Joebot

Just read the thread, good sir! Our reasons for disliking the faces are well-documented in this thread and in other threads as well. My guess is that the cartoony faces were a branding decision, meant to differentiate the Clone Wars sets from the mainstream movie sets. I'm just not convinced that it was necessary. That's a fair point. I actually DO like the alien mini-figs and the clonetrooper mini-figs a lot. But those Anakin and Obi-Wan faces ... blech. Well said. I haven't seen any personal attacks or anything like that in this thread. Just good-natured debate and differing opinions. Just think how BORING this message board would be if everyone agreed on everything. "Hey, the sets look great!" "Yeah, they sure look great!" "Umm ... they still look great!" "Yeah, really, really great. " Yawn.

I'm afraid I gotta side with the anti-cartoony face faction. I reeeeally don't like those faces. First the fleshies, and now this. If TLC wants their Star Wars sets to be considered "collectibles," then they need to establish CONSISTENCY across the product line, from one year to the next. Or maybe they don't care about the collectible market? Who knows. If they switched the Star Wars theme to Duplo-scale next year, it wouldn't surprise me. On a more positive note ... I saw the trailer for the Clone Wars movie. The music and sound effects were enough to get me excited. I'm like Pavlov's dog -- I hear a lightsaber swoosh, and I'm hooked. The storyline looks stupid (Jabba's son? Really??? Meh.), but the animation and the action looks slick. There's probably an easy joke to be made about how CGI Anakin is a better actor than Hayden Christiansen, but I'll let it pass.

No, it was close, but "Speed Racer" got beat by "Iron Man" and "What Happens in Vegas." At lesat in the U.S. it did. I have no idea what the results were elsewhere in the world. Here's the box office results for last weekend, courtesy of Box Office Mojo: 1. Iron Man - $51.1 million 2. What Happens in Vegas - $21.1 million 3. Speed Racer - $18.5 million Hey, man, I'm just askin' questions!! The general consensus seems to be that the strong set design will keep the sets selling well, even if the franchise doesn't do as well as expected. So, no Galidor Part 2!

I think you're right. Even if the "Speed Racer" FRANCHISE flops (which seems likely given it's lukewarm opening weekend), that doesn't mean the "Speed Racer" SETS will likewise flop. Conversely, both the Galidor show AND the Galidor sets were terrible. TLC has shown that they're pretty careful with their product licensing deals. They've had a few licenses that haven't panned out, but mostly, they've been pretty successful. I really wonder about what you said there, Tohst, about a set not selling as well as if it had been from a huge blockbuster. That's the real question with all of these licenses -- how much of a set's success can be attributed to the set design itself, and how much is because of the franchise name on the box?? Seems like reality is somewhere in between, but does one factor have more importance than the other?

Wow, pretty rough opening weekend for the "Speed Racer" movie. In the U.S., it came in THIRD place behind "Iron Man" (in its second week) and some crappy romantic comedy with Ashton Kutcher. When you get beat by Ashton Kutcher, then you know your movie probably wasn't very good. So, what does this mean for TLC's license I wonder? Are they going to be stuck with another Galidor-sized turkey on their hands? Or will the relatively decent designs for the Speed Racer sets prevent them from ending up in the $1 bin at Toys R Us like the Galidor sets? I guess that's the risk of paying for expensive licenses -- TLC has no control over whether the franchise will actually catch on in the popular consciousness. For the record, I didn't see "Speed Racer," so I can't speak to the quality of the movie itself. I asked my son what movie he wanted to see this weekend, and he wisely chose "Iron Man," which was awesome. Here's hoping that the new Indy movie fares better than "Speed Racer" did.

I'm predicting Agents to be yet another one-and-done theme (see also: Dino Attack, Aquaraiders, Vikings, etc.). Aside from the wonderfully bizarre mini-figs, I don't see much here that interests me.

You can't go wrong with fart jokes and wedgie jokes! That's always comedy gold! Great stuff, Hinckley, and terrific photography, as always.

I recommend Photoshop Elements. That's what I use for all my Unlikely Society comics. It's basically a stripped-down consumer version of Photoshop. It has most of the functionality at a fraction of the price. It has some impressive tools for selecting objects and removing them from their backgrounds.

Wow. Thank you for contributing to the conversation with your insightful commentary. *wacko* Anyway, it's been interesting reading everyone's replies. I certainly had no intent of turning this into a debate about global warming, and I'm glad we've managed to mostly steer clear of that hot-button topic. I was coming at the question more from the perspective of a consumer, and how do you impact environmental change with your wallet. Hairy Ruben had a terrific post about that. Thanks for the info, Deinonychus. I didn't know any of that. That's good stuff to know. Brickmaster -- you may not agree with Al Gore ... but you just made EXACTLY the same point that Gore makes in his documentary. There are lots of solid political, scientific, and economic reasons to be environmentally conscious, but all of those are secondary to the MORAL reason. It's simply the right thing to do.

You're not thinking "big picture" enough. Best case scenario, a Lego brick gets handed down through a couple of generations. That might be 50-60 years, tops. However, regardless of whether anyone is still actively playing with it or not, that plastic brick is going to exist for thousands, maybe millions of years, before it's decomposed. Nothing currently exists in nature to break down plastic. It will take millions of years for an organism to evolve to do so. Lego bricks are absolutely some of the longest-lasting toys on the market! I totally agree with you on that. But the "greenest?" No way.

Hey everyone, I came across an interesting article today about how Toys R Us is going to start selling "environmentally friendly" toys beginning on Earth Day later this month. The toys will be made of natural materials like wood and cotton. So that got me thinking about this hobby of ours. I've been buying and receiving Lego sets for almost thirty years now. I've amassed quite a collection of little plastic bricks. Obviously Lego bricks are made of ABS plastic, and presumably are a petroleum-based product like most plastics. Just how environmentally unfriendly are Lego bricks? Are they recylable? As petroleum costs continue to increase, and available supplies continue to dwindle (if you belive the "peak oil" theory, that is), what will that do to the costs of Lego sets? And most important ... how do I balance trying to be an informed, enviornmentally conscious consumer with being an avid Lego builder?? How do I reconcile those two, seemingly conflicting, impulses?? Just curious if anyone had any thoughts on the subject. Thanks!

This set marked my first experience with the grey "BURP" pieces. I distinctly remember pulling them out of the box when I was a kid and thinking, "What the heck are THESE things??" Fun review, and thanks for the trip down memory lane!

Thanks for the nice feedback everyone! There are two bits of advice I can give you in this regard: 1) buy a house with a basement, and 2) marry an EXTREMELY understanding wife. X-D There are three trains and a monorail running around the town. Unfortunately I don't have very good pictures of them up yet. I'm planning to add a "Transportation" section (trails, monorail, airport, etc.) next. The monorail is basically the Airport Shuttle, with an additional custom third car in the middle. The best shot of the monorail is probably on this page. You can see it down in the lower-left corner of the picture. You couldn't get the slideshows to work?? That stinks. I tested them at home on my Mac running the Safari browser, and again at work on my PC running Internet Explorer, and I didn't have any issues. Anybody else having a problem with the slideshows? Thanks! The undersea area is a bit of a hodgepodge of Divers sets, Aquaraiders sets, and my kids' Spongebob sets. Whenever I show my town to someone for the first time, it's inevitably the part that gets the most ooh's and aaah's. Thanks again everyone!

Layout Like most Lego towns, my town has a disproportionately high number of firemen and other rescue personnel. Taxes must be astronomical to pay for all that, but hey, the Lego citizens sure seem happy as they walk around smiling all the time. No doubt they feel quite safe knowing there's roughly one fireman for every three citizens. Anyway, I posted some new pictures on my website of my two fire stations, hospital, and coast guard station. Please check it out and let me know what you think! -Joebot www.unlikelysociety.com Edit: Fluxington Slideshow

Dude ... dump Goodkind in the trash and pick up Pullman instead. ;-) You will not regret it. I made it as far as the third book in Goodkind's series, then gave up. Anyway, not to derail the topic ... nice job with the armor on Iorek. I'm kind of surprised that there haven't been more MOCs done based on "The Golden Compass." Everybody seems to focus on Tolkien.

Sure, you can use this topic here. Thanks, Hinckley!

I've been as big a critic of this whole 9V transition as anyone, but I have to say, I'm impressed with how TLC is handling this. They're making the best of a bad situation. They didn't have to communicate anything to the consumers. They could have just made the change, dumped the sets on us, and said "here you go, chumps" (like they did with the bley color change). Perhaps they learned a lesson that early and frequent communication will go a long ways. Sure, people are still going to be upset, but this way, we understand what they're doing, why they're doing it, and we're given fair warning. I still hate the decision, but I applaud TLC's communication efforts.

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration ..." WOW! That is really cool. You really nailed the look of the worms and the Fremen. Great stuff.

Thanks! I have no plans to stop anytime soon!! I have the next story arc written. It'll be much shorter -- only three chapters. I can't handle another 13-chapter monstrosity right now. I don't know what in the heck I was thinking with that. My long-term goal is to rattle off a series of somewhat "stand alone" shorter story arcs with different villains. Each story arc will have hints towards a larger story that I'll get to later down the road.

The latest installment of my Lego superhero comic, the Unlikely Society is finally completed. Despite their general level of incompetence, the heroes have managed to infiltrate the alien headquarters. Will they be able to stop the aliens' horrible plan to take over the world? Only two more chapters remain!! Oh, and yes, there really is a fire-breathing kitty cat. Thanks for reading, and please let me know what you think! -Joebot

Very nicely done, and a cool idea for some vignettes. I really enjoyed the movie, and got a kick out of the couple of Sin City books that I've read. Frank Miller is one twisted dude. Are you taking requests for your next vignette? How about a Jessica Alba / Nancy one!

And I'm glad you did, as I hadn't noticed it before. Could you add my town of Fluxington to the list? Here's the link: http://www.unlikelysociety.com/Unlikely_So...Fluxington.html Thanks!

Mixing a gay pride parade with a zombie invasion is nothing short of inspired brilliant lunacy. I love it. The mini-figs in the parade are awesome. Very funny stuff. There is a school of thought that says that Sam and Frodo are gay. You know ... the whole way that Sam fawns over Frodo and calls him "master" and so forth.

I really love that grey church. That looks really sharp. Light grey and sand green is one of my favorite color combinations.

To be fair, I think the original question was "Would you like to see Watchmen Lego sets?" not "Do you think we'll get Watchmen Lego sets?" The answer to that second question is obviously a big, fat NO, given the subject matter. But to answer the first question ... hell yes! The Nite Owl sets would be very cool. I'm trying to be optimistic about the upcoming movie, but I dunno.