo Tank is just part of the huge selection of LEGO Star wars products available, including all the kits from the new Rogue one movie. You can find them all HERE.

"Much to learn you still have"

It doesn't happen very often but when I see the chance to have a solo LEGO kit building session I fully embrace it. The boys want to be a part of all the building but when it comes to LEGO Star Wars they are just not that interested, so I use that as 'me time'. I can fully appreciate why they are not interested in (probably) LEGO's most popular theme, as in many ways they are like me, they love building in as much colour as possible. The LEGO Star Wars range is definitely heavy on the black and dark grey but they are true to the movies so its understandable, I'm not sure Darth vader would have commanded the respect and fear that he did, if he were flying about in a pink and green stripey Tie fighter.

As much as the Monochrome ships are less pleasing to me visually compared to, say the recent Beatles yellow submarine kit or (sticking with Star Wars) the Ewok village (which I would love to get my hands on), there is something else that excites my interests with these kits, the shapes! As a custom builder who spends a lot of time lay down on the floor creating with the boys, I am fascinated by the design features of the Star wars range and the detail that goes in to recreating the obscure shapes of some of the ships.When I reviewed the LEGO AT-ST and the Tie Striker a few months back I couldn't wait to get into building the main body of the AT-ST and the wings and cabin of the Tie Strike (which by the way is an awesome build). Seeing how the pro's design these kits is a huge inspiration for my own building with the boys.

Last nights build was no different. As I started unboxing Krennic's Imperial Shuttle from the Rogue One range, I couldn't wait to see how they had designed the crazy shape of the main section of the ship and those huge impressive looking wings. One thing I always feel a little guilty about when I'm building kits alone is Opeie not being there to build the Minifigures, it is his favourite part of any build but this is the only chance I get to do it. The 5 figures and Droid that you get with this kit are great, Pao is definitely my favourite, I'm sure that face of his will come in very handy down the line.

There's something about LEGO building that really relaxes me and clears my head, Mrs M always jokes that LEGO to me is like a form of meditation. There is something so satisfying about watching a build take shape. I wasn't expecting the wings to be as big as they are, even though the measurements are on the box. Once they were on though I couldn't wait to build that impressive main body of the ship, it gave me so many new ideas for creating odd shapes, it was some serious LEGO schooling.

I slipped in to that LEGO trance as soon as I started building the shuttle and before I knew it it was 2am as I clicked the last few pieces in to place. I can honesty say, I have never had a LEGO kit that wasn't an absolute joy to build. It may be a space ship heavy on the black bricks but the structure and design of this kit is really interesting. With retractable landing skids, a main body that opens up from every angle and huge wings that fold up, this kit really is a perfect playable kit as well as a great display piece. You can learn a lot about brick placement from the LEGO designers and I was full of inspiration after completing this.

Much like the AT-ST and Tie Striker build (which I also built into the early hours of the morning), I couldn't resist taking the Imperial shuttle outside to photograph it in the moonlight. With a huge range of LEGO Star Wars kits available, Krennic's Imperial Shuttle is definitely a must for any collection.

To see the full range of LEGO Star Wars and Rogue One kits click HERE!

“Hmm! Adventure. Hmmpf! Excitement. A Jedi craves not these things.”

The world has gone nerd crazy for Star Wars once again! It's crazy to think how much of an impact the films have had on the world of movies and although thousands of people queue to be the first there at the opening night, the toy world has got fans equally as hooked.  I'm writing this post this evening because at midnight the toy stores will be able to sell the toys and merchandise from the upcoming Rogue one movie. It is important to know that I actually didn't think much of The force Awakens and I felt the same about the three movies that came before it, I am a classic Star wars fan through and through. This does not at all hinder my views on the merchandise though. Disney does an awesome job with its licensing and the companies that supply the products and they are everywhere in stores and taking over social media (we all remember the laughing wookie lady). 

For me, as you can probably guess, it's all about the LEGO! I thoroughly enjoyed my solo building session a few months back when I sat outside building the Resistance X-wing fighter. I find building so relaxing, Mrs M always jokes that it is like meditation to me, transcending to a higher state of existence. So being the selfish father that I am, I decided to yet again have a little me time. I thought about all those Star Wars fans turning up to the toy stores before midnight to get their hands on the new merchandise, and how lucky I felt to be sitting in the comfort of my own home, relaxed and slipping slowly into my brick trance.

The only minor downside to the Star wars kits personally is the mass of grey bricks used. I love colour when I am building and would love to custom build all of the cult star wars kits in bright quirky shades. Which is why I jumped at the chance to build the Christmas Deathstar when the boys came up with the idea. The AT-AT kit would definitely be on my colourful custom job list, with it being from the original movies. Being able to build the new AT-ST walker gave me a taster of that though. One thing I really love about the Star wars kits is the weapons, I'm not usually big on guns/blasters on my LEGO builds but I always find it interesting looking at the small parts the designers have used to add detail in to the weaponary.

I had only planned to build the one kit and save the other for the boys to build. I got so into the AT-ST build though, that within minutes of completing the AT-ST, the Tie Striker was being unboxed. I didn't think for one second that I would stay up to complete it but I sat up until 2am clicking those addictive bricks together. The build was great but it wasn't until I reached the wings that I was really impressed as they are so big.

2am and with two new Star wars kits built, I couldn't resist taking them out in the back garden under the stars for a few photos for twitter as I had been tweeting away as I built. All geeked out it was time for bed, only to be woken up first thing by two other LEGO enthusiasts excited by the new ships and casually dropping hints at a possible new Death star delivery from that big jolly red chap in December. The new kits have us all eager for Rogue one just as I imagine that if you watched the movie first you would be eager for the release of the LEGO kits. This relationship between Star wars and LEGO seems unstoppable and I cannot wait to see what comes out next.

You can find the full range of Star wars LEGO here.