Wired Cola

Mission Complete. Finishing off the two engines took about 7 minutes, so that makes the total build time about 3:07 from box-opening to flying completed model around the office making airplane noises.

After that, I decided to poke my nose into the other set I paid too much for at the garage sale, a Bionicle somethingorother.

I'd never played with Bionicle stuff before. Here's what I learned from quickly assembling this rather sharp-handed humanoid:

Bionicle is practically nothing but special shapes and custom bricks. This is a big deal for Lego-heads, for better and for worse. I'm not a serious Lego builder, but the essential question is whether adding special pieces makes models less Lego-y (I think this is some sort of argument that accidentally but reasonably treats basic Lego bricks as if they were Platonic objects; the attraction is obvious). It does make model look cool, though.

Back to the Bionicle man: he's nothing but special pieces, but the articulation is wonderful. All the limb joints are pretty much snap-fit ball and sockets. I don't find the humanoid model very interesting, but I find the parts VERY interesting.

The other, larger, part of the Bionicle set I bought is another thing, but I won't start assembling that until Monday.

For what you can do with Bionicle, I recommend these homebrewed designs.

Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4.