Gryphon Ink

This is great stuff. I love everybody's expressions, and the car is beautiful. But doesn't this joint have any security? As far as I know you didn't just walk into a speakeasy.

Actually one of the things that I appreciated in the TLG story submission process was that they did NOT ask for stories where there is a clear Good/Evil conflict: they simply asked for stories where there is a clear conflict. Power Miners is a good example of a story where the conflict is clear, but not a matter of good and evil. The Miners and the monsters both want the crystals. The miners need them for power. The monsters need them because they are their food source. Kids can go wherever they want to with this skeleton story. They can even have the two sides resolving their conflict peacefully, if they want to. I have noticed this tendency for the Lego stories to turn into "fetch quests" in the last couple of years. Collect the golden weapons, collect the keys to Atlantis, collect the pharaoh's artifacts. It's been happening a lot. But I actually think it was just a coincidence that this happened in three themes at once. It doesn't seem to happen in Alien Conquest. TLG do have triggers that they know can be used to sell sets, and they obviously like to see these triggers used in new themes. Companies the size of TLG don't stay around by ignoring obvious market trends. They know their one biggest market segment is 8-year-old boys. This isn't an opinion, it's a fact that they've found over decades of working in the business. So their action themes are marketed to that group. They would not be smart to ignore the things that 8YO boys like. Kids like things like robots, vehicles, and giant insects, so it's a pretty safe bet there's going to be a robot, a cool vehicle, or a giant insect in most Lego action sets.

You hit the nail on the head right there. This, for me, is the crux of the problem with basically every Star Wars event since ANH, and the thing that has made me like every new installment a little bit less, to the point where I don't even care enough to watch the CW DVDs (I don't have TV, so watching it live isn't in the cards. I've only seen a few episodes of CW). To me, ANH was an amazing movie. Everything else is just a bunch of sequels that got progressively more watered down and less interesting. We start off with an epic battle of good vs. evil, the story of a simple farmboy taking his place in the fight against oppression. Real characters with human limitations, having real relationships. An old man who was once a great fighter and can still do some pretty cool stuff in a pinch. A philosophy that wasn't thrown in our faces and explicated to the point of total nonsensicality. Everything starts to go downhill with ESB. Taking Obi-Wan's place is an 800-year-old Muppet who can levitate a machine the size of an F-15. The fights get more acrobatic. Instead of one huge, impractical terror weapon, we have a whole battle group of huge, impractical terror machines landing on Hoth. Instead of the Falcon fighting TIE fighters, the Falcon is fighting TIE fighters and a fleet of Star Destroyers in a swirling maelstrom of dancing asteroids. There are worms big enough to eat starships living in the vacuum of space. The Dark Side is part of us. The ultimate face of evil is the hero's father. The hot princess is the hero's sister. ESB was well directed, but still a lot sillier, and seemed sillier than it was by virtue of having everything take on a faux-serious context. Lucas is telling us "this isn't just fluff, it's SERIOUS STUFF!" ROTJ: More Muppets. Lots more Muppets. The farmboy hero has become Spider-Man, jumping all over the place and using his superpowers to fight off giant monsters left and right. The hot princess shows some skin. The ultimate evil isn't ultimately evil anymore, so we meet a new Ultimate Evil and yet another huge, impractical terror weapon. The war is won with the help of some teddy bears who have never seen a robot before. The former ultimate evil father is redeemed, the sister gets together with the pirate, everybody happy. "This series was never about Luke Skywalker, it's about the good and evil in all of us. This was Anakin Skywalker's story!" TPM: Hey, remember the ultimate face of evil back in the first movie? Well, he was once a cute little mop-top kid. And he built C-3PO. And he was a slave! Isn't that cool? Isn't it deep? And now EVERYBODY is a Muppet! And everybody can jump around like Spider-Man! And everything is shinier! And here's a new ultimate face of evil! Don't get too attached to him, by the way. AOTC: Hey, remember that battle between good and evil? Well, forget it. This is about politics. I told you this was a serious story! The cute little mop-top is all grown up, and he's deeply conflicted. But he's still a good guy. Oh, and here's another fifty million shiny spaceships. Begun this clone war has. ROTS: ended this clone war has. Look, more shiny spaceships! Isn't it cool how they sort of resemble the spaceships you used to love? CW: OMG, did I really just kill my cash cow? Wut was I thinking? Wait, let's backtrack. There's SO MUCH MORE money, er, I mean story that I wanted to tell. Look, a shiny spaceship! You should buy it, it might look exactly like the shiny spaceship in AOTC but really it's an advanced model, not at all the same thing.

Highly doubtful that they are going for anything like a realistic approach, as the real QAR was by most reports a 200-ton sloop and the ship in the movie is being billed as a galleon (much larger and very different construction style and rigging). Disney have little use for realism in these stories.

I'm really happy that Catwoman is confirmed, as I've wanted more Catwoman since Batman Returns and I can't wait to see what Nolan does with her. A little hesitant about the choice of Anne Hathaway, though. I agree that she has potential to be a really good actress, but I haven't seen her break out yet, and so far the weakest link in all of Nolan's movies has been female roles - whether it's good actresses badly cast (Maggie in TDK) or just really weakly written (Ellen Page in Inception, good actress and could have been a good role but in the end served mainly as a target for infodumps). Hoping that he turns this trend around with a solid story. And Bane... I sort of had a feeling Bane was going to show up in one of Nolan's movies. It makes sense. He's an A-Lister in the Rogue's Gallery and hasn't been done properly yet in a movie, so he's perfect for a Nolan reinterpretation. He certainly seems more like a "realistic" Nolan character than any of the traditional "freaks" like Penguin, Killer Croc or Mr. Freeze. On the other hand, he's only an A-Lister because of beating Batman in the Knightfall arc, and I never felt like he earned that story. In the end, he's not the nemesis I would have wanted, but again, I want to see what Nolan does with him. Here's hoping for more of Nolan's magic! It will be amazing if he pulls it off again. How many hat tricks have we seen in superhero movies? I'm thinking "none".

Napoleon: I don't care about the piece count, show me the minifigs! Buying Habits: $119 for an ugly ship that has two new Jedi? Where do I stand in line??? Sorting Method: In classic military fashion, duh. Oh, and the bricks are in a box somewhere. Building Space: Parade ground cleared for drills, dropships and Star Destroyers hung from ceiling, ready to decapitate unwitting passersby. Philosophy: Mine's bigger. Eager NewFOL: I really like Kingdoms, but SW too, and Harry of course, and who could say no to Indiana Jones, and POP was on clearance, wow that Alien Conquest stuff looks sweeeeet and OMG POTC?? NFW!!!!!!!!!! Buying Habits: Wants to save up to get the nice big sets, but habitually blows "savings" on impulses and basic sets from every theme released. Sorting Method: Plastic takeaway tubs. Then bigger takeaway tubs. Then bins from IKEA. Then the spare bedroom. Divorce is imminent at this stage. Building Space: Changes by the day. Philosophy: Coolest toy EVER! (That one is me, BTW. In case anyone felt insulted.)

Wikipedia doesn't currently say anything about the supposedly final selection of a villain, and there's no announcement in the latest news about the movie. Nolan is playing his cards close to his chest, as usual, and even if most people are betting on Talia, I wouldn't totally rule out Catwoman either. She is, after all, one of Batman's longest running opponents and love interests.

OK, I'm a lot more than slightly confused. I have tried following all the links around to get some kind of solid information, but everything I click takes me back to this page. And it seems like the contest hasn't actually launched yet, but someone already won one of the prizes? I'm feeling awfully stupid here. What am I missing?

For me, it's just the "midsized set that doesn't stand out". The minifigs and a couple of cool PQ vehicles can be found in much cheaper sets, and if I want to get a big PQ set I'll save up for another couple of weeks and buy the pyramid, which is bigger and far cooler, has an even nicer vehicle and some really special minifigs. I think PQ shines in the cheap sets and the top of the line, but both this and Cursed Cobra are not really attracting me.

Another option might be a segmented shape that moves like a sidewinder. Or a "crawler" with arms that flip to drag the whole vehicle forward. The crawler would probably be far easier. Unfortunately I don't have anywhere the technical skills to explain how to do this in Lego, but those are ideas.

I'm not much of a MOCer, but those were my feelings exactly. It looks JUST like a cartoon pirate ship with that ridiculous construction at the stern. Hopefully Zeya is right.

Looks like all 2010 Lego sets are on clearance at Wal-Mart. Good prices on all the sets they have left, including mostly Star Wars but also a few Atlantis, Power Miners, and Toy Story. I found one very lonely Raid VPR, the only SP set on the shelves. Man, I totally missed Space Police 3!

Very nice! I love the way the engines are built up, and the whole deep space, zero gravity feeling of the design. Hope you get to finish it someday!

Wait, what? Let's check off some basic attributes of the hobby: Takes place indoors Involves building things Involves children's toys Involves science fiction and fantasy franchises Involves small fiddly parts Requires some knowledge of engineering and design sense Has a jargon of its own (BURPs, SNOT, etc.) Requires lots and lots of time and patience And let's check off some things that it is NOT: A sport Social Related to celebrities A good thing to do while drunk Likely to impress the girls in the pub Porn Fast-paced Loud Dangerous A TV show Clearly, the things that Lego IS are all somewhere on the nerdiness spectrum, while it does NOT possess any of the attributes of pastimes that are common and "cool". Yes, yes, I know, Age of the Nerd, "the Geek shall inherit the Earth", it's cool to be uncool, yadda yadda yadda. Stop it. You are not fooling anyone with that. Bill Gates might be one of the richest guys in the world, but nobody ever stopped calling him a geek. The fact is, this is a quite nerdy hobby. But, but, but David Beckham! Brad Pitt! Will.i.am! Surely they all count for SOMETHING!! you cry. Well, no, not really. They don't count because they are known WEIRDOS. David Beckham, while surely one of the greatest symbols of awesomeness in the soccer-loving part of the planet, who married Posh Spice and has young girls all over the world drooling over his slo-mo replays, also paints his nails and waxes his chest. He has children named Brooklyn, Romeo and Cruz. He has been called "the ultimate metrosexual" and has converted to Buddhism. All of these things are weird. He gets away with them because he's David Effing Beckham and has scored in the World Cup more times than you've seen Star Wars. And being weird is part of his mystique. Will.i.am is, if anything, even weirder than David Beckham, but he rocks out with people like Fergie, Nikki Minaj, Akon and Mary J. Blige, and he's got seven Grammies. You can do stuff like wearing a Lego hat when you've got seven Grammies. The fans don't expect Will to come on stage wearing bunny slippers and a Simpsons T-shirt. They expect him to act weird. That doesn't mean that those very same fans won't laugh at you or me if we step onto the bus wearing that very same Lego hat. They will. They really, really will. You know what they say, don't try this at home. On the other hand, being a nerd or a geek these days is definitely not as much of a social crime as it was when I was a kid. The fact is, even though I'm quite geeky, I have something that resembles a social life, I occasionally go to cool parties, and I don't have to hide my SF books on the bus any more. The kind of movies I like are now the most popular movies around. It's a pretty tolerant time for geekiness today. And in some parts of society, this really is the Age of the Geek. The real question is, do you really care if Lego is nerdy? Does that make it any less fun? Is it better to veg out in front of the boob tube or get puking drunk with your mates in a sports bar every Friday? Must I stop reading science fiction because it's geeky? Hell no! I love being a geek. I am the one that everyone calls when they have computer problems. I am the one they ask for spelling help. I know why polar bears don't eat penguins and why it gets colder in the winter. I know the names of Mars' moons and most of the Greek, Roman and Egyptian gods. I can beat you at Scrabble, and I can crochet you a hat with any video game character you'd like. I have a vast collection of science fiction books, movies and games, I played Dungeons and Dragons way before that stupid Tom Hanks movie, and I'd rather build a Lego Klingon battlecruiser than watch the Superbowl. The geeks may not inherit the Earth after all, but I'm quite happy to be one. And no, I don't wear trousers 3 inches below my nipples or have a combover. I generally wear some ripped-up jeans and an Ecko hoodie, and my hair is about 3 millimeters long.

I didn't mean to kill your enthusiasm, Brickenhead. I would really love to see more animal molds. I'm sincerely quite pleased that there are goats and chickens in the new sets, and it would be lovely if you could get Lego to make another size of horse. But I don't believe they'd go for it. As far as I've seen, TLG's model is to keep things simple and universal - one dog mold to be all dogs, one horse to be all horses, etc. Which makes sense economically as well as keeping their brand identity, because if they start to do a lot of unique molded critters they are really creeping into Playmobil territory. Lego want to emphasize the imagination and construction aspect of Lego instead of the wide variety of special parts.

I love it. That's not an easy design to duplicate, and I think you got it really well. Wish we could see the interior! The figures are good, too, but maybe missing a little spark to give them the personality of the actual characters. Hard to render, I know. Dr. Manhattan needs a face, doesn't he? Maybe just blazing white eyes. And I would have given the Comedian a little less of a cheerful smile and more of a sneer, and some beard stubble. He sort of looks like Nightwing the way you have him now. Not that they're not good - I wouldn't have mentioned any of this if you didn't say that you're not completely happy with them. You can definitely tell who they are if you know the comic. ETA: of course, that is assuming the figs are custom made. If they are made from stock parts, then obviously you can't get every detail perfect. But they are custom, aren't they?

... and a llama for your South American villagers, and a bactrian camel for excursions to Mongolia, and a longhorn steer of course. And lions. Lots of lions.

No, no. The only evil here is the shameful history of the Lion Knights, who annexed the peaceful valley of the Dragon people, massacred Dragon peasants by the hundreds and made it illegal for Dragons to own or operate a smithy, thereby forcing the once-proud Dragon warriors to resort to brigandry to survive and arm themselves against further Lion incursions. The impartial observer will note two very disturbing things in this theme: first, that the Dragons are forced to make use of timber and makeshift weaponry to build even their smallish so-called "Prison Tower" (in reality, a library); second, and more disturbing by far, that there are no Dragon women. One can't help wondering what happened to them, but I think it's clear that the "brave Lion Knights" are not the paragons of virtue that they make themselves out to be. Dragons Forever!

That would be pretty cool, but wouldn't they have discontinued the current King's Castle if they were going to launch a new version of it? I doubt that they want to have two super-sized Kingdoms sets of almost the same product on the shelves at the same time. How many parents are going to buy their kids two versions of the same $100 castle?

Hell yeah! I want the District 9 mothership, not this dinky Mars Attacks thing. Some of the sets in this theme look great. Unfortunately, the mothership isn't one of them.

I mentioned a long ways back that the Queen Anne's Revenge and the Black Pearl are actually "played" by the same Hollywood ship with cosmetic surgery, so the sets ought to be about the same dimensions, although I'm sure the parts count won't be exactly the same. For the role of the QAR, they built up the stern of the ship and made some other changes. When I mentioned this the first time, I said Disney had to believe all their viewers were dummies that wouldn't notice the striking similarity between the ships. However, I've changed my mind about this. My prediction now is that the similarity is a story element. There is some kind of (probably supernatural) link between the two.

Spot-on review, Brickdoctor. I especially love your opening and closing pictures! Your criticisms of the set are all valid, but I have to say I would have given it a higher final score. To me, no matter how simple a build it is, and no matter that you don't get any really great parts in it, this is a classic set. The selection of minifigs simply can't be beat in the SW universe. In some of the CW sets, we're debating whether you should buy a $60 set on the strength of two unique minifigs (cough, cough, Jedi Shuttle). This one has five central characters. It's also one of the iconic vehicles, and I think the Lego rendition is maybe not the most faithful reproduction ever, but definitely a good-looking vehicle. It's pretty enough that months after I disassembled it for parts, I went back and rebuilt it, because I want this baby on my shelf. Swoosh swoosh! I should perhaps note that this was the first Lego set I bought (for myself) as an adult. P.S. - regarding the flex tubes, if you want to straighten them out after being in landspeeder form for a while, it might be worth trying to soak them in hot water for a short period. You might not be able to get them 100% straight, but it should help. This advice comes from the knitting world - it's what we generally do with circular knitting needle cables to straighten them out. Yon flex tubes look to be a similar sort of plastic to what a lot of circular cables are made of. Worth a shot, anyway.

Kids can be randomly cruel little monsters who pick up and comment on any kind of atypical behavior. I say this as a parent and as someone who often has these kinds of conversations with kids. ("Hey mister! Why is your hair green?" "Because brown is boring.") It sucks that they tainted your first Lego store experience like that. Don't let it get to you. For every kid who thinks you shouldn't be in the Lego store, there will be another three or four who think you are awesome because of your love for the brick.

I really hope you're right, as HP and POP gave us some of the nicest sets of 2010... POP had some brilliant architecture AND action features in at least two sets, and HP had nice, immaculately detailed buildings. The Burrow is still my favorite 2010 set that I haven't bought yet because you can't find it anywhere.

To be honest, I like them both, although I think Star Wars is more of a phenomenon than it deserves to be, and Trek has the edge in ideas. No denying that SW rules in the action department, though. Different strokes for different folks. (And, as my avatar shows, I truly think Babylon 5 is the best sci-fi franchise ever...) I have to give props to any Trek MOCs, though, just because they're different. Both ST and SW have really cool ships, but you can only see so many Venator MOCs before getting a little blase about it. I'd love to see some Klingon and Romulan Lego ships.