Deinonychus

Well nuts, I was really looking forward to this set and from the pics it looks pretty skimpy :( But, at that price point it's a good "squadron builder" set, and I can never have too many of those "Republic Red" bricks

Well over here in the States, the Dino Attack theme has been running loose in the LEGO City theme through the comic in the magazine and on the website, so add getting caught in a military crossfire and attacked by a dinosaur who will either (A)eat you, or (B)shoot you with his laser-eyes, to that list No wonder they came up with a hospital :P

Done and Done

Oh no...someone washed Wolverine in the jeans load! :P ...other then that...eh...I guess I can buy that as Beast

Sweet...I can't wait to build some of the other dinosaurs from that as well... Although I kind of wish they'd issued him in different colors. Don't get me wrong, I'll take all the "Republic Red" bricks I can get, but he's going to sort of blend with the T. rex a little too much :P

INSANE! :oD I love the design of that. As for making it sleeker, I think it looks better with all the knobby bits and harsh angles. It sort of makes me think of the armor from Starship Troopers (the book, not the movie) And I think I'm going to try and cobble a couple of these together for myself later on tonight... Then set them loose on some Visorak, that should be fun

Probably the best of the four so far, I enjoyed it quite a bit. As for the LEGO sets, they're all pretty good when compared to the actual movie. But I would have preferred the ship to have actual sails instead of just a couple streamers hanging from the masts :P

Simply gorgeous! I liked the old version just fine, but this new version makes that look like a piece of junk :P It's really a shame with the reimagined X, B, and A-wings we probably won't get a new Y-Wing for a while between the reissue a couple years back and the UCS set, but I guess I can live with what we've got

Well, since this story hit CNN.com today it has since trickled down to the point where my local newscast even did a piece on it...pretty interesting considering we knew about this days ago

I never heard that myself, but whether you're wrong or right, it is interesting enough to go and find out. I say that because when I was taught the Civil war in High School, it was ALL about freeing slaves, with little to no mention of everything else. And that seemed just a bit fishy to me. There's a little truth to this... Essentially what happend was, in the early part of the war, things were going very bad for the Union. Lee's army was winning victory after victory, and pushing the Army of the Potomac further away from Richmond with every confrontation. Public support for continuing the war started to wane slightly with many in the North beginning to think that if the Southern States wanted to become their own country that bad, the United States should just let them. Lincoln, however, had an unshakable resolve and needed a way to re-energize the poulace. By emphasizing the point that the South held other men in bondage, and through victory the United States could end that practice and free a people, Lincoln knew he could keep support for the war going because he knew Americans understand what it means to want to be free, even despite skin color or origin. As a broad illustration of this new "talking point" on the war, Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation. He sat on the document until the time was right politically, which would be a Union victory in a major battle. The bloody stalemate at Antietam in September of 1862 (7,640 dead in one day, making it the bloodiest single day of the war) afforded the best chance. Shortly after the battle on September 22, Lincoln issued the Proclamation which in effect freed all the slaves in the Southern States. The Proclamation was hailed as a triumph of human freedom and served to cement in many Americans' minds that this was now a war to end slavery and not just a war to preserve the Union. The "political" aspect comes in because had the United States not gone on to win the war almost three years later, the Proclamation would have been meaningless, and it essentially was until victory was achieved. That's about the long and short of it

Outstanding...this looks like a very good set to start with, and to think I didn't like these at first :D Those mechs are pretty ingenious for being so small. I know everytime I try and make mechs they tun into fragile over-complicated messes, so these will be a good learning experience. I love the front end of that robot tank...makes me think it may actually be a driod itself :oo As for the little Anime figures...yeah, definatly putting spare Alpha Team members in as pilots to fight the robots

EMPIRE! ...naturally And order of preference: V III II IV VI I

I'm puzzled by this too...at first glance it does look like a Viking shark cage...but lack of SCUBA equipment put the brakes on that idea :P The prisoner idea could make sense, but like you pointed out, no prisoners with the set. Best I could come up with is they toss that bird they're roasting (or the weakest of the crew) into the cage then play it out behind the boat and wait for old Jormungand there to get close so they can attack him

BAH! I blame JEB Stuart! Galavanting around the countryside when he shold have been watching Meade's army :P

Didn't you hear? The congress of Legoland voted not to continue any more oil drilling because of the negative impacts it would have on the Arctic theme and decided expanding oil ports, refineries, and depots would just be further detrimental to the fragile habitiat of the Black LEGO Octopus. Plus everyone knows Big LEGO Oil is run by a secret cabal headed by Ogel, Vladek, and Baron Von Barron Okay, I'll shut up now :D But seriously, a rig or some tankers would be seriously cool sets...especially a super-large rig set...perhaps a shop exclusive in the $150 range.

You can never go wrong with Converse Chuck Taylor all-Stars. (checks watch) which are due to go out of style any minite now...and be back in-style 3 hours later

Aside from stuff about the French/Indian War and some little border skirmish between Maine and New Brunswick (possibly over maple syrup...I don't remember :P ) no, we didn't learn all that much about Canada. But probably for the reason you stated...History is mainly boring politics inbetween periods of interesting armed conflict

"Join me, and together we can rule the Box Office as Potter Wars!"

Damn...a Canadian knows more about the American Civil War then most Americans |-D And I feel the same way. What you're referring to (KhoRne's Avatar) is the Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia, or more simply the Confederate Battle Flag...which is totally different from the Confederate Nation Flag or the Stars and Bars. Funny thing though, what KhoRne has up there is the actual battle flag because it's the square variety. The standard sized rectangular flag version you see most of the time on the backs of pick-up-trucks in Alabama and widley vilified as a symbol of rasism, stirring up contreversy wherever it's flown, is actually the Confederate Naval Jack. History is funny ain't it

I was born, raised, and spent the first 22 years of my life in Richmond, Virginia, so it's pretty obvious where my loyalites would have taken me :-D But I have leanred over the years not to try and explain why or offer justification for what would be my choice to side with the Seperatists because of the woeful lack of historical education in the United States and the fact that the discussion usually degenerates into a finger-pointing screaming match about the morality of slavery :| But as to the Generals, without a doubt the best was Robert E. Lee, probably followed close second by Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. The Union had quite the cadre of inept leaders, but U.S. Grant was definatly the only Union general capable of taking the fight to Lee and keeping it there, and that's probably why he was the one who finally managed to wear the Army of Northern Virginia down to the point where defeating Lee was possible.

That's easy...large battle mechs are probably very energy intensive and cumbersome where smaller human sized robots consume less energy on a constant basis and also allow for better personal interaction (ie subjugation) of standard sized humans. It's probably best for the robots to stay "small" for day-to day activities and only bring out the energy guzzling mechs when it's time for combat...plus, they seem to be confined to a single mountain which is sure to have limited resources. Or... It's just cooler to have little robot pilots in big robot war machines

:| There's 30 seconds of my life I'll never get back :P

I wouldn't rule it out, but I wouldn't count on it either. I know the past several years I start finding the new January sets in the last weeks before Christmas in a couple different places. And that's all the way over here in the States, I'd imagine Europe would probably stand a chance at seeing them even earlier. Best I can tell you is to get out there and stalk those toy aisles once December hits and hope to get lucky

I'm actually a little surprised the Target internal loss people cracked the scam and had this guy pegged :o But, just goes to show you, you perpetuate something like that too long you will get caught :P