Lord Insanity

Well I think the Downtown Diner might be replacing the PR as my second favorite straight modular after the DO. I think some people are misunderstanding the whole "main street USA" idea. "Main street USA" is by definition a set of buildings from any architectural time, place, and/or style. That whole "great American melting pot" concept is how hundreds of small towns through out the USA are. Even Ninjago City and the Old Fishing Store fit in to "main street USA" in the larger towns and cities. So far even my least favorite modular the GG (the scale is just so "wrong", see the other half of Pet Shop for the same style building in scale to most modulars.) still looks good with careful placement. Overall I consider this another awesome addition to my Lego Town.

The red and green "Christmas" ship? The one that introduced the annoying trend of putting the jolly roger on the sails. (When I was 11 I would actually "sneak" the Barracuda up to Eldorado Fortress under a false flag and "raise" the jolly roger for a surprise attack.) The one that also started the trend of not giving a ship its full complement of cannons? (The Barracuda and the Sea Cow are the only two ships Lego has ever made with a full complement of cannons, seriously what the heck?) Don't get me wrong I think the SES is a really close second by a mile. But in addition to the above I still remember my main gripe with it when I first saw the pictures as a kid. "Why does it have the same captain as the Barracuda? That is stupid." Remember these ships were on the shelves at the same time for a year or two. The Brick Bounty from (2015) was the first and only ship I ever bought with jolly roger sails. And that was on clearance with the intention of making my own plain sails and converting it to a merchant ship. The Ideas Mayflower submission would have been great for building merchant ships to actually engage in piracy against.

Well I guess I was lucky a week ago when I got a set of hull parts for about half what any current sellers has a full set for. I agree that the Silent Mary set is very accurate to what is shown in the trailer. The designer did an amazing job as far as that goes. (I think what is shown in the trailer is really dumb looking and could think of several ways to make a far superior "ghost ship".) But how is it trying something new when we have never gotten a highly detailed d2c regular pirate ship in the first place? I just think it is completely absurd that Lego has yet to make a regular pirate ship that is superior to the original Barracuda from 1989.

When I saw the trailer for the new Pirates of the Carribean movie I thought that ghost ship thing was really stupid looking. Sure enough that is what they decided to make as a set. The set designer did an amazing job of recreating that thing in the trailer to be sure. However... no hull and no cannons, (those technic cylinders with the slots in them don't count) well I guess half a ship is better than none. It just kills me to realize that we now know the reason that One-Eyed Willie's ship (from Goonies), the Mayflower, and the Flying Dutchman (which all got 10,000 votes on Lego Ideas) were rejected. I would have preferred any one of those three to the Silent Mary half wreck. I find it rather telling that all of a sudden hull pieces in brown, dark brown, and black have become scarce and expensive on bricklink. I'm glad I got a set of hull parts before that happened. For those that think I am clamoring for "more of the same" consider this. We got a highly detailed direct to consumer soldier ship. We also got a highly detailed d2c steam punk pirate ship. Now we are getting a highly detailed d2c ghost pirate wreck. We have never gotten a highly detailed d2c regular pirate ship. So how could I want "more of the same" when we have never gotten one in the first place?

Generally speaking quoting someone out of context is considered intellectually dishonest. Thank you for illustrating the difficulty people have understanding cultural values diametrically opposed to the ones they were raised with though.

I think there is an important cultural gap that most people seem to be missing here. In most countries based on "Western Values" copyright and patent laws tie into an underlying cultural value. If someone creates a new idea or invention they "own" it. If you share a picture online or make a product as a company and someone else copies that, it is similar to stealing and highly offensive. In Chinese culture if someone shares a picture online or makes a product as a company it is considered flattery and good business if it gets copied or improved upon. The notion that someone "owns" an idea is completely crazy. Needless to say these two cultural attitudes are diametrically opposed. If you grew up with one the other would seem completely alien and baffling. On a personal level, I have no problem with coping retired sets that command crazy aftermarket prices. I think it is silly Lego doesn't do that themselves. Of course when they started to recently (Winter Toy Shop, Death Star) there was a lot of negative flak. Go figure. The Ideas sets that were not (or will likely not be) released being copied is another gray area. It is a bummer if the original designer doesn't like it and wasn't compensated but they did give up the rights when they posted it to Lego Ideas. (Seriously read the terms and conditions.) A few hundred AFOLs picking up sets like this is nothing compared to the thousands if not millions they will sell in China itself.

Am I the only one that thinks Elves is one of the few themes minidolls don't matter? Don't get me wrong, I would prefer minifigs. However Elves being another race of creatures gives them an actual reason to be different when mixing with traditional Castle. (Unlike friends mixing with Town/City.) In my "castleverse" the Elves are an elder race of Fae-Elves. The flesh colored minifigs from Middle Earth sets are the immortal half-breed elves. (Yes all flesh figures are "non-humans".) The yellow CMF elves are the mortal half-breeds. As for Nexo Knights... Well the good guys do make awesome space marines by simply giving them old school space/town visors. (And are everything Galaxy Squad should have been.) The bad guys on the other hand I think are awesome. Best faction since Kingdoms. They also have the best battle pack since Fantasy Era. No heroes, main characters, or useless knights with no horse. Just four bad guy soldiers/peons with some nice mix and match ability. If the pack came with 2 generic shields it would have been perfect. (Radar dishes and pneumatic Ts are cheap though.) As for the original thread question it should be obvious by now that for better or worse Nexo Kinghts is the Castle theme right now as far as Lego is concerned. But hey at least the Disney Castle is finally giving us the Medieval Market Village quality castle we have all been wanting. It just doesn't come with any actual castle minifigs. (In my case I can do the same thing I would have done with a UCS Minas Tirith if we had gotten one. Convert it to a Crown Knight citadel.)

Picked up the Slimer fun pack. Slimer and all the trans parts are old school (classic space) trans green. Very weird. I don't have a system that will run the game yet so I can't comment on gameplay.

Well for what its worth I added my support to the Ideas site. I think this is one of the best steam engines ever done in Lego form so I hope gets enough support.

See that doesn't make any sense to me at all. I don't care about random actor cameos. I would be more accepting of the movie if they were in the same universe with some random cameos of the original characters. Give them the role of corporate franchise managers. It was built into the original movie with Bill Murray's line: "The franchise rights alone will make us millions." If the movie studio execs had any sense they would have taken that line and run with it. Personally I am hoping they are secretly doing exactly that and the whole reboot thing was an intentional misdirect. I really want this to be successful but effectively flipping off the original movies seems precisely the wrong way to do that. Either way the Lego sets from Ghostbusters (all versions) have been some of the best ever designed. I hope we get some more. I would really like a brick built Stay-Puft Marshmallow man. I doubt they will make that as an Ideas set but maybe they are working on a version anyway like with the firehouse. Considering a minifig of Walter Peck didn't come in the firehouse that would be a perfect set for him. Who knows what cool things the new movie with have that would be awesome to get "in the brick."

Wow that is really nice looking. I think the designer pulled a Horizon Express and made a Lego set that looks better the the real life object it represents. My 7 year old daughter loves The Real Ghostbusters cartoon. (My fault entirely. My 4 year old son sings the theme song a lot driving my wife crazy too.) The 7 year old saw the picture of the new set and asked: "Are those girl ghostbusters?" I answered yes and she said: "I want that!" So even if the movies is pure garbage at least we are getting an awesome new Lego set. Its just a shame they didn't make the movie a direct sequel. The original movie set up unlimited sequels with potential new Ghostbuster franchises in any city in the world. (That would even explain why there is a new car instead of just using the original.) Just think of the Lego sets that could have resulted in.

Not having regular internet access must be the reason I never saw this Ideas project. I would have voted for that in a heartbeat. This is exactly what I am hopping a new "Christmas train" would be. A black and red steamer with dark green cars. Something that screams Christmas but is generic enough to use year round and be highly desirable as a regular train as well. I can't believe that only got 660 supporters. No wonder we haven't seen a new Creator Expert train. Presuming that would have landed in the $100-$150 price range, I would have bought at least 3 or 4 of those. Thank you very much for making the lxf files available. Though it is a bittersweet consolation prize.

Well this might just become my new favorite set of all time. This and the Ecto-1 are basically a childhood dream come true. In Ghostbusters 2 they took photos of the Vigo painting. Then they tried to develop them at the fire house. What we are probably seeing through the top window are the evil photos of Vigo in the darkroom, not the painting itself.

I really hope those Ultimate sets are not mechs. When I think ultimate knight set I think this: That was only $7.99 when it came out so I can see something similar at a $9.99 price point. One of the set names specifically states it has a robo-horse so that makes me hope the rest are regular horses. (Maybe we will finally get some new color horses like dark brown or dark tan.) The last two castle themes had a glaring lack of a small knight on horseback sets like this too. (Seriosly what kind if knight doesn't have a horse.) If they throw in a squire or other generic gaurd matching the hearalrdy of the knight it would be amazing. If there is no horse, I would love it if these were similar to Chima tribe packs. Those were the best sets of that theme. But really I am hoping for 7009 Final Joust style "ultimate" sets. If the heraldry is good that would make the theme for me. (For the record I bought nine copies of 7009 back when it was out so maybe my wallet doesn't want awesome sets like that.)

Well Blade Cruiser could be a boat. Please be an awesome boat like the Elves boat but in browns and grays. Just going by the names this could either be really good or really bad. I will have to agree that this sounds like an in house Masters of the Universe styled theme. If it is done well that could be awesome. One thing that always seems to go wrong with Masters of the Universe copycats is they miss the ratio of "swords and sorcery" (80%) to "sci-fi" (20%). The main hero (He-Man) and the main villain (Skeletor) could easily be in a pure swords and sorcery setting. If Nexo Knights fits that general aesthetic it could be epic.

I have found reading through this topic rather interesting. The range of preferences has been enlighting. Despite being a few days late here is my list. 1. Cafe Corner - I still think this is the best looking modular and still my default basis of comparison for all new modulars. I took one look at this and thought it was perfect for adding a grand hotel facade to my town. It helps that all of the pieces went to the building facade and no interior. With no open backs interior details are a waste of parts to my preferences. 2. Grand Emporium - Who wouldn't want a department store facade for their town. This is the one modular that might actually be too small in scale with the rest. 3. Palace Cinema - Something about the corner modulars just wind up being so cool looking and the best to use as stand alone buildings or part of a street line up. I loved the fact that the theater was faux Chinese because I already had the art deco cinema from town plan. 4. Pet Shop - I love the fact that this was two seperate buildings. This is the perfect scale for converted residential buildings. 5. Parisan Resturant - Brillant move shrinking the main portion of the building down to 24 wide. The only thing that would have been better is if they just made the whole thing only 24 wide with a lower piece cound and cost. I understand why that would mess up the standard though. Over all I consider PR to be everything most people here seem to think GG is. 6. Market Street - The one I missed. I have studied the instructions rather extensively though. Eventually I will build a mostly MS with some minor part substitutions and maybe even just change the main colors. 7. Town Hall - The best of the full sized straight modulars up to 2014. The only down side is a town hall would be better as a stand alone building with side details like the Haunted House (which is more like a haunted mansion scale wise) 8. Fire Brigade - When I first saw the picture of this one I thought "public school". Switch the garage door in the front to a main entrance and it would work well as a school. One of these days I will likely MOD the FB down to a 24 wide building. I think that will make it not look so "wrong" and "fat". 9. Green Grocer - This buidling more than any other is completely out of scale. The residental architectural style of this building should be at most 24 wide like PR. If CC is a hotel and GE is a department store then GG is Wayne Manor coverted to a store front. This is the one I intentionally did not buy and bought Town Plan instead. (If I could have afforded to get both at the time I would have but I do not regret my choice at all.) I have studied the instructions extensively on this one too. Eventually I will build a faux 24 wide Grocer probably in a different color. So that brings us to the new Detective's Office. If it isn't obvious by now I use the modular buildings as part of my town layout. In that context I love the looks of the DO. This is the first full sized straight modular that I will likely rank highly. Of course that owes largley to the illusion that it isn't only one building. At this point I think this might be the first straight modular I rank higher than any corner modular. Right now based on the extensive picture coverage I would put DO at number 3 and push PC and the rest down one.

Well since you asked so nicely. Exo-suit Monorail Lifter I was going to get 2 of these but the local Lego store had a limit of one per household. If it is actually that much in demand TLC would be dumb not to do another production run. I am kind of dissappointed with the joints though. (I knew I would be) Those crappy bionicle ball and socket joints haven't gotten any better. The slightest bump and they flop right over. Useless for actually playing with. Give me some old school turntable sliding legs that I can actually make walk like 6882 over those. Sure it looks better the way it is but I prefer fucntion over form everytime. As a static display model I still think the exo-suit looks awesome though.

Excellent review, thanks. When I first saw the original prototype I was underwhlemed. It looked fragile and the pilot sticking up out of the thing just looked "wrong". My thinking was basically well if it comes with a white spaceman and is only in the $20ish range I might get one. When I heard the expected price point of $35 I pretty much figured I was going to skip this. Then came the final release pictures. The rollcage on the production model solves the biggest issue I had with the prototype and it comes with 2 green classic style figures. I went from being indifferent toward the set to it is now a must have. For what is basically a space forklift, this will fit in as a service unit for my monorail nicely. I might even find a use for multiples. I find the "controversy" around the barrel part in the arms sort of amusing. I find that part to be superior to the original wheel hub. The deep grooves in the wheel hub just made the arms look really fragile. The barrel texture pattern is generic enought that, in grey, it looks like bars, pipes, or grating to me. It's not like the barrel is brown, now that would have been silly.

This set is so awesome when it is sitting in front of you. People turned off by the steampunk style would still find this to be an amazing ship starter parts pack. Now that I have built this I have to say, the way the sails are built is brilliant. While I like cloth sails for display they are extremely fragile for play. This is 10 times worse on the Imperial Flagship where the sails are built into the poles. I don't let my 5 year old anywhere near that. The way the sails are done on the Sea Cow is more that durable for playing and still look good too. When I get around to MOCing a merchant ship for my pirates to attack and soldiers to protect I will likely do the sails "Sea Cow" style. I might be tempted to retro fit my Imperial Flagship too. The Barracuda was never an issue due to how the sails are spaced and (like most LEGO ships) can easily pop off their "trailer hitches" if you do bump them. Overall, as I love the steampunk style, I highly recommend the Sea Cow.

Wow, thanks. I will likely scale it down slightly for my layout but this saves a lot of testing and design work. (particularly around the main door) Thanks for sharing.

Whoa! That car is epic. Best Cuusoo Set so far and a childhood dream come true. The brown rod on top should have been red though. Aside from the printed round piece the proton packs look like of lame. This piece is the one that screams proton pack. It even has the hole to attach the hose. It looks like the shoulder logo is not there at all. No arm print for us. I would have rather had four generic front torso prints (no initials or names) and the shoulder logo printed instead. Minor nitpicks aside this is by far and away one of the best licensed sets ever. So how many Ghostbuster firehouse MOCs (or MODs of WetWired's design) are going to be showing up real soon? I will certainly have to make one for my town now.

The house is amazing. The figures burn my eyes. Why couldn't we get normal heads with a bunch of crazy new hair pieces. I really wanted Simpson Lego figures, not Lego made Simpson figures. I hate specially molded heads. To me the whole point of having something in minifigure form is standarized and interchangable parts. (Ledgends of Chima is awesome in the regard. That is how any non-human molded head should be done. With a seperate 'helmet' and printed head that can be repurposed.) The house on the other hand has surpassed even the Haunted House on the awesome interior. As Freddy Bricker wrote on the previous page, this house actually has a hallway and doors for all the rooms. (I am surprised so many don't watch the Simposons anymore. Sure the mid teen seasons were kind of a drop in quality but the last several seasons have been just as good as some of the earlier seasons. I highly recommend looking up the newer episode where Superindentent Chalmers tries to teach Bart after Principal Skinner finally challenged him on it.)

I did some quick color correcting to MetalBeard's Sea cow. It is far from perfect but it looks alot better now. While it may not appeal to some pirate fans I think this steampunk flying pirate ship is awesome. (I am just guessing it flies, I mean why wouldn't a steampunk pirate ship fly. ) The really funny thing is my non-Lego fan wife doensn't find the 10210 Imperial Flagship impressive at all. However, she saw this and thought it was awesome looking. Steampunk for the win.

I did some quick color correcting on MetalBeard's Sea Cow. It is far from perfect but it looks alot better now. This steampunk flying pirate ship is awesome. (Okay I am just guessing it flies. I mean why wouldn't a steampunk pirate ship fly. ) Oh and Benny's spaceship looks awesome too. Those two sets alone make the whole movie line whorthwhile to me.

Wow. This is the first modular since the original Cafe Corner that made me go: "Whoa that is a new Lego set?!" It fixes the major complaint I have with the Green Grocer, the scale. The GG was just way to big for it's architectural style compared to the other modular buildings. To a lesser extent the Fire Brigade sufferes this same problem to my eyes. By making the main building only 24 studs wide and shorter the Parisian Restaurant is the first "full sized" modular that will look good next to the CC. GRogall's modular line up picture really illustrates this point. I intentionally did not buy GG in favor of the Town Plan set because of the scale issue. (I would have got both if I could have afforded it.) Some day I will rebuild my FB and build a faux GG in 24 studs wide. To me the PR is everything most people think the GG is.