Tag: writing

The Star Destroyer “Eviscerator”: The Single Biggest Purchase of My Entire Year

Toys & Collectibles Review · Purchased October 15, 2024 · $1,377.99 CAD via Vonado

A massive Ultimate Collector Series-scale brick-built Imperial Star Destroyer
A comparable UCS-scale Imperial Star Destroyer build. Photo: Brick Vault

Every year has one purchase that makes you pause before hitting confirm. For 2024, this was mine, by a wide margin.

The Background

“The Eviscerator” is a well-known name within the Star Wars fan-building community, referring to Ultimate Collector Series-scale fan designs of an Imperial Star Destroyer, built explicitly to sit alongside (and in some interpretations, surpass) LEGO’s own official UCS Star Destroyer sets in size and detail. At $1,377.99, this is the single most expensive line item anywhere in my entire 2024 spreadsheet, more than the PS5 Pro, more than any other individual purchase across the whole year.

I want to be transparent about what a decision like this actually involves: this is not an impulse buy in the way a $12 DLC pack is. A purchase at this price, in this hobby, requires real consideration about display space, assembly time, and whether the payoff genuinely matches the cost, and I thought about it for weeks before pulling the trigger.

Living With It

This is, without competition, the most demanding build I completed all year. Thousands of pieces, a build that ran across multiple sessions over more than a week, and a finished model that genuinely needs real shelf or stand space, not a spare corner of a bookshelf, once complete. The scale is the entire point: this is built to communicate the sheer, oppressive size of an Imperial Star Destroyer in a way that smaller official sets, constrained by more reasonable price points, simply cannot attempt.

Detail work across the hull, from the engine section through to the command tower, held up under close inspection, and the model’s sheer presence once assembled and displayed genuinely earns reactions from people seeing it for the first time, which is not something I can say about most of my collection, however much I enjoy the smaller pieces individually.

The tradeoff is exactly what you would expect at this price and scale: this replaces meaningful furniture space, demands real assembly commitment, and represents a genuine financial decision rather than a casual purchase. I do not think everyone reading this should buy this set. I think the specific person who has the space, the patience, and the existing love of the source material to want this exact thing should.

What I Liked

  • The single most impressive, imposing finished piece in my entire collection
  • Detail quality held up under close inspection across the whole hull
  • A genuine multi-session build experience that felt like a real achievement to complete
  • Delivers a scale and presence that no reasonably priced official LEGO set attempts to match

What I Didn’t

  • The most expensive single purchase of my entire year, by a wide margin
  • A serious multi-day time commitment, not something to start lightly
  • Needs real, dedicated display space, this genuinely competes with furniture for room

The Value Verdict

Rating: 5/5

I do not make this recommendation lightly given the price, but for scale, presence, and the sheer achievement of finishing it, this is one of the most rewarding things in my entire collection. If you are fully committed to the display side of this hobby and have the space and patience to match, it delivers an experience nothing else on this list comes close to.

Where to Buy

The Sandcrawler: A Worthy Stand-In for a LEGO Set I Missed the First Time Around

Toys & Collectibles Review · Purchased October 15, 2024 · $475.99 CAD via Vonado

A large brick-built Sandcrawler model, the boxy Jawa transport vehicle from Star Wars
A comparable large-scale Sandcrawler build. Photo: USABlocks

Some sets you buy because you love them. Others you buy because the original is gone and this is the next best thing. This one is the second kind, and I am completely fine with that.

The Background

LEGO’s own official Sandcrawler sets, the classic 10144 and the more recent smaller-scale 75220, have been fan favourites for years, to the point where the larger versions command real collector prices on the secondary market once retired. Rather than chase down a retired official set at inflated resale prices, I picked up Vonado’s take on the same iconic Jawa vehicle from Tatooine, at a scale comparable to or larger than LEGO’s own mid-tier version, for a fraction of what hunting down the genuine article after the fact would have cost.

This arrived alongside the Star Destroyer Eviscerator, the single biggest purchase of my entire year, as part of an October order.

Living With It

The Sandcrawler’s boxy, weathered silhouette is honestly a forgiving shape to translate into brick form compared to some of the more organic, creature-based builds elsewhere in this series, and Vonado’s version captures the distinctive rust-and-sand colour palette and paneling detail convincingly. The build itself moved at a steady, satisfying pace, less physically demanding than the Tremortusk or Ghost, closer in scope to a substantial weekend project than a multi-session undertaking.

Interior detail, to whatever extent the set includes it, focused on the vehicle’s distinctive tracked base and boxy hull silhouette rather than a fully realized interior, which tracks with how the official LEGO versions have generally approached this vehicle too, prioritizing the iconic exterior silhouette over a walk-around interior.

Compared to hunting down a retired official Sandcrawler set, which by 2024 could mean paying well above original retail on the secondary market for a set in good condition, this felt like an easy, low-regret decision. You are trading a small amount of official-license cachet for a meaningfully lower price and, frankly, easier availability.

What I Liked

  • Captures the iconic Sandcrawler silhouette and colour palette convincingly
  • A meaningfully cheaper alternative to hunting down a retired official LEGO version
  • Manageable build scope, satisfying without becoming a multi-session ordeal
  • Comparable or larger scale than LEGO’s own mid-tier official release

What I Didn’t

  • Lacks the exact collector cachet of an official, licensed LEGO set
  • Interior detail is limited, similar to the official versions but still a missed opportunity
  • Still requires accepting the general Vonado tradeoff of clone bricks over genuine LEGO plastic

The Value Verdict

Rating: 4/5

If you missed the official LEGO Sandcrawler window and do not want to pay collector prices for a retired set, this is a genuinely solid stand-in that nails the parts of the design that matter most: the silhouette and the colour work.

Where to Buy

U-Turn Audio Orbit: My One Real “Adult Hobby” Purchase of the Year

Hardware Review · Purchased July 18, 2024 · $713.15 CAD ($506.76 USD) via Uturnaudio.com

U-Turn Audio Orbit Plus turntable in black
The U-Turn Audio Orbit Plus. Photo via U-Turn Audio.

Every collection of receipts has one purchase that does not really belong with the rest, and for 2024, this was mine.

The Background

I have owned a couple of cheap, all-in-one turntables over the years, the kind that come with built-in speakers and a suitcase-style lid, and they were fine as an introduction but never satisfying as an actual listening experience. By mid-2024 I wanted to do this properly: a real hi-fi component, built by people who actually care about turntable design, rather than a novelty appliance shaped like one.

U-Turn Audio makes exactly that case for themselves. They are a small manufacturer out of Woburn, Massachusetts, hand-assembling their Orbit line in-house rather than outsourcing to a generic factory, and the line is specifically designed to be upgraded piece by piece over time (better cartridge, better platter material, an acrylic dust cover, and so on) instead of being replaced outright once you outgrow the base model. I ordered directly from their site rather than through a retailer, which is how the charge shows up in USD on my card even though I am in Canada.

Living With It

Setup took maybe twenty minutes, most of which was carefully balancing the tonearm and checking tracking force with the included tools, a process U-Turn walks you through clearly rather than assuming prior turntable experience. That attention to a smooth setup experience tracks with the brand’s whole reputation: this is a company that wants first-time buyers to succeed, not just enthusiasts who already know what they are doing.

The actual sound quality difference versus my old all-in-one player was immediate and obvious, not a subtle audiophile distinction you need trained ears to notice. Vocals sit clearer in the mix, bass has actual definition instead of being a vague rumble, and surface noise on well-kept records is noticeably lower thanks to a proper platter and belt-drive motor isolating vibration the way a cheap turntable simply does not.

What I appreciate most, a year-plus in, is that this does not feel like a purchase I will outgrow. If I want a better cartridge down the line, or the acrylic platter upgrade, those exist as add-ons rather than requiring a whole new turntable. The honest tradeoff: this is a genuine hi-fi component, and it asks a little more of you than a plug-and-play system. You need a separate amp or powered speakers, and you need to actually care about things like anti-skate and tracking force, at least a little, to get the most out of it.

What I Liked

  • Immediately, clearly better sound than any all-in-one turntable I have owned
  • Hand-assembled build quality that feels purposeful, not mass-produced
  • Genuine upgrade path if I want to improve components later instead of replacing the whole unit
  • Setup process designed for turntable beginners, not just enthusiasts

What I Didn’t

  • Requires a separate amp or powered speakers depending on configuration, an extra cost and extra research
  • Not a casual, walk-away appliance the way a suitcase player is
  • At $713 CAD, this is a real financial commitment for what is, at the end of the day, one hobby among several

The Value Verdict

Rating: 5/5

If you just want to spin records occasionally without thinking about it, this is more turntable, and more money, than you need. But if you are serious about actually listening to vinyl rather than displaying it, this is one of the best entry points into real hi-fi you can buy, built by a company that clearly still cares about the format.

Where to Buy

The Coruscant Diorama: Buying Furniture With Extra Steps

Vonado Review · Purchased February 11, 2024 · $637.99 CAD via Vonado

Coruscant Jedi Temple diorama building block set
A Coruscant-themed diorama compatible-brick build. Photo via USABLOCKS.

At a certain price point, a building set stops being a toy and starts being a piece of home decor you happened to assemble yourself.

The Background

Large-format Star Wars dioramas, scenes depicting the Battle of Coruscant, the Jedi Temple, or the Senate district in sprawling, multi-thousand-piece detail, are a well-established genre within the MOC (fan design) community, with different builders and compatible-brick manufacturers producing their own interpretations at various scales. What I purchased from Vonado sits in that tradition: a Coruscant-themed display diorama, the fourth and priciest item in the large February order that runs through much of this series.

Sets like this are explicitly designed around presentation rather than play. There is no cockpit to sit a minifigure in, no opening cargo bay, nothing to actually do with it once assembled beyond looking at it, and the price reflects scale and part count rather than mechanical complexity.

Living With It

The build itself took the better part of a weekend, mostly due to sheer part count rather than any particular technical difficulty, section by section, layer by layer, in the way large diorama builds typically go. Once finished, the impact is real: this is a genuine centrepiece, the kind of thing that makes people stop and look when they walk past a shelf, in a way that smaller vehicle builds simply cannot match regardless of how well detailed they are.

The honest tradeoff is exactly what you would expect from a display piece at this price: it requires real, permanent shelf real estate, more than any single vehicle in this series, and once built, it is genuinely difficult to relocate or repack without risking damage to the more delicate architectural elements. This is a “pick its final spot before you start building” kind of set, not something you casually rearrange.

What I Liked

  • Genuinely impressive as a display centrepiece, more visual impact than any single vehicle build
  • Consistent with the strong scale-for-price value seen across the rest of this Vonado order
  • Detailed architectural elements that read clearly as Coruscant even at a glance

What I Didn’t

  • Zero play value, purely a display object
  • Requires committing real, permanent shelf space before you even start building
  • Delicate once assembled, not something you want to relocate often

The Value Verdict

Rating: 4/5

Judge this one entirely on whether you have the shelf space and the desire for a genuine centrepiece, because that is the whole pitch. If you wanted something to actually handle and rebuild, this was the wrong category to shop in from the start. If you wanted a showpiece, it delivers.

Where to Buy

The Unglamorous MVP: Living With an 18TB Hard Drive

Hardware Review · Purchased January 12, 2024 · $375.19 CAD via Amazon

Western Digital Red Pro 18TB internal hard drive
The WD Red Pro 18TB. Photo via Best Buy Canada.

There is no cool way to open a post about a hard drive, so I am not going to try. This is the least exciting purchase in my entire 2024 spreadsheet, and it might also be the most quietly important one.

The Background

By the start of 2024, my storage situation had become a genuine problem. Between a PS5 library that keeps creeping toward the 100GB-per-title mark, a PC full of capture footage for content work, and years of accumulated screenshots, saves, and half-finished projects, I had run out of places to put things. I was doing the thing everyone does before they finally buy more storage: uninstalling one game to install another, then reinstalling the first one a week later, over and over, wasting hours on downloads I had already paid the bandwidth cost for once.

The fix was a Western Digital 18TB internal drive, picked up from Amazon in mid-January and dropped into an external enclosure I already had on hand. I did not go for anything exotic here. WD’s higher-capacity drives (the Red Pro NAS line and the Gold enterprise line both top out in this range) are built for exactly this kind of “just needs to work for years” duty, running at 7200 RPM with conventional (CMR, not the cheaper shingled SMR) recording, which matters if you care about consistent write speeds rather than just raw capacity.

Living With It

Eighteen terabytes sounds abstract until you actually fill part of it, and then it very quickly stops feeling abstract. I moved my entire back catalogue of finished games onto it, archived a full year of video project files, and still have the majority of the drive free. For the first time in years, I am not making triage decisions about what gets to stay installed.

Performance-wise, there is genuinely nothing to report, which is the highest compliment I can pay a hard drive. No clicking, no dropped connections, no thermal throttling once it warmed up in the enclosure. It just sits there, spinning, doing the one job I bought it to do. I do keep it plugged into a powered enclosure rather than running off bus power, which I would recommend to anyone considering a drive this size: capacity like this pulls more consistently than a laptop USB port wants to provide over the long haul.

The one thing worth knowing going in is that drives at this capacity are loud in the way spinning platters are loud, a low, steady hum plus the occasional seek click, especially compared to any SSD you might be used to. If your setup lives somewhere quiet, like a bedroom office, that is worth factoring in before you buy the same thing.

What I Liked

  • Effectively solved my storage problem for the foreseeable future
  • CMR recording means consistent write speeds, no slowdowns on large transfers
  • Reliable, boring, does exactly what it says
  • Strong cost-per-terabyte value compared to smaller drives or premium SSD storage at this capacity

What I Didn’t

  • Audibly louder than SSD-based storage, noticeable in a quiet room
  • Needs a proper powered enclosure to perform reliably at this size, which is an extra cost if you do not already own one
  • Eighteen terabytes is enough that you will eventually need a backup strategy for it too, which is its own project

The Value Verdict

Rating: 4/5

This is not a purchase that generates excitement, but it is one of the better dollar-for-dollar decisions in my entire 2024 spending. Cost per terabyte on WD’s larger drives consistently beats smaller capacities and beats SSD storage by a wide margin, and a year-plus in, mine has not given me a single reason to think about it. If your library has outgrown your storage the way mine had, this is exactly the unglamorous fix to make.

Where to Buy