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jdubbs

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Everything posted by jdubbs

  1. jdubbs
    I ended up with 3 or 4 of the Connoisseur (S17) which will end up as waiters in my Parisian Restaurant, with the Frenchie bulldogs destined for the Pet Shop. Also ended up with two of the Gourmet Chef (S17) which fortunately came with dual facial expressions, so they will become twins running the Bakery. I know it's not a true modular, but I plan to incorporate two of the Hazmat (S4) figures into the Monster Fighters Haunted House (along with the obvious Ghostbusters characters, and all of Series 14).
  2. jdubbs
    What I like about this set — assuming it is real, which I strongly suspect it is — is that it extends the idea of the modular town/city out a bit from the existing modulars, which rely heavily on older European and east coast US cities for inspiration. Though it may not fit in all of our LEGO cities, it definitely gives the Palace Cinema some company, and expands the palette of building styles into a slightly different era/architecture. A few color swaps to the hot pink and teal elements would reduce the kitschiness of the building, while still preserving the American Graffiti vibe.
  3. jdubbs
    Both are nicknames/derivations of James. My name is actually Jamie and I wouldn't ever go by Jim... but that's largely a personal thing. Jamie (the designer) could have easily included that as an Easter egg.
  4. jdubbs
    Regarding the pixelization around the set number, I would be more suspicious of it if it didn't have distortion or artifacts around it. Having done a lot of photo retouching myself, changing product names/numbers on photos, etc., I can tell you that adding pristine text is easy; distorting it to match an underlying image is what's hard. This is why so many computer-generated special effects look fake: they're so perfect that they don't blend in with the grit and grime of real photography. And artifacts around text are a tell-tale sign of jpg compression, and to be expected unless you're looking at the original source file. If this is a fake, then the faker went to a lot more trouble than he/she needed to. This is clearly a photo of a printed page that has been folded and wrinkled and worn. If it were a fake, then someone had to photograph their (expertly created) MOC in a carefully-composed, professionally lit (inside and out) scene with a previous modular and sky backdrop, combine that photo with shots of the full modular lineup it into a layout, print it using a high-end printer (on what appears to be semi-gloss magazine-grade paper, which isn't readily available), then distress the printout, and finally photograph the printout. I've actually been wondering when LEGO would switch to modern faces on the modulars. So many of the CMF minifigs seem tailor-made for use in the modulars that it makes sense to include modern faces in the sets too. Making the switch at the start of the second decade seems as good a time to start as any. Not sure if this has been pointed out, but it appears that the gap between bricks/tiles is slightly larger just above the bottom row of yellow windows... which lines up with the joint in the teal green window trim. My guess is that this is where the floors separate.
  5. jdubbs
    Looks like Palace Cinema will be on sale for Brick Friday... got a sale announcement in the mail today. Glad I waited...
  6. jdubbs
    Shots of a Wuher minifig have already leaked, along with Han, Greedo, and a few Sandtroopers. Theoretically these are for an early 2018 Cantina set, either from ANH or Solo. It seems pretty unlikely that LEGO would release a battle pack of 4 all-new characters with multiple new head sculpts. Looking at the Bounty Hunters set (which was already exceptional given that it included 4 named characters), there was only one all-new character (and one new head sculpt). The rest were modest updates of previously-released minifigs. So if you want to be at all realistic in guessing at a Cantina battle pack, you can bet that a Bith, Hammerhead, Jawa, and/or Greedo is going to be included (or Luke, Han, Ben, Chewie, etc.), since those head molds already exist.
  7. jdubbs
    I would like a new Venator too. But given the First Order Star Destroyer that was just released, I think 2019 is the earliest we would see one. Same goes for an updated AT-AT or a Rogue One AT-ACT.
  8. jdubbs
    I forget the specifics, but I believe last year the clonemaker-who-shall-not-be-named managed to release a high-profile set that LEGO had previewed (and I assume, released building instructions for?) faster than LEGO could get it out for sale it themselves. i.e., in the window between LEGO announcing and selling it, the clone maker managed to knock it off and sell it first.
  9. jdubbs
    I think gray bricks work reasonably well for the Naboo Starfighter because it's an accent color, and the yellow really steals the show, whereas in Amidala's Starship they'd be used almost exclusively. I hope I'm wrong about us ever seeing it in LEGO form... I'd be the first to buy one, and I'd certainly prefer it over a lot of the "Original Content" sets that LEGO keeps pushing at us. But I still think it's a long shot given how many designs are vying for the few $100+ slots each year. As long as there are new movies being released on an annual basis and something airing on TV, the big sets will continue to go to them, and we'll be lucky to get one prequel/original trilogy set at that price point each year.... which will usually go to something action-oriented.
  10. jdubbs
    brickset. I took it to mean that they had sourced better images, as they are trying to migrate all images to high res. But a re-release would be great.
  11. jdubbs
    At 278 pieces, I'd expect more like $30 USD.
  12. jdubbs
    Total waste of shelf space. With any luck this will be the Walmart exclusive.
  13. jdubbs
    Hoping that after the UCS Slave I is retired, we'll see a System scale version of Jango's paint scheme, but I'd guess it's at least a year away considering Jango and Young Boba both appear in the TRU Jedi Starfighter. I think Amidala's Starship is a long shot... gray bricks aren't going to do it justice, it would need to be the size of a Star Destroyer set to be reasonably in scale with the Naboo Starfighter, and there isn't much in the way of action features/play value to it. Hasbro tried with its version, but all they managed was an elevator for the droids. And as long as there are new movies being released each year, any sets at that price point from the Prequel or Original Trilogy will be few and far between.
  14. jdubbs
    I am not that fond of most Clone Wars ship designs, but I became a fan of the V-19 a few weeks ago while flipping through Brickset looking for sets I might have missed... I watched Jang's review of the 2009 set a few times and decided I needed to have it. A few days later I found it new on eBay for close to list price, and just finished building it yesterday. It's an underrated design that probably should have made it into the films... and seems to be a precursor to the Resistance Bomber in TLJ. The 2009 set is nice but obviously dated at this point, so I look forward to seeing how your MOC progresses. Good luck with the folding wings... that mechanism in the 2009 set is possibly the most complicated build I've encountered yet in a Star Wars set.
  15. jdubbs
    If it's truly a re-release like the Taj Mahal, it would be identical to the original, so no new minifigs... though I do hope they would at least give us the current versions of the minifigs that came with the set.
  16. jdubbs
    Really hoping the Taj re-release paves the way for re-releases of the first two modulars.
  17. jdubbs
    I think a UCS Cantina is pretty unlikely... it doesn't have much in the way of play value (one brief skirmish with a lightsaber does not an "action feature" make) and even the display value is questionable... just looking at the larger-scale MOCs out there, it boils down to a single plane of very similar interconnected rooms, with no exterior architecture to speak of. The main appeal would be the minifigures, but I doubt LEGO is going to cram a dozen new head molds into a single set, which is what it would take to do this right. (Even the Death Star, with its 2 dozen minifigs, had only a handful of new molds.) A Cloud City or Endor Bunker Attack playset seem like more obvious UCS choices. My guess is that LEGO does a retailer-exclusive rehash of the last Cantina set, possibly mirrored so that it can connect to the existing set, with the same Dewback and minus the Landspeeder, since it was already released this year.
  18. jdubbs
    I think you’re failing to take a few things into account: 1) There are FIVE Fantastic Beasts movies planned, which as of the second movie will incorporate more of the original HP characters, locations, and backstory. That will keep the world of HP going on-screen for another 8 years or so. The Cursed Child is about to open on Broadway, which based on the response in London will no doubt be a massive critical and commercial hit. The HP amusement parks draw huge numbers of visitors, the original movies are constantly on TV, and the books still sell to new generations of kids. And on top of all that, there are rumors that JK is about to publish another HP book. 2) LEGO has a vested interest in keeping the HP line going. They need to release sets based on the property every few years to justify and retain the license, and obviously if they can find a way to make it successful, they have everything to gain by doing so… especially given that recent licenses based on their own IP are seeing diminishing returns (with both LEGO Batman Movie and LEGO Ninjago Movie doing progressively worse than their predecessors). If they can somehow breathe life back into an existing license, Harry Potter is the best bet (it’s certainly not going to be LotR). 3) Harry Potter is ubiquitous. My 3 year old son has had zero exposure to Harry Potter and yet somehow still knows who he is and can identify him by sight (both the character on the book jackets and Dan Radcliffe)… I have no idea how. Kids everywhere know him, like him, relate to him, want to be him. And that doesn’t even address the very large community of adult HP fans who will buy anything — anything — related to the brand. Demand for HP merchandise is still very, very strong. If LEGO made a splashy entrance with a giant Hogwarts set and followed it up with a CMF line or a few waves of sets, I have no doubt they’d sell well.
  19. jdubbs
    As much as I would love a larger, more detailed and/or modular approach to a Hogwarts Castle, I think you're right. Look at the Joker Manor... LEGO had the opportunity to do a large, detailed Wayne Manor that would showcase the exceptional interior designs shown in the movie... instead they took the Disney Castle approach, with tiny little rooms that merely suggested the in-movie equivalents. My guess is that a D2C Hogwarts is going to look great from the outside but offer very little in the way of interiors, serving more as a display piece than a set you would want to interact with. <sigh>
  20. jdubbs
    Given that it's supposedly just a recolored Snowspeeder, isn't from TLJ or Solo, and isn't in the general catalog, it's most likely the Walmart exclusive, which is typically the smallest (and least desirable, imho) of the three exclusives each year.
  21. jdubbs
    I think the beauty of the expert modular line is that, as a whole, it can't be pinned down to one locale or time period. The Detective's Office suggests Prohibition-era New York City. Palace Cinema is modeled after the Mann Chinese Theater in LA, circa 1940. Parisian Restaurant is clearly... Parisian. Brick Bank could be set in London or Chicago or most any other major city on either side of the Atlantic. And so on. Some fit well together, others not so much. Personally I find City Hall to be a bit too 1950s Americana for my taste, so I skipped it, instead picking and choosing the sets that give a more European vibe to my city. I think if LEGO intends anything, it's that each of us will take these sets and make them our own, building them into the style and scale of city we envision, wherever/whenever we imagine that to be.
  22. jdubbs
    Walmart exclusives are typically small (e.g., Landspeeder, Ninjago Jelly Sub, TLBM Scarecrow). TRU and Target exclusives are more often medium-to-large size (Jedi Starfighter, Rebel Frigate, Arkham, Garmadon Mech, Ice Tank). Likely correlating to their target market/budget.
  23. jdubbs
    The Han Solo movie is supposedly set several years before A New Hope, so a direct lead into it would seem unlikely. Though that’s not to say Han can’t visit the cantina prior to ANH.
  24. jdubbs
    I have 1, 3 and 4 of the sets you listed. 1. Assault on Hoth gets a bad rap, but given that I didn't have any of the original sets which comprise the UCS bundle, I found it to be a good deal, with lots of play features nicely integrated. 2. I have the original UCS Snowspeeder and the new one looks like a huge improvement in accuracy... This is probably my favorite of all five sets you listed, though I haven't bought it as I'm waiting to find it under list price. Hoping it goes on sale for Wookie Weekend or whatever they're calling next year's Han Solo launch (though that's probably too soon, since it's only 6 months old). 3. Have not yet built the Resistance Bomber but most who have say it is their favorite of sets from TLJ (which may not be saying much). U-Wing is okay, but I think you have to be a fan of the ship to value it as a set. I found the design of the source material kind of absurd... the cargo section is clearly tacked on, the in-movie landing gear looked ridiculous, there's no astromech even though there's clearly space for one, the folding wings seem like a gimmick. 4. UCS TIE was a bit monotonous to build, but the end result is a really nice display model.... I'm not a huge fan of using mostly square and angled bricks to accomplish curved surfaces/spheres (e.g., the new BB-8 quasi-UCS set), but I think it actually turned out nicely in this case. And it or the U-Wing will probably be retired first of all the sets you listed. Attack on Hoth and UCS TIE were both put on sale 20-25% off at the LEGO Store for Force Friday II (plus double VIP points at the time), which means they are likely candidates to go on sale again, perhaps for Black Friday (if that sale extends to The Netherlands?). Generally I limit my full-price purchases at the LEGO Store to D2C/exclusives, given that they rarely go on sale anywhere, whereas all the general-release sets will eventually be marked down at other retailers. So of all these I would probably suggest the Snowspeeder since it's least likely to go on sale anywhere any time soon.
  25. jdubbs
    The head looks more like the proportions of the ESB AT-ST... less elongated vertically... looking at my Rogue One AT-ST, the head is already pretty much this shape (minus the eyes).
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