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How's this for news? Taken at the London Toy fair by http://www.blogomatic3000.com/2012/01/24/toyfair-2012-lego-avengers-lego-lord-of-the-rings-and-universal-monsters/#.Tx7IUIFKS0M (image removed - if you want to see it you need to go to the guys blog) The lego fellowship! Is it just me, or does the legolas figure ACTUALLY look like Orlando Bloom?!

Brickset has also posted a review of the Star Wars 'Battle of Hoth' Board game, complete with 32 microfigs!!! Some great parts and clever microscale builds. http://www.brickset.com/news/article/?ID=2384

This looks great, you've really captured the look of it all. It needs the giant picture of Chairman Mao tho!

Why's there a giant fox pulling the wagon? It's a shame TLG don't do their western stuff anymore.

Rainbow Unicorn Attack! This is a beauty. The lever to skeleton arm connection is inspired, but I'm guessing quite fragile! Also love the use of the genie gem for the eye, and so much more.

The Mini-taurus game is now showing up on the ASDA direct website (UK Supermarket). Just happened across it. May pick one up if I see it in store. http://direct.asda.com/LEGO-Games-Mini-Taurus---3864/000755659,default,pd.html

Wow, that looks like a fun build. I especially like the castle detail and the statue in the fountain. Gives it a real abandoned feeling. I think you are right though, the second design works better as a game, being more modular, meaning you can transport it or change the level around to make different games. It looks like you used a lot of pieces, especially the 2x2 jumper plates. Did you buy more or are they all from the games? I would be interested to hear your rules as I see you have changed the hero packs as well, and maybe are using more than one dice? You can put your rules in the other heroica thread if you like.

It's under 'special LEGO themes' though is a bit hidden as the title description doesn't say it.

That's maybe a bit more complicated than I was hoping for :P ! My original idea was just to keep monsters in play a bit longer rather than just bashing them and moving on. But I guess in normal play there is no reason to be doubling back on yourself, so you wouldn't come across the same monsters anyway. I might look at working on this idea though for Fortaan, where there is more opportunity to be exploring and running into the same monsters again depending on how you set the map up. A rule I did play was that monsters had life points to the value of their strength, represented by gold on their head. So a level 2 monster would have one gold, the first 'hit' taking the gold, the 2nd 'hit' killing him. This resulted in more exciting battles, especially against level 2 and 3 monsters. It also brought more gold into the game, and meant we could actually buy weapons and potions which hadn't happened, or been necessary in shorter games. Another rule I'm toying with is to put all keys/potions into chests. As currently opening a 'chest' is pointless and time-consuming for the sake of 1 or 2 gold. It would work the same as a normal 'chest' roll, but if you got a 3 or shield you would choose an actual lego treasure chest that may contain a key, potion or relic (eg helmet of protection) that would help you defeat the 'boss' (especially as he now has 3 lives and can do 3 damage). This would bring more of an exploring and collecting element to the game.

Turns out that comic was on the lego website all along, as well as animated versions of each comic... :P Looking at the pictures of Ilrion again there is some sort of lava/volcano thing so guess that would tie in with the first picture on the map and being the first set leaked. Though not really with the description of Ilrion on the lego website (farms)...

Wasn't there a joke about his pants/trousers in the 2nd hulk movie? The only trousers Betty could find for him were some stretchy purple ones, and some joke about not ripping. Beige makes more sense, as is more of a normal colour for pants/trousers.

How about this conversation between the Wizard and Goblin King on page 12. Wizard: Where’s the real king?! Goblin King: Ha ha ha, you won’t find him here… Goblin King: I’ve already sent him back to my Master! But you’ll never make it past me! Wizard: So you’re not really in charge, after all! After battle- Wiz: Let’s look for the relic and clues to find the king! Has a bit of a LOTR feel to it, guessing the master will be in the next big castle game set.

I know it's not really good practice to reply to yourself... but was just reading this heroica comic which is basically the comic strips that you get in the games combined, but with speech bubbles. It weaves the different games and characters, each going off or arriving depending on the game they are in (eg the wizard heads off to the caves to find the rogue, whilst the barbarian heads to waldurk, then meeting up again with the wizard in the caves!). After Waldurk the Druid heads to Fortaan to find the knight (with the wizard and Barabarian joing him after the rogue leaves) but the Ranger states "Yes and I think I will go and see if the village of Seldaan or any of the neighboring farms need any help". It it too much too assume this means the ranger will appear in a Seldaan village/farm set in 2012 (as it's on the map with Ilrion). The last page also shows a new map with new relics showing a route from lava mountains to a tree (?? with a sword relic) to a tower (with a staff? relic) to a larger castle (Ilrion?).

Yeah I was meaning in custom rules? I read earlier on in the thread about the monsters taking 'hits' to the value of their.strength, but guess this still involves a hero standing in front of them and keeps on rolling until either the monster is defeated (by losing its 'lives') or until the hero loses a life. I was trying to devise a rule where monsters take 'hits' but a hero is allowed to pass once the monster is 'stunned' from a hit. Otherwise the hero at the front tends to do all the fighting for not much reward (similar to opening doors and letting everyone else just walk through!). I was imagining that a hero could receive one gold everytime they hit a monster, as the gold placement was pretty thin, and with 4 players I think we ended the game with just one gold each! This still leaves the problem of a hero 'stunning' a monster and passing him, only to be stood on the other side of the same monster, unless you moved 2 spaces.

Ah, just realised I was reading the rules for Nathuz, so obviously wouldn't mention doors... as it doesn't have any :P. That sounds like a good rule (and one we failed to observe, but thought about 'adding in'). It does beg the question though, that you've got to hope there's a key on the other side! (I guess this only applies to the dungeon room, being a dead-end). Has anyone put any ideas down about the monsters being 'passable' once defeated (not destroyed, Ie not a heroica roll), rather than being blockades that require removing from the board before continuing? The current issue I see is that if you were to 'defeat' a monster and jump over it, you would then be on an adjacent square and required to battle the same monster, just from the other angle. edit: spelling mistake.

It would be fun to see some additional potions as well as characters and weapons. Maybe this wizard will have some 'water power', similar to the current 'fire wizard' (though his power doesn't, as yet, seem to have any reference to being fire related, other than the symbol on his pendant).

I thought I'd looked for the rules on this but can't find where a heroica roll would allow a hero to pass through a door without a key? Unless he is a monster in Battle Heroica, where he is unable to pick up items anyway. A sensible change to the rules seems to be that if you land on another hero, they move back a space. Like in ludo or other dice board games. This also brings about a slightly more strategic movement of heroes.

It's about time we had a minifig in a wheelchair or at least with a leg in a cast/on crutches. The Hospital theme is crying out for one!

Favourites would have to be the genie (new legs and lamp accessory, though probably the least usuable for other concepts) the roman soldier (as a lot of people have wanted this fig released, though the implementation is a little... cheap) and the butcher (great new accessories - namely the steak and cleaver). The diver/runt of the series would have to be the flamenco lady. Though may be usuable as a cowboy/gangster girl, which I think would have been a better fig. Loads of good new accessories and multiple uses for different parts so would mine getting duplicates for most of these.

^Yeah I only realised when I looked closely, despite having the figure! Thought they were blue/purple but the silver is cool. Picked up this figure by accident, but I it's actually really nice, and fits well with the previous S1 Spaceman and S3 Blacktron baddie. It would even work well as a pink ADU soldier alongside the blue chaps. I think this is probably the best series for figures that have multiple uses. Despite not being too keen on figs like the sleepyhead (I think he has a stupid face, both of them!) the pyjamas would be great for hospital patients, and the hair and bear are great parts. Just the mechanic, celtic warrior and surgeon left to get... :D Also in response to someone who had mentioned about the frequency or certain figures being related to the cost of their new moulds, I would have thought if they made new moulds they would make MORE not less of the figure as once the mould is made you want to maximise the use of it? But an interesting theory (though I still think they limit the ones they think will be more popular, as you then buy more in an attempt to get the 'rare' one. Assuming you're justing buying randomly, and not feeling). :D

Thank you for your comprehensive reply. Perhaps I should have used the word misleading rather than misusing. But I still look forward to hearing which figs were voted for as the superstars.

I don't think he was after the figs, it's just a bit odd for LTG to say they'll announce something in November, and still not have said anything by the middle of December. I think I voted Spartan and Zombie and I can't remember the others. If those two are in there I can see people trying to buy multiples (but had an vague memory that they said one per customer?). If the figs are in the monster fighters theme, the idea of collectible figs is being a bit misused, especially with the cheerleader and skateboarder in the calendar and pieces turning up in B-A-M bins.

Guess this will bring Samuel L Jackson into the two lego characters club (assuming they are based on the movie version Nick Fury, but not the hasslehoff version :P). Sorry off topic. Without doubt the focus will be on the LOTR licence, but I wouldn't be suprised if we saw a few smaller Kingdoms/generic castle sets in the Autumn. Assuming they covered areas not touched by the LOTR/Hobbit stuff. May be an opportunity to do some more civilian based things, as opposed to the more conflict based LOTR stuff. Castle is one of TLGs core themes (along with Space and City) and will always be there, if somewhat diminished (like the Mars stuff etc when Star Wars first came out).

I'm guessing this might be POTC going out with a bang? Like the Imperial flagship, you do one final large set (and dare I say it the Kingdoms Joust). I can't see how they could release more sets and maintain interest, without another film being in the cinemas (I guess they didn't touch on the Chinese stuff from World's End, but probably want to steer clear of that with Ninjago also running). Then hopefully a return for 'classic'/non-licensed pirates.

I think the Time Cruisers comments are pretty spot on. That theme looked like it had been cobbled together from a kid's bucket of lego spares, but I think that was the idea. The best set on offer here has to be the Swamp Creature 1. Because it's a new figure 2. Because it will be in the cheaper range and you can just part out the Elvis monster fighter guy. The worst set has to be the Mummy carriage. Especially if it IS the series 3 Mummy. I think that would be a very poor show on TLG's account, especially when he was one of the runts of that series as well. On the other hand, if they DO keep the CMFs, the zombie set is going to be a massive hit.