The Brick Rat

Don't worry. I doubt that the hair in that pic is the final product. When TLC showed the first AT-AT at Toyfair with the very first Snowtrooper, the troopers helmet had that same 'furry' appearance. After many complaints, official word came down that the helmet was a preliminary version because they didn't have time to produce an actual ABS one.

I just signed up. I'll be there with Batman MOCs and 3 kids in tow.

I found all 4 sets at Walmart today here in Charlotte, NC (bought one of each and 2 of Harley's Hammer Truck). I'll leave reviews to those who can actually post pics of the sets. However, I will give a couple of impressions on the Batcycle set which is the only one I've gotten around to building. Seeing the pics online, I didn't have a favorable view of this set (except for the Harley minifig). Another oversized Bat vehicle and the top of Harley's truck looked unfinished. After building this set I was pleasantly surprised. Yes, the Batcycle is way too big, but it's just plain fun driving Bats around in it. And the hammer truck looks better in person. My only real complaint with it is you really can't hit anything with the giant hammer. It swings down too close to the truck and stops too high up to whack anything. I'll be moding it to a larger hammer with a longer reach. Now for the figs. Remember this pic: It shows Harley with a reversed torso design. When I picked the set up from the shelf the first thing I noticed was Harleys' pic on the box front and top showed her with this reversed torso (the back of the box shows the correct torso printing). The first thing I did when I got to the car was to open the box to check the printing and was happy to find a non-reversed torso. Actually, the torso in the above pic isn't printed incorrectly. Harley's torso has printing on the front and back. Somehow TLC put the arms on backwards, so that the back of the torso is now facing front (note the white lines denoting her waistline - there are no white lines to denote her breasts). This isn't a problem with the set - the arms are on correctly. However, the torso does have a printing flaw. On both my Harleys, the white lines for her waist and breasts are printed on the red portion of the torso, but not on the black portion. At a casual glance it's not a problem, but on closer inspection it looks a bit odd - Harley only has one breast! (actually, I was planning on moding some Harley torsos by removing the white curves so this makes my task easier). Other than that Harley is a great looking minifig. Oh, and Bats looks great too. Edit: Forgot to list Walmart prices: 7884 Buggy: $9.96 7885 Scuba Jet: $19.88 7886 Batcycle: $29.74 7888 Tumbler: $44.84 That Tumbler price is $5.00 off MSRP. Walmart did this with the Creator Beach House also. It was $5.00 off when they first stocked it. After it sold out the price went back to MSRP when it was restocked - so you might want to get the Tumbler sooner than later.

ABS stand for Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene and as hewkii9 pointed out it is the type of plastic from which most LEGO elements are made. The phrase "in the ABS" is the LEGO equivalent of the term "in the flesh", which means to see something or someone in person. Example: "I've seen many Harrison Ford movies, but I've never seen Mr. Ford in the flesh. I've also seen lots of photos of the exclusive gold chromed C-3PO minifig online, but I've never actually seen it in the ABS." My point in the previous post was that, like the LEGO Star Wars game, there are going to be lots of neat looking virtual minifigs in LEGO Indiana Jones that will never be made into actual minifigs. HTH

Thanks Riddler. You know what I'm going to really hate about this game? Seeing all those great looking minifigs that I know we'll never get in the ABS.

The poll is up now. And the choices are: Choice 1: The Arrest of Palpatine. Choice 2: Slave I and Cloud City Landing Platform. Choice 3: Mon Calamari Cruiser Set (Cruiser control room and hanger with A-wing). I voted for the Arrest of Palpatine set. Choice 2 would be the 3rd design of Boba Fetts' Slave I. And while a Mon Calamari control room sounds neat, I think the main model would be the A-wing which would be the 3rd design of that ship also. But choice 1 is something we haven't seen before. I would love to see Palpatines' apartment in brickform. And it would be fig heavy too - Palpatine, 4 Jedi and maybe even Anakin. Arrest of Palpatine ON!

I have a couple of Idea Books and would like to see them return also. However, I would like theme specific Idea Books. A Castle Idea Book or Space, etc. Release one or two a year. And I think LEGO is missing a bet by not making licensed themed books. How popular would a Star Wars Idea Book be? Or Indians Jones. A Batman Idea Book would top my list. It could have vehicles and buildings for Batman, the various villians (Jokermobile) and the GCPD. And besides the obligatory Bat symbols, a sticker sheet could have signs for buildings (a bank, Gotham Museum, GCPD Headquarters, etc.), a set of wanted posters for each of the villians and maybe even some minifig torso stickers (like a classic green suit and tie for the Riddler). Oh well, I can dream - but I'd rather do my dreaming with a brand new Idea Book in my hands.

While Two-Face looks great with his guns, I'm disappointed that Scarecrow isn't fighting with his scythe. I hope so. The first time you see him in the clip, it looks like a puff or two of gas come from each of his hands.

I own both sets and would heartily recommend the HP castle over the Crystal Skull Temple. The Temple is a good parts pack with great colors, but I found the build rather boring and it's one of the poorest large playsets LEGO has ever released (IMO). Minifigwise, the 3 main characters can be found in the Jungle Duel set and the Russian guard in both medium sized sets. I love the Ugha warriors, but found the skellies to be rather...eh (YMMV). The Hogwarts castle is also a great parts pack and I also found it to be a fun build. It also has (as you noted) Prof. Umbridge, a new Deatheater, a great new Snape and some cool Mandrake minifig heads. The ever present Harry, Ron and Hermione are here, but that's understandable seeing that it was the only HP set released for OotP. My only objection to the minifigs were the inclusion of Dumbledore and Hagrid. It would have been nice to get Luna Lovegood and Prof. Sprout (to go with the excellent greenhouse) instead. So. If you can find the HP castle for a decent price I would get it now. The Crystal Skull Temple will be around for a while, but the castle will only become more scarce and expensive on the secondary market. Really, Dadster? Where are you seeing them. They've been gone from USA S@H for a while now and I haven't seen any on store shelves in my neck of the woods for a good 6 months.

Looking at the instructions for the Batcycle set, I see that the cover pictures Harley with the reverse printing torso that I posted about a couple of pages back (the artwork inside though shows her with the correct torso). I sure hope that this reversed torso doesn't show up in the actual sets and if they do I hope LEGO is prepared to offer a replacement like they did with the Qui-gon Jinn head mix-up last year. On another note, someone over on FBTB says that they found the Penguin Sub today at a Walmart in Texas. No pics to back up that claim however.

Very nice. It's funny how much it resembles the Batgyro. As a small vehicle, I would rather have this as an official LEGO set than the Batbuggy we are about to get.

While not useless news, it is old news. The instructions were posted a day or two ago in the Batman '08 thread.

Funny vig and cute sheep design. Since it appears to be the guardian of the 'Temple of Shroom', I'm guessing the sheep is male and it's name is Mola...Mola Ram.

The more I see of this movie the better it looks. If I could only see one film this year TDK would be it (sorry Indy). Yep: Potions of an interview with Aaron Eckhart in the LA Times have been posted on Legions of Gotham (Beware of at least one spoiler). It sounds like Two-Face may have a larger role in TDK than previously thought.

Select Indy LEGO sets are now on sale at TRU (both online and in stores) for 20% off. I got a sale flyer in the newspaper today (5/2) for this sale, but I can't find anyplace where it states how long the sale will last (could be a week, could be just the weekend), so I'd get there sooner than later. Sets on sale are: 7621 Lost Tomb: $16.79 7625 River Chase: $16.79 7622 Race for the Stolen Treasure: $24.79 7626 Jungle Cutter: $31.99 7623 Temple Escape: $55.99 Keep in mind that it's 20% off TRUs marked up prices (anywhere from a dollar on the small sets to ten bucks on the Temple Escape). The only Indy LEGO set that TRU hasn't marked up is the Jungle Cutter.

I'd have to agree with the folks who've pointed out that Confederate soldiers don't really fit the WW theme. Now I wouldn't complain if a Civil War theme were released, but then you'd want both Union and Confederate soldiers in it. Perhaps a better choice in this poll would have been between U.S. Cavalry and Texas Rangers. I'd like to see both, but if I had to choose just one it would be the Rangers.

I was browsing the latest set of pics from brickshelf and something kept bothering me about this one: After thinking about it for a while I realized that the printing on the torso is wrong. The red and black sections should be reversed - i.e. on the upper part of Harleys' torso the black should be on her right side and the red on her left; on the lower part the black and red should be reversed also. It's even wrong on the box art: In fact, the only pic in that gallery that has a correct version is this one: I know I've seen other pics with the correct torso (the Harley at NY Toy Fair was ok), so hopefully this incorrectly printed torso was from an older preliminary version and not a recent error. My only other problem with the Harley fig is that her hands are white. The right hand should be red and the left hand should be black, but that's a minor nit that is easily fixed at home.

Hey Batbrick. If by, "suggested Matches Malone", you're referring to the Snake Oiler head idea, you should really credit Brainbox since (although we arrived at the idea independently) he posted about it first. If you're referring to the suit idea I suggested for Matches then I should point out that that torso isn't in the Cruncher Block truck set. It's the Professor Lupin torso found in some of the old HP Prisoner of Azkaban sets. I remember you mentioning earlier that you were planning on using the Cruncher Block head for Ra's. I'm using that head for Harvey Bullock. With some Brasso and a toothpick I removed the half circles under Crunchers' eyes to make him look a little younger. With an Indy fedora (eventually to be painted grey) it makes a pretty good surly looking Bullock. I also just finished making a Ra's al Ghul fig (3 different versions actually) using yet another Speed Racer head. The Cannonball Taylor head from the Grand Prix set has 2 facial lines on either side of the mouth. I Brasso'ed off the top half of the lines so they more resemble Ra's's chin whiskers. Add a vampire head piece (aka Jokers' hair in black) with the temples painted white and it makes a great Ra's. Hm, I really need to get a digital camera so I can post pics of my stuff. Yeah, I'm finding that the Speed Racer minifigs are making great Bat-fodder. Oh, and Happy Birthday.

Well, no. The new Indy product has a street date that they are obligated to uphold. If product is mistakenly put out early, Walmart still has a responsibility to not sell it. They're not lying, they simply don't have a clue. Flagging the product at the register (as a recalled item) is the second line of defense. If the sets get out on the shelves early then they can catch it at the register. All the checkout clerks know is that the computer is telling them the item has been recalled. Most of the employees don't know the merchandise well enough to know the actual reason the item has been flagged in the register. Not unethical, rather inept. We've heard reports of Target and TRU both having the Indy product in store, but not getting out to the shelves like is happening at Walmart. My best guess is that before the sets were shipped out of the Target and TRU distribution centers the boxes were flagged with big "do not sell before xxxx" stickers, whereas Walmart probably shipped the boxes out as is and sent a memo to management about the street date. Depending upon the competence of management at the individual stores then determines whether the sets made it to the shelves and/or got flagged into the store computer.

LOL. Seems Bat-fans think alike. The first thing I did when I opened that Speed Racer set (even before building the set) was to steal the Snake Oiler head and make a Matches Malone fig. Here's how I made mine: - Snake Oiler head - Standard male hairpiece in black - Legs and hip assembly in black - Dark green Professor Lupin torso from the HP theme The only problem with the Prof. Lupin torso is that it has a threadbare look. Malone wears cheap suits, not shabby ones. I eventually plan on removing the printed rips and two large buttons and then it should be close to perfect (perfect would be if it had a black checkerboard pattern on it).

It's a really neat effect. At Brickfest a few years ago (2005 I think), they had a black light room where lots of folks brought MOCs that had lots of trans-neon pieces in them.

Double T wasn't saying there will be several different Death Star sets. He wrote: Perhaps a clearer way to say this is: "Some copies of set #10188 Star Wars Death Star, to be released later this year, will contain a silver R2D2." Most of what Double T wrote is stuff that was already known or easily confirmed. The only 'bombshells' here are the silver R2D2 and his resignation from Eurobricks. Considering they were posted on April 1st, I'll take these with a grain of salt. If he had posted them by themselves everyone would call April Fools. But, post them with a bunch items that we know are true and the false ones seem more believable. Happy April Fools everyone!

Well, I'm not a Virginian, but as your southern neighbor (NC) I can tell you that my local TRU has all four sets in stock. They weren't located in the LEGO aisle though - they were at the front of the store in a big display of Speed Racer mechandise. Ken

The medical examiner has determined that Heath Ledger died of an accidental overdose of prescription drugs: May he rest in peace.

Things like click hinges and color changes are mainly AFoL concerns. They're mostly below the radar for members of TLGs target audience. With that in mind, I think one of the stupidest decisions TLG ever made was Galidor. IIRC, TLG bought not only the license to make Galidor construction sets, but full licensing rights - meaning anyone who wanted to produce a Galidor product had to go to TLG for the license to do so. TLG was hoping that Galidor would be the next Power Rangers and potential licensees would be lining up to buy the rights to make Galidor products, but their gamble backfired. The TV show tanked, the Lego line tanked, the licensees never appeared and TLG got burned.