icm

For me, the character development of Luke, Rey, and Kylo is the strongest part of TLJ. I once read a blog post that argued that Luke's "superpower" was empathy for others, and that in the original trilogy he "won by losing." After his aunt and uncle are killed, he runs off to Alderaan to save the princess he's never met, then he insists on rescuing her when they're on the Death Star instead of sitting tight and waiting for Obi-Wan to deactivate the tractor beam. After the battle of Hoth, he leaves his Jedi training against Yoda's wishes to run off to Cloud City to save Han and Leia because he's not willing to stand by and let them suffer and die because of him, then when he is at his lowest point he wins a moral victory by refusing to join Vader, even though he nearly falls to his death by doing so. Once he's physically recovered, he enlists all his friends to rescue Han from Jabba the Hutt, after Han was captured because of him. On the second Death Star, he wins a moral victory by throwing away his lightsaber and refusing to fight anymore, even though it means the Emperor will kill him then and there - and it is that sacrifice, and empathy for his fallen and wounded father, that changes Vader's heart and leads to the death of the Emperor. Luke does his very best to do the right thing and help his friends, even at great personal cost - but never at the cost of his own soul and honor. When training with Yoda, he shows great respect for the ancient mystic Jedi arts, despite knowing next to nothing about the history of the Jedi. For me it seems entirely consistent with that for Luke to choose the ascetic way of the mystic ancient Jedi, rather than the deeply political police powers of the fallen recent Jedi, as he seeks to find his own way in the Force after the fall of the Empire, and to rebuild the Jedi Order in a way that will avoid the mistakes of the recent past. I have no problem whatsoever with him establishing an ascetic mystic temple on a remote planet, and questing around the galaxy seeking ancient Jedi lore, instead of getting deeply engaged in the politics of the New Republic. But he is aware of the darkness in his own soul and the darkness in his family, and presumably it wasn't a single bad dream that Ben Solo had - it must have been an extended pattern of bad behavior. It doesn't seem wildly out of character to me that a man with such a pattern of impulsive derring-do and violent solutions to problems as a youth would, in a moment of weakness, briefly yield to an intrusive thought so far as to pull out his lightsaber - and then, just as quickly, repent and "be left with shame - and consequences." It also seems entirely in character to me that he would consider himself responsible for provoking the slaughter and destruction that followed, and then withdraw from society to dedicate his life to the pursuit of wisdom in a remote ascetic hermitage like his two Jedi trainers, Obi-Wan and Yoda. Let's not forget that ascetic hermits in remote locations were the only Jedi he ever knew in the OT, so that's his idea of what it means to be a Jedi! Luke knows that his two mentors went into exile after failing to stop Vader and Palpatine, so he thinks it's only natural and proper for him to go into exile after causing this great disaster and failing to stop the rise of Ren and Snoke. He goes into exile because he's so ashamed, he doesn't know how Han and Leia can ever forgive him for what he almost did to their son, and what their son became in response. He goes into exile because he doesn't think it's safe for him to be around other people anymore. When Rey finds him and asks for help, years later, I do think it's a little out of character for him to toss the lightsaber away like a banana peel. I don't like that moment. But it makes perfect sense to me that he would initially refuse to help her, and then slowly come around. He's been on the island for so long, and she's making a really big request of him. Does she think he's going to march out there with a laser sword and take on the whole First Order himself? He learned at Cloud City, decades ago, that he can't just march in there with a laser sword and take on the whole Empire himself. He learned at Hoth, just before that, that he can't just jump in a snowspeeder and take on the whole Empire himself - he may take down one walker, but he'll get shot down in his turn. And he has vowed never to leave the island. So for me it's actually quite a powerful moment that he manages to do everything Rey has ever asked of him - to go to Crait to help the Resistance, to confront Kylo Ren, to march out there with a laser sword and take on the whole First Order himself - without sacrificing his own hermetic vow to himself to live and die on that island. Moreover, in his unprecedented (at least in the feature films) display of Force projection, he is actually more effective than if he was there in person. As a flesh and blood man with a laser sword standing on the salt flats of Crait, he could not possibly survive being bombarded by however many First Order walkers at once, but as a Force projection he can. This draws Kylo Ren out for single combat, thus delaying the First Order advance longer than if he were actually there in person. This gives the Resistance more time to escape, and a greater symbol of hope in miraculous intervention. Then, having aided his friends and his sister and the Resistance without violating his vow, he is able to pass away with "peace, and purpose" like his mentors Obi-Wan and Yoda. I think it's an ingenious solution to his dilemma, and it has great thematic resonance for me. So yeah, I think Luke's character arc in TLJ is great. I like the character arcs of Rey and Kylo a lot too, and I think that Rey and Kylo have great chemistry in TLJ - better than in TFA or TROS anyway. I don't like the Canto Bight subplot with Finn and Rose so much, or the slow chase between the First Order and Resistance fleets, but I like Snoke's ship and I like the Holdo maneuver. I agree with others in this thread that TFA and TLJ have a lot of really great cinematic moments in terms of the composition and lighting of the shots, that is, the cinematography. TFA and especially TLJ show a lot of filmmaking craft in the way the story is put together and how the plot threads all come together at the same time. But they have a lot of problems too. Here's my tier list for the movies: A tier: TESB, ANH, R1 B tier: TLJ, TFA, ROTS C tier: TPM, ROTJ D tier: AOTC, Solo F tier: TROS Edit - I mostly stay quiet about it because there's a lot of sequel hate, but I actually do really like TFA and TLJ. TFA is basically a beat-for-beat remake of ANH, but it's got big gleeful energy, whiz bang this is so fun! and it's got great set pieces, effects, acting, and music. TLJ has a lot of problems but I really respect it for trying to be something other than a beat-for-beat remake of TESB, and it's also got great set pieces, effects, acting, and music. They both have problems, but there's a lot of themes and character development that I like in both of them. I'm in the camp of love-TLJ, hate-TROS, but I still bought almost all of the TROS sets, plus several TLJ sets and most of the TFA sets.

1. Never explained. 2. There are brief asides of Resistance and First Order spies reporting Our Heroes to their respective sides. 3. We're shown an establishing shot of Poe in his cockpit, then if you watch closely you see his specific ship taking out at least four Tie fighters, prompting Finn to yell "that's one hell of a pilot!" 4. Yeah, Phasma fighting Finn in the castle ruins on Takodana would completely fix her character development.

Subthemes have recurred since the very beginning of Town, then through World City and City proper. Coastguard has recurred periodically since at least 1989, and there were Coast Guard-like rescue helicopters before then. Space has recurred in Town/City since 1990, Airport since 1985, Construction since 1980, Racing since 1980, monster trucks since 1987, etc. There never have been any days when no subtheme was recurring. There never were any days when it was just police and great vehicles. That's absurd.

That may be the thought process, but it tends to backfire badly when the live-action version is bad. See M. Night Shyamalan's 2010 live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender and Jonathan Frakes's 2004 live-action adaptation of Thunderbirds.

I haven't seen this news reported on any of the major English-language Lego blogs, so I'm taking it with a grain of salt for now. Until there's more information, I regard these supposed live-action Lego films as no more real than any of the umpteen Star Wars films that have been announced and canceled since ~2016.

If I had to pick just one I would say the original 918 single-seat spaceship. It's perfectly sleek, simple, swooshable, and easy to build and rebuild. When pulling a set out of storage for a relaxing evening build I tend to go for smaller, simpler sets over larger, more complex ones, so I've built and rebuilt my 918 more often than my 924 or 928. Also, you can make a little squadron of 918s more easily than you can make a squadron of 928s.

Could be. Then it would only be good for Dreamzzzspace.

I might get just the car from each of those. The trans dark blue windscreen on the Iron Man car will be good for Classic Space, Futuron, Exploriens, Space Police 3, and Dreamzzzspace builds.

Right, the point is that minifig scale is a very flexible range even when you're talking about a true scale and not getting into playscale (ie Millennium Falcon playsets, etc).

Most builders of minifig scale military aircraft use 1:35, and Cobi makes a lot of minifig scale military aircraft in 1:32. It's not even the largest plausible minifig scale either. 8w Speed Champions sets are minifig scale, and they're about 1:25. Some people like to set minifig scale at about 1:45. It's a very broad range, almost a factor of two!

So they ban it because it would be too much effort to do a good job maintaining it.

I'd say it's more like the effort to maintain a parts catalog for every other company would be overwhelming, because you'd need a parts catalog for every company in order to support parts lists for mocs and mods that use non Lego parts.

(apologist hat on) Hear me out - usually Lex would need a mech to have a chance against Superman, but here Lex is wearing a bodysuit made of basically nothing but kryptonite and that's the reason why Supes is so depowered that he needs a mech to have a chance against Lex. See, it makes perfect sense! (apologist hat off)

Oh, that ship. I think it would make a nice Starship Collection set in the $60 range or a nice playset in the $160 range.

What ship is that?

On the contrary, I think it would be easy to add Force ghosts to OT playsets. After all, LSW adds minifigures that aren't precisely germane to a scene to sets all the time. Just add Force Ghost Ben to a playset with one or two tauntauns and a wampa, or a probe droid. Or add Force Ghost Ben to a Yoda's Hut playset. Or add Force Ghost Ben, Force Ghost Yoda, and Force Ghost Ani to any Endor playset. Easy peasy. Edit - heck, you could even add Force Ghost Ben to an X-wing and it would be relevant to the specific scene depicted!

You mean, what you'd really prefer is a full fledged return of Adventurers in which you could insert your 2023 Indiana Jones minifigs. Right?

Looks like it's not just Lego releasing a full starting grid of F1 cars next year. Hot Wheels is doing it too. I suppose this merchandising push probably originated with F1, rather than being Lego's idea. https://www.thedrive.com/news/formula-1-hot-wheels-are-coming

That is incredibly impressive work. Your dedication to the craft is amazing. Heading to Rebrickable now!

It isn't listed in the more recent post from Lego_Minecraft_Goat, so I hope it isn't a mistake. It would be nice if it was a larger spaceship to go with CS'24.

That looks very good. I like the use of the Mando N-1 nose cone and the Lightyear windscreen. The studsy look and flat, blunt tail suit Classic Space. Do you think you'll put the digital file up anywhere like Bricksafe or Rebrickable?

It's important to remember that the set designers didn't aim for 1969 parts when they were designing the Saturn V. It was late in the design process that they noticed the parts count was very close to 1969, and at that point it was easy to make a few small adjustments to achieve the easter-egg parts count. Since the parts count of the Lunar Rover ended up at 1913 with lots of tiny little detail parts, I think it would have taken a pretty big adjustment to the build to add 59 more parts to bump it up to 1972. I don't think it would have been worth the effort if they were already at their budget. On the other hand, if they had budget left over it would have been nice to get 59 more parts for another side build or piece of equipment.

I'd say get both, but only if you can get them without minifigs for half price each. I got the X-Jet without minifigs for $20 plus tax, and the Hoopty without minifigs for $40 overall. I was able to get the 2019 Captain Marvel and the CMF Photon minifigs for about $5 each, which gave me the Hoopty for $50 in total - still overpriced for a 420-piece set, but not egregiously so. I think they're both pretty well-designed, solid swooshy ships with big fun color windscreens and lots of room for minifigs, but they both cost over twice as much as they reasonably should.

@Snowman184, legoturtle is no longer on this forum. You don't need to reply to anything that user has posted.

Xalax racers (8 pieces each) were $3 in 2001, which is $5.32 today. The little Drome pullback racers without full minifigs (~25 pieces) were $4 in 2003, which is $6.84 today. So with the CMF price point at $5 for 5-16 pieces, this sounds very much like Xalax G2.