Lego Saturn V

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Here's the first piece of mine that I put together. My wife bought the kit at 10am, but I didn't get to unwrap it until about 8:00 last night. So I sat in my living room and put together the first 2 bags (of 12) while watching TV.

Definitely don't want to rush through this, I want to savor the build and take my time. So I'll probably be finished with it by tonight.

Lego Saturn V first piece.jpg

I'm impressed with this build so much! I can see what the designers are going for, the first stage actually has two tanks inside of it separated by some spacing right where the interstage ribs around the outside are. The fuel tank is twice the size of the oxygen tank too. And I expect all this to be hidden from view when it's finished.
 
Just ordered two. One for me and one for whichever son speaks up first (or comes by to dig some holes for transplanting trees).
 
I see capitalism is alive and well on Amazon. Cheapest I saw there was $219.00. You'd have to be a fool or have too much money to pay a $100.00 over list for this. And that was the lowest price! I saw some sellers gouging up to $200.00 over list :eyeroll: And one seller thinking they can sell it for $350.00!!! :shock: :shock:
 
I see capitalism is alive and well on Amazon. Cheapest I saw there was $219.00. You'd have to be a fool or have too much money to pay a $100.00 over list for this. And that was the lowest price! I saw some sellers gouging up to $200.00 over list :eyeroll: And one seller thinking they can sell it for $350.00!!! :shock: :shock:

I am a big believer in capitalism and if someone is willing to pay $XXX for something, somebody else has one and is willing to trade it for $XXX, then who else should care? People are willing to pay extra for many reasons - convenience is a big one. To call it gouging is silly.

Supply and demand works. Low supply and high demand has to result in higher prices. Some call it "gouging" and claim that raising prices isn't fair. I say that not allowing pricing to be raised is whats unfair.

For example, in an area hit by a hurricane that's left without power, generators are needed. The few available in stores are gone quickly. If enough people are willing to pay 10x normal price for a generator, some capitalist will find a way to truck in a lot of them. The people that need power and are happy to pay that much are happy, the seller is happy, those not involved are upset for some reason. The people that need power and are unwilling to pay that much are still without power - which is the SAME situation they'd be in if the trucks of high priced generators never showed up. They get mad that they don't have regular priced generators available, pass a law against "gouging", and next time there's a need nobody brings more generators because it's not worth the effort to truck them in. As a result, much fewer people have power and those that are willing to pay aren't allowed to spend their money how they want. How is that fair?

For you to say someone has "too much money" tells me a lot about you. There are a LOT of people that have much less than you appear to, so if they said you had too much and wanted to choose how you spent your money would you let them? Would you give half your savings to anyone with less money than you? Doubt it.
 
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Oh man. I didn't even realize we have a Lego store in Cincinnati... I called and they have a few in stock! Time to dip out of work early!
 
I got mine at the local store yesterday and got bags 1 and 2 assembled last night as well. They still had 5 ish left. It is a fatalistically fun build
 
I hate my life. Dude in front of me walking into the store grabbed the last one.
 
Here's a 19 foot tall version of a Lego Saturn V.

As I looked at this I thought, "Wow, that's so cool. He probably spent a lot of..... wait, seriously?"

Why would someone spend as much time and money on something like that and not research the actual color patterns??? There's multiple things wrong with this that bug me to no end. I realize that those of us that are big fans of the Saturn V would notice the incorrect pattern immediately and most people wouldn't know the difference so it's not that big of a deal. But still... why go through that much effort to do it wrong?

I know the current Lego kit has a couple of things that are wrong too (fin shape, roll pattern on the lower transition, location of the Instrument Unit ring) and I wondered if that's because they didn't want to create new pieces just for this kit? I assume they did create the micro astronauts for this kit but I don't know for sure. I may have to make alterations to my kit to fix the patterns. Haha. It's such a wonderfully engineered kit and was so fun to build I still love it. The guy that made the 19' tall version probably feels the same.
 
I've seen pictures of the big one before. Each of the Saturn V's had distinct roll patterns right? could be that he didn't realize he was working off pictures of different rockets. Not everyone is as detailed obsessed as scale builders though too

I've read places before that the ideas sets are very limited on "new pieces". New prints (flags, astros, lettering etc) and recolors of existing pieces (ie the basket piece used for the F1's only came in brown before orange click hinges for flotation ring) are more allowed but still kept to a limit. Unique new bricks are general frowned upon as these are lower volume kits. If the designers can team up and show where they would be useful across product lines it could happen, but given that it is generally a year between 10000 votes achieved on ideas to product release making new molds would be sporty. The astros were trophies in other kits first.

I finished though the 2nd stage last night. only really thing that bothers me is some yellow substructure is visible behind the cone piece at the top of the tunnel there.
 
Each of the Saturn V's had distinct roll patterns right?
No, the black ring that goes around the lowest inter-stage was on a test version of the rocket (500F) - before one flew. Lots of toys in the late 60s were based on this pattern which is why so many of them are wrong. But for someone to build something anytime recently they're just not doing research. His also had USA near the top, which I've never seen.

Wes Oleszewski , aka Dr. Zooch, wrote a blog about the pattern changing, and why it changed, here. It's a good read.
 
It seems that Barnes & Noble is the place to look. Toledo, Ohio store had one in stock. But not anymore!ImageUploadedByRocketry Forum1496799366.288414.jpg
 
Anyone disassembled theirs yet? I had SO much fun building it because it was designed so well, that I'm planning on taking it apart soon and doing it again.

My 11 year old master builder son is at his mom's for the summer but when he comes home in 7 weeks I'll want to put it together with him. No telling how many times I'll build it before then.

I haven't taken it apart yet though. It's too pretty for now.
 
Anyone disassembled theirs yet? I had SO much fun building it because it was designed so well, that I'm planning on taking it apart soon and doing it again.

My 11 year old master builder son is at his mom's for the summer but when he comes home in 7 weeks I'll want to put it together with him. No telling how many times I'll build it before then.

I haven't taken it apart yet though. It's too pretty for now.

I rebuilt part of mine last night, as I put one, ONE, part in backwards at the beginning of the stage one build and didn't notice it until I went to put in the very last part of the stage one build.
 
Anyone disassembled theirs yet? I had SO much fun building it because it was designed so well, that I'm planning on taking it apart soon and doing it again.

My 11 year old master builder son is at his mom's for the summer but when he comes home in 7 weeks I'll want to put it together with him. No telling how many times I'll build it before then.

I haven't taken it apart yet though. It's too pretty for now.

I had to take apart and rebuild stages 2 and up after it took a spill. Thankfully I had all the pieces :)

I took it to church last night and was showing the kids there. Also showed it to Brother Mason, who once had a Space themed VBS where I built an Estes Saturn V for it :D
 
Mine is displayed at work as well!

Also, I was forced into rebuilding stage 3. I went to show the build to my wife (because she was sooooo interested), tried separating stages 1 and 2 and the 3rd went flying.

Nice compliment to the AGM.

ImageUploadedByRocketry Forum1496942114.116072.jpg
 
I am so glad that Lego came out with it and so many are enjoying it. But personally, grand Lego models with custom parts just does not do it as something I'd like to buy. As a kid I really loved doing Legos, and trying to make up things out of imagination using the generic/basic parts (this was in the 1960's, long before the special kits with custom molded pieces). And for my model-building work I sometimes use Legos to make up a crude fast jig or as a retainer wall for pouring an RTV mold.

If I wanted to pay a lot for a Saturn-V to display, I'd go for the 4D Vision 1/100 cutaway model.

https://www.hobbytalk.com/bbs1/13-modeling-forum/342846-4d-1-100-saturn-v-progress.html

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SaturnV-4D-Stage2.jpg
 
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