Captain Nemo

It may be worth noting that Lego designers have limitations like parts count, usage, stability, and age ranges. I don't think it's fair to compare the offical version with custom ones, to just act like the offical version is absolute crap (I cannot recall these same thoughts before the set came out, only after when the excessive Mod versions started rolling in)--because as we know, 9.9 times out of 10, the custom is always going to be better looking since the builders do not have the limitations the designers do. Point being, for what we got, I think the offical Hulkbuster is amazing. It is a spectacular mech and even more spectacular considering its for a thirty dollar set. And it may not be perfect, but it's fairly accurate--especially considering what it could have been like--ala Mandarin golf cart.

Interesting SDCC set--really surprising and out of nowhere; its not something I would have thought of. It looks nice, but best of all is the fact that there's no exclusive figures included. Although I guess we now know why the official Tumbler did not come with the ability to build the Bat-Pod!

First Jared Leto official Joker picture: I mean what?! What?! I thought the Joker had some class! I mean he doesn't even have actual teeth--they're metal! At this point I could care less about DC's movie Universe. Wake me up in eight years when they start over again!

The point of spoiler tags is to...not spoil anything. So referring to anything inside the tag (outside of the tag) negates the point of it entirely. -- Or you know, we could all just stop posting movie spoilers in the set discussion thread!--you know, so the rest of us don't get our entire movie experience ruined...Eurobricks spoilers killed baby Groot for me last year, and I'd prefer it if my Avengers 2 experience is not also destroyed. Anyone ever heard of this thread? "Marvel Cinematic Universe"

Nice review! As an owner of this set (which I received as a prize from Lego) I have to say it's rather nice. I'm not sure how my perception would change if I bought it myself, but it's nonetheless good. For myself I do know the best part is the minifigures, specifically Joker--but the Tumbler itself is well designed (although I do wish it had suspension). I did have issues building it--largely due to the fact that one wrong placement (due to multiple instances of carelessness) of a technic pin (even just one hole off the correct location) resulted in having to rip the thing apart almost back to square one. As a display piece it's ok I suppose. Being all black makes it sort of blend into one blob, so most of the details are indeed lost--even at short distances. I don't know--I'm not upset I own one, but I really wouldn't be upset if I didn't. Although the Joker is nice...

Another great review Just2good! This is for sure the set I'm looking forward to getting the most (at least first!)--and I hope it shows up on the shelves soon, as I keep getting heartbroken whenever I don't see any JW sets out! Really this is a perfect set for me. And although I'm one of those people who think it could use one more minifigure, the jeep build more than makes up for it. It might have benefited from some small foliage too, but otherwise it's perfect. And I cannot wait to get my hands on those ACU torsos! Seriously, I do have to say though that I think the line could have benefited overall if every set included one more minifigure. Even though there are dinosaur molds included, a large portion of them are not new ones and/or they're just recolored raptors, so I do feel like all the sets are missing at least one figure. But, regardless--they're all must buys for me.

Go for the Milano now, especially. The GotG sets won't be around much longer--and there are reports of some deep discounts (I think some people said they got it for like $30; and I swear I even heard like $15 somewhere) being seen on the Milano itself (I think mostly from Walmart, but it may be dropping across the board). It's an amazing set and now is the time to get it--before it's too late!

FYI: No Spoiler Review Below! I watched the whole Daredevil series over the past two days and I was very very impressed. I absolutely loved all the actors, but especially Vincent D'Onofrio as Wilson Fisk (he's never called Kingpin in the series actually) who is simply amazing. I think he may be my favorite MCU villain yet, on par with Loki and Red Skull. And going in I was unsure about D'Onofrio because I just thought he was too thin (I'm used to my Kingpin being like the Animated Spider-Man one, half a ton with 2% body fat), but once he started fighting, moving, boy was he fearsome--and he seemed so massive! (I have to say I think in episode 13 they used shorter actors as his henchmen just to make him look taller by comparison, because he towered over them by a foot) I especially loved this one short shot during his first main fight--where the camera view looks up at him just smashing both fists down (towards the viewer) in absolute rage--it's just the perfect Kingpin fighting style! Although I loved Wilson Fisk in this series, I cannot really see him coming up against anyone else however--like say Tony Stark or Steve (or even Shield/Coulson). He's a street level villain in this series; like really street level, where he wouldn't even be noticed by someone like Spider-Man (at least after all the first Avengers stuff and everything--more dangerous stuff going on!). I do hope that in the future he evolves more to become a larger than life villain figure, where we can see him up against our other heroes. I don't know if that'll happen, but even if he just stays in the Daredevil corner--I think I'll be happy. Although I'd love to see him shooting a laser beam from a cane! On other things: all the side characters were great. Foggy is just hilarious. I especially loved all of Fisk's mob partners. The series also, most likely, has the most character deaths out of any MCU project. People drop like flies in this series. There was a lot of violence in comparison to the other Marvel projects afterall, so that was interesting on its own--but man the fighting--Daredevil may have the best film fighting I've ever seen, there's just nothing I can compare it to. There's one point where there is a five minute or so continuous (almost) shot that shows Daredevil just beating up three or four guys in a hallway; and it goes on and on and on, far more realistic and grounded than say Captain America punching a guy once and knocking him out--it takes a long time for anyone to get KO'd in Daredevil. Plus there's a lot more broken bones! I will say that the costume reveal at the end of the series was a bit cheesy in my opinion; unlike the other 12 episodes, the final 13th one made me remember most the horrible Daredevil movie (something I totally forgot about 10 minutes into the series). It just felt a bit off, I think because the music was too triumphant in comparison to the other episodes--however although I don't think I liked the ending as much as I liked the journey, the Daredevil series makes you scream for more at the end--there's a few loose ends, a few plot points dropped in the series (clearly for later on) that I just want to know about. For sure, Daredevil was an amazing addition to the MCU. It's so unique but it fits in regardless. I just want more of it now!

Moving away from movie spoilers and whatnot...Luiggi got another figure! I will say...what a waste of a second face! I mean honestly, when the hell is that ever going to be useful? And personally I think the legs are absolutely terrible--especially considering that Lego will be releasing a new boot print format in the same wave. Still, the upper half is nice. I'm really iffy on this.

That's a lucky find but a tough choice. They're both rather nice. Of the two, I personally liked the Batwing set more overall--both the builds are nice and swoosh-able. The figures are also good--although at this point only the henchman is still exclusive. The Tumbler set on the other hand still has all exclusive figures (granted I don't think Bane looks that nice), and it has a spectacular camo Tumbler--there's a bit of a split on this, but I'm in the camp of loving it; I think it's scale is about perfect with the other superhero/city/Lego vehicles but it needs a bit of modding. The Bat portion however is a let down and mostly a throw away. So really it's up to what you want more--exclusive figures or nice builds. Either way, they're both great to have in a collection.

Doh! I knew it was familar! I'm excited that we are at least getting the Witch--especially since I love collecting Lego Wizards and Witches. The Benny pack is awesome too. Although I think most of the other packs seem a bit disappointing from just the names--they're mostly generic characters we already have a bunch of--the LotR fourms are going to light up when they find out we are getting more Legolas and Gimli figures!

That's a Simpsons doughnut! And a reference to Honey I Shrunk the Kids? And was that a Star Trek scanner? Either way, I love this game more and more with each new morsel of information!

Better better look here! Eeeek! The figures must be removable if the stands are named---so you can find em' later after taking the figure off!

Wizard of Oz! I will admit, I disliked the idea of this thing at first--I think (or thought) it was too out there for Lego. But man, that trailer--I want it! I wonder how they'll sell other characters--and if the figures can be removed from their stands. Maybe we'll even see some of the figure stands for the game showing up in the sets. Buy a big set, get to play as one of the set exclusive characters in the game--makes sense to me.

Again...Monster Fighters was a success--that's known by many and most members of the community--if it was a failure they would have scrapped the Haunted House. If it was a failure, you would not have been able to see Lego still producing and selling the theme's sets months later (Not back stock--new sets--Lego would never have made so many sets for the seasonal theme otherwise). And the success on MF is not based on how many waves it got--not all themes are meant to have more than one wave--if anything, MF was a seasonal wave; it obviously sold best in October, and so there's no point in selling it in June or December. Second--Amazon lists do not determine the sales of an entire wave. And story wise--look me at me with a straight face and tell me that the MF story was so much more complicated than Ninjago is! I don't think anyone is expecting this wave (or frankly many waves) to end up being as lasting as Ninjago is. A theme like Ninjago with that stain power is not something that comes around often. We saw this from Chima, which was obviously not as successful as Ninjago--since the latter is coming back to replace it. Regardless, I think it's unrealistic to expect that the Scooby Doo theme will get four waves and a movie like Ninjago (or however many waves they're on now). But that's not the point--Scooby Doo is not going to fail just because it is not going to get fifty waves. I'm really not sure what you're getting at with these comments. You seem to think the wave will crash and burn at one minute and be a success at another. And for someone with an apparent Lego Monster Fan site, you seem to have a vendetta against the Monster Fighters theme. You seem very against this theme, while most other people cannot wait for it.

Actually, I'm pretty sure that Monster Fighters did amazingly well. If anything it helped convince Lego that a Scooby Doo line would be successful too. Heck we are getting a monster themed CMF wave--If Monster Fighters was not successful, would we be getting that? In regards to Dr. Who and Scooby Doo--it's a bit too early to be saying that the former is far more successful because of it got a teaser video. We have almost no information on Dr. Who, while we know we are getting a full Scooby Doo wave. If anything, the teaser is just to remind everyone that Lego is in fact making Dr. Who, considering they approved the project so long ago at this point--at least it seems that way. The Dr. Who set(s) could come out any time too--and we know we won't get Scooby Doo until September(ish); so even then it's early to promote the latter.

That castle is just amazing! For sure that and the Mystery Machine will be day one buys for me. And I cannot wait to get my hands on another Lego Vampire--especially considering this one has a spectacular matching coffin. Ooo! I just want to build Scooby Doo MOCs now! It's going to be a torturous wait until August to get these!

Well I for one hail our new magical overlordsTM and whatever copyright infringement suits they may or may not impose upon certain members whose names are well within their suit rights, at least dating back to 1954.

Yeah it looks really bad if you compare it to the game Gallimimus. I have to say, I'm confused that this smaller mold was used for the Gallimimus rather than the Dilophosaurus. I mean the Dilophosaurus (movie version) is way smaller than the raptor mold it uses is, and I think it would have worked better to use the smaller scale. Really, they should have just swapped the body types of the two Dinos to get a more accurate scale. Although it may have been done this way to improve the desire for the Dilophosaurus set--if it included a tiny dinosaur it would be hard to justify the price. Plus they could not make this polybag with a raptor sized dino included.

Thanks again to Hoth Bricks! 30320 Gallimimus Trap This is apparently the pre-order item for those buying the Jurassic World Video Game from Gamestop. Although it's not John Hammond, it's still a nice polybag--even though the "Gallimimus" really doesn't look like a Gallimimus; at least from movie standards. I especially like how the site notes that the "Gallimimus doesn't have a single tooth in it's entire mouth." Do your homework Lego!

Tricorne for sure. The hair version is clearly just Lego being lazy and not wanting to give us enough hats for our figures!

Actually he only gets the figures early--and even then they're ususally not complete. I've asked about the head on Flickr, but I've had no response yet. I feel they could still be a stand ins--at least I hope so. Bruce Wayne's head is so overused at this point its ridiculous.

Ooof. A rather scathing review of the 7144 Slave 1 eh? I think I may need hospitalization, but I rather like it's old world charm--you just don't get that from the new sets. Although I'm sure a large part of my fascination with it relates to the fact that it was one of the first sets I can remember that "got away" from me (like almost the entire Batman 1 wave!). So it'll always have a special place in my heart...or mind from now on. Another interesting point to bring up is about Jango's Slave 1--the only version I own. Did you consider playability and the swoosh factor with that one? I always remember that one for it's horrible structural integrity. That dumb bomb section always resulted in the entire ramp section to fall completely off since it's a heavy chunk held by weak hinges turning in a poor manor. Uh that set! Have you experienced this? I know others have. -- Those points aside, this is an amazing retrospective! Rarely if ever do you see images like this, where you have all the versions of an identical design source in one spot. It really seriously goes to show how much Lego has changed over the years--not just in design style, but in parts usage, color, emphasis, everything. Make more please!

I feel like that's just more coincidental. It may have been related to source material (although we have know idea how much they used back then, and I don't think it's nearly to the extent at which they use now) but more likely I think it was other factors. Most likely Lego may have just wanted to make a bright colorful pirate wave, and that's why we have the yellow (The Imperial yellow and white does contrast the black and grey pirate fort too). The first castle sets were also bright and yellow--but then they became more realistically colored later on--likewise the Imperial forts are mostly white now. Plus all the color limitations back then; and I'm sure Lego also wanted to differentiate the color style of Castle and Pirates (No point in having two grey forts on the market at the same time, etc.). Regardless I don't think that takes away from the beauty of the Eldorado Fortress. It came out way before my time, but I consider it among the most iconic of sets.

Well come on guys...let's be honest...who's buying these sets for the builds and not the gigantic meat-eaters...