LEGO Day Of The Dead

The Day Of The Dead is a Mexican holiday with pre-hispanic origins to remember friends and family members who have died. The celebration takes place on November 2, and was declared by UNESCO as Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. VERSION EN ESPAÑOL

Day Of The Dead!

This Lego model incorporates many characteristics of this fiesta like flowers, sugar skulls, altar, tissue paper decorations and Catrina & Catrin.

Altar

The Altar table was made with a thick flat plate with bricks as supports. For the tissue paper decorations multicolor 1x2 bricks were used. The rear part was built almost with 2x4 red bricks. On top of the bricks a big window and some vegetation to give "freshness" to the model.

Skull

For skull building, round plates of different sizes were used, also some pointy bricks to make teeth. Finishing with marigolds for the eyes.

Flowers

Red and Yellow flowered rug in front of the altar.

Catrina & Catrin

Catrina & Catrin minifigs were built mixing stuff like mariachi hat, Old Wild West like torsos and skull heads.

To build the set around 180 steps are needed. As relevant characteristics seen in the altar: sugar skulls, candles, and cross.

LEGO Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) MANGALYAAN

The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) also known as  MANGALYAAN, is a space probe launched to Mars by
the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Launched on 5 November 2013 and reached Mars orbit on 24 September 2014. VERSION EN ESPAÑOL

MANGALYAAN

Like the real one, this LEGO model was built based on a cube. Spacecrafts are usually wrapped in a golden reflective film, to protect scientific instruments from temperature oscillations. This time the probe is presented "naked" to show some details.

Cubic structure

The cube is made of 6 4x4 plates, interconnected with "hydrant" bricks.

Inside the cube

Solar panels were modeled with 4x6 plates covered with blue "grills" to make the cells. The panels are interconnected with flexible links. In the original spacecraft solar panels and high gain antenna were stored folded inside the rocket.

Building solar panels

To build the probe around 140 steps were needed. The biggest visible features of MANGALYAAN are its 3 solar panels, high gain antenna and scientific instruments on the surface of the cube

How to separate stuck Lego bricks? LEGO 630 brick separator tool

A lot of times happens that some stuck lego bricks are impossible to separate using only our hands. In this desperate situations is common to use tools like pliers or screwdrivers, leaving scars or some damage to the bricks. VERSION EN ESPAÑOL

LEGO 630 brick separator tool

Well, LEGO has a tool to make this task a bit easier. In this case is LEGO 630. Useful to solve problems like:

Plates stuck to a base

- Small low height plates stuck to a base. Using the tool like a lever, doesn't require too much effort to remove. If a lot of force is applied bricks can fly anywhere!

Bricks stuck together

- Two low height bricks strongly stuck together. This situation requires 2 steps:

First: Put the stuck bricks in a medium size base, levering towards the base with one hand and pushing the tool towards the bricks with the other hand.

Second: Use the thinnest part of the tool to finish separating bricks.

Wheel strongly attached to the axle. Use the cross shaped tip of the tool, holding the wheel with one hand and pushing the tip towards the middle of the axle

Separate wheels from axles & other technic bricks

This tool can be bought separately, but it's included in so many sets like LEGO Minecraft series

LEGO ISEE-3 NASA spacecraft

The ISEE-3 spacecraft was launched by NASA in 1978 to study the the interaction between the Earth's magnetic field and the solar wind and was operated up to the year 1997. In 2014 it was discovered that the probe wasn't deactivated and was emitting radio signals. A group of Citizen Scientists crowdfunded the ISEE-3 reboot project, earning enough money to buy and build equipment to reestablish contact and take control of the spacecraft. VERSION EN ESPAÑOL

This LEGO model fall into the "micromodel" category because some details were sacrificed to make it easier to build. The original spacecraft is formed by a 16-side cylinder, this model was made with 8-side cylinder. Another fine detail like thrusters, scientific instruments and antenna details were omitted due to the difficulty of being represented in the right size scale.

Each side side of the cylinder has two solar panels (upper and lower), antenna support and plate brick. The top and bottom pieces of the cylinder are made of 4x4 round plates.

The inside of the spacecraft is made of a superposed crosses structure, this is one of the techniques used to build cylindrical objects. The colors of the insider bricks are irrelevant because aren't viewed from the exterior.

In the center of the cross lies a "fire hydrant " brick with 6 connecting points. The arms of the crosses could be made with any kind (or combination) of 1x1 bricks with the same length shown.

The building process takes around 150 steps. In the finished model the biggest characteristics of ISEE-3 are long and symmetrical antennas, instrument masts and blue solar panels

LEGO 5865 3-in-1 Offroader

This is a 3-in-1 set where three different vehicles could be built with the included bricks. The set came in a sturdy reusable plastic box very useful to keep the model safe without losing pieces. An Offroader is one of the three models could be built with this set. Green and White are the predominant brick color

The Offroader takes about 60 steps to be built, and needs easy to find bricks, like the ones used in another miniature vehicle sets

The vehicles in this set are a bit smaller in scale than a minifig, that's why isn't possible for our loved Emmet  to "drive" it. Just there isn't enough space!

This Offroader could be a competitive one, for the following reasons:
- Seems there are two seated or there are no windows for the passengers!
- The trunk doesn't have a window too, and seems closed
- Lights mounted on top of the vehicle

An easy to build model, fun to play and very robust!

Unpacking Emmet Hard hat, from minifig pack movie series. Revealing bump code and production number

Unpacking minifig Lego movie series: Gail constructio worker, revealing bump code, an production number