Brickadier General

I bought this set too, didn't get a chance to put it together yet. But the Harley fig is awesome! Anyway, looking forward to your review.

Hi all, so I was at "The Wal-Mart" yesterday and had the munchies and was looking for something to eat. Somewhere along the line, I stopped caring about food and decided to browse the toy department to see what they had Lego-wise. Usually, they have jack squat, but on this particular day they had a lot of new sets. I impulsively picked this set up, along with Harley Quinn's Hammer Truck and the new little campsite from the Indy 4 line. I must say, when I first saw images of this set I wasn't exactly thrilled or anything. I mean, I didn't really see anything particularly special about it, but after purchasing it, I must admit that I would consider it a must buy for any Lego fan. But enough babbling about myself. Onward with the review (my first of an official set)! In this picture, you can see everything you get with the set. I thought the box-art was pretty nice looking. The manual, on the other hand, took somewhat of a beating within the box, a common problem with most more recent sets. I do have to say that I wish they would at least make some effort in fixing this. They could just make a little thin cardboard "folder" to minimize bending and tears. For Batman minifig collector's, the highlight of this set are the Robin and Penguin figs. Previously, you could only get them in the pricey Bat-Cave set, but this set provides a much cheaper alternative. One thing you will notice, however, is that Robin's hairpiece is a new mold, as it is actually a black version of Mutt's hair (from the Indy 4 line). Personally, I think it actually looks better than the hairpiece used on the older version of Robin. As the Batcave had before it, this set comes with some bricks to make two cute (but deadly) penguins. They help add more charm to an already charming set. When you're finished building, you'll end up with a nice little assortment of extra parts; 1 black "cheese slope," 3 1x1 tile (black, yellow and white), a revolver, a technic pin, and a 1x1 red round plate. Here's Robin's Scuba Jet. It's nice and sleek looking. Notable parts of interest would probably be the green turbine engines. My only complaint on this one would have to be the use of decals on the 2x2 round yellow tiles. For that type of a part, printing seems as though it would have been the best way to go. Now for, in my opinion, the best part of the set...the Penguin's sub. This set has more decals than Robin's Scuba Jet, but they seem more necessary in this case. I actually wanted to put the decal's on the sub, as I think the it looks great with them. Obviously, it looks like a penguin, but wow, does it ever do it with style! It has a lot of interactive features, the first of which I will mention, being the periscope which raises up and down. And for the collectors of parts in new colors, it has a few parts in medium orange?, such as 2x2 tile. Here's a shot of the bottom of the sub. Another nifty little feature is how you can lift the top off and fit the penguin inside. And there is enough room inside, so that you can firmly place top on again, and without interference to the movement of the periscope. Another little feature is the rear spring-loaded missile. You just tilt the small lever toward the front of the sub, and it fires. And the last small feature are the flick-missiles on each side. Overall, this is a great set with a lot to offer for a decent price. A lot of fans might view the only drawback to it as being the use of decals, but if you plan on keeping the kit together they make it look really fantastic. Buy it if you can. Matt

I'll be there with my battlefield and a few other odds and ends. I'm pretty stoked because this is my first real large scale Lego event.

It looks really nice, as does your Indian Restaurant. And the finished interior really brings this creation to life.

Not only do the UFO and alien at the end leave nothing to the imagination, but the funniest part about the ending was that I couldn't help but feel like I'd seen it before. And that's because the ending was so similar to the ending in the X-Files: Fight the Future movie. Mully and Sculder end their journeys in Antarctica where they wind up in an alien spacecraft that's under the ice, and they confront the aliens there. Then when they get out, you see the U.F.O. break through the ice and fly away. I haven't seen a lot of movies but I am sure that there have been other films that have used a similar scenario. It's a tad bit cliche now. heh I still really liked the film though, and it was really entertaining. Although, as you did mention, some of the characters were a little bit annoying.

As someone who is a fan of battle scenes, yours certainly does not disappoint. The landscaping and structures are nice, but the "animation" is what I love the most about your scene. First of all, you went out of your way to pick a variety of faces and picked ones very appropriate to the situations they were in. I believe that this really adds to the character of your MOC. Then even go out of your way to add little details; the water spilled out of the overturned barrel, the one viking stealing a barrel, and the Viking lighting the one house on fire. Based on what I've seen here, I'd say you have a pretty good chance at winning the contest. Even so, best of luck!

Good deal Brickster! The engine looks fantastic, and the sand green Communist torsos suit those ghastly ghoulies well.

I never really would have thought about using the nets like that, but this looks really great! The random positioning of the tile really do make it look like it was a rickety bridge.

Thanks for the feedback, everybody. You mean flags for Specific Regiments? Like the Irish Brigade, Louisiana Tigers? I've been thinking about doing a few to add a little more variety in the scene. Yes, I have started placing more figures in the scene. And I have been thinking about sharpshooters. There was a regiment (I don't remember the specific name) that wore dark green uniforms). I would probably use the Communist soldier minifigs from the new Indiana Jones sets, but I've spent so much on this already that I don't think I'll be buying any anytime soon. I will be placing fighting soldiers along the creek though.

Hi all, Long time, no see. I had been pretty busy with college and whatnot, so that's pretty much why I've been MIA for awhile. If you remember, I posted my Civil War soldiers not too far back (sorry I still haven't posted more close-ups, but I'll get around to it when time allows). Anyway, making those soldiers coupled with the Civil War class I had brought me back into the Civil War theme again. If you have seem my previous 2 battlefields before, this one will be comparatively far more ambitious. And since I made the decision to go to Brickworld with some fellow PennLUG members this year I'm all the more stoked about building this. I've been working on this little by little, but I can't wait to finish it. This time around, I'm trying to pack as much detail as I can into it. When it's done, the model will cover an area of 2x4 baseplates. I've been working hard on the landscaping, adding a recessed creek (with "blood" for casualties), a "hill" to the right, and trees (lots of them). For the trees, I've made most of them using palm trunks and built them in such a way that they will not fall apart in transit. If you look, I'm trying to use a mixture between dark green, regular green and bright green. To the left of the creek, will be a confederate campsite. I'm basically going to be using the same tents I used in my old campsite. The largest tent will be a field hospital. And if you look to the right, you can see a building on fire. I used technic hole bricks to give the building the "pock mark" damage from bullets. Plus, I have just ordered an e-lite kit to help generate the "flickering" effect of the flames. I haven't gotten around to really placing my men on the model yet but will do so when I finish landscaping. I also plan on keeping this together, as I'm really happy with it and have some ideas for expanding it in the future. Well, I hope you guys like it, and I look forward to hearing your input on it. And if you're at Brickworld I'll look forward to seeing you there.

I actually have a MOCpages about enlighten up and you posted something similar to this effect there. Where exactly did you find information about the Enlighten company that it's been cloning Lego sets for 45 years? And I have some enlighten sets, and I do have to say that the quality of the plastic is a notch below Lego's. With the military sets especially, I've seen some stress marks on certain pieces where the bottom of the piece connects to the stud. If anything, the colors do not always measure up looking at them side by side. Plus, you wrote there that they have been cloning Bionicle and Megabloks stuff. I'd seen the Bionicle looking sets only recently on e-bay, and I created my page on Enlighten more than 2 years ago, so didn't really know all this stuff then. The reason I had asked is because I had written an article on Enlighten for Brickjournal and Joe Meno wants to eventually publish it. Any other information you could give me, especially regarding your sources is appreciated, and I could let know Joe that you helped me out with finding some of the info. Please send me a message if you'd like.

My collection is priceless. :-P Seriously though, I'm never going to worry about figuring out how much it is all worth, as you have to factor in so many different variables.

Depends on what your goals are. I'm not a pirate guy, but I like to dabble in Civil War stuff so buying men is a priority for me. I want to get the parts for a detailed battle scene, and making the terrain is going to be costly, especially trees. So for now I'm sticking to getting men, cause the cavalry figures seem to be increasing in price all the time. I can always get the other stuff later down the road.

Well, it's lego so you can do whatever you want to with it. :-P You wouldn't have to use too many hinged sections to hold it together, at most 2 or 3.

Nice find. I always enjoy seeing these alternative theme builds of sets.

If you don't have enough brown for a fort but have enough white, you could always do tents instead. This was a part of my union camp scene: I used click hinges and plates for the "roof."

But as far as heads go, that's about as close as you can get. You can still interchange them with other torsos, though I'm not too sure what you would use for Iroquois.

Chinese Junks! ;-) Do you own any of the authentic Lego versions that you could do side-by-side comparisons with?

If you're thinking about French and Indian Wars, Lego did make Native Americans for their Wild West line.

Considering that Lego replaces missing parts at no charge, there's really nothing to worry about. :-) Of course, if it's an older set with an older obsolete part missing, you're probably out of luck.

Thanks, when I have some more time I'll work on some better shots. Actually, I think Bonaparte's cavalry would whip mine. lol And you can count on me making a large battle scene in the future, just not in the near future. Time and costs will not permit it right now. :'-( But I'm making plans for what I want to do, especially with brickscaping. I want to make a battlefield with a creek and a covered bridge, maybe some farmland too. I was thinking about doing the creek in a way so that it would have some trans red in it for blood. A little morbid I guess, but I think it would bring the scene further to life. Well, I've heard Bugs Bunny say "You ain't just whistling Dixie!" But other than that, I don't really hear it to much. And during the war, Dixie was a Confederate song, so Dixie had become a nickname for the southern U.S. There's some more pictures of it in my Brickshelf folder. For General Lee, I used a King Leo head from the original Knights Kingdom. It's the perfect head to use for Lee, aside from the one viking head with the white beard. But that one has an angry expression. They aren't painted, and as far as I know, they are the real thing.

Thanks, I want to work on more details when I have more time. I only have 2 flags at the moment, but will eventually get around to doing more, especially as I make more specific regiments. I could do drummer boys because I do have the little "stubby" legs in medium blue. The Confederate army, uniform-wise, was often more colorful than the Union. As I'm sure you know, the Confederacy eventually chose grey as its official color, and the Union chose blue. But unlike the Union, the Confederacy was unable to dress its soldiers uniformly in grey. Butternut (a tan color) was probably the second most common color in Confederate uniforms. Someday, I would eventually like to take all these guys and place them in a detailed battlefield scene. So for me, making the army is only half the battle. ;-) Buying stuff to make terrain, buildings, and especially trees is a nightmare that I don't want to think about right now. And I have seen your Napoleonic troops, and am always impressed by the size and scope of your army. Like in real life, they certainly aren't very cheap to make.

A few years. About 2 weeks ago, I bought about 30 cavalry figures from one guy on Bricklink. I don't think I ever want to spend as much as I did on minifigures like that ever again. lol I like the red kepis for artillery, but it's too bad Lego didn't issue these in sets because they would probably be cheaper then. The tan and brown kepis are also quite useful.

These are pretty good, and it's a shame he's selling them off. But I'm sure he'll get a pretty penny for everything.

Hey guys, I haven't really been posting too much because college has been nutso lately, but off and on I've been fiddling around with my Civil War soldiers. It might be hard to see, but I've switched over to using Confederate decals by Legofreak. They work quite well. So far, I have 170 soldiers: 95 Union Soldiers/Officers/Generals and 75 Confederate (CSA) Soldiers/Officers/Generals. 10 of the CSA soldiers are cavalry. 4 of those consist of Native American Brigadier General Stand Watie and 3 of his men, making up the famous Cherokee Braves unit. I have 13 Louisiana Tigers this time around, as well as 3 Coppens Zouaves and 3 artillery soldiers. There are 43 "regular" infantrymen. The only identifiable Confederate generals I have made are Robert E. Lee, James Longstreet, Lewis Armistead, George C. Pickett and Stand Watie. On the union side 9 soldiers are from the 95th Pennsylvania Zouave regiment, 6 are Zouaves in general, 8 are from the African American 54th Mass. regiment, and there are 5 artillerymen. The only really recognizable generals I have are Ulysses S. Grant and Joshua Chamberlain, but there are a couple other random officers and generals. In this pic, Stand Watie and his men are in the back. Watie is the second figure from the left (with the Iny hat on his head). Robert E. Lee is up front on his white horse, Traveler. Here is the CSA artillery with a cannon based on this one. However, I modified it slightly to my taste.