Pellaeon

I found them at one of the three local Targets on Monday... the other two weren't putting out there Halloween stuff yet, and when I scanned the barcode of an empty wrapper (got it at TRU), the scanners said the shelf was "N/A" and there were none in the stockroom. I think it's clear they show up with the Halloween stuff, so that's what to watch for. Interestingly, I scanned the same empty wrapper at a Walmart, and it came up "Minifigures Series 2" for $1.97 but had nothing about having them in stock. Simple: TRU and the Lego Stores will get fewer boxes this time. My local TRU got at least 3 separate shipments of Series 1; maybe they'll get fewer of Series 2 because some went to Target.

I've seen those two set at one of my three nearby-ish Borders... the stock seems to vary a lot between stores, so you might want to call ahead. They've marked the Slave I up to $90, though 40% off $90 is still pretty good.

My local Borders has gotten a bunch of the summer Lego sets in stock, and they've got a 33% off coupon this weekend. They've actually had a 33% off coupon ever week for the last month or two; they're only for Borders club card members, but it's free to sign up. However, they have started jacking up the prices of the sets, usually about $5. Here's what I remember seeing: Plo Koon's Fighter - $30 Hoth Wampa Cave - $45 Grievous's Starfighter - $55 or $60 (don't recall) Palpatine's Shuttle - $70 Slave I - $95 (!!) A bunch of World Racer sets Atlantis Brickmaster book

Howdy! In my pursuit of Batman minifigs, the cheapest way I was able to get Killer Croc was to buy the parts for 4 of them. So now... I have 3 Crocs available for trade! The figure goes for more than $30 on Bricklink or Ebay, but I have a few wants I'd be interested in trading for: General Grievous (from 8095) or a bunch of minifigs from the 2nd collectable series. Here are the deals I'm suggesting, since Croc is a much-sought-after figure: Killer Croc trade for General Grievous (CW version from 8095): you include all 4 lightsabers, and pay shipping both ways. If you've got the cape from 7255, maybe we can work that in. UPDATE 5 SEPT.: I now have all the Collectable Minifigs Series 2 figures I need... I have extras for trade, again for CW Grievous. I even have an extra Spartan, PM if interested. Killer Croc trade for ~10 figures from Collectable Minifigs Series 2: I think about 10 figures is fair; I only want multiples of the Spartan, and I'm not really interested in the Ringmaster or Traffic Cop. This is my initial offer, but I'm open to suggestions. If you want 2 Crocs for some reason, I'd be open to trading 2 for the whole set of 16 plus a couple extra Spartans. Killer Croc trade for Bane: I'd do a straight trade for a "new" condition, original Bane minifig. Bane from Batman, that is, not the CW guy. This list may evolve over time, as I have more wants or fewer Crocs. Thanks for reading!

You are correct. I did try making the whole thing smaller (8-9 studs wide, with the smaller tires), but it wasn't working out. Since the whole vehicle is a bit oversized, the bigger tires seemed like the way to go. Thanks! TLG did make one Dark Knight set, 7888 The Tumbler: Joker's Ice Cream Surprise. I only have a couple of the official Batman sets, and sadly that isn't one of them. Interesting question! 7888 would get you a lot of the pieces, particularly a bunch of black plates, bricks, and slopes. You'd need more 1x3 wedge plates, and some of those new Brick, Modified 1 x 1 with Stud on 1 Side in black or dark bley. The tires I used are pretty easy to find, but the wheels are a bit tricky to find in black... of course, gray or pearl gold wheels would look just fine. Here are links to the "wheel & tire assemblies" (though it's probably easier to find the wheels and tires separately): Wheel 30.4 x 14 with Pin Hole, with Black Tire 24 x 14 Shallow Tread Wheel 30.4 x 14 with Axle Hole, with Black Tire 37 x 18R

Thanks! It's quite sturdy, but the front wheels would probably pop off if you played with it too much. Glad you liked it! I really like your version (especially the camo one), and I used your instructions as a starting point. I think your version and mine are almost the same size, but those giant rear tires do make a difference. I'm excited to see what you do if you revisit it. And thanks for the kind words, everyone! The Tumbler isn't my favorite Batmobile -- I actually hated it at first -- but it's grown on me over the years, especially after we saw it in action.

Sorry, no building instructions. I design and build in real Lego (and redesign and rebuild, redesign and rebuild, ... ). I can try disassembling it a bit and taking some "in progress" shots to make reverse engineering it easier... I'll see if I can do that sometime in the next week or so. Or maybe my excuse should be... The Tumbler, though massive, is a real vehicle from Chris Nolan's "realistic" take on Batman. The B:TAS Batmobile, on the other hand, is cartoonishly big.

Ooh, front-paged! Thanks!! I'm not sure how the two would measure up, but I agree the B:TAS Batmobile shouldn't be nearly that large in comparison. I think it's a side effect of so-called "minifig scale": because of the odd dimensions of minifigs, their vehicles also have odd proportions. To get the overall width/length ratio right for the B:TAS Batmobile while still enabling it to fit a minifig, I had to make the car very, very big; the Tumbler, though also oversized, fared much better in this regard. Thanks for the compliments, everyone!

Another possibility is that more complicated models have been made possible by better instructions. The instructions these days -- with piece call-outs, numbered bags, etc. -- seem to be much easier to follow than instructions were 20 years ago, even if the builds are more complex.

That is one of the best things about LEGO: it's never (too) hard to try something different! So, I have finally tried extending the mid-section a bit... I think it looked a little deformed when I tried extending it by two studs (no pics, sorry), but extending it one stud helps a lot. The proportions look more accurate this way. Thanks for the advice, blueandwhite! More on flickr... first 8 photos are new. Enjoy! PS: I hope to post pictures of my Tumbler Batmobile next week... stay tuned!

My local LEGO Store had the new sets in stock, so I picked up the Midi Star Destroyer and the Harry Potter game. I also bought another brick separator (been meaning to get a second), which took the total to $75 and got me the free spaceman minifig. TRU also had the new stuff, but the Harry Potter game was marked up to $40 from $30! Ridiculous.

Nice review! It looks a lot more fun that most of the other LEGO games. I just picked this up today, admittedly for the parts (mmm, 2x2 jumper), though the girlfriend likes Harry Potter so maybe we'll try the game once or twice. Oh, and I saw it at both TRU and the LEGO Store, and TRU had a $10 markup on it! At least here it California, it was $29 at the LEGO Store and $39 at TRU.

Are you sure that isn't just a trick of the light? Everything I see is a sticker, except for the droid and (hopefully) Republic logo, and there's nothing on those lime green wedges...

I'm hoping POTC will get the Toy Story treatment -- a bunch of sets based on the earlier films in January, and then sets based on the new movie around April or May. If the Toy Story line gets cut back or discontinued next year (along with POP), then I definitely expect POTC to be filling the void. I think this remains to be seen. The Prince of Persia sets were very aggressively priced, while the Toy Story sets were not. But with the exception of the Target exclusive Pizza Delivery Truck, I don't think any of the Disney licensed sets have had as much of a markup as we see on the Star Wars sets.

Yep, my thoughts exactly. Maybe they're made by a 3D printer? The torso and face, on the other hand, look printed. I'll be surprised if they don't do PotC next year... They might continue Toy Story and Cars if they've been selling well, but Prince of Persia is done for sure. So next year's big movie license is bound to be PotC.

"Impossible" is a bit of a stretch, but anything smaller than your model (or TLG's model) is going to make sacrifices in the accuracy department. Rick Theroux and Brent Waller have both tried their hands at minifig-scaled versions, with good results: I'm working on one myself, but it's still very much work-in-progress at this point. I should also note that all of these are really pushing the definition of "minifig-scaled": they are 10-11 studs wide, making them almost twice the width of a regular (6-wide) car. And btw: nice work, @KielDaMan! I especially like the angles and slopes on the front, I think you really nailed them.

Thanks for the kind words, everyone! I'm glad you enjoyed it. Longer, really? You're right that the length is very exaggerated, especially when it appears in the cartoon (like the image I posted above), which may be a function of how "off model" the animation was at times. I mostly worked from a handful of line drawings I found online (presumably from one of the "Art of…" books) and the Hotwheels toy car. The Hotwheels version is not nearly as exaggerated, or at least it has a different width-to-length ratio than the line drawings or the TV show. I went for a design that was about 30% longer than Hotwheels' model. I'm worried that making it longer will look ridiculous, though the midsection should be longer (relative to the rest of the car) than I've depicted it. Do you have other source materials you based your design on? I'd love to see a top-down view of the car, from either the TV show or original artwork... then we'd have a better idea what the dimensions should be like.

Lego must have had rights to the Chris Nolan Batman films, because they used more than the image of the Tumbler: they used the copyright name "Tumbler", put the movie-style logo and armor on Batman, and featured The Dark Knight's logo on the box. But, I do agree with your point: licensing deals are complicated, and while Sony has exclusive rights to the film franchise, Marvel (now Disney) still owns all the original rights to Spiderman and could presumably put out a line of Spiderman toys with no tie-in to the films. Well, unless Sony's licensing deal says otherwise, of course.

The light bley helmet is a little strange. My assumption is that they want it to be the same color as his armor, which is printed light bley on top of the dark bley uniform. They're correct that the helmet and armor should match (as the pic lightningtiger posted illustrates), but light bley is an odd choice.

I noticed that bit about "can can also be detached for play" the other day; I suspect it's a mistake, probably copied from the description for the magnet sets. I saw the Portal Emperor keychain in a Lego Store the other day, and it has the same hole drilled in the top and glue-together parts all the other keychains do. Interestingly, there is a tidy little "gap" in the crest on his helmet where they drilled the hole for the screw -- I wonder if that helmet is a variant of the original, specifically for the keychain version?

Do you just go up to customer service and ask for a price adjustment? -- Answer my own question: yes, that's what you do. The guy did have to type in the bar code 16 times, but I got $40 in figures for $30. :)

Good work finding the gallery! I recognize that Clocktower — it's the work of hippotam.

He's using an alternative definition of "outstanding": remaining to be done or dealt with; unresolved. So he's PMing folks with unfinished models.

Safari on my Mac, Chrome on my PC at work. In all honesty, to those of you on IE or Firefox: you should give Chrome (Windows or Mac) or Safari (Mac) a try, they're very speedy. Resolution is 1440x900 at work, 1680x1050 at home, and 1024x768 on my iPad. Here's hoping the new design is a bit more iPad friendly!

Wikia, like Flickr, actually hosts several different sizes of each image, so the hard work has been done for you. To get the reasonably-sized one (800x600): Go to the page for an individual image (like this one, for example) Right-click on the image DO NOT click the "Copy Link" option; you want to copy the image's address... the menu item varies by browser: In Google Chrome, "Copy Image URL" In Safari, "Copy Image Address" In Firefox, "Copy Image Location" In Internet Explorer... I dunno, but probably something similar to the above [*]Now you've copied the right address, which is a very long and odd looking URL like this one: http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2010...Reviews_001.jpg And that image looks like so: Hope that helps! If somebody can fill-in-the-blank for IE6/7/8, maybe we should include instructions like these (and how to post reasonably-sized images from flickr) to the tutorials...