Whiteagle

Holographic Visors?

Looks like an Aerial, Lightsaber hilt, and a Globblin on top.

That would be freaking awesome.

In other words, BRIKWARS!!! Yeah, they practically made a fruit cart a reoccurring background character in the show! Also, Lance now has a Pig buddy. Knighton Capital perhaps?

Even if it's just the village buildings!

I like it, if only for another blank pearl gray shield. Also mixes the Classic Space and Classic Castle mini-set vibes together well.

I like it!

Actually those are McFarland Toys, which are more a static display toy with Building Brick bases... ...Honestly I think they kinda suck... MEGA BLOKS on the otherhand, have hit it out of the park with their SUPER ARTICULATED MICRO ACTION FIGURES! I know I'd rather be called an "A-FOMB" instead of an "AFOL." Yeah, in fact their better stuff is specifically targeted to adult collectors. Well COD and Halo is where they started with the SUPER ARTICULATED MICRO ACTION FIGURES, which is a good strong point they're playing to. However... I think COD actually brings in the money from Children, I know my younger Nephew actually prefers them SPECIFICALLY because their CALLUFDOOTY! I didn't even need to buy it, I knew from looking at it that I didn't want static figures and barely buildable scenery. No, this is clearly why they should fight in MASSIVE BRIKWARS! Yeah, their quality control has gotten a LITTLE better, but they're never going to approach Lego levels when it comes to the bricks themselves. It's the newer FIGURES where Mega Bloks really stands out; The Collectors' Series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles actually HAVE MORE ARTICULATION AND DETAIL THAN THE PLAYMATES TOYS!

Figured this be the best, Black would certainly make it look more like a true Topknot.

Yeah, Mike can be pretty awe inspiring, especially since his career as a commercial design artist got him a Job at The Lego Company around the time of Lego Universe, and the surreal story where he had to go to a new employee orientation designed to introduce the staff to the art and styling of Mike Rayhawk. Of course, having become their Art Department head, he's on a pretty high horse when it comes to telling people what to do with their lives. I, on the other hand, are one of the numerous man-children who frequented the Brikwars forum, specifically the one that whined too much about his sucky life and kept posting pictures of his LDD builds all over the place.

I too am interested in discussing Lego-based Tabletop on this forum, as I've been banned from both the Brikwars forum and now 4chan for stupid reason, and have figured out how to make this forum E-mail me updates! That's a lot of kids! But yeah, living in the middle of no-where, one of the few people I see often enough to play a game with are my young nephews, so being able to keep the attention of an energetic seven year old is a definite plus. Actually, one of the strengths War-gaming with Lego minifigures is how you can use them to awesomely depict destruction and dismemberment, with as much or as LITTLE graphic detail as you want. While I agree with your thoughts on Customisability (one of the biggest points of tabletop game play is how much you can personalize your gaming avatars, your characters and armies are YOUR dudes after all, but most physical representation is in the form of static miniatures that one has to be rather skilled in model building, sculpting, and painting in order to truly make one's own), I disagree that Brikwars fails to be simple, at least totally... You see, Mike Rayhawk actually goes to great lengths to try and simplify the game, both to stream line play and to reduce the amount of book-work players have to deal with. In fact, it was technically an argument over his change to the Super Natural Die rules, part of an effort to create a version of Brikwars that doesn't rely on point cost balances, that got me banned from that forum. THING IS, Brikwars is suppose to be as flexible as the building brick system it primarily makes use of, so it has a large amount of granularity back ended onto it in order to accomplish this. For instance, my Battle Droids only have an Armor Rating of 2 (As opposed to a standard Minifig's 4) and have a special rule that gives them a +1 to Skill with Ranged Weapons, but a -2 for Melee Skill. This makes for a very shooty army, but one that gets demolished in close combat, a perfect representation of what happens as soon as a Jedi whips out their Lightsaber! Still, you don't NEED to use those extra rules, and instead play a more advanced version of Quikwars. No offense BattleBrik, but it's this sort of bookkeeping complexity that turns people off Brikwars.... The granularity of various Equipment Modifiers and Character Stats, while meaningful to the gameplay, end up being a lot to keep track of. Thankfully, the fact that your game focuses on minifigure teams of two to four helps mitigate this a lot as, like in an RPG, keeping track of the stats of singular characters is a lot easier than entire armies. You also will hopefully not fall into the pitfall of Mobile Frame Zero; a nigh incomprehensible presentation of a rather clunky system. Again, another great reason to use Lego in Tabletop; The sheer PLASTICITY of Characters and the Environment!

It's also a shame, because the Nexo Knights show has a lot of Civilian Infrastructure that could make for some nice sets. While a lot of it is the same generic Blue and Light Blue medieval checkered pattern style architecture copy and pasted over and over again, the Produce Cart/Food Vendor is practically a re-appearing background character in itself, plus there are the AWESOME Hover Horse-drawn Carriage TRAINS that seem to make up most of Knightonia's transportation. Nice, I know the classic Castle lovers don't like Nexo, but this is exactly what makes Lego Mash-ups so great! Anyone else kinda mad the Glob Lobber doesn't have a Knightonia counterpart like the Chaos Catapult/Knighton Battle Blaster? I mean, it's sorta a Monster version of the Battle Blaster to begin with, what with being a Ballista-style siege weapon with a weaponized front... Am I just suppose to stock up on Knight's Cycle polybags?

Yeah, it's especially disappointing because next year they're coming out with a MUCH expanded Battle Droid Troop Transport that, like the first, uses the same storage system as the MTT... ...And has DOUBLE the Racks... Yeah, which I'm guessing is due to the extra back gimmick of the STAP... Makes me wonder if it's possibly modifiable... Well 75086 Battle Droid Troop Carrier will come with the same 4x6 sliding plate set-up as BOTH the Troop rack and the Accessory racks of this set, so if there is room in the back you might be able to fit 12 more on... Well 74058 DOES have better play gimmicks than 7662, making use of all its hatches instead of leaving them as unsecured SNOT, but I think the real killer of 74058 was none other than 7929: The Battle of Naboo... Ironically, 74058 is going to be outdone in Droid capacity by next years' 75086: Battle Droid Troop Carrier which, like the original 7184 MTT and 7126 Battle Droid Carrier, uses the same racks. However, since the Battle Droid Troop Carrier doesn't have to be much more THAN the racks and can thus easily double its capacity, it will undoubtedly be a bigger seller over all as a troop builder. Actually, 75058 has the same number of hatches as 7662 AND makes better use of them with the Spring Launchers and Accessory racks... ...Unless you were talking about the gaps in the build itself. Eh, it's doable, a single folded Battle Droid with a straight arm takes SLIGHTLY more than 2x6 studs by 7 plates in volume, with an extra 1x3 brick tacked to one end if you want them to also hold their blasters... ...The bigger issue is getting them in and out. I actually tried to make a fold up rack design that would double the number of Droids 75058 front rack could hold, but unfortunately the front opening is too narrow by at least a stud on each side for it to work... Well I'm thinking the real issue here is that 7662 carried it's own Battle Droid Carrier in the back, which 7929: The Battle of Naboo has probably proven can sell VERY well on it's own! Since they are going to release 75086: Battle Droid Troop Carrier next year, probably to a much wider market than a TRU exclusive, I'm guessing that is why 75058 packs more gimmicks than Droids... Noice, how did you pull it off? What about where those sliding Accessory rack go? I figured the whole point of all those slider racks being the same size was that you could stick extra Droid racks in those rear slots... ...Links are dead! Same, which is why I was so surprised to find out about this set this late... Oh man, you missed out on the 30058 STAP Polybags about a year or two ago... Never liked the Separatist color scheme, too much Royal Blue on what should be a mass produced army...

...You might need to update AGAIN Superkalle, a new version of LDD just came out...

Uh... I've actually had the same problem today... and the HTML list is worthless in helping... You see, I'm trying to buy the parts for an IFV for my Brikwars army, but it didn't help point out that the piece I want to use doesn't actually come in the color I wanted or that it has a nearly identical older verson that could replace it. Would this LDD Manager be able to spot something like this, or at least give me a semi-coherant parts-list for Bricklink? Droid IFV (recolor).lxf

That's exactly what I was talking about! Dude, this code idea doesn't work... Secret Codes are just a promotional gimmick to get kids to buy every set of a given theme, another example of "Gotta Catch'em All". LDD is already a promotional tool for Lego, since even though you can build anything in it, you still need the physical bricks to bring those creations to life. I see the next iteration of Design by Me going one of two ways, ether becoming a tool for more serious Lego enthusiast to have a means to bring their dream builds into reality or somehow being simplified and streamlined for younger consumers. Hopefully it will be the former instead of the latter.

...Vynsane, what are you talking about? The idea isn't that you just pick and choose pieces from all the retail sets and just buy the ones you want, it's that you'd choose different sets part list to fill out your palette. Like say I chose to work with a single 7913 Clone Trooper Battle Pack, then the Brick Palette would have all the pieces that come with 7913. You could then add different sets to see what you could build before you buy them. The problem with DbM 1.0 was that it was aimed at children, most of which probably couldn't be bother to figure out how to build a coherent custom creation, let alone get their parents to buy it. Any DbM 2.0 should probably be reworked to suit the needs of more Hardcore Lego Maniacs, providing a more accessible means of bringing their creations to life. ...Your "Official Set Mode" is pretty much exactly what I was talking about, but why all these codes? Seriously, this isn't a Bionicle marketing gimmick, it's already a tool to advertise the product. And yes, an "Extended Mode" is a must for any iteration of LDD.

Eh... I don't like the idea of needing to buy the sets first in order to unlock pieces. In fact, I was thinking quite the opposite, where LDD's primary mode would have you choose your building palette from sets available on the shelf. That way, not only you could have an idea of what you could build with a single set, you would also know which sets you'd need to build something. Then, a secondary LDD mode would act sort of like the current DbM, where you could order custom builds, albeit in a plain bag and probably at an increased price. ...Though your comment on the "Vic Viper" jet that comes with the Earth Defense HQ does make me wonder why a smaller component vehicle like that isn't available as an individual set.

I actually was thinking of something along these lines. Back when LDD was first released it was packaged with the Brickmaster kit, essentially just a box containing the contents of the four original X-Pod sets. If I'm remembering correctly, the pieces featured in the program were just the ones you got in the box. So, I do wonder if the next "Vanilla" LDD mode could be one where you would choose different on-the-shelf Lego sets to use the parts of for your vitual builds, then just be able to go out and buy those sets so you can build it. Still, it would be nice to be able to use LDD to bring your custom computerized concepts to life, but then again I don't know much about this Pick a Brick service everyone is talking about, so maybe that could work.

I have to say, Alien Conquest is shaping up to be an AWESOME theme! Not only is every vehicle and figure bristling with weapons, which as a bit of a "Building Block Combat" nut I can't get enough of due to the Lego Company not wanting to make "War" toys, but I could see this being a really kick-butt video game. And not a simple platformer like the franchise tie-in games, but a multi-player vehicle first-person shooter similar to Halo and it's ilk, where players choose ether ADU or Invader and then battle across various destructible Lego-scapes while trying to ether defend or abduct Computer controlled Civilians. They could even thrown in a bit of customization, with the three main figure types (ADU Soldier/Alien Trooper, ADU/Alien Pilot, and ADU Comp. Spec./Alien Cyborg) providing different attributes and abilities, while vehicles could have various modular weapons and systems that you need to scrounge the map for parts to make. Now on to the review. I'm not going to say which Alien Mini-fig I like best yet, as I've yet to open up the Alien Striker set I got yesterday and don't know what the Trooper will be like, but there is something that bugs me about the Pilot. His forward mounted head makes it very difficult to pose him like he's going to actually shoot something with his Ray Gun while he's standing up. It's a bit of a pet peeve of mine when Lego gives mini-figures accessories they ether can't believably hold or are awkward looking when they can, like the Blaster Rifles I got with my 7913 Clone Trooper Battle Pack. Speaking of 7913, I'm reminded of another pet peeve of mine, Mini-figs not matching the set they're packaged with! Ok, that isn't present in this set, 7051 Tripod Invader, or my 7050 Alien Defender, since the Alien Pilots are both operating what are clearly flying craft, the Alien Trooper is in a vehicle that looks like it was designed for ground combat, and it wouldn't be out of place for the ADU Sergeant to get to the scene of an abduction first or the ADU Computer Specialist to operate one of their anti-air buggies... ...But when a figure labeled the "ADU Pilot" isn't even in a set that has an ADU Aircraft, that's just... GAAAAAHHH!!! WHY ARE THERE TWO BOMB TROOPERS IN AN ARMY BUILDER PACK?!?! ...It's also a bit annoying that the Alien Trooper is the one Piloting the 7049 Alien Striker, instead of being the one on the "Mini Hover Bike" packaged with the 7050 Alien Defender. Anyways, back to the review... While you might think the barricades are a stupid defence against flying saucers, I don't think those are suppose to be for the Aliens. They're probably roadblocks meant to keep Civilians from driving into the fight, insuring that the ADU doesn't have to worry about people getting into the crossfire. Yeah, the Sergeant probably could have used a little missile buggy, but with the light element it probably would have pushed up the price point. In conclusion, I must thank you Masked Builder. I actually found this thread looking for leads as to what the "Flick Fire" part of the "Flick Fire Missles" was really named, as I have been inspired and am trying to build an ADU Mecha in LDD... You've provided that lead, and now my machine can rain missle-y death upon the Xeno scum!!!

Who said anything about accuracy? If I'm going to build a virtual model far out of my price range and don't have the parts to construct it in real life, I might as well make it look cool.

But it looks SO much cooler! See!

I do kind of miss "Pitch Black" though, much more ominous then regular flat black.

Well they may be a bit finicky, but those ball joints can certainly help when building something like this:

I've now noticed that the back grounds now show up in my screen shots... ...How do I turn that off? I'd honestly just have the the way it use to be, a .PNG where it was just the model.