LEGO

There’s Lego and then there’s Lego imitators; wannabes, rip-offs. I never had much time for them when I was a kid, and as I’ve been pretty much Lego-adverse – at least until recently – for my adult life, I never gave them much thought.

Then I saw the Doctor Who not-Legos while I was back in the UK several months ago by UK-based company Character Building.

I couldn’t help it; I picked up the TARDIS set with the 11th Doctor and Amy, a Dalek army-builder pack consisting of 5 red Daleks, a couple of the blind character packs – ending up with a Silurian, a Weeping Angel and another red Dalek – and the really-rather-awesome 11 Doctor set in TARDIS packaging.

Since then, through the wonders of eBay, I’ve managed to get hold of all the series 1 and 2 blind figures and a limited Cybermen army-builder pack (limited in the sense it was available from a single UK retailer and features different Cybermen to the regular army pack).

And they’re good. Very good. Granted, the figures aren’t quite Lego compatible (although you can switch heads with regular Lego minifigs) but they’re well designed and can be switched around with each other if you so desire to make a Cyberman-Amy.

The blocks are completely compatible with Lego, and perfectly sized so you can finally have Darth Vader execute his raid on the TARDIS that you always dreamed of.

There are a number of additional playsets available at varying prices; a Dalek Progenitor Room set, a Dalek Factory, a Cyberman Conversion Chamber, a pretty crappy Weeping Angels one (although some of the rock pieces may come in handy for regular Lego dioramas) but the big Kahuna of them all is the TARDIS Console Room set…

The main drawback of these for US buyers is that they’re pretty damn pricey. Entertainment Earth has a bunch coming into stock soon but depending on shipping costs you may be better off buying direct from the manufacturer in the UK.

So far, with the exception of the 11 Doctor set, the series has focused on the adventures and characters of the 11th Doctor but I imagine that as it moves forward we’ll get more characters from earlier incarnations of the Doctor. While I think I’d rather have had the characters more in line with regular Lego minifigs, I understand why they’re not and they are quite cute. I also understand why Lego passed on the license (if they were ever even interested) since Doctor Who isn’t quite the worldwide brand that Star Wars or even Pirates of the Caribbean are.

Regardless, I’d recommend these to any Doctor Who fan, or parent of one. As for Jack, well, he’s a little too young for these right now so I’ll just have to keep them.

Until he’s old enough. Of course.

Lately I’ve been spending some not inconsiderable time thinking about Lego*. It does feel like I may have traded one geeky hobby (comics) for another, but I swear – to myself at least – this isn’t the same thing. For one thing, I’m not actually spending money on it. Yet.

A few months ago while picking up some Duplo for Jack in the Lego store in Rockefeller Center I picked up a couple of those little blind minifig packets that they have.

Then next time I passed I picked up a three pack of Lego Star Wars figures on magnets.

Last week I ordered a little set of Lego Star Wars Imperials on Hoth as it was cheap on Walmart.com and I was getting a few things anyway.

And I’m seriously considering investing in some of the Lego winter sets – like the toy shop, below – to use as a Christmas diorama this year, and then getting a different one each year to add to it.

I envision creating a tradition where we build it with Jack (starting next year or the year after when he might be able to help and not eat the pieces) while It’s A Wonderful Life and The Muppet’s Christmas Carol play back-to-back on loop in the background. Possibly with eggnog and roasting walnuts somewhere. And a big Christmas sweater. And a fire roaring away. And small Victorian-dressed children running around screaming and yet being very polite at the same time.

So, basically, I’ll be having Christmas in the Nexus.

I think…I think I may have a problem.

*I know, I know; Lego should be capitalized. But I think it just looks weird if you do it all the time. I’ll do it in blog post titles, okay?