"Much to learn you still have"

It doesn't happen very often but when I see the chance to have a solo LEGO kit building session I fully embrace it. The boys want to be a part of all the building but when it comes to LEGO Star Wars they are just not that interested, so I use that as 'me time'. I can fully appreciate why they are not interested in (probably) LEGO's most popular theme, as in many ways they are like me, they love building in as much colour as possible. The LEGO Star Wars range is definitely heavy on the black and dark grey but they are true to the movies so its understandable, I'm not sure Darth vader would have commanded the respect and fear that he did, if he were flying about in a pink and green stripey Tie fighter.

As much as the Monochrome ships are less pleasing to me visually compared to, say the recent Beatles yellow submarine kit or (sticking with Star Wars) the Ewok village (which I would love to get my hands on), there is something else that excites my interests with these kits, the shapes! As a custom builder who spends a lot of time lay down on the floor creating with the boys, I am fascinated by the design features of the Star wars range and the detail that goes in to recreating the obscure shapes of some of the ships.When I reviewed the LEGO AT-ST and the Tie Striker a few months back I couldn't wait to get into building the main body of the AT-ST and the wings and cabin of the Tie Strike (which by the way is an awesome build). Seeing how the pro's design these kits is a huge inspiration for my own building with the boys.

Last nights build was no different. As I started unboxing Krennic's Imperial Shuttle from the Rogue One range, I couldn't wait to see how they had designed the crazy shape of the main section of the ship and those huge impressive looking wings. One thing I always feel a little guilty about when I'm building kits alone is Opeie not being there to build the Minifigures, it is his favourite part of any build but this is the only chance I get to do it. The 5 figures and Droid that you get with this kit are great, Pao is definitely my favourite, I'm sure that face of his will come in very handy down the line.

There's something about LEGO building that really relaxes me and clears my head, Mrs M always jokes that LEGO to me is like a form of meditation. There is something so satisfying about watching a build take shape. I wasn't expecting the wings to be as big as they are, even though the measurements are on the box. Once they were on though I couldn't wait to build that impressive main body of the ship, it gave me so many new ideas for creating odd shapes, it was some serious LEGO schooling.

I slipped in to that LEGO trance as soon as I started building the shuttle and before I knew it it was 2am as I clicked the last few pieces in to place. I can honesty say, I have never had a LEGO kit that wasn't an absolute joy to build. It may be a space ship heavy on the black bricks but the structure and design of this kit is really interesting. With retractable landing skids, a main body that opens up from every angle and huge wings that fold up, this kit really is a perfect playable kit as well as a great display piece. You can learn a lot about brick placement from the LEGO designers and I was full of inspiration after completing this.

Much like the AT-ST and Tie Striker build (which I also built into the early hours of the morning), I couldn't resist taking the Imperial shuttle outside to photograph it in the moonlight. With a huge range of LEGO Star Wars kits available, Krennic's Imperial Shuttle is definitely a must for any collection.

To see the full range of LEGO Star Wars and Rogue One kits click HERE!