Lina, Eva and the Loyal Sea Dragon

It was Lina’s birthday coming up. Giving that skimmer to her brother had been so heartwarming. Could I do something similar for her? I’d just helped an old friend’s kid Eva put her exotic parrot 31136 together. Could that kit would make a good in-world blauwdraak for sibling stories?

Good things

• Can you swoosh it? Yes you can.
• When threatened switches to angry sea horse mode.
• Decorate it your way™️ with tiles left over or your own collection. Try scales or streaming water.
• Wings lock up for high speed passenger protection.
• Legs swing down for landing.
• Mouth opens (roaring not included).
• 2 seats: pilot (“steer by ear”) and passenger. Additional on wing seating available for the budget traveller.
• One secret trick releases flowers or eggs.

Bad things

• Legs keep falling off.
• Couple of tricky assembly steps. Don’t be afraid to ask for help, also in life.
• Mini-figs who don’t fasten seat belts will get a fright in sea horse mode.
• That one secret trick may also release poop.
• Head rotates like an owl for confusing upside down flying.
• Actually maybe that’s a good thing.
• Feathery fronds and wings get in each other’s way. It’s a locking mechanism not a bug.
• Mini-figs also not included.

I now realise the source material meant this was always going to be a scrappier build 🏄. Snot math (for the barrel body) doesn’t come automatically to me so it was a frustrating struggle to build something that didn’t just explode when you looked at it. I got my 8 sides sturdy in the end and the one secret trick was a wonderful bonus given the lack of play features. I love the nostrils, teeth and moving jaw. After that it was a bit “what can I do with what’s left?”.

But then you look at the things kids make and realise that a mush of colours and shapes is all totally fine, it’s playability and a good story that counts.

And yes, I am conscious there’s a strong dose of ‘look what I made’ here (welcome to my blog 😉 ) but I’m going with it. It was heart warming helping Lina put it together. She’s is no way short of it but giving the gift of attention is welcome at all ages I guess. And, killing two parrots with one stone, Eva was delighted by the surprise of instructions in the post. Which as a bonus stimulated her Dad to build a sorting system which got his juices going. The joy of creativity ripples out.