1980-Something-Space-Guy

Wow. Great job! I'm a sucker for controls (mechanical engineer here trying to get into the robotics industry), so it always amazes me the kind of things that can be done. I also found it interesting that you had to change the controllers for the servos. I would not have expected that. I've been out of the Mindstorms world for quite a few years, and I see things have changed a lot. I wasn't even aware that it was possible to program EV3 using C++. There have been some great developments in the last few years. Just out of curiosity, what do you do for a living?

Well, to be honest, I don't want to create a bad rep for this seller unless I have a strong suspicion that he sold me a custom Bizarro on purpose. He bought the figure from someone else, and I suspect he was ripped off. I'll keep you posted.

Wow, thanks Raptor! This nailed it. I indeed had a custom with the 3 rib lines. I will contact the seller. Thank you so much! I can't believe I totally missed that. Beware, people! There are sellers intentionally or unintentionally selling customs as originals, and the card on mine looks identical. Definitely feel the print!

How different is the muscle print? Mine is identical to the actual Bizarro as far as I can tell.

Sorry to bump this thread, but I recently acquired a Comic-Con Bizarro, and I have similar questions to the OP. Compared to the only other Bizarro I've ever seen, it's printing has a little "texture" to it. There are little bumps pretty much throughout all the printing, and they reflect the light. This happens with both the head and the torso. I ran my finger through the torso as suggested above, and it does feel less smooth than the other Bizarro. The Bizarro with the texture does have the Lego copyright letters everywhere it should have. Does anyone know if some of these had more texture than the others, or am I looking at a custom? How does Christo's Bizarro feel like? Is there any further examination I can do to further determine whether the figure is a custom or not? It did come with a card.

You bring up a fair point. However, I am also wondering if they could somehow fatigue the market for these guys. Honestly, I don't think S14 was a bad idea at all. If anything, it was an attempt to keep the theme fresh by trying something new. A lot of those figures where popular in my experience. Personally I wouldn't mind if they tried that again to keep the theme fresh. I do agree that the release of S16 was messy. Pretty true and sad... I'd hate to see the CMF theme end because of corporate greed. I'd only accept price increases if they were associated with even more detailing in the figures.

Hmmm, well, I can only hope my parts don't get too yellow! Regarding the cables, believe it or not, my Space Shuttle was never exposed to the sun, nor did the cables I had stored. All I can think of is it could be humidity, since I lived in a humid place. This does sound like a good long-term solution, especially now that I seem to have almost no spare 9V wires... I just hope that when I am able to replace the cables, that I can find a wire that is close to being as flat as that in the set, so it can go in those small holes that the original cable used to go through.

That's some interesting information. Personally, I hope that I'll be able to keep collecting the numbered series (I like to get full series). I like how this theme has diversified my minifig collection. I don't see the theme ending soon either. Wouldn't it be amazing if we ever got to Series 50 or so? At some point it'll be too hard for someone to start and try to collect them all.

Thanks for sharing your band, Makoy! The trumpet and violin look like great solutions. This has made me think that Lego really needs to make more instruments.

Not sure if this is the right place to post this question, so please correct me if that's the case. I just wonder if this theme is likely to continue pretty much ad infinitum. It seems to me that Lego has realized it's a cash cow, and we've had new series for 7 (and soon 8) years in a row. At the same time, they're bound to have a harder time coming up with fresh ideas, the more figures are released. I wonder if there will be a last series, what number it would be and when it might be released. I remember the rumors back in the day when people said Series 5 would be the last one, and we clearly got a lot after that. Does anyone have any insight/thoughts about this?

May I ask how the yellowing on these pieces happened to you guys? I have had one of these sets for around 5 years. It's stored in a plastic box inside my closet, so that it is exposed to no light. Is that enough? Also, my Technic Space Shuttle suffered breaking of the rubber in the 9V wires. This happened too with some 9V wires I had stored for about 10 years. Does this happen to the cables of this set? Incidentally, does that happen to 6991 as well?

This is a tough choice, but these are my top picks: 1. Classic space (can't argue with that retro look and my favorite space minifigs) 2. Exploriens (nostalgia in my case, was my favorite theme as a kid) 3. UFO (amazing detailing, colors, and nostalgia too) 4. Ice Planet 2002 (love the color scheme) 5. Space Police III (really like that smooth design with classic police color schemes) 6. M-Tron 7. Blacktron II Honorable mentions go to Futuron and Unitron for their respective monorails, and to Life on Mars and Insectoids for some of my favorite minifig collections.

Usually there will be guitars, trumpets, and sometimes violins. The problem is we are missing most of these instruments in Lego form still. But anyways, if I were you I'd get 3 mariachis. I was tempted to make a band too, but I already got two mariachis, one for storing and not putting on display.

Sadly I visited the Arundel Mills store recently and they didn't have the Death Star out, and didn't admit to ever having it out.

Hmmmm, so far sounds like a slow year for my Star Wars collection. Might end up updating my space collection instead.

I was so excited when I read the title for this news, and then so instantly disappointed. Good for my wallet!

Wait, I don't get it. Doesn't that article just mention a price increase in the UK? It seems to be that we can't conclude anything about prices elsewhere.

Pardon me for being off-topic, but great username, country, and profile pic! I dunno why I had never seen your username before, but if I did it was probably before I learned numbers in German.

Really glad to see pics of the minifig lineup finally emerge! Well, given that as of now I am in a low spending mode, this at least means that I won't have as big of a backlog when I finally get back into buying figs... However, I gotta say I'll probably be Bricklinking the new Han and droids. Those I like a lot!

What do you know, I move to the DC area, and three months later my new local Lego store is the only one with the Death Star. Won't be going to see it, though.

Well, I honestly really doubt that clones significantly affect the aftermarket price of a set as iconic as the MF. The people who would buy the MF are those that have the economic means to do so. Most of them will not be willing to buy a knock-off. I would say the knock-offs appeal to a different "sub-market".

If people want to avoid what happened to me, don't use the minifig group image as a guide to feel. I forgot that the Scallywag pirate also has a map, and as a result I have to go back for a Hiker.

Not sure what the British prices are, but I can tell you that in my case adding the Ghost rider set helped me obtain free shipping, and it is worth it, in my opinion.

Trying to be helpful here. Not really appreciating your response, though.

You're in the Dortmund area? I was there last summer! I had the opportunity to visit the Lego store in Essen a couple of times. Sorry for going off topic. I really hope we get Whitefang's review. He always takes pics of certain groups of figures together that I always enjoy, especially because most of my collection is not with me most of the time.