Brickdoctor

Is there a combination of building style and scale that you can't do well? This is a very impressive mini. You've kept all the steampunky detailing even at this smaller size. Whenever I see a steampunk MOC, I like to see that it looks almost like it could work, and you definitely have a skill for adding all the greebly goodness without overdoing it and without adding stuff where it wouldn't make sense. Hoses only attach to the boiler, pipes only appear on areas that look too thin to have them inside, gears are only exposed near things that rotate... (I stole your subtitle for the blog post. )

I thought it was Flare who wanted to attack because of the growly beast warrior "I don't listen to my Party Leader" thing. Hasn't Scorpiox been Counterstriking the whole time? I assumed it was a roleplaying decision because I thought that after going through the Fields with me ( ), Flare would be used to using the Counterstriking strategy.

I agree. Minifigs sell sets, and new minifigs are a great way to interest fans in remakes or more obscure vehicles. (And the theme has gone on for long enough that most of the options for sets either fall into the category of 'Remake' or that of 'Obscure Reference'.) I'm an MOCer, so when I buy sets, I'm not looking at how accurate or good-looking the model is -- even if I like to critique TLG in those areas, because I still want to see them get better -- I'm looking at the parts I can use and the new minifig parts that I don't have. The collectors and the MOCers will both buy for the new minifigs. If you're stuck in the middle, wanting the new minifigs to collect but also dissatisfied with the quality of the set, then you're probably going to eventually find out that TLG has to make a lot of compromises in the design of their System sets, and you should start MOCing.That being said, I still support the critiquing of TLG's set's build quality, because even if it's not what I look for when deciding what to buy, I still like to see TLG improving their builds, and it's not as if any of us wish for TLG to do badly when designing a set.

I wait politely for Guffington to finish speaking to the Selkreeth.

Though I have no interest in the minifig itself, I think I agree with the general opinion that this was a poor decision to make it an exclusive. In the past, the exclusive minifigs have been characters like Chrome Threepio, Chrome Vader, White Boba, Chrometrooper, Shadow ARF, Chrome TC-14 -- minifigs that are very nice to have in your collection, but which aren't minifigs you would normally find in a regular System set. Now this year with the Hoth Han and this minifig, the exclusive doesn't seem as special and it also seems like a bad idea to make it hard to get a minifig that could've been very popular in a regular set. Before this year, I probably would have said that there wasn't an appropriate System set to put this minifig in. The Clone Commander is the only officer with a prominent role in Clones. But after they got the sergeant and the captain into other sets... If I was an army builder, I might feel cheated that TLG gave us these other minifigs in sets that they didn't have to be in, but then withheld one of the set as an exclusive.

Not that you and Sandy didn't try to use Aura to KO me. (And Sandy succeeded.)

You could've just asked me what I thought of always having Aura.

Because Flare is prioritizing roleplaying over stats.

How did we miss this the first time? This is a great solution both to any stability issues and to making your model different from most of the many other AT-ATs at this scale out there. (I think there might have been one crashed walker at this scale in Brickplumber's diorama, but I don't recall any others. Nope, Brickplumber alerted me on the blog to the fact that he doesn't have one.) That's a beautiful photo with the smoke coming out, too. It amplifies the effect of the moment you've captured just after the walker hits the snow.

Mostly I think the Force Ghosts were originally wanted because they're unusual. Just the concept of a transparent Jedi seems awesome. Also, weren't there Force Ghosts in the video games? I think they were one of the most expensive characters to unlock, and they were practically invincible, or something like that. I don't remember exactly; it's been too long since I've played one of those games. I vaguely remember playing one of those and then wanting a Force Ghost minifig. Nowadays I think people want them just because they're the ones were keep saying we want that we can't have.