Lyichir

Just wondering, is anyone here on Eurobricks working on a review? I've been disappointed that no one has reviewed this set yet (not even in a video review, which I would generally avoid otherwise). On the plus side, my family might be getting this this weekend, so if there are no reviews by then I suppose I'll be less "spoiled"!

Bad Cop's Pursuit and Cloud Cuckoo Palace absolutely should NOT have been made into a single set. Cloud Cuckoo Palace is the only set at the $20 price-point, and has sold gangbusters as a result (selling out at a number of retailers as well as Lego.com). $40 sets are a much harder sell, and there are already tons of Lego Movie sets at the $30 price point that your proposed set would suddenly be in direct competition with. So while it might suit AFOLs like you or me if Lego were to bundle sets together, it's horrible business for appealing to the mass market.

Probably because it genuinely looked better on the Vampyre Castle, which was the first set it appeared in. Black would look like typical mechanical Technic. Dark Brown looked much more appropriate, like wood or rusted iron. I'd like it in black too, but it honestly doesn't bother me much for Hero Factory because at least in this year's sets, it's not used in any prominently visible locations.

I've been applying for retail positions in my area for months and have gotten rejected each time before even getting to the interview stage. I had hoped that I could do those jobs well and get an in with the company, but as far as I can tell, if you don't have prior retail experience they aren't interested. And good luck getting retail experience if you don't have any, because it seems all other retailers have the same idea. I also tried applying for a set design position, but by the time I got the email asking for examples of my work, the deadline had passed (and I didn't have a formal portfolio anyway). Hopefully I have better luck next time; in the meantime I'll be interning with a local toy designer to try and get some experience in the field.

Yellow is still generic in pretty much every Lego theme. Vitruvius doesn't change that. For all we know, in the movie Vitruvius is a custom fig owned by The Man Upstairs (which wouldn't have to abide by Lego's rules of fleshies vs. yellows). Anyway, regardless of why Vitruvius isn't yellow, it's not like the design of Vitruvius retroactively affects all past and future figs. Personally, my first impression of Vitruvius was that he was somehow a "suntanned" minifig (since his skin color, Medium Nougat, is often used for shading on yellow-skinned figs these days). That turned out to not be evidenced by the movie itself, so I decided to stop overthinking it and just accept that Vitruvius and Batman were fleshies and Emmet, Wyldstyle, and President Business weren't.

Probably not for some time. The order for those sets was reversed, partly because of the difficulty of getting the mech right and partly so that the Ghostbusters set could make it to consumers before the end of the anniversary year.

It's not clear, but a significant possibility is that he was made dark-skinned at the request of his voice actor, Morgan Freeman. Just because yellow is commonly depicted as "raceless" for non-licensed themes doesn't mean everyone sees it that way, and I'm sure an actor of his caliber had some say in what his voiced character would look like.

Well, Stay Puft is big enough that you could make a brick-built one (and from my experience at BrickFair a lot of people have). Slimer is trickier, but Rotta the Hutt or possibly the Alien Clinger from Alien Conquest could serve as compromises.

I don't think most boys would balk at the inclusion of a female fig in a set, but I do think there are some considerations that limit more widespread use of female characters in "boy-oriented" themes. Primarily, I think they might avoid making action sets with a majority of female characters (which contributes to the tendency for female characters to show up primarily in the largest sets which already feature multiple characters). It does reek of "token girl" syndrome, but I would hesitate to call those sorts of considerations unfounded without hard data on sales or focus testing. Kids having a character to relate to could easily contribute to the quality of their play experience, and even a bit of hesitation could make a difference at the point of sale.

Yup. Those were the weapons from the Bionicle playsets. The naming is due to the fact that the full set of weapons was available in each set that included them (possibly because they came off the same mold). As for what they're useful for, it depends. Some of them are meant as swords, some as bows, and for some it's not quite clear what they're supposed to be. But like most minifigure weapons, all of them could be relatively useful as greebling or mechanical details.

Well, price-per-piece isn't a very reliable metric no matter which country you're in. In the case of this set, as has been stated numerous times in this topic, the price-per-piece will be inflated because it uses ship hulls, tons of Technic panels, and other large and expensive parts. The Tower of Orthanc's largest parts were the plates used for the floors, and Rescue Reinforcements doesn't have many large parts either.

You didn't mention the color issues initially. Those could possibly be a plastic issue (although it's probably more likely a dye issue). But as for the other issues you mentioned, they're related to the molding process. The texture on the slope has to do with the surface finish on the mold (issues with slopes being too smooth were so endemic half a decade or so ago that I was under the impression that the smoother slopes were a deliberate change being phased in), and I assume by "the stud looks softer" you're referring to the crispness of the mold and not literal softness. I'm sorry if I was a little blunt, but having been a Bionicle fan I've dealt with the fallout of widespread oversimplification of part defects for a long time. In 2007 there was a bad batch of lime-green joint pieces that was extremely brittle, and it was initially blamed on "cheap plastic" (later, we got the official story—that this batch cooled too quickly and became brittle as a result—thus, the plastic formulation was the same). Then in subsequent years a new joint piece was introduced that also had a tendency to crack, and it was widely assumed to be caused by the same "cheap plastic" (even though it seems to have been a flaw in the geometries of the redesigned joint). Both issues were also widely blamed specifically on cheap plastic from China, even though to my knowledge the only Bionicle parts ever produced in China were the electronic "light-up" elements from 2006—a year before the fragile joints became a widespread problem. Quality issues in Lego are a big problem, and one that the company has been shown to be very concerned about. But fan misinterpretations of defects, especially ones that attribute multiple types of defects to a single cause, make multiple isolated problems seem like a single endemic problem. That poisons the dialogue and leads to kneejerk reactions, including accusations, boycotts and demands issued at Lego based on flawed assumptions. Fans should definitely continue to report quality issues to Lego and share concerns with each other—after all, corroborating evidence can help to identify real large-scale quality issues when they occur. But pinning the blame on a single factor without the evidence to prove it makes it harder for other fans to tell isolated problems apart from widespread ones.

Please stop saying cheap plastic when you don't mean it. You listed a number of legitimate issues with the part, but none of them have anything to do with the type or quality of plastic used. They're all molding issues. Blaming any and all part quality errors on the plastic quality is one of the most ridiculous memes in the AFOL community.

Queasy Kitty is mostly Sand Green, with some Olive Green and Spring Yellowish Green details. It's a very sickly color scheme, so I guess it works perfectly for its subject! This is the most steampunk-ish set we've ever gotten, what with all the pipes and valves and propellers. Maybe if it sells well enough, it'll pave the way for a full steampunk theme at some point!

Well, I suppose they aren't NOT canon unless the show actually contradicts them (since Ninjago has little in the way of a formal canon in the first place). But they also aren't usually connected to the main plot, instead telling independent adventure stories. And as such, they often feature zany plots that might not have anything to do with the show or the sets.

Before I got both sets last year, I would have said Fangpyre Wrecking Ball. But having both of them in front of me, I prefer the Rattlecopter. It's more unique and has awesome building techniques and functions, whereas the Fangpyre Wrecking Ball is literally just a crane with a snake head—its only functions are those a normal crane would have and an opening jaw.

More like a sign of things already here. It's used in this year's police station.

Personally, I'd love it if the minifig-scale sets continued even if we went back to traditional action figures. In fact, I'd love it if there were actual location-based playsets like Bionicle used to have, alongside larger Hero sets. For the time being, if I had to choose one, I'd pick the mini-Heroes. I don't want to say goodbye to them until they've been used to their full potential.

Huh. I had noticed earlier this year how outdated the 40-tooth gear is compared to some others (for example, a 3.2mm bar doesn't even fit through any of the technic axle holes), so perhaps it's being replaced later this year? It's certainly odd.

Are you sure? I thought it looked a little odd, too, but when the bike was assembled it seemed to be the same size as the one in the set. It should be easy enough to check, since the part's 5-digit design ID flashes onscreen when Wyldstyle first sees it. But I seriously doubt it's not an actual piece, since pretty much everything in the movie is (even if it doesn't exist in that color). So if it truly doesn't match any existing parts, perhaps it's a new Technic part for this summer!

Why does everyone always assume Octan is evil in Space Police 3 just because of that? The Black Hole Gang in Space Police 3 is essentially a motorcycle gang, and the Skull Twins are clearly just wearing racing jackets (which often include branding, and are sold to the public with the same branding). If I robbed a convenience store while wearing a Harley Davidson jacket, you wouldn't assume Harley Davidson hired me to do it. In fact, it would suggest the opposite: if a major corporation wanted to break the law, they certainly wouldn't have their goons wear their logo. The evil Octan in The Lego Movie has no such qualms, since they themselves make and enforce the law (something that clearly isn't the case in the Space Police theme).

Disclaimer: I am not privy to how the licensing for characters in The Lego Movie, or the licensing involved with putting Batman in a Lego Movie set, works. My hypothesis for why Green Lantern wasn't included in any sets is that there was a sort of paradox. It may have cost licensing money for Batman to appear in a non-Super Heroes set (which would explain why he only appears in one set despite being an important character). So if that were the case, for Green Lantern they'd either have to shoehorn him into the set with Batman (which would make that set overloaded with superheroes, as opposed to the variety of themes that set currently represents) or pay additional money to feature him in a set that didn't already feature DC characters. I'd love a Green Lantern fig as much as anyone, although personally in that case I'd have preferred the movie to have featured a comic-based Green Lantern fig, to go with the comic-styled Superman and Wonder Woman in the movie.

I've made my opinions on this story perfectly clear on other sites. Either she or the publication that found her is exploiting her image to make a point (a point that is not based on facts, and works against all that Lego Friends has accomplished by proving that girls can enjoy building toys just as much as boys). Non-gendered basic brick sets (of the sort that is featured in the original ad) still exist and are still perfectly good for both genders, and all Lego Friends has done is provide an option for the girls who prefer that sort of thing. I'm sick and tired of that gender neutral ad being brought up, anyway. Yes, it's completely different from the hyper-gendered advertising of today. But gendered advertising, even at its most repulsive, exists for a reason: to target a specific market. From effectiveness standpoint, did that ad from back in the day really make more parents buy their daughters Lego? Based on the lopsided gender diversity of Lego's audience up until the release of Lego Friends (and the comparatively low number of girls from that era who are AFOLs today), I would wager it didn't do as well as intended. I'm more interested in results than in feel-good advertising, and I'm sure Lego is as well.

After trying to build it myself, the answer to my question is no (at least, not without simplification). It'll also take more than just the Town Hall to make this in real life, and on top of that this image isn't really accurate to how it appears in the movie (for instance, in the movie, the second window on the second story has an air conditioning unit that uses a certain part in a non-existent color). I'm still trying to make a version of this on LDD with a furnished interior. Maybe once I'm done I can put it on Cuusoo.

The real question is, could you fit the apartment interior as depicted in the movie into the exterior? The interior looks somewhat small, but of course looks can be deceiving.