Lego Hulk Smash!

Continuing a bit from Monday, I played a bit with my Avengers Lego, and ended up taking more pictures of Hulk smashing Loki. Easily the coolest moment in the entire movie, where Loki is picked up by the feet - in the middle of one of his insane, evil speeches - and literally thrown all over the floor.

Anyway, I tried to recreate it using the Lego figures, and a gif creator. This is what I ended up with.

I should get a camera mount...

Lego Avengers

At Lego's 55 year anniversary, I'm delivering a big one. An article on the Lego Avengers sets. Not all of them, but a solid majority of them. And this was a big deal to me. I grew up reading Marvel comics, I grew up absolutely loving The Avengers. Simultaneously, I built Lego (and I continue to do both these activities). Never did I consider a future where I would get to build official Marvel Lego sets. But there is a another aspect of this that makes the whole experience so much better: The fact that Marvel succeeded in making solid, entertaining movies out of their Avengers heroes. Scratch that. They're not just entertaining. For their genre, they're at the very pinnacle. I've written about Avengers before, I've had a Figure Friday on Hawkeye, and I've teased the Lego sets. So here's the big one, and it's basically just tons of pictures of three of the four sets, with added commentary. I'm still missing the Quinjet, with Black Widow. The Quinjet is cool, but I may just pick up a single Natasha on ebay. But so far, the Avengers line up is looking good.

Anyway, hop on in for the Earth's Mightiest Brick-heroes.

sillyfigures

Just a bit of weekend sillyness. Have a good one, people.

Baked Creamy Chicken

I'm not sure what to call this, but it's nothing special really. Oven baked chicken, and a cream sauce with mushroom and broccoli. I was a bit indecisive whether to place the chicken fillets directly in the pan, or have them on a grate. I ended up using my cheese graters, but I'm not sure if it had any effect what so ever. The idea was that juices from the fillets would drip down, leaving the chicken crisp - and the juices would be used for the sauce. Of course, there are almost no fat in a fillet, so not really a lot of juices for the sauce. Certainly not enough to leave a significant imprint on the sauce.

Chicken was in the oven for 20 minutes at 225 degrees C, but it could easily have been 250. Rub garlic, basil and oil on the fillets first.
Sauce is made by frying spring onion and adding cream. Fry some heavily peppered mushrooms in lots of butter. Steamed broccoli adds some color. Enjoy.

Arctic Masters of the Universe?

The winter came suddenly for my buddy JP. Being a resourceful person, he chose to see opportunities, where others would simply complain, barricade the door and hibernate until the spring came and rescued them. JP took his toys outside for a photo session. Now, I have reminded him to get a better camera. Still, these pictures aren't half bad for a phone.

Click on in for pictures of toys outside in the snow!

What toy are you opening this weekend?

I'm opening a 2011 remake of 1987s Techno Viper.

Enjoy your weekend, and open your toys!

Trains

Have you noticed how many songs there are about trains? In every genre, there are several songs about trains. From jazz, with "Take the A-train", to metal, with Ozzy's Crazy Train. And it's not just the good genres that gets train songs. There's even an entire musical about trains. Of course, I'm not the only one to notice. Check this out. 

One of my favorites is of course Porcupine Tree's "Trains". A mighty song. It's obviously about something more than trains - the good ones usually are. And I strongly encourage you to check it out. 

But I don't write about music. Not on this blog anyway. What happened was that I was home with my parents this Christmas, and my father brought out his toys one evening: Model trains. He claims he's not a collector, but he still likes his toys. Now, I did take more pictures of this session, but I'll share the best ones today. 

These are N-Scale, which says something about the distance between the tracks more than it says something about the scale of the trains. Usually though, they are 1:144. Or to put it simple: They are tiny. 

I like it. It's almost like they are 1:18 to a 1:18 toy. Meaning that they would scale-wise be to a G.I. Joe as a G.I. Joe is to me. 

Uh.. Anyway.. I know almost nothing about trains, but I think I like the complexity behind the constructions, both the original trains, and these small models. Are they toys in the traditional fashion? Well, I wouldn't give these to a small kid, and it's definitely not for everyone. But they are toys. My father collects toys. 

Don't ask me about details on these. I see two black steam engines, one blue steam engine, one green electrical train, and one tiny red train. 

Enjoy the pictures, and give a thought to what your favorite train song is!