Beware the Canadian Lego People

Those of us that have recently purchased an item from the Lego Store in Canada have been greeted with the following image.

I'm presuming that the lumberjack-shirted and beaver-hatted 'Kel'(?) is specific to the Canadian market.  (He also needs a shave.  A kid's toy that needs a shave?)

Horrifying though he and his mademoiselle are, one dreads to think what the Australian or British equivalents might be...

James

Australia Day 1: 1788 and all that

Today is Australia Day. It's the 222nd anniversary of the First Fleet arriving in what was to become Australia on 26 January 1788, starting the European settlement of Australia that has continued to this day. The Sydney Museum has an excellent model of the First Fleet ships on show (below) and I wonder how many of those aboard realised they were arriving in mid-summer?

Understandably, there is a view that the Aboriginal peoples who were already living here may have a rather less positive perception of the arrival of these convicts, sailors and marines. Although it has no effect on the tragic history of Aboriginal rights and life since that day, it's often forgotten that Australia really is entirely a land of immigrants as all the humans arrived from overseas - the earliest remains found in Australia are Mungo Man from 40,000 years ago. Estimates often giving a remarkably recent figure (in pre-history terms) of between 40,000 to 50,000 years for the first colonisation of the continent, although some believe it to be much earlier.

Of course the First Fleet was a direct result of the arrival of Lieutenant James Cook in His Majesty's Barque Endeavour on one of the world's great voyages of exploration. (The introductory image at the top shows the replica of HMB Endeavour sailing up the Yarra in Melbourne.) Again, an aspect of Cook's exploration of the Eastern coast of Australia and the arrival of the First Fleet is that it could so easily have been a French story, as the French Navy were literally on the spot - or in the natural harbours - at both events. While there are a scattering of French names (particularly in Tasmania - itself based on a Dutch navigator's name) it's a monolingual Anglophone culture in law. Yet it could have been like Canada, with a foot in both French and British culture and language, or a member of the Francophone world like -er- Monaco.

Often overlooked near the Circular Quay in Sydney is this mosaic map (above) showing the very first developments of what was much later to become the city of Sydney, Australia's eternal second best conurbation.

Of course, the First Fleet was the beginning of a social experiment that failed at its origin - to export 'the criminal class' from Britain, and to develop colonies with these prisoners. No one has yet managed to export their 'criminal class', so that part was a failure, but we seem to have managed to build quite a habitable country on this unprepossessing foundation. The convicts would try to escape from the marines and soldiers (obviously to get to what would become Victoria and Melbourne from the rather inferior Sydney and New South Wales) as seen above at Sovereign Hill historical re-enactment. But to get away they would have to get through the Blue Mountains (below) one of Australia's natural wonders which is essentially untouched except for the viewing platforms and coach parking (not included in the picture).
And when it's been another great Australia Day here, and we are rolling home with a beaut sunset to the West, it's the start of another cold, winter's day in Britain. We've just celebrated five years and one day here, and it's bonzer, mate.

James (a Melburnian)

60 Years of Lego Part 1

The plastic brick building system Lego was developed 60 years ago in Denmark in 1949. In the first of two parts about this remarkable toy, I was lucky enough to be able to interview Joseph, my local Lego expert, aged nine.

Taccola: What’s your favourite Lego set?
Joseph: The Dino Attack Helicopter.

The Dino Attack Helicopter.

T: How long have you had it?
J: Two or three years.

T: Why is it your favourite?
J: Because it’s big, and I like big sets, and it’s long so it’s easy to carry and it’s not delicate.

Indiana Jones Flying Wing

T: What’s your favourite single piece?
J: The wing from the Indiana Jones Lego Set ‘Fight on the Flying wing’. It’s the biggest piece. I bought this one with my own money.

T: Why is Lego good stuff?
J: Because you build it, and then you can play with it and the characters, or you can break it and build it again.

T: How many Lego sets do you have?
J: Around 30.

T: How old were you when you got your first Lego set, and what was it? J: About six – it was an old style set called ‘Wookie Attack’. I’m nine now.

T: What’s the smallest piece you’ve got?
J: Probably the single round flat piece.

T: What’s the biggest thing you’ve made that is your own design or invention?
J: Dino Attack Base.

T: How did you design it?
J: I broke most of my Dino Attack Lego, and then I got the tracks from the tank and attached them to the base that I built and then I built onto it. I put stuff onto it that I liked like cannons and characters.

T: What is the most important thing about Lego?
J: That it’s not Mega Bloks! It’s bits and pieces – it’s not just one thing.

T: What’s the biggest Lego set in the world?
J: The $1,000 dollar Millennium Falcon limited edition.

T: What’s your favourite type of Lego?
J: Star Wars Lego – not the Clone Wars, the older type.

T: What Lego do you want next?
J: There’s a few; the AT-AT Walker; the Dino Attack jeep thing; the Ahsoka Starfighter and droids and the Hailfire droid.

T: What do you think you’ve learned from using Lego?
T: Everything I know about Star Wars!

Building Bionicles in a couple of minutes. Building Lego much quicker and not needing any help.

T: What don’t you like about Lego?
J: Nothing except the new style the Clone Wars – because they have the worst designs and the characters with big eyes.

T: Would you like to go to Legoland in Denmark?
J:Yes!

T: Thank you Joseph!

Return of the Avro Arrow

Well, sort of. At the model club I occasionally attend, one of the guys who works at a model shop brought in a box of built models that had recently been 'donated' (dumped). Most were of no great interest, and were badly constructed and mostly unpainted, but one caught my eye. It looked like a giant paper 'plane lurking at the bottom of the box.

The Arrow's roll out.

It was a model of the Avro CF-105 Arrow, Canada's great, abandoned aviation achievement.

More intriguingly, it was a kit I'd never heard of before, and going by the engraved positions for the markings, was from the same era as the real thing. All the main bits seemed to be there, and it seemed like a fun thing to waste some time 'restoring' to a more appropriate state. It was going to start with a wash, as it appeared to be covered with dirty marmalade. Then a bit of research to see what I had.

After a bit of interwebby work, I was able to establish that the kit was an Aurora 'fit the box' kit in (about) 1/78 scale. Aurora were obviously counting on good sales as the aircraft went onto a great career... so it wasn't just the Avro employees, and RCAF that were disappointed.

The info (on one of the many Arrow fan websites) on the Aurora kit says:

"Though its price of $1.39 was steep for 1960, many thousands of kits found their way in to modeller's hands.

... the Aurora model still became an instant collector's item when it went out of production. Commanding an average price of $50.00 for an unbuilt kit and as much as $400.00 for an expertly finished model, the Aurora Arrow became one of the most highly desirable kits in the black-market trade that has become part of the plastic model kit collector's headache. The introduction of the Hobbycraft models should bring prices of the Aurora kit back to reasonable levels."

So as usual I've got something that should be valuable - but isn't. Ah well. As I write, I've washed, cleaned and split apart the model (where the old plastic broke and tore in a few places, but was mostly OK) re-cemented it, filled it, sanded it, sanded it, sanded it...

Chopped. Montreal Standard's Weekend Magazine chartered a helicopter and had a photographer take pictures as the planes were dismantled.

I know what they felt like when they trashed the blasted things. However, 'I have plans' for this so the sanding and filling will continue. In the meantime...

The Avro Arrow was just one from the era of real 'paper darts'. There seemed to be a fashion for 'square' aircraft for a while. Here's four that I think fit the theme. Of course, we must remember that there's no fashion in aviation design. Oh, no.

The British equivalent was the BAC TSR-2. Unlike the Arrow (an interceptor) the TSR-2 was a bomber, but was also cancelled and the political saga continues to rumble on as well.

Biggest and most impressive was the North American XB-70 Valkyrie - a Mach 3 superbomber that was so expensive and complex even the US military-industrial complex found it a bit much.

Then there is the MiG 25 'Foxbat' a very practical (if such a thing can exist) Mach 2-3 interceptor. It was designed to catch the Valkyrie - which never entered service...


We don't normally mess about with such silly modern aircraft here, but I thought the theme, of square flat-section aircraft (apart from pencil noses) was interesting. Of course there's the ridiculous as well. This item was spotted outside the Headquarters of the RAAF Museum.

It's actually a piece of local installation art, not a random Australian Defence project, but I don't think I'll try and model that... (Note the accurately 'crumpled' nose.)

James