mostlytechnic

Thanks for a great game! Now you youngsters better finish my work of hunting down Octan!

Yep, my family all thinks they should have made a bigger set, added figs, and just been printing money. This feels massively rushed into production. Which is weird, the other princess sets that just came out look worlds better.

Sure, new colors are good. But cramming a bunch of oddball ones into a single set where they don't even make sense just seems financially unwise for Lego. I'd rather have seen a larger set than light aqua spiral staircase parts. Or lavender tiny fences. Lego made the stairs in dark purple last year for Rapunzel's Tower, and those probably would have been ok here. Or make them in a more useful color like WHITE.

Lego 41062 Elsa's Sparkling Ice Castle Lego managed to get a Frozen licensed set in the new wave of Disney Princess sets. However, I'm VERY surprised by the size. It's a $40 set and comes in a small Friends-style box (roughly 12"x12" size) - I almost didn't see it on the shelf when I was looking for it because it's so small. I mean, I know it's only $40 but it's a friggin' CASTLE. And why did Lego only make this a smaller set? If they'd made a $200 Frozen castle they still would have sold every one they could produce. They made big Harry Potter Hogwarts sets and those sure sold. And have you SEEN the toys in the Frozen section of stores? HUGE playsets for Barbie-sized dolls. But I suppose I'm getting the cart before the horse here, reviewing before I've even opened the box. So..... Name: Elsa's Sparkling Ice Castle Set Number: 41062 Pieces: 292 Price: $39.99 Minifigs: 3 Theme: Disney Princess Year of Release: 2015 Links: Bricklink Peeron Brickset The Box The front of the box is standard Lego fare, other than the large Anna and Elsa in the bottom right corner. Oh, and surprisingly, nowhere on the box is the normal minifig lineup. The only way to know what characters are included is to look at the set pictures. The 1:1 This set uses one of the minidolls as the actual size sample. That's probably not a bad choice since the minidolls are not nearly as well known as a minifig. The Back On the back, the play features are shown in insets around a rear view of the castle. Like Friends sets, you also have an array of play accessories. The Seals Is this standard on 2015 sets or is this specific to this set? I've never seen 3 tape seals on a set. Even huge modulars or Technic sets only have 2, so 3 on a set this small seems excessive. Perhaps Lego expects people to try to steal the dolls? If so, why bother with extra tape? A tiny pocketknife makes quick work of the tape so the third strip doesn't even slow you down. The Contents In the box are 2 instruction booklets (bent), a white plate, a sticker sheet, and 3 numbered bags of parts. The Stickers These are very hard to photograph since they're shiny. I mean polished chrome shiny. Those dark lines across the corners are not really there, they're reflections of my ceiling. The Manual Backs The back of one booklet has a Friends "Win!" girl. The other has an ad for the Lego Disney Princess website. That site is SO girly there's even sparkles following your mouse cursor around. So I didn't stay too long or look too deeply. The Sample Page The interior pages of the manuals are on lavender backgrounds. It's standard Lego instructions with part callouts and insets when needed. The Build, 1 The first thing you build is Anna, but I'm not showing that yet. Then you build this little picnic scene. It's tiny but effective, and nice to have something not icy in the set since the movie has the "In Summer" song for Olaf. I'm curious what's in that sandwich though - green and pink? After the picnic is the Olaf build, but I'll save him for later too. The Build, 2 Next is this small sleigh. It has an amazing amount of style for something so small. The curved front and decorative whips on the back make it look sleigh-like instead of blocky. But come on, it already had pink accents, are the pink flowers really necessary? Technically, yes, so the whips can mount to them, but still, it's just over-girly for my taste. The Build, 3 The sleigh needs a ramp to help it rocket along (for a couple inches, at least). The ramp starts like this, with a hidden lime green jumper plate that gets a cookie on it. I couldn't remember anything in the movie like that, so I asked my wife and she couldn't either. A hidden cookie under a hill? The Build, 4 After putting the tilting 2x8 onto the base and adding decorations, this is the result. A lime green bucket holding a pair of ice skates, a flower (in the snow, really?), green and white round studs that I assume are supposed to be grass and snow? The Build, 5 The sleigh looks huge sitting on top of the tiny hill, but it actually works pretty well. Assuming you're on a smooth surface like a table, you can give the sleigh a little nudge and it'll shoot down the ramp and a few inches across the table. The unevenness of the slopes vs the blue tiles holds the sleigh in line well, and the bumps in the slopes don't seem to hamper anything. The Build, 6 Moving on to bag 2.... man that's a lot of colors in this base already. And I'm already starting to feel like there's trans-blue cheese thrown around randomly. The Build, 7 Continuing (and rotating), some steps and even more colors thrown in. Magenta? In Elsa's ice palace? I sure don't remember any of that... The Build, 8 Wait, seriously? An ice cream stand in the castle? That is what the magenta is for? I kinda actually like the looks of it, but it doesn't fit the set. The Build, 9 Spinning back around, now there's a light aqua spiral staircase added along with a roof. This is where I'm really starting to wonder about Lego's thinking. Those light aqua stairs, and the light aqua 1x4 tiles, are exclusive to this set (as far as I know... it's possible some other 2015 sets use them, but nothing in Bricklink yet). Seems expensive (to produce) to me, when there's no huge reason to need them. Another blue for the tiles would have been fine. And the spiral stairs? Really? Elsa's castle is KNOWN for staircases, but NOT spiral ones! There should be a huge straight ice stairway out front or sweeping curved stairs inside, but not a spiral. The Build, 10 And now we finish the tree. Again, why? Where is there a tree next to Elsa's castle? And so weird... with ice hanging from green branches that have both snow and flowers on them. Huh? Did Lego watch a different movie? The Trans-Light Blue Bits Before looking at the upper level, a brief pause to look at some other parts. Here's the 1x2x5 brick in trans-light blue and the 2x4x6 rock panel in glitter trans-light blue. Do those look like the same blue to you? And again, ANOTHER unique part for this set. Why do those rock panels need to be glitter, when Lego made the same panel in trans light blue in 2013 and 2014 for SuperHeroes, Friends, and Chima sets? Apparently Disney REALLY wanted glitter, because there are a bunch of trans-glitter parts in the new Princess sets. There's trans-neon green cones for Jasmine; Ariel, Jasmine, and Sleeping Beauty all get glitter trans purple cones. So there's a bunch of new glitter parts for 2015. The Build, 11 Back to building - time to add the upper level. We get a bedroom with a decent bed, although stickered. The Build, 12 The other side of the bedroom has some little accessories. Perfume and a crown I assume? The Build, 13 Time for walls and a roof. I like the small white macaroni bricks for a wall, but what's with the lavender fence piece in the center? I'll grant that it looks nice (a common white fence would have been a little boring), but it's ANOTHER unique piece to this set. The Build, 14 The very top of the castle is built separately. Not a whole lot to say here other than why is there a torch in an ICE CASTLE? The Finished Castle Once the roof is put on, the castle is done. And that big purple star on top says everything to me about the styling. It just doesn't look like modern Lego to me; it looks like this should be an old Belville fairy tale set from around 1999. If I saw a photo of just the castle with no figs (or picnic blanket), I'd assume that's what it was. The Oops, Not Actually Done Yet Accessories At the end, there's a few bits left to add. There are these dark purple skis (yup, another unique part) in the lower level. Let me tell you, they're a pain to get into that location, at least with my big man hands. More Accessories The top level gets a stickered book. The sticker has a nice castle image on it that is, while not quite exactly the castle from Disney World, VERY Disney-looking. I actually had to google and see if that's the castle they use in their logo. Nope, but it's the same style. The Leftovers There are a LOT of extra parts in this. That's almost 10% of the part count in the set right there! They are pretty useful overall though. It's great to have an extra "carrot" and brown "branch" for Olaf, since you know those will get lost as he's played with. The Figs Finally, the reason for the set. Let's face it, the castle set is just an excuse to make these figures. And they're GREAT. I mean just fantastic. The print on them is just such a good match to the real characters. Compare to the cartoon version from the front of the box. Elsa's hair is a little darker than the cartoon, but overall these are just dead on. If I had to pick out a flaw, it's the "spell" Elsa is holding. It's too bad she can only shoot it forward with her arm down like that. It'd be nice to have the end of the splash part bent 90 degrees so she can have her arm forward and the spell shooting forward too. Oh, one other thing. The minidoll heads don't press down tight to the body like minifig heads do. There's still exposed neck. It looks nice, but it means Elsa's cape can swing around. The Fig Backs Elsa's cape is glittery on the back and you can see the removable bow in her hair. The Full Set One final issue. When you put Anna on the sleigh, her cape doesn't have enough flexibility (since it's a wraparound kind) and so it folds out funny. That's why on the back of the box it shows her standing on the back of the sleigh with Elsa in the seat. Edit: How on earth did I forget to comment on those orange flowers to each side of the castle? I'm pretty sure Elsa did NOT have any flowers blooming outside her castle! The Conclusion Hm. I really wanted to like this set, but I just can't quite bring myself to. It feels like Lego pulled a random castle design from the files then redid it into white and trans blue to look icy and allow a Frozen tie in set. The figs are great, but the castle isn't. I guess the real castle in the movie would be a boring set and this one has play features, but it just is too different for my taste. The Ratings Value: 7/10 - $40 for less than 300 parts is high (especially when so many of the parts are tiny, but on the other hand there's a LOT of rock panels and 1x2x5 trans blue panels), but the figs help save it. Design: 4/10 - Not one of Lego's best. Not as bad as the lows in the 90s, but not a great set. Minifigs: 10/10 - Possibly even a 12/10. They ARE the reason to buy the set . Playability: 8/10 - There are a bunch of play features, but they actually detract from the design, so I had to knock off a couple points. Parts: 7/10 - A bunch of impractical unique parts (how often do you need dark purple skis or a lavender fence piece?) but also a bunch of nice parts if you wanted to make your own icy scene. Overall: 7/10 - A great bunch of figs, but I'd recommend not bothering with the manuals. Just use the parts to build your own castle that's better.

Hey, at least you're honest :)

Yep, why start doubting the cop now? Vote: Scaevola (Sinclair Viola)

But I have to say you're probably right to do so.

I'll concur with everything Splat said. I can't wait for a GOOD android software to get going for it because right now it barely works. The only apple devices in my house are an ipad 2 and a itouch 4gen, neither of which supports BLE so neither works with the SBrick, so I'm stuck with the lousy android software for now. Bummer since I bought the train pack (8 sbricks!) to rig up my train layout.

I covered that in my first post - if the vig is blocked, then we deal with you tomorrow. Maybe you can come up with a better target by then or maybe you will get lynched tomorrow and we'll know for sure. It's easy to claim anything you want right now trying to save yourself. I mean, at least you're making more effort than Stanley did, not making fake vig claims and other nonsense, but that doesn't mean you're legit either. Might just be a better scummo! But there's a real chance the scum know who the vig is, so that leaves a big risk of them blocking the vig again and the known scum surviving. And whatever ability said scum has surviving - either killer, or blocker, or whatever. I say you should reveal the scum once voting starts and we'll take him out since it's a known baddie.

Sounds then like we oughta lynch whoever the speaker announces as the investigated scummo and have the vig get a photo of Pierce then? And if Pierce survives that means that the scum have figured out who the vig is and blocked them, or protected Pierce, and either way we go after him next?

Woo Hoo! (or whatever crazy thing you youngsters say these days). One octan caught and a second one is known? AND no more night photos? That's how it's done. As for vig/SK, you're probably right Mr Speaker, but that can wait if we know other Octan to get rid of. As for who got caught? Well, the scum not getting anyone could be because they were blocked OR because the target was protected. I assume you were protected last night, right Mr. Speaker? So it's possible they were dumb enough to not believe you and wasted their attack that way. That's pretty much the only way Pierce ISN'T Octan at this point, since he was blocked last night. There's basically nothing to learn from yesterday's final vote tally since everyone fell into line and the order of votes would just be when they were around to place it at the end. Day 1 Stanley voted a poke at Jacob (later to turn up town) before voting Carol (another loyalist). Day 2 he was suspicious of Gerald and Jacob, voted for Bjorn as a poke, then switched to Gerald. Day 3 he poke-voted both Archie and Bobby before flailing at the speaker. Personally, I'd guess that everyone he poked at was loyal and he was trying to start things and see if anyone would jump on a wagon with him.

Just updated, removed a bunch of stuff and added new (sbricks!!!)

Well, there's still time left but we do have the necessary votes now. One extra in fact if my counting is correct, assuming the speaker uses his extra vote. Anyone else wanna screw up and lie in public so the real vig can know who to take out tonight?

Sweet, good to see some actual news come out! Vote: Stanley Figurelli (stickfig) I'll certainly go with the info that's been shared.

Speaking of talkative vs quiet... where the heck are Tiny Peter and Pierce? Each has only spoken once all day. TP hasn't been around the building since then, but Pierce has. So why so quiet? They're both on my list of potential votes for sure.

I believe he was referring to the discussion about why there was only one photograph last night - is the vig gone, or the scum get blocked, or the target of either vig or scum protected?

Care to explain why on earth a supposed loyal blocker would have claimed to you? I sure can't see it

Alrighty, at first glance that seems legit, so let me think on it (out loud, cause it's more fun that way). 18 players. So I'd think 14 town, 4 scum? or 3 scum and a lone 3rd party? Probably too small for a larger third party like a cult or something. So, solo 3rd party roles. Serial killer? Haven't seen any sign of suck. Survivor? Could be, but certainly not a role our Speaker would have. And doesn't really seem to fit in this scenario. Lyncher? Haven't seen much sign of someone really pushing for a certain person to get lynched. My thoughts then? I doubt there's really a 3rd party.

To give credit where due - I do appreciate the honesty of our speaker in that he didn't claim he'd been proven loyal, he said he'd been investigated and found NOT-OCTAN. So there is still an opening there for him to be a 3rd party, but I do believe his claim to be not octan at least.

Yep, absolutely worth sacrificing any townie to get a scum. 100% agree. I'd sacrifice myself if I could take a scum down with me. And fine, I'm paranoid. I will concede that IF you were scum, you're in too good of a place to risk yourself. The odds would be long in my hypothetical scenario, which I WHY I said I basically believed you. Good. I'm definitely ok with that one. Got anything more? Just "vibes" now earns a vote from you? Now that you two are all good with each other.... back to the game :) Fine. You poke, I'll reply. Yep, grumpy old man here. Look at my grey hair. Duh. And dealing with all these Octan scum, of course I'm grumpy. But seriously, what more substance has anyone done? We've got no real facts going on and we're 0 for 2 on lynches and 0 for 1 or 2 on vig kills. So what more could I be doing? I'm throwing out ideas to see how people react at least. Most of the people here have just been having arguments with each other over nothing.

Hm. To a large extent I believe you.... but it's still at this point unconfirmed info that doesn't PROVE anything yet. So I'll just throw out there a couple warnings to the town. 1. The investigation said non-octan, not "is loyal" - and there's still the possibility of a 3rd party. 2. This would be a VERY gutsy play, but one I'd be tempted to to myself if I were scum. There's 5 town gone. That makes for some ok odds that the investigator is gone (and this early in the game, is unlikely to have confided in anyone). So why not have one person who's already suspect claim to be cleared. If there is still a real investigator, they'll HAVE to out themselves to dispute the claim, at the cost of one scum getting lynched. And if the scum are lucky and the investigator is gone, then they'll know that and can then have some other scum pretend to be the investigator and wreak all sorts of havoc on the town. Do I think either of those is true? No. But am I willing yet to 100% trust anyone here? Nope to that as well. Yep, I'm paranoid because I've gotten taken before and it sucks. For the record, THIS I do believe. IF you're scum I don't think you would have gone after him for those reasons. Ditto if you're the vig. However, that doesn't mean that IF you're scum the rest of the scum didn't decide to off him for some other reason. Personally, I suspect that he was the vig target for being so quiet. I suspect the scum photo was prevented for some reason - blocked the scum photographer or protection on the target. I don't really see the scum as having gone after him over one of the more influential representatives here. And I don't see high odds of there having been protection on him since he was not a likely target, so my best guess about last night is the scum killer was blocked. It's just a guess, but it's the most logical situation to me. (and when I said above that I believed his statement, I meant that INCLUDING the sarcasm tag!)

Something else that hasn't been mentioned anywhere yet... I'm now assuming (and yes, I know what ASSUMING does) that there's no serial killer photographer in this group. There is the explicit option of third parties in our instructions, but I have yet to see any sign of them.

Hm. Only one extra photo overnight. So were the scum blocked, or did our vig choose to not go out or get blocked in some way? I want to say that the scum took down Rep Laughlin, but then again, why would they? He was the most silent player so far and I was planning to hammer him on that today. I'd think he was the last target they'd have gone after. So maybe the scum killer was blocked (or their target protected) and the vig took out Laughlin since his quiet was pretty scummy? Also, from yesterday... what about Rep Spaulding at the end of the day? Unvotes and then waits a bit and then votes with bad form so it doesn't count right before the closing hammer. I want to call that scummy, but it was a completely meaningless vote since the lynch was already sealed. But in his comments, he was more worried about HIS appearance than finding scum. Worried about bandwagoning, etc. Might not be proof of Octan, but certainly doesn't appear loyal.

Point of order, technically, JackJonespaw abstained from voting on day 2 as well but is not listed as doing so in the final tally.

<--- Yup, paranoid guy over here. I've seen staged fights, staged multi-party PM conversations, staged anything. And again, I didn't say you ARE rescuing him, I said you COULD BE and IF it turns out that Hatley is scum and Jacob is loyal, then I'd be VERY HARD looking at you. Naw, you probably won't get lynched tomorrow. Heck, look who yesterday's #2 was - not you or Jacob! It's not till the late game that #2 vote-getter turns into the next day's lynch.