pombe

I watched Ninjago and liked it. I gave Nexo Knights a try and found that the quality of writing wasn't as high and I stopped. That killed off my motivation to collect Nexo Knights except as parts packs. I just wasn't interested in the characters. Maybe someone who watched both more comprehensively can disagree and explain why I'm wrong? But to me it just seemed that the writing quality was very different.

@KotZ Great job on the detonator and Yorick! It must be great to see your MOCs featured on the show! I have to admit the first three challenges were very cool. Who would have thought to build a MOC with destruction in mind? And the half sculpture was a great idea, too. I'm going to say that I've been most impressed by Tyler and Amy so far. I thought their alien and telescope MOCs were fantastic! Their MOCs are the most well composed and thought out...their choice of colors is always perfect and makes their MOCs pop more than the others. I do feel bad for Jessica, I hope she and Sam can improve their relationship as the show progresses. I also feel that Mel and Jermaine don't get their fair share of air time.

This is the classical marketing/sales dilemma of being able to give the customers what they ask for, but not what the customers actually want. Customer survey after survey tells you what the customers are asking for, but when you produce the product based on that input and put it on the shelf, and it doesn't sell then it obviously wasn't what the customer wanted. The recipe analogy is apt; there's a reason why the industry calls it the "secret sauce". Finding and hiring people who truly have their finger on the pulse of the customer (as a population) is one of the most difficult achievements in any business.

Thank you, Jens. Words cannot express how much your work has meant to me.

Well said.

This is what I read: A marketing survey showed that 10% of LEGO revenue in Germany last year was due to purchases for adult recipients. Did I read that wrong? As for whether or not this is good news (to me)...I think it depends on who these adults are and how TLG defines "AFOL". This could mean more modular sets. This could mean more Architecture sets. This could mean more large Technic sets. This could mean more Star Wars UCS sets. This could mean more licensed sets based on more mature themes (IDEAS). This could mean more sets based on nostalgia from older/retired themes (Benny's Space Squad). Or all/some of the above. What I think we can agree on is that a higher focus on adults would likely mean more sets with a higher price point and more advanced techniques.

@KotZ Thanks for sharing! I can't wait to see more of the season. I figure as more teams get eliminated, they'll have more time to cover the MOCs. I figure the show provided meals for the contestants and they ate when they could fit it in? 15 hours is not a long time for the first challenge. I do admit that I was confused by the father/son team when the father clearly pointed out that their roller coaster wasn't going to work and the son just said to ignore it. And I'm not an expert on power functions, but even I found myself yelling "gear ratios!" at the TV when that one team was having issues with their bumper cars moving too fast.

I've always viewed the different Space Police incarnations as being different precincts in the same Space . SPI had to deal with mostly Blacktron in their area whereas SPIII had to deal mostly with the Black Hole Gang, though they all had the same jurisdiction. Their different colors, uniforms, and vehicles were just a reflection of which precinct the space police were from. I know, this is head-canon type stuff, but it has always made me wish that instead of another Space Police, they would come out with a Space S.W.A.T..

This is a sweet Uziel! Any reason you chose this 'mech? It's not that iconic as far as battlemechs go. I don't really have much critique for you, this is a fantastic MOC. However, what really caught my eyes was... that base. Your hex base had me at hello. It makes me wish that you had an entire board set up with hexes that size and some 'mechs to choose from for a game: lance versus lance, 200 tons per side?

Do I like tiles? Yes Do I like printed tiles? Yes Do I like getting lots of tiles and printed tiles? Yes Is my wallet going to hurt? Yes Will I try to MOC something with the bracelets? Yes, but it probably won't be any good

I love this MOC. This starfighter has great shaping. In terms of advice, let's see... Work on colorblocking. Instead of interspersing the color black freely throughout the MOC, maybe reserve black for just the mechanical parts, like the weapons and thrusters. Then add a third minor color in a cohesive manner, like white, as stripes/decoration. Whatever colors you use, be sure they tie the MOC together and don't end up camouflaging it by breaking up the lines of the starfighter. As for greebling, I practice by making micro MOCs. Doing this forces you to discover ways to insert a lot of detail into tiny MOCs and to create the suggestion of things at a small scale, which is fundamentally what greebling is. If you love spaceships (who doesn't?) build some micro spaceships and you'll learn how to add those types of details at larger scales.

Yes. And even that makes LEGO Star Wars too stale for me. Hence why I want TLG to push it out even further.

I understand the logic behind your question, but implementing it comes with costs. It reduces the breath and diversity of the line, if they must produce a variation of the same iconic ship every year. It discourages double dipping into the same line, since the kid will likely only want one Millenium Falcon which will always occupy a slot in the annual wave (with an x-wing and a TIE of some sort along with an AT-ST and maybe Slave I) and over time the line is more likely to run out of sets s/he wants. It also prevents LEGO from putting out sets that may attract AFOL collectors, such as one of the other 18 pod racers from Episode I that hasn't been produced, the Outrider, or a Mon Calamari cruiser. Overall it contributes to the staleness of the line and fatigue for LEGO Star Wars. I get it, though. It's the same reason why citizens of City have to pay exorbitant taxes to fund all the new police and fire stations they get every year (even the modulars and the winter village have fire stations!). But it comes at the cost of having a postal center, a recycling center, or schools. A compromise could be having the iconic sets every other year (or every three years), so that the rest of the line can be more diverse and the kids don't have to wait so long to see the set they want that they are missing.

This is like asking if you prefer prime rib or rib eye steak. They are both steaks, they are both delicious, and I enjoy them both just fine. However, I would like to have the choice. Also, with Star Wars, there needs to be some sort of minimum time between releases of the same thing. Like...at least five years between Millenium Falcons (any variation) or something. I think that would help keep Star Wars more fresh to me, as opposed to "oh, there's yet another x-wing...yay...". There's an entire universe of fighters and starships, from Z-95 headhunters to T-16 skyhoppers to Carrack class light cruisers to Interdictor class star destroyers, but nope we get Slave I again.

Sorry for the late reply. There's a useful topic on photography that is stickied on the top of this general forum which has a lot of useful advice. Here's a good read that I like which closely resembles what I do when I don't have access to a full studio set up: https://www.pixelz.com/blog/diy-1-build-photo-studio-bootstrapped-budget/