Breaking Bad is coming to a close, but that's no reason for the fun to end: introducing the unofficial Breaking Bad meth lab Lego set. Sold by Citizen Brick, the "Superlab Playset" has over 500 parts and comes in at a cool $250, which is equivalent to around about three grams of actual meth in the UK, in case you were interested. The set includes Lego versions of Walter, Mike, and both live and dead versions of Gus. "Bummed out that your favorite show is going off the air?" reads the Citizen Brick website. "Who knows what fun you'll cook up with this deluxe set." This isn't the first time the world of Breaking Bad has been recreated in Lego. In 2012, redditor garyisyoudotcom unveiled "Bricking Bad," as coined by another redditor. The set had apparently been built by his friend, Nashville-based Brad Edwards. If you're the kind of die-hard fan who is willing to shell out serious money on merchandise, the Superlab Playset may just be the thing for you. Don't expect it to turn up on your doorstep in a rush, though.
"Due to the sheer awesomeness of this building set [we] ship approximately 2-3 weeks after time of purchase," the Citizen Brick website states. Wired.co.uk: Did you create the set yourself, and what inspired you to make it? Joe Trupia: We (Citizen Brick) had had some success with our Chemistry Enthusiast figurine back in January. After it sold out, we had lots of requests to create a lab like this. Given that we usually only produce custom figures and parts, creating a set this elaborate was a bit of a leap forward for us. One of our staff designers, Bryan McLean, built the model, and we were on our way. Wired: Why does it take two to three weeks after purchase to ship? JT: We fill each order by hand. With 500 parts plus three custom figures, it takes a little while to assemble. Wired: Are you a Breaking Bad fan?I'm sad it's ending. We made this set partially to comfort ourselves. Wired: What do you think will happen to Walter at the end of this season?
JT: I had a few theories, but as usual, they dissolved as soon as the season premiere started. That's the mark of a good show, isn't it? Keeping one step ahead of the fans? This story originally appeared on Wired UK. Listing image by Citizen BrickLego bricks do not come cheap. Just ask Zhao, the Chinese artist whose Lego sculpture worth $15,000 fell victim to the clumsiness of a small child at a Lego Expo on Sunday. The sculpture, a brick version of Nick from the animated film Zootopia, fell to pieces within an hour of the exhibit's opening. SEE ALSO: Sneakers made of only legos are perfect for playtime and game time On the bright side, $15,000 worth of Lego bricks are worth the same amount whether they're assembled or dissembled. And though that number may seem high, it's not particularly surprising considering the prices of retired Lego sets that fetch much more than their original retail prices. This is some seriously pricey plastic. Wildly Expensive Lego Sets
The term "Master Builder" sometimes gets conflated with "Model builder" as well as with "LEGO Designer" and sometimes (but not as often) with "LEGO Certified Professional" These are different roles.A LEGO Designer designs sets. They work against fairly tight budgets of parts (total and new parts) and within tight thematic constraints. By and large designers work in Billund although there have been rare freelance exceptions. Their work tends to be at minifig scale, for the most part. They are (again, with rare exception) TLG (The LEGO Group) employees.A LEGO Certified Professional[0] is someone that LEGO has certified as a professional, that is someone that LEGO has confidence in the competence and business acumen/ethics/brand awareness to allow them to be called that. LCPs may do almost anything but mostly they build one-off models of things for pay ... these may be minifig scale layouts, larger scale creations, statues, corporate logos or trade show attractors, mosaics, and the like. These people are independent and don't work for LEGO.
They work for themselves. Some of them may have at one time been Master Builders (IIRC, Nathan Sawaya was [1] and there may be others) ... They specialise in different areas ... for examle Nathan tends to do a lot of sculpture, and Sean Kenney does more small scale models [2]. While their efforts do help the brand, they are primarly in business for themselves.A LEGO Master Builder is in a lot of ways, sort of like a LCP in that their oeuvre may be many of the same things, but with an emphasis on statues and suchlike for retail/tradeshow display and (for some of them) models at Miniland scale (a scale that is approximately 3-4x Minifig scale) for the various Minilands at various LEGO theme parks. They are LEGO employees. [3] They specialise as well. Most of what they do supports current retail set marketing. (R2D2 displays and the like) A number of them work in Enfield and in other locations around the world such as Billund, and a number of them work at the various parks, which are now no longer owned by LEGO directly.
A LEGO Model Builder is an apprentice Master Builder. When the Master Builder finishes up that new R2D2 model.... well LEGO is going to send 50 copies of it out to various Toys R Us stores... guess who gets to make copies 2-50 in Enfield ??? It's rote work and involves a lot of working with MEK [4]. Supposedly the pay is not very good. Just above that are the model builders that work at the parks. They too build copies of things but they also help maintain buildings and figures that might have gotten damaged.To muddy the waters further, LEGO themselves have just introduced a product line called "LEGO Master Builder Academy" which purports to teach eager young builders the secrets they need to learn so they too can become "Master Builders" by selling them a series of sets that have detailed instructions, tips and techniques, and the like.So, how many Master Builders are there? I don't think LEGO will tell you. Rumor has it [3] Enfield currently has 11. There probably are a smaller number at each of the parks, and a similar number in Billund.
So my guess is somewhere on the close order of 30 or so. with another 15-30 model builders hoping to move up. And what are the skills to be a good Master Builder? Well from time to time LEGO has competitions (talent searches) and they test for things likeCreativity.... given a random pile of parts and a theme, build something that fits that theme.Geometry.... can you make a pretty good sphere from rectangular elements? How about an ellipse? The curve of a car fender?Engineering ... do you know the parts well enough to use them in surprising ways?Nathan Sawaya has a page on his site talking about the master builder competition he won [5]... Nathan used to be a lawyer. He took a huge pay cut to follow his dream (although, he only bought 7000 bricks a year???? eh?) ... but then left and went into business for himself.The Brothers Brick blog wrote up the results of a 2009 talent search as well. I've met Steve and I've also met Francie but I doubt very much they remember me nearly as well as I remember them :)[4] - Methyl Ethyl Ketone.