danth

This is mind-blowing in so many ways that I don't know where to start. The brick built yellow doors and the earth layers. Wow.

I think it's important to realize that inflation isn't just something you should take for granted across the board. Console video games have cost about $50-$60 since the original NES. A pair of jeans has cost about $50 my whole life. I've been paying $80-$100 for sneakers since the early '90s. And I'm talking the same brands/from the same stores. Companies will always charge what they think people will pay. Buying into the idea that inflation is a given is what allows them to charge more.

This is what I want more than anything. So it won't happen. Personally, I think the Animal Crossing molds are too stylized for general use. The old Chima molds were a little better, but I just want some good, generic animal heads. They would be useful in so many genres. Basically, anything sci-fi or fantasy (TMNT, Red Wall, D&D, etc) can use anthropomorphic animals. And peaceful settings like Fabuland, of course.

Agreed, I liked everything but the price and lack of instructions. At least there were a ton of prints. Ugh, that sucks! There should always be a digital PDF at the very least.

I'm glad you asked. I'm talking about 71427 and 71391. I bought both new from Bricklink about a month ago. I started building 71427, which had no instructions in the box. I looked on Lego's website, and its instruction download is just a small PDF that says to get the app. I haven't opened 71391, but it has the same kind of download on the Lego website so I assumed it also has no physical instructions. I searched for instructions in PDF form but all the sites I tried have the same small PDF that say to get the app. But I just looked on Brickset to find out what year these were, and noticed they have a much bigger PDF for download that happens to be the actual instructions in PDF form. Yay! Why did Google not find those? I prefer physical instructions, but those PDFs are a godsend compared to having to use that darn app, or the youtube version that you have to constantly pause.

Man, I bought a couple Mario sets and forgot they don't have paper instructions. Even worse, they don't have any sort of PDF instruction. You HAVE to use some stupid app to get the instructions. I hate it. The images for the August wave of SW sets show people using the instruction app...I hope this doesn't mean those sets won't have physical instructions.

Nope, just ordered it this morning! Will report back later.

So I ended up getting the Moon Car since I had the points sitting around, and with thanks to @RichardGoring I picked up the good dome helmet pieces at the same time, and some hair pieces. Pick a Brick was incredibly slow. I would have perused it for more parts I wanted, but it's just painful.

I prefer the latter, your attempt is great. I think 6949 just has more potential to look cool than 6889 without a major redesign.

Yeah, I guess we're eating pretty good on trans yellow canopies this year. I just wish I liked the sets better...

Also do we need to talk about part shrinkflation? I don't even know how some of these smallish sets are 500-700 pieces. This thing is 567 pieces: I just don't know where all those pieces are. There must be just a ton of small pieces. Maybe 100 per wing, 200 for the main fuselage, then somehow even more somewhere? How? Compared to just 443 pieces for this: And despite the major part shrinkflation, PPP is going up. And even main logos are stickers instead of prints. It's wild.

Same with the new snowspeeder. I'm sick of Star Wars but, a ridiculously colored snowspeeder with a new trans yellow canopy would be enough to pull me in. If it weren't for the entire thing relying on stickers. Flame printed tiles and fins would be awesome, but I'm just not paying for stickers anymore, at least not for SW sets, and not at these inflated prices.

New yellow windscreen. I'd gladly buy this set if it weren't for the stickers, despite the price being outrageous. So, I'll bricklink or PAB multiples of the canopy instead.

As cynical as I am, and as much as I love to dog SW fans for buying everything, I think these prices are so ridiculous that even SW fans will wait until they go on clearance to buy them, or pass on them. Really. I don't know what's worse: the price, or the fact the build is simply the floor. I don't care if there are turntables. I don't want to build the floor. Can't tell if you're saying the Juggernaut has an awful PPP, or that PPP is an awful metric. Were there any particularly expensive parts you found on PAB for this set?

Luckily this mainly affects sets that I wouldn't buy anyway...but GOOD GOD, Lego set prices are getting out of control. Like 75413 for example -- literally double the normal $.10 PPP ratio without any overly large pieces, no large compliment of minifigs, and cheap stickers instead of prints.

That's good to know for people who want the better helmet option. Thanks. I might even be tempted to go for the set now if I can get those helmets in the same order.

https://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemIn.asp?P=61287&colorID=12&in=A I said still in production, but technically in production as recently as last year, before anyone jumps all over me.

The helmets and bald heads ruin it. They look terrible! The original had the real fish bowl helmets with hair. These pieces are still in production so Lego had no excuse here. They just cheaped out.

My interest in the moon car has dropped to zero. Way to ruin the minifigs with those terrible "helmets" and bald heads. I guess the TLG penny pinching department wins again, and Lego fans lose. Lego never fails to make the official sets worse than the original submissions.

You have my attention. This looks pretty cool. I've definitely never seen a build like this. Have you tried it with real bricks? Just wondering how tight the tiles fit in between the bricks. And if the headlight bricks in the second layer really line up perfectly.

Damn, never thought I'd see a Talisman MOC! Very cool! I played this game way back in the '90s. Then played the online version a lot with some friends during the pandemic. I haven't found another game that quite scratches the same itch.

Agreed, sometimes a mech is basically just a brick built big figure (that probably looks better than a constraction fig anyway), especially the SW/Marvel "mechs" which don't make any effort to look mechanical in any way.

Agreed. I'm not sure I'm making my point very clearly... Agreed again. I really did not communicate what I meant very clearly at all! I mean that I see more mechs in Lego than mechs in other popular things. Does Roblox have mechs? Does Fortnite have mechs? Do Marvel movies have mechs? Does Star Wars have mechs (do walkers count?). I'm gonna say no. The closest thing to mechs that has ever been popular in the West is Transformers (and Gobots or whatever if we're talking about the 80's transforming robot craze). So why are there so many Lego mechs, and how do kids just "get" what a mech even is, and how are they desirable enough in Lego form to consistently sell? Maybe a "giant pilotable robot" is just an easily understandable, effortlessly cool concept that kids get and like, and Lego is the only company (outside of Asia) that understands how to capitalize off the concept?

They do. People are buying all the non-mech sets too right? Otherwise Lego would only be making mechs. Totally agree! I don't think kids dislike mechs. I'm just wondering why mechs are a much bigger thing in modern Lego sets than, like, anything else right now.

This seems to be a Lego-only thing, strangely. I think it's more that people will buy Lego no matter what, mechs included, than any kind of "mecha craze". As big as anime has gotten outside of Japan, I think the mech genre is one of the least popular now. Mecha movies in the West don't even exist outside of Pacific Rim and, what, Robot Jox? You'll get an occasional powersuit in sci-fi movies. Even the Star Wars franchise shies away from anything but clunky walkers. I think Lego designers really like mechs. They make total sense in Ninjago sets at least. And SW and Marvel fans will buy anything so it doesn't matter if they make sense in those themes.