Episode 324: Find a Weapon

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Dave

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Zombie Cliche Lookout: Unsolicited Advice

Whenever an unwary survivor runs into a more seasoned zombie fighter, the more experienced person will generally dispense a couple pieces of predictable advice. Among these chestnuts are such classics as “You’ve got to shoot them in the head”, “don’t let them bite you”, and –  of course – “find something, anything, you can use to defend yourself, and be prepared to use it”. Now this is all useful information to know, but in the early parts of the zombie outbreak, the advise-giver is often going to come across as completely crazy, at least at first.

Oh, and if this is a video game, odds are that character will simply hand the new guy a gun. Because that’s the sort of shenanigans that happen in video games. Movies seem to be a bit more realistic, with characters rarely handing over valuable firearms to unproven people they meet on the street.

About this Episode:

I have a pretty decent collection of LEGO®, and I keep it very well organized. So imagine my surprise when I went to shoot this episode and discovered that I didn’t have a single one of those key pieces. You know, they ones that come in twos on a sprue? Apparently I don’t own any.

Needless to say, I was a little irritated by this, because when I wrote the episode, I was operating under the assumption that I had at least a couple of those things. But once I sat down and thought about it, I can’t think of ever getting one in a set before. Perhaps I’ll have to pick up a few on BrickLink so this doesn’t happen again.

Discussion Question: Missing Pieces

Do you have any particular LEGO® pieces that are oddly missing from your collection? Pieces that you could swear you had a few of? Pieces that have perhaps disappeared at some point, never to be seen again?

40 thoughts on “Episode 324: Find a Weapon”

  1. Discussion Question: When I was younger, I used to collect a lot of Lego Star Wars, specially those battle packs that gave you like 10 droids and 4 Clone Troopers, so much I beleive I have over 50 Troopers and easily 100+ droids, but the thing is, I seem to be missing a good amount of blasters, which is odd given I ALWAYS kept them counted and kept them in a separated bag (rifles in one and smaller blasters/pistols in another). Also I can’t find my freaking C-3P0!

    • That’s irritating, isn’t it? I always seemed to lose swords, spears, axes, etc. I think when little cousins came over to play, those pieces got lost behind couches and whatnot.

      • My kid is hiding stashes of his LEGO weapons all over the house…
        it’s cute – to see all the stories he invents to justify doing this
        it’s hilarious – you can’t help but laugh when you realize that the reason you can’t insert that damned key in the door is because there is a LEGO spear stuck in the keyhole….
        it’s terribly annoying – well, because you still have to take down the lock
        … it’s all of the above at the same time.

        • So I’ve got that to look forward to in a year or two, eh? Lovely.

        • As long as there is a clear distinction between your LEGO and his you’ll be fine*.
          (*read: you’re screwed)

        • So far so good there. Luckily, he’s more into tractors and ninja turtles than LEGO right now.

        • lol, both of which are also made by LEGO!
          The Easter bunny just brought the 4 Ninja Turtle Minifigs to my kid… these are his new favorite toys.

  2. Well after sorting a lot of my LEGO, I am finding that I thought I had a lot more of some elements than I really do, and a lot more than I thought of others!

    • Oh yeah, sorting and organizing is an eye-opening experience, isn’t it? We have a couple discussion topics on that in the forum.

  3. Maybe I’m strange, but “people are getting attacked, find a weapon” seems like perfectly reasonable advice to me. I mean, it’s not like I have to immediately run up and club anyone who looks at me funny, I can stand there awkwardly and look like an idiot if it is a false alarm. Better to be caught waving around a chair leg when it is a practical joke than to be caught weaponless when a gang of zombies or your everyday rioters come to tear you limb from limb.

    • I don’t think you’re strange, Bob. I think that the average person is going to have a problem with that for a couple reasons though.

      First, they’re going to have doubts about these rumors of violent people. They’ll think it’s all a bunch of paranoia or something like that.

      Second, I think the average person would have a hell of a time with the idea of violence, even to defend themselves.

  4. I hope we end up seeing this cop again. I’d be interesting to see how Sam interacts, and she’s up with Gene and Murphy for the best ‘get shit done’ character.

    • I know how you guys like your “Get shit done” characters.

  5. Honestly Dave I think your 1*1 round plate is a way more elegant solution than using the key piece you are referring to (this one I presume?). In my opinion this oversized LEGO key only works in one setup and it’s this one.

    Another piece that could work is this one … but maybe for 1st of April next year?

    • That’s the one Greg. It is ludicrously oversized, so maybe the 1×1 is a better solution. My problem is that it looks like she’s handing him a little grey biscuit.

      And that pink key thing would be a perfect for another surprise April update. I’ll have to wishlist that thing on Bricklink so I don’t forget it.

      • Handing over a biscuit is still better than the Dungeon’s key!

        • Can’t argue with that.

        • Agreed, or you could have used a 1*1 square piece and had her call it a keycard.

        • Good lord, Damage, where were you a couple of days ago? That’s a really good idea.

        • … or she could hand him an eyeball on a fork taken from a dead security guard; you know, because all the doors have retinal scans.
          But I’ll admit that it is not easy to make with LEGO.

        • Oh man, I can see I need to start consulting with you guys on my scripts.

        • Hooray!!! Zoidberg is helping!!!!

        • Or she could have given him that crowbar to bust open the closet…but it’s probably in the closet.

        • Keycards are actually used a lot in many of the zombie related video games I have played in the past 🙂

        • Oh yeah, they’re everywhere.

  6. Discussion Question: I remember getting a Lego Indiana Jones set for my birthday and one of the stickers were not on the sticker sheet. I was that annoyed by the blank space in the set that I went down to the shop the set came from, and ended up getting that sticker from one of the other boxes. I got home to spot the sticker I had lost in the first place… stuck to the inside of the original box.

    • And also… new name. To go with my Youtube channel.

      • Right on.

    • Oh yeah, that’s irritating. I really like how they’re putting the instructions and stickers in a separate, cardboard-backed baggie in some of the bigger sets these days.

  7. First up, apologies for not responding to comments on Friday. I was on the road up to my parents for a long weekend. I’m back in the world today and plan to circle around to anyone I missed.

  8. Remember the giant “Kings Castle” set from the old castle series? One day I went looking through my lego bin, and I could not find that wizards dragon! I found one wing! Later that day I looked for my giant T-Rex from the old “Dino Attack” (The ones from 2007: the ones where the lego men in it had REAL guns, not tranquilizers) And I couldn’t find it! I lost 2 BIG lego pieces overnight! at the time we had no dogs present in our house and I still haven’t found them to this day!

    • I lost the two dragons I had when I was young too. I think the reason was that my LEGO sat at my parents’ house, so when kids came over to play, the occasional piece wandered off. I’m honestly not surprised the dragons are gone.

  9. Huh. What a nice lady.

    As I am mainly a Castle builder, (not at all obvious :P) and I have a LOT of little siblings, things like swords, shields, and occasionally entire minifigs will tend to vanish. The most frustrating was when I came home from school, (I was homeschooled until 9th grade, my sibs are still at home) only to discover that half the figs in one of my MOCs were entirely disassembled and my one-and-only chrome sword was missing. I still can’t find it. I also managed to lose most of the black dragon from the 2007 Castle series.

    • I know your pain, Sir Marius.

  10. I’m not much of a collector, but I jumped on the only set of the Samurai minifigs I could find several years ago, and safely packed them away. Needless to say, they’re not where I remember putting them :0

    • Oh yeah, the old “safe place” trap.

  11. I’m more of a base/ MOC kind of guy. I currently have a Robot Apocalapse battle field (Got into lego minifig collecting the series after the zombies came out), But I loose my minifigs once I set them down!!!

    • Robot apocalypses are cool too, Nom Zoms!

  12. I knew I had some Blacktron ll minifigs, and even found the instructions for a set, but after going through my entire collection I found none.

    • They escaped!