'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.

"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.

"My common sense is tingling."

Having Seth as my Lego right hand man makes building so much more interesting. I love hearing his ideas, seeing what hidden details he comes up with and seeing the look of excitement on his face when we are discussing our construction. When we are planning a bigger build I like to get Seth to draw a sketch of the plans to work from, it's one of my favourite parts of the build. 

Back at Easter I wrote a post about our Lego Easter hunt, rather than bombard the boys with chocolate I bought the Lego Deadpool kit and seperated it between empty plastic eggs. It was something they really wanted and personally I'd rather get them something like that than uneccessary amounts of chocolate. The kit spurred on our next big build and Seth got sketching straight away, designing the schematics of the building.

Once Seth had fully explained his vision we got to work, putting together a large base plate and the front fascia first. We always tend to start with the front as it gives us a good idea of how big the thing is going to be. We built this in a similar style to the Joker ice Cream parlour that we built last year because having the big open top area is great for the boys when playing.

Seth wanted the fascia to look like the head of the Lego Deadpool minifigure but with a drawbridge style door and a hidden entrance in the neck, a great start to our build. The idea was to build Deadpools armoury. A haven for badguys to get hold if all the weapons they need for whatever badness they are unleashing on Super Hero City.

Dr Octopus was the most likely choice for sales assistant due to all those arms. Seth designed a weapon cabinet for behind the till and wanted cupboards with drawers in for weapon storage.  

To the rear of our creation and the more fun part to build was Deadpools living quaters. Seth had so many great ideas for this part of the build that shamefully we had to miss a couple of the things out because of lack of room. Apparently Deadpool needed an area that he could keep an eye on his shop as we all know bad guys can't be trusted.

This section of the build was where Seth let his creative juices run wild. It all started at the rear of the build and with Deadpools bedroom. Seth wanted it to look like a normal bedroom but with a couple of hidden doors into other sections of the build.

My favourite part of the build is the bed, Seth knew exactly what he wanted and came up with an genius way to make that happen. He remembered the bed from his very first Lego kit a few years back, the Lego city police station. the bed in the cell raised up and underneath there was a crowbar hidden ready for a little prison break. Seth wanted to make something similar but instead of a hidden item, an entire hidden room, a base of Operations for his beloved minifigure. I was tinkering around with lego ladders and stairs trying to make them fit when Seth handed me a much more interesting idea that he had made himself.

As part of the bedroom Seth also wanted to add in a sliding bookcase for a quick getaway.

the next room over from the bedroom is the kitchen/lounging area and a way for Deadpool to keep an eye on his business.

 

 And then next door to that, something Seth adds in to every building that we build, toilets. This time his and hers matching toilets 

And with each Lego toilet that we build, they also come with trap doors into jail cells below.

 Of course its always the Super hero girlfriends that get caught and locked up. Poor Pepper Potts and Mary Jane Watson left to live out their days in a holding cell. Luckily Seth being the gentleman that he is added an escape hatch in to the build...

The boys were close by though and with a quick costume change they were off to save their ladies..

Seth made sure that there was a garage in the build as he told me how important it is to always have a get away vehicle close by when you are a baddie.

 With all the illegal goings on happening within the shop it was obvious that eventually things would start to get out of hand, especially seeing as Dr Octopus left the gun cabinet unattended..

Luckily in Super hero City wherever theres a villian there are heroes just around the corner waiting to do what they do best...

We had so much fun building this and it has already spurred on another big idea which i think we will start building soon, I'm going to need to get Seth sketching his ideas first. The great thing about this build is that it is so strong and the boys can happily play out their stories without fear of it falling apart. Lets just hope Seth doesn't fall on this one like the great Jokers Lego Ice Cream Parlour disaster of 2013.

And when we had finished with our characters we had built a storage box on top of the fascia to put all our minifigures away (yes when it comes to Lego we think of everything).

Stay tuned for more of our creations...