A quarter century being fast and furious

On a recent cinema trip I saw a poster advertising a 25th anniversary re-release of The Fast and the Furious. 25 years? That made me feel old.

I was working in that same cinema when The Fast and the Furious came out. (It's changed it's name since I worked there - RIP UCI!) I remember some co-workers being really excited about it - to the point of running across the lobby to watch the trailers.

25 years later it's amusing how a central theme of the film is a cop trying to track down a criminal gang stealing high end electronics, in this case DVD players! 

That also makes me feel old, remembering how excited people got about getting a DVD player, a massive upgrade from VHS videos, without suspecting how quickly those devices would become obsolete. Hard to believe that it was ever believable that stealing DVD players would fund a selection of high performance cars for a street racer gang, but we all accepted it.

The Fast and the Furious quickly spawned a sequel: 2 Fast 2 Furious, with one of the stars of the first film, Paul Walker. The other main star, Vin Diesel, was filming XXX at the time, another film with over the top stunts, fast cars and explosions. 

2 Fast 2 Furious came out so quickly I was still working in the cinema when it was released. My last shift there was spent watching the film while helping people navigate the stairs. The little safety lights that illuminated the stairs had stopped working so I was sat there with a torch to help anyone needing to leave to buy more popcorn or go to the loo. Needless to say, most of that last shift I just watched the film.

Neither Paul nor Vin appeared in the third instalment of the franchise, Tokyo Drift, but both came back for the fourth film that started using CGI instead of physical stunts. That rather defeated the whole point of the movies, in my view.

With XXX not turning into a multiple-film franchise like he'd hoped, Vin Diesel turned The Fast and the Furious into a spy adventure series instead, with the gang becoming mercenaries for hire. The films continued after Paul Walker's untimely death, adding notable action actors like Jason Statham and Dwayne Johnson to their roster. (Stath and The Rock had their own spin-off movie too.) 

The franchise is still going with Hot Wheels cars and Lego sets to attract younger fans. I wouldn't have expected any of that 25 years ago when it all started because a street racer gang were stealing DVD players. 

My March 2026 round up

March kicked off on St David's Day and I went to the celebratory parade in the city centre. The parade finished in Cardiff Castle, where I got a pic of this handsome Draig Goch.

I've been busy on the blog again this month. My book of the Month was A History of Wales, my album of the month was by Garbage, and I even posted a throwback snack of the month too. Meanwhile my monthly Blood Bowl game was a Battle of the Undead (!) and we battled away while munching on Easter Crisps.

It was another month with lots of traveling. I had a work trip to London where I got to see the new workwear: fleece tops (just in time for summer!)

It had been a while since my last trip to London and the Paddington Bear Shop in Paddington Station has a big Lego model in the window now. It's really nicely done.

I went to Shrewsbury and spent (most of) Mother's Day with my mother. We got her a 6-player version of her favorite game, Rummikub.

Me and mum also went out on the Saturday night as it was Mother's Day Eve. It was also Pi Day (3/14) and I had a pie. (But I ate the pie without taking a pic. Social media fail!)

At the end of the month, we were back in Shropshire for a few days. We took a ride on the Bridgnorth cliff railway for notalgia's sake. We also went to a birds of prey centre and a couple of football matches.

It's been a mixed month on the political campaigning front. One of the Plaid Cymru candidates in our area stepped down from the election race. On a more positive note, I completed all the stations in our constituency when we went to Cathays on the last Thursday of March.

We also had canvassing sessions in various bits of Cardiff, including Butetown where we were joined by Plaid Cymru's leader, Rhun ap Iorweth. I got a selfie with him.

Butetown

Plasdwr

Cathays station

While out canvassing I also saw this defiance against the fun police!

Cathy and I had a couple of cinema outings. We went to Cardiff Bay to see the new Disney Pixar film, Hoppers. We enjoyed it.

And on our trip to Shropshire, we went to a vintage OG cinema in Bridgnorth and watched The Magic Faraway Tree. We both liked it, and the cinema. I particularly liked this big M&M in the lobby:

I had a decent month of football, getting to 6 games. That included watching Shrewsbury Town play Cheltenham in the company of my brother and our friend Kate.  On the way in, Kate and I worked out we have been friends for over 30 years. 

Later in the month I hit some Futbology milestones at 3 games in a row, including game number 650 at Cardiff Dracs and stadium number 150 in the very next game when I saw Ludlow Town. 

I was the only Futbology user to check in at Ludlow - but I wasn't there on my tod. I had the real pleasure of Cathy's company at the game.

And then on the 31st March, I made it three games in a row with a Futbology milestone badge, when I collected two at AFC Bridgnorth!

The ground in Bridgnorth hasn't changed in the 30+ years since I used to go there with my Dad. It still has the slope and the tea bar. It was a very nostalgic evening for me, and Bridgnorth won!

Cardiff's new Lego Shop

I haven't tracked how much money we've spent in Cardiff's Lego Shop since it opened back in 2008. Over the years we've been in enough times to become friendly with the staff in there. And so the news the shop was moving was interesting to us.

The Shop has now moved - into the unit next door! 

It opened last week. There were huge queues of excited people eager to have a look when I was in town at the weekend. I didn't stop to wait then, but had a look in today.

So, what's new? The window is being smashed by a rugby ball, that reminded me of the famous Rugby World Cup ball smashing into Cardiff Castle. (Maybe it was a homage.)

Inside there is some fun wall art of a crowd at a game. Lots of Welsh touches like a flag and, being Cardiff, seagulls. 

The rest of the store looks a lot like the newer stores that have opened around the country. The pick a brick wall and build a minifigure station have both been updated. 

There was a little 'build and take' giveaway of some crayons. Free Lego is always a bonus.

Overall very little has changed. Its's a bit bigger and there is maybe slightly more display space. It won't take long to get used to it. 

STEAM - the Great Western Railway museum

I mentioned visiting STEAM in Swindon in my bank holiday sports round up. Here are a few more bits and pieces that caught my eye there.

STEAM is housed in one of the Great Western Railway's former foundry buildings. The railway engineering works was pivotal to the growth of Swindon as a large town, although that industry has disappeared now. Most of the former locomotive works is now the outlet shopping village next door.

The museum starts with several exhibits explaining how the foundry worked and its importance in the area. I went through those parts fairly quickly to get to the more exciting stuff - the steam engines.

There were several locos in the museum, including no.6000 King George V. Fun fact: my Dad had a model of this on his model railway when we were kids and I think my brother still has it.

Dad also had a pannier tank engine, and so did the museum. Different scales of course.

One of the highlights was going underneath a loco and being able to look up and see the interior workings.

I thought this Wickham inspection trolley was a fun, unusual item.

The Welsh connection to the GWR is huge because the railway absorbed almost all the Welsh railway companies. Four of the companies are on these plaques.

And there were several other Welsh themed exhibits.

The GWR did a lot to publicise Wales and the West Country as a tourist destination. 

The GWR also owned several road vehicles. The museum had restored this old fire engine.

And I liked this Scammell tractor unit.

STEAM is also the venue for several Lego events during the course of the year and so, naturally, there was a Lego train too.

All in all a decent way to spend a morning in Swindon.

The Lighter Side of Star Wars

Happy Star Wars Day. I started the celebrations early this year, by collecting the free build of baby Grogu (not Baby Yoda!) from the Lego Store. I had to queue but was entertained by members of the Saber Guild and the Rebel Legion - people who clearly love Star Wars.

I've been thinking recently about the many send ups and spoofs of Star Wars that I've enjoyed over the years. This was prompted by seeing the  Star Wars episodes of Phineas and Ferb as part of our watch through of the show on Disney Plus. I hadn't seen them before this year and they have quickly become some of my favourite Star Wars homages. 

What makes Phineas and Ferb different, to say, the Family Guy retelling of Star Wars, is that instead of the main characters in the TV show assuming the roles of key characters in the films, they set Phineas and Ferb along with their friends and associates in roles around the original story. So Phineas and Ferb live on the next farm to Luke Skywalker, they meet Isabella the star ship captain in the same cantina where Ben and Luke meet Han Solo and Chewbacca, Perry the Platypus is a rebel agent and so on. In this version of the story, Phineas and Ferb are returning the Death Star plans that R2-D2 accidentally dropped in their landspeeder. 

There were several funny knowing gags in the film. Darth Doofenschmirtz 'flushing' after going to the bathroom setting off the trash compactor is one that made me chuckle. The jump scare Tusken Raider made me laugh out loud. A discussion over who started shooting in the cantina prompted knowing nods. There are also some great songs, full of nerd-level jokes. 

I think it was one of the best, and most enjoyable, retellings of Star Wars, and I'm delighted to have discovered it. It was much better than some of the Lego Star Wars shorts that have been made more recently. Those seemed to have been written for kids rather than old fans like me. 

I've already mentioned the Family Guy trilogy of special episodes. I'm not a fan of Family Guy but they had some clever bits. Half the jokes relate to the Family Guy characters so I felt I was missing some of the humour. It's been years since I watched them, though, and I don't really feel any desire to watch them again. 

When I watched the Family Guy Star Wars, I  was making a direct comparison with the Robot Chicken Star Wars series that came out around the same time. Robot Chicken was a lot funnier; a series of short sketches and gags that jumped around the Star Wars universe, sending up particular scenes from the movies and exploring what was happening off-screen. 

The most widely shared Robot Chicken sketch is probably 'Darth Calls the Emperor', showing the phone call that Vader makes to tell the Emperor that the Death Star has been blown up. "What the hell is an aluminum falcon?!?" still makes me laugh despite seeing it numerous times. Other favourite bits include Admiral Ackbar on a game show, the tragic story of Ponda Baba's ruined career as an architect, Max Rebo's greatest hits album, and Admiral Ackbar (again) out for brunch with Mon Mothma. 

Robot Chicken came out before the Disney sequels and TV series and I'd love to see the team have a go at mocking the Disney era. There would be ample material in just The Mandalorian.

But the grandaddy spoof of them all is the film, Spaceballs. Written and directed by Mel Brooks, it's an older film now, but it still checks out. It's very loosely based on Star Wars, sending up the look of the franchise and its impact more than anything else. The main villain wears an outsized black helmet and is known as Lord Dark Helmet. The wise old master of the Schwartz is a small green character (played by Brooks walking on his knees) called Yogurt. There is a whole sequence making fun of merchandising and how the name of the film gets slapped onto everything - then later in the film characters are using Spaceballs-branded merchandise. Lord Dark Helmet plays with Spaceballs action figures at one point.

My brother and I watched Spaceballs multiple times when we were kids. Recently we introduced by eldest niece and nephew to it as well. They found it hilarious too - a real test of how well made it is considering it's a spoof movie. It helps that the special effects were done by the same people who made Star Wars, with George Lucas's blessing. 

I've said before that the escapism of Star Wars, with its simple good v evil plotting, really helped me when I was a child and adjusting to a very big life change. One reason why some of the newer Disney Star Wars projects leave me cold is they deliberately pursue ambiguity, with characters being morally grey and storylines exploring more complicated approaches to the old good guys versus bad guys trope. (Even if, from a certain point of view, that has always been there.)

Star Wars, to me, was always meant to be a bit simple and silly, and I think that's why I enjoy watching silly spoofs of it. My dad would often sum up a film by saying 'It's not to be taken too seriously'. He was right, and the comedy versions of Star Wars help me do that. 

Legoland Birthday!

I mentioned in my previous post that we had plans for my birthday during our week in Buckinghamshire. The plan was to go to Legoland. It was only the second time we had been - nineteen years on from our first visit, which I blogged about back in 2006!

We started out with the brand new Lego Adventure Golf. There are four courses to choose from and we opted for the Lego Space course. 

Cathy won! After we finished our course we went and took some photos of the other courses. 

After the golf game we headed into Legoland proper. It being my birthday, Cathy asked at guest services and got me a special badge. The lady at the desk also asked whether I would like my name on the birthday signage, and then how old I was. She didn't blink when Cathy said "Forty nine". I actually wasn't the oldest person celebrating a birthday at Legoland that day - a 60 year old also had their name on the board!

There is now a "hill train" funicular railway to take people down the steep hill at the start of the park. We used it on the way in and were very grateful for it at the end of the day when it took us back up the hill. 

We started in Miniland, looking at the various recreations of landmarks from across the UK and around the world. Caerphilly Castle is still there representing Cymru, but I didn't see many other landmarks from here. Scotland was better represented.

They have put a lot of effort into recreating London - understandable given the proximity. They probably get a lot of visitors from the capital. 

Chunks of London were fresh and new. However, other bits of Miniland were looking a bit sun-faded and weathered. (Looking at that old blog post, I complained about that back in 2006 - some things don't change!) Some areas were a bit disappointing - the American section had a baseball game and a gridiron football game but they hadn't bothered to place them in a stadium - which seemed a missed opportunity. 

We overheard a very funny conversation between an adult and child, where the adult mentioned China and the kid said "Like from Ninjago." The adult replied "And like China, the place." To which the child went "WHAAAAAATT?!?" We think he thought Lego had made up China for the Ninjago range. 

There is, of course, a Ninjago section.

Because we were out of season - just before the Easter holidays - the park wasn't too crowded. We didn't have to queue for many of the rides and later in the day we could just walk straight onto them. We did a mix of roller coasters and big wheel type rides, but the best ride was the Deep Sea Adventure, where our Lego subs went through a large aquarium area complete with real life sharks swimming around. It was probably the high point of the day and was so good we immediately walked around and did it again. 

It's also fun just wandering around the park and seeing some of the large Lego sculptures. There are gazillions of them. 

We had a brief stop in the shop on the way out, where we were very restrained in our purchasing (honest!), and then we headed home.