Jargo

I don't like the summer City sets much. They all look half baked. I like the green trucks and the minifigs from the mining sets but that's all I'd be prepared to buy.

It's unlikely The BBC will grant Lego a license to produce Dr. Who items while Character Options currently holds the master license for action figures and brick built toys. Lego i think have a responsibility to step in and tell people with Dr. Who projects they haven't a hope in hell. Similarly i agree that other such projects should also be pruned when there's no chance Lego will be able to produce the project. With Minecraft the company who own it were backing the project so it was an easy ride. People like Universal, 20th C Fox, Warner Brothers aren't going to back projects based on movies unless they are current and already have massive PR programmes running. There should also be different categories for one shot single set projects and projects that are basically creating a theme.

Surely that would kill any chances of Lego making this. Whether it was an amateur run production or not Lego are looking for something that hasn't been done before aren't they. Something unique. I know Nick has kind enough to make the computer models available but I think even that's risky. It allows a competitor to get hold of the ideas and produce the sets. If it were me I wouldn't share anything but the screenshots. But it's Nick's call.

I feel that different shades of yellow should be used. An egg yolk yellow would signify darker skin without being specific. A yellow ochre would say even darker skin. And pastel yellow would be great for ginger haired minifigs. I never use the pink flesh in my stuff. I've got a couple of dark flesh and brown characters but only because I happen to have those heads and hands. Ordinary pink flesh just doesn't work with the countless yellow skinned minifigs I have.

Something has just struck me about the Ugokin. The face mandibles and the front of the helmet(?) on the Subaltern are very thin. Thus breakable. would you be proposing these are made from a softer plastic like minifig hands? That would make them semi-flexible. The solution to the helmet(?) would be to fill in the gap of that front part. or beef up the size of it. If you think about how small these would actually be I'm sure you'll see my point. If you intend that the helmet(?) is fused to the head then it's a different matter and this post is redundant.

Awwww, look at the little feeties! :p Y'know the old design would make a great robot. Loving this more organic look though. Glad you kept the gun design. The simplicity and utilitarian design really goes well with the new Ugokin. Looks like a clunky gas powered weapon. The product of a less technologically advanced civilisation. The lack of apparent armour on these guys gives scope for people to re-purpose them too which is great. That adds more scope to the overall theme.

Would it be possible to change the colour of the eyes on the Alquiran because I just keep seeing clown noses. And I know I won't be alone in this. Plus there's such a heavy amount of red in your theme perhaps yellow might be better. Hate to seem nitpicky but I really do see clown noses. Other than that I love the rest. The Alquiran is the first pregnant minifigure I've ever seen. Nice touch. The headset is to die for. trans computer tablet looks great.

Oh I totally see that. And understand the need for it. I think perhaps I need to see more shots of him at different angles. that single shot just brought the star wars clone pilot to mind and I was thinking that Lego wouldn't really want something so similar to a star wars design as it would be a bit cheeky. as an alternate I was thinking of a circular chest panel with a single central hose connecting helmet to chest. More like a real world pilot.

I'm generally dumbstruck with awe and Love everything but the pilot's aparatus. Somehow it seems a little too Star Wars-y. Could you reshape the chest box or have it attach to the regular marine torso armour? The aliens are outstanding. Shrake and Kari races are so refreshingly different. Can't wait to see what the Alquiran looks like under the helmet. I also like the tentacle legged alien in the training poster. Lego should ignore the whole CUUSOO thing and commission this right now. It's too good for a limited run. This has win written all over it in flashing neon. Looking forward to the reveal of the Navy and Ugokin figures.

I think you'll find that the designers on star wars are inspired by the wealth of sci-fi material outside of star wars. Isaac Asimov, Frank Herbert, Fritz Lang, Stanley Kubrick, Robert A Heinlen, Jules Verne, H G Wells, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to name just a few. Then there's all the fantasy stuff and spaghetti westerns, suspense thrillers and historical tales. All this stuff influenced people before during and after the Star Wars trilogy and continues to inspire people to this day. To create a space based them you can look anywhere to find a story. It's then a case of designing things to look futuristic and functional in a style you can hang the story on. that's all george lucas did. his design team are all influenced by a multitude of things. the star wars theme sitsin a bubble like any licensed theme. it's entirely separate from Lego in-house themes. Alien Conquest wasn't inspired by star wars it took colours from classic space and used them in a different way. the main inspiration was classic 50's sci-fi. Which has a wealth of ideas that Lego can tap into that are far removed from star wars. For my prison idea I thought about Colditz and Alcatraz. Inescapable fortresses. I thought about reprinted 1950's and 1960's sci-fi comics I read as a kid in the early 1970's. The Shawshank Redemption. Original Star Trek. Ghost and horror stories. Interesting diverse stuff. I just chose to give my idea a link to classic space as a different facet of it. Space police had to send the bad guys somewhere it's been a long time since pace visited an icey place. the original space logo is by far the best. bung it all in a melting pot with some new ideas and thoughts and Bob's your lobster.

They come for free national health service treatment then leave. However, Australians like it here, well London at least. Japanese, Americans and Germans do too. Liverpool in the summer is full of them. And Spaniards. I like the Spanish. And the Japanese. They have good manners.

Nuclear power is being pushed through. It's the only viable way of supplying power to the nation. Windpower doesn't generate enough and solar is a waste of time despite what eco scientists waffle on about. There's actually agreement across all the big three parties that nuclear is the clear winner. Three new nuclear power stations are in development as we speak. The reason everyone has gone quiet about nuclear is Fukashima's power station tragedy gave the general public the jitters. Nevertheless the commitment to Nuclear is strong and forging forward. Albeit very very quietly.

Encourage people who say they don't or won't vote to get off their arses and go and use their vote. There's no point having what we call a democracy if people don't take an active role in it. Voting may seem like a pointless gesture but if all the lost votes were actually cast it might change the dynamics of government.

Not ALL people on benefits are scroungers. Though the gub'ment seems to be treating everyone as a fraudster regardless of ability or inability to work. Then appoints a fraudulent organisation - A4e (or Action For Employment) - to handle the back to work scheme for those with limited capabilities. The dept. for work and pensions are so bound up with red tape and regulations that they can't process claims efficiently. And while I agree that freeloading is rife I do find it unsavoury the way people are being treated with a distinct lack of care and simply assigned to demographic statistics. I know several people with mental and/or physical handicaps who have been almost vilified by the 'system'. Instead of the 'system' helping them it's just made life worse for them. All while the rich avoid paying income tax and fiddling their expenses and taking huge salary bonuses for doing sweet f a. We should remember that the reason so many are unemployed is because successive gub'ments since the 1960's have failed to support British industry thus resulting in the death of professions many unemployed were skilled for. The middle East, eastern Europe and China are now the largest employers in this kingdom and they favour automation over manual labour. David Cameron's urge that people should get into self employment and small businesses is inherently flawed because small businesses cannot compete and are doomed to fail. resulting in more loan and mortgage default and more unemployment. More homelessness. More drain on the benefit system. The Olympics is a lead balloon just as the Millennium dome was. Sure it's nice to have large sporting events but while people starve it's a kick in the face to the unfortunates. Just like the pointless high speed rail plans. Nobody needs a 200 mph train, what they need are decent local transport and a health service that works. Investment in ailing industries. A sense that the elected ministers actually care about the subjects of Britain rather than sorting out their own bank accounts and feathering their second and third home nests. What's wrong with Britain is not Joe public. It's the idiots in power across all parties. Choose wisely and carefully come the local elections this May. Our future might actually depend on it.

This is where I'd like space to go. CMF Galactic patrol style guys in Different colours and with bigger guns. Classic space logo is a must. They guard a space prison. A proper fortress type place not just a feeble holding cell. Somewhere with high security and really scary looking villains: 1) A thing with many tentacles and whiplash poisonous tongue. 2) An oversized figure with porcupine quills and nasty sharp claws and teeth. 3) A bunch of little furry critters who can click together combining to form a bigger nastier creature. 4) A limbless thing with wings and razor sharp beak and tail. 5) A multi-legged insectoid creature that spits venom. 6) A brain looking thing in a jar hooked up to a half-track mini vehicle. 7) A tall spindly alien with incredibly long arms and hypnotic GITD eyes. 8) A cyborg with interchangeable arms that have a variety of tools on the end in place of hands. 9) A tiny old man with a walking cane. His third eye sees the past and the future. He's a telepath and will drive you insane. 10) A tattooed human shapeshifter. He can make himself look like any other humanoid. He's also deadly with lasers and explosives. The Prison would be on Europa, the sixth moon of Jupiter. An icy moon. It's ideal for a galactic Prison. It's devoid of life apart from microscopic creatures that live in the waters below the ice crust. Many try to escape from Europa prison but they've all failed so far... There'd be modules that could be added on to the prison such as: medical centre exercise yard. Governor's office Guard room and armoury docking bay. There'd be non-armoured prison staff for such add-ons. In futuristic pseudo military uniforms with the classic space logo on them. these would be colour coded according to rank and occupation. Some may even be reformed criminals in lower ranking occupations. Some may be androids. All of this would be backed up with: Prisoner transfer shuttles with detachable interchangeable prisoner pods of a sturdy non-transparent kind. Perimeter patrol buggies. Low flight armoured patrol ships. The Governor's personal vehicle. A larger long haul flight cruiser ship with detachable interchangeable prisoner pods that it can swap with the shuttle craft. An alien vehicle or two that are used in attempts to break villains out of prison. At first glance this might seem similar to Space police but I'm imagining something less cute with a harder edge that might appeal to 8-12 year olds. I've worked up some thumbnail sketches of what I have in mind which I've added to my minifig doodles gallery

Figure skating isn't a sport. It's just dancing with added jeopardy.

Well, aside from a flashing collar, light reflective lead and new dog tag for my pooch, I bought four CMF 7 Galactic patrol guys. I would have bought more but didn't want to be too greedy. Hopefully they'll still be around when I go looking for another four sometime.

These are apparently going to be in John Lewis and WH Smiths stores and will probably pop up all over the place. Ebay, Amazon and Bricklink will be awash with them. The word 'exclusive' and 'rare' will be liberally applied as an excuse to set ridiculously high prices.

[thinking_aloud]What that picture looks like to me is a bunch of figures designed by nine different people. Like the picture is the first try at them and hence the array of different looks to the outfit design. I haven't the time to check but are they representative of prior Team GB outfit designs? This years is mostly blue and nine figures all with the same quite plain look would be slightly dull visually. Though not as deathly dull as the Liverpool store grand opening exclusive 1960's musical ensemble I shall not name set. As far as poorly worded internal e-mail's go I've seen far worse from Major companies and official government agencies over here in the UK. Character Options who make the Doctor Who Lego-a-like sets has dreadful customer services e-mails and they speak English as their first language. I'm guessing that the fact there are nine minifigs as opposed to sixteen is down to costs. Or it betters the chances of people getting a full set. The timing of this picture showing up seems in line with the way Lego releases show up. Rough shoddy pictures first then silence from TLG then an announcement a few weeks later. And as the Games are in July it all adds up to me. I'm partly sceptical as I am with all early news of this kind but also slightly excited at the prospect of maybe owning these. Only the Equestrian and archer minifigs don't thrill me as they are in the picture but perhaps final figures will look better. Roll on official word from Lego.[/thinking_aloud]

Yes. It is a gold mining theme after all. I wish they'd created a better gold nugget piece though. The crystal shape is great in transparent colours but looks a bit rubbish as a nugget. I'd have preferred something more like this gold nugget I doodled

It's about time! The horse was the first animal introduced into System sets all those decades ago. It's been long overdue a refresh. I'll be keeping the old horses for background purposes but the new horses will be hero horses. Now, if Lego will just release a normal non evil black horse I'll be happy.

There's huge PR for Team GB. It wouldn't surprise me if there's Lego minifigs as I fully expect a glut of merchandising supporting Team GB. Everything from replica sporting gear to hideous bone china tea sets. And in between stuff like teddy bears and dolls and yes, Lego minifigs. I think they look great. Nine is a very odd number though. Why not a round ten? I note that there's no medals included. It would be nice if the medal from the swimming champ in series 7 came in gold silver and bronze with these. If they're available at a reasonable price I'd buy them all.

Eight of the series seven minifigs. Tennis ace, Hippy, Bunny suit guy, Computer geek, Jungle boy, Bride, Swimmer, rock chick.

Brickset has three of the Gold mining sets official pictures showing in their database now. http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=4202-1 Mining truck http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=4203-1 Excavator transporter http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=4204-1 The mine

Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, Perry White, Jonathan and Martha Kent, Clark kent. Superboy, Supergirl, Krypto the Superdog. Jor El, Lara El, General Zod, Non, Ursa, Bizarro, Mon El. Diana Prince, Superwoman. Alfred, Dick Grayson, Nightwing, Red Robin, Ace the Bat-Hound, Barbara Gordon, Batgirl, Commissioner Gordon. Louie the Lilac, Mr. Freeze, Hush, Killer Croc, Killer Moth, Mad hatter, Scarecrow, Penguin, Clayface, Manbat, Azrael, Spoiler, Ra's Al Ghul. Peter Parker, Aunt May, Uncle Ben, Harry Osborn, Mary Jane, J. Jonah Jameson. Lizard, Rhino, Electro, Kingpin, Kraven, Chameleon, Mysterio, Green Goblin, Sandman, Venom, Vulture. Professor X, Cyclops, Beast, Storm, Rogue, Northstar, Gambit, Emma Frost, Collosus, Angel, Namor the Sub-Mariner, Cypher, Warlock, Nightcrawler, Maggot, Juggernaut, Mystique, Sabretooth, Toad, Dust, Elixir, Rockslide, Anole, Graymalkin, Indra, Quill.