icm

OnTrac has attempted delivery of my Antique Shop twice, but the idiots didn't get to the neighborhood postal center until after business hours either time. I hope they don't make the same mistake two more times and then give up trying to deliver this unique and virtually irreplaceable set. OnTrac's web site claims its shipping costs thirty percent less than shipping through other "legacy" services. Just one more example of "only the best is good enough" for Lego!

Yeah, it's to prevent sagging. It's like an I-beam: the tall joint has the clips on the top and bottom of the joint, because that's where the most force is. In my own NCS builds, I prefer to use a more compact four-pin joint that uses two 1x2 Technic bricks with two holes stacked right on top of each other. That has plenty of force to hold together the front and back halves of two-module spaceships like the FX Star Patroller and Gamma V Laser Craft with almost no sagging and no rotation. It ought to work well for modules as large as the cockpit of the new Renegade, since that's no heavier than the back half of my FX Star Patroller or the back half of my Starfleet Voyager. (I built a Starfleet Voyager remake recently that splits the front and back half for mix-and-match swapping with my FX Star Patroller and Gamma V Laser Craft remakes, but I haven't taken pictures of it yet.)

Ugh, I hope not.

I pre-ordered four copies of the 10497 Galaxy Explorer the day it was announced and I bought another copy later when it was on clearance for half price. I used three copies to build the A, B, and C models, and I gave one copy to my brother and one copy to my wife. (My wife's copy has been sitting half-built and very dusty on the shelf for over a year and a half now :/ ). But I only bought one copy of the 10355 Blacktron Renegade. There are a few reasons why I only bought one copy of the Renegade for myself, while I bought three copies of the Galaxy Explorer for myself. First off, I've never really been into Blacktron the way I've been into early Classic Space. I bought vintage copies of the original 918, 924, and 928 soon after I graduated from college and I designed my own modern remakes of those spaceships in Studio, though I didn't get them built in physical bricks for several years after that. I also had a project in Studio where I was trying to build digital copies of every 918, 924, or 928 remake I could find on the web, though that petered out after a while. I love the simple, sleek lines of the original 918, 924, and 928 and the way that simplicity lends itself to a wide variety of modern interpretations. In contrast, I only built one Blacktron creation before the Blacktron Cruiser GWP was released, and that was a small, simple, half-hearted interpretation of the Invader that mostly used spare parts I already had. Second, I wasn't as impressed by the rebuildability of the Renegade as I was by the rebuildability of the Galaxy Explorer. The Galex uses almost entirely basic wedge plates, Technic bricks, and other basic plates and bricks and slopes; it doesn't really depend on specialized parts for any of its key features. Even the big tile ramp in the back is a pretty simple part that's easy to use in other places. By contrast, the Renegade relies on very specialized frame parts to build its backbone, very specialized lattice wedges to achieve the look at the front of the wings, and specialized support girders to decorate the top of the frame. Those parts make it rather less versatile for MOCs, although to its credit it still does have a lot of basic bricks. This can be seen on Rebrickable: there are instructions for building just about anything out of the Galex, but the selection of alt builds for the Renegade is much smaller. Third, the official B model of the Renegade is much less impressive than the official B and C models of the Galex. Although the Galex B and C models are basically just downscaled, self-similar versions of the A model, they are still good enough to be A models in their own rights if they were to be sold separately, while the A model itself has no compromises whatsoever to allow for the alt builds. In contrast, the B model of the Renegade is pretty mediocre, and the A model is obviously compromised for its sake. There's no need to have the 1x6 arch bricks in the Renegade except to use in the legs of the Alienator alt-build, but at that size it's a shame to have the Alienator use the same old shuffling motion the little old set had on a much smaller scale. The smaller walker of the B-model is cobbled together from spare parts and doesn't have much identity of its own. Fourth, the self-similarity of the A, B, and C models of the Galex respected the self-similarity of the original 918, 924, and 928, but there isn't that same commonality between the Renegade remake and the Invader remake. The mods to make the Renegade and the Invader compatible are small, but it was still poor planning on TLG's part to not build the Invader with future compatibility in mind, and poor execution to not build the Renegade with backward compatibility and cockpit commonality in mind. To really respect the original sets, commonality and compatibility should have been paramount. I don't mind the simplicity of the Renegade build compared to the greater sophistication of the Galex build, or the higher proportion of yellow compared to the original set. Those are stylistic decisions that don't really affect the merit of the build considered on its own terms. It's the lack of commonality and the compromises for the subpar B-model that bother me. The boring 18+ box art is also a bummer! They absolutely should have done the same kind of homage to the original with the box art as the 10497 did. I agree with @Renny The Spaceman that the Renegade is much harder to modernize and upscale than the Galex. The Galex is primarily defined by its shape, as it has very little functionality. Just an opening top hatch, a back end that splits open, and a rear ramp. As long as those simple features are maintained along with the general outline of the wings and the general color scheme, the ship is still recognizable as a Galaxy Explorer and the designer can have a lot of creative freedom with everything else. The shape is easily upscaled or downscaled without loss of detail or function. By contrast, the Renegade is mostly defined by its functionality. A proper remake should have at least as much modular self-compatibility as the original (which the set does) and also intercompatibility with other contemporary Blacktron remakes (with the set does not). To maintain modularity, an upscaled version needs beefed-up module joints to stay sturdy, but then that changes the proportions and we end up with something that's more chunky than spindly. Also when upscaling it to match the upscaling precedent set by the Galex, you have to choose whether to upscale the cockpit or not. If you do (and the set did), you lose the simple cockpit commonality with the remake Invader that wasn't significantly upscaled from the original; if you don't you lose the proportions of the windscreen compared to the rest of the ship. Although the shape of the Renegade is distinct, it's not nearly as simple, clean, and easy to sketch as the Galex outline, so that means you have to make a lot more stylistic choices in how you're going to do it. If you're going to add retractable landing gear (and I've been of the opinion since 2002 that nearly every Lego spaceship should have retractable landing gear), it's not hard to hide it in the thickened wing of an upscaled Galex or attach it to the portion of a non-upscaled Galex that extends below the wing, but to hide it in the Renegade you either have to change the proportions of the spindly booms to hide it inside (like the set did) or you have to think a lot harder about where it's going to go. At a larger scale, you also have to think harder about how to keep the twin-boom frame stiff and swooshable. The twisting and bending forces in the original were small enough to handle with unreinforced simple bricks and plates, but at a larger scale they need Technic reinforcement and stronger crosslinking between the booms. So that forces another design choice. Do you keep the main engines as close to the center as possible and have them hinge out of the way to unload cargo to the rear, as in the original? The tradeoff is that to maintain rigidity, the cross-members that support the cargo module from underneath are going to have to be significantly bulkier, and they may have to be augmented by cross-members on top, which will change the look of the ship and might look pretty clunky. Or you can move the main engines outboard so their centers line up with the centerlines of the booms and add a thick structural cross-member at the rear ends of the booms, like the set did. That's the simplest way to make the upscaled frame sufficiently stiff and swooshable, but it means the cargo can't be unloaded to the rear anymore, and the cargo loading needs to be rethought. I think the dropship mechanism they came up with is a fairly clever solution to that problem, at the cost of changing the play pattern from a cargo ship to a VTOL dropship. So yes, there are a lot more design challenges in an upscaled, updated Renegade than in an upscaled, updated Galaxy Explorer. I don't agree with all the design choices they made, but I don't think they were all bad choices. It's still disappointing that the two sides of the 10355 Renegade frame are the same length while they're different lengths in the original, but that's easily remedied with an add-in module extension. I should build one. I should also mod my Invader and Renegade to have compatible modules, and build different little flyers for the wings. I really don't like the brick-built Blacktron logo flyers. They don't look good and they don't hold minifigures well and they don't swoosh well either. I'll note that @danth's own Renegade remake is wildly different than the original in most respects. It's a wildly creative build that transforms into a totally awesome mech! But the original doesn't do that. So it seems a bit rich to criticize the 10355 for being too different from the original when your own design is so wildly (and totally awesomely!) different too. Talking about it makes me want to buy a second copy of the Renegade. Maybe if it goes on sale before the end of the year I'll still do that.

It's better for dusting, though! I think one unspoken reason behind Lego's move to a mostly studless finish over the past decade-plus is that smooth surfaces are a heck of a lot easier to dust off than studded surfaces.

My BDP 5 Antique Shop status changed to "Shipped" today. I'm in the western United States. Unfortunately, it's shipping using LaserShip/OnTrac instead of UPS or FedEx.

As far as I know, PaB Standard is just stopped in the United States and Canada. However, dozens of postal services around the world, including most European postal services, are no longer accepting mail to the United States, or at least they weren't the last time I checked in early September.

@zoth33 I know, I was replying to @Sucram.

Yeah, but that's more of a fantasy airplane than a fantasy car.

Pick a Brick Standard is "paused" in the United States due to tariffs and the end of de minimis international shipping to the United States. The Pick a Brick Bestseller selection is very small, only about a thousand common parts.

Wishlist: Since DC has entirely gone over to Speed Champions envy with three $30 Batmobiles in one wave next March, let's think about what might be if Star Wars also got Speed Champions fever: ANH Luke's Landspeeder AotC Anakin's Airspeeder Solo Han's Landspeeder TPM Flash Speeder RotS Bail Organa's Airspeeder What else?

I'm not interested in the house, but the car and the van are great! Hope I can get them separately on eBay or something now that Pick a Brick is dead.

Oh, so that's why I can't access my Amazon orders page or comment on Reddit. Good to know.

That is a surprisingly apt description of the logo set.

If you're tired of the talk about a TIE Avenger by Lego, would you care to purchase for @CloneCommando99 a TBF Avenger by Cobi? It's a pretty good kit, and it's the same thing. Just a few letters changed. You know, like those Star Plan sets by L*pin. %7BfileStore.core_Attachment%7Dmonthly_2025_10/image.jpeg.71e78a43c50a045add3e10e42915c9d6.jpeg

UCS BvS or Reeves cars, maybe. UCS Flying Lobster, probably not. UCS Batpod, definitely not. They already did that and it was 40% off last weekend.

I started reading Eurobricks forums in 2005 and I didn't make an account until 2016 or 2017!

It's there to trick unsuspecting passersby into thinking that Superman is on the way, when in the grim darkness of Gotham City there is only Batman.

Actually, you know what, I was wrong. The B&R car is actually the perfect size. The prop car is 30 to 33 feet long, depending on who you believe, and the Lego set is just shy of 30 studs long. So, that's pretty close to my preferred 1:38 scale (1 stud = 1 foot). It's a little short of the usual 1:35 scale of minifig-scale military builders and it's a good deal short of the usual ~1:25 scale of 8w Speed Champions, but it's not shrunk down to kiddy size for the sake of the playset.

All three Batmobiles are must-buys for me, but at 20% off, not on day one. The DuckBricks hands-on video shows there's a big 2x4 empty space inside the B&R car. I wonder if that's intended to accomodate a Smart Brick? If so, I'm glad the car isn't overtly, outwardly compromised for the sake of that feature, like the Pikachu and X-wing are. I'd assume we'll get more with the same "Legendary Batmobiles Collection" branding in early 2027, but probably not in 2026. I imagine even TLG realizes that 3 playscale Batmobiles in one year is enough.

Mark Stafford openly spoke of having Speed Champions envy when he talked about designing the Forever Batmobile last year, which I thought was funny because the set was scaled much larger than the preceding Batmobiles since 2021 that were more or less in Speed Champions scale. Now that the Speed Champions envy is in the open with three $30 cars next January, I think it's deliciously ironic that the Forever car, as a strangely large set, is followed by the B&R car bludgeoned into scale as a kiddy car, when the prop car is fifty percent longer than the 1989 prop car so it could legitimately hit an overpriced ninety buck price point if it were done to scale at Speed Champions standards. Not that I'm complaining. That's one car where I'd much rather have a cute little playset than a larger display model stuffed with gonzo building techniques.

The Reeves car looks really good. It's a solid improvement on the old set in proportions and details, makes good use of new parts, and it's at a good price. The BvS car is a mixed bag. The color is an improvement, and the construction of the front wheel armor is much better, but the old dedicated element worked better for the windscreen than this generic printed element. The price should be $20. The B&R car is, you know what, it's cute. I don't like the movie car and I wouldn't like a larger model that was to scale with the 1989 or TAS cars, but I can dig this set as a cute little version of a 4+ Batmobile at a slightly higher age rating. It should still be $20 though. The shape of the logo is great, but it should be smooth and ungreebled and sold at half the price. This is one thing that doesn't need greebling all over the place. And Golden Batman is just weird and tacky.

My list of Castlemax projects has 77 entries, and there are 436 entries in Series 9, so that's about 18% of all submissions. If I counted Castle-themed entries in the 2000-3000p range too, that would probably come out to about 25% of all entries as medium-large or max-size castles.

Just for fun I'm going to make a list of the Castlemax (castles and forts about the size of the LKC, ~3000-4000p) submissions in BDP9 to see how many there are (77!): Alliance of Light (Griffins) An Abyssal Knights World - Legends of Wreckstone (Krakens base w/Horses and Griffins too) Brick Monarch's Castle (Griffin Knights) Castle Evermore (Griffins and Krakens) Castle in the Sky (Griffins) Castle Keep at the Shore (Krakens) Castle of Roses (Paradisa - built and titled like a castle but it's a modern resort?) Citadel of the Snake (Snakes) Cliffside Sanctuary (Griffins) Cloud Kingdom (Griffins) Dark Castle (Krakens, Griffins) Darkspire Citadel (Frights) Deep Sea Citadel (Krakens) Desert Fortress (Snakes) Dragon Spire (Griffins) Dreadmoor (Snakes) Driftwood Keep (Krakens) Eyrie Castle (Griffins and Krakens) Fortified city with inn and bank (Krakens) Gilded Island Keep (Krakens) Griffin Keep (Griffins) Griffstone Castle (Griffins) Hydra Shipyard (Griffins) Imperial Guards Star Fortress (Imperial whitecoats) Inn at the Crossroads (Griffins) Japanese Castle (tourists) King’s Castle (Horses) King’s Mansion (Horses) Knights’ Sanctuary of Valor (Horses) Medieval Cathedral (Horses) Medieval City Port (Griffins and Krakens) Medieval Guildhall (a little smaller, faction unclear) Medieval Hamlet (Griffins) Medieval Town Hall (Lions) Medieval Town Hall (Griffins) Medieval Village (Griffins, Horses, Snakes) Mistguard Castle (Griffins and Krakens) Mistspire Tower (Griffins) Nightstone Citadel watchtower (Snakes, Griffins, Horses) Noble Knights’ Castle (Griffins) Octopus Gate (Krakens, a little smaller) Orc Village (Orcs) Outlaw Outpost (Wild West) Paladins’ Temple Fortress (Snakes) Port Fenzance (Imperial tancoats) Rockspire Castle (Griffins) Royal Nest (Griffins) Sea Haven Stronghold (Krakens) Seacliff Castle (Griffins) Shadow Stone Manor (Snakes) Silverwood Crossing (Elves) Squid Island Castle (Krakens) Stonepeak Stronghold (Griffins) Stormcairn Fortress (Krakens) The Aerie Citadel (Griffins) The Castle Gate (Horses) The Corvids Nest (Griffins with Raven shields) The Crooked Tower (faction unclear) The Dark Village (Snakes) The Emerald Abyss (Krakens) The Forgotten Tower (Griffins) The Fortress (Krakens) The Island Castle (Griffins) The Libertalia Fortress (Pirates) The Northern City Gates (Griffins, Krakens, Horses) The Scarlet Bastion (Griffins) The Squire (Griffins) The Stone Crown (Griffins and Krakens) The Temple of Grail (Griffins) Town Hall (Horses) Town Hall and Belfry (Snakes and Horses) Trade Outpost and River Barge (Griffins and Krakens) Viking Shipyard (Vikings) Wagon Fort (Griffins, a little smaller) Watchers of the Midnight Sea (Krakens) White Shark Imperials Prison (Imperial tancoats) Wild West Fort (Wild West) That's a lot of Castlemax builds! May the best one win. These are the BDP9 submissions I marked as "Like It": Alliance of Light Alien Discovery Ancient City Brick Studios Canal Houseboat Citadel of the Snake Countryside Farmhouse Darkspire Citadel Dragon Spire Dreadmoor Edward the Friendly Pirate Egyptology Expedition Griffin Keep Kita Castle Lifeguard Tower Medieval Village Mistguard Castle Outpost Battery Packet Ship Albatross Port Fenzance Road Work Ahead Royal Nest The Corvids Nest The Old Garage The Royal Convoy Vikings of Krakheim These are the BDP9 submissions I marked as "Love It": Golden Age Aviation Japanese Castle Oakwatch Tower Post Office and Stagecoach I marked everything else as "Not For Me.” I limited my “Love It” ratings to only the three smaller sets that would be instant buys if released, and only the Japanese Castle in the Castlemax category. The other Castlemax builds I liked are in the “Like It” category. I suppose I might go back and change some of them from “Like It” to “Love It” later.

Last I saw the progress bars showed Outlaw Forest Den just having crossed the funded threshold, and nothing else funded yet.