tafkatb

Well, we are on a forum full of grown adults who spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars a year on children's toys, so I don't think any of us can claim to react "rationally" to LEGO. Back on topic-ish, though - I really love the New Orleans-inspired look of the zombies and tombs. That's an aesthetic I've always wanted to see LEGO tackle. Was there ever a price or piece count quoted for this set? I'm getting more and more convinced I'll have to buy it.

As long as it's done in the standard yellow, which doesn't really represent any race, it's not really reinforcing a stereotype. If they went out of their way to make a "witch doctor" character dark-skinned, then there'd be a problem. I am really liking what I see of the zombie set - the rest of the Monster Fighters line is pretty cool, but this one seems like a must-have.

+1 to prozac, great deal!

This topic piqued my curiosity on pricing standards across entire themes, so I decided to do a little math. Taken all together, the City sets released so far this year (not including the summer wave sets, though I might dig through the Toy Fair pictures later for their prices and piece counts) have an average price per piece of just under 10.9 cents. For comparison, Super Heroes sets come in at an average of just under 10.7 cents per piece, the Star Wars sets released so far this year average 12.7, and Dino is just over 14.1 cents per piece. Architecture, widely considered an overpriced theme, averages 11.5 cents per piece, and Creator, known for being a good value, has averaged a little over 9.1 cents per piece so far this year. (And of course, this is all with the caveat that price per piece is just a sort of jumping-off point in determining a set's value for the money.) Now, there are a whole bunch of factors that contribute to these differences - licensing, unique molds, target age group, and how long the theme has been around, or plans to be around, among them. Looking at City in comparison to some other themes can help us get a sense of what it is about each line that can determine its pricing. I'd wager that one of the biggest factors for City is that it is an "evergreen" theme with a pretty well established base of buyers, meaning it's less of a risk to charge a little more. The other themes of course have their own various aspects that affect their cost, but that's a discussion for another thread.

Exactly. I certainly don't blame TLG for it; it's definitely Hollywood's problem. (It is too bad we never got a Shacklebolt fig though, he would've been cool!)

I've always thought of the yellow minifigs as racially neutral - so when I see a MOC populated by yellow figs, it just looks normal to me, whereas with the light nougat ones, my first thought is always "My God, it's full of white people." There are just so few minifig heads out there in Reddish Brown or Medium Nougat or basically any flesh tone that isn't Light Nougat. So we get a wide variety of features and expressions for white people, but mostly just a bunch of Captain Panaka and Mace Windu clones for everyone else, which kind of undermines any attempt at realism.

If they do make battle packs it's much more likely they'll just be minifigs. Star Wars battle packs only include vehicles because another company has exclusive rights to sell Star Wars action figures, which is what minifigs would legally be considered if they didn't also come with a significant buildable element.

Maybe there was a tie and the judges are deliberating in their quarters.

Bricklink lists another polybag - a mini Batmobile. Has anyone seen this anywhere?

It's definitely fake - the person who posted it on Brickset has admitted as much. The only question I really have now is whether the whole concept was a fake or if we are indeed going to see Olympic figs in some form.

I think it's perfectly fair - they're the host nation, they get all the promo stuff. Something to play with during all the traffic delays.

I doubt TLG would be holding back info on Series 8 to maintain hype over the Olympic series, considering the former will be an international release and the latter will be limited to the UK. I'm expecting S8 leaks any day now, since they usually seem to turn up just as the previous series begin hitting stores.

I agree the line between Landmark and Architect Series is too blurry for separate contest categories - even blurrier when you look at the Burj Khalifa, as the box art and official website can't even seem to agree which series it is. Or the Sydney Opera House - it's listed as Architect Series, and there's no denying Jørn Utzon's prestige, but then again the building has become the definitive landmark of an entire continent. It also can't be chalked up to size - look at the Guggenheim vs. the White House. The closest thing we can have to a definitive distinction is asking whether the architect is more famous than the building or vice versa, which can be highly subjective.

9 - 1 vote 17 - 1 vote 26 - 1 vote 29 - 1 vote 45 - 3 votes

While a whole new line would probably be unlikely, a UCS Galaxy Explorer would be amazing. Or perhaps there could be Classic Space reboot sets released once a year D2C like the Modulars and Winter Village.

There are obviously key differences, but I think they're similar enough that TLG might not want both themes out at the same time. Indiana Jones and Pharaoh's Quest are similar - at least, similar enough that they didn't run at the same time.

I agree, change is bad. Never should have gotten rid of the old horse:

Thanks for posting these! I think I want the Seaside House, but I still keep thinking the price is a mistake. Creator houses usually have a much better price per piece; even the ones with electronic parts come in under 10 cents. Is it possible the quoted price was a misprint?

If the current dimensions work, you might as well stick with them, though you could probably play around with the spacing of the vertical supports depending on how you want the load distributed. Again, I'm just projecting what I know about steel construction so I don't know how well it translates to LEGO, but try making the vertical members more closely spaced towards the ends to get a more efficient distribution.

Very nicely done! It's impressively proportional for such a small scale. I also really like the flowers for propellers - that's a part usage I've never seen before, and it's perfect.

The one in front is most likely going to give you the best ratio of load to number of bricks used. Since structural members carry the bulk of their loads along the top (compression) and bottom (tension), you'll want to focus most of the strength there and just connect them as efficiently as possible. While the cross-bracing works well for steel girders, plastic bricks are a whole different animal - my gut tells me you'll want to play to their strengths by only using 90-degree connections rather than trying to mimic the angles of a steel truss. Finally, I'd also suggest bulking up the connections in the bottom member, since stacks of bricks are going to be weaker in tension than in compression. (And this is mostly theoretical speculation, of course - my structural engineering classes taught us how to work with wood, steel, and reinforced concrete, but for some reason they neglected ABS. )

I'd like for it to be a corner building, though it's not really clear whether Market Street is considered canonical, so the pattern might be "1 corner, 2 sides" or it might be "1 corner, 3 sides." Hopefully it's the former, though I certainly wouldn't blame TLG for wanting to stretch it out considering how successful the modulars have been.

Looks to be about half minifig scale. I think I'm going to build one scaled down further to make it compatible with the Mini Modulars, though I'm awfully tempted to Bricklink the parts to make the official version.

The restaurant wouldn't actually need to fill the entire building though - look at the Pet Shop. The actual pet shop portion of the building is just the first floor of one half of the set. Green Grocer is also mostly an apartment with the grocer just taking up the ground floor. So there's definitely precedent for mixed-use residential buildings, but there hasn't been a hospitality-oriented one since Cafe Corner, so I'd bet on a restaurant coming next. And Jamie Berard's potential hint on the LEGO message boards might lend further credence to that.

This is really impressive! I hope I can make it out to DC at some point to see the exhibit. So do you actually work for RAMSA?