Lord Insanity

The whole "built using parts of wrecked ships" aesthetic of a pirate shanty town is exactly what I voted for. Turning that into a single shipwreck makes the entire layout nonsensical. How did they get the parts into those positions if they are a single shipwreck? If it is a pirate port town built up over many years, then taking parts from ships that are no longer seaworthy and repurposing them into buildings makes sense. Don't misunderstand, I still think the final Barracuda Bay set is one of the best pirate sets Lego has made. However for totally different reasons then why I voted for Pirate Bay. With Pirate Bay it was all about the makeshift town that evolved over time. With Barracuda Bay it is all about the single pirate ship that happens to leave an island foundation for the thing we voted for in the first place. The Blacksmith Shop suffers none of that. Both the original and final are highly detailed blacksmith shops. I think you nailed it in the Historic Themes thread. The original submission was "gothic horror" fantasy styled and the final product is "fairy tale" fantasy styled. That change doesn't bother me as I can use the building in the same way as I had originally intended.

That is phenomenal. It strikes that perfect balance between highly detailed yet still playable. I really wish Lego would do more industrial builds. I remember being 10 years old, this would have been my dream town and train set.

I am sorry but that is just absurd. Lego routinely makes single use new molds every year. We can't get a highly versatile farm animal that would be usable in many sets across multiple themes? Utter nonsense. As for the color of the roof, it goes from black to dark blue to regular blue to sand green. I love the weathered and lichen covered look compared to the original mostly dark blue roof. This set wound up being everything I was hoping it would be. It is certainly far more faithful than the Pirate Bay wound up being. (Granted that is still an awesome set but for the ship not the actual pirate port town it should have been.)

I think the Pirate Bay was massively more different from its original submission than the Blacksmith Shop. With the Pirate Bay, I voted for the pirate trading port town that the original submission was. Instead we got a lame shipwreck that just happens to have the same basic shape for some inexplicable reason. The main reason to buy Barracuda Bay is for the awesome ship alternate build. Even that is still a hair below the original Barracuda thanks to single sided sails and insufficient cannons to fill the gun deck. The Blacksmith Shop on the other hand is still a really good blacksmith shop. I actually think the roof is superior to the original submission. The black, to dark blue, to regular blue, to sand green makes for an awesome weathered look that the original roof lacks. Using the pentagonal tiles instead of rehashing the roof from the Old Fishing store is also quite nice looking. It's not even down sized nearly as much as peoples reactions would seem to indicate. The chimney is still 4x4. The main roof peak is 24 studs long. The whole set will overhang the typical 32x32 modular footprint. The Blacksmith Shop is everything I wanted. It is something that can be easily used in a medieval, pirate, or modern setting. It is a better parts pack for building the pirate trading port town I wanted from Pirate Bay than the actual pirate set is!

Unfortunately it looks like it is already being listed for double price. At $100 I would have bought a second one after Christmas. At $200 I don't recommend it at all. It is a great set at regular price but its not worth double price.

That is a wonderful build. Thank you so much for sharing the instructions. That will go very well with the modulars.

He was making a joke. Asbestos, lead, and used engine oil are some of the most common "contaminates" in fiction. Those old smoke pellets were actually made of meta-terphenyl, a waxy solid that was used mainly as a coolant or insulator in electrical transformers. It is not something you want to breath a lot of on a regular basis but once in a while in small quantities wasn't a big deal. The modern water vaporizers are a massive improvement on the whole concept as it doesn't leave residue, doesn't act as an irritant, and only costs water to refill. I must admit to being curious about how well a Lego compatible smoke unit performs.

Oh that would have been awesome. I am lucky enough to have 2 of those original trans red shields. I wisely took very good care of them as a kid and they are still in excellent condition today. I would have loved getting that newer shield in trans red. Slightly off topic but I thought everyone else would find it amusing. I asked my 12 year old daughter whether or not the Futuron figs have a zipper or not. She looked at me like I was nuts and said: "Duh, of course they do!" Then she proceeded to have Sweet Mayhem commandeer my Stardefender 200 and fly it around. Kids are great.

The Chemical Plant is on the list of potential candidates. Considering that is by far and away my most wanted Ideas submission that reached 10k votes I really hope that one makes it. I have wanted any kind of industrial building since I was 10 years old. Town / City is so devoid of non-retail jobs. Ironically I think the Chemical Plant submission makes a really good space base parts pack too. My only concern is if this follows similar rules to the previous AFOL bricklink program, one is limited to ordering only 3 copies. (As opposed to the 4 to 6 depending on price I would like to get.) I mean the whole point of pre-ordering and/or crowd sourcing something is so you know how many to make. I don't understand the point of a limit on something you have to commit to buy anyway. I will certainly be happy if I could get even 1 though. The Great Fishing boat is also high up on my wanted list. A harbor just isn't complete without at least one commercial fishing boat. Yes I bought 2 copies of the Hidden Side Shrimp Boat. It's good but its not the same as that beauty.

They haven't actually made a similar quality coach car to the one in the Emerald Night set since the windows haven't been in production. So we haven't seen what, if anything, Lego actually plans to do now have we. I personally haven't ever really seen bootlegs of current sets. I wouldn't by bootleg sets regardless. I was merely illustrating how absurd it is that one can buy the bootleg of an entire set for less than just the original windows from said set. Now as for the windows specifically, the patent has long since run out on those parts (frame and "glass".) It is not possible to "counterfeit" something that is now in public domain. I have no problem buying those from other manufacturers if Lego isn't making them. That is actually quite nice looking. The only downside I see if Lego were to make a similar coach is the reliance on prints (or worse stickers) for the windows. It does look good though.

I mean Lego stopped making train windows. How the heck is that supposed to not be a major problem for train builders. If Lego isn't making the parts for which patents have run out, I have no problem buying third party parts that are effectively identical except for the stud logo. When an entire bootleg set of the Emerald Night is cheaper than bricklinking just the tan train windows Lego has completely and utterly failed. I do not understand how Lego could possibly think it is a good idea to waste resources playing legal whack-a-mole with bootleggers, rather than simply producing the "rare" parts and removing the monetary benefits of bootlegging in the first place. My hope is someday we get a creator expert quality train station that comes with a coach equivalent to and/or compatible with the quality of the one that came with the Emerald Night. Ideally they would just sell the coach but you know based on the sales of far poorer designs, this one wouldn't sell.

Oh gross. That space police torso print is such a let down. I have never viewed the gold stripe on Futuron / Space Police 1 torsos to be zippers. In fact until I just looked at mine today I never even realized they have a small gold blob in the corner that was apparently intended to be a zipper. Seriously, I have never noticed that in over 30 years of playing with Futuron figs. I always thought it was just gold braid trim like you see on various formal dress uniforms. At least the "police" on the back can be covered up by air tanks. Simply removing the "police" wording off the back and actual zipper handle of the front would make that torso ten times more useful to me. I guess I will never see my ideal Futuron torso update because the zipper is considered part of it. Bummer. At least we got that awesome torso print with the classic logo from the creator sets. I really like the alien miner's torso though. Much like the creator space torso, it strikes the perfect balance between highly detailed yet generic enough to use multiples of in many different situations and scenarios.

Lego Mythica is an upcoming themed expansion area to Legoland amusement parks. Whether there will be an actual theme of Lego sets is a complete unknown at this point.

Bummer, looks like most of the Hidden Side sets are sold out on Lego.com. I was hoping to pick up a second Mystery Castle after Christmas. Oh well, at least I got one. It's a shame the crappy box art and focus on the stupid app caused this awesome theme to be so *ahem* hidden. Most of the sets had awesome builds and a level of design many other themes only wished they had. Of course by and large that was "hidden" by the stupid app box art. Even if you were already looking for a specific set they just kind of blended together on the shelf and were hard to tell apart and find.

That teal dragon is fantastic looking, except for the wings. Seriously, simply removing the wings entirely would be an improvement. Or better yet reuse Wu's Battle Dragon's wings. Am I the only one that sees the dragon medallion and thinks "Mortal Kombat"? I can definitely think of a few uses for that part. I really hope those catamaran sails aren't only printed on one side. That always looks terrible on sideways triangular sails. It would be better to just use the clear vinyl like Wu's Dragon's wings. At least it would mostly look good from both sides that way. The evil islander faction is nothing short of amazing looking. I love everyone of those figures. The light purple skin and the teal and gold outfit highlights work exceptionally well. I can see many future fantasy custom figs using those parts. As with most Ninjago sets the ninja themselves are the most boring part of the sets.

Whoa! I really like that car transporter. Unlike the 2014 one with that weird half truck half trailer set-up this new one looks like a proper cab and trailer set-up. The function of the ramp is clearly far superior to the previous one too. The trailer is a bit blocky but that is a fair trade off for the strength and function it contains at this scale. I also like the color scheme a lot better. The old one looked too much like it should have been a construction truck. As for the shops, well pretzel shop for the win. Has Lego ever made a pretzel shop in town or city? It is suitably different to the doughnut shops or bakeries we have gotten before. The sporting goods store is a nice addition we don't see too often either. I am surprised by the bucket truck. Usually they make those in construction truck colors but most utilities (electric and phone line) trucks I have seen use white as their primary color. Normally I see that as a "worthless" inclusion (to me personally but I understand why kids love getting them) but here I think it is one of the highlights. It really is impressive how a simple color change can make certain vehicles much more interesting. Based solely on non-emergency services, this really is shaping up to be one of the best city/town waves in years.

Yeah getting that visor in trans red would have been nice. I would have preferred that to the badge on the helmet. Now if they had put the classic space logo on the helmet I would have preferred that. I do find it interesting that Jang (of Jangbricks) thinks the Space Police guy is the worst fig of the series because he is relatively plain. That is the exact reason I like the fig. He is detailed but still simple enough to mix with the original Space Police sets and figures without looking too weird. Unlike the Blacktron bounty hunter where the early leak picture missing the metallic printing looked better than the final fig with said metallic printing. Sometimes less is more. That would have looked much better that the odd badge even if it was still just black on white. It would have been really cool to get a black shield with the proper red and silver logo. That could have been a really useful building element for Space Police MOCs.

I second this. That green fake Futuron guy was such a disappointment. I have never viewed the gold line on the classic Futuron torso as a zipper, sometimes less is more. The original Space Police division of Futuron is my favorite version of Space Police too. By having the logo on the armor and the torso print we can use them separately to create 2 figs. I would have preferred the helmet to have the space logo rather than a badge. However the badge design they chose is suitably generic enough that it could just be a regiment logo. Definitely my favorite of the series. (Which is surprising in a series that also has a centaur which easily would have been my number one in the last few series'.) I really like the alien guy too. I love that they made the jumpsuit detailed yet generic enough we can use it as either a mining suit or a prison suit. Massive thanks to the designers for that choice. I also greatly appreciate the gender neutral torso print on the centaur. Am I the only one thinking adding the "Vegas Showgirl" headdress would make an awesome centaur high priestess. I need that beekeeper for my farm too. Brilliant use of recolored parts for the smoker. As boring as it is to get another surfer, I do really like that version. My beach can always use another unique fig. I still think the concept of figure series is awesome and so far I still want at least one of each. I realize that having a little bit of (almost) every theme isn't that common for most anymore though.

Well I am impressed. I think this will likely become my second favorite straight (non-corner) modular after Detective's Office. I love the illusion buildings in both DO and the new Police Station. They just make the buildings come to life and feel like there is an actual city there. Of course the Downtown Metro is still to this day my favorite MOC modular for that very reason.

That is nothing short of amazing. A lot of medieval fantasy builds are so ridiculously over detailed that they look fragile and completely useless for playing with. This strikes that perfect balance between being highly detailed and something you can actually play with. I particularly like how the rocks are not just the standard boring slope piece spam but actually built up rock formations. I never cared for the "modern day Emily Jones" story but I loved the Elves sets as medieval fantasy parts packs. (Fairy elves being non-human and one of the few times mini-dolls mixing with mini-figs makes sense.) I think you managed to make the default story come to life in a way I didn't think was possible.

Actually unlike the Batmobile this version of Ecto-1 does in fact look to be roughly in scale with the other Creator Expert vehicles. A 1959 Cadillac Ambulance is just a very large car in the first place. For me the Batmobile was an automatic skip because it wasn't to scale to the other cars. Ecto-1 being close (and possibly spot on) is a massive win.

Is there any evidence that trailer is for anything other than a new Legoland theme park attraction? I mean if that is also teasing a play theme of sets I think the whole "parallel universe" is a massive red flag. That could wind up being nothing more than a Nexo Knights 2.0 theme. (where the parts are more useful for building spaceships than actual castles) Of course if it went with more of an Elves theme inspiration crossed with the current Ninjago: Master of the Mountain it could be an epic win that puts fantasy era Castle to shame. Of course this is making a massive assumption that the trailer is for anything besides a theme park attraction. So we are back to that first question.

That is my whole point. Power-pickups that plug into Lego's current "battery powered" motor (and run the motor without batteries) are the bare minimum to get new customers. If you are just starting out with Lego trains and the option is available, you might go for the more expensive "plug it in to the wall" option. In the long run they want the whole system, track and motors available. My concern is by not having any way for people without existing 9v motors to take advantage of the track by itself, it won't sell well enough to get that far.

Wow, I am amazed at how awesome that small of a build managed to turn out. My personal preference would have been to make the solid color different from the transparent color. The orange for both works better than most other colors for both would have though. If the solid orange was a little more sparse it would give off a neo-blacktron vibe.

I am well aware that many town builders use road plates with modulars. Most use the "extra wide sidewalk" approach of tiling the road plate. I also think that looks terrible. Obviously many like that approach but I would only use them with rebuilding directly on the road plate so the curb lines up right to the road like it should. But then you need to deal with the offset on the corner of the intersection with custom width buildings. It is easier to just custom build the roads and make the buildings however wide you want them. (I am assuming heavy MODing and MOCing going on if one is building a town anyway.) I hope they keep the road plates for sale for those that want them but I am definitely looking forward to the new system with no "dead space" to worry about. I think in the long run it will prove to be far more versatile.