A small world after all

[austin_dern]

At Raffles City this week they've set up a Lego Creators World. This is a chance for kids to play with and buy Lego sets, as at the googly-eyed crocodile car on the left, and for experts to show off what they've made, like in the giant spider display soon to bring Lego Wisconsin to its knees. I'm kind of suspicious of projects completed where everything's the appropriate color, but I can't deny the evidence of buildings in bloom, ready to be picked, or other wonders.

There are some life-size figures, like this of Boba Fett, who like many bounty hunters is not as tall as you might expect. (Nobody in movies is as tall as anyone else expects, which is why the observation someone isn't so tall is a more common movie greeting than ``Hello.'') By walking around I discovered what I didn't know before, that Fett carries a small Chrysler building on his back. There's also a neat little Max Weinberg, showing off his shiny robes and hourglass figure.

They had a lovely display of local attractions, like a dramatic re-creation of Merlion Park, which was set up with a button that meade something roar and did some lighting effect that just didn't photograph. In this whirlwind tour of the Pacific Rim you could see a nice Taiwanese temple adjacent to a Vietnamese hotel, though inexplicably I forgot to photograph the labels so I don't know which they are.

The Great Wall of China and the Sydney Opera House turn into surprisingly convincing Lego versions. I took this picture of the Opera House because nobody ever shows the real thing from this angle. On this little simulated beach nearby you could see a poor diver with his legs cut off.

There's also New Zealand's franchise of the Big Spikey Tower concept, around which was this charming slice of life scene: ``This is the best vacation ever, honey! Let me buy you a blender!'' There was another couple enjoying their blender unaware that just a few feet away was a charming little Lego drug runner roaring into Lego Hong Kong. All this was taking place at the Hong Kong Convention and Expo Centre, seen here in range of the Singapore Merlion (not to scale).

It was all really a lot of fun to look over, although I didn't buy anything, and they only had licensed theme sets for sale rather than just tubs of, you know, bricks. There were no dinosaurs in sight.

Trivia: The Continental Army, when George Washington assumed command in 1775, nominally consisted of 20,242 officers and men, 17,215 of whom were present for duty. Source: The March of Democracy, James Truslow Adams. (And while I'm at it, happy 790th to the Magna Carta, if you don't mind ignoring the conversion between Julian and Gregorian calendars.)

Currently Reading: World History, 1815-1920, Eduard Fueter.

Comments

Re: That's not Boba Fett

[tracerj.livejournal.com]

She's human, actually, but wearing powered armor built by a race of bird-like aliens called the Chozo. I could go into more detail, but then I would be hopelessly geeking.

Re: That's not Boba Fett

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Oh, no need to fear geeking here. This is Livejournal, after all, and even one of the relatively high-rent neighborhoods where language skills are prized.

I suppose this implies an explanation to the Chozo thing I've seen around now and then. I knew it had to refer to something, but never knew what, and didn't honestly worry much about it.

Re: That's not Boba Fett

[tracerj.livejournal.com]

Then, the ten-cent version:

Samus Aran's story starts off with her as a young girl in a human colony on the planet SR388. Space Pirates (English name, as their language is utterly unpronouncable) raid and destroy the colony, taking what they want and scorching the rest. Samus, as the only survivor, is found and rescued by the Chozo, a peaceful race whose technology has progressed so far that they have gone on to become spiritually enlightened as well since, you know, they had nothing better to do. They go to one of their occupied planets, Zebes (Zebeth in the first game; I pronounce it 'tsebesh' as though it were Romanian) and raise Samus.

The Chozo know the Space Pirates aren't gonna stop until they hold the whole damn galaxy in fear, but they are not a warrior race, they're not suited for such things. Young Samus burns with a passion, however... thanks to a combination of her tragic orphan status and natural human bloodlust, she'd make a great champion, someone the Chozo can trust to kick ass. So when she's old enough, they build her a powered suit of armor with adaptive technology that can kick the ass of practically anything out there, and set her loose. She starts by pitching herself as a bounty hunter... well, more like an independent contractor for the Galactic Police. The rest is history.

Re: That's not Boba Fett

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

There you go, now don't you feel better?

I can't help thinking now for some reason of the Kim Possible where she got the magic armor, though ...