Arigomi

The Creationary booster pack is now available at lego.com as well. I wonder if we will see something similar for 3861 LEGO Champion. That game could use more bricks and challenges to improve upon the base game.

There's no reason for TLG to be threatened by this secondary market. It is usually cheaper to order parts still in production directly from TLG and you can be sure that they will be in new condition. There is an element of uncertainty when you order stuff for Bricklink. You can never be 100% sure about the condition of the parts you order but that is a gamble you face with any secondary market. It is still a useful resource if you are trying to find something that was discontinued.

This makes me wonder about the oddity in the Winter Village Post Office. That set has a minifigure with the same green parka hood but it is paired with a clashing gray torso. For me, the highlight of this set is the green torso with uncommon printing. The red scarf on the first criminal reminds me of the ascot Fred from Scooby Doo wears. Combined with the knit cap, he always looked a bit French to me. All he needs is a baguette to complete the look.

I suspect that jousting isn't the main focus because the big D2C sets are better suited to scenes that are difficult to replicate on a small scale. Something that captures the celebratory mood of a Rennaissance Fair would work. All work and no play makes the peasants revolt.

The theme was about astronauts going to Mars to mine crystals. They encounter aliens who also want the crystals and battle ensues. Thus all of their mining vehicles had to be modified for battle. This spacecraft looks like a warship instead of a cargo vessel that was retrofitted for battle.

A furniture set would be wonderful. Brick built furniture tends to need a lot of unusual parts that are troublesome to collect in decent quantities. They would make great parts packs for anyone who isn't interested in furniture.

It's a wooden training dummy used in Wing Chun style Kung Fu. I guess it is useful in Spinjitzu.

The dark green joint for the tail was a result of production streamlining. A lot of them are produced for the Creator set 5868 Ferocious Creatures. It is more cost efficient to manufacture more of the dark green joints than to set up a separate production line so that a handful of that element could be made in a different color. You can't see it most of the time anyways. The designer probably had to cut costs somewhere to accommodate the new rock slopes in the budget.

Impressive! I love how you incorporated elements from a wide array of themes. The controlled chaos of colors gives it a nice atmosphere. The building reflects how all the patrons come from different backgrounds. Scheherazade fits right in as well and brings a lot of charm to the scene.

I have a soft spot for the brick built animal sets since it is unique to the Creator theme. I was disappointed in 5764 Rescue Robot. The models for that set looked very plain and were a poor successor to 5868 Ferocious Creatures. I'm definitely interested in 4637 Safari Set. Hopefully it will get things back on track with the Creator animal subtheme.

The curtains in the windows aren't stickers. You can see how they swing back and forth when he opens the doors in the video. They are the same type of fabric used for making minfigure capes, but in a plaid pattern. The interior details are what elevates this set to something very special. There is so much functionality for what is essentially a display model. It seems very sturdy as well from the way he was holding it in the video. The price is quite reasonable when you consider how this is a licensed product.

With 3864 Minitaurus, it looks like the boardgames are once again delving into travel versions of previous games. I wonder how it will work since 3841 Minotaurus was based around a maze that could change. That requires a big play area. The transition from 3843 Ramses Pyramid to a travel version with 3855 Ramses Return worked since the main game mechanic was the memory component.

I don't know why they added human Kreons to the sets. Transformer fans of all ages don't care about the squishy humans.

At least it wasn't permanent damage. My niece is almost four and when I babysit her, she has a habit of pouring water into other containers for fun. It doesn't help that she knows how to operate the water dispenser on the refrigerator. Recently, she poured water into a container of sidewalk chalk.

Both are correct but option B is used more often in casual conversation. Option A tends to be used when emphasis on "one day" is important. Wife: You need to clean up your LEGO room. It's a mess. Husband: It's not a mess! I remember where everything is. Wife: Let's test your memory. When did you find your shiny gold minifigure crown in the couch cushions? Husband: I found it three days ago. Wife: You found it one day ago. Where is it now? Husband: ...

While making new rules adds more fun to the game, it is important to state what the goal/objective is because that determines whether or not there is balance between the different heroes. Except for Draida Bay, you win a normal Heroica game by moving your hero into the target space or defeating the monster on the target space. This means that the ranger has an easier time defeating monsters at the expense of reaching the target space first. In Epic Heroica games, ties were broken by the amount of monsters defeated by a player and gold amassed by a player. The easiest way to keep track of who defeated a monster is by having all monsters die from 1 successful attack. I'm not trying to spoil anyone's fun. It is just that new rules may need new goals for them to make sense. Are you designing rules in terms of a cooperative game where or a competitive game?

They are impulse purchases that are hard to pass up. It is also nice to have variety in my collection since I'm not an army builder.

After all these years, I'm surprised that any designer actually wants to work on the Star Wars theme. I would certainly get sick of sifting through the same source material for the hundredth time trying to come up with a new idea that hasn't already been done to death. Fortunately, the Clone Wars cartoon offers some new material to work with. While the license is incredibly lucrative for TLG, there is a lot of pressure to package George Luca's world in a cardboard box. Sooner or later, the designers are going to go crazy and create sets like a UCS Jabba the Hutt that slithers and uses a sound brick with his voice.

Do you think it would be useful if TLG created a Technic separator similar to the brick separator? It would certainly help with situations like this:

Great idea. I'm surprised you didn't put some flames shooting out of the stage.

I think I've been watching too many depressing TV dramas. Those scratched windows and the spooky silhouettes that the minifig cast in them was part of the inspiration.

Thank you for the review. For some reason, your pictures evoke different emotions from me than that of a tranquil country home. I see a couple that recently had a miscarriage and went to the country to privately grieve. There is tension in the air as each one tries to put on a brave face for the other. The husband's hand is bandaged after punching a mirror in frustration. The wife blames herself for focusing so much on her career when she was younger. Eventually, they both realize they still have each other and decide to go on a bike ride, recreating their first date.

I'm guessing that the female juggler has a twirling baton rather than a barbell. If there was more than one of them, it could be argued that they were juggling sticks.

I've made my peace with the the realities that designers face. I can see why the changes were made. The mechanism used to turn on the light brick requires pressing down on the dome. That would scratch the dome and put stress upon the dome's hinge. This makes using the light brick while abducting helpless people awkward. The dome itself doesn't sit flush with the body of the UFO and is kept in place with those pieces attached to the 1x1 plates with clip. The big curved macaroni slopes had to go so that a better mechanism could be used to trigger the light brick and have the dome sit flush upon the body of the UFO. This in turn also gave the UFO more stability so that it is swooshable. The numerous transparent 2x2 round dishes on the bottom would constantly fall off every time you wanted to play with the abduction feature. The lightsaber handles and round dishes on the antennae just made the antennae prone to falling off during play.