GregoryBrick

I'm happy to hear this set is going to be produced! I don't really care much for the licensed sets; they are very nice but not my thing. I prefer sets which can be integrated into City and so on. It certainly didn't 'take a spot away' from the other sets; either a proposal will pass review or it won't. As for the political side of things, LEGO sets are either going to reproduce (ideas about) the status quo or they are going to change things; the only question is the degree to which they contribute to one or the other.

So they don't have little impulse buy sets except for: Creator sets (three at $5), City sets (five at $7), Friends animal sets (three at $5), Mixels (eighteen of them at $5), and minifigures? I haven't even mentioned the $8-$12 sets. I don't think it's possible for LEGO to meet your criteria. You should link to some of the older impulse buys which you think were significantly better.

I find subgroups useful for parts that often go together and are rarely taken apart when (re)designing: Minifigures Rims and tyres and sometimes axles Hinges Stems and flowers Frames and doors/windows Chain links/tambour doors

I too started LEGO in the '80s. I always assumed it was studs down and that's the way I always did it, as far as I can remember.. In fact, studs up looks really strange to me. Interesting. Thanks for pointing it out!

This is a really great review, thanks for all the details and well-done pictures. Because of the relative cost of various elements, for ensuring that the building process is audience-appropriate, for ensuring 'legal' and playable connections, for producing a model that best represents the LEGO brand, and other reasons, but those are some major ones.

Thanks for the reviews; these are the two Ultra Agents sets I've been most interested in. The Riverside Raid seems like one of the best smaller sets in recent memory - and I think the buggy is as compelling as the jetski. I also think the Data Unit is quite cleverly done.

Why? Because they (and I think most people) don't share your definitions of 'closely' and 'the same'. Brilliant set; I look forward to seeing it in person.

30: 3 28: 2 38: 1

Did I miss something? The Exo-Suit logo contains the classic space logo. I think you're reading an awful lot into that, and none of it seems 'obvious' nor 'pretty clear' to me. Why would sequels themselves compel a new space helmet mold, which would be marginally different from the current helmet? Maybe there is something other than the New Elementary blog post which I haven't read; if so please point it out.

Uh, my point was that Moe's bar and all that it references is still clearly Moe's bar even if they 'don't come out and say it's beer', translucent mugs don't get around the central theme of Moe's bar. Anyway, TLG's codes that they make available to the public aren't go/no go logic switches. They're summaries of TLG's guiding principles, and it's no wonder they appear hypocritical to you if you think every reference to alcohol (or space-booze or whatever they drink in a galaxy long long ago) is equivalent. The same goes for violence and everything else.

It just seems to me TLG sees meaningful distinctions about what's acceptable whereas you do not, e.g. you don't see any meaningful difference between (a) a fictional space-bar populated by wacky aliens with zero discussion of alcohol, (b) a medieval tavern with a couple of goblets or whatever, and © a cartoon location whose central theme is excessive consumption of alcohol and drunkenness. If TLG says one set is appropriate and another not, it doesn't make them hypocrites, or stupid, it simply means they are capable of making fine distinctions. Following your reasoning, you might as well say that they've made a bunch of guns already (ray guns in Alien Conquest), so it's hypocritical if they don't issue guns (Walther PPKs and Sig Sauers) to every police officer minifigure.

What's the problem? Well, they might think the distinction between making minifigures and making an entire set is significant; it's clear that a bar is a bar even if it doesn't say 'beer' anywhere; the Itchy & Scratchy violence is abstracted twice over (a cartoon within a cartoon) and hyperbolic to boot; not all vices are equivalent in LEGO's eyes (nor most people's), so the presence of one doesn't justify the presence of others; and I could probably come up with more justifications. But I don't get the point of your position - ok, so you've tried to deduce LEGO's standards and then you've argued that they are being contradictory, therefore . . . ?

I wouldn't call it 'giving up'. It's quite possible they've tried all the angles they can think of and this is the optimal solution. They could just retire the part, but I doubt that would be the best approach. Rick pointed out that the slot is necessary - I'm looking at them now and it sure does seem like the slot is the result of making room for a knob underneath, rather than something added to the element after the fact1. Older headlight elements didn't have the slot, but that could be because they had undesirable tolerances, or the plastic is so thin in that area that it was better to not have it there to begin with. Or something else. 1I know they're molded all at once; by 'after the fact' I mean as a design choice.

Whether there will be multiple sets or not, that phrase doesn't imply anything either way, as Anexcuse points out. The preceding part of the sentence even implies the opposite. They said ". . . suggestion as the name of the actual LEGO pirate ship", not ". . . suggestion as the name of one of the actual LEGO pirate ships". "Multiple different sets" isn't a valid inference; you're reading what you want into it, I'm afraid. Sounds like a fun contest; I'll have to get out the thesaurus and my nautical dictionary!

Children's media (literature, film, music) has always reflected and shaped the culture to which it belongs. As part of this, the film industry unconsciously reproduces important ideas which structure culture, e.g. what is good vs. what is bad, what has value and what doesn't, and so forth. The recognition and analysis of this, regardless of the film in question, enhances one's relation to media, and doesn't preclude enjoyment of it either. So I figure there is no downside to being a sophisticated, critical viewer who can read film on multiple levels. When I compare people I know who watch film in this way to those who just consume things at a surface level, it's pretty clear who has 'gotten a life'.

They did pretty much this on the Creator portion of their website all last year.

Thanks for clarifying. I understand your position. Other posters who express concern appear to mean something else - that TLG is intentionally misleading the consumer or including small parts only to make a set look 'better than it is'. That is what I disagree with. Thank you again.

What specifically do you agree with? First, bigger elements aren't always better, and secondly, TLG isn't using 1x1 tiles in places where they could use 1x6 bricks instead. If LEGO was trying to pad piece count, using 2 1x3s in lieu of 1 2x3 is a poor way to do it. Any set which features a build like that isn't going to have its piece count increased substantially. It would go from 437 pieces to 445 or something similar. Does someone has an example of a set where this is significant? If not, there's nothing to 'fall for', implying that TLG were trying to dupe people. It also puts TLG in an impossible place, where the AFOL community is vocal about disliking BURPs and other you-know-what elements, it's also vocal about liking lots of detail, and now it's vocal about 1x1 tiles and cheese slopes (or who knows what) as 'padding'. There's been much better explanations of the reasons for element usage and distribution in this thread.

Heavily skewed? If you count the blue plates, the LEGO PAB cost is 2.9 times the BrickLink cost. If you don't count the blue plates, the LEGO PAB cost is 2.4 times the BrickLink cost. This isn't a huge difference at all. Those blue plates are 80% of the part count - yet the remaining 20% of parts account for far more of the difference. Also, Lego Otaku said s/he spent only $65, which makes the difference even starker. Finally, would anybody in their 'right mind' buy any bricks from the LEGO online PAB in the proportions they do from in-store PAB walls? That's 340 1x2 grill bricks at $0.15 each, or 290 1x4 tiles at 0.20 each. There's no clear reason to exclude one element or another; being complete is the best for comparative purposes.

"A tank with huge smashing fists and a driver wearing trash-can armor" needs no justification in my opinion, it's pretty much got everything you need right there already.

So your criterion isn't whether the set is 'useful' for its own theme, but rather should fit in with alternative themes without being rebuilt at all? I take it you don't like any of the $250+ sets then, because I don't know which themes the Taj Mahal or the Death Star lend themselves to without being 'reengineered'. Also, 'overly detailed' is rather confusing - usually AFOLs go nuts for detail, but now there's a tipping point where LEGO should use less?

I'm curious to know who is doing this research. Some names and links would be much appreciated.

I can't see anything '50s sci-fi about the original Agents nor Alpha Team. I look at them and see their translucent neon parts, comm headsets, vehicle style (ATVs, monster trucks, supercars), villain and hero style, sharks with lasers, and find none of that to have anything to do with the 1950s' sci-fi genre. James Bond films and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. didn't even start until the '60s, so what specifically are you referring to? Also, I don't see how a newer version of a well-received set that's six years old is a 'waste', so I don't really get your huge disappointment. EDIT: And the '50s science-fiction genre was futuristic almost by definition! I don't think your standards are very clear.

A quick check shows Teslo, Zaptor, Krader, and Flain are the only ones who are referred to as 'he' or a 'guy', so maybe you're just assuming none of them are female (EDIT: and also assuming that they are male by default unless they're pink or whatever).

The Tremor Track Infiltration figure has a perfect He-Man Ram Man helmet.