A bubble gum storage locker.
It sat on the edge of the desk in my room. Every few weeks I would swing by the candy store at the edge of town on my bike, and buy 25 pieces of Bazooka Bubble gum. Hard as a stone, pink as cotton candy, each piece was roughly the size of a matchbook, and enclosed in a comic showing the adventures of Bazooka Joe. Covering each was a printed wax paper wrapper that sealed out nothing except fingerprints. It took several hundred pounds per square inch on that first chew to get it going, a score more to soften it to where every bite wasn't hydraulic, and then a few more to make it truly pliable. Then and only then could you manipulate it enough to blow a bubble.
But I wax rhapsodic about a tangent: back to the storage locker. When I got the gum home, I had to have a place to put it. It needed to be a secure space that would also afford easy access. Yes, I know, I know: we're not talking diamonds or cash, we're talking gum. It wasn't as if my mom or dad were going to steal my stash. But to my 8-year old self, it seemed important. And so I turned to the one building system I had that made sense. For security, structure, customizability and utility, only one thing fit the bill: Lego.
Like many kids, I had a pile of Legos. At that time they were pretty basic: small bricks in varying sizes and colors, but basically squares and rectangles. Using them I cobbled together a hollow red and white stripped model of an Empire State-esque building with a trick side panel that snapped in and out if you knew the right place to push. Inside went my precious chews, safe from the prying hands of my little sister.
I flashed back to that structure when I saw the Danish company's latest piece-de-résistance, a 7,541 piece set which enables you to construct the Millennium Falcon from "Star Wars." Creating a model that is nearly a yard long and two feet wide, it is also the most expensive set ever sold at $800. It comes with swappable parts so you can update the ship depending on which chapter of the movie you prefer, as well as minifigures of some of the characters associated with it. Perhaps most importantly, it has a 468-page instruction manual detailing step-by-step directions. By the way, the parts listing contains just 4 red bricks of the kind I used to build my gum bank.
This set replaces a less detailed one from 2007 which had a mere 5,195 pieces and cost $500. But even that wasn't detailed enough at the time for some. Titans Creations, a group of Singaporean MOCs (My Own Creation) enthusiasts went one step further, and scaled the kit larger so they could show the interior as well. That took 10,000 pieces, and included a place for Luke to practice his lightsaber and a lounge for C3PO and R2D2. No word if they are working on upscaling this version as well.
But back to our current record breaker. Who would buy such a thing? Well, enough people that it's out of stock: since November, you haven't been able to get it for love nor money. If you just have to build a light-speed jumping space ship, you still have several options. The 2007 set has been discontinued, though it has been spotted on eBay in various vintages. The company also makes a 1329 piece set of the same ship for $149, but it too is sold out. You can get a mini version with just 92 pieces for 10 bucks, but the be warned: the Chewie figure that comes with it stands taller than the ship. So much for scale models.
This year marks the bricks 60th anniversary, and the 86th anniversary of the brand. It's also the year that the world's Lego minifigure population will surpass the human population of 7.5 billion. So Millennium Falcon or not, it's a force to be reckoned with. As for me, I need a new pencil holder on my desk. And we haven't yet given away the kids stash of bricks. Perhaps a version with a secret panel for erasers? My wife will never figure it out.
-END-
Marc Wollin of Bedford used Legos to build speakers for his first crystal radio. His column appears regularly in The Record-Review, The Scarsdale Inquirer and online at http://www.glancingaskance.blogspot.com/, as well as via Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
It sat on the edge of the desk in my room. Every few weeks I would swing by the candy store at the edge of town on my bike, and buy 25 pieces of Bazooka Bubble gum. Hard as a stone, pink as cotton candy, each piece was roughly the size of a matchbook, and enclosed in a comic showing the adventures of Bazooka Joe. Covering each was a printed wax paper wrapper that sealed out nothing except fingerprints. It took several hundred pounds per square inch on that first chew to get it going, a score more to soften it to where every bite wasn't hydraulic, and then a few more to make it truly pliable. Then and only then could you manipulate it enough to blow a bubble.
But I wax rhapsodic about a tangent: back to the storage locker. When I got the gum home, I had to have a place to put it. It needed to be a secure space that would also afford easy access. Yes, I know, I know: we're not talking diamonds or cash, we're talking gum. It wasn't as if my mom or dad were going to steal my stash. But to my 8-year old self, it seemed important. And so I turned to the one building system I had that made sense. For security, structure, customizability and utility, only one thing fit the bill: Lego.
Like many kids, I had a pile of Legos. At that time they were pretty basic: small bricks in varying sizes and colors, but basically squares and rectangles. Using them I cobbled together a hollow red and white stripped model of an Empire State-esque building with a trick side panel that snapped in and out if you knew the right place to push. Inside went my precious chews, safe from the prying hands of my little sister.
I flashed back to that structure when I saw the Danish company's latest piece-de-résistance, a 7,541 piece set which enables you to construct the Millennium Falcon from "Star Wars." Creating a model that is nearly a yard long and two feet wide, it is also the most expensive set ever sold at $800. It comes with swappable parts so you can update the ship depending on which chapter of the movie you prefer, as well as minifigures of some of the characters associated with it. Perhaps most importantly, it has a 468-page instruction manual detailing step-by-step directions. By the way, the parts listing contains just 4 red bricks of the kind I used to build my gum bank.
This set replaces a less detailed one from 2007 which had a mere 5,195 pieces and cost $500. But even that wasn't detailed enough at the time for some. Titans Creations, a group of Singaporean MOCs (My Own Creation) enthusiasts went one step further, and scaled the kit larger so they could show the interior as well. That took 10,000 pieces, and included a place for Luke to practice his lightsaber and a lounge for C3PO and R2D2. No word if they are working on upscaling this version as well.
But back to our current record breaker. Who would buy such a thing? Well, enough people that it's out of stock: since November, you haven't been able to get it for love nor money. If you just have to build a light-speed jumping space ship, you still have several options. The 2007 set has been discontinued, though it has been spotted on eBay in various vintages. The company also makes a 1329 piece set of the same ship for $149, but it too is sold out. You can get a mini version with just 92 pieces for 10 bucks, but the be warned: the Chewie figure that comes with it stands taller than the ship. So much for scale models.
This year marks the bricks 60th anniversary, and the 86th anniversary of the brand. It's also the year that the world's Lego minifigure population will surpass the human population of 7.5 billion. So Millennium Falcon or not, it's a force to be reckoned with. As for me, I need a new pencil holder on my desk. And we haven't yet given away the kids stash of bricks. Perhaps a version with a secret panel for erasers? My wife will never figure it out.
-END-
Marc Wollin of Bedford used Legos to build speakers for his first crystal radio. His column appears regularly in The Record-Review, The Scarsdale Inquirer and online at http://www.glancingaskance.blogspot.com/, as well as via Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
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