Lyichir

Squidward is in that set, you can see him in the boxart. Dutchy maybe should've had a molded head like Squidward, so his beard wouldn't have to have been printed on his torso like that.

I wanted one thing from these sets to change: I felt some of the Ninja vehicles needed more elemental patterns. And with these new pics, that's exactly what I got. I am quite impressed.

Yeah, I can't think of anywhere better to get LEGO in the D.C. area than the two LEGO Brand Stores in Northern Virginia. One, as mentioned before is at the Tysons Corner shopping center, while the other is at Potomac Mills. There's one more in Annapolis, Maryland and a fourth in Hanover. I don't know of anywhere to find LEGO at a bargain in the area, but at the brand stores you can at least get them at MSRP, and be eligible for VIP points while you're at it. EDIT: Just saw your point about not being able to travel far outside the city. D.C. itself isn't the best for shopping, but if you want LEGO I might suggest the National Building Museum. They currently have an exhibition of LEGO Architecture by LEGO Certified Professional Adam Reed Tucker. The actual architecture sets should be sold at the exhibit, and I'd think the White House set would make a good souvenir, although again I can't guarantee you a discount.

By the second point, are you referring to red's status as one of the main prototype/placeholder colors? The thought gives me an image of Black Phantom with medium lilac (Bricklink's dark purple) for his "bone" elements. Front, you are truly a master of building anticipation by mentioning tiny tidbits of information.

I'm of a similar opinion about some of the Ninja vehicles. Zane's Snowmobile is fairly decent, reusing the "ice wedges" as it does. I also like Cole's tank-thing. I don't know what the transformation is supposed to represent (it actually makes it look "snakier", so perhaps he gets hypnotized by one of the hypno-staffs?) But one thing I especially like on these two is the elemental detailing: the big rotor parts on Cole's vehicle have earthy patterns, and there's the aforementioned ice wedges. But Jay and Kai's vehicles lack this. Kai's is pretty awesome without, and since it has a lot of smooth surfaces LEGO could conceivably add flame decals. But there aren't as many smooth surfaces on Jay's jet, and it needs more detail badly. The art we've seen even adds crackling lightning at the front and along the wings, but I feel that this effect should be present on the actual model rather than photoshopped in. It's not too late for it to change, so I hope that vehicle gets some more detail somehow.

One thing I've noticed that LEGO City is missing is a good snowplow. Being up at college in Vermont, I see quite a few of these as winter approaches. Perhaps it's too seasonal to be a sustainable set in the main City line, but I can see LEGO adding one of these to next years Winter Village set.

For reals. A lot of what governs price is the mass of plastic required. Smaller parts actually use more plastic relative to the area they take up: it's easy to tell this by stacking three 2x2 plates, and comparing that to a 2x2 brick. So a set like this obviously costs a decent amount, because you're getting a massive amount of fiddly detail pieces. My dad's in the VIP program, so I'm hoping he gets this.

I disagree with your sentiment that a loss for LEGO would be in our best interest. For one, I doubt competition from shoddy clone brands would really affect the price point of LEGO. And I see no reason why Lego ought to reconsider their violence policy, it having worked for them for so long. Plus, I can't understand why competition from this clone brand would cause them to reconsider that policy anyway: Many other clone brands have had successful army-based themes for ages, and Lego hasn't changed their stance on modern warfare in sets.

Lloyd looks somewhat underwhelming (in terms of originality), but I'm okay with him. And he does look like Garmadon: in a recent episode on LEGO.com, it showed Garmadon before he fell, and he looks quite a lot like that. Of course, I doubt that's a coincidence: the TV producers probably had some early designs of Lloyd to base him on. And I also disagree about Garmadon's arms. While I've dreamt of four-armed minfigures for a while, Garmadon seems like exactly the wrong way to do it. Look at how tall his torso is, compared to his legs! Perhaps if LEGO had used the longer Toy Story legs he'd look better. But of course, then he'd be even more enormous... The snakemen are a mixed bag. Some of them I love, and some will have to grow on me. Fang-Suei in particular: I see what they were going for, but he comes out looking kinda derpy.

Age: 20 Age you started building: 4 Country: USA Occupation: Student Married: No Children: None Does your spouse or child/children build: No Do you have close friends who build: A few Do you build together with your friends: Rarely Do you regularly attend Lego conventions: Brickfair in Washington D.C., once per year How much money do you spend on Lego product a year: Too much to count! How much time do you spend building/playing a day: Around an hour a day, more or less Favored theme/themes: Bionicle, Exo-Force, Space Police III, Atlantis, Power Miners, Agents, Ninjago, Collectible Minifigures Do you primarily collect retail sets, build MOCs, or both?: Both Did you experience a "dark age": No If yes, what age did you enter your "dark age" -- What age did you exit your "dark age": -- Other hobbies (other toy collecting, sports, drawing etc.): Video games, drawing, reading In your own words what makes Lego bricks so special: Quality products, useful as a creative medium May I PM you with a request for a personal interview: No

It's not called Dino 2012. It's just "Dino". The "2012" in the topic title refers to when the sets come out.

The lack of civilians/minor characters is something that plagues a lot of action figure lines. Not just Lego -- I remember when my little brother was into Rescue Heroes, he was usually at a loss for who they had to rescue. Some action figure lines revel in making figures of minor characters, of course, such as Star Wars; but these figures are usually intended for collectors rather than Hero Factory's target audience of boys ages 9 to 16. As buildable action figures, it's not impossible to custom make your own civilian characters (although they won't match the ones in the show, of course). And I expect that's going to continue to be the only solution to populating your own personal Makuhero City.

Actually, the Friends figs are about a plate taller than regular figs. Additionally, one of the Friends sets uses a regular minifig head with a new hairpiece as a mannequin. So I think it's pretty much confirmed that Friends hair would work on minifigs and vice-versa (except for some of the longer hair, which may or may not interfere with minifig shoulders). And Alywin, I checked the site. Good pictures indeed, although unfortunately all I'm seeing is police and fire (no pics of some of the miscellaneous vehicles).

I've been trying to do this with 30080 Ninja Glider for a few weeks now. So far, no luck: unlike sturdy sets like the Tiny Turbos, the set has a very finicky structure, and when I attach one part another tends to come off. But I haven't broken down and opened the bag yet!

Very nice! I've been hoping that Lego would do more sets based on the original Cars, including a tractor-tipping set with Frank, a tractor, and Mater or McQueen. And I think this is a great rendition of how Frank could be done as a set, with one minor exception: I don't think Lego still uses the curved part you used for his "horns". But in terms of scale, style, and simplicity, this would fit right in with the rest of the Cars line!

I don't, but my dad does occasionally. He was peeved when my little brother opened and built his two original, numbered Santa Fe Super Chiefs, to say the least.

Now I see! The ninjas teamed up to drive out all the Bad Dudes, so that no-one could stop them from kidnapping the president! In other news, this most recent video is one of my favorites. Now I finally understand the chain of authority in the Underworld, whereas before I was unsure whether Garmadon or Samukai was the true ruler. And it turns out that before being banished, Garmadon was a beautiful bishounen.

I'd speculated about a set like this since the Spongebob theme first showed up. In Spongebob, the Flying Dutchman refers to a ghost pirate, rather than a ghost ship (although he does have one of his own). A minifigure alone would hardly be a set, though, so perhaps the ship would be included as well, if not some other scene. Both he and the ship are a ghostly green color, so I'm not sure how they'd be best depicted in Lego. Ideally, he'd some sort of glow-in-the-dark color, although no Lego color both glows and has that rich green color. And trans-green is a no-no, seeing as Lego has confirmed that they can't make minifigs in transparent colors. I'm fairly sure he WILL be a regular minifig; they'd be wasting an opportunity if they didn't use the tail from the upcoming collectible minifig genie. I haven't gotten any Spongebob sets since the first wave, but this piques my interest and I can't wait to see pictures. Bummer for the Pirates of the Caribbean fans, though: there's no way Lego would release two differently-themed sets with the same name in the same year.

Bingo. Any parts that flex, sails included, are way harder to program. In the case of sails you're dealing with parts that flex along many axes (consider that sails behave differently when used as sails and when used for other purposes, as in this set). With rigging you're trying to manipulate a string that in most cases has varying tension, and endpoints, depending on where you tie it. The minifig cape, on the other hand, needs zero flexibility to fit on a standard fig (it still would need complex flexibility to fit on minifigs with body armor, something it currently lacks).

I'm still skeptical of whether such a theme would be a success. However you slice it, Lord of the Rings is darker than any other license Lego has produced for. It may not be more violent than Pirates of the Caribbean or Star Wars, but it is heavier, with far less humor. And I don't know what Gryphon Ink is talking about in terms of it being popular with kids: I was at least thirteen before I really got into Lord of the Rings, and even then I couldn't find any friends my age with the same interest. Teens are a periphery demographic for Lego. That's the age most kids enter their dark ages, and few ever come out.

Keep in mind that we can't be sure there's no second wave. Occasionally a theme will skip a season; I believe Agents did this, having one wave in Summer 2008 and having the second wave in Summer 2009. On topic: I can't really tell what "Lego Space standards" is supposed to mean. Lego Space has been a diverse theme for some time, with sets of varying quality. I don't see how Alien Conquest is less deserving of the title of "Space theme" than any other; while space is no longer the backdrop, the theme clearly is meant to fit that sci-fi niche. I don't see how this theme is lower quality than other themes either; then again, I liked Space Police III's cyberpunk-esque style and its many homages to classic themes, and while I had no love for Mars Mission at the time of its release, its space-horror aliens and space-military human factions have grown on me in hindsight. Lego Space hasn't been one homogenous theme since Life on Mars in the early 2000s, and I don't see how any theme is more- or less-worthy to carry that label.

I can confirm at least that this set, if it was ever released, included both the blue and green rings. Look at the pictures again: in each, one ring is on the watch and the other is set aside. I don't know for sure which minifig was included or whether it was ever really released (although two people claim to have it on Brickset; make of that what you will).

Very neat! A question: what size is this compared to a real one? My brother and I once tried to build a classic Nintendo DS to the same scale as a real one, but were daunted by the complex clamshell design. Also, does this PSP look as good from the back as it does from the front?

I have it! It's a great comic, and I agree that it has some fascinating builds in it. This is the earliest example I've seen of a story built around LEGO, and I think it's just as charming as modern Lego media like Clutch Powers. I think this topic still deserves to stay; the old one was just a question/answer topic. We could use this one to discuss the book itself.

The Gateway of the Squid may not be able to stand up to the City of Atlantis, but the Portal of Atlantis sure can. I was disappointed with the City of Atlantis, especially after I found that the main function (the Golden King ascending from beneath the stage) worked poorly compared to the amazing opening shark jaw gate and portal of the previous year's flagship. What's more, as much as I like the Greek columns and porticos of this year's Atlantis sets, they don't compare to the almost-Lovecraftian architecture of last year's. I don't regret getting City of Atlantis by any means, but it didn't blow me away like the Portal did.