Tohst

For you do Darkened colors equal help give an epic look? Personally, I liked the darkened colors when they showed up with the Metru but I'm tired of them now. Its not that I like the brighter colors better but rather I like variety. I think Lego is getting better with that with the lime greens and translucent colors but I'd like some bright red, blue, and green pieces again as well. Tahu, even in bright red, had a very epic look for me. I think good set design gives the epic look and different colors gives parts monkeys more to play with. I guess I'm just hard to please. ;-) -Tohst

I've been calling them Not-Zis. We know they are Nazis but I'm pretty sure they are made to look very generic because, well, its Lego. -Tohst

Thats a great list. Sadly, Lego seems to think Batman is about vehicles and not buildings. Much like I wish for the police and fire sets, I would love to see some locations like a bank, an amusement park, a restaurant, a store, but add the play value of something happening there like a fire, a robbery, a random Batman vs. The Mad Hatter fisticuffs. The good news is that it is Lego and we can build those locations (As well as buy cafe corner and market street). I also thought one of the Lego figure designers was on record saying that good ole commish Gordon was just waiting for them to figure out his signature trenchcoat. -Tohst

I for one hope you do continue posting. I know I didn't understand you meant the 'old' happy meaning of gay as opposed to the one that seems to permiate web discussion boards. -Tohst

The chase is from The Last Crusade. No sets based on Temple of Doom. I think they are worried people will do to Willie what they did to all the Timmys. Seriously, did anybody like her (besides Speilberg) -Tohst

You could reduce almost anything to that. Even the 37,000 Lego Police Stations. Or you could have Ras Al Ghul needing to fix his Lazarus Pit and enlisting Bane to coordinate a series of disruptions in Gotham City to hide his true intentions. The pit is hidden in a location built from various Adventurers Egypt sets. Nightwing gets the keys to the Batmobile to capture the Scarecrow who is working with Bane (and unbeknownst to him, Ras). Robin goes after the Riddler and ends up in over his head. Can Nightwing save Robin even after he destroys the Batmobile (Batman isn't going to be happy with his higher insurance rates)? Batman analyses some clues he got while beating up Bane and jumps in the Batwing to high tail it down to Egypt before Ras' plan comes to fruition. But wait, the Joker is up to something in Gotham (again planned by Bane). Can Batman trust Nightwing and Robin to hold down the fort until he gets back? Will the Joker stick to the plan? And Catwoman? Whose side is she on? Especially when jealousy rears its ugly head as Talia appears to distract poor Batman. I'm a big fan of the Batman sets and the Batman 'drama'. I do think that the sets would be better if they were copying specific vehicles from movies or comics as opposed to just the 'look'. The two best vehicles are the ones that look the most like they were copied from movie or cartoon designs, the batwing and the batmobile. I think the Batwing is the most interesting and figure it would've looked exactly like the one in the Cartoon or movie if not for the recent C3 set. I hope we get 2008 Batman movie sets. I think those should have some pretty spiffy looks to them. -Tohst - who often has his imagination run away with him.

Ohhhh, a white shield about 10x10 but with Bionicle-esque detailing. That would be very nice. -Tohst

I wish they would use the classic-space jacket all over the place. Maybe even in space sets. Maybe even in space sets in different colors. Yes, I think some of these sets are prototypes. But ones like the Bioncle sets look pretty final with new masks and new pieces so its probably a mix. -Tohst

I like these designs but I can tell you what disappoints me in regards to them being the original Toa. They could still change them but have them 'harken back' to the original designs. Colors: Although the Nuva did start the 'everything is protodermis (silver) craze, these updates seem to have a lot of silver and grey as secondary colors instead of unique primary and secondary as the Toa Nuva had. Masks: Actually, I think the masks are a mixed bag. I like them better than the Nuva Masks but, for example, Kopaka's mask looks more like the Toa Metru of Ice....ummm, Fred, I think his name was, rather than his original mask. And since he was my favorite original Toa, yeah, slightly disappointing. Pohatu, on the other hand, I think has a great update that recalls his original mask without copying it. Lewa is like that third bowl in the Bear's hut; somewhere in between. Weapons: Will Pohatu ever go back to being foot focused instead of hand focused. Probably not, sadly. And yes, I want my Kopaka with a big white sword. As I said, I like these designs but if you're bringing back the original Toa to finish off the first phase of the story, I would've liked them to resemble the original toys a little better. I worry about Onua's mask as that was -the- coolest mask ever and I doubt we'll see that simple classic design when the next three come later this year. -Tohst

Looking at the picture, there is a good chance it is a very small representation of the actual idol. No 'penor' on the idol in the movie at all. What sexual characteristics are there would be completely unrecognizable after making it that small anyway. More information on the 'Goddess of Obstetrics' at http://www.indygear.com/props/artifacts.shtml And don't get me started on a culture that uses 'gay' as shorthand for 'lame' or perhaps even better 'unimpressive'. -Tohst edit: I just reread my post and hope it doesn't come off as too harsh to oobie. It was not my intent to cast blame on his choice of words. I was just trying to communicate my own personal preference to not use the word in that manner. -Tohst

Okay, I've drooled and gotten it over with. I think I can give solid thoughts on the sets now. Town: Cargo: I like the little throwback plane but there isn't anything here that gets me excited. The big cargo jet is the passenger jet in green. I even looked for good pieces in good colors and didn't get excited. Town: Police: Again, nothing here that gets me excited. I know I'm not the target audience for these sets but would it kill them to take a slightly different approach to fire and police? Like, instead of a fire station, do a nice lego restaurant thats on fire. You get the firemen, you get the fire truck, and you get a different building than the 50th fire station. Again, not even excited about pieces except for the minifig non-batman type handcuffs. Creator: Spider, Train, House. All good models. Nothing too exciting pieces wise but the back of the spider and the train have a few interesting bits. Technic: Mid-year might have something impressive. This group, good intro sets but not for me. Starwars: Not a big fan of anything here except the rebel trooper hats. I'll get a boatload. Castle: Very exciting...very very exciting...but also very already talked about ;-) Indiana Jones: Cannot wait. From the baby dinosaurs at the Temple Escape entrance to the Not-Zis in the Race for the Stolen Treasure, these sets are very nice. An example of my previous rant about Lego designers doing a very good job converting other people's designs, the car and the truck here are beautiful. Much better than when they come up with something themselves like this year's town sets. Racers: Never my cup of tea. I understand why Ferrari is now micro sized as they did the mini-fig scale to death but I probably won't get any of these. I should look closer at pieces but in the past they have seemed so much the same thing over and over again its hard to get excited enough to do even that. Speed Racer makes me ten times more interested, but still probably not enough to buy them. Bionicle: Okay, I was hoping the return of the Toa Nuva would mean really special sets which was silly of me. The first batch of 3 Toa and 3 enemies I think is much better than 6 of all one faction we've had previously. I think it will add more variety to the designs and thats always a good thing. I think having the little guys 'combine' with the bigger models will make the little sells sell so much better. And we'll have 12 little sets instead of last years 4...maybe. I think the designs are solid (for Bionicle). I think the weapons are good and the little ball shooter maybe not different enough from Zamor sphere shooters but still look like fun. All in all, a decent first batch of sets. Probably stronger than anything since the Toa Metru. And it does look like they changed the basic socket piece. Not much but the details on the sides seem to be gone. Exo-Force: niiiiice. A purple mech, new cheese bricks, old cheese bricks in good colors, the weird pointy brick, Target-Masters, a big ole buzzsaw piece we know we'll see again elsewhere, and a spider mech. And a story line that looks like we may see more than the same 5 people. Of course, why didn't the girl mecha driver get a mech this year. I've got my own clone army of Hikarus going on already. I wish the enemy mechs still had bulbs with skeletons in them but you can't have everything. Definate buy. Duplo: Another firestation! Thats okay, they make up for it with a return to the Duplo Dino sets which remind me very much of the playskool Dino collection. It also makes me realize I'm out of relatives young enough to buy Duplo or Playskool for. I guess its back to buying it 'for when I have my own kids' ;-) 4+ sets. Very nice basic sets. Yes, 4+ doesn't mean Jack Stone non-building sets! Yay! Belville: I just want a full turkey. Is that so wrong? Drumsticks everywhere but no turkey. Finally, did the AquaRaiders sets not sell well? We got no follow on sets at all. I guess Indy is the replacement for them in the first part of the year but I really liked them -Tohst

Thanks Legomilk. Now I can start budgeting. And Exo-Force has targetmasters! whoa. -Tohst

So, last year Target had a grouping of exlcusive $50 sets in an end-cap display all marked 'special edition'. Is this part of the same deal for this year? Dwarves Mining, TIE Crawler, Exo-Force Combat Crawler X2, and what else? I only ask because last year they seemed to sell pretty well but there was one point they were all on sale and then quickly moved the last dregs to clearence. And, ummm, I'm hoping thats the case again because sale or clearence giant trolls - whoohoo. Anyone know? And anyone know if there will be a 4th set like last time? Hopefully, if its the case, it doesn't bull an Ultimate Space Battle...those things sold out quick. -Tohst

I think licenses are great for Lego for a simple reason, outsourced design. Follow me here, Lego designers for Classic space all the way through Mars Mission for SPACE had to come up with a theme or unifying idea, build a ship or two, and then hit all the price points with variations. I love classic space but by the time they hit Insectoids they were obviously spent. But with Star Wars, half the work was done, and done by people whose entire job it was to think up cool looking space ships. This left the designers free to build the actual ships. Even early on ships like the Snowspeeder were the best designed Lego space ships in a long time. It is part of why I'm not a fan of a lot of the EU ships in Star Wars. This wasn't a design team coming up with cool ships and refining them over a long period of time (see the evolution of what became the Mil. Falcon), it was someone who was designing a ship as a part of other work very much like Lego non-licensed designs. I think it was a comic book artist who needed an Imperial Tank who said lets slap tank treads on a TIE fighter that birthed the Tie Crawler. The upcoming Darth Vader ship is just a mess in its design. And the AT-PT? PT-AT? AC-DC? looks very much like someone who liked MechWarrior needed a slightly off AT-ST. I'm hoping the clone war sets are closer in feel to the movies and I think with a design team from Lucasfilm maybe we'll get lucky. The Torrent which I believe was designed by Gendy's group for the original Clone Wars cartoon is a welcome exception as I feel it really captures the classic Star Wars feel. I think Indiana Jones is the same way...the truck is beautiful because the Lego designers were basing it off something tangible and didn't have to come up with it themselves. Oh, and I wish we could have more Avatar sets. The cartoon rocks. The sets weren't bad. Trying to wrap this up before it gets any longer -Tohst.

Thanks to everyone for the kind welcome. Castle? Well, and this will show my advanced age, I remember seeing the yellow castle in the Idea Book: http://brickset.com/detail.aspx?Set=6000-1 and being very upset that it wasn't available in the US. You might not like my latest castle creation, however. And I should take pictures of it this week. It is as tall as I am....and Duplo. I get younger as I get older. -Tohst

So, are the new castle sets everything you didn't like about the Viking line? Because they look very similar to me. So similar I have to believe the success, perhaps unexpected success, of the Viking line led directly to them. And yet, you seem to really dislike these. I'll admit to liking the 2007 sets better in terms of set design. But that is mostly because we got a couple big sturdy buildings and the castle was definately the best we've seen in a while. But as auxillary sets to that big ole castle, I do like having Trolls and Orcs. Now they can bring over the mermish tail and shark heads from Harry Potter to add another faction to take down the Troll ship from Below...but I digress. -Tohst

http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=3024 That should help get you started. -Tohst

This is a sad development. I wonder what it will mean for the future of Lego train groups. I mean besides buying up every bit of track and every motor they can get their hands on. The moving trains always seem to be a hit at Lego shows and I can see the kids that come to the shows being very happy with power function trains when they get to the toy store. I just can't see a battery solution working so well for the shows themselves. :-( I understand it is a business decision and when I set up my trains, its not for long enough or a large enough setup that this move will affect me much but I think from a intangibles perspective its not the right move. Ah well, RIP monorail, RIP 9V, I guess it means more money for Trolls. Have I mentioned I'm lovin' the trolls? *wub* -Tohst

My name is Tohst. Well, its what you can call me. I'm kinda a renaissance Lego fan having a little bit of everything. I'm located in Chicago, Illinois, USA but I lived in Leeds, England for a year so I'm not a complete foreigner to Eurobricks. At least that is my story and I'm sticking to it. Flickr galleries to follow as soon as I bother getting anything photographed.

Thanks. I'm hoping to find time today to introduce myself officially. And as for your Steven Wright quote. What happens is a perpetual motion machine spinning and spinning. I saved a fortune on electricity but eventually had to give it up because of constant motion sickness. Steven Wright rocks.

It also looks like it has a lime green version of Tahu's original firesword. I need a sig.