Gryphon Ink

I'm also wondering if I'm the only one who's so amused by the name "Chopper Showdown", seeing as there actually are two choppers in the set.

I can understand that. Don't get me wrong, I have some powerful childhood memories of that show. But for me it exists in a different continuum from "real Hulk". If I get superhero character minifigs they will have to exist in one cohesive continuum, which will be based partly on comics and partly on movies as long as they don't contradict each other. If Lou Ferrigno Hulk enters this reality he will cause a rupture in the fabric of space-time. There is even a possibility that he might tear a wormhole that would allow Halle Berry Catwoman to enter my Lego world, with predictably awful results. It would be, as Eartha Kitt and Michelle Pfeiffer would probably both say, a CATastrophe. Yes, that was an awfully long buildup for very little payoff. What can I say, I already admitted to massive geekery.

Maybe I'm being overly geeky about it, but the only time the Hulk was ever the size of a normal human was when Lou Ferrigno was playing him on TV, so I see this as a fairly pointless minifig, and really not a worthy bonus for spending $50.

A $20 Dino set with a helicopter, motorcycle and raptor? Would have been the jewel of the Dino line if you ask me. I've been wanting a raptor, but IMO the real raptor set doesn't give you enough for the money.

Nice review, CM. This is really the only set from the Marvel wave that I'm excited about. The Avengers sets all seem a little overpriced and not compelling enough, but this one looks like good value. The helicopter looks great from all the angles I've seen, the minifigs are excellent and you can never have too many old-school motorcycles. I'm still not a huge fan of Wolvie's claws, but I don't see any way they could have made them better, and overall the minifigs are great. I'm really glad they printed Wolverine's mask hanging on the back of his uniform instead of on his face. His expression is totally Wolverine, and this way we can make a custom Logan wearing his biker jacket and jeans. I really hope they make more X-Men sets. It's by far my favorite Marvel property.

Did someone say B5? We live for the One, we die for the One.

This is one of the most incredible mini pieces I've ever seen. I was geeking out before I even saw Aragog and his offspring. After that I was just speechless - and then the underwater/underground scenes took it up to 11. The planning of this must have been giving you migraines for months. An amazing masterpiece!

Friends/Minidolls Controversy contest? Or LOTR "unofficial" build contest to usher in the theme?

Got the Crawler Crane and a Bandit CMF yesterday. I had my eye on the Technic Tow Truck but couldn't afford to lay out the money on the spot. I generally try to save up so my average expenditure isn't much more than $20 a week (all we can afford for my toys, really). Now I'm trying to save up for LOTR because I want almost the entire line. Crawler Crane is okay, but the B model (bulldozer) really sucks. It looks nice enough, but seriously, only one Technic function? The tracks don't even spin independently on the B model.

Yeah, that's very handy, except that 3d printers cost north of $1000 and ABS is $48 a kilo. As a fairly niche product, the prices may drop some once the technology has been around for a while, but how low will it go? I don't really see this becoming something every AFOL tucks away in the man-cave for whipping out a custom Lego set during halftime.

DRAW!! That's a great representation. Both faces work really well.

I don't think TLG can really do anything to change the cultural bias that Americans have towards the System sets. Before Technic even existed, this cultural division was there. We used to have Meccano and Erector Sets, which were almost identical concepts that used a lot more mechanical knowledge than System Lego (Meccano was British, Erector was American). But the concept was much more popular in Europe than in the US. Technic was TLG's attempt to compete with those systems, and it took off brilliantly in Europe. But over here, where System Lego ruled, it's still a fringe system.

I was just going to say this. It's not Star Wars stealing all the Space resources, although that is surely part of it. It's also the fact that space just isn't as hot as it used to be. In the Seventies and Eighties, space was where everybody thought the future was. Deep space exploration was the major theme of science fiction, and it was THE hot subject for kids' games. Now, in the real world we've pretty much turned our backs on deep space, and superheroes and fantasy are a lot hotter. So, voila, we have Superheroes and Monster Fighters in Lego. TLG would be extremely foolish to ignore this overwhelming reality just so they could keep an old promise about evergreen themes. I'm sure they will go back to Space in another year or two, but the reality is that Superheroes will probably sell many times better than Alien Conquest and Space Police III put together, and they can only do so many themes in a year.

4432 Garbage Truck. I don't usually buy City stuff, but this one just looked like a great model. It is also a wonderful parts pack.

I'm intermittently working on a novel expanding some of the ideas in a story of mine that was published a few years ago. It's a swords-and-sorcery fantasy about a pair of gay mercenaries who stumble into some major trouble while working as caravan guards. Lovecraftian elder gods are awakened, forgotten empires rise from the ashes, and dark wizardry abounds. Plus, lots of fanservice. I have trouble sticking with one concept for very long, and I have kids, a job, and several time-consuming hobbies (Hi there, Lego!) so novel length is a big challenge. I've been working on this one for years. I do much better at (very long) short stories, which I've been fairly successful at getting published.

What, you don't have room for this in your house? Great MOC, by the way. I wish the Architecture theme would make things like this. I think the stream running through the culvert probably should have been only one stud wide, but it's debatable.

I think Octan is like Lego's Weyland-Yutani, the all-powerful company from the Alien movies that has crossed over to the Predator movies and been namedropped in other movies and video games. It's not that improbable that a company as big as Octan seems to be in the City theme could survive into the future of Space Police.

I'm almost sure that LOTR, being one of the hot new themes, will be excluded from the BOGO sales anyway, just like POTC was excluded last year and Star Wars is always excluded.

Yeah, why should Gollum have a stud on his back? It's not like Lego cows, horses, pigs, goats, dogs, trolls, tauntauns and pteranodons have studs on their backs! Imagine if the standard Lego minifig had a big ugly stud on its head! It would look ridiculous... Oh, wait.

Oh man, I want one of these. That is some impressive SNOT, and the dragonet's face is just great!

Um, the appeal is in playing, like the name implies. Kids don't always want to build. Sometimes they just want to roleplay, and Playmobil is awesome for that. Over the years, they've had a much more diverse set of historical themes than Lego does. Their knights have better accessories, and they have a lot of appeal to young kids who haven't yet bought into the idea that every toy has to be branded with a logo from the latest hot movie series or cartoon. They have tons of animals. They had hedgehogs and guinea pigs and rabbits years before Lego did. They have baby-sized "minifigs" and child-sized and doll-sized and adult-sized, and all of them are jointed. They look great. They are just different from Lego. Not worse, just different. If you compare similar sets, say the $10 Kraken Attackin' (Pirates) set with the same size Playmobil pirates set from about ten years ago, they both give you a dinky little boat with one or two people in it, a few accessories and an octopus in the Lego set. The Playmobil set is more polished, has a few more accessories, and it doesn't take any imagination to see that it's a boat. The Lego set is, well, a bunch of bricks that happen to come together in a shape that's sort of raft-like. It's not as detailed or nearly as pretty. The magic in it is that you can do whatever the hell you want with those bricks, while the Playmobil boat will never be anything but a boat. I think the potential for adults to enjoy Playmobil is rather limited, but for kids they make a great toy that scales to a pretty good age range. My 3YO, who gets frustrated pretty quickly with Lego building, loves them, and my 10YO who prefers Lego will still occasionally play with her Playmobil guys and jealously protect them from her sister. The toys are very well made, like Lego, and allow the kids to use their imagination, like Lego. But they're different.

It's $74 at Walmart at the moment. It might be time.

No, I don't think they would. Another choice I think would be the Watcher in the Water, the thing that attacks the Fellowship outside of Moria - with a trimmed-down Fellowship, of course, say maybe four good guys, a Moria door and the monster. Or Saruman and Gandalf's duel in Orthanc.

So, Winter Village Toy Shop or Alien Conquest Earth Defence HQ? Both are likely to get harder to find pretty soon, and I have other sets in both themes. The AC set will give me more swooshing and play time with the kids, but the Toy Shop will be part of a holiday tradition. And I think both are destined to be sets that I'll be sorry to have missed out on a few years down the road.

I've already heard rumblings from parents who are LOTR nerds, very excited about this theme. I think it's going to be a megahit. And I do think a lot of LOTR fans will buy at least a set or two for display. A couple of the sets, namely Weathertop and the Orc Forge, would make great cubicle toys. This may not create a million instant AFOLs, but it will definitely generate some sales. That's why Lego and other toy companies pursue these licenses. A guy who is a massive Batman fan might want to buy the Tumbler or classic Batmobile in Lego. And maybe that will turn him on to other Lego themes. I had no serious interest in Lego until I saw the "Luke's Landspeeder" set - they got me with the Star Wars connection, and I immediately jumped ship to the Kingdoms and Atlantis themes, never bought any more Star Wars sets except for a couple of battlepacks. I could see the same thing happening with people who just happen to want a couple of Fellowship minifigs, and get hooked on Lego because it's just fun. TLG have to play their cards right for that to happen, though. There need to be some cheap LOTR sets that recreate iconic moments in the series, the way the $25 Landspeeder set did. A relatively cheap Bag End, Treebeard or Gollum's Lair set would do this. The only set in the first wave that is inexpensive enough and iconic enough to generate major crossover sales is Gandalf Arrives, and I'm afraid that's not a substantial enough set to get people hooked on Lego. They have to hit the $20-30 range with a really good standalone set.