Gryphon Ink

My girls play with my Lego all the time. The 9YO is always building furniture for my fantasy factions. I'm sure I've lost a few pieces in the process, but it gives us some good quality time together. The only drawback is she hates it when I dismantle her MOCs, which I kind of have to since we have a really limited stock of pieces at this point. I need to buy her more of her own Lego!

You know, I thought about that for a long time. I'm a fantasy and horror writer, so I spend a lot of time dreaming up implausible scenarios and trying to make them work. I grant you it's just as plausible as time-travelling moderns, and I think I'd be okay with a scenario that presented the cavemen in the theme as accidental time travellers. If it's explained that that's how they are in the same time frame as the dinosaurs. (The other possibility is that the dinos are time travellers). I just wouldn't be cool with a theme that just presented them as naturally living together, a la Flintstones or One Million Years BC.

I could deal with just about any variation of the Dino theme EXCEPT for "Cavemen and Dinosaurs". Give me time travellers, Jurassic Park, Dinos vs. Aliens, or a Lost World explorers scenario - those are all respectable science fiction stories that I could really get behind. Cavemen and Dinos isn't science fiction, it's just getting the science wrong. I know it's silly of me to want scientific accuracy in a Lego action theme, and I don't expect that every detail will be totally plausible. But I want a theme that will be at least a little bit more realistic than the Flintstones.

I've been waiting for someone to say it, but nobody does: WHAT KIND OF PLANT IS THAT?!? Sure, you could grow whatever kind of plant you want in a combi, but given the general hippy theme of this model, the unspecified plant really brings a smile to my face.

Nice review, SpyFlops. Could you maybe add a couple more shots of the dragon from different angles and poses? I really like the looks of him so far. This looks like a great set, but I'm afraid of the old "looks great from one angle, full of holes and ugliness from the rest" problem. I love that Ninjago is giving us all the dragons Kingdoms is missing. This one really looks like he could be a good foundation for the ultimate beastie to ravage my fantasy kingdom.

I give you Dominion, potentially the coolest movie ever made, the movie that will finally give us the battle of all apocalyptic battles: not Batman vs. Superman, not Ninjas vs. Pirates, but DINOSAURS VS. ALIENS!!!!!!!!! Yes, it needs that many exclamation points. Of course, it could completely suck. But I think not. It's being developed by Barry Sonnenfeld and Grant Morrison, both of whom have pretty good records at delivering Awesomesauce. ETA: damn, it was so much cooler when the image worked. Well, if you Google "Dominion dinosaurs" you'll find the beautiful concept art that I have as my desktop background right now.

Fantasy era Castle. I was seeing those sets on the shelves right when I was starting to look at the Lego shelves to find toys for my daughter, but I knew it wasn't right for her at the time. Started buying Lego for myself right after they phased out the Fantasy. Kingdoms is great, but it's just not the same without the fantasy element.

I was thinking the Police set might be a car. A police station would overlap with the City line too much, and no Creator wave is complete without a couple of vehicles. I'd like a police car on the same scale as last year's red sportscar. Summer House doesn't strike me as the big Creator house for the year. When I think of summer homes, I'm thinking of a small house by the beach. Hopefully around the same size as the Log Cabin. Maybe the big house will come in a second wave?

Is there any confirmation that this is related to Pharoah's Quest? Or is this all just speculation based on somebody's "I hope..." comment? I think it would be pretty cool if it is a PQ continuation. That would work very nicely with the pulp-fiction vibe of the PQ team. It would also probably give us a nice jungle setting, since dinosaurs are OBVIOUSLY!!! jungle-based. I'd much rather see a retro-sci-fi "Lost World" story with dinosaurs than a modern Jurassic Park version. With the retro love TLG are showing in the Alien Conquest theme, I think it's a possibility. On the other hand, the PQ monsters were all heavily stylized brick-built critters, and this rumor is saying that the upcoming dinos are all molded. So that doesn't sound like it fits with a PQ sequel.

Now, that's not fair. You've left out all the good parts. Like, the fact that the Power Rangers Ninjas fight by spinning around really, really fast. And that the skeletons wear Wellingtons (henceforth to be known as Skelly Wellies). And one of them wears a jester's cap.

You took the words right out of my mouth. Roosters say "kookoorikoo" in Hebrew, too.

They look great, Kurtt! I especially like the Druid and the Ranger, although I pity the poor Ranger that has to fight with that awful Heroica bow. This is one case where I really don't like the Heroica weapon. All the rest work pretty well IMO. Where did the Druid's face originally come from? I like it a lot.

I couldn't find the Toy Store on the Lego site, either. I think they've officially stopped selling it. Plenty of them available on Amazon and other retailers, though, and still at a normal price. I'm really interested in the Winter Village sets now. They don't exactly fit the things I usually collect, but they seem really good value for money and have enough unusual parts that they would be well worth buying. I could see "building the Winter Village" becoming a popular holiday tradition in our family. Damn you, LEGO!! Why must there always be so many sets I want to buy?!?

My response as an AFOL: BLARGHHH, it's hideous, so cartoony, why didn't they just use regular minifigs, this won't fit my fantasy kingdom at all, WAAAAAAAHHH!!! My response as the father of two girls: WOW. I think TLG nailed it! I think my girls will like this, and I think if I hadn't already turned them both on to regular Lego building, this would have made an awesome "gateway drug" to the real Lego addiction. The figs are cute, they are not too wimpy like Polly Pockets or too slutty like Bratz or too revoltingly sweet like Strawberry Shortcake, and just from the three pictures posted here it looks like they will have some decent variety to them. I think if they produce enough different characters and enough accessories, animals and settings for them, this theme could be a big hit and could indeed get Lego a strong toehold in the coveted girly market segment. Whether that will lead to millions more girls building regular Lego is entirely beside the point. This theme won't decrease the amount of regular Lego sold, so any extra sales are a bonus for TLG. The scale does work. Yes, it's weird that they didn't just use regular minifig scale, but the difference seems to be about two plates or, or half a minifig head, give or take a couple of millimeters. These figures WILL be compatible with other System sets with only minor modifications needed. A CMF boombox will look good in a Friends figure's hand, and an Apple Tree House will only need a few extra bricks to become a rocking Friends party pad. It's not like certain other themes, where a *cough* Belville-sized housecat is the size of a minifig-scale panther. As far as accessorizing, I have a suspicion Lego are going to make a LOT of different torsos, leg pieces and hairdos, as well as the obvious handheld accessories. You'll dress up the doll by switching her body parts. And yes, those pets are ugly. But seriously, have you seen the latest reincarnation of My Little Pony? It's absolutely hideous. The ponies look like something Igor might have made on a slow day when Frankenstein wasn't around to stop him. They look like horrible mutant pony things rising up from the sewers to enslave humanity. And somehow, it sells. I think this theme will, too. EDIT TO ADD: for the record, I personally wanted an exact minifig scale theme just like any other System theme, but with a "girly" direction somehow. Something more like Paradisa, except with sabertooth tigers. But history has already rendered a verdict on Paradisa. TLG had to try something different if they wanted to try this at all.

I think the reason they added the jewel to the set is it's an easy way to add an extra play scenario to a small set. More important to kids, for whom this might be the only set they get, than to AFOLs who see it as an army builder.

I love how this is taking shape. I'll be watching this thread, since I'd like to start a modest-sized castle of my own someday. I want to buy the current King's Castle, but I already know it's just a foundation for modifications. Could we get a peek inside your corner tower, serge?

I want to join in the rampant speculation too! I love this theme. I'm not interested in buying every set from it, but I've bought three and am still saving money for the Earth Defence HQ. I'd love for there to be at least one more wave to fill in the blanks. So hopefully the theme is selling well... There are a couple of things that IMO are currently keeping Conquest from being a truly great theme. A second wave could easily fix them all. First, there aren't enough different aliens. We've got two kinds of troops and two unique aliens, as well as the brain slugs which you can turn into "controlled human" figs. You can't build an army or even make up many stories about four aliens. We need to see more aliens using the "Alien Commander" body type and possibly one more type of alien. You know the aliens need a Queen. That's just how these guys work. The ADU doesn't have it quite so hard, since civilians are always a big part of alien invasion scenarios. AC has a few very nice civilians already (I LOVE the farmer!) and you can supplement the "official" sets with City figures and buildings with no loss of authenticity. But to complete the Conquest story, there needs to be a set with a couple of plucky kids. How can you have an alien invasion with no plucky kids?!? The second thing that's missing is big bases. Again, the ADU have a major head start with the totally awesome Earth Defence HQ. But they need a real land base as well. A place to park the Defenders and reverse-engineer the alien spacecraft. Judging by the excellent starfighter found in the HQ set, I'd say TLG are already thinking in this direction. The aliens have no base at all. The Mothership is just badly misnamed. Yes, it's big enough, but with room for only one crewmember, no docking capabilities, and a complete lack of any kind of Ultimate Terror Weapon, a big spaceship does not a Mothership make. To fill these and a few other blanks, one more wave of Alien Conquest will do admirably... SET ONE: ADU SCOUT - a small flyer similar to the VV starfighter from the HQ set, designed to infiltrate the alien fleet. SET TWO: ALIEN ROBOT/MECHA - a small alien "walker". I'd go for the mecha, but lots of old alien invasions used pure robots, and there haven't been any robots in Conquest yet. Set features a tree, a housewife and a cat. The cat is stuck in the tree, and the housewife is trying to coax it down when the walker sneaks up behind her. Then the housewife defeats the walker with spinjitzu. Okay, we sort of jumped the shark there. SET THREE: THE PLUCKY KIDS RESCUE - a couple of kids rescue a wounded ADU officer and vehicle and are chased by a small alien saucer. SET FOUR: ALIEN HOVERTANK - a medium-sized ground effect vehicle whose main feature is a massive laser cannon. Features new aliens and one or two of the old ones, vs. an ADU gun emplacement. SET FIVE: EARTHBASE / ALIEN CRASH SITE - an Area 51-type set with crashed alien vehicle, ADU medical facilities and radar dish. With more ADU troopers and a couple of civilian scientists/doctors. SET SIX: ALIEN BASE/SHIP - a big ground base that the Mothership fits onto the top of. Contains cloning pods, new type aliens including the Queen, alien flitter vehicles and an ADU motorcycle squad.

Wow, those crests are surprisingly beautiful. Real works of art. The question is, though, will there be sets along those lines, or are these unique artist-created works for promotion of the new license? Because, beautiful though they are, I can't imagine they'd be hot sellers.

I can't wait for this. My whole family watches A:TLA together. The girls watch it almost every day, and it's one of the few pieces of kids' entertainment that really never gets old. Honestly, the trailer does not really spark my fan-love, but I know that the creators of Avatar have much more in mind than throwing out a few flashy images and selling Happy Meals, so I have faith that the series will sparkle when it's finished. As far as Lego licenses go, I predict there's not a chance in hell we'll get a specific "Legend of Korra" license. It's got a female lead, and TLG just will not go there. The only chance is if they do a general Avatar license combining TLA and LOK, which honestly I would like even more. But not much chance of that either, in my opinion. That ship already sailed. But this is one thing I'd love to be wrong about.

Good review. I agree with your assessment. The parts are nothing to write home about and the build is only interesting if you've never seen SNOT before, but the design is nice and it all adds up to a really cool set for Star Wars lovers, especially given the amazing selection of minifigs for such a low price.

Now that I've actually bought this set, I find myself agreeing with those who said the body looked wimpy. It IS wimpy, and the head is quite oversized compared to the body and tail (but in good proportion with the wings and feet). They needed to extend his body a little bit, give him two more feet and reconstruct his tail. In other words, make him just like the Fire Dragon in the Fire Temple set. I wish that set didn't cost $100 more than this one. I still think the Ice Dragon is pretty cool, though. He just needs a few mods. I LOVE the head piece they made for the Ninjago dragons. It's really wolflike and fierce, can work for both Chinese and European dragons and could be, as stated in the original review, biological or mechanical. Now I want to get all the Ninjago dragons. I guess the Fire Dragon won't be coming out in a cheaper set, though.

Got Ice Dragon Attack, the only Ninjago set I've really been interested in. I've been wanting a dragon for a long time.

No, it's not. The Queen Anne's Revenge ran aground on a sandbar and sank, without a single picture of her having been drawn by eyewitnesses in her entire pirating career. Nobody knows what she looked like. All that is known for sure is that she was a 300-ton frigate - she was originally named Concord and carried 20 guns. Blackbeard later added another 20 or so. There is a wreck in South Carolina, discovered in 1996, that is probably the QAR. After 300 years underwater, she's in terrible shape, but reconstructions of her do not feature anything remotely resembling that massive sterncastle. In fact, being built for speed, one of the things common to almost all frigates was a single continuous upper deck, as in this picture:

I know it's true to the movie, but in my opinion the design from the movie is ugly and unrealistic. In reality, the only reason for building up the stern so far was probably to disguise the fact that the QAR is really the Sunset, the same ship that "plays" the BP in the second and third movies. Yes, I am that geek who was annoyed when Han Solo used parsecs as a unit of time. And yes, the BP looks cartoony as well. I admit it. I just like its lines more than the QAR.

I like it. This will be my first pirate ship. No disrespect to fans of the QAR, but I don't like it much. The stern looks awful IMO, the detailing is too cartoony with all those bones, and it's too expensive. The Pearl is affordable, can play "generic pirate ship" much better than the QAR with its classic evil color scheme, and covers all the bases. I would have loved to see the rest of the crew as minifigs, but one can easily make a few generic crewmen by combining yellow pirates, POP, Kingdoms and maybe some Harry Potter figs with other guys from the POTC line. I also think that if POTC continues, there will definitely be an Ultimate Pearl further down the line. I'm actually taking the fact that we haven't seen most of the Pearl's most popular crew members as a sign that TLG do mean to continue for at least one more wave.