Joebot

The set's ginormous size is definitely not unrealistic. My concern with it is that I don't have space in my town to have construction grounds big enough to display this monstrosity! It's a beautiful set, but with the roughly 30% price increase on all Lego sets this year, I have to be a bit more discerning in my purchases. This set neither fits in my budget nor in my town! Great review though. Wow, Indy has been working out. The dude's ripped!

I've never understood TLC's "helicopter transport" sets. Under what circumstances would you DRIVE a helicopter to its destination?? Why not just fly the helicopter itself there?!?!? Regardless, looks like a nice set. Yay for the orange motorcycle!!

I sorta feel like I do when my employer does a big company-wide survey: I appreciate them asking ... but I'm skeptical that they'll really do anything with the results. Or maybe I'm just a cynical old bastard. Totally agreed! This place rocks, especially when it comes to people scrounging up juicy info on new sets. I have never understood the cloak of secrecy around some of the other fan sites.

Interesting that they went with yellow for blonde hair, rather than the previous tan. Daoudbazaar -- does the hair look bad if you put it on a regular yellow mini-fig head? I gotta think that will look weird, which means this particular hair piece is really only useful for flesh-colored minifigs. Which is, of course, a bummer.

HA! Great stuff, Hinckley! So much of comedy is timing, and it's really hard to do "timing" in a comic format with static panels. You've gotten really good at it though. Also, the never-ending punishment that Hinckley endures makes me laugh every single time. It's like an old Three's Company episode when Jack gets hit by the swinging door. I guess I'm just a sucker for cheap, physical comedy.

Thanks! I wrote that scene a long time ago, and I always had a very clear image of what I wanted it to look like. I actually managed to get pretty close. I'd wanted to somehow make it appear foggy, but after spending some time messing with Photoshop filters, I couldn't get the effect I wanted, so I had to give that up. HA! Yeah, initially I was going to use this tan suit-and-tie torso. Then I recently bought a bunch of old Lego sets from a co-worker's son, and there was the Madam Hooch mini-fig in there. I liked the fancy suit, and figured, hey, "H" for "Hanz!" The Benefactor is going to be an ongoing story thread for a while. There will be other supervillains to fight along the way, some connected to the Benefactor, and some not. But he's going to be this overriding mystery for the Unlikely Society to figure out. It should be fun! Thanks everyone!

Hey everyone, Chapter 16 of my superhero Lego comic, the Unlikely Society, is finally posted. This one didn't take QUITE as long as the previous couple of chapters, but I'm still way over my chapter-a-month goal I set for myself. Sigh ... This chapter concludes the "Biker Chicks" story arc, and drops a few tantalizing hints of a larger conspiracy at work. Also, based on a request from Dennimator, I posted detailed instructions on how to build your very own Joebot! You can find that on the website in the "Cool Stuff" section. As always, thanks for reading!! -Joebot

Good point. Typically companies that raise prices during times of economic downturn are desperate and / or doomed. When people have to tighten their belts because of economic tough times, you certainly don't want to raise your prices, especially for a perceived "luxury" item like toys. There are competitors out there who are already beating TLC on price. TLC doesn't want to make that price gap any worse, or else they risk even more erosion of their customer base. My guess is that the price hikes are due to TLC's somewhat long product life cycle. The prices on the upcoming '09 sets could have been set a long time ago, back when oil was sky-high. Now that oil prices have fallen (most likely temporarily), the prices seem out of whack. Let's face it though -- Lego bricks are a petroleum product, and petroleum is a finite resource. Prices aren't going to get cheaper.

$23 is a weird price point. Prices are definitely going up in '09. You can see it here and in the Pirate line. Price points are increasing, and you're getting fewer pieces for the money. The old 10 cents / piece rule of thumb appears to be a thing of the past. This is a nice looking set though. That SUV is really slick.

Man, these reviews of old sets are like a time machine for me. Great stuff. I had this set. In fact, the jeep is still cruising around my town. The rest of the set was long ago disassembled, but the jeep is a keeper. Gotta love those 4-wide vehicles. The new super-detailed 6-wide (or even 8-wide) vehicles are pretty cool, but they don't seem to have the same charm as the 4-wide.

Hey, everyone, I've got three more characters for you. First is the death knight, Varikas. This is my son's favorite character. In fact, I don't think he's ever played the game with anyone other than Varikas. This is Runewitch Astarra, a female magic-user. She's not quite as popular as Red Scorpion from the previous batch of pictures. :) And this is Mad Carthos. I'm not sure if he's "angry" mad or "crazy" mad. Based on the picture, seems like it could be either one.

What a depressing thought!! But ... I think you're right. At least in my case. For the past 10 years, I've been an obsessive Star Wars Lego fan. I've got just about every set ever made covering five shelves in my basement. Then this year ... nothing. I looked at the available SW sets, shrugged, and decided to spend my money elsewhere (City and Batman mostly). There was nothing I was interested in (except for the Death Star, but c'mon, $400??!). And what's funny is I haven't really missed it all that much. If any good OT sets come out, they'll certainly get my attention, but I no longer feel obligated to buy a set just because it has the "Star Wars" logo on the box.

Yeah, that made me laugh too. At the risk of being a pedantic Spelling Cop, it's "analyst." An "analist" would be someone who's into ... well ... I'd rather not speculate. :) Thanks very much for the reviews of the Power Miners sets. It's an interesting concept for a Lego theme (like a modern updating of the old Rock Raiders, crossed with Exo-Force), but I think the execution is weak. It's just another humans vs. monsters theme, that we've already seen a dozen other times. TLC is starting to copy themselves. Are they out of new ideas??

Okay, you got it! Time for one of the ladies. This is Red Scorpion. She is the unfortunate victim of many tasteless jokes. Like, for example, is she really balancing on one foot ... or tipping over because she's top-heavy?? This is Mordrog, who worked out well thanks to those great new dwarven axe pieces. And the old Harry Potter troll head, of course. And then this is one of the game's magic-users, Battlemage Jaes. More coming soon! Thanks for all your comments!

Yes, exactly! It's frustrating, but it's a fun challenge. I eventually decided I should focus on capturing the "spirit" of the character, rather than an exact likeness. Especially in regards to hair. TLC has given us lots of new hair molds in the past five years, but some of them are hard to come by, and are still only available in one or two colors. I have 11 of the 12 characters finished (I just need to take pictures of them). The 12th one is really frustrating me. I just can't figure out what head to use.

I was inspired by a recent post from Sandy showing Lego versions of characters from the video game Soul Caliber. I play boardgames more than I play video games (I'm old school), and I decided to finally do something I've been thinking of for a while -- make mini-fig versions of the characters from the boardgame Runebound. If you're not familiar with the game, the basic idea is that you pick one of the twelve available characters and go adventuring across the countryside, killing monsters, finding treasure, developing your character, and eventually taking on the Big Bad Guy before the other players do. My kids and I really like the game, but we find that the tiny, grey plastic miniatures that come with the game are kinda hard to tell apart. Of course you can paint them, but I lack the skills and materials to do that. Thus my idea for Lego versions. First up is Ronan of the Wild. I couldn't figure out how to make his little fox or whatever that critter is on his shoulder. I do like the mini-fig head though. It's a near-perfect match for the character's expression. Next is One-Fist. This guy gave me the perfect excuse to buy the Dwarven Defender set which comes with two of the new troll mini-figs. This is Sir Valadir, one of the game's heavy hitters. I wish I had those dragon wing helmet pieces in white. All I have is red and blue though. That's it so far. There are nine other characters, which I'll post once I get the pictures taken. I hope you enjoy!

I was at the Lego Store in Schaumburg, IL (Chicago suburb) last night and they had the dump truck and the big construction set (I didn't buy either one). No sign of any pirate sets though. Kind of a strange distribution of new sets going on. Seems very random.

I think those days are over. The price hikes in the Pirate line are leaking over into the City line too, it seems. I wonder what the new licensed sets are going to cost in '09 ... yikes. Great review for a very nice set. The SUV is enormous, but not outrageously so since SUVs are generally pretty enormous in real life too!

I had the same question. Things have been suspiciously quiet on the Batman theme. I'm curious about that Endor playset. Maybe it'll come with a sound brick that plays the Ewok song. "Yub nub! Eee chop, yub nub!"

That's an interesting comparison. $50 for 367 is really steep, especially for a non-licensed set. We're all used to paying the "Star Wars tax," but for Pirates? Ouch. Unfortunately, it's probably just a sign of things to come.

I think this set has two things going for it: 1) The little building is very cool, and looks great with the sliding door. 2) The sheer novelty of a set devoted to shady characters doing suspicious things. Are they thieves? Smuggers? Something bad, no doubt. Since TLC overwhelms us with endless police set after police set, it's really nice to see the bad guys get a set. Those policemen need someone to chase, after all. Unfortunately, the hovercraft is pretty absurd. A hovercraft?!?!? Really?!?! Why not a sleek black speedboat?

What I find so puzzling about Microsoft's current ad campaign (with all the random people saying "I'm a PC") is that the ad never once mentions any Microsoft products!! They never refer to"Windows" or "Vista." All they say is "PC." Well ... Microsoft doesn't manufacture or sell PCs. They sell the software that runs on the PCs! That's like a peanut butter company making a commercial that advertises bread. It makes no sense. Regardless, I love the MOC. Any thoughts on doing any more of them? That could be a fun series!

Well done on keeping to your weekly schedule for three weeks!! As for the question of Hinckley always losing ... I see Hinckley's character as the "Charlie Brown" of the series--the lovable loser that always misses the football. Or, that gets whacked in the head in this case. You keep reading just in case this is the ONE TIME that he finallly wins, but deep down, we all just want to see him get clobbered again. And again and again and again. Hinckley -- what software do you use to make the special effects, like the smoke or the ghostly aura around fake-Hinckley? I've bought a couple of Photoshop filters from a company called Alien Skin, and they're freakin' amazing. Expensive though. It's hard to justify to my wife why I need to drop a hundred bucks on some software to make my silly little Lego comics.

Taking pictures is probably my LEAST favorite part of the whole comic process! I think I've gotten better at it over the years, but it's always a bit of a chore. Laying out the panels is fun though. I like that part a lot. As I'm reading comics, I find myself studying the panel layouts to see how they accomplish certain things. One of the best artists for that is Mark Bagley (Ultimate Spider Man, and now DC's Trinity). He does some really interesting things. He can do a complex, two-page spread with 15 different panels, and yet he somehow guides your eye unerringly across the page in exactly the right direction so you never get confused. He's awesome. I like the font that you use, Hinckley! It fits well with the whimsical, silly world that you've created. I could see using a smaller font size maybe, so you can cram more text into a panel. The Holy Frijoles backstory was a bit of a surprise for me when I wrote it. It just sort of happened, and I went with it. I have NO IDEA where it's going in the future, but hey, that's what makes writing fun. I think we should create some sort of "Lego Comic-maker" blog with tips, techniques, and so forth.

That is curious. Seems like the vendor should be selling hot dogs, not chicken legs.