Shadows

My only dark blue gripe is that the injection point tends to be varying shades of blue nearing white, so if it's in an obvious position, it really draws the eye right to it. Oh, and I hate that no matter how hard you try, dark blue hats rarely look dark blue in pictures, but that's a personal problem. A lot of colours are doing that lately, especially the lighter ones like tan. Don't even get me started on how much yellow almost glows sometimes.

There are plenty of behaviours that should make people feel ashamed, LEGO isn't one of them, and for some people, it just might keep them out of those kinds of things. If people don't understand or accept you for who you are, they never will, that's just part of life. Personally, I drifted into my dark ages out of the classic "you're really too old for this" pressure and then came back with a vengeance 10 years later. Initially, I felt a little funny at times, despite the fact that I also bought Star Wars toys and had been for years. It seemed like you could take 15 action figures to a register and no one looked at you funny, but a couple of boxes of LEGO made people say things like, "oh, someone is getting a present" or some such crap. After a few times of that, I just let out a "yes I am!" and felt the freedom of being myself once again, unashamed and unconcerned about what other people thought. Give it a try, you'll be surprised at the reactions, which have ranged from concerned looks to "hey, that's cool!" Both are fun.

Thanks! I'm usually better at the story than the rest. Not intentionally, but I do see what you mean. I did own a lot of that set and somewhere along the way, the 2x3 slope attached to space seat idea must have stuck in my mind. I didn't remember it until you said something, so it's hard to say. It really achieves the intended purpose though, which was to create a speeder with a high backed seat for added support and stability. Something like this. It also provided the illusion of storage space and a way to attach a 3rd engine to the top, so I'm pretty happy with the result. Thanks again!

A Hunter's Tale As the Clone Wars were ending, bringing a period of law and order to the new Galactic Empire, people slowly discovered that this law and order only extended as far as the Empire's grasp, which was particularly weak in the worlds of the Outer Rim. As a result, crime lords and smugglers began to shift their operations to these remote worlds, which immediately suffered from their influence. What was a local government or wealthy legitimate businessman to do? Hire a gang, a mercenary, or better still... a bounty hunter. For those who were so inclined, the life of a bounty hunter could be quite profitable, albeit dangerous, always officially operating just inside the law, but frequently having to step fairly far outside it's range. One of the most useful tools for a bounty hunter operating on a small planet is a speeder bike or swoop, usually a fairly common vehicle that is then heavily modified and armed. Each one comes with a story. This is one such story. T-42b Swoop Bike Manufacturer: Aratech Repulsor Company Model: T-42b Class: Swoop (Modified) Length: 4.6 meters Maximum speed: 600 km/h Maximum altitude: 25 meters Armament: 2 Frame Mounted Taim & Bak Light Blaster Cannons 2 Galthor Technologies Heavy Ion Guns Crew: Pilot (1) Cargo capacity: 6 kilograms (Rear Compartment) Our story opens on the remote planet of Xanthor 7, a hot and dry planet not entirely unlike Tatooine, but dammit, how many times can we end up on that same stupid planet? The terrain is mostly made up of white bleached flats and lot of sandy hills, thus the incredibly boring background in our images. Front Left View Here you can see both the frame mounted Taim & Bak light blaster cannons positioned under the steering vanes and the Galthor Technologies heavy ion guns mounted directly in front of the steering controls. The blaster cannons can be used to help cripple a fleeing speeder or other small vehicle and the ion cannons can be used to disable it's engines, a droid, or any other electronics they might hit. To the left of the pilot is a mounted but removable Xana Exotic Arms L52 Liberator, a particularly nasty heavy blaster capable of taking down a bantha in one shot. Imagine what that would do to your average criminal. Front Right View From this angle, you can see that our bounty hunter also carries a Blastech E-11 heavy blaster rifle and a pair of specially upgraded binocs within handy reach for those long range scouting jobs. Back Right View A good view of the engine and cargo compartment which can be used to carry additional supplies. It is quite possible to camp out for as long as a week with supplies carried by this swoop. Longer if one doesn't mind the lack of bathing. Back Left View Another view of the engine and the Xana Exotic Arms L52 Liberator. Side View The side profile of the T-42b. Note the curved shape of this model, which is what differentiates it from a normal speeder and puts it in the swoop class. The repulsor nature of this swoop causes it to tilt forward slightly when unoccupied. What appears to be a clear disc under it is just an illusion created by the displacement of sand as it hovers. And here is our bounty hunter, the not particularly infamous Imperial Shadows. You'll notice that he's well armoured and carrying both a small blaster and a lightsaber. Don't ask me where he got that, he's no jedi and he'll probably end up cutting his own arm off eventually. His armour is primarily salvaged Clone armour from a commander who clearly didn't fare as well as he has. The robes are actually covering full climate controlled body armour to keep him comfortable in all conditions. The eyepatch is a cleverly disguised video display that links him to his ship's computers, a number of remote droid cameras and an extended sensor array located in his helmet. Plus 382 channels of holovid broadcasts... and still nothing worth watching. What? You want to know what's under his helmet? Well, ok... It's dark blue, dammit! Huh? Under that? Oh, well, er, uh... Not a word. Not a single word or I'll he'll shoot. And on that note, it's time for him to leave: he has a target to find, which means it's time to hit the local information brokers. It's really bright out today, look at all that glare. After a long day visiting cantinas looking for information, we see our hero sleeping off his drunk. Just another day in the exciting life of a lush bounty hunter.

I, for one, applaud this movement. Anything that gets the unwashed masses to shut things down for an hour means more electricity for my world domination plans, and that's always good for everyone. Especially me. Put me in the "this is nothing but feel good crap" column with Sinner. It's sort of like donating endless millions to diseases we aren't a day closer to curing after 50 years or forced recycling programs with extra pickup schedules that only end up creating huge piles of supposedly recyclable materials that no one has any interest in paying to recycle. Nothing says wasted effort like a pile of sorted garbage that is still taking exactly as much space as before and serving no purpose.

Great review, as always! Complete and insightful and really dead on in every regard. As overpriced as this is, they could have included a full AT-TE to show off it's compatibility and still nearly hit the price point. Like you, I would have settled for a full complement of clones or a couple of unique figures. Something to justify that price. Dead on. I was hyped up initially, but sticker shock set in and now I'm just sitting back and waiting for a sale. A good one. Until then, I'll buy some clone battle packs to eventually put in the empty spaces of the box to bring this up to a full crew.

I've been working my way through the new pirates torsos (and flags) and looking for interesting variation potential. In some cases, it's been easy, but I've found that both of the new leaders, the Governor (he is the governor, right?) and Captain Blingbeard Brickbeard both seem to offer a lot of potential, but somewhere along the way, I'm missing it and ending up with very boring variations. One problem I have with both is the amount of gold. It's insane, unrealistic, and probably going to rub off in time. Whatever the case, I've created versions that give the golden illusion, but also non-golden editions that I think offer a great deal more promise for other uses. What I want to ask is simple... what colour combinations do you think would work well for these torsos? Do they even vaguely resemble anything historical, and if so, what? This is your chance to guide me to making the next few recolours of these two seemingly useful, but baffling designs. Please try to stick to recognizable LEGO colours (or that tacky gold, if you must ). Governor?: Original and Recoloured Fronts, Original and Recoloured Backs In this case, you can select almost anything: shirt colour, jacket colour, lapel colour, button colour, sash colour. Captain Brickbeard: Original and Variations Now this one offers a few more options. Aside from all the colour selections, you can also choose with or without shirt buttons or pockets. The buttons are HUGE and silly looking. The pockets are odd, but they do work sometimes. As you'll notice, the last 2 versions are basically fancy suits of maybe the 1800's. Seriously, if you take everything I know about clothing, you'll end up with a post shorter than this. To me, the black one is straight out of Disney's Haunted Mansion and the right one is some guy who the Three Musketeers bumped into in the street one day. As for a back, I'd prefer to make something similar to the Governor's, a simple 2 button design without all that nonsense. So there you have it, I am at your mercy, your beckon call, guide me to some useful designs and I'll add them to my crazy index. Thanks for your help!

Way to go, LuxorV! I can't think of anyone who could deserve it more!

If I remember correctly, the person responsible actually mentioned it in one of your threads. At least I think so... That sounds dirty. Now you kids behave and no titling while I'm out!

He looks good! I never was sure what TLG was trying for with that basic design, so I don't know where he's from either, but he's clearly dressed for military success. I'd like to see him with gold or white epaulettes, I think that would really work if you've got them. Always happy to see one printed.

That isn't bad at all, I'm impressed! It looks like some sort of armoured couch for mecha to sit on without causing damage. It actually looks like it should transform into something else... Couchbot, the retro-futuristic saviour of Furniture City! Or it could just be me. As for the annoying piece, I didn't even realise it existed in green, I'll have to get some of those. I thought you were going to mean the curved brick with engine holes on the side, which is also an annoyingly useless piece in quantity. I have no less than 50 in medium blue. Sometimes, I can't pass up adding piles of .01 parts to the end of Bricklink orders, it makes the parts/price ratio so much better after spending the first part of the order on $1+ individual parts.

As far as I can recall, they're a one piece construction, they don't come off. Pretty much the same way Fabuland arms work. You could simply replace the arms with normal minifig arms, but the length will be a little off. If I could find my Hagrid, I'd be a little more specific. *looks around*

We probably would have found another cryptogram.

We're making lists? OK! This thread is giving me a headache. Daddy gets mean when he gets a headache. Stop giving me a headache or I'll have to grind you up into little bits and put you in my caffeinated drink of choice. Lists are cool. Oh, and kids today don't give a rat's megablocks about Back to the Future, sadly. I'd take that line in a heartbeat over anything Disney except The Great Mouse Detective or Duck Tales :wub: (which, coincidentally, share at least one voice actor in common). Great, now I'm off topic.

His point seemed to be that he wasn't interested in anything that would require being over 18 (though calling it 'crap' is inappropriate) and that brought on a couple of replies ignoring that point and asserting things that aren't even accurate. Let's not turn this into an "age of consent in various locations" conversation, please. Even if that makes you happy. *just shakes his head and leaves the 'Happy' topic*

There shouldn't be a 2009 wave after the summer ones and I wouldn't count on Indy being around year after year. It probably will make it to 2010, but I can't see it going much further, there just isn't enough to devote new sets to and honestly, it doesn't seem like a long term theme like Star Wars. That said, you've already posted in the right place to discuss this, so why start a new thread as well? I'll lock this.

Go Mary! He? I wondered about that as well, especially since we never found the switch to trigger it. Aw, let's be honest, it was another Draggy vanity plot where he's not even supposed to be in it and ends up the central character. If we didn't love him so much...

*yells from the audience* Needs more Hinckley jokes! (he pays me to say that) Disclaimer: "Behind the Helm" is not to be confused with "EB News", "EB News Presents", "EB News Reviews", the "EB News Team" or me. There might be a bit of similarity between Captain Zuloo and Staudie, but we'll be polite and not discuss that.

I'm not complaining, I just think it would have been fascinating to see what everyone would have said at that point. We can do that anyway, really, so here goes. Personally, I would have guessed wrong, pure and simple. I knew that Spencer was probably the Guardian or connected to him. I knew that the sword was likely to be the weapon and actually believed the dining room to be the scene. I had a few problems with the rest of it for a few reasons. 1. The Dragonfreaks wouldn't have emptied out the treasure and abandoned an estate full of valuable items that they had so much attachment to. 2. They would have cleaned up their mess appropriately, as opposed to throwing things in random places and running like hell, it just isn't their style. The gas shows that. THAT is their style. Or rooms with floors that open and drop you into a spiked pit. 3. Why invite us to solve a murder they committed? It's silly. That left me thinking it was Mr. Dunne. I had concluded that in the course of planning the remodeling, he had discovered the secret room, then used the private dinner as an opportunity to kill Chester and loot the place. Simple as that. Heck, we all thought there was a room behind the wood panel from the moment we walked in the house the first night, we just couldn't get in. That gave the dragonfreaks a reason to invite us. They knew it was one of us and wanted to know which one so they could recover their lost treasure. If it's Spencer, they already know who and why and wouldn't have any need for us. As an alternative, I wondered if a twist could have made it the Professor since he recognised some of the artifacts in the house and had access to a lot of research material. He could have found some kind of reference to the construction of the house and wanted to find the treasure for himself. If the treasure had still been hidden, I would have probably gone with him as the prime suspect. It could have made a thrilling ending where he pulls a gun and thanks us for finding 'his' treasure. I would have distracted him by calling him girl's names and Max could have hit him with a big hammer. I'm sure they'll be more in the future, though Draggy may be running out of locations by now. Coming Soon: Mystery Chalet, where a group of weirdos in dragon costumes go skiing during the winter.

One of my very favourites. I quiver with anticipation to see how it will play out in Noir Mafia.

Hunh... well, I guess that's one way it could go, but honestly, I can put together at least 5 full scenarios where the clues still fit especially regarding murder location. I didn't really look at this as a game for guessing and expected a more concrete case before I would have actually submitted it. Maybe if we do this again, something could be said like, "Someone has successfully guessed the answer, please submit any final guesses before the summary is posted." That would have been a more fun way to end something this involved. Congrats Sandy! Since we all missed the clues that told the actual room, how did you come up with it, or was that a process of elimination based on previous guesses? As for you, Dragonbreath, I'll see you in court. I've already been to the hospital where they recorded the effects of the green gas and now that you have confessed to introducing it into our systems, you're going to be spending a lot of time in a very small room. Weirdo. Almost as bad as Chester. And don't get me started on a killer who takes the time to cut loose a dumbwaiter to drop a sword down it, but couldn't just clean and return the sword to it's proper place. Then rolls up a rug to burn it, but leaves a bloody napkin in a vase. Yes, this was a bright killer.

Lt. Spencer Soldiery Pants already said it was his. Double duh. :hmpf: So now what... maybe we could go back to the kitchen and look for Col. Mustard and make a sandwich?

And a conservatory, a parlour, a bunch of hallways, a billiards room and a closet. I'm not at all sure this house is fitting for inclusion in the trust, nor do I understand why we're being allowed to run around it when a bunch of dragonfreaks with a secret own it. I think this is really an elaborate trick and we're all being filmed by one of those ridiculous "reality" shows.

I'd like to follow the prints to wherever they specifically go in the room, then carefully examine what is there. Incorrectly, it would seem.

We aren't allowed outside, apparently, so let's just continue up the next stairs. Ladies with capes first!