I’m going on vacation to California this week, so I am trying out writing a blog on my iPad to see how it goes, as I won’t be near my computer when I’m. I had a MacBook, but it was stolen. I’ve heard that modern iPads are nearly as capable as an actual laptop. We’ll see.
LEGO doesn’t have an official Thunderjaw set — not yet, anyway. All they have at the moment is the iconic Tallneck model. I put that together last year sometime and lit it with an aftermarket lighting kit. It’s gotten lonely over the months and months guarding my corner shelf alone.
Where LEGO fails, fans step up. There are so many fan builds of not only Horizon models, but every possible thing you can think of. LEGO has a tool that anyone can use to make their own builds, and it’ll print out a parts list and assembly instructions automatically. It’s a little bit magic.
A builder that goes by the handle “jazlecraz” published the instructions and parts list for a Thunderjaw build that would be appropriately sized next to the Tallneck.
Sourcing the bricks is up to the reader.
Building this thing isn’t super easy, but it pales to the effort of getting all the bricks. The final build is a mixture of standard LEGO and Technik parts. There are thousands of pieces.
For my birthday, Kasul sourced them all. Orders came in from all over the country. I didn’t know they were bricks; Kasul was being verrrry cagey about them. I had no idea what they were.
He’d gotten all the parts, separated them up, bagged them all so that I would know which bricks were for the Thunderjaw and which were the base.
Then, after I’d opened the present, who took them again to see if he could separate out the parts for the first few build steps so that I could get right into the build.
It was amazing. I tore through the first few steps pretty quickly. It bogged down a little when it came to the end of the pre-bagged steps and I had dozens of bags to look through for each step — they were largely separated by shape, so it could have been much worse, but if I could instantly put my fingers on the part I needed at the time, I’d be way ahead of where I’m at.
After the first few hours, I’m 70-odd steps in, and the body is more than half completed. There’s another fifty or so steps to finish the body.
I’ll update as it gets further along… and then the Tallneck and Thunderjaw fight.
Do Tallnecks fight? They seem so chill..
I guess if they did, they’d fight like giraffes do, which seems terrifying. I’d rather take on the Thunderjaw!
The designer cautions against doing things like playing with it, or even moving it. Apparently it is just barely able to stand once assembled, so… probably just putting it on the shelf and hoping I don’t… STARE too hard at it, I guess.