ritzcrackerman

A couple of observations- some specific to the design (which may be as much or more of a function of the movie design than that of the minifig depiction itself): 1) As previous commenters had mentioned, I am too a little disappointed as to the nebulous "this is not series 12- but there may be a series 12. Maybe not. Who knows." I think most collectors are by nature completists and I would like to have some reassurance whether this series should be canonical or not. There are a number of figures I would probably pass on if I knew for certain, simply because they are from themes I don't find interesting or collect. 2) That being said, you can sure have some fun with some of these new pieces and swap out the android heads/hands to make a "normal" figure. I think this is the first of White Fang's reviews to demonstrate this. But it still bothers me that to make a series halfway useful you have to swap out a bunch of stuff. 3) I love how Emmet's eyes don't have the white pupil reflection of the modern minifig, but he still has a cartoonish mouth. It's very throwback and meets the modern/classic minifig halfway. It also gives his character a very "innocent" look in comparison to the other more defined faces with wrinkle lines, eyebrows, etc. 4) speaking of eyes - are Wyldstyle's spaced oddly apart, or is it just me? Something about the character expression is odd to me. 5) The mermaid has quite the low-rise printing on her fish tail, doesn't she? That's getting down into more dangerous territory than I've seen on a minifig before. 1: Calamity Drone - Too much of a Lone Ranger rehash. 2: President Business - Could be repurposed as any "pointy haired boss," a la Dilbert. 3: Hard Hat Emmet - Love the character design. See comment above. 4: Wild West Wyldstyle - Ok 5: Abraham Lincoln - Best of the series. Wish the hat and beard piece were separate, though... 6: Mrs Scratchen-Post - Meh. 7: Scribble Face Bad Cop - Scribble face is genuinely terrifying 8: William Shakespeare - 2nd best of the series 9: Gail the Construction Worker - Finally, a female fig face that's been dirtied up. 10: Larry the Barista - helllloooo army builder 11: Velma Staplebot - the beehive hairpiece is great. Very Mad Men. 12: Taco Tuesday Guy - Good to see they were able to come up with a reason to bring back mariaci man. 13: Where's My Pants Guy - disappointed there is no back printing on such an intricate shirt. Wasted opportunity. 14: Wiley Fusebot - will make for great character mods 15: Panda Guy - 3rd best of the series 16: Marsha Queen of the Mermaids - Like this one too

Good luck with this, I'm excited to see what you come up with. Hopefully with the holidays coming up I'll have more time to experiment myself.

Cheers to you for attempting this. I had a similar idea recently - I thought that 7897 would look more attractive with 1) No windows on the engine, and 2) longer passenger cars with sideways windows, similar to the Horizon Express. Looking forward to what you come up with.

Yours is my favorite mod so far that I've seen. What extra pieces do you need to buy?

I've now seen what LEGO on acid looks like. I'm inclined to agree. I'm curious how the design process works in this case - obviously, the movie production team has some input, they've storyboarded out the plot and the designs, but who makes the final call on design approvals? But this looks much more like a carefully planned theme, with the outward appearance of randomness.

I hope Lego takes another stab at the ICE-style train. As much as I have tried to love the 7897-1, or even modify it, that ugly front piece and the poor fit is SUCH a bummer. A brick-built nose on for an ICE type of passenger train would be more than welcome. Thinking now, I might even prefer they save that for a future Creator Expert train...

Is the "Great Vehicles" moniker anything official? I would reckon these would be part of the "great vehicles" series, but it's not really a series, per se. At any rate, I am generally happy to see 6-wide official models with inventive details and building techniques. That along makes these worth buying and populating one's LEGO town. The car transporter and tow truck are must-buys for me. They look like perfect $20-$30 impulse buys, or ones that I'll wait to get a coupon for at a big box retailer. The logging truck looks appealing, but it's hard to tell from the poor-resolution photo against the green tree background. Hopefully the hi-res photos will validate it.

Not to pour salt in the wound, but it is an excellent minifigure.

I'll try to take a picture later, but if I recall, it's double-sided - one closed-lip grimace, the other an open mouth/clenched teeth grimace. But it is Rhodey's face (newer Don Cheadle portrayal, as it is sans wispy mustache).

Is it any wonder why Jamie is a rockstar in the AFOL world? That was an exceptionally courteous response.

It's a great little fig - components made in Denmark, Hungary, Mexico and China. Unlike the CMF, it has the telltale signs (markings under the left foot, black mark on neck peg) of being a higher quality fig. It is impressive.

Reading this post has made me want to buy a second one! I have been on temporary boycott since the recent exclusives policy change, but it truly needs a second set to make it look right.

My Iron Patriot arrived today. :)

Beautiful design, thank you for sharing. I'm going to have to borrow some of your design ideas for my Rio de Janeiro bonde... Cheers! James

I've heard this in my LEGO store on a couple of occasions. Customer picks up the box, asks the store associate what it takes to run the train, and the store associate replies: "Battery box (2 different choices), AC adapter if you select the LiPo motor, motor, PF cable, lights, and bare minimum a couple of boxes of track." None of those items are sold at my local LEGO store. Is it any wonder if gets put back on the shelf? Yeah, I know the LEGO store offers free shipping on items ordered online, but the purpose of the LEGO store is to give people a reason to go to a brick-and-mortar storefront and enjoy the experience. It is kind of a bummer to buy the train, then wait a couple more days for all the motorization parts to arrive. I hope it sells! I for one love the AFOL-oriented trains we have been getting the last few years...

Interesting. I suspect there are a couple of reasons why. Just off the top of my head - 1) With the announcement of the Maersk Triple-E ship, they are no longer producing the "Maersk blue," so that has probably driven the price up of the original blue parts. 2) The Maersk train, I believe, was in retail for a shorter time period than the Emerald Night (can anyone confirm?) 3) Fewer units of the Maersk train were probably produced, due to it being a licensed product and therefore royalties being paid to Maersk 4) As lovely as the Emerald Night was, and even though it will be a sought-after collectible for a long time, the fact that it only came with 1 coach probably will kill its future resale value a bit. In order to get a proper train, you had to buy at least 3 units, so that means there are lots of partial Emerald Night sets and pieces (dark green, train wheels, etc.) out there. That probably has driven down the prices on what had been rare parts.

I actually found the voting to be very easy. All were great entries, but there were a handful that were absolute standouts to me. 9. Oscar Meyer Wiener (1 vote) 50. Eagle 5 (1 vote) 66. A-Team Camper (1 vote) 81. T1 Cooking Van (3 votes) 119. ADU Headquarters (3 votes)

I agree wholeheartedly. This model could be elevated from "good" to "great" with a rainbow of oceangoing containers in dark tans, browns, yellows, etc. The 2x4 tiles are a little harder come up with in any other color than Light bley, but hey, that's part of the fun of collecting, I suppose. This model would look very dramatic with a greater variety of shipping containers.

The ADU Earth Defence (Defense) Camper is another winner.

Skalldyr's Breaking Bad RV is a thing of beauty. It totally has my vote.

Having finally acquired all of these (thanks to a rural area Target, with a whole shelf full of unpicked over boxes), here are my thoughts/impressions: Yeti - I love it. Yeah, it's a little undersized relative to the other figures (I would expect something slightly more imposing) but I am already salivating over the possibilities for this figure in my Winter Village. And it's tremendously cute. Evil Mech - I'm not a huge fan of the mech being repurposed from the Galaxy Patrol, and it seems like a mehod to get higher volume production from mitigate costs on the mold. But the Blacktron tribute is nice. Welder - Great looking figure, appropriately sweaty and dirty. I appreciate it when TLG showcases blue collar work Lady Robot - The only real clunker of the bunch. Jazz Musician - Perfect. The saxophone is perfect. I will be swapping out the brick-built saxophone from the Winter Village Post Office. Constable - I'm not terribly familiar with the British Bobbys, but this is a great figure. The printing is great and the hat is perfect. Instantly recognizable as a British police officer. Holiday Elf - Others have mentioned the odd green color mismatches; the face is getting swapped out (I abhorr the face they included) - the smile is too buck-toothed and pinched. I bought a few extra of these to populate Santa's workshop. Bavarian Lady - Great female figure. The freckled face is adorable with a great smile, and the dirndl is instantly recognizable. Scarecrow - Great fig. The printing is outstanding (front, back, different on both arms). What color is the face and hands? I can't seem to place it or identify it... Good re-use of the Lone Ranger crow. Mountain Climber - Good fig with lots of detail. Very prevalent in boxes, but not quite as annoying as the skydiver from the previous series. Grandma - I'm not a fan of the face design, but the torso/hair/pants is perfect. The color of the pants just scream grandma-pants. Tiki Warrior - Great figure. I found 4 of these; weren't they supposed to be less common? Gingerbread Man - Again, great figure. I think the sandwich cookie head is genius - gingerbread with ginger creme filling? Yum. Barbarian - Looks slightly too much like the Tarzan figure from the previous series, but it's perfectly fine and fits in well with other warriors released in the collectible minifigs line. Dinner Waitress - This is one of those "I love the figure" but also recognize it's kind of a European take on an American icon where they mashed together two different types of waitresses. My Mother in Law was a rollerskater waitress at an A&W (car hop) back in the 1960s and probably looked a lot like this gal, but for some reason, the hair and face look older, like a cantakerous diner waitress you would see in the actual restaurant (and certainly not running around on skates). It's a minor quibble, so I just took off the skates. Scientist - that ponytail hair is so overrused. It's still nice to have more female heads with glasses. :)

This series has jumped to the top of my list as one of the best - probably Top 3. The only clunker in my mind is the Lady Robot. I'm also impressed how many figures can be used to populate my winter village, just in time for the holidays - rock climber (repurposed as a mountain rescue worker), Yeti, elves, Bavarian Girl, Gingerbread man...

I'm glad to not be the only one. More so with this series than any other so far, I was very disappointed with the fits and clutch on a number of the elements - the rock climber helmet, the barbarian hair, the scarecrow's pitchfork. I can quite literally (both!) of the rock climbers upside-down, and the helmet will fall off. Very disappointing. The elf will probably be a popular army-builder for this series, so I would presume they had been picked out of the log you were digging through. I found a ton of them on the display at my local Target.

There's a tremendous amount to love here, but the presentation is my favorite. Thank you for taking the time to compose these lovely perspective shots from the minifigures' point of view - these photos really "sell" the layout.

And not only that, but the IR remote makes a cool train horn noise. Much cooler than the PF remote... The IR system is not bad. Like previous commenters have said, you can run more trains as you won't have a signal occupied on your PF remote for the IR trains. Plus, the IR remote makes a cool train horn noise, so that's a plus. :)