Arigomi

Thank you for the wonderful review! One of the surprising things to me is that Sarge is built with an inverted window instead of inverted slope bricks.

According to Brickipedia the US pricing is: 3857 Draida Bay 101 pieces $14.99 3858 Waldurk Forest 225 pieces $19.99 3859 Caverns of Nathuz 217 pieces $19.99 3860 Castle Fortaan 304 pieces $29.99 The pricing looks typical of the LEGO Games theme. Unfortunately, I was shocked to learn that LEGO Champion has very steep pricing. 3861 LEGO Champion 216 pieces $34.99 I guess I won't be getting the two female microfigs exclusive to this game.

Heroica sounds like a lot of fun to play. The Battle Heroica variant is especially fun for anyone who likes playing a villain. It's good to know that the microfigs don't look different just for cosmetic reasons but actually have different play mechanics. The rules seem to be flexible enough that you can't help but create your own house rules.

One of the other trailers actually has a clip from a scene about what happens in a Cars bathroom stall. Whether you like it or not, you will know. I'm not sure if anyone would be willing to recreate it in LEGO form.

It is actually the other way around. These days, Disney movies are big advertisements for the merchandise. The majority of Disney's income comes from merchandising. George Luca's entire fortune is built upon leveraging the Star Wars brand.

After a job well done, he celebrates using his "death rattle".

It looks like there was a memo to the designers that they had to use those extremely long slope bricks as much as possible. It seems to be popping up in all sorts of sets despite its limited usefulness.

Great review! I didn't know the windows for the lighthouse used such unusual pieces. I'm in love with the Fish Cafe though I see it as more of a down-to-earth Grilled Fish Shack. It has a nice welcoming atmosphere without feeling pretentious. I can picture it in my mind. A humble eatery with good simple food. The creative uses for those macaroni pieces were quite clever. I'm glad you decided to finish this review. It is nice to read about another perspective.

It's really hard to say how successful World Racers was. It is a subtheme of the Racers theme which has had sets every year for the last 10 years. It has never been popular with AFOLs for various reasons but it was very appealing to kids, leading to the theme's longevity. The Cars 2 sets are the primary reason the theme is taking a break. It is the same situation that led to TLG putting the pirate theme on hold so that they don't compete against the Pirates of the Caribbean sets. Pharaoh's Quest is a result of the TLG wanting to reinvent the Adventurers theme since the Indiana Jones line was discontinued. The characters will most likely be revisited again in a different locale. A new setting requires working out a different color palette. The current colors in production can't accommodate this so the sets have to be planned for next year. The most likely focus for the next wave will probably be the jungles of South America.

Actually it isn't possible to make the farmer's head double sided. A second face would require another set of sideburns running down the sides and the hairpiece wouldn't cover that up. With two faces, the farmer would have two really strange patches of hair poking out on the back of his head. The play features are really cool though I wish there was more consistency with the rubber claw parts. It drives me crazy that all of them don't look the same.

Is it weird that one of my favorite parts of this set is the civilian? He gives off a "Clark Kent" vibe with his glasses and blue pin striped suit. It would be really ironic to see an alien abduct a human only to find out he is really a superhero from another planet that has devoted himself to protecting Earth.

The Creator theme has always focused on the building aspect of LEGO. That's why there are instructions for alternate models. Specialized parts like flowers and molded trees are better suited to the City theme where the emphasis is on playing with the model after you have built it.

The house is an odd number of studs wide so you can't use a 2 way slope to cap it off. The dimensions of the house itself are dictated by the unusual dimensions of the arched door. Conversely, it does allow for a roof that doesn't have the typical shape through the use of slope bricks with two different angles. I suspect the 1x1 bricks with holes in them serve a different purpose in one of the alternate models where the yellow color is more important.

Until I can see one of the booklets firsthand, I want to reserve judgment on how useful these kits are about teaching. It looks like these kits go through the same training that certified LEGO professionals go through, albeit in an easy to digest form for kids. I'm still intrigued because there was mention of teaching techniques like how to effectively use brick paper. I'm also interested in seeing the comments from the designer during the building instructions. Understanding the mindset would go a long way to deciphering the process for some of our favorite sets and how we can incorporate these ideas into our own builds. I can see how the kits can be in production for at least a couple of years because they use colors that are always available.

The Cars 2 movie will probably inspire "The Fast and the Furious" MOCs using the Cars characters. Be afraid. Be very afraid. The characters probably stretch out their lips or tongues to type on that keyboard using the "hunt and peck" method. If My Little Pony characters can live comfortably in a house that had doorknobs, you can bet that Cars characters aren't stymied by a keyboard.

I can picture how these new pieces can transition into City and World Racer sets. It's hard to see because they have so much printing on them. The trunk piece would be great for making 4-wide classic cars of the 1950s. The proportions wouldn't be accurate but it would be nice see a town setup where a minifigure is showing off his ride in a classic car show. It is nice to see that the spoiler on the back is built differently.

As a whole, the set does a good job of capturing the character's personality. I'm just bothered by the the way the side mirrors hang so precariously. It doesn't look very stable.

I'm not a fan of the Cars theme but I can see where TLG is going with this. The focus is on swooshability so that these characters stay together even if inventive kids decide to play demolition derby with Lightning McQueen and Francesco.

Thank you for such a detailed review. I liked the solar panel. It's details like this that prevent the brand from feeling dated and based just on nostalgia.

Great review! The red and white macaroni bricks are a nice change from the houses with perpendicular corners. The simple staircase is really unavoidable at this scale. I visited a real lighthouse once and the spiral staircase ran along the outer wall, leaving very little living space in the center.

It looks like Draida Bay is the "Shave a Sheep/Wild Wool" of the Heroica games.

What are you using to base your pricing off of? When you compare it to the pricing for Creator sets, it isn't that different. Complaints about small pieces only applies to kit 2 because it focuses on microscale building. I feel like the other 5 kits compensate for this. These wouldn't be 3-in-1 sets if they only contained a bunch of useless pieces. A valid concern is the color selection. Not much can be done about that since everyone has the color preferences.

For a full year, the total part count is 1125.

It is actually a little more stable than it looks. Just a tiny bit. If you look at the stop motion video of the of build, you will see that the 1x1 round bricks with holes in the stud are slid onto 4H antenna pieces for strength. Unfortunately, doing this so many times can be a real hassle. You have to be extremely careful sliding them together because it is a very tight fit and you need to apply some pressure to do it. Apply too much pressure and you risk breaking the 4H antenna pieces. I don't actually have this set but this technique is used in 3851 Atlantis Treasure. The stands for the microsub game pieces have you slide a 1x1 nose cone onto a 4H antenna. Since it isn't exactly the same, I tested the technique using a 1x1 round brick with a hole in the stud from my collection and got the same results. Thankfully the board game only requires you doing this 4 times. I shudder to think how many times you have to use this technique on 21008 Burj Khalifa.

I think it's better without a roof. A roof for this type of building wouldn't add much in terms of visual interest. Without the roof, viewers are invited to take a closer look at all of the wonderful furniture you made.