obsidianheart

Ironic that the set about saving the fishermen comes with a boat that doesn't sink.

The only real advice I've got is don't be afraid to dip into Hero Factory and Bionicle parts. Especially considering the armor in your posted examples.

Quality control, mostly.

Gap aside, I'm surprised how much I like that. Maybe I'll pick some up. I'm not a hero factory builder, but I'm kind of kicking around the idea of using the Beast heads on some Alien mounts.

This might sound dumb, but what does that armor look like on a regular minifig?

I will now admit a terrible truth: I buy Collectible Minifigures for parts alone. I do not own a single full series, and I will buy multiples of the same figure if it suits my nefarious purposes (i.e. I own 5 Space Villains for their torsos and helmets). Occasionally, I will use a full, unaltered figure for whatever, but that is rare. However, I will always buy figures for parts, rather than using sites like Bricklink, to express to LEGO that I desire them to keep producing exclusive parts and prints in these series. All that said, I will be buying more of this wave than any other wave before. So, there's that.

No good. Says the user is invalid or the password is wrong, and I don't have a password on the admin account. It's okay, I'll wait for a more stable build.

This is the best thing I've read in a while. Just sayin'.

Beta won't run on my machine. Says the patcher is an invalid Win32 application.

So you could get the whole first wave and all 16 Collectible minifigs for somewhere between $300 and $350?

That's pretty swanky. I'd also be interested to know what rendering setup you used!

I've got a black one, they're pretty sweet! I wonder why they aren't in production anymore? There used to be a bunch of hair/beard combos that were available back when these capes were around, too.

I worked at a TRU and we were told that the cardboard standees went in the compacter, but anything made of plastic or with actual bricks went back to the LEGO rep. The LEGO rep told me that the contents of the plexiglass cases were usually donated to needy kids or childrens' hospitals. That policy changed at some point (I think when they started messily gluing the models together), but they never said what the new policy was. We had a display thief at my store for a while who would pry open a corner of the display case and yank out the Star Wars minifigs, but they usually broke the figs in the process, and there were always remnants left behind in the glue (usually the back of the foot).

Personally, this whole "The Movie wave doesn't have a 12 on the box so it doesn't count" thing is starting to come off as a little weird for me. I get that some people are a really miffed about this, but it's starting to look a bit like a tantrum.

Don't get me wrong, there is a lot inter-connected things in LEGO's themes. Like the fact the Alpha Team villain Ogel is a descendant of the Knights Kingdom (II) antagonist Vladek, or how the dude in the white shirt who came with that big Dino set last year was the great-grandson of everyone's beloved Johnny Thunder. Space Police 3 was full of references to older space themes, from Insectoids to classic space. I think that these references aren't there to establish any kind of official framework for the LEGO themes, but as a way for the designers to honor the themes that came before, and tell the fans, "Yes, we remember that thing you liked". I view LEGO's themes to be as modular and open to interpretation as the physical sets themselves. In my "headcanon" all the Alpha Team guys are Agents now (I threw most of the named theme characters in there a while back, as I have a LOT of Agent torsos), but I know a guy who thinks that is the most absurd thing he's ever heard, because Alpha Team is Alpha Team, and never the two shall mix. We didn't get a lot of the same promotional materials in the states that folks got overseas, so this guy refuses to think of Josh Thunder as related to Johnny Thunder, and instead chooses to view Jake Rains as Johnny's professional successor (something about Johnny training Mike, and then Mike training Jake). I have a third friend who thinks we're both nuts, and just gets sets to build and put on shelves without caring who the figs are or what the theme is. Anyway, I feel like I'm over-explaining myself here. The real crux of what I'm trying to say is "It's whatever anyone wants it to be for themselves, and that's awesome!"

Interesting that Lloyd and Garmadon don't show up in the trailer, except in that group shot at the end.

So, now that we've opened that can of worms, I suppose that begs the question of "What about those Technic dudes?" and "What about Duplo figs?". If the discussion wants to get super technical, than there's Belville and Jack Stone and Bionicle and Galidor and and and. Even if you want to limit it to just System themes with minifigs, then you have to allot for the weird armless figures from the early days. This is why I think that "canon" is pretty much whatever you want it to be with LEGO themes' inter-connectivity.

Right above the front bar. It looks like the firing pin is a 1xwhatever that runs the length of the interior. EDIT: All together now!

I think you might be putting more thought into it than they are. EDIT: I've said this before, and I was only half-joking, but it would not surprise me if the final shot of the movie is a live-action scene of a couple of kids playing with piles of LEGO in the middle of a floor. The inclusion of the lollipop staff and laser-pointer death-ray have only served to reinforce the idea that while the adventure might be world-threatening to Emmet and company, it really is just playtime for someone with a huuuuuge tub of elements.

Billboards say "Conform" and "Integrate". Shades of They Live, only without the camouflage.

Have we seen that helicopter? Also, i love President Business's helmet shoots fire.

They don't have to regardless of what it's called.

I sure hope so! That cockpit also has a lot of potential for other themes *cough* Blacktron *cough*.

I run into this a bunch, but these days if I'm unsure of a section's stability, I'll try to build that section with (usually mis-colored) parts or stand-ins for the parts I don't have. Sometimes it even works! I get why there's a bias against LDD. There are few options for image enhancements making a lot of the presentations look same-y, most of the prints aren't there, ect. ect. ect. I usually hold my tongue when I see people get uppity about it or discount it out of hand, but it frustrates me to think that a huge cross-section of the fanbase view LDD builders as second-class citizens or people with nothing real to contribute. I couldn't have built most of the MOCs I have without LDD, and using it extensively has helped me grow by leaps and bounds as a designer and a builder. I don't have a lot of parts, and I don't have a lot of free time or money to spend on stuff I won't use, so using LDD gives me an idea of exactly what I'll need. But, hey, it's not for everyone!

The imdb page indicates that Han Solo makes an appearance in the movie?