Littleworlds

I just discovered the changes. They gave me quite a scare at first. Well, being scare-crows, that's kinda implied^^, but they look genuinely cheerful and happy. I like them!

What is the "best" lies in the eye of the beholder. I think Lego ideas as a platform for fresh and new input is just a wonderful idea. And if you look at sets like the Exo Suit, the Research Lab, the birds and the recent Fishing Shop - it works and it doesn't needs a license for having a intereting and pretty cool set. When I got the Exo Suit I was more or less fresh out of my dark ages and really enjoyed the inventiveness of the build. So many parts used in so unusual ways. It is one of the greatest sets of all time to me and what makes it even better is that it was originally a MOC and not an in-house desgin Thats the spirit which makes Lego Ideas so good. Of course I don't mind licensed sets. Neither in Ideas nor in the regular themes. But they shift Lego a bit away from being a construction toy with countless possibilities to create something new into something more static and conventional (For example I doubt that many kids take the expensive licensed sets from Star Wars or super heroes apart and build something new from its pieces). From that perspective I wont call the licensed sets being the best Lego did, since they just serve the fans of a certain franchise. There are some excellent designs amongst them, but the non licensed sets are just as good. I do like licensed sets though and I do own a number of them by myself. From several franchises. But I very much enjoy the freedom Lego gives me to simply modify and recombine and reinterprete the sets I have. Also looking at the recent changes in the rules for Lego ideas submissions, whilst they are clearly not against licensed sets (the caterham and the beatles sets are a clear indicator for that), they are nevertheless quite conscious to support the inventiveness of the submitters and to have a good share of non licensed sets released too. Just look at the competition the Fishing Store did win against. Apart from that, the Bus doesn't seems to me like a especially intersting set in the first place. The helicarrier was something really special with a distinctive look. The Bus looks basically just like a beefed-up airliner. If its actually for the sake of the minifigs, well, they might have higher chances to get accepted by themselves than together with a huge black jet, if you ask me. Maybe as a diorama.

This is really fantastic! The ships look so good - from the big frigate to the tiniest star fighters - wonderful

Yes. Thats what Lego Ideas is about.

Very nice! And pretty much spot on!

They surely are: Back to the Future, Ghostbusters, Classic Space and things like the birds or the Caterham are clearly not aimed for kids. The sets are either too 80s, or too much display-pieces really.

Hello everyone! I got a bunch of new sets recently and amongst them were three entry-level Nexo Knights sets. So without further ado, lets begin! The Glob Lobber (70318) Nexo Knights is pretty much hit or miss for me (the good guys are mostly miss). This one, I found initially appealing, because of the weird lava-monster-guy with the Mohawk (he is apparently called Flame Thrower), who has really some potential, but also for the quite interesting selection of pieces it contains. These interesting pieces make up a large crossbow with lots of thorns and spikes sticking out of it. There is even something that looks like insect-legs! Despite all the detailing it is not a terribly impressive build though if you ask me. Especially since the shooting mechanism is not made of the cool flick-fire missiles, introduced last year (which are quite prominently featured in the Star Wars sets), but the old-school stud shooters you have to push out of their fasteners – meh. Building the crossbow-thing is pretty simple, as you would expect and nicely sturdy thanks to the use of technic-elements. But the whole build just doesn’t looks especially remarkable to me. It is a quite chunky piece of artillery, but it really asks me for rebuilding it into something way more interesting. Anyway. As I said didn’t really buy the set because of that, so that is ok for me. The minifigures, on the other hand, look more interesting and will give me a lot of fun customizing them. Flame Thrower looks nicely demonic and has quite defined abs printed on, which reminds me on the devil in the 1980s movie Legend. He comes with a little stud-shooter crossbow for him, which I really like a lot. Why he is wearing a quiver though – and even in brown – is beyond my understanding. But it surely will make one of my castle-archers very happy! The Royal Guard looks quite nice, even if his colour-scheme is more like that of a race-driver. But this is Nexo Knights here and that makes him look actually pretty unremarkable, compared to the other characters. All in all I find this is a nice and simple little set, that offers a fair deal of interesting pieces, but sadly not a pretty appealing model. Especially for its price point, it is rather good though. It is maybe not as desirable as sets with more popular characters, like the sets of the Nexo Knights Ultimate-series, (which cost about the same), but surely makes a nice little gift! Ultimate Macy (70331) I really begin to like the smaller Nexo Knights sets. Once you got over the anime-style super-sized weapons and the comic superhero-feel of the characters, they can be pretty rewarding: they are fun looking (if sometimes a bit silly), with quite diverse Minifigures and interesting pieces. Ultimate Macy is a great example of this. The set just looks good and has really something going on with it. They also come for a really decent price, which always helps! As usual for the series, She comes with a display-stand that holds the different types of equipment she has, which makes it relatively simple to change between various nexo-power setups without displacing pieces. Ok, it can be a bit fiddly though to take off and attach all that stuff from her and her plume is prone to fall off from her helmet during the process, but it is pretty impressive what amount of pieces the Lego designers came up to attach to a single minifigure. The visualizations of her different Nexo Powers looks pretty cool though and are nicely distinct, though personally I like it simpler really and like it when my minifigures are able to stand on their feet without help. As usual for the series, she comes with a display-stand that holds the different types of equipment she has, which makes it relatively simple to change between various nexo-power setups without displacing pieces. Ok, it can be a bit fiddly though to take off and attach all that stuff from her and her plume is prone to fall off from her helmet during the process, but it is pretty impressive what amount of pieces the Lego designers came up to attach to a single minifigure. The visualizations of her different Nexo Powers looks pretty cool though and are nicely distinct, though personally I like it simpler really and like it when my minifigures are able to stand on their feet without help. The Macy minifigure itself shows some very elaborated printing and a pretty cool, but hefty translucent armour with studs on the back where her minigun is attached. The translucency reminds me a lot on the volcanic-glass armour from The Elder Scrolls games btw. She also comes with two faces: one with a confident smirk (and a slight hint of pink lipstick), the other bruised and pretty upset. All in all Ultimate Macy is a pretty sweet set, that offers quite lot for under 10 Euro. If you are looking for interesting pieces for MOCs, the set might be pretty useful for you (as Nexo Knights set usually are). Of course Macy herself wont fit into an authentic medieval setting, but I can clearly see her in a fantasy- or sci-fi-context. If you are a fan of Nexo Knights, she will be a good addition to your line-up anyway. And will bring some impressive fire power! Ultimate General Magmar (70338) As every Ultimate version of the Nexo Knights characters, the general comes with a pretty impressive backpack-thing (the only exception I am aware of is Lavaria, who got a spider torso instead. So much cooler!). While Macy’s backpack last time was all about her huge minigun stud-shooter, the General is more into spinning stuff. His main mode of attack consists of two large rotating fire wheels mounted on arms made of technic-parts. This allows them a quite impressive freedom of articulation and a decent amount of stability. There must be an unwritten rule for Nexo Knights designers that no minifigure hand shall be free, which means that he also got a quite impressive translucent red axe in his right hand in addition to his already pretty impressive armament. The wheels can be replaced by also translucent turbine blades, which act as spinning axes. Both variants do their job quite nicely, but I prefer the fire wheels really. They are just looking a tad more impressive. But really interesting are these parts for me when it comes to potential implementation in MOCs. They both will surely do very well as engine parts for space-ships! There is also a third, more simple Nexo power variant, which consists of only a fighting pole with large fists on both ends (together with the inevitable shield-tile to switch to of course). The fists can be also directly attached to a minifigures hands like huge boxing gloves. This variant looks a bit meagre compared to the others, but again, from a MOC perspective (and Lego is all about building after all), the fists might find their use on an exosuit or a battle robot. Something I actually won’t have considered building before getting this set. Oh, and a nice detail worth to mention: unlike other ultimate-characters, the general is actually able to stand on his own feet without any supporting parts when wearing his backpack. They extend far enough forward to provide a decent counter-weight that stops him from tipping over! The General Magmar minifigure himself features some very neat detailing. Ok, his rubber hair-piece tends to get knocked off pretty easily, but looks pretty cool and barbaric, which definitely suits his character. It is the same piece as the plume on Macy’s helmet, but in black – so lets not be surprised that it sticks on just as “well”. He also comes with a peculiar jaw-protection, which looks like a low visor (did somebody say dental brace?) from a medieval-style helmet, but without helmet. It reminds me quite a lot of this guy here. It is a quite exotic thing but works well on him, no matter how impractical it actually would be in the real world – but this is Nexo Knights after all! What I really like on him though is the armour plates/scales printing on his torso. A nice combination of colours and rib/armour plate/scale patterns: so very evil! Also a nice detail: the back of his head shows this quite impressive printing too. All in all Ultimate General Magmar is a very good example of the Nexo Knights Ultimate series. It features some really cool designs, if you like the style. And if you don’t, then maybe using the set as source for interesting pieces make you happy. I find them quite useful, at least. The highlight of the set though is the very well designed and properly demonic looking minifigure – and all this at a pretty decent price-point. I definitely recommend it! That's it for now! I hope you liked my reviews. If you like to see more pictures, you can find them (amongst other stuff) on the Littleworlds Blog!

Surely this is an adult-oriented set, as well there is an adult market, and several adult-targeted sets before and not only from ideas. All the 80s movie sets that are not star wars, for example As for the Yellow Submarine set: i find the look of both minfigs and the boat Itself very appropriate, even if yellow skin would be more appealing to me, its clear TLG wont break their licened-skin-tone policy. The price is a bit on the steep side though, but actually just where comparable sets are located too. I don't plan to get it for myself, but I expect it to be a significant seller at christmas, that will attract a lot of interest from outside the Lego community. News sites are reporting on it, and the nostalgica factor if someone happens to be a beatles-fan and has fond memories of playing with Lego as a kid, is surely irresistible for many.

I am sure, christmas has absolutely nothing to do with that

It is sad really. I came out of my dark ages thanks to the Kingdoms and LoTR theme, just to see them disappear before I could start with them properly. I think everybody agrees on the need for a proper medieval/fantasy theme coming up. At least for us AFOLs. But TLG is producing what sells, and as long there is no increase in interest in medieval fantasy in their target audience (which are not AFOLS), our only chance might be indeed the secondary market or CMFs. And no, 3rd party pieces are not an option to me. This said, at least for fantasy-purposes, themes like Nexo Knignts and Ninjago have some use, but that comes totally down to personal preferences, if one wants to go with their style, or not.

So much wonderful pipework! A beautiful work, very steampunk

Excellent, beautiful build and amazing photographing

I like this film a lot. What a lovely homage you made for it. Especially the poster is hilarious!

This looks utterly lovely! You captured the spirit of the elven theme perfectly with its magical cuteness and warm colours. The trees blend in very wonderfully and underline the otherwordly feel of it.

First of all: sounds like a pretty cool project and I'd like to see pictures of it, even in its current, unfinished state. And since you are questioning a full hullmby yourself, you kind of gave the answer already I would also prefer a waterline-build (and maybe use loose transparent 1x1 tiles to mimic the sea, if the size of the model allows). It is a hobby after all and should be in the first place enjoyable for you. Its your build, you make the rules. And if you, at some later point, want to add a full hull to it - you can still do that. That would also distribute the financial burden more.

*Waves* I like it too! Looks very cute and fun

Wow! What an impressive piece! It is again and again amazing what one can do wirh Lego. I find it also very nice that you document the building process

So very much! I store my pieces in icecream tubs. What a chore to get enough together!

I am quite happy that its no license theme this time Also the fishermans shop looks very, very, good. Even if the final model might not have much going on as a playset, its sheer scenic beauty will surely attract a lot of adult buyers. Its quite like the architecture models in this regard and I think that adults are more the typical target audience of the ideas-line anyway. So TLG have decided to try something new, but at the same time they didn't, because similiar sets do already exist. It is a good decision either way, if you ask me

I say clearly not. For me the indiana jones theme was already quite border line. There are already more than enough military themed toys around and I enjoy the fact that Lego is something different and less war-focused. This said, themes like ninjago, star wars, nexo knight of course feature fighting, but are clearly based in fiction and are presented pretty comical (I just say yoda chronicles). Its similar with the old castle themes: The middle ages are just so far away in time that our idea of them is mostly romantic and nostalgic, with no real connection to todays world, its politics and the gritty, violent nature of war. All this wont apply with a theme based on modern warfare and I certainly wont have my kids exposed to the glorification of violence such a theme would bring. Yes, I am strictly against military toys in general. A piece of solace for all who want to built their tanks and bombers and whatnot: there are enough MOCs around and im sure instructions exist too. If adults want to play modern war: have fun, but please keep the kids out of it.

I just saw the result. I'm quite happy with the fishing store, which is a just lovely looking build Also I don't feel particularily sad for the licensed themed ones that didn't make it. Its not like these IPs aren't widely represented already It is also quite possible that we see a gingerbread house as christmas set anyway, without the ideas badge on it, since TLG are releasing seasonal sets anyway. A pity for the train station though. I is really cool.

Cool idea - and it works very well! I like how they admire batmans bike. That cheers the whole scene up a lot

Amazing vegetation! Looks very real

Whoops! Mission accomplished to ask a totally redundant question... next time I will look more carefully. Thank you!

Impressive build! I also like the choice of subject: this is clearly not the typical sail-ship you see every day.