Brainbox

...And that's me back again! Hopefully this return will be more permanent than the last one. But, you know, being at university without my Lego for half the year and battling bouts of depression tend to make me less active here than I'd like to be, which is a shame.

It doesn't help an awful lot of people think that the FF are a bit boring. I hasten to add that I don't consider myself among them, I'm a big FF fan, but the non-traditional nature of their stories seems to put a lot of people off for some reason. Still, they're big names. I'm sure they'll make an appearance somewhere down the line. I certainly hope so!

Thanks for the review! Do you know, I'm actually quite taken with the Buzz clock. It may be a little on the pricey side, but I'm actually sorely tempted... One for the maybe list, perhaps. I mean, the Buzz minifig is great anyway, so a larger size one is most welcome as far as I'm concerned. And it's a clock! As evidenced by the three I have in my room, I seem to have rather a thing for clocks. I hate it when I find something new to spend money on...

Just my luck, I was in Liverpool the day before it opened... It was so very nearly ready as well, and the nice people in the Liverpool One customer services told us it might even open that afternoon if we were lucky. But it didn't. My dad, however, has very kindly said we might be able to go back next week, which is good. It's nice when people remember that the North exists! I was hoping that there'd be a build-a-fig bin, I shall have a bit of fun with that, I think... £3.50 sounds decent, I think, especially if there are good pieces to be found.

Don't quote me on it, but a bit of heat might work. Certainly if one has a sticker on a book that's being a bit stubborn, one way of removing it without leaving glue residue behind is to heat the sticker a little bit with a hairdryer on a low setting, and then it peels right off. I don't know if the same would work here, mind. Soaking definitely works though.

Summer of '69, Bryan Adams. For some reason, it reminds me of a time when I was happy.

Eh, I thought Watchmen was a bit overrated. But then, I think the same of Alan Moore... Your Owlship, however, is not overrated. In fact, it's really rather nice. It looks exactly like ol' Archie, and much as I'm a bit unfazed by the rest of Watchmen, I do quite like Nite Owl and Archie. Good job, my friend!

So did everyone else, that was the problem! I think we're trying to keep it all to email now...

Ah, it never occured to me that the mime head could work for something Joker-themed, nice idea! Nice moody shot looking up through the roof window at ol' Bats as well, great work!

See, I told you I'd come back! You needn't worry, we're still very good friends! We've kept in touch and everything! It was such an in-depth thread, no-one else joined in and we got a bit told off for it once! I don't know, I've always had a pretty good memory...

Oh yes, I'd forgotten about that... But that was still a silver peg-leg, whereas I think we can reasonably assume this is meant to be a robotic limb. That's true... And the fact that we got the robotic arm mold the other year, it's certainly plausible that we could get a new robotic leg mold. Especially given the propensity for new molds with the Collectible Minifigs. I'd hazard a guess that the high number of new prints, a lot of which won't be used anywhere else, would cost quite a large amount of money, and tthat cost would only be increased by the addition of back-printing. Similarly, that cost wouldn't be off-set by the amount of money they make selling the things themselves. That is of course, just a guess. I may be a maths student, but that doesn't mean I'm very good at adding up.

I'm currently, and have been for a good while, reading through the complete Sherlock Holmes canon. So that's the 4 novels and the 56 short stories written by Conan Doyle himself. They're wonderful, really engrossing reads. Even the less-good ones are readable!

Oh, don't get me started. I spend far too much money on comics... We have these things over here called Collector's Editions, that reprint three American comics for less than the price of two. So I get Superman, Batman and Fantastic Four comics that way, although they are a little behind. And that was fine, other than buying trades and hardcovers. Until I got to University. I now live near a comic shop. Wonderful place, tiny but well-stocked. The trouble is, I've ended up buying weekly comics now! Mostly only mini-series and one-shots, along with the odd other thing, because I prefer trades. As far as general comic reading goes, I'll happily read anything Silver Age, I love it! I adore the DC Showcase Presents trades, and I'm steadily building up a nice collection. It helps that my favourite comic series ever written is the Silver Age Brave and the Bold series, of course!

Getting onto that train of thought opens up a whole new kettle of fish... I love this MOC though, nice work! It's pure fun and silliness, and that's just my sort of thing! It's a motorbike. And it travels in time. What part of that isn't cool?

I remember falling in love with the Adventurers sets when they first came out. Funnily enough, I didn't end up owning that many, but then I was only 8 at the time... But they tapped into something within me. I've always had an interest in history, and Ancient Egypt is something that particularly interests me. In fact, I can still look at the Adventurers sets, especially the Egypt ones, and love every one of them. That said though, I was rather fond of Alpha Team, especially the first version. It was just something nice and fun, perfectly aimed at the 11-year-old me! But then... Agents came along. So maybe I was a lot older physically, but inside I was still that 11 year old boy. I like my spying over-the-top and full of camp, and Agents delivered that in droves. And as some know, I'm rather fond of a good (as in, bad) pun and what are those villain names if not bad puns? Okay, so some of the vehicles were a little dodgy in the design department, but part of the fun is in the MODing, right? The minifigs were all superb, and it's clear that the fun not only comes in building and playing the sets, but that it also came in designing them! So I guess I'll have to say Agents. Then again... can I nominate all three?

These are wonderful! Seriously, they are! They're nicely atmospheric and the more movie-style ones are very moody! You know, I think you've just inspired me to have a go with some fancy photography like this...

Skater's hair and sombrero for me. It was a close call though, I absolutely adore the nurse's hair, the afro and the ray gun! And I still don't have all of series 2 yet (I'm playing the game, you see!), but I honestly don't think anything to come could top an actual Lego sombrero. I mean, come on! I've been wanting one of those for years!

If we assume, for sake of argument, that all the reasons TLG have stated (clone brands, better business, etc.) are true, then of course they can pull the pictures. That also means that of course they have to pull the pictures from everywhere. It can't be one rule for one and one rule for another. As much as people on BS and Flickr don't have the right to put out the clearly confidential images, neither do sites like this one have the right to repost them. Even if we assume the reasons aren't all true, or only some of them are, they were still taken from a retailers catalogue, meant for retailers only. Unfortunately, most of us aren't retailers and as such we're not supposed to see them. Now don't get me wrong, I love seeing the leaks every year, and I love getting caught up in all the hype they generate. In fact, the simple fact that they leak every single year without fail would suggest that TLG doesn't tighten security each year, and that perhaps the issue of leaks isn't quite as big as it might seem. So, unfortunately, yes, they were probably right to "stop" us seeing images that we weren't really supposed to see anyway. Again. Like happens every year.

Of course they always make mistakes, they're far too busy building cool things!

I think perhaps the main problem with using the peg-leg isn't so much that it's a bad piece per se, it's that we all can't help but see it as a peg-leg. We're so used to it being seen on a ya-harr-ing pirate that it looks a little out of place on a space cyborg as a robotic limb. I actually don't think it looks too bad. And if nothing else, our pirates could have swanky expensive new legs!

Merry Christmas everyone. Hope you all have great days doing whatever it is you're doing. I do love Christmas...

I'll come back and do a proper reply later, probably Friday now, but for the moment: Merry Christmas!

B-V-4B to B-V-4D HO HO HO! Merry Christmas EBers! Since you've all been such good boys and girls, I've brought you a very special treat this year (courtesy of chief elf Brainbox), a seasonal Goody-Bag special! Snowball fight One snowball fight goes a little too far... Poor man... I imagine he'll be wanting a shovel under his tree tomorrow. Gallery When Sant Got Stuck Up The Chimney... Oh dear... I had hoped no-one would find out about this. Ah well... perhaps I should ask Mrs Claus to work out a diet for me next year. Oh well I'm glad you find it so funny Rudolph! Gallery Boing! Batbrick's booby-trapped present backfires when Brainbox accidentally tilts it forwards... Gallery Christmas display Around this time of year, many of us like to decorate our personal space with jollities. Brainbox is no exception: He's even been walking round covered in tinsel for the past two weeks! Well that's all folks. Have a wonderful Christmas, and remember not to stay up too late or I won't be able to drop off all your lovely presents. HO HO HO!

I wouldn't say stress exactly, just... I don't know. Anyway, never mind. And no, actually, I don't know what I'm getting. It's all surprises. But the lack of a list means it'll be clothes, some shower gel and a razor. What are you getting then? I know your Christmas comics list has changed more time than my socks, so what does it stand at now? Yeah, we got that one out the way pretty quickly. I mean... it's not as bad as everyone seems to think, but it's not exactly great. It does beat "crate, axe and spade" and "bucket, apple and carrot" though... But it's a nice change from City, and any Lego fix is a Lego fix, right? Bear in mind though, that fairly early on, Morrison said RIP didn't stand for the usual "Rest In Peace", but rather (either) something else or nothing at all. Although obviously, there's the presumed death at the end... proven not to be the case by Final Crisis, and Batman #682 and #683. But I do think that the basic idea of a Gotham without Batman is a good one. We get to see how his family, friends and city cope (or rather, don't) in his absence. That bothered me a little as well. Unless of course, Damian, Jason or Hush challenge Nightwing and Robin for the cowl, in which case it does make a kind of sense. I mean, who'd want Damian as either Batman or Robin. It's sad that Babs is disbanding the Birds, but the fact that it gives her a miniseries makes up for it a little. He'd better be a different person, I always hated Valley. And I still do. And I mean proper hate. Yeah, um, I did that as well... Which I guess means you still finish in Summer. Whereas we just seem have winter all year round. Don't forget though, the British made Australia what it is today. TotB is another thing I need to buy. Well, it's Tim Sale, how could I not get it? Plus it looks good on the shelf, which is always a selling point. HCs look better on the shelf, so I'll try and get them wherever possible. I went back to it the other day, having found some time to write some more. The next issues will be a bit more time coming, and I'll send a series breakdown with that as well. By strange coincidence, Heroes Vol.4 and my Vol.4 seem as though they may have some familiar themes. Mine came first though. No, not yet. No doubt I'll be able to check them out on YouTube. They certainly look very good.

Thanks for the review. I must say, I rather like the look of this set. For one, it's cheaper than I was expecting, and for another it looks great. It's a bit smaller than I was expecting as well, but it still looks good. The rock monster is great as always, and I love the greebly engine. It's nice to see alt. models on boxes again, we don't get enough of those, and the alt. model here looks pretty cool. PM certainly looks to be turning out the surprise hit of 2009.