Thomas_w

There are two that immediately came to my mind when I read this topic. The first is the trans-orange chainsaw that the Ice Planet guys had way back when and the second is the fancy pike/halberd thing that the dragon knights had. Both were very iconic bits of my childhood collection.

The designer of the original project has stated that she wanted to show that scientists are not all white old men in white lab coats. If you have ever been in a research laboratory you might be surprised to find that most scientists dress pretty casually. I am in my laboratory right now and I am wearing jeans and a red hoodie.

I think the idea is that childrens minds have adapted to our digital world and thus they dont separate digital from physical play. This is a cool way to meld the two worlds and create a cohesive play environment for kids. If I was a child I would have been all over this.

As a counterpoint to this comment, I actually quite like the phantom ship. It reminds me of more classic Star Wars ships, bulkier and less sleek. I am not so much interested in the minifigure, but I have got the phantom at home waiting for me to have a spare evening to build it.

I have just got you beaten mate, Newmarket Road Tesco in Cambridge had Duel on Geonosis reduced to clear for £10! There was only one left which I greedily snapped up. Not sure now if I should try to sell it or just open it. I have never had a Yoda or Dooku figure before.

I love the Warlock, which head is that ? I do not recognise it at all.

I thought the moustache piece worked really well using the "green alien head" from the most recent version of the Sarlaac (sp?) hovercraft set. He sort of looks like an orcish blacksmith. I must say I think the moustache piece is really one of the more creative minifig accessories I have seen, I love it. All your photos are hilarious, I really like the old blue sunglasses guy one.

I love the old school recording cameras and faces you used. Red hatted octan guy takes me back :)

I am sorry, I am from the UK and might be a bit dense, but certainly the chinese people I work with don't appear to find the term "Oriental" insulting. I also showed them the faces of the minifigs, and equally thought the Chinese style of the "oriental" characters was quite cool. This was only a sample size of 2 however. There is definitely a scope for cool chinese themed sets though. A larger "Around the World in 80 days" with sets devoted to many different world cultures could potentially be a big hit. My personal preference would be some sort of rural chinese tea farm and temple combo. Another possibility could be a "Great Wall of China" set which contains a small section of wall, and maybe some civilian structure.

Well I don't think that this is a good idea, I mean LEGO wouldn't even hint that one of its characters would be any kind of prostitute. But the theme in general sounds cool ! What did you think of the big Chinese inspired temple set ? I got it really cheap many years ago now, and I thought it was brilliant. I copied this image from ZO5's brickshelf, itself linked in his great review here : http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=59011

You are still missing the point. Not every child gets every single set. Get rid of Gandalfs wagon and the wizard battle then your only option is to spend upwards of £40 on a set to get the most iconic characters. Same with gollum and bilbo in Riddles of the ring. The reason there are so many copies of the main characters is maybe partly so that every set can exist as a standalone for that one poor kid who can only have one small lego set because, well this stuff is expensive. Lego is a toy, and yes they have and do cater to the AFOL and "army builders", but in the end they still design most of the products for children, and in this case it makes perfect sense to include as many characters as possible in as many sets. Not every person buys every set, or multiples of them. I think the people who do are the rarity, a forum designed around Lego enthusiasts is not going to give you a realistic view of the market, it just becomes an echo chamber of a very specific type of fan.

I am sorry, but I think your synopsis of the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit sets is totally deluded. You seem to be operating on the assumption that people who buy these sets either buy all of them or multiples of them all for "army building". Personally my two favourite sets from the whole series were Gandalf Arrives and the Wizard dual. Both sets allowed me to get some of my favourite characters from the films without having to spend hundreds of pounds on a huge tower. Lego products are aimed at children first and foremost, not obsessive collectors hungering for thousands of identical personality-less soldiers. Having cheaper sets with iconic main characters in allows people of all incomes to enjoy the figures. Your suggestion of removing the Gandalf Arrives set and replacing it with a boring set containing 3 generic fighters who most people wont care about is ludicrous, and frankly I don't think this would be the instant "auto-profit" scheme you think it would be. The same can be said of your Defence of Osgiliath set, you would remove one of the most iconic scenes of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and replace it with a few generic monsters, but its okay because that cool little playset can be incorporated into a £250 monster set, well out of the price point for many fans, adult and children alike. I don't know if this post was satire, or you genuinely think these things, but your post comes across as very naive to me.

The moustache piece really is one of my favourite new pieces lego has come up with in recent times. This is a great model, thanks for posting it.

This seems to be an emerging theme, what with the Mordor gate. Its great it inspired your children though.

I think my favourite of the DOS sets is the Laketown set, though it is a bit out of my price range for Lego sets. I am sort of disappointed about the cheaper Hobbit sets actually. I don't like the Beorn figure (or how his character was handled in the film actually) and the last years cheaper set with Gollum and Bilbo was also a bit lame in my opinion. The other two sets are similarly underwhelming for me, I think the dwarves are cooler than the elves, so the Mirkwood army set is out, and the big Dol Guldur set is really bland. I have just purchased last years set with the Mirkwood spiders, which while not a DOS set, still contains a scene from the film. So... in a way. That is probably my favourite DOS set.

I would like to see a close up of the throne, but this does look really cool

I love that these models have bought me swimming back to my youth trying to get Age of Empires to work over the LAN with my younger brother. These are fantastically accurate to the game and I can't wait to see if you make more, especially of the more eastern style buildings. That being said, I do not think this is a good CUUSOO project as the games are quite old and I cannot imagine the cross over between Lego enthusiasts and AOE enthusiasts willing to spend money on models is enough to make it a worthwhile endevour for Lego. This doesn't detract from how amazing I think these are however. Rogan ! Rogan ! ZuuGonDah !

Likewise Praiter Yed +1

Hi all, I recently bought a couple of S11 bags in the UK. I got the scientist which I wanted , but I now have a Grandma figure to trade. Ive got a link of the figures I want in the other thread. http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=52683&st=50 I don't mind trading worldwide with anyone.

The goblin in the spaniard explorer helmet is brilliant, he has a lot of personality. This whole scene reminds me of a video game I once played called Dark Messiah Might and Magic. There was a section on a cliff with lots of monsters like this. Very cool !

This is really cool, I think its a really neat scene. I think my favourite part is where you have mixed different colours to make the stones of the sacrificial altar, I think it works really well here. Using the new brick pieces at this angle is really innovate as it gives the illusion of loose fitting stones that have been eroded (was this intentional ?).

Oh wow, this is amazing. I really love the texture of the roof. Its really effective. I have to ask, you have a little tease of an interior on the brickshelf link. Have you fully built an inside ? I want to see who you imagine runs the shop !

I really love the Scientist figure, LEGO in my opinion has always done a poor job with scientist figs, normally they come with a space logo or medical equipment. This figure is definitely a researcher, with a proper lab coat. I am going to have to get 2 of them to make me and my girlfriend ! The scarecrow has a great hat and I love the tribal guy also, but its the scientist that makes this series for me

I love the "animalistic" look it has. Did you base it on a cuttlefish ?

Thanks! I have been thinking about it, but I got distracted with the idea of a group of the space elite being robbed by some alien mercenaries so I have veered away from the M-tron ship for now. Its strange I wouldn't consider myself a creative person but it seems I have 12 years of stored Lego model concepts to release. The weird thing about the Particle Ionizer is that it has green laser helicopter blades, which as a spaceship I can't quite get my head around. As above the thing thats stirred my brain the most is the concept of these upper class space guys. Though I would still want to build models based around the idea of colonising some untamed world, I think I might try and build something related to these hastily thought of socialites. Thanks for the kind words :)