Laura Beinbrech

Yes, but Unique =/= good or useful. The pop band minifigures while being fairly common, are still, IMO 1000X more useful because of their hair & head prints, all of which are usable in far more themes & settings than some animal mascot figure, which might be useful in a town setting if you have a sports team with that particular animal as a mascot. The only one of these costumed characters I have ever found a use for outside of some sort of sports arena or theme park is the lizard suit guy, who makes a decent Lizardman warrior if you replace the minifig head that came with it with one of the transparent red minifig heads with the shark teeth printed on it (the ones that came in some of the Atlantis sets). ...But that's just my opinion, which might be tainted by still being rather bitter about series 18 being nothing but useless, gimmicky costume mascot characters (aside from the lone exception of the classic police officer)...

Yeah, I don't see what's so great about the Giraffe guy: Just another useless fig in a goofy animal mascot outfit that (like the two I bought in previous series solely for their accessories or because I wasn't quite as good at feeling out which fig I was getting & got by mistake) will likely end up sitting in my "sell or trade" bin, but I probably couldn't even GIVE away (like what happened when I tried to get rid of the ones in the previous parenthesis at the community minifig swap event at BrickFair VA last year....) I mean every single one of the Apocalypseburg figs in this series are far more interesting to me, and even the "yet more pop group band members" at least have interesting head prints & hair pieces. And since you mentioned that the plant did, in fact, come with Neville from the HP series (which tends to have more useful figs than this one anyways), that just took out the only redeeming quality of the Giraffe dude IMO, and at this point, I'd rather end up with Golfer President Business, because his golf club actually IS a new accessory, and I could probably use him in one of my relatively rare civilian builds...

I think a big part of why people are voting for the Giraffe dude is because of the new, never-before seen plant accessories. Which I am planning on getting, but separately through either BrickLink or in the Build a Minifig things at the LEGO store I go to when stuff from this CMF series starts to show up in it...

Apocalypseburg Abe Lincoln, hands-down for favorite figure, although the Oz figures were not too far behind. For favorite accessory, that was rather hard to choose, but I went with the baby raptor from Vest Friend Rex, because I need more dinosaurs. Other accessories I like are Scarfield the punk cat, the plant pieces from the Giraffe dude (literally the only thing I like about that figure), and the various printed tile pieces (the gold record, the round record that will be SO useful for when I make a Victrola for my mod of the Apocalypseburg set, the Cassette tape & Emmet's smartphone as well as the Classic Space toolbox... Like I said, it was a difficult choice, lol). I absolutely LOATHE them: That CMF series where the entire friggin series was doofy mascot type characters pretty much killed my interest in collectible minifigures up until the Harry Potter series came out. I mean there was literally only one figure in that series that might have been useful, if they hadn't printed splats of pink cake icing on his otherwise awesome torso.... Which is why I'm glad that my vote has put "Vampire Hunter" Abe in the lead (for now at least).

They had this set for a somewhat discounted price at my local Voldemart (had being the operative word, because I bought the last one in the store last week), and I really like it: The main build is a nice base for modifying into a proper dark-blue Jeep/Land Rover/Humvee type military transport, which is something I sorely needed for one of my factions. There's a lot of cool new parts in the set, and I really like the dark blue raptor as well (I need to work on coming up with some kind of Raptor barding so my Spec-Ops troops can use them as proper mounts), and I feel that the set is generally worth what you pay for it.

After seeing some of Tenderlok's creations & that the G-scale track is about 1-stud wider than LEGO standard gauge, I have considered prossibly using G-scale track (and possibly adapting G-scale motors) to stand in for approximately 5' broad gauges, like Russian Gauge or Pennsylvania Trolley Gauge (which is still used in a number of streetcar/light rail lines in the US). I haven't really done anything with those ideas, due to being focused on my standard & narrow-gauge projects for the foreseeable future.

Ooooh! I think I'm going to get the Rexcelsior just for all those lovely dark blue parts, if nothing else! One of my factions uses that color for their vehicles, which have sadly been missing up to now due to relative lack of availability of that color in the kind of quantities I'd need. I mean the fact that the Rex-treme Off-roader was a more or less Land Rover-type vehicle in dark blue is the main reason why I bought it (still need to work on modifying it for my purposes though). The resulting creation will be the main Jeep/Humvee type vehicle for the Lone Star Republic when I'm done with it. The Rexcelsior has all sorts of dark blue parts that would be perfect for making some aircraft for the same faction, among other things.

Well, since I just noticed this bit & I've also had time to think things over a bit, here's my thoughts on how I plan to use the figures/elements from this series: Apocalypse Sherry Scratcen-Post & Benny as well as Battle-Ready Lucy & Vest Friend Rex are probably going to be some of the few multiples of actual figures I'm going to get from this series, and they will all go to the various Wastelander factions (both raider gangs & settlers trying to defend themselves from said raiders) in my setting. Benny & Rex especially so: The Classic Space/Futuron faction of the space theme were the North American Union's space force back in the days before the Final War (a.k.a. the in-universe representation of when me & my brother got rid of most of our LEGO sets back in 1995, something I still regret to this day), so having people roaming the wasteland with a beat-up version of said pre-war uniforms would be perfect. In Rex's case, his vest strongly resembles the uniform jacket of heavy weapons/support troops in the Federal Republic of America's Army, but with the sleeves ripped off, which again, would be the sort of thing one might expect to encounter in the wastelands beyond the borders of the Federal Republic. Apocalypse Abe Lincoln (or as I like to think of him, Vampire Hunter Abe) will be the second-in-command of the Lone Star Republic's elite Texas Rangers division (second in terms of both authority & raw power only to the mysterious man known only as Lone Wolf or the Walker), although I'm going to be BrickLinking another one of the Tin-man's axes for him, since it looks more like the silver-plated axe used by Abe in the movie, "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter". Swamp Creature is going to be another figure I'll be making multiple purchases of, due to the fact that they would make great front-line troops for the Nurgle-worshipper sub-faction of the Hordes of Chaos in my setting. I'm also going to be getting all of the Oz figs just because. Not sure if I'm going to include them in my main setting somehow, or just put them on the PennLUG train layout at shows we attend.. As for the rest... I'm probably going to BrickLink multiples of the Crayon Girl, Flashback Lucy, Candy Rapper, Hula Lula & Kitty Pop's heads & possibly hair pieces, due to always being on the lookout for new & varied female minifig heads (I've ALMOST achieved gender parity with my minifigs, but I still need more females to balance it out), and Candy Rapper's head might work better for my updated sig fig than the current one I have on her (the one from the CMF Figure Skater). I also will probably be BrickLinking the plants from the Giraffe dude & Emmet's smartphone tile piece, as well as the record tiles from Flashback Lucy & Hula Lula & Candy Rapper's cassette tape tile. President Business, Unikitty & Watermelon dude are honestly the only figs out of this series that I have absolutely no use for them or their accessories.

It was surprisingly good, and vampire shenanegans aside, it held very close to actual history, which certainly impressed me. Like I said, I need at least one Apoc Abe for use in my own setting as !Vampire Hunter Abe. ;)

My personal favorites from this series are the Wizard of Oz figs and the Apocalypseburg figs, but especially Apocalypseburg Abe Lincoln... that version of Abe is perfect for an "Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter" MOC or vignette. :D (Yes, I actually liked that movie, lol)

I know I said I wasn't going to be buying any sets until after I got the Apocalypseburg set, but I happened to be at Voldemart last night doing some grocery shopping, and I saw that they had the Rex-treme Off-Roader set for pretty cheap, so I went ahead & bought it... I mean I was kinda wanting to buy it anyways, because I've been wanting to make a Jeep/Humvee type vehicle in dark blue for one of my factions for a while now, and that thing is going to be an excellent starting point (once I remove the lime-green bits & tweak the shape a bit, that is).

On the first point, as someone who belongs to one of those genders outside the Male & Female binary, I'd be absolutely DELIGHTED if they had a character who was gender fluid/non-binary, but with the caveat that they do it right & aren't heavy-handed with it (a good example of what I mean by "doing it right" is the one character in the Loud House who had two dads: yes, they're gay, but nobody really comments on it and they're just treated like any other character in the series with the only real verbal acknowledgement of their relationship is other characters referring to them as "Clyde's dads"). And I don't think it would be "subliminal" to kids, either: Ever since I was as young as 5 years old, I knew I was different than other boys, but other kids my age & most teachers I had used to mock & deride me for liking "girl stuff", and I have been absolutely THRILLED if there would have been someone or something, even a movie, that basically said, "You know what? It's ok to not fit neatly into the "boy" or "girl" boxes, rather than trying to make me feel like I was sick or wrong for being who I am. As for the second, I do agree that the "Strong Female Character" (a.k.a. Mary Sue or borderline Mary Sue) paired with an Al Bundy/Homer Simpson clone (i.e. stupid, boorish male lead) is annoying, unfair to guys & overdone, but from what I've seen of the previews this movie seems to be about subverting those stereotypical Hollywood male lead tropes rather than reinforcing them... Also @Renny The Spaceman in regards to your spoilered comments above:

While I'm not super into Ninjago, I saw a recent pic of all the sets coming out in soon that @Aanchir posted on FB the other day, and I gotta say that the re-done version of the Storm Fighter is definitely a must-buy for me. Like the original (which I have, although it's currently disassembled), this one would make a worthy addition to my ADU vehicle pool, with a few slight adjustments to the color scheme (mainly replacing the black with dark bley & adding some yellow trim). Especially once I modify its armament. Definitely going to be one of my higher priority projects (right after getting the Apocalypseburg set & finally finishing that submarine MOC I posted a LDD render of a few years back).

If anything, I'd say it was the band of feral kids from Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, only with the basic premise taken to its logical extreme....

I absolutely love this mech! It really captures the steampunk aesthetic, especially with how it's dark green & gold color scheme reminds me of the coloring of certain old, British steam locomotives from the Victorian Era. The concealed gadgets in the arms are a nice touch as well.

Sweet Mayhem has quite a few new molds, including an amazing new hairpiece that I've swiped for my sigfig (need to get around to updating my avatar with it tonight), and her jetpack chest armor, which has removable upper wings (which can fold down), among other things, which could definitely be a factor.

Interesting... I'm I guess of fairly typical ancestry for southern PA (which is where my dad's family settled in the early 1700's): German (Swiss-German for my dad's family), Scots & Irish, but with a few twists, like Hebrew, Italian, French & Danish (actually Dane-Scots, or Vikings who swore loyalty to one of the kings of Scotland & were given lands & titles for their service, and since they were all part of a mercenary company that used a banner with the moon on it as their symbol, they all took the surname of "Moon" when they were ennobled, despite none of them actually being related to each other). The Danish (and to a lesser degree German) part probably explains my occasional need for mead...

Yeah, I'm with @Roadmonkeytj on this one: I can, if I so desired, legally make beer or wine for private consumption (i.e. not allowed to sell it) without a license, but you still need, at the very least, a license for any distillery of any kind, and why go through all that trouble when I can just hit up the state store about once every 3-4 months (I drink occasionally, and not very much even then, so a fifth of Jägermeister can last me several months) & buy what I want & not deal with all the fuss & bother (and "friends" you barely know who have a bit of a drinking problem showing up all the time when word gets out that you're making homemade wine, like my parents found out when they made some homemade wine for like 2-3 years when I was a kid, which is one of the reasons they stopped doing it, and sure enough those "friends" who were always dropping by to "sample" the wine never showed up again when they found out my parents stopped making it, but I digress). Furthermore, being a member of the LGBT community (especially since I fall under the "T" part) who works for the government under the current administration means I already basically have a target painted on my back (if you get what I mean), and I don't want to do anything that would give them a valid excuse to fire me, because I kinda need this job... I mean how else am I supposed to fund my LEGO habit? So yeah, TL;DR version is: While making LEGO stills might be fun and all, getting into that kinda stuff in RL just isn't worth the hassle & red tape you gotta deal with.... Simple: The licensing process for microbreweries & wineries is about 100X simpler & requires far less paperwork than obtaining a distillery license, at least here in the US.

Huh, that's interesting. You're the first person I met who actually ran moonshine that I know of. Ad for the specifics of the recipe, thanks, but no thanks: I work for the gubbermint, so running an unlicensed still would be detrimental to my career to say the least...

Nice, rustic still you got there, and I like how you used the Rock Raider drill bits in dark tan for the skirting on the palm trees. I also love the name for your batch, because it is so similar to the kind of thing that real moonshiners come up with: My great-grandfather lived up on the side of one of the mountains nearby during the prohibition era/Great Depression, so most of his neighbors ran moonshine back in the day, and he told me & my dad this story about how most of the 'shiners would keep pigs around to eat up any mash that spilled on the ground & that they'd hide the mash vats in the ground to keep the revenuers from detecting their operations. Well apparently one day a young pig managed to fall into one of the mash vats & drowned and the mash took all the bristles (hairs) off the poor pig. Well, mash ingredients were expensive, and since they were going to distill it anyways, they ran the batch through the still after fishing the pig out & bottled it up as "Ol' Pig-Bristle Whiskey". I guess their customers either didn't know (or didn't care) that the name was rather literal....

While I normally skip buying these big D2C sets, mainly because my bank account faints at the idea of spending $300 for a single set, I think this is definitely going to be an exception: Not only can I use ALL the minifigs for my wasteland raider gangs (who need more love), but I can even use a modified version of the main structure in my setting (due to the fact that Liberty Island & Ellis Island are on the front lines of the war going on between the Grand Duchy of New York & the Republic of New Jersey)... All I'd have to do is fortify the base of the statue a bit more & add some Republic of NJ flags & troops... Yeah, definitely going to start saving up towards buying this thing. I figure I'll start putting $50 aside each week so I can buy this thing around the time the movie comes out. :D Also, while I really like all of the figures, as I said before, I REALLY like Apocalypse Bad Cop: He's probably about as close as we'll ever get to an official LEGO Judge Dredd or Mad Max minifig.

This is a really cool build. I love how you not only improved & expanded on the concept of the original Adventurers' set, but also included BOTH the original Adventurers team members as well as the Pharaoh's Quest team as well. :)

So, when I was in Pittsburgh yesterday visiting my brother & his wife & kids, we stopped at Walmart real quick before I left & there were a bunch of LEGO Movie 2 sets om the shelves, so I got the Introducing Queen Watevra Wa'Nabi set & the Apocalypseburg Lucy polybag. There definitely are spoilers concerning a certain character on the back of the box for the Queen Watevera Wa'Nabi set, but all I have to say is this:

OOooh! I hope that they're included in the after-Christmas sales that Voldemart & Target usually have, since my budget is going to be rather tight for the foreseeable future due to needing some serious dental work done.....

Man, this crazy experimental locomotive looks way cool! Both in real life & your LEGO interpretation. Excellent work, as always!